Moving the character is very fun. I liked how throwing the magnet mid-air happens instantly. I also appreciated how the permanent switches actually looked like literal switches, and the pressure plates looked flat.
FYI: I tried to replay the levels, and it would let me enter them but not complete them since the keys were already collected. Probably something you already planned to fix in a final version, but I thought I would mention it.
My only real criticisms of the gameplay have to do with a couple unintuitive inconsistencies. One was the pass-through platforms/walls that for some reason allow the magnet to pass through, but not the robot. It felt especially weird when they were platforms because you would expect objects to land on platforms the same way the player character does. Once you understand this it's not hard to adjust, but it is odd.
The other inconsistency I noticed was the way the robot holds on to the magnet when being pulled up by a vertical magnetic field but lets go when it's a horizontal field like the L-shaped doors. Seems like it should always hold on since we have the option to throw.
Enjoyed the demo! A lot of promise and love watching the videos of the process.
Couple things I noticed:
The sixth level was a toughie and i still dont feel like the way i "solved" it was the right way? I ended up just throwing the magnet down to stop the box from hitting the button.
This might be just a me thing but spacebar as the click for the menus isnt my go to, enter is, so it took me a second to figure it out.
This level has a weird thing where the magnet gets stuck on the platform if you turn around before going all the way through the hallway. Video shows it.
I liked the 7th puzzle (it was definitely the most difficult, but perhaps doesn't belong with the first 6).
I liked the feeling of the magnet being pulled when held by the robot. Maybe it would be interesting to play with the idea of switching between polarities while holding the magnet for platforming (I know players criticised platforming sections in the previous demo, though).
I wasn't a huge fan of the default controls. I only realized afterwards that the right-click could be used for throwing, which I think I preferred, although maybe there could be a way to throw the magnet without having to use the mouse, which would also feel more natural.
Throwing the magnet felt a little clunky since it felt like a pause from gameplay. Maybe allowing the player to move, or throw the magnet accurately without using the mouse would be good (using WASD instead, perhaps? "W" would be nice to easily throw straight up).
Having to reset some levels repeatedly was a little annoying. I didn't realize until afterwards that the control button had to be held to reset, perhaps the symbol shading in slowly or having a loading bar could make this clear.
Levels are much better. I definitely had an "aha" moment when i realized the magnet can go through the one-way platforms. One glitch/bug thing: when you're in the hub room with all the pipes, there's no reset/polarity shift UI. There was a time where I accidentally threw the magnet into the wrong pipe and tried pressing ctrl. I kept holding it and eventually the reset icon started growing larger and larger from off the top of the screen. It was kind of funny, but I ended up having to reset the hub from the pause menu.
Great game. Felt like a high-quality cool math game (take it as a compliment). The puzzles were really clever, and felt like they were magnet centered. I really like the change to toggle switches instead of different coloured buttons, and the character was really fun to look at. Just had a few suggestions.
This might be silly, but perhaps the magnets in the hub world should change with the magnet change, or have some be different polarity at the start. The way it stand is fine, but feels unnecessary.
I want an animation for when I press up or down (like celeste).
Level 6: If the intended method was to throw a magnet down below box, to stop if from pressing the button, then the throw should be easier and the jump to the toggle shorter. If it's not then either don't change it or fix it.
The game is really fun! Some (hopefully constructive) feedback:
-I'm not sure why some levels don't start with the magnet already in your hands.
-It would be nice to not have to set the magnets polarity before checking it into a level select pipe.
-Small visual bug that the magnet travels behind the keys on the screens in the hub.
-The fact that some buttons are ramps is neat, but occasionally annoying for movement, because if you're on the wrong side of the switch you have to jump over it and then roll back onto it.
Controls: The controls feel quite nice except for some issues while aiming for a throw. When I'm holding forward and want to throw upward I usually slide over the d pad but it won't go any further then diagonal. This is on a ps4 controller with inputmapper. It works fine with the sticks or on keyboard + mouse but since it has platform controls I prefer the dpad of a ps4 controller.
Mechanics: Most mechanics feel quite good and intuitive, The thing that I find most annoying is with the gates when it switches the magnet drops and I need to pick it up again. I think it would feel better if you keep holding on to the magnet when carrying it.
Level design: Levels are fun to do and keep being fresh for the moment. A major issue that I have with it is that you can "soft lock" yourself in most levels where you just can't do anything anymore except reset the level. I think this would discourage players from experimenting with the mechanics of the puzzle simply because you can just get stuck. It might be worthwhile to build some failsafe into your levels.
You are probably already aware of these but just in case I will note what I found:
Level 1: If I pick up the magnet, jump on the platform and turn it blue then jump off that platform and throw it as far as I can it will land where the key is and I can't do anything anymore. (also if you pick up the magnet falling down before the blue gate and you want to move under the platform you can get stuck a bit. You can just go left again and try to go underneath after that but still weird).
Level 2: I can't reproduce it anymore with the time I have now but walking through the gates with the blue magnet you can destroy the magnet in between the drill and the wall if you time it right. A new magnet will spawn on the other side with no way of getting it.
Level 3: Throw the magnet to the key and it's over.
Level 4: Get the magnet to the other side and go back through the bottom path by pressing the button then throw the magnet on the button which will raise the platform. The magnet is now besides the platform with no way out.
Level 5 if you drop the magnet at the wrong time you will get stuck, this one seems to most intentional in design that you have to reset which i personally would advise against.
Level 6 Throw the magnet towards the key.
So for now these might not be super big issues because they are small puzzles in which resetting would not be the biggest deal but still a slight annoyance. However it might be an issue if you decided to create bigger/longer puzzles. A solution for most of these issues (not all) might be to make a button that is always reachable or a button on the controller to destroy the magnet and let it respawn from the pipe. It would help with getting stuck and might even be useful as a puzzle element.
Most of the problems you found aren't really issues, the puzzle was just done wrong. Also Restarting will allow experimentation without major frustration, because these are small puzzles.
I'm not saying it's wrong to be able to restart but to force restarting is a different feeling. It's about player experience and thinking about what you want to do in the future for more complex level design.
Here are my stream of consciousness thoughts on the game.
-I like the little shake when I hit the first panel
-I was expecting the key pipe to spirit me away to the next level, rather than just open the door.
-didn't see the bar in the first level until I smashed into it, still a bit hard to see
-Puzzle 3 was way to easy
-the little plus/minus signs have been a real help
-Puzzle 6 seems like a big jump in difficulty, which is nice, because the previous levels were trivial
-That’s it? Seems like an extended tutorial.
-Also, this reminds me a lot of old flash puzzle platformers, and those often something to keep you playing besides puzzles. Even a text screen at the very beginning can give pathos to a dry puzzle game.
-On that note, give a look to old flash games. Broadening your references can bring unexpected inspirations.
only real complaint I have is on the final puzzle, I essentially had to solve it reverse by seeing what actions I could even perform and only after I had thrown the magnet down the slope and flipped the turnstyle could I see it ever-so-slightly poked into the path of the large magnet in the center, I essentially had to solve the puzzle to figure out what 'question' it was asking.
I don't quite think you get what I mean by "solving it in reverse", (mainly because I did a shit job of explaining)
Like, puzzle solving goes: I need to complete an objective, I have all these things I can interact with that if I can put them in correct states while I am in position X and magnet is in position Y, I can then access the key.
whereas I spent a massive amount of time thinking the solution was finding a way to hit the button on the right in order to ride the middle magnet up, which was complicated by the fact that (seemingly unintentionally) you can jump over to the far right button without using the magnet if you are like, pixel-perfect. at no point before the puzzle was in the solved position did I think "ok, how can I stop the middle magnet in a position where I can jump across it as a stationary platform", I threw the magnet down the slope because I noticed the floor was sloped and thought it presumably had to be done for a reason, and then flipped the turnstyle because again, thats the only thing you can accomplish by sliding the magnet down the slope, and then touching the button after that achieved the solution by blocking the path of the middle magnet. I reached the solution by essentially brute-forcing rather than 'solving' the puzzle (making a plan to achieve a result) like I did with every other puzzle before it, due in large part to the fact that its really hard (at least for me) to even see that the turnstyle is in the path of the magnet, if it was further left and more noticeably in the way it would be much better communicated to the player that it's a factor in the puzzle.
I understand, but at the beginning of the level, the L-door is already showing you that it does in fact get in the way of the block if it were to go up.
It isn't super easy to take in as part of the puzzle, but it is still there:
Very very very nice and a massive improvement. I only have a few minor issues.
The mouse cursor remains visible when playing full screen with a controller.
Holding the polarity change button causes the polarity to change twice, on press then again on release.
The attraction zone for opening doors, in the hub, should be long enough to be able to use a quick upwards throw instead of having to go in aim mode.
The character is a bit slow in large rooms like the hub.
The character should come out of the levels in front of the door instead of the start of the room, so you don't have to go trough the entire room every time.
