0:00:00.160,0:00:06.240
Hi, my name is Mark and I am - [br]still - making a video game about

0:00:06.240,0:00:11.280
magnets. So it's been a little while [br]since we last spoke but in that time,

0:00:11.280,0:00:15.200
three things have happened to me that [br]have inspired me to get off my butt

0:00:15.200,0:00:29.840
and finally start to bring this game to the [br]finish line. So, here's what happened...

0:00:31.920,0:00:37.840
Okay so the first thing was definitely the [br]response to the demo I put out at the end of

0:00:37.840,0:00:42.800
the previous video. I put out a demo to address [br]some of the most negative feedback I'd received

0:00:42.800,0:00:48.960
on my minimum viable product. So people thought [br]the character controlled like junk? Well, I spent

0:00:48.960,0:00:54.560
a month making a much better character controller. [br]People thought the mix of platforming and puzzle

0:00:54.560,0:01:00.480
solving was a bit confusing. So I stripped [br]out the platforming and focused exclusively on

0:01:00.480,0:01:06.800
puzzles. People thought the game wasn't magnet-y [br]enough, so I gave the magnet a face, the power

0:01:06.800,0:01:13.600
to change polarity, and made sure every single [br]puzzle was inherently based around magnetism.

0:01:13.600,0:01:18.880
And all of those changes received pretty good [br]feedback, but I think the best response came

0:01:18.880,0:01:25.440
to the design of the puzzles themselves. You see, [br]I spent a lot of time just kind of working on the

0:01:25.440,0:01:32.160
craft of puzzle design, specifically to get more [br]of those 'aha' moments. I've spoken about those

0:01:32.160,0:01:38.080
before: basically when a player feels stumped by [br]a seemingly impossible puzzle and then suddenly

0:01:38.080,0:01:45.360
sees the twist at the heart of the conundrum and [br]is able to make the logical leap to solve it.

0:01:45.360,0:01:48.160
And so did I achieve that with this new demo?

0:01:48.720,0:01:52.800
Well I think I'll let these let's [br]play videos speak for themselves:

0:01:52.800,0:02:01.120
HARRY: Okay what is this? So when this button [br]is down I want to be here. So how do I do that?

0:02:01.760,0:02:06.480
I don't know. I'm thinking. This is what the [br]robot does when he thinks. He just swings the

0:02:06.480,0:02:14.160
magnet back and forth. Ah! Did you hear that? [br]That's the sound of me maybe figuring it out.

0:02:14.160,0:02:18.680
Oh that's so smart. Oh my [br]goodness, it was worth it!

0:02:18.680,0:02:25.520
MARK: So that made me feel pretty confident that [br]I was on the right path with my puzzle design.

0:02:25.520,0:02:31.280
But it also just felt awesome to [br]have made this thing, these puzzles,

0:02:31.280,0:02:38.240
put them out into the universe for people to then [br]find them, play them, and have a strong positive

0:02:38.240,0:02:44.480
emotional reaction to a thing I had made. To have [br]noises come out of their mouth. It was almost

0:02:44.480,0:02:49.840
like casting a magic spell on people. It felt [br]really cool, it's not something I've done before.

0:02:50.400,0:02:56.080
And it inspired me to, you know, make more [br]puzzles and package them up in a finished

0:02:56.080,0:03:01.920
game. It inspired me to get off my butt and [br]finally bring this game towards the finish line.

0:03:01.920,0:03:09.200
And so I... didn't, and instead stopped work [br]on the game entirely for a month to make

0:03:09.200,0:03:13.920
a completely different video game, [br]which ended up being Platformer Toolkit.

