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Hi, my name's Mark and I am making a 
video game called Mind Over Magnet,

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a delightful puzzle platformer 
about, you guessed it, magnets.

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Now, when I returned to game development after 
my Christmas break, I noticed a very interesting

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button in my Steam Developer Dashboard 
thingy that I can't show you due to NDAs.

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Basically a button to submit 
the game to the next Next Fest.

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This is Valve's online games convention 
where developers can share demos of their

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upcoming games and it's proven to be 
a pretty powerful marketing technique.

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I mean, look what happened to 
the very addictive poker-based

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roguelike game Balatro in 
the last one in February.

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So I knew I had to submit Mind Over Magnet 
to the next Next Fest happening in June.

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I just needed to create a trailer, make a demo,

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and fix one very annoying thing about my 
game that's been bugging me for months now.

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Let me explain.

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♫ Music ♫

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Okay, so my game is pixel art, right?
But the sprites are pretty big.

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I mean, compare Magnus to Mario, or Madeline.

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This means that a typical room 
might fill up 1280 by 720 pixels.

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So if you're playing on a really old 
720p monitor, great. Pixel perfect.

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And if you're playing on a nice 
1440p monitor like I do, cool.

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We can just double all of the pixels.

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And if you're playing on a really nice 4K 
TV, then I can just triple all of the pixels.

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But what about 1080p, the most commonly used PC 
screen resolution according to Valve's surveys?

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Well, that's a bit tricky because 
that's 1.5 times bigger than 720p.

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And, well, there's no such thing as half a pixel.

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Now there's a few different 
solutions to get around this problem.

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One is to just let Unity figure it out.

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Like add an extra pixel here and remove an extra

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pixel there to make all of those half 
pixels fit onto a full pixel grid.

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But as it sounds, that's not perfect.

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And things can look really squiffy and ugly,

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especially when it comes to 
angles and curved surfaces.

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Another solution is to use anti-aliasing 
to feather all of the edges.

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But now everything looks blurry and it's no 
longer that crisp, retro-looking pixel art.

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And solution three, or C, forgot what we're doing,

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is to keep the pixels as they are but have 
a stonking great border around the screen.

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And now everything is small and zoomed out.

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Now I tried all of these solutions.

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I put in a setting in the menu for pixel perfect 
mode that would add borders around the screen.

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I coded up a system so it 
would systematically only

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add anti-aliasing if the pixels couldn't 
be multiplied by a nice round number.

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And at times I wondered if maybe 
players just wouldn't notice the ugly,

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squiffy pixels and it was just a me thing?

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But ultimately it felt like I was trying 
to find the least worst compromise.

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And I spent a long time going back 
and forth between these things,

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trying to find one of these three solutions that 
would kinda, almost, sort of work for the game.

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Now of course there is a fourth solution 
but I don't even want to think about that.

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And I mean it would work but 
I don't even want to say it.

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Okay fine, I'll say it.

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I could get rid of all the pixel art and replace

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all of the graphics in the game 
with brand new 4K ready artwork.

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But that... but that would be mad, wouldn't it?

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So I replaced all of the pixel art in 
the game with brand new 4K ready artwork.

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I took every sprite, tripled it in size,

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and then remade it using Photoshop's vector 
tools like the pen tool and the shapes.

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That's every button, every door, every decorative 
object, every magnet, every UI element.

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And you know what?

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It didn't actually take as 
long as I thought it would.

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I mean my pixel art is already pretty chunky 
and made up of simple shapes with basic colours.

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I also chose not to use this newfound pixel real 
estate to add in extra details because I wanted

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things to still be super readable when crunched 
down to a smaller display like the Steam Deck.

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And I also chose not to remake the background art.

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Instead I kept that as pixel art and just threw 
on a depth of field filter to blur it out.

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But no one needs to know about that, right?

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That can be our little secret.

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And after all of that work I'm actually 
really happy with how the game looks now.

