some of the jumps are a little to tight for a puzzle game. The movement fells alot better.
i feel the exits are not that obvius. I restarted the tutorial level multipule times until i figured out how i was suposed to leave the level.
I found some places that it was posible to get softlocked, i know there is a restart button but it feels kinda bad when you just figured it out just to have to do it all over again.
The hubworld is a good idea. it is kinda bad how you spawn in on the left and all the levels are more and more to the right.
A few minor things but all in all a really good demo.
Definitely enjoyable. One small note - the icon for the magnet fizzler, to steal a Portal term, reads to me as a smiley face, and I did not realize what it was supposed to signify until I walked through it like 3 times.
Controls feel pretty nice. Aiming felt like it was snapping to predetermined paths on controller, but that may have been a result of running the windows version through Wine to play it on Linux.
When I played your old demo, I got frustrated quickly and I did not enjoy the game that much. In this rough demo however, I never really got frustrated and I actually had tons of fun. Got some nice aha moments as well. Very well done, I would love to see this get expanded!
Super fun puzzles but there are some minor problems that whilst not making the game un-fun, are pretty annoying at the very least. The on/off diagonal switches are cute but the collision is a bit weird, you can easily turn them on and while going back turn them off unintentionally, some of them are next to walls and you get "trapped", you can jump out but still. The reset button should have a hotkey because you can easily get soft-locked in almost every puzzle. And the magnet spawning at the same location as you makes it so every time you reset you can't seed your way out of the start of the puzzle, I would probably spawn the player a bit further back or the magnet further in front so as soon as you restart you can just walk forward and grab the magnet on your way. The hub looks good, but going from one extreme to the other the last few levels was a bit tedious. Overall a pretty good demo, loved the color-changing options for the magnet :3.
Just played through the demo and wanted to share a few things. First off the game was very fun. One little technique I found was that you could throw the magnet much further by charging a throw in midair since you could combine the charged throw with the jumps momentum. That was a fun thing I figured out in the endgame lobby... Seems like it could be fun for eventual Speedruns I guess.
Feedback 1. When the game is not in full screen mode the option to make it a maximized window is disabled. This makes it annoying to play if you aren't in fullscreen.
2. Sound Fx would really liven up the gameplay.
3. I notice the magnet trail is rendered behind the metal doors which does not feel right since the doors are rendered behind the magnet. Same for the key signs.
4. In level 1-4 the - is slightly offcenter.
5. On level 1-6 It should be more obvious that the L gate sticks out.
That's All! I had a lot of fun playing this can't wait for the full release.
The hub is a good idea, but it's a bit tedious to spawn at the start and have to walk to and open each level every time. I'd suggest best of both worlds - have you automatically progress from one level to the next with the option to return to the hub and select a different one if you get stuck. Either that or a hub redesign that gets you from one level to the next faster.
I really like the last 2 levels. They do give the "aha" moments.
Only 2 complaints: the rotating doors must be pushed from a far i.e. you step through and can't immediatly turn around. You need to step away. I t would be okay to not show the character moving when stuck on them or walls .
And you can't fall from these platforms, which I'm very used to.
Hey Mark huge fan. Just played through the new demo. Movement is really great. Love the rotating doors as a mechanic. I didn't find any bugs. I really appreciated the feature that let you make the magnet color attract to the same color. In real life opposites attract, but i found that a bit confusing so that setting really helped me. That last level was tricky. I got a mini aha moment for that one for sure. SPOILERS FOR LAST LEVEL SOLUTION---- I think the door that stops the block from rising back up could be a bit longer/ a bit more obvious that its protruding. Other than that i'm super impressed and had fun playing it!
One thing I noticed immediately is that there isn't an obvious exit key for the settings menu — should probably be added or you might see confusion about people being stuck in the menu!
I've been a big fan of your YouTube series, and I'm very glad to see you making your own game!
I don't think I have much to add that wasn't covered in your postmortem video; I agree with most of the feedback. I was particularly bothered by the magnet not being solid when it was on the floor. One thing you didn't mention that bothered me a little is that touching a door automatically forwards you to the next level instead of requiring a button press. I'm just primed to think I have to make characters walk through doors, I guess.