0:03:13.920,0:03:20.080
Look, I had this idea for an interactive [br]video essay and if I have an idea to do

0:03:20.080,0:03:26.800
something and I'm excited about the idea, it's [br]really hard to not just focus on that thing

0:03:26.800,0:03:33.280
intently until either I burn out or the thing is [br]done. And so that's what happened with Platformer

0:03:33.280,0:03:38.560
Toolkit. But it was also the second thing [br]that inspired me to finish my game. You see,

0:03:38.560,0:03:44.240
Platformer Toolkit was very much inspired [br]by this whole series: I wanted to take my

0:03:44.240,0:03:49.520
experience of making a platformer character [br]and share it with people in an interesting,

0:03:49.520,0:03:54.480
interactive video essay. But also the [br]development process of Platformer Toolkit was

0:03:54.480,0:03:59.520
massively informed by everything I've [br]been talking about on this series.

0:03:59.520,0:04:04.480
So I made quick and dirty prototypes of [br]some of the key mechanics. I made a minimum

0:04:04.480,0:04:11.040
viable product with most of the systems turned [br]on but only a fraction of the content. And I

0:04:11.040,0:04:16.240
released demos early in order to get feedback, [br]which would help the development process.

0:04:16.240,0:04:22.400
Following these steps allow me to speedrun the [br]game development process and get Platformer

0:04:22.400,0:04:28.320
Toolkit up to the same point as Untitled Magnet [br]Game, but in the space of a few weeks rather

0:04:28.320,0:04:33.840
than a few months. But then I went further with [br]Platformer Toolkit and actually finished it.

0:04:33.840,0:04:39.440
You see, the game jam was fast approaching and I [br]realised that I need to either finish this thing

0:04:39.440,0:04:46.720
now or it will never get done. Snd so I did. I, [br]you know, completed the development process of the

0:04:46.720,0:04:53.040
game. I learned a lot about how to finish video [br]games - definitely more on that towards the end

0:04:53.040,0:05:00.800
of Developing - but I also saw just how good it [br]feels to take a creative project and finish it.

0:05:00.800,0:05:05.520
I mean, for one thing, you get to put it out into [br]the world for people to enjoy. Platformer Toolkit

0:05:05.520,0:05:11.520
has been played by almost 100,000 people and [br]the comments and reviews have been wonderful.

0:05:11.520,0:05:17.040
You also get to flush this thing out of your brain [br]and stop thinking about it all day, every day,

0:05:17.040,0:05:22.960
for weeks and weeks on end. And also you kind of [br]get permission to move on and do other things.

0:05:22.960,0:05:28.960
And I realised that I want all of this for [br]Untitled Magnet Game. Like as much as I'm enjoying

0:05:28.960,0:05:34.080
working on this game - it really is an absolute [br]joy - I don't want to be making a video game about

0:05:34.080,0:05:40.400
magnets for the next 10 years of my life. I want [br]to get it done and then move on to other games,

0:05:40.400,0:05:46.400
in other genres, with other art styles, and [br]solve other design problems. And so I felt

0:05:46.400,0:05:55.200
inspired to get off my butt and bring this game [br]towards the finish line. And then I just didn't.

0:05:55.760,0:06:00.240
Instead I worked on the game jam and another [br]video and then just kind of procrastinated.

0:06:00.240,0:06:06.400
But then there was thing three that inspired [br]me. Okay, so soon after I had started working

0:06:06.400,0:06:12.800
on Untitled Magnet Game I started seeing [br]clips for a game called Elechead. This is a

0:06:12.800,0:06:19.840
2d platformer about a robot who throws an [br]object around in order to solve puzzles.

0:06:20.640,0:06:25.440
That's pretty close to what I'm working on [br]- doesn't feel great! And so when the game

0:06:25.440,0:06:29.280
came out, even though it's exactly the sort [br]of thing I would normally love to play,

0:06:29.280,0:06:34.160
I just didn't play it. Because, you know, partly [br]out of spite. Partly out of jealousy - the game

0:06:34.160,0:06:38.160
was getting amazing reviews. And partly because [br]I didn't want to sort of accidentally steal

0:06:38.160,0:06:45.360
any of the ideas. But then a few weeks back [br]I finally gave in and played the game. And,

0:06:45.360,0:06:49.360
yeah, it's great. It's really good, it's well [br]designed, deserving of the great reviews,

0:06:49.360,0:06:53.600
and different enough from what I'm [br]working on for the two games to co-exist.