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Magnus has way more charm and character.

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The game no longer looks like yet 
another generic pixel art indie game.

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And the game just works.

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You can put it on a 4K TV 
or a 1080p monitor or the

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small screen of a Steam Deck and it just works.

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It just works.

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And the funny thing is, in the 
end I probably spent more time

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trying to find a good compromise than 
I spent just remaking the art assets.

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And so I've learnt a really good lesson from this.

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Well, two lessons.

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One is just plan ahead.

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I made the sprites long, long, long before I made

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the final camera system and just kind 
of hoped that they would work together.

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They didn't.

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I mean, there's this button in Unity for 
a pixel perfect camera and I kind of just

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assumed I could turn that on and things 
would be perfect, which is dumb and naive.

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That is not how it works but I know that now.

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But the other lesson is sometimes it feels 
like a good idea to try and find a compromise

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or a loophole or a workaround but 
that's kind of the lazy way out.

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And sometimes it's just better 
to bite the bullet, knuckle down,

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and do the hard work to make an actual real 
solution that's going to work properly.

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So in the future I'm gonna save myself some time 
by just skipping ahead to doing the real solution.

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Okay, so with that kind of a nightmare out of

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the way it was time to move on to 
the next thing - making a trailer.

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Now this is something I've put off 
for a long time simply because my

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game just isn't done yet so there's not 
a lot of stuff to show in the trailer.

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I mean I finished World 1 but if I just show 
that then the whole trailer is gonna be the

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same footage of the same turquoise-y sewer 
system over and over again for two minutes.

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Not a good depiction of what 
my game is really about.

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So I decided to use the ancient 
art of "fake it until you make it".

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Quite literally make it in this case.

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Because I've got a load of stuff that isn't 
quite done yet like these levels that haven't

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been playtested and are currently using the 
blueprint background design I use for development.

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I've got some half-finished backgrounds and

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some different mechanics that 
aren't implemented fully yet.

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If I throw all that stuff together I can make 
some content that isn't 100% going to be in

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the final game but is pretty indicative 
of what the game is going to be like.

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Side note, I actually think I did 
too good of a job with this because

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after I posted the trailer I got 
a number of comments from people

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congratulating me on finishing the game 
which I will take, thank you very much.

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It's not actually done. It's all fake!

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So with this new content I then recorded 
myself playing through those levels.

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I didn't have any music on but I did keep the 
sound effects on so those can be in the trailer.

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Also, at the risk of talking 
more about screen resolutions,

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I recorded everything in 4K but 
the trailer is only 1080p so I

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can crop the most interesting bits without 
having to zoom in and lose image quality.

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I then threw this footage into Adobe Premiere and 
cut out all of the most interesting little clips -

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you know, interesting animations or depictions 
of mechanics or narrative beats or whatever.

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Now as for music, I do actually finally have a

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composer for the game now so I can 
shut that very large Google form.

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Thank you very much for 
submitting your name, everybody.

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They're not quite ready to work on the game yet

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so for this trailer I just went to my 
favourite audio source, Epidemic Sound.

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And the cool thing about Epidemic Sound 
- and this video is not sponsored by

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Epidemic Sound but if you go to the 
description and hit my link I will

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get paid by Epidemic Sound - is that when 
you download music you don't just get the

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full song but also the individual stems 
like the melody, the bass, and the drums.

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This meant I could isolate the drums and have it 
so the footage changes on the drum beat like so.

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In terms of the narrative arc of the trailer,

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I start with just really simple stuff like 
using the magnet beams to lift up blocks.

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Then I slow things down to introduce Magnus 
as a character, then show what Magnus can

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do as a game mechanic, and then have a 
rapid fire montage of other stuff you'll

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see in the later half of the game like other 
magnets, other mechanics, and other worlds.

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And then end with a nice call to 
action to wishlist the game on Steam.