Incredibly fun! A couple of things I would like to point out. I would like to be able to move while I'm aiming my magnet. Let's say I just entered a level and see a spot I could throw my magnet. In my excitement I run towards that spot and start aiming my magnet well before I get to that spot, now I find myself stuck and my first thought is to throw the magnet as the cancel button is not mentioned at all. Another thing is that when I entered the level selection, I would spawn all the way to the left, which kind of made me lose my sense of progress, as if that level meant nothing at all. I will admit I'm a bit dramatic, but it was still frustrating. That's all though, this demo was really fun, and I found myself entering each new level with joy.
edit: being able to move while aiming the magnet for the controller might not work out, you could use the right joystick but that would only be possible if you could toggle the aim mode instead of holding the button (which is a great idea honestly)
This was great! Very enjoyable, but there are a few things I would recommend:
- The left bumper (LB) button prompt for an Xbox controller is shaped like a normal button instead of it's actual shape. I would change this for more clarity.
- The restart button should have an indicator that shows how long you have to press it to restart the level so you are less likely to do it on accident. Something like the 'drop ability' indicator in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, for a recent example.
- In level 6, it was unclear to me that the gate would block the magnet from going up because it did not extend out very far.
- The levels should be numbered or have titles so it is a bit easier to remember which level is which, since so far they all look the same.
- The hub could be more visually distinct from the levels.
Really fun demo! Love how polished it feels and moving around feels good, excited to play a more complete version (hope the next demo has sound).
Some nitpicks:
I know the options menu isn't done, but having a prompt on how to exit it would be good (Esc to go back in a corner)
The robot feels slow, especially in the hub world, I had to run back from the end to pick up the magnet and really felt it. But also just in levels I dreaded having to reset because I didn't want to have to run back
Jumping up the 4 platform ladder things in levels 2 and 3 also felt a bit clumsy, especially since you can almost jump as high as 2 plats in one go.
F as the default key for polarity switch conflicts with D so you can't switch and move right at the same time (extra nitpicky, grateful for key remapping).
It wasn't clear to me that the magnet can drop through the one way platform that the robot doesn't drop through (in level 2 I think?)
I enjoyed this, but the puzzles felt a little bit too easy to just brute force in a way. I would find myself just doing the same thing and eventually getting it right, never really getting that "Aha" moment. Solid movement, jump felt a little odd. Will check out your YouTube channel, never interacted with it outside of seeing the massive annual game jams on itch.
I liked this game. I should say that I watched your series so I don't look at this game the way I look at a random game on itchio.
The controls were juicy and responded quickly. The movement and shaking of the camera felt natural and the cute toy-like character is quite fun to work with.
For the puzzles in themselves, I found some harder than others (like the rightmost one) as I did the puzzles from right to left. Apart from that the puzzles succeeded in being self-contained, independent puzzles teaching the mechanics of the game, while having these "aha" and "what" moments that makes them very entertaining.
It is a very fun game, with well-done puzzles, the one I liked the most was door 7, I had that "aha!" moment because the solution was in plain sight, but I didn't see it, and I really liked the movement, this time it feels more fluid and less heavy, like a platformer game, I hope the full game will have equally amazing and fun puzzles.
And I have to admit this, I don't like puzzle games that much, obviously I've played some as portal, which I liked a lot, but generally I don't like them that much because they seem difficult to me and I stop playing them, instead, your game has some puzzles that make me think about what the solution could be, but not making me stay days or weeks without playing the game because the puzzles are very difficult.
I've learned that if I set my monitor to 1080p, launch the game, and then reset the monitor to 4k the game launches with the proper native resolution, and maintains it. I'm guessing this is some unity strangeness. I hope it's not someone anyone else has to experience.
I tried messing around with my screen's resolution and it didn't fix this bug for me. I'm using a 1536 x 864 monitor set to a 1920x1080 display by default.
First of all: Nice job! The game played quite well.
Key Data:
Version: 2.0
Playtime: 20 min
Input: Mouse and Keyboard
Default Settings
The experience of the game was nice overall. Nothing that pulled me in completely, but a few nice Aha-Moments and nothing overly frustrating.
I experienced no bugs during my playtime.
The rise in and level of difficulty was appropriate my personal taste and the game being in a demo state.
I was able to intuit my way through the earlier levels and had to plan a little in the later levels without getting stuck.
The hub reminded me of the old Lego star wars games, but was quite barren. Throwing the magnet into a tube to open a gate felt unintuitive and al little bit tedious.
It would be nice to have some elements from the levels in the hub to be able to play around and familiarize yourself with the Gameplay elements.
The thin platforms that let the magnet, but not the player pass through looked quite a lot like platforms in other jump and run games, that allow the player to pass through if they press the down key.
This felt a tad unintuitive.
In the earlier levels it seemed always possible to get back to the status quo after messing up. It felt a little bit jarring to use the reset button for the first time in level 5.
The revolving door in level 6 was positioned in a way, that I had a hard time to tell if it would block the magnet-block from passing when rotated. This could be seen either as a good or bad thing.
It was one of the first things that I tested after playing around (just by chance) and getting it to activate remote was still a nice challenge, but I could see it being frustrating to not be able to solve a puzzle because you misinterpreted the parameters.
A particularly nice experience was when I thought I got stuck in level 4 and then figured out a way to get unstuck without resetting. The solution was quite close to the levels solution and solving two puzzles at once felt rewarding.
In my opinion the game is lacking most in classical "game features". With one objective and only one degree of success per level and no structure in the hub it felt a little bit like ticking boxes on a list with no room for overachieving or exploring.
One weird thing: The "Thanks for playing" level moved in a weird way. I was unsure if something else was supposed to happen or if the movement itself was a bug.
Overall: Solid basis and while this demo didn't make me exited to play the final game, it still was a lot of fun with only minor annoyances and I'm exited to see the next YouTube update.
Took 5 minutes to complete, found it very easy to grasp the concept. I play a lot of puzzle games though, so not too surprising I blitzed through these beginner levels. Did them left to right in the hub and that was satisfying enough for me, but being reset to the left every time I exited a level was irksome.
Found that booting up the game on my second monitor resulted in it launching at a tiny resolution, and only fixed it thanks to knowing that I could press alt+enter to make it fullscreen on my main monitor and then rebooting it to fix the issue.
Found that quickly reversing directions into the rotating doorways would result in them not moving back the other way which felt a bit clunky. Would be nice if they were immediately responsive so I could have fun quickly flicking left and right in them.
Very easy to get softlocked in a puzzle and then require a reset, as all it takes is leaving the magnet behind somewhere only accessible with said magnet. I don't think the puzzle design would allow for a "summon magnet" button without massive overhauls, but maybe a rewind function would be a possible alternative. Otherwise, puzzles will have to stay rather short and simple to avoid frustration when restarting the level if you make a single slip up.
I had fun though and would like to see more levels, ideally ramping up significantly in difficulty by the end to really get you thinking with magnets. A second magnet, perhaps, would add a lot more puzzle potential in later levels?
EDIT: Forgot to include this, but I found it weird whenever I couldn't press down or down+jump to drop through the thinner platforms that are often used as steps. Guess that part of game design language is ingrained into me.
- There's no UI button to get out of the options, you have to press ESC which wasn't the first thing I thought of
- I like to use Backspace for jump a lot of the time (I have a weird keyboard), but there wasn't an icon for backspace in the control popup in the level
- "Carry / Enter Aim Mode" and "Magnet Action" aren't names that I immediately know which key I'd normally bind it to
- I thought I encountered a bug where the magnet would only be thrown in one direction, but after a while I realized that you have to use the mouse to aim. I had been thinking you could aim by pressing and holding throw
- I tried to reset the level to troubleshoot the previous issue with the in-game reset, but it looks like it only resets the state of objects it thinks are changed. It'd be nice if there were a hard reset
- If you quit out in the hub before playing a level, you'll be reset to the tutorial (you can still "Return to Hub" though)
- You can have multiple actions bound to the same key
- It'd be nice if you could fullscreen by dragging the window to the top of the screen in Windows
- Down + Jump should let you go down through semisolid platforms
- In the hub, the magnet shows behind the Key Signs and the doors
- The movement feels like it's optimized for a different game. Like the coyote time is nice, but I'm not really trying to correctly time jumps. As it is, I kept bonking into 2-high walls because I jumped too early, which is cool in a platformer, but kinda lame in a puzzle game
- Is the intended solution to the last puzzle to slide the magnet under the negative block which its up and have it land next to the button? If it is, that felt awkward.
- Having to pick up the magnet at the start of every level felt tedious
- I feel like the puzzles could be cooler if you had to get both the player and the magnet into a spot. That said, I enjoyed #5 a good deal.
As others have mentioned switching polarity for keyboard is akward. I tend to move my finger from my D (Right Key) to the F (Polarity Key) making it difficult to move right and change polarity in the last level. like some others have said having this option on the mouse whould make a lot of sence as the mouse controls the magnet, But that might make it hard for laptop users. I think a nice middle ground would be to have the default key binding be the LEFT SHIFT key as the pinky does not have a critical role in moving.
Summary: Changing polarity with mouse or shift key are easier to control as the default settings.