0:06:53.600,0:06:58.880
But it was also hugely inspirational for me. And [br]this is going to sound like a bit of a backhanded

0:06:58.880,0:07:04.160
compliment, but I was impressed that the game [br]had gotten such good reviews - reviews I agree

0:07:04.160,0:07:11.360
with - despite the fact that it doesn't have an [br]epic storyline. It doesn't have state-of-the-art

0:07:11.360,0:07:16.400
graphics. And it doesn't have millions of puzzles [br]- in fact, the game is very short. It's only a

0:07:16.400,0:07:22.160
couple of hours long. But what it made me realise [br]was: I think in my head, Untitled Magnet Game was

0:07:22.160,0:07:27.200
kind of impossibly large. Too big for me to [br]think about ever finishing it. But then I look

0:07:27.200,0:07:34.400
at a Elechead, and that level of scale and scope [br]and ambition actually does feel attainable. If I

0:07:34.400,0:07:39.200
think of Untitled Magnet Game as having a similar [br]number of levels, and a similar sort of storyline

0:07:39.200,0:07:45.280
to something like a Elechead, that is something [br]I could actually do. That is something I could

0:07:45.280,0:07:52.320
finish. And so I felt inspired to get up off of [br]my butt and bring this game to the finish line.

0:07:52.320,0:07:58.800
And this time I actually did do some work [br]on the game! And in the last month or so I

0:07:58.800,0:08:04.640
have done so much work that has brought the [br]game so much closer towards being finished.

0:08:04.640,0:08:08.480
So what I really mean when I talk about [br]bringing this game closer to the finish line

0:08:08.480,0:08:14.960
is there's a lot of stuff in this game that is not [br]finished, not finalised, not properly implemented,

0:08:14.960,0:08:19.600
or just not implemented at all. It's just in my [br]brain or in a notebook. These are things that

0:08:19.600,0:08:26.240
I've been leaving for another day or putting on [br]the shoulders of future Mark. And this process

0:08:26.240,0:08:34.960
is about saying: today is another day. I am [br]future Mark. And it's time to get cracking.

0:08:34.960,0:08:38.160
So first things first, there is of [br]course the character - but I'm actually

0:08:38.160,0:08:43.520
really happy with that now. I think that is [br]pretty much final code and final animations

0:08:43.520,0:08:48.560
and final sprites. I'm happy for that to [br]be the character in the complete game.

0:08:48.560,0:08:55.040
But the magnet needed a lot more work. So what [br]I finally decided to do was split the magnet

0:08:55.040,0:09:00.800
into three distinctly different characters. So [br]this is the first one you'll meet in the game:

0:09:00.800,0:09:07.440
he's called Max, he is a basic red magnet and [br]has no special abilities. Which is probably why

0:09:07.440,0:09:14.480
he looks a bit miffed. Then you'll meet Maggie, [br]and she has the power to switch polarity and swap

0:09:14.480,0:09:22.240
places with her sister Meg. And so it's like two [br]characters on the same magnet. And then finally we

0:09:22.240,0:09:29.760
have Magnus who is a big chunky boi. And the fact [br]that he's so big means that instead of him being

0:09:29.760,0:09:35.280
attracted towards magnetic sources, he is the [br]magnetic source and stuff attracts towards him.

0:09:35.280,0:09:40.640
Now this took a lot of time for me to implement [br]into the game. Lots of design work and problem

0:09:40.640,0:09:45.200
solving and iteration. Until I realised that [br]the solution had been staring me in the face

0:09:45.200,0:09:51.440
the entire time. You see, back in the MVP, [br]every magnetic object was its own bespoke,

0:09:51.440,0:09:59.440
uniquely-crafted thing. Which was kind of dumb. [br]So in the end I made a generic magnetic panel

0:09:59.440,0:10:05.120
which can be resized and placed pretty much [br]anywhere you want. You can put it on the ceiling,