The awkward fusion of action and puzzling was definitely a problem for me. That is something that bothers me a lot in puzzle games, as it's frustrating to not know whether I'm executing the process wrong or if my setup is wrong. I think part of this may also have been the issue with the character controls; I like platform characters that are fast and fluid, with low friction and high acceleration, but this character was very slow and cumbersome, so movement wasn't as fun.
My favorite levels were... uh, I don't remember the names (it might be a good idea to clearly display level names when they start, since it makes it easier for players to give feedback), but the one with the three magnets that could lift the magnet but not the character, and the final one with the moving plug over the spike pit. I found the solutions quite a clever use of the game mechanics.
I did run into an odd bug in the room with the two horizontal lasers, where I threw the magnet above the lower laser when it was in its lower position, and it landed on top of the laser, as if it were solid. Moving the laser eventually made it behave correctly, but that was strange.
I really like the game. the movement is not great, but I like the magnet, and buttons. I think that overall the game is pretty good one other complaint I have is there are to many loading screens. I was wondering if I could have the code for the door and button, or if you used a tutorial a link to it would be really helpful. Thank you for giving it keyboard controls, and releasing the game for people who are not patrons.
Love the concept and the Youtube video series to go with it. Unfortunately I can't get very far as I can't seem to throw the magnet? Controls say aim with Left Shift but that does nothing for me - in fact I tried every key on my keyboard and none of them work for aim?
I got stuck on the last level/last room because I did not know that the magnet could be broken on the spikes. Did never happen to me before that and I it wasn't taught. And i wouldn't expect a metal object to break on some spikes.
Otherwise I had a lot of fun, didn't notice anything that you didn't mention in your video.
The idea is nice, I don't know if you have played Teslagrad before, but it's similar in a way that you have to use magnetic force there too.
The controls feel a bit weird, the player movement could be quicker.
The puzzles were enjoyable in my opinion, they were usually just right - not too easy but not too hard.
For the bugs: I think there was a time when I somehow managed to get the magnet float in the air, next to the side of the wall which had and activated switch in it. When the switch deactivated, the magnet fell back. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but after pressing the button to restart the level, the black background sweeps in from the left (which looks really cool by the way) then it disappears and appears again for loading the level. It might be better if it stayed there.
Absolutely stunning. This game is only in early development, but you introduced seven or so game mechanics over the course of only so many levels. This game could become really difficult really fast, and is an excellent puzzler. I'd love to see speed runs of this game when it's fully released. Fantastic job.
Amazing game!
I really enjoyed the level design and how you gradually add each mechanic of the game. The levels will get complex focusing on one mechanic and then get easy to teach you how another works. I think this way of level design works great!
The whole concept of the game is great and having a strong mechanic makes the game so much more enjoyable. The magnet is a great idea and I think you’ve executed it really well.
I have nothing bad to say about this. I watched your Dev Logs and couldn’t wait to play it. Amazing job!
I have only just found this community like 4 months ago, but you've inspired me to make video games. I've always loved making board games (and I still do), but a video game would be an interesting challenge.
After watching your video, I knew I shouldn't give any criticism, because you've probably heard everything by now, (plus it's hard to get me frustrated so anything I bring up will have already be covered).
Congradulations on your mvp. Although it has bugs, and may not work properly in particular cenarios. you have proven your worth to the game development community. and got something infront of us that we can all enjoy.
My only suggestion is do not take all the criticisms to heart its almost a great game, you essentially asked for negative feedback.
This was good. Part of the puzzling is how to use the platforms etc I played using a keyboard and had no issues with the platforming bits.
My only frustration is that it should be one puzzle one room or checkpoint, having to reset and re-do puzzles I already knew the answer to because I got stuck in a trap 3 puzzles over was no good.
I found a bug . When you throw the magnet upwards and try to go up, if the laser touches you, you stay on the laser. The game is stuck, you can't jump and you have no way out of here. :(
Overall, I think the game is good. I can't think of any problems besides the ones you mentioned in your video.
The one suggestion I have as far as iterating on the idea is that you make the magnet a permanent part of the character's equipment. You could take the magnet with you between levels and, prior to introducing the recall mechanic, you could use a level element to give the player back the magnet at the end of the level. That and making the robot visually match the magnet would help show that the magnet is the key element of the game.