Great demo! The improvements in the way the character feels are great. Only thing that might be nice is if you could move slowly while aiming instead of having to cancel the throw and move if your just a little off. I also would like to be able to rebind the mouse buttons as personally I'd rather have right click be polarization.
I enjoyed all the puzzles and felt like the difficulty was good. The magnet feels very central to these levels so I think that has improved massively. Like other reviewers, I didn't immediately get the pipe and tried to jump in it, though i do really like it as a mechanic. Maybe some something to differentiate it from green mario pipes would stop players from trying to jump in it.
Only annoyance as far as mechanics is that with the rotating walls that the player can push, turning around too quickly to walk back through it can cause it to not open. This is only mildly annoying, but it does feel clunky if you realize you need to turn around. video here
it would be nice if when you finish a level and return to the hub, you spawn in front of the door for the level you were just in, so you don't have to walk all the way back over from the left each time.
it's possible to make the level unbeatable, e.g. as soon as you get the magnet by throwing it to the left through the door. Maybe have a prompt pup up on the screen telling you to restart when the game detects a situation in which the level has become unsolvable.
it seems like the +/- symbols on the beams are always on regardless of the setting for them. the magnet's symbol turns on and off fine.
I love the feel of controlling the character, and was surprised by the difficulty & satisfaction of solving the puzzles; very clever stuff! love the graphics too and can't wait til it has sound effects :D
Many old flash games had a level where it was incredibly easy to get "softlocked" with the caption of "you can always try again" or "press R to retry" to teach that mechanic.
this isn't a full review. I agree with most comments submitted here. one note: I suggest replacing the pipes from the hub into actual buttons with attraction magnets. It utilizes concepts from the game while improving consistency. as far as the key system goes, exiting through a door makes more sense (also allows for replayability of levels which is lacking) and the keys can be acquired upon level completion, in the hub.
Massive improvement! I still find the controls with mouse + keyboard a little finicky—especially changing the polarity. I often found myself getting lost between clicking and E, and also found it very annoying that I couldn't change polarity with the mouse. Maybe a middle click? Or scroll? That way with two scroll "notches" it would go from red to blue to red.
I also wasn't sure if the lag between switching polarity was intentional. I couldn't figure out the last puzzle though in my brain part of it was polarity switching. Something to tweak maybe.
Hello Mark great content, and from one game dev to another solid concept for this game.
I've found a few bugs, firstly I should mention that, I exclusively run Manjaro KDE linux these days, so the fact that it runs out of the box with wine, it's very neat. As for the bugs I'm speaking of the windows binary of the game on linux though wine.
Bugs:
The menus buttons don't have text, and the key count isn't displayed either; font is blank or non-existent this is likely a linux issue not having the font so it doesn't render
When changing the magnet polarity whilest holding it it's sprite does NOT update to reflect being held
If the game ever loses focus, it needs to be restarted
Progress isn't saved, this may be simply because it's a demo, and can lose focus on other platforms, interestingly full screen vs windowed saves, but the menu doesn't update to reflect the current status it simply displays the default
Incorrect controller prompts displayed
My solutions:
Nothing really you haven't supported the game on linux, although unity does allow for building a linux binary, I'm guessing that there was a different issue with building it, like not having a linux testing environment
Ok bear in mind it's been quite a while since I've worked with Unity, when you change polarity/being held/not being held, invoke an event, and in the handler for said event, use either bit masking into lookup table or finite state machine to select the correct sprite, or if the state that controls what sprite should be shown is simple enough, an if else block/chain can work just fine
I'm guessing this is due to running the game though wine on linux
Implement serialization/loading even for demo releases, load the menu text based on the state of the window, instead of only displaying the default
Create a setting switches between what controller prompt is displayed when a controller prompt is being displayed
Less technical feedback, the last level is quite antithetical to good puzzle game design, by the end of the level, I wasn't left feeling smart, something applauded by GTMK's own Mark Brown in the video he made "What Makes a Good Puzzle", in the same video, he also goes on to talk about a puzzle in the Talos principle quote: "The puzzle is incredibly simple once you know the - answer and it's effortless to execute the solution, which is always a plus in my book." Yes I am quoting you to you. In direct contrast to effortless execution the act of standing in one very particular spot, ensuring that the magnet has the correct polarity, aiming said magnet then tossing it in to a magnetic field with an exponential attraction affect, and changing the polarity at the exact moment to get it to land onto a toggle switch, then dashing in the complete opposite direction jumping over a gap, attempting to not get squished, to finally get to the collectable halfway across the room. Took me more time to execute than completing every other puzzle in the demo combined, and this is after I figured out the solution, mind you I originally discounted the idea that such a difficult process would be the answer, as I'm well aware on your stance on difficult execution of puzzles, in fact the process reminded me more of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's explanation of why keyboard and mouse, is better for Doom 2016; quote: "Relatedly this is definitely a game that benefits from having the mouse and keyboard rather than the controller, because the controller's best suited to wheeling yourself around an arena like a runaway dessert trolley on a chest high wall safari, not so much for simultaneously jumping one way, looking in another, grabbing a ledge, shooting a dude and tying up your shoelaces." For reference I was using a PS4 controller <small-rant-on-controllers> (not that I have a PS4(or any other console), I got the controller separately because I knew it would work on PC) at the time, I thought PC(master race) + mouse & keyboard + controller, this line of reasoning has held up well in my experience. <small-rant-on-controllers/> Now while using the rather unorthodox setup of running "Untitled Magnet Game" on Manjaro linux using wine, with a PS4 controller works well, the button prompts however displayed the xbox button icons, even though in the GTMK video asking me, and you the reader of this post, to try out this game has the PS prompts displayed in it, and the xbox prompts do properly render even with this rather odd setup. The solution I would use would be take the same route that Shadow of War took, sadly not also Shadow of Mordor, and put in the settings which prompts the user would like to be shown, this is also nice because someone might have a different controller than their preferred prompts, I did look in the settings, and try out a couple of things, but you can only get so far with blank white rectangles. For clarity this is more a what could be improved post I do like the concept, and 5/6 of the puzzles, although I found it sad to be apart from the magnet at the end of some of the puzzles, especially in one where I could get back to the magnet, but am unable to because of the scene change. To this end I have an idea allow the robot to recall the magnet, but only about as frequently as the teleport crystals work in SAO abridged, obviously there would need to be an indicator as to when the magnet could be recalled this could either work through teleportation, or perhaps the robot could magnetically pull the magnet to itself, and the limit on the recall ability's use could be location based, charge based, toggle switch based like how in quantum conundrum, you must first slot IDS batteries into their slots in order to be able to toggle betwixt that and other dimensions, or it could function as a combination of multiple of these elements.
I wasn't expecting to write an essay today, hopefully it reads ok, I didn't give it the same treatment as a school paper essay, 2 weeks draft reviews, and prof reading, and all that.
Summary good job Mark, keep up the good work!
For anyone interested my website, it's long overdue for a big update ik.
I think the solution you found to the final level is not in fact the intended solution, or if it is, I found a much easier one. Before flipping the button on the top right, throw the magnet down into the pit so it slides down the slope, then switch the polarity so it rotates the door and prevents the block from being able to rise up and squish you. Then, push the button and jump over. No timing or super precise aiming required. I think perhaps the door needs to extend further into that gap so as to clearly convey that it will block the box when rotated to the left. Hopefully that makes sense, I might not be the best at writing guides haha
took notes as i played. posted them on youtube too
- Misunderstood the option "Toggle aim mode on/off"
I thought this would change the aim mode from holding e to enter aim, to tapping e to enter aiming mode and tapping e to exit
maybe something like "Disable aiming mode" might be more accurate?
- found initial ascending part of the jump a little slow/less potent than what feels right to me. idk might just be me
-found it a bit annoying that i cant move while aiming the magnet. feels like you should be able to move while aiming. might also be a chance to add momentum transfer between the player and the magnet
-picking up the magnet and instantly clicking LMB causes the magnet to be thrown at less then full power
- what are the green pipes and gates at the start of each level for? that a level exit that hasnt been implemented yet?
-after you complete the level once, theres no way to actually complete the level again since theres no key. maybe replacing the key with a greyed outline upon completion would help? colliding into it would end the level
-pressing F to change magnet polarity works after the player is dead
-the key icons above each level enterance feel like they should be underneth the magnet and not cover it up when the magnet is thrown over it
-plenty of soft locks with some of the puzzles. not a problem when they're short but will probably be a frustrating thing if the puzzles get really long. maybe a checkpoint or time reversal system might be a fun way to fix that? probably hell to implement though
-when using the magnet to stick to the ceiling, only pressing e will let the player ungrab the magnet. My first instinct was to press RMB or Q. not e
For one, I am pretty sure that I was able to solve some of the puzzles in a non-intended way or it may be that those solutions were just not satisfying enough that they felt like correct solutions.
Second, there is no way of completing levels once you've solved them already (since you've already gotten the key), I suggest putting a replacement for the key for those who do want to replay the levels so you don't need to give them a key for completion.
