Amazing interview! About the subject of the pressure that's making a game as a person known to be the game design "expert", the simple fact that he managed to keep a 3 year long project as its first game and managed to finish it completely with such a high level of polish is highly impressive to me. We don't hear often about single devs making a good big project as their very first, and I think that's something only people who understand video games and game design on a very deep level can pull off.
Just a quick note: there are some puzzle spoilers from the first two chapters of the game in this video, but you can very easily avoid them by just listening (or not paying too much attention to the gameplay). We do talk about a couple of the puzzles, but not in enough detail to spoil the solutions. Hope you enjoy the interview!
I feel the minimalism / maximalism thing is mostly a trade between mastery and flow. Simple systems with deep implications or complex patterns reward familiarity, learning, and developing your own lemmas. Constant introduction of stuff makes sure the flow is maintained because you keep needing to learn your ABCs, which is fun and unfailable. It also carries more audience across, because you remove the risk of failing to develop proper mental models for some complication of the system.
It was a great interview, and good insight into the process of making your first game, scope management, and how having an audience already helps you with some of the challenges of design, especially playtesting. This is a lot of stuff I've had to figure out on the go throughout the years, so having more resources for new devs is always a good thing :)
Really interesting chat! It was really interesting to watch Mark make this game over the last few years and hearing him talk about it in a more casual environment was awesome.
The puzzle at 35:02 was kind of annoying, I knew I needed to separate the blocks, but it seemed like the switches were too unresponsive to time it properly. By the time I figured it out, I was exasperated because it felt like I had already tried that solution, and the game just decided to give the solution to me. also, it didn't feel like I figured out the puzzle, it felt like I brute-forced a solution. I think you either need to make the switches more responsive, or in order to not break some levels that might rely on that delay; queue the next switch press when you activate it before that delay is up. if you mash the activation button, the switch should turn on and off with even intervals, since the switch state is being queued. the queue should only have a length of 1, so that the switch won't continue activating after you have released your inputs. Either that or I am just more of an idiot than I thought (certainly possible) I guess this isn't the best place for play-testing feedback, but I hope you get the opportunity to make more games in the future
I bought the game a few minutes after the Launch video went up. I haven't had a chance to play it yet. But even if I don't get to it for a while, I'm still really happy to have supported a game and project like this.
Mind over Magnet is pretty fun so far. It would be really nice if they had extra challenges in some of the rooms, though. something like the strawberries in Celeste.
That line from Dr. Light: "It doesn't matter what I made you for, this is what you were MEANT for." Gives me such hope. They NAILED how I always thought he'd sound in my head
Yep, as @serenitiii_ says, it's Botany Manor. The full list of his mentioned games: - Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - Animal Well - Botany Manor - Riven - Isles of Sea and Sky
Amazing interview!
About the subject of the pressure that's making a game as a person known to be the game design "expert", the simple fact that he managed to keep a 3 year long project as its first game and managed to finish it completely with such a high level of polish is highly impressive to me. We don't hear often about single devs making a good big project as their very first, and I think that's something only people who understand video games and game design on a very deep level can pull off.
Just a quick note: there are some puzzle spoilers from the first two chapters of the game in this video, but you can very easily avoid them by just listening (or not paying too much attention to the gameplay). We do talk about a couple of the puzzles, but not in enough detail to spoil the solutions. Hope you enjoy the interview!
I feel the minimalism / maximalism thing is mostly a trade between mastery and flow. Simple systems with deep implications or complex patterns reward familiarity, learning, and developing your own lemmas. Constant introduction of stuff makes sure the flow is maintained because you keep needing to learn your ABCs, which is fun and unfailable. It also carries more audience across, because you remove the risk of failing to develop proper mental models for some complication of the system.
Great comment, very well put
It was a great interview, and good insight into the process of making your first game, scope management, and how having an audience already helps you with some of the challenges of design, especially playtesting. This is a lot of stuff I've had to figure out on the go throughout the years, so having more resources for new devs is always a good thing :)
The vacuum cleaner in the background is the teaser for his next game
lmao
Hi, I'm Mark Brown, and I'm making a game about ✨Vacuums✨
@@cjksupercoderMark Brown’s next game is going to suck so much. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Really interesting chat! It was really interesting to watch Mark make this game over the last few years and hearing him talk about it in a more casual environment was awesome.
I think the Mario Maker series has over time become pretty close to the concept of "puzzle platformer MMO"
This game has Mario Maker written all over it
The puzzle at 35:02 was kind of annoying, I knew I needed to separate the blocks, but it seemed like the switches were too unresponsive to time it properly. By the time I figured it out, I was exasperated because it felt like I had already tried that solution, and the game just decided to give the solution to me. also, it didn't feel like I figured out the puzzle, it felt like I brute-forced a solution.
I think you either need to make the switches more responsive, or in order to not break some levels that might rely on that delay; queue the next switch press when you activate it before that delay is up. if you mash the activation button, the switch should turn on and off with even intervals, since the switch state is being queued. the queue should only have a length of 1, so that the switch won't continue activating after you have released your inputs. Either that or I am just more of an idiot than I thought (certainly possible)
I guess this isn't the best place for play-testing feedback, but I hope you get the opportunity to make more games in the future
Excited to watch this- thanks for all the work you over at Thinky games do! I'd love to contribute one day (Ur awesome!)
I bought the game a few minutes after the Launch video went up. I haven't had a chance to play it yet. But even if I don't get to it for a while, I'm still really happy to have supported a game and project like this.
Nice interview, great getting to see his raw thoughts about the game.
Mind over Magnet is pretty fun so far. It would be really nice if they had extra challenges in some of the rooms, though. something like the strawberries in Celeste.
his videos about games design are so incredibly surface level that I have no idea why he's so popular. good on him for actually geting into dev though
That line from Dr. Light: "It doesn't matter what I made you for, this is what you were MEANT for." Gives me such hope. They NAILED how I always thought he'd sound in my head
If you think your puzzles are easy, they are probably normal. AKA one of the big problems with making puzzles. haha
insightful chat ! great vid
I would unironically love to see Mark make an MMO with his own team. Like 'this is a bad idea, heres how I am tackling this'
Really nice interview!
Got me more hyped to play mind over magnet!
this makes me very happy
Very good questions!
What's the game Mark mentions at 48:20? Botani mana? (That name doesn't yield any results)
I imagine he said Botany Manor?
Yep, as @serenitiii_ says, it's Botany Manor. The full list of his mentioned games:
- Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
- Animal Well
- Botany Manor
- Riven
- Isles of Sea and Sky
Idk, he’s successful because he has an audience..
no way
The drill sound is annoying
:D