0:10:05.120,0:10:10.720
or connect it to a moving block, or a weight and [br]pulley system, or put it on these swinging gates,

0:10:10.720,0:10:16.000
or put it on the tip of a magnet. Make [br]it invisible and now you have your own

0:10:16.000,0:10:20.800
personal magnetic field to play with. That [br]should lend itself to some really cool puzzles

0:10:20.800,0:10:26.560
about manipulating the shape of the world. And [br]with that I finally have the cast of characters

0:10:26.560,0:10:30.880
for the final game. You'll meet them throughout [br]the experience, one by one, then maybe they'll

0:10:30.880,0:10:35.120
come together for puzzles. Maybe you'll chat [br]to them and have a little banter with them.

0:10:35.840,0:10:40.960
I don't know that's still for another day. [br]Bad Mark! But can't do everything today.

0:10:40.960,0:10:46.080
Another thing I did was finalise some of [br]the core mechanics in the game. So I built

0:10:46.080,0:10:51.120
a better moving block with these little lights [br]on it to show you where it's moving. I also

0:10:51.120,0:10:57.200
built a magnetic block that can be made into [br]any size you like. For this I built a system

0:10:57.200,0:11:02.080
where you can split up the sprite into different [br]bits, put the corners into different places,

0:11:02.080,0:11:07.680
and it automatically tiles the edges to match. [br]And then I put this out on my discord and everyone

0:11:07.680,0:11:14.080
went 'Mark this already exists, it's called [br]nine slicing, and it's been in Unity forever'.

0:11:14.080,0:11:18.000
And so I felt like a bit of a doofus for [br]wasting so much time. But I'm glad I found

0:11:18.000,0:11:22.720
nine slicing because it's been hugely useful in [br]so many things I've been working on since then.

0:11:22.720,0:11:28.320
I also brought the laser beam back from [br]the MVP, and gave it a bit of a facelift.

0:11:28.320,0:11:33.200
I've also been learning a bit more about shaders [br]in Unity which I used for the laser beam and this

0:11:33.200,0:11:38.640
computerised display for the laser receiver. [br]Shaders are amazingly powerful: very cool,

0:11:39.280,0:11:44.880
very complicated. I feel like I'm only scratching [br]the tip of the iceberg- that is a mixed metaphor

0:11:44.880,0:11:51.120
there. I feel like I'm only scratching the... [br]surface of shaders. That's how words work. I

0:11:51.120,0:11:57.200
also made a ridiculous conveyor belt, again using [br]the generic magnetic panel, and spent way too long

0:11:57.200,0:12:02.160
bug fixing a thing where I can make it change [br]direction. And a few other mechanics as well.

0:12:02.160,0:12:06.240
Another thing I have been putting off and [br]putting on the shoulders of future Mark

0:12:06.240,0:12:11.520
has been sound effects. I know just how [br]important sound design is to making a game

0:12:11.520,0:12:16.400
feel alive and polished and complete, [br]but it's very easy to just put it off

0:12:16.400,0:12:20.320
until the future. But it is the future! The [br]future is now baby! And it's time to put in

0:12:20.320,0:12:24.080
some sound effects. So these are some of [br]my favourite ones that I have put in...

0:12:24.080,0:12:28.393
*Door Creak*[br]*Drill Whirr*

0:12:28.393,0:12:30.147
*Laser, Musical Notes Rise*

0:12:30.147,0:12:32.480
*Clang*[br]*Suction Pop*

0:12:32.480,0:12:36.000
I also put in some placeholder [br]music, just to kind of give the game

0:12:36.000,0:12:42.720
a bit of a different vibe. But in terms of the [br]actual soundtrack, that is again another future,

0:12:42.720,0:12:47.440
future Mark thing to figure out. I've had a few [br]people reach out to say 'hey, I'm a composer,

0:12:47.440,0:12:51.360
I could make music for your game'. And thank [br]you for that - I'm just not quite ready for

0:12:51.360,0:12:56.160
that conversation yet. So at some point in [br]this series I will do a much more public

0:12:56.160,0:13:01.920
call out for composers for me to [br]hire. Until then, please be patient.