Lastly, the movement still feels a little stiff. Sometimes the only way to jump to higher platforms is to run and jump. It was sort of annoying to not make a tiny jump because I didn't run up to it. Also, while moving in levels is fine, I found that the player's speed was super slow in the hub. You also should be able to move and throw at the same time, slower if necessary.
The puzzles were nice and achievable, though definitely hard at points. I did all of them. Determining when to put myself in a "do or die"-type position was probably the hardest hurdle to get over, because for many puzzles, if you did not do it right, you would have to reset because the path backwards was closed. Making checkpoints (or letting the user make checkpoints) might help with that.
The keyboard setup was... alright. I don't normally play on keyboard, so I don't really have any room to complain there. I learned how to pair my Switch Pro controller with my computer and played everything past the tutorial that way.
The options menu could do with having a keybind on controller that lets you out. I ended up pressing the Esc key on my keyboard to leave it whenever I wanted to change something. Plus (+) let me in, but it did not let me leave.
The "Enter Aim Mode" keybind could use an explanation; after a few tries at figuring out the function, I gave up and put it on a button I wasn't likely to press. I found that the method that made the most sense to me was to put picking up and throwing the magnet on the left trigger, and changing polarity on the right trigger. Still, for that configuration, it might have been nice to use the right analogue stick to aim the throw, rather than having to hold down the left trigger the whole time and use the left analogue stick to aim. Essentially, I tried to aim the same way you do in CrossCode.
I've been following the progress on your YT channel, and I think this is shaping up to be pretty great. The controls feel (mostly) great. More on that below. The mechanics are fantastic and even with zero instructions it's really intuitive to figure out exactly how each object works and the little tricks that are possible in order to solve the levels. At least, so far.
The downsides are few, but I think important. First, the jumping is a bit... odd at times. It seems your jump height is determined by your forward velocity. This is common in this kind of game, but there's a few places where if you aren't going at max speed and jump at just the right point, you're going to miss the jump and in these levels at least, the two or three spots where this was an issue, I fell down to a point where I had to restart the level (through the retry system or just having to go through all the obstacles again, it's the same result.) I'm sure you've heard of the game design philosophy of Coyote Time? I wonder if you might implement something in the reverse? If your forward momentum is high enough, missing a ledge by a few pixels will place you on the ledge anyway. It would make up to higher ledges where there's a pit if you miss feel a whole lot better.
Finally I wonder if it's possible to have you exit from the pipe above the level you have just completed rather than all the way back to the start of the hub? I know it's a small thing, but over the time spent in one hub this can add up, especially if hubs ever get bigger than this one. Just something else to keep the flow of the game going without any more downtime than necessary.
Hey Mark! Hope you find some of this feedback helpful.
- While keys can be rebound, I recommend having right-click be set for Magnet Action. If you decide that the m+K gameplay is specifically left/right mouse to pickup/toss/swap polarization I think it will allow for quicker and easier play for folks. Having to stop movement in order to click a button to swap polarization isn't so fun.
- Movement to/from places that require the magnet is fun. Do more of that.
- For the hub world it might be fun to have each level door (or eventual subset of levels) be opened utilizing the key method that will be explored. Hub 1 can be throwing the magnet, but then eventually you need to step on a switch, get across a gap, etc etc.
- Up and Over: This is a good intro level that establishes what magnets can get through which you can't, how these switch doors work, and throwing/switching to accomplish goals. You might be able to make it less subtle that the particular asset can't be moved through in that particular direction by placing one that players need to jump over first.
- Not a Drill: This also establishes some good basics with switching the magnet to have it do multiple things away from you. I have an issue with the drill covering the shelf that the magnet can ultimately fall through. It's kind of a weird surprise vs being an established item that the magnet can go through these assets (despite what the last level accomplishes). Is there a way to create an asset that is clearly a platform/wall but has an element that indicates it's not a surface the magnet will settle on?
- Up and Away: This level might be able to help drive the above point home if the player were forced to throw the magnet from the top of the section, have it slide down and drop through the platforms and then get pulled into the switch door. It helps further emphasis that the magnet completely ignores these assets.
- Lift Up: No notes, this is a solid level for establishing the cancelling gateways.
- Weight and Pull-Me: Maybe a little too easy, but I like that it shows that there are switch gates that don't require magnets, which my brain defaulted to thinking I needed for a moment. Also it's really fun to have puzzles that require simply placing the magnet somewhere and then swapping polarization repeatedly to cause things to react as you navigate. Do more of that.
- Blocked by Block: Despite there being a quick level restart, might be nice to throw a small block in the pit next to the switch so players can jump out without needing to reset.
- Left Shift = sprint/movement boost? Yes please!
- When a Switch Pro Controller is plugged in the character jumps repeatedly and moves left. I found no way to stop this and had to just unplug and use m+k.
Really enjoyed the demo! The first few levels do a great job of teaching without words, and the last level in particular had me stumped for a good while. Great puzzle design and level design all around.
Some things I noticed with regards to gameplay:
There's no real way to replay levels. If you enter a level you've already beaten, there's no way to complete it because the key is gone. This isn't a huge issue because there's no real reason to replay levels, I just wanted to replay one of them to make sure I'd properly understood the mechanic it was teaching me.
Throwing the magnet into a pipe to open a door isn't terribly intuitive. At first I thought I had to jump into the attraction beam while carrying the magnet to go through the pipe myself. Took me a hot second to realize the pipe functioned more like a button for the door than a Mario-style pipe.
Some things I noticed with regards to visuals:
It wasn't immediately obvious to me that the magnet can pass through the thin platforms. The first time I finished level 2, I thought I had maybe encoutered a bug. It wasn't until I tried to replay level 2 that I realized that was probably an intended mechanic.
In the hub, the background doesn't scroll at the same speed as the signs / doors, creating an unintended paralax effect.
In the hub, the doors and signs are on a higher layer than the magnet and the trajectory.
Last level is too difficult. I think I cheesed it by throwing my magnet under the block so when it fell back down it blocked the button. I would like to move around while aiming to be more accurate and to speed up the gameplay.
I would like some visual feedback for how long I need to hold to reset the level.
Even though I have 7 keys, the hub says I have 6.
I loved the way the puzzles work, sometimes the gates felt useless. learning curve is good although last level is bit too much. The Hub feels alright, but something feels missing / wrong, but I can't put my finger on it.
Yes I also found that level incredibly hard. I personally cheesed it by throwing the magnet onto the button in the back of the room and then running to the other side before the big block went up.
I also want to add that there are multiple dumb ways to be softlocked in this room like falling under the blue attractor when you don't have the magnet with you.
UI: In the main menu, one button is always highlighted even if I don't hover anything. This felt a little weird.
Controls (mouse/keyboard): The character movement was really nice. I definitely noticed the Coyote Time. To throw the magnet, my first instinct was to hold E and then click, which did nothing. Of course I figured it out quickly, but this might be something to consider. The behavior when simply pressing E/clicking is interesting. I don't know if dropping the magnet might be more useful than a short throw.
Hub World: I don't know how to feel about the pipes. I appreciate the "use the magnet for everything" mentality, but maybe a simple button to enter a level would suffice. It's also kind of annoying that you always spawn at the start of the hub world and need to walk all the way to the next level.
Levels: Level 1 actually took me a minute to figure out. I just stumbled onto the fact that the magnet could slide by accident. Maybe the sliding mechanic could be introduced in a simpler scenario. Level 2 was nice and simple. An good introduction for the "transport magnet by switching by switching polarity" concept. I discovered level 3's solution by accident when trying to jump across the gap while the magnet was in the perfect position. Level 4 was not too difficult because there was pretty much a single path you could take without getting stuck. I probably liked level 5 the most. It had a cool concept and finally figuring out that you needed to press the buttons in the opposite order felt really satisfying. During the final level, it took quite some time before I noticed that part of the door could stop the blue box from moving up. Maybe the door could be moved a bit to the left to make that more obvious. One more thing: I had to retry some levels several times. A few more ways to get yourself unstuck after making a mistake, which aren't simply restarting the level would me nice.
Bugs: The largest bug I noticed is the fact that holding Ctrl for a few seconds during the "Thanks for playing" section causes some, let's say, interesting behavior. The magnet physics under low ceilings can be a bit wonky and I got stuck briefly at one point. Letting go off the magnet when it was stuck to the ceiling didn't always work reliably. I'm also pretty sure that hitting a button once caused it to toggle twice one time.
Conclusion: I really liked it and I definitely see the potential of the game concept. The graphics are functional but still nice to look at. The levels generally have a good size and difficulty. In case some platforming under time pressure is still an option: An Ori-style escape sequence could be really cool.
I actually recorded my first-time experience (including commentary). I don't know if that might be something of interest.
Yes, I like watching people play demos and small games for the first time. I don't know what it is, but I just like to see how they look at the puzzle or task at hand.
i'm not sure if it's possible to contact you anywhere directly, so i'll just leave this here and hopefully it doesn't break any rules of commenting. played through the demo and found it very sad there was no sound or music so i made a quick sketch for what i think the soundtrack could sound like :)
I did not have the time to get the last level, i think the concept don't hype me enough to get the "Haha moment". But i am not a player of this type of game, i only played baba is you ( but i do said "haha !" in Baba is you. )
I do feel it's because i always don't know if i have to speed it up, or just think a lot. And so i am mostly trying to do the same thing but more quickly.