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Now this is not the best trailer ever made - I put 
it together in like the course of a single day,

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I also don't have a huge amount of footage 
to use, and I'm simply not Derek Lieu,

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you know, the guy who makes all of those 
awesome trailers for every indie game.

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But I think it serves its purpose for now.

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And also I posted it on YouTube 
and other socials and it pushed

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the game past 30,000 wishlists which is 
pretty good before Next Fest even begins.

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And then finally there's the demo.

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Now I'm not 100% sure how much 
stuff I want to have in the demo.

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Like the trailer, if I just 
have world 1 in the demo,

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that's not going to be very indicative 
of what the whole game is like to play.

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So maybe it should also have world 
2, or half of world 2, or whatever.

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So I need to start making some of that.

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But in any case, I think I just need 
to get working on finishing this game.

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Because like, going back to Balatro, you 
might have noticed that the game built

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up a huge amount of hype during Steam Next Fest, 
and then launched for real a couple weeks later.

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Pepper Grinder is kinda similar:

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it's launching about one month after 
the end of its Steam Next Fest debut.

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And so if I'm going to showcase 
my game at the Next Fest in June,

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I should probably look to 
release it in July or August,

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and that's not hugely far in the future, 
and so I'd better get on with this game!

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Now in the last few weeks I 
have discovered a pretty good,

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not to sound too grandiose, production 
pipeline for getting this game done.

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It's very much inspired by 
Valve's approach to making Portal,

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which I discussed in that video 
on Valve's playtesting philosophy.

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It basically works like this.

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On Tuesday through Thursday I 
work on new content for the game.

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New levels, fancy new backgrounds, or 
new cutscenes. Anything new for the game.

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On Friday I work on bug fixing.

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I take a few items off of my 
ever-growing Trello to-do list

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and try to find a good way to solve that 
bug, and then do some more bug fixing.

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And then at the end of the day I take what 
I have, test it, and export a new build.

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I then give it out to some playtesters,

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usually like a few randos on Twitter, 
but a maximum of three playtesters.

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Then on Monday I check my Twitter DMs 
to find some nice playtesting footage.

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I watch the whole video through and make as many 
notes as possible for things I want to change,

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like bugs, or places that need more polish, or 
levels that are too easy or too hard or too fiddly

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or have some exploit that I didn't foresee 
when I was developing that part of the game.

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Now I've had some version of this process 
throughout the game's development,

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but I feel like I'm really perfecting it now.

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Like, in the past, I've given 
builds to too many people in one go.

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That just ends up with way 
too much footage to watch.

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It's just overwhelming, and if one person 
stumbles upon a bug or an exploit it's

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really painful and not very useful to then see 
that same thing crop up in nine more videos.

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Also I've given out playtest builds in the 
middle of the week, and then I'm just kind

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of stuck because I can't do anything 
until I get the playtest footage back.

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So doing it on Friday means people play the game

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over the weekend when I really should 
be taking a break and playing Balatro.

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And so with this process the game 
is really starting to take shape.

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New content starts out a little bit rough and 
experimental but then quickly gets playtested,

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and stuff that's been in the game for 
a long time, stuff in the early levels,

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has been seen by so many playtesters 
and had so many little tiny tweaks

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and bug fixes that it's now starting 
to get seriously polished and good.

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And so with this process I feel 
somewhat confident that the game

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will be done shortly after its Next Fest showcase.

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But I can't do that if I'm standing here 
rabbiting onto you about what I've been doing,

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so it's time to get back to 
development for some time.

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I've got to run a playtest, 
or watch playtest footage,

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or make new content for the game, 
or do bug fixing or play Balatro.

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See the aforementioned schedule, compare it 
to today's date, you'll know what I'm doing.

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As always GMTK Patrons can play the latest 
build whenever they want but if you're not

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supporting the show financially - and I mean 
why not - you can just wishlist the game

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now on Steam and you'll be notified when the 
demo is available during the next Next Fest.

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Thank you so much for watching 
and I will talk to you soon.