0:13:01.920,0:13:06.320
Another thing that I have been [br]sitting on for a long time has been

0:13:06.880,0:13:14.080
backgrounds. So in both demos I just have a really [br]basic checkerboard tile effect in the background,

0:13:14.080,0:13:18.720
but people have said that's a bit boring. And [br]I agree. If you look at other platformers and

0:13:18.720,0:13:24.640
puzzle games they have these amazing images in the [br]background that really give these games a sense of

0:13:24.640,0:13:29.680
place. And so I wanted something like that for [br]my game, but I couldn't quite figure out the best

0:13:29.680,0:13:36.880
way to do it. I mean, I needed something that was [br]visually interesting and evocative and colourful,

0:13:36.880,0:13:41.840
but at the same time it needed to be easy for [br]me to make with my pretty limited art skills,

0:13:41.840,0:13:47.120
and also didn't distract too much from the [br]more important puzzle elements. Luckily,

0:13:47.120,0:13:51.040
I figured out a nice solution. So the first [br]thing was not to do with the background at all,

0:13:51.040,0:13:56.960
but actually those puzzle elements. I [br]boosted the 2 pixel black border to a massive

0:13:56.960,0:14:02.720
4 pixel border which I think makes everything [br]look better and more chunky and fun, but also

0:14:02.720,0:14:06.960
helps them to pop off of the background. [br]But in terms of the background itself,

0:14:06.960,0:14:13.760
well I found this image on Google from OpenGameArt [br]and thought it looked pretty sweet. Threw a shader

0:14:13.760,0:14:17.600
on it and chucked in the background of my [br]game, and yeah I was really happy with it.

0:14:17.600,0:14:23.440
But I was also inspired - that's kind of the [br]theme for this video - I was inspired to make

0:14:23.440,0:14:29.520
something similar for myself. I mean, it looks [br]pretty easy to achieve. It's just some basic

0:14:29.520,0:14:34.640
shapes in silhouette with, you know, the colour [br]grading from back to front gives it that sense

0:14:34.640,0:14:41.040
of depth. And so this is what I came up with: I [br]built a number of background plates. So this one

0:14:41.040,0:14:47.120
is some buildings off in the far distance. This [br]is the back wall of the factory with some windows.

0:14:47.120,0:14:51.760
And then light comes streaming in through the [br]windows. I've got some random pipes moving around.

0:14:51.760,0:14:57.840
Some boilers. Some objects hanging from the [br]ceiling. And some objects more in the foreground.

0:14:57.840,0:15:01.680
Put them all together on different layers, and [br]have them move at different rates, and baby

0:15:01.680,0:15:07.360
you got yourself some parallax. I then played [br]around with shaders and post processing to give

0:15:07.360,0:15:13.680
it a more interesting vibe. So I put on a gradient [br]overlay to give the space a bit more shape,

0:15:13.680,0:15:20.480
and push it further into the background. I also [br]put on a really harsh bloom which gives a retro

0:15:20.480,0:15:26.880
pixel banding effect to all of the gradients. I [br]put on some colour adjustment to add some colour,

0:15:26.880,0:15:32.400
and then a split tone effect and... this is [br]looking pretty good! I finished it off with

0:15:32.400,0:15:38.960
some little bits of movement: some random dust [br]particles, some steam coming out of these boilers,

0:15:38.960,0:15:46.320
these gauges with moving needles, and flickering [br]lights. Put it all together and it now looks alive

0:15:46.320,0:15:52.160
and polished, and I'm really happy with this. I [br]think this looks really cool, and best of all it's

0:15:52.160,0:15:57.840
really modular - so I could swap out the boilers [br]for a different object, change all the colours,

0:15:57.840,0:16:02.960
and now I have the background for world two. And [br]then world three and four and five and so on.