So to me, the mix is weird.
The lack of sound was a bit weird, but overall i am very impressed, i had great feeling playing it, maybie sometimes characters feel slow a bit, especially in the lobby
I hope i am not too harsh, this is good please keep doing this :) Have a great day !
Okay some people do have sounds, weird but ok i might be dumb
I play a lot of puzzle games, and the last level was the only one to really hit the "Aha moment" for me. The rest felt like tutorials, which I think is fine once more levels get added, but they do feel a little weird in the demo.
But yeah I agree the overall experience was impressive and I think it will be even better once sound gets added. The animations felt spot-on to me.
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Moving the character is very fun. I liked how throwing the magnet mid-air happens instantly. I also appreciated how the permanent switches actually looked like literal switches, and the pressure plates looked flat.
FYI: I tried to replay the levels, and it would let me enter them but not complete them since the keys were already collected. Probably something you already planned to fix in a final version, but I thought I would mention it.
My only real criticisms of the gameplay have to do with a couple unintuitive inconsistencies. One was the pass-through platforms/walls that for some reason allow the magnet to pass through, but not the robot. It felt especially weird when they were platforms because you would expect objects to land on platforms the same way the player character does. Once you understand this it's not hard to adjust, but it is odd.
The other inconsistency I noticed was the way the robot holds on to the magnet when being pulled up by a vertical magnetic field but lets go when it's a horizontal field like the L-shaped doors. Seems like it should always hold on since we have the option to throw.
Enjoyed the demo! A lot of promise and love watching the videos of the process.
Couple things I noticed:
The sixth level was a toughie and i still dont feel like the way i "solved" it was the right way? I ended up just throwing the magnet down to stop the box from hitting the button.
This might be just a me thing but spacebar as the click for the menus isnt my go to, enter is, so it took me a second to figure it out.
This level has a weird thing where the magnet gets stuck on the platform if you turn around before going all the way through the hallway. Video shows it.
Nice game!
I liked the 7th puzzle (it was definitely the most difficult, but perhaps doesn't belong with the first 6).
I liked the feeling of the magnet being pulled when held by the robot. Maybe it would be interesting to play with the idea of switching between polarities while holding the magnet for platforming (I know players criticised platforming sections in the previous demo, though).
I wasn't a huge fan of the default controls. I only realized afterwards that the right-click could be used for throwing, which I think I preferred, although maybe there could be a way to throw the magnet without having to use the mouse, which would also feel more natural.
Throwing the magnet felt a little clunky since it felt like a pause from gameplay. Maybe allowing the player to move, or throw the magnet accurately without using the mouse would be good (using WASD instead, perhaps? "W" would be nice to easily throw straight up).
Having to reset some levels repeatedly was a little annoying. I didn't realize until afterwards that the control button had to be held to reset, perhaps the symbol shading in slowly or having a loading bar could make this clear.
Levels are much better. I definitely had an "aha" moment when i realized the magnet can go through the one-way platforms. One glitch/bug thing: when you're in the hub room with all the pipes, there's no reset/polarity shift UI. There was a time where I accidentally threw the magnet into the wrong pipe and tried pressing ctrl. I kept holding it and eventually the reset icon started growing larger and larger from off the top of the screen. It was kind of funny, but I ended up having to reset the hub from the pause menu.
Great game. Felt like a high-quality cool math game (take it as a compliment). The puzzles were really clever, and felt like they were magnet centered. I really like the change to toggle switches instead of different coloured buttons, and the character was really fun to look at. Just had a few suggestions.
This might be silly, but perhaps the magnets in the hub world should change with the magnet change, or have some be different polarity at the start. The way it stand is fine, but feels unnecessary.
I want an animation for when I press up or down (like celeste).
Level 6: If the intended method was to throw a magnet down below box, to stop if from pressing the button, then the throw should be easier and the jump to the toggle shorter. If it's not then either don't change it or fix it.
The game is really fun! Some (hopefully constructive) feedback:
-I'm not sure why some levels don't start with the magnet already in your hands.
-It would be nice to not have to set the magnets polarity before checking it into a level select pipe.
-Small visual bug that the magnet travels behind the keys on the screens in the hub.
-The fact that some buttons are ramps is neat, but occasionally annoying for movement, because if you're on the wrong side of the switch you have to jump over it and then roll back onto it.
Controls: The controls feel quite nice except for some issues while aiming for a throw. When I'm holding forward and want to throw upward I usually slide over the d pad but it won't go any further then diagonal. This is on a ps4 controller with inputmapper. It works fine with the sticks or on keyboard + mouse but since it has platform controls I prefer the dpad of a ps4 controller.
Mechanics: Most mechanics feel quite good and intuitive, The thing that I find most annoying is with the gates when it switches the magnet drops and I need to pick it up again. I think it would feel better if you keep holding on to the magnet when carrying it.
Level design: Levels are fun to do and keep being fresh for the moment. A major issue that I have with it is that you can "soft lock" yourself in most levels where you just can't do anything anymore except reset the level. I think this would discourage players from experimenting with the mechanics of the puzzle simply because you can just get stuck. It might be worthwhile to build some failsafe into your levels.
You are probably already aware of these but just in case I will note what I found:
Level 1: If I pick up the magnet, jump on the platform and turn it blue then jump off that platform and throw it as far as I can it will land where the key is and I can't do anything anymore. (also if you pick up the magnet falling down before the blue gate and you want to move under the platform you can get stuck a bit. You can just go left again and try to go underneath after that but still weird).
Level 2: I can't reproduce it anymore with the time I have now but walking through the gates with the blue magnet you can destroy the magnet in between the drill and the wall if you time it right. A new magnet will spawn on the other side with no way of getting it.
Level 3: Throw the magnet to the key and it's over.
Level 4: Get the magnet to the other side and go back through the bottom path by pressing the button then throw the magnet on the button which will raise the platform. The magnet is now besides the platform with no way out.
Level 5 if you drop the magnet at the wrong time you will get stuck, this one seems to most intentional in design that you have to reset which i personally would advise against.
Level 6 Throw the magnet towards the key.
So for now these might not be super big issues because they are small puzzles in which resetting would not be the biggest deal but still a slight annoyance. However it might be an issue if you decided to create bigger/longer puzzles. A solution for most of these issues (not all) might be to make a button that is always reachable or a button on the controller to destroy the magnet and let it respawn from the pipe. It would help with getting stuck and might even be useful as a puzzle element.
Images of situations below just in case.
Most of the problems you found aren't really issues, the puzzle was just done wrong. Also Restarting will allow experimentation without major frustration, because these are small puzzles.
I'm not saying it's wrong to be able to restart but to force restarting is a different feeling. It's about player experience and thinking about what you want to do in the future for more complex level design.
Here are my stream of consciousness thoughts on the game.
-I like the little shake when I hit the first panel
-I was expecting the key pipe to spirit me away to the next level, rather than just open the door.
-didn't see the bar in the first level until I smashed into it, still a bit hard to see
-Puzzle 3 was way to easy
-the little plus/minus signs have been a real help
-Puzzle 6 seems like a big jump in difficulty, which is nice, because the previous levels were trivial
-That’s it? Seems like an extended tutorial.
-Also, this reminds me a lot of old flash puzzle platformers, and those often something to keep you playing besides puzzles. Even a text screen at the very beginning can give pathos to a dry puzzle game.
-On that note, give a look to old flash games. Broadening your references can bring unexpected inspirations.
Agreed, puzzle 3 seamed more like a tutorial level for Polarity.
Also, the going into the level pipes sounds really cool.
This is how I did level 6:
only real complaint I have is on the final puzzle, I essentially had to solve it reverse by seeing what actions I could even perform and only after I had thrown the magnet down the slope and flipped the turnstyle could I see it ever-so-slightly poked into the path of the large magnet in the center, I essentially had to solve the puzzle to figure out what 'question' it was asking.
Hey, that sounds like puzzle solving to me
Yes indeed.
I don't quite think you get what I mean by "solving it in reverse", (mainly because I did a shit job of explaining)
Like, puzzle solving goes: I need to complete an objective, I have all these things I can interact with that if I can put them in correct states while I am in position X and magnet is in position Y, I can then access the key.
whereas I spent a massive amount of time thinking the solution was finding a way to hit the button on the right in order to ride the middle magnet up, which was complicated by the fact that (seemingly unintentionally) you can jump over to the far right button without using the magnet if you are like, pixel-perfect. at no point before the puzzle was in the solved position did I think "ok, how can I stop the middle magnet in a position where I can jump across it as a stationary platform", I threw the magnet down the slope because I noticed the floor was sloped and thought it presumably had to be done for a reason, and then flipped the turnstyle because again, thats the only thing you can accomplish by sliding the magnet down the slope, and then touching the button after that achieved the solution by blocking the path of the middle magnet. I reached the solution by essentially brute-forcing rather than 'solving' the puzzle (making a plan to achieve a result) like I did with every other puzzle before it, due in large part to the fact that its really hard (at least for me) to even see that the turnstyle is in the path of the magnet, if it was further left and more noticeably in the way it would be much better communicated to the player that it's a factor in the puzzle.
