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Espy GDS

2
Posts
A member registered Oct 02, 2020

Creator of

Recent community posts

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.

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.