0:16:02.960,0:16:06.720
The final thing I wanted to achieve in [br]this development sprint was to nail down

0:16:06.720,0:16:12.800
the transitions between levels. So in the first [br]MVP, people thought it was weird that you leave

0:16:12.800,0:16:18.000
behind the magnet from stage to stage. And in [br]the second demo, people thought it was weird

0:16:18.000,0:16:21.920
that when you collect the key it just sort of [br]instantly boots you back to the hub. So I had

0:16:21.920,0:16:27.040
to build a new system that made a bit more [br]sense, and made sure that the character and

0:16:27.040,0:16:35.840
any magnets in the scene all went to the [br]next level. And so this is what I built.

0:16:35.840,0:16:40.240
*Pulling cork* *Pop*[br]*Sucking sound*

0:16:40.240,0:16:44.480
Okay, so it's a bit silly - but I think it's [br]fun. I think it will be really satisfying when

0:16:44.480,0:16:49.520
you've finished a hard puzzle for this to be [br]the ending. And it goes on nicely to the next

0:16:49.520,0:16:53.920
stage where we see a little title card [br]for the name of the level, and then the

0:16:53.920,0:17:00.640
character pops out the pipe on the other end. [br]That should make each level feel more eventful

0:17:00.640,0:17:06.000
and should give more of a sense of place to [br]this whole factory that we're moving through.

0:17:06.000,0:17:11.440
And so with all of that, the game [br]really feels much much closer

0:17:11.440,0:17:16.720
towards being complete. It might not look hugely [br]different from what you've seen in the past,

0:17:17.280,0:17:23.120
but with these steps I've taken, I've [br]ticked off some really big things that

0:17:23.120,0:17:27.600
the game has needed. Like finalising the [br]magnets and chucking in sound effects.

0:17:27.600,0:17:30.400
And so while I've got many, many [br]months still left ahead of me,

0:17:31.440,0:17:36.720
some really cool things have been [br]finished. And that feels really motivating.

0:17:36.720,0:17:42.000
So what is left to do? Well, I've got to figure [br]out some kind of context or story for the game,

0:17:42.000,0:17:48.480
and some kind of story giving mechanism as well. [br]I also need a name for the game. It can't be

0:17:48.480,0:17:52.960
Untitled Magnet Game, that joke has already [br]been done. Gotta do the soundtrack. And...

0:17:53.600,0:18:01.520
oh yeah, the big one, content! Gotta build lots [br]and lots and lots of levels, which of course is,

0:18:01.520,0:18:05.360
you know, the biggest thing in the game. And [br]it's going to take, you know, months for me to

0:18:05.360,0:18:10.640
do. But I feel like I've got a really good base [br]to build them on now, and so I can really focus

0:18:10.640,0:18:17.520
my time and attention on just making loads of [br]levels. And so that is what we're doing next!

0:18:17.520,0:18:23.840
And so here's my challenge to myself: I won't [br]come back to make another episode of Developing

0:18:23.840,0:18:30.080
until I have made... 30 puzzles for this [br]game. And then we'll see if they're any good

0:18:30.720,0:18:35.120
and how many more I need to make after [br]that. Thank you so much for watching,

0:18:35.120,0:18:40.080
thank you to anyone who gave feedback on the [br]second demo, and thank you for your patience

0:18:40.720,0:18:46.880
while I'm working on this game. Obviously a lot [br]of my GMTK video making time is spent scratching

0:18:46.880,0:18:52.880
my head over bugs in Unity, but I think it'll [br]be really worth it. I'm really enjoying making

0:18:52.880,0:18:59.200
this game and I think just being a game developer [br]is going to make me a better video game critic,

0:18:59.200,0:19:04.560
analyst, whatever the hell I am. So thanks [br]for watching and I'll see you again soon!

0:19:04.560,0:19:07.680
I don't know how long it's going to take me [br]to make these levels. But I'll see you again.

0:19:07.680,0:19:13.200
Probably. Yes I will! Yes of course, we're gonna [br]finish this game. Let's do it. Let's get it done.

0:19:13.200,0:19:18.880
Finish the game! Finish the game! [br]Finish this video, somehow! Uh... stop