I understand, but at the beginning of the level, the L-door is already showing you that it does in fact get in the way of the block if it were to go up.
It isn't super easy to take in as part of the puzzle, but it is still there:
Also Level 6 is the last Level for a reason.
Very very very nice and a massive improvement.
I only have a few minor issues.
The mouse cursor remains visible when playing full screen with a controller.
Holding the polarity change button causes the polarity to change twice, on press then again on release.
The attraction zone for opening doors, in the hub, should be long enough to be able to use a quick upwards throw instead of having to go in aim mode.
The character is a bit slow in large rooms like the hub.
The character should come out of the levels in front of the door instead of the start of the room, so you don't have to go trough the entire room every time.
Incredibly fun! A couple of things I would like to point out. I would like to be able to move while I'm aiming my magnet. Let's say I just entered a level and see a spot I could throw my magnet. In my excitement I run towards that spot and start aiming my magnet well before I get to that spot, now I find myself stuck and my first thought is to throw the magnet as the cancel button is not mentioned at all. Another thing is that when I entered the level selection, I would spawn all the way to the left, which kind of made me lose my sense of progress, as if that level meant nothing at all. I will admit I'm a bit dramatic, but it was still frustrating. That's all though, this demo was really fun, and I found myself entering each new level with joy.
edit: being able to move while aiming the magnet for the controller might not work out, you could use the right joystick but that would only be possible if you could toggle the aim mode instead of holding the button (which is a great idea honestly)
I had the same thought on moving and aiming.
This was great! Very enjoyable, but there are a few things I would recommend:
- The left bumper (LB) button prompt for an Xbox controller is shaped like a normal button instead of it's actual shape. I would change this for more clarity.
- The restart button should have an indicator that shows how long you have to press it to restart the level so you are less likely to do it on accident. Something like the 'drop ability' indicator in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, for a recent example.
- In level 6, it was unclear to me that the gate would block the magnet from going up because it did not extend out very far.
- The levels should be numbered or have titles so it is a bit easier to remember which level is which, since so far they all look the same.
- The hub could be more visually distinct from the levels.
- An undo/rewind feature would be convenient.
Really fun demo! Love how polished it feels and moving around feels good, excited to play a more complete version (hope the next demo has sound).
Some nitpicks:
A run-walk option might help
I enjoyed this, but the puzzles felt a little bit too easy to just brute force in a way. I would find myself just doing the same thing and eventually getting it right, never really getting that "Aha" moment. Solid movement, jump felt a little odd. Will check out your YouTube channel, never interacted with it outside of seeing the massive annual game jams on itch.
Same thing here. I felt like I finally finished the tutorial, and it just ended.
I liked this game. I should say that I watched your series so I don't look at this game the way I look at a random game on itchio.
The controls were juicy and responded quickly. The movement and shaking of the camera felt natural and the cute toy-like character is quite fun to work with.
For the puzzles in themselves, I found some harder than others (like the rightmost one) as I did the puzzles from right to left. Apart from that the puzzles succeeded in being self-contained, independent puzzles teaching the mechanics of the game, while having these "aha" and "what" moments that makes them very entertaining.
Conclusion: Not too much to say about it.
It is a very fun game, with well-done puzzles, the one I liked the most was door 7, I had that "aha!" moment because the solution was in plain sight, but I didn't see it, and I really liked the movement, this time it feels more fluid and less heavy, like a platformer game, I hope the full game will have equally amazing and fun puzzles.
And I have to admit this, I don't like puzzle games that much, obviously I've played some as portal, which I liked a lot, but generally I don't like them that much because they seem difficult to me and I stop playing them, instead, your game has some puzzles that make me think about what the solution could be, but not making me stay days or weeks without playing the game because the puzzles are very difficult.
door 7 is easily the best
I'm pretty sure Door/Level 6 is the last one, Door/Level 7 is just the unlockable door.
It's much better now! I love the game!
I'm not sure what I'm doing incorrectly, but I can't get V2.0 to run properly.
Every Time I launch the game I get a very tiny window that seems to have far fewer pixels than necessary.
I'm using Windows 11 and a 4k monitor. When I downloaded V1.2 it worked completely fine.
I've learned that if I set my monitor to 1080p, launch the game, and then reset the monitor to 4k the game launches with the proper native resolution, and maintains it. I'm guessing this is some unity strangeness. I hope it's not someone anyone else has to experience.
Same problem here.
I tried messing around with my screen's resolution and it didn't fix this bug for me. I'm using a 1536 x 864 monitor set to a 1920x1080 display by default.
I had the same issue, but changing resolution then going back to the original resolution fixed it somehow.
First of all: Nice job! The game played quite well.
Key Data:
Version: 2.0
Playtime: 20 min
Input: Mouse and Keyboard
Default Settings
The experience of the game was nice overall. Nothing that pulled me in completely, but a few nice Aha-Moments and nothing overly frustrating.
I experienced no bugs during my playtime.
The rise in and level of difficulty was appropriate my personal taste and the game being in a demo state.
I was able to intuit my way through the earlier levels and had to plan a little in the later levels without getting stuck.
The hub reminded me of the old Lego star wars games, but was quite barren. Throwing the magnet into a tube to open a gate felt unintuitive and al little bit tedious.
It would be nice to have some elements from the levels in the hub to be able to play around and familiarize yourself with the Gameplay elements.
The thin platforms that let the magnet, but not the player pass through looked quite a lot like platforms in other jump and run games, that allow the player to pass through if they press the down key.
This felt a tad unintuitive.
In the earlier levels it seemed always possible to get back to the status quo after messing up. It felt a little bit jarring to use the reset button for the first time in level 5.
The revolving door in level 6 was positioned in a way, that I had a hard time to tell if it would block the magnet-block from passing when rotated. This could be seen either as a good or bad thing.
It was one of the first things that I tested after playing around (just by chance) and getting it to activate remote was still a nice challenge, but I could see it being frustrating to not be able to solve a puzzle because you misinterpreted the parameters.
A particularly nice experience was when I thought I got stuck in level 4 and then figured out a way to get unstuck without resetting. The solution was quite close to the levels solution and solving two puzzles at once felt rewarding.
In my opinion the game is lacking most in classical "game features". With one objective and only one degree of success per level and no structure in the hub it felt a little bit like ticking boxes on a list with no room for overachieving or exploring.
One weird thing: The "Thanks for playing" level moved in a weird way. I was unsure if something else was supposed to happen or if the movement itself was a bug.
Overall: Solid basis and while this demo didn't make me exited to play the final game, it still was a lot of fun with only minor annoyances and I'm exited to see the next YouTube update.
Great second demo! Some minor bugs I found:
* If you pause the game and then press A/space to select Resume Game, Restart Level, or Return to Hub, the robot will do a little hop.
* You can skip the tutorial entirely by pausing the game and selecting Return to Hub.
Took 5 minutes to complete, found it very easy to grasp the concept. I play a lot of puzzle games though, so not too surprising I blitzed through these beginner levels. Did them left to right in the hub and that was satisfying enough for me, but being reset to the left every time I exited a level was irksome.
Found that booting up the game on my second monitor resulted in it launching at a tiny resolution, and only fixed it thanks to knowing that I could press alt+enter to make it fullscreen on my main monitor and then rebooting it to fix the issue.
Found that quickly reversing directions into the rotating doorways would result in them not moving back the other way which felt a bit clunky. Would be nice if they were immediately responsive so I could have fun quickly flicking left and right in them.
Very easy to get softlocked in a puzzle and then require a reset, as all it takes is leaving the magnet behind somewhere only accessible with said magnet. I don't think the puzzle design would allow for a "summon magnet" button without massive overhauls, but maybe a rewind function would be a possible alternative. Otherwise, puzzles will have to stay rather short and simple to avoid frustration when restarting the level if you make a single slip up.
I had fun though and would like to see more levels, ideally ramping up significantly in difficulty by the end to really get you thinking with magnets. A second magnet, perhaps, would add a lot more puzzle potential in later levels?
EDIT: Forgot to include this, but I found it weird whenever I couldn't press down or down+jump to drop through the thinner platforms that are often used as steps. Guess that part of game design language is ingrained into me.
The game was pretty fun. I offer my thoughts
- There's no UI button to get out of the options, you have to press ESC which wasn't the first thing I thought of
- I like to use Backspace for jump a lot of the time (I have a weird keyboard), but there wasn't an icon for backspace in the control popup in the level
- "Carry / Enter Aim Mode" and "Magnet Action" aren't names that I immediately know which key I'd normally bind it to
- I thought I encountered a bug where the magnet would only be thrown in one direction, but after a while I realized that you have to use the mouse to aim. I had been thinking you could aim by pressing and holding throw
- I tried to reset the level to troubleshoot the previous issue with the in-game reset, but it looks like it only resets the state of objects it thinks are changed. It'd be nice if there were a hard reset
- If you quit out in the hub before playing a level, you'll be reset to the tutorial (you can still "Return to Hub" though)
- You can have multiple actions bound to the same key
- It'd be nice if you could fullscreen by dragging the window to the top of the screen in Windows
- Down + Jump should let you go down through semisolid platforms
- In the hub, the magnet shows behind the Key Signs and the doors
- The movement feels like it's optimized for a different game. Like the coyote time is nice, but I'm not really trying to correctly time jumps. As it is, I kept bonking into 2-high walls because I jumped too early, which is cool in a platformer, but kinda lame in a puzzle game
- Is the intended solution to the last puzzle to slide the magnet under the negative block which its up and have it land next to the button? If it is, that felt awkward.