I'm playing through at the moment, and as far as bugs go at least, one I see coming up is in the level Electro Magnet. During it, when you jump from being pulled with the magnet to the level's end, if you position yourself to be pulled on the edge and leave the beam with the magnet, landing on the top, the magnet will still want to finish its pull to the electro magnet, making it unable to be taken more than two tiles towards the door. In this particular level it isn't an issue, but were it to be used as a movement tool, it would be shut down because of it not checking if it should finish that pull. Setting the magnet down also does not stop its (unintended) tether.
I really want to play this on my Switch Pro Controller, but it doesn't seem to work with this game immediately, and I'm not too good with this stuff. Can you post some sort of instructions so that we know what to do to get our gamepads working?
All I've done so far is connected my controller via bluetooth to my laptop, I haven't set up a drive or anything. That's usually all I need to do for Steam, not sure about this. The player character keeps jumping and a keyboard occasionally opens up, which responds to my inputs but the player character doesn't.
Some random specs I think I'm supposed to include:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz 2.50 GHz
Installed RAM: 4GB
System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
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I am trying to bind "Move Right" to "E" and it won't let me.
some of the jumps are a little to tight for a puzzle game. The movement fells alot better.
i feel the exits are not that obvius. I restarted the tutorial level multipule times until i figured out how i was suposed to leave the level.
I found some places that it was posible to get softlocked, i know there is a restart button but it feels kinda bad when you just figured it out just to have to do it all over again.
The hubworld is a good idea. it is kinda bad how you spawn in on the left and all the levels are more and more to the right.
A few minor things but all in all a really good demo.
Definitely enjoyable. One small note - the icon for the magnet fizzler, to steal a Portal term, reads to me as a smiley face, and I did not realize what it was supposed to signify until I walked through it like 3 times.
Controls feel pretty nice. Aiming felt like it was snapping to predetermined paths on controller, but that may have been a result of running the windows version through Wine to play it on Linux.
When I played your old demo, I got frustrated quickly and I did not enjoy the game that much. In this rough demo however, I never really got frustrated and I actually had tons of fun. Got some nice aha moments as well. Very well done, I would love to see this get expanded!
Super fun puzzles but there are some minor problems that whilst not making the game un-fun, are pretty annoying at the very least. The on/off diagonal switches are cute but the collision is a bit weird, you can easily turn them on and while going back turn them off unintentionally, some of them are next to walls and you get "trapped", you can jump out but still. The reset button should have a hotkey because you can easily get soft-locked in almost every puzzle. And the magnet spawning at the same location as you makes it so every time you reset you can't seed your way out of the start of the puzzle, I would probably spawn the player a bit further back or the magnet further in front so as soon as you restart you can just walk forward and grab the magnet on your way. The hub looks good, but going from one extreme to the other the last few levels was a bit tedious. Overall a pretty good demo, loved the color-changing options for the magnet :3.
Just played through the demo and wanted to share a few things. First off the game was very fun. One little technique I found was that you could throw the magnet much further by charging a throw in midair since you could combine the charged throw with the jumps momentum. That was a fun thing I figured out in the endgame lobby... Seems like it could be fun for eventual Speedruns I guess.
Feedback
1. When the game is not in full screen mode the option to make it a maximized window is disabled. This makes it annoying to play if you aren't in fullscreen.
2. Sound Fx would really liven up the gameplay.
3. I notice the magnet trail is rendered behind the metal doors which does not feel right since the doors are rendered behind the magnet. Same for the key signs.
4. In level 1-4 the - is slightly offcenter.
5. On level 1-6 It should be more obvious that the L gate sticks out.
That's All! I had a lot of fun playing this can't wait for the full release.
Fun puzzles. Minor thing but holding down the reset level button when in the hub world will cause the offscreen reset icon to expand infinitely.
It also happens in the thanks for playing screen
The hub is a good idea, but it's a bit tedious to spawn at the start and have to walk to and open each level every time. I'd suggest best of both worlds - have you automatically progress from one level to the next with the option to return to the hub and select a different one if you get stuck. Either that or a hub redesign that gets you from one level to the next faster.