- Having to pick up the magnet at the start of every level felt tedious
- I feel like the puzzles could be cooler if you had to get both the player and the magnet into a spot. That said, I enjoyed #5 a good deal.
As others have mentioned switching polarity for keyboard is akward. I tend to move my finger from my D (Right Key) to the F (Polarity Key) making it difficult to move right and change polarity in the last level. like some others have said having this option on the mouse whould make a lot of sence as the mouse controls the magnet, But that might make it hard for laptop users. I think a nice middle ground would be to have the default key binding be the LEFT SHIFT key as the pinky does not have a critical role in moving.
Summary: Changing polarity with mouse or shift key are easier to control as the default settings.
Agreed!
Great demo! The improvements in the way the character feels are great. Only thing that might be nice is if you could move slowly while aiming instead of having to cancel the throw and move if your just a little off. I also would like to be able to rebind the mouse buttons as personally I'd rather have right click be polarization.
I enjoyed all the puzzles and felt like the difficulty was good. The magnet feels very central to these levels so I think that has improved massively. Like other reviewers, I didn't immediately get the pipe and tried to jump in it, though i do really like it as a mechanic. Maybe some something to differentiate it from green mario pipes would stop players from trying to jump in it.
Only annoyance as far as mechanics is that with the rotating walls that the player can push, turning around too quickly to walk back through it can cause it to not open. This is only mildly annoying, but it does feel clunky if you realize you need to turn around. video here
Here's my feedback:
Many old flash games had a level where it was incredibly easy to get "softlocked" with the caption of "you can always try again" or "press R to retry" to teach that mechanic.
this isn't a full review. I agree with most comments submitted here. one note: I suggest replacing the pipes from the hub into actual buttons with attraction magnets. It utilizes concepts from the game while improving consistency. as far as the key system goes, exiting through a door makes more sense (also allows for replayability of levels which is lacking) and the keys can be acquired upon level completion, in the hub.
Massive improvement! I still find the controls with mouse + keyboard a little finicky—especially changing the polarity. I often found myself getting lost between clicking and E, and also found it very annoying that I couldn't change polarity with the mouse. Maybe a middle click? Or scroll? That way with two scroll "notches" it would go from red to blue to red.
I also wasn't sure if the lag between switching polarity was intentional. I couldn't figure out the last puzzle though in my brain part of it was polarity switching. Something to tweak maybe.
Hello Mark great content, and from one game dev to another solid concept for this game.
I've found a few bugs, firstly I should mention that, I exclusively run Manjaro KDE linux these days, so the fact that it runs out of the box with wine, it's very neat. As for the bugs I'm speaking of the windows binary of the game on linux though wine.
Bugs:
My solutions:
Less technical feedback, the last level is quite antithetical to good puzzle game design, by the end of the level, I wasn't left feeling smart, something applauded by GTMK's own Mark Brown in the video he made "What Makes a Good Puzzle", in the same video, he also goes on to talk about a puzzle in the Talos principle quote: "The puzzle is incredibly simple once you know the - answer and it's effortless to execute the solution, which is always a plus in my book." Yes I am quoting you to you. In direct contrast to effortless execution the act of standing in one very particular spot, ensuring that the magnet has the correct polarity, aiming said magnet then tossing it in to a magnetic field with an exponential attraction affect, and changing the polarity at the exact moment to get it to land onto a toggle switch, then dashing in the complete opposite direction jumping over a gap, attempting to not get squished, to finally get to the collectable halfway across the room. Took me more time to execute than completing every other puzzle in the demo combined, and this is after I figured out the solution, mind you I originally discounted the idea that such a difficult process would be the answer, as I'm well aware on your stance on difficult execution of puzzles, in fact the process reminded me more of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's explanation of why keyboard and mouse, is better for Doom 2016; quote: "Relatedly this is definitely a game that benefits from having the mouse and keyboard rather than the controller, because the controller's best suited to wheeling yourself around an arena like a runaway dessert trolley on a chest high wall safari, not so much for simultaneously jumping one way, looking in another, grabbing a ledge, shooting a dude and tying up your shoelaces." For reference I was using a PS4 controller <small-rant-on-controllers> (not that I have a PS4(or any other console), I got the controller separately because I knew it would work on PC) at the time, I thought PC(master race) + mouse & keyboard + controller, this line of reasoning has held up well in my experience. <small-rant-on-controllers/> Now while using the rather unorthodox setup of running "Untitled Magnet Game" on Manjaro linux using wine, with a PS4 controller works well, the button prompts however displayed the xbox button icons, even though in the GTMK video asking me, and you the reader of this post, to try out this game has the PS prompts displayed in it, and the xbox prompts do properly render even with this rather odd setup. The solution I would use would be take the same route that Shadow of War took, sadly not also Shadow of Mordor, and put in the settings which prompts the user would like to be shown, this is also nice because someone might have a different controller than their preferred prompts, I did look in the settings, and try out a couple of things, but you can only get so far with blank white rectangles. For clarity this is more a what could be improved post I do like the concept, and 5/6 of the puzzles, although I found it sad to be apart from the magnet at the end of some of the puzzles, especially in one where I could get back to the magnet, but am unable to because of the scene change. To this end I have an idea allow the robot to recall the magnet, but only about as frequently as the teleport crystals work in SAO abridged, obviously there would need to be an indicator as to when the magnet could be recalled this could either work through teleportation, or perhaps the robot could magnetically pull the magnet to itself, and the limit on the recall ability's use could be location based, charge based, toggle switch based like how in quantum conundrum, you must first slot IDS batteries into their slots in order to be able to toggle betwixt that and other dimensions, or it could function as a combination of multiple of these elements.
I wasn't expecting to write an essay today, hopefully it reads ok, I didn't give it the same treatment as a school paper essay, 2 weeks draft reviews, and prof reading, and all that.
Summary good job Mark, keep up the good work!
For anyone interested my website, it's long overdue for a big update ik.
I think the solution you found to the final level is not in fact the intended solution, or if it is, I found a much easier one. Before flipping the button on the top right, throw the magnet down into the pit so it slides down the slope, then switch the polarity so it rotates the door and prevents the block from being able to rise up and squish you. Then, push the button and jump over. No timing or super precise aiming required. I think perhaps the door needs to extend further into that gap so as to clearly convey that it will block the box when rotated to the left. Hopefully that makes sense, I might not be the best at writing guides haha
Like this
took notes as i played. posted them on youtube too
- Misunderstood the option "Toggle aim mode on/off"
I thought this would change the aim mode from holding e to enter aim, to tapping e to enter aiming mode and tapping e to exit
maybe something like "Disable aiming mode" might be more accurate?
- found initial ascending part of the jump a little slow/less potent than what feels right to me. idk might just be me
-found it a bit annoying that i cant move while aiming the magnet. feels like you should be able to move while aiming. might also be a chance to add momentum transfer between the player and the magnet
-picking up the magnet and instantly clicking LMB causes the magnet to be thrown at less then full power
- what are the green pipes and gates at the start of each level for? that a level exit that hasnt been implemented yet?
-after you complete the level once, theres no way to actually complete the level again since theres no key. maybe replacing the key with a greyed outline upon completion would help? colliding into it would end the level
-pressing F to change magnet polarity works after the player is dead
-the key icons above each level enterance feel like they should be underneth the magnet and not cover it up when the magnet is thrown over it
-plenty of soft locks with some of the puzzles. not a problem when they're short but will probably be a frustrating thing if the puzzles get really long. maybe a checkpoint or time reversal system might be a fun way to fix that? probably hell to implement though
-when using the magnet to stick to the ceiling, only pressing e will let the player ungrab the magnet. My first instinct was to press RMB or Q. not e
I applaud a fellow note taker, and these are pretty good
You are doing a great job so far!
I think a few things could use some improvement
For one, I am pretty sure that I was able to solve some of the puzzles in a non-intended way or it may be that those solutions were just not satisfying enough that they felt like correct solutions.
Second, there is no way of completing levels once you've solved them already (since you've already gotten the key), I suggest putting a replacement for the key for those who do want to replay the levels so you don't need to give them a key for completion.
Lastly, the movement still feels a little stiff. Sometimes the only way to jump to higher platforms is to run and jump. It was sort of annoying to not make a tiny jump because I didn't run up to it. Also, while moving in levels is fine, I found that the player's speed was super slow in the hub. You also should be able to move and throw at the same time, slower if necessary.
Thanks so much for the game!
The puzzles were nice and achievable, though definitely hard at points. I did all of them. Determining when to put myself in a "do or die"-type position was probably the hardest hurdle to get over, because for many puzzles, if you did not do it right, you would have to reset because the path backwards was closed. Making checkpoints (or letting the user make checkpoints) might help with that.
The keyboard setup was... alright. I don't normally play on keyboard, so I don't really have any room to complain there. I learned how to pair my Switch Pro controller with my computer and played everything past the tutorial that way.
The options menu could do with having a keybind on controller that lets you out. I ended up pressing the Esc key on my keyboard to leave it whenever I wanted to change something. Plus (+) let me in, but it did not let me leave.
The "Enter Aim Mode" keybind could use an explanation; after a few tries at figuring out the function, I gave up and put it on a button I wasn't likely to press. I found that the method that made the most sense to me was to put picking up and throwing the magnet on the left trigger, and changing polarity on the right trigger. Still, for that configuration, it might have been nice to use the right analogue stick to aim the throw, rather than having to hold down the left trigger the whole time and use the left analogue stick to aim. Essentially, I tried to aim the same way you do in CrossCode.
I've been following the progress on your YT channel, and I think this is shaping up to be pretty great. The controls feel (mostly) great. More on that below. The mechanics are fantastic and even with zero instructions it's really intuitive to figure out exactly how each object works and the little tricks that are possible in order to solve the levels. At least, so far.
The downsides are few, but I think important. First, the jumping is a bit... odd at times. It seems your jump height is determined by your forward velocity. This is common in this kind of game, but there's a few places where if you aren't going at max speed and jump at just the right point, you're going to miss the jump and in these levels at least, the two or three spots where this was an issue, I fell down to a point where I had to restart the level (through the retry system or just having to go through all the obstacles again, it's the same result.) I'm sure you've heard of the game design philosophy of Coyote Time? I wonder if you might implement something in the reverse? If your forward momentum is high enough, missing a ledge by a few pixels will place you on the ledge anyway. It would make up to higher ledges where there's a pit if you miss feel a whole lot better.
Finally I wonder if it's possible to have you exit from the pipe above the level you have just completed rather than all the way back to the start of the hub? I know it's a small thing, but over the time spent in one hub this can add up, especially if hubs ever get bigger than this one. Just something else to keep the flow of the game going without any more downtime than necessary.
Looking forward to what's to come.
Hey Mark! Hope you find some of this feedback helpful.
- While keys can be rebound, I recommend having right-click be set for Magnet Action. If you decide that the m+K gameplay is specifically left/right mouse to pickup/toss/swap polarization I think it will allow for quicker and easier play for folks. Having to stop movement in order to click a button to swap polarization isn't so fun.
- Movement to/from places that require the magnet is fun. Do more of that.
- For the hub world it might be fun to have each level door (or eventual subset of levels) be opened utilizing the key method that will be explored. Hub 1 can be throwing the magnet, but then eventually you need to step on a switch, get across a gap, etc etc.
- Up and Over: This is a good intro level that establishes what magnets can get through which you can't, how these switch doors work, and throwing/switching to accomplish goals. You might be able to make it less subtle that the particular asset can't be moved through in that particular direction by placing one that players need to jump over first.
- Not a Drill: This also establishes some good basics with switching the magnet to have it do multiple things away from you. I have an issue with the drill covering the shelf that the magnet can ultimately fall through. It's kind of a weird surprise vs being an established item that the magnet can go through these assets (despite what the last level accomplishes). Is there a way to create an asset that is clearly a platform/wall but has an element that indicates it's not a surface the magnet will settle on?
- Up and Away: This level might be able to help drive the above point home if the player were forced to throw the magnet from the top of the section, have it slide down and drop through the platforms and then get pulled into the switch door. It helps further emphasis that the magnet completely ignores these assets.
- Lift Up: No notes, this is a solid level for establishing the cancelling gateways.
- Weight and Pull-Me: Maybe a little too easy, but I like that it shows that there are switch gates that don't require magnets, which my brain defaulted to thinking I needed for a moment. Also it's really fun to have puzzles that require simply placing the magnet somewhere and then swapping polarization repeatedly to cause things to react as you navigate. Do more of that.
- Blocked by Block: Despite there being a quick level restart, might be nice to throw a small block in the pit next to the switch so players can jump out without needing to reset.
- Left Shift = sprint/movement boost? Yes please!
- When a Switch Pro Controller is plugged in the character jumps repeatedly and moves left. I found no way to stop this and had to just unplug and use m+k.
Really enjoyed the demo! The first few levels do a great job of teaching without words, and the last level in particular had me stumped for a good while. Great puzzle design and level design all around.
Some things I noticed with regards to gameplay:
Some things I noticed with regards to visuals:
Heyo!
I want to keep it short to spare you some time:
Last level is too difficult. I think I cheesed it by throwing my magnet under the block so when it fell back down it blocked the button. I would like to move around while aiming to be more accurate and to speed up the gameplay.
I would like some visual feedback for how long I need to hold to reset the level.
Even though I have 7 keys, the hub says I have 6.
I loved the way the puzzles work, sometimes the gates felt useless. learning curve is good although last level is bit too much. The Hub feels alright, but something feels missing / wrong, but I can't put my finger on it.
Keep up the good work!
Yes I also found that level incredibly hard. I personally cheesed it by throwing the magnet onto the button in the back of the room and then running to the other side before the big block went up.
I also want to add that there are multiple dumb ways to be softlocked in this room like falling under the blue attractor when you don't have the magnet with you.
I believe this is the proper way:
Note: I have not played version 1.
UI:
In the main menu, one button is always highlighted even if I don't hover anything. This felt a little weird.
Controls (mouse/keyboard):
The character movement was really nice. I definitely noticed the Coyote Time. To throw the magnet, my first instinct was to hold E and then click, which did nothing. Of course I figured it out quickly, but this might be something to consider. The behavior when simply pressing E/clicking is interesting. I don't know if dropping the magnet might be more useful than a short throw.
Hub World:
I don't know how to feel about the pipes. I appreciate the "use the magnet for everything" mentality, but maybe a simple button to enter a level would suffice. It's also kind of annoying that you always spawn at the start of the hub world and need to walk all the way to the next level.
Levels:
Level 1 actually took me a minute to figure out. I just stumbled onto the fact that the magnet could slide by accident. Maybe the sliding mechanic could be introduced in a simpler scenario.
Level 2 was nice and simple. An good introduction for the "transport magnet by switching by switching polarity" concept.
I discovered level 3's solution by accident when trying to jump across the gap while the magnet was in the perfect position. Level 4 was not too difficult because there was pretty much a single path you could take without getting stuck.
I probably liked level 5 the most. It had a cool concept and finally figuring out that you needed to press the buttons in the opposite order felt really satisfying.
During the final level, it took quite some time before I noticed that part of the door could stop the blue box from moving up. Maybe the door could be moved a bit to the left to make that more obvious.
One more thing: I had to retry some levels several times. A few more ways to get yourself unstuck after making a mistake, which aren't simply restarting the level would me nice.
Bugs:
The largest bug I noticed is the fact that holding Ctrl for a few seconds during the "Thanks for playing" section causes some, let's say, interesting behavior. The magnet physics under low ceilings can be a bit wonky and I got stuck briefly at one point. Letting go off the magnet when it was stuck to the ceiling didn't always work reliably. I'm also pretty sure that hitting a button once caused it to toggle twice one time.
Conclusion:
I really liked it and I definitely see the potential of the game concept. The graphics are functional but still nice to look at. The levels generally have a good size and difficulty.
In case some platforming under time pressure is still an option: An Ori-style escape sequence could be really cool.
I actually recorded my first-time experience (including commentary). I don't know if that might be something of interest.
Yes, I like watching people play demos and small games for the first time. I don't know what it is, but I just like to see how they look at the puzzle or task at hand.
i'm not sure if it's possible to contact you anywhere directly, so i'll just leave this here and hopefully it doesn't break any rules of commenting. played through the demo and found it very sad there was no sound or music so i made a quick sketch for what i think the soundtrack could sound like :)
That sounds really good. The ukulele took me by surprise.
I did not have the time to get the last level, i think the concept don't hype me enough to get the "Haha moment". But i am not a player of this type of game, i only played baba is you ( but i do said "haha !" in Baba is you. )
I do feel it's because i always don't know if i have to speed it up, or just think a lot. And so i am mostly trying to do the same thing but more quickly.
So to me, the mix is weird.
The lack of sound was a bit weird, but overall i am very impressed, i had great feeling playing it, maybie sometimes characters feel slow a bit, especially in the lobby
I hope i am not too harsh, this is good please keep doing this :) Have a great day !
Okay some people do have sounds, weird but ok i might be dumb
I play a lot of puzzle games, and the last level was the only one to really hit the "Aha moment" for me. The rest felt like tutorials, which I think is fine once more levels get added, but they do feel a little weird in the demo.
But yeah I agree the overall experience was impressive and I think it will be even better once sound gets added. The animations felt spot-on to me.