I really like the last 2 levels. They do give the "aha" moments.
Only 2 complaints: the rotating doors must be pushed from a far i.e. you step through and can't immediatly turn around. You need to step away. I t would be okay to not show the character moving when stuck on them or walls .
And you can't fall from these platforms, which I'm very used to.
Otherwise it's great.
Found a bug: when you throw the magnet in the hub world, the particles go behind the doors but the magnet goes in front of them.
Hey Mark huge fan. Just played through the new demo. Movement is really great. Love the rotating doors as a mechanic. I didn't find any bugs. I really appreciated the feature that let you make the magnet color attract to the same color. In real life opposites attract, but i found that a bit confusing so that setting really helped me. That last level was tricky. I got a mini aha moment for that one for sure. SPOILERS FOR LAST LEVEL SOLUTION---- I think the door that stops the block from rising back up could be a bit longer/ a bit more obvious that its protruding. Other than that i'm super impressed and had fun playing it!
this looks like you cannot interact with it anymore, but you can
I'm left handed and I set my controls like this:
Move left/right = Left/right arrow
Magnet action = Delete
But in the settings they're all listed as "Print Screen" and everytime I move the magnet changes polarity.
Also, it's not clear that you should throw the key in the pipe at the end of a level.
One thing I noticed immediately is that there isn't an obvious exit key for the settings menu — should probably be added or you might see confusion about people being stuck in the menu!
Man, i've been trying to make a game of this calibre for a long time.
I've been a big fan of your YouTube series, and I'm very glad to see you making your own game!
I don't think I have much to add that wasn't covered in your postmortem video; I agree with most of the feedback. I was particularly bothered by the magnet not being solid when it was on the floor. One thing you didn't mention that bothered me a little is that touching a door automatically forwards you to the next level instead of requiring a button press. I'm just primed to think I have to make characters walk through doors, I guess.
The awkward fusion of action and puzzling was definitely a problem for me. That is something that bothers me a lot in puzzle games, as it's frustrating to not know whether I'm executing the process wrong or if my setup is wrong. I think part of this may also have been the issue with the character controls; I like platform characters that are fast and fluid, with low friction and high acceleration, but this character was very slow and cumbersome, so movement wasn't as fun.
My favorite levels were... uh, I don't remember the names (it might be a good idea to clearly display level names when they start, since it makes it easier for players to give feedback), but the one with the three magnets that could lift the magnet but not the character, and the final one with the moving plug over the spike pit. I found the solutions quite a clever use of the game mechanics.
I did run into an odd bug in the room with the two horizontal lasers, where I threw the magnet above the lower laser when it was in its lower position, and it landed on top of the laser, as if it were solid. Moving the laser eventually made it behave correctly, but that was strange.
I really like the game. the movement is not great, but I like the magnet, and buttons. I think that overall the game is pretty good one other complaint I have is there are to many loading screens. I was wondering if I could have the code for the door and button, or if you used a tutorial a link to it would be really helpful. Thank you for giving it keyboard controls, and releasing the game for people who are not patrons.
Love the concept and the Youtube video series to go with it. Unfortunately I can't get very far as I can't seem to throw the magnet? Controls say aim with Left Shift but that does nothing for me - in fact I tried every key on my keyboard and none of them work for aim?
I got stuck on the last level/last room because I did not know that the magnet could be broken on the spikes. Did never happen to me before that and I it wasn't taught. And i wouldn't expect a metal object to break on some spikes.
Otherwise I had a lot of fun, didn't notice anything that you didn't mention in your video.
I'm not sure if it was the intent of the level, but I solved the puzzle by breaking the magnet 😅
Yeah, I think it is
The idea is nice, I don't know if you have played Teslagrad before, but it's similar in a way that you have to use magnetic force there too.
The controls feel a bit weird, the player movement could be quicker.
The puzzles were enjoyable in my opinion, they were usually just right - not too easy but not too hard.
For the bugs:
I think there was a time when I somehow managed to get the magnet float in the air, next to the side of the wall which had and activated switch in it. When the switch deactivated, the magnet fell back.
I'm not sure if it's intentional, but after pressing the button to restart the level, the black background sweeps in from the left (which looks really cool by the way) then it disappears and appears again for loading the level. It might be better if it stayed there.
Overall, this game has potential, keep it up! :D
not very good. Nothing special. At least to the point I've played
Absolutely stunning. This game is only in early development, but you introduced seven or so game mechanics over the course of only so many levels. This game could become really difficult really fast, and is an excellent puzzler. I'd love to see speed runs of this game when it's fully released. Fantastic job.
Amazing game! I really enjoyed the level design and how you gradually add each mechanic of the game. The levels will get complex focusing on one mechanic and then get easy to teach you how another works. I think this way of level design works great! The whole concept of the game is great and having a strong mechanic makes the game so much more enjoyable. The magnet is a great idea and I think you’ve executed it really well. I have nothing bad to say about this. I watched your Dev Logs and couldn’t wait to play it. Amazing job!
I pretty sure this is not what I'm supposed to do by the way. But I think I got the jiff of the level.
I have only just found this community like 4 months ago, but you've inspired me to make video games. I've always loved making board games (and I still do), but a video game would be an interesting challenge.
After watching your video, I knew I shouldn't give any criticism, because you've probably heard everything by now, (plus it's hard to get me frustrated so anything I bring up will have already be covered).
Keep up the amazing work you do.
Congradulations on your mvp. Although it has bugs, and may not work properly in particular cenarios. you have proven your worth to the game development community. and got something infront of us that we can all enjoy.
cant wait to see the final game ;)
just noitced the first part try to make the fan sound fading not just cut once you leave its trigger area its a very good atmmospheric design
My only suggestion is do not take all the criticisms to heart its almost a great game, you essentially asked for negative feedback.
This was good. Part of the puzzling is how to use the platforms etc I played using a keyboard and had no issues with the platforming bits.
My only frustration is that it should be one puzzle one room or checkpoint, having to reset and re-do puzzles I already knew the answer to because I got stuck in a trap 3 puzzles over was no good.
My first run through took about 15min.
Linux? Pls?
I concur! Should be simple enough to compile a build for Linux.
In the mean time you can try running it with bottles https://github.com/bottlesdevs/Bottles
Controller support not working on MacOS. Xbox One controller connected over Bluetooth to MacBook Pro 14" with M1 Pro.
Overall, I think the game is good. I can't think of any problems besides the ones you mentioned in your video.
The one suggestion I have as far as iterating on the idea is that you make the magnet a permanent part of the character's equipment. You could take the magnet with you between levels and, prior to introducing the recall mechanic, you could use a level element to give the player back the magnet at the end of the level. That and making the robot visually match the magnet would help show that the magnet is the key element of the game.
I'm playing through at the moment, and as far as bugs go at least, one I see coming up is in the level Electro Magnet. During it, when you jump from being pulled with the magnet to the level's end, if you position yourself to be pulled on the edge and leave the beam with the magnet, landing on the top, the magnet will still want to finish its pull to the electro magnet, making it unable to be taken more than two tiles towards the door. In this particular level it isn't an issue, but were it to be used as a movement tool, it would be shut down because of it not checking if it should finish that pull. Setting the magnet down also does not stop its (unintended) tether.
I really want to play this on my Switch Pro Controller, but it doesn't seem to work with this game immediately, and I'm not too good with this stuff. Can you post some sort of instructions so that we know what to do to get our gamepads working?
All I've done so far is connected my controller via bluetooth to my laptop, I haven't set up a drive or anything. That's usually all I need to do for Steam, not sure about this. The player character keeps jumping and a keyboard occasionally opens up, which responds to my inputs but the player character doesn't.
Some random specs I think I'm supposed to include:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz 2.50 GHz
Installed RAM: 4GB
System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Edition: Windows 10 Pro
if you insert the game into steam, i belive the inputs will be carried through. also, if you are gonna use nintendo controllers often, try wiinupro
Try using XBOX 360 controller emulator tho
Oh, it's nearly impossible to play using keyboard. Especially when you need to throw a magnet on the fly
What are you taking about? I did it with only keyboard.
But the game was amazing and unique !!!
i cant move with magnet it stucks there
a small bug if i throw a magnet upwards and pick it up ,this happens