How I make puzzles for my indie magnet game (Developing 9)

Developing is an on-going YouTube series, where I share the step-by-step process of making my first video game: Mind Over Magnet!

Since the last episode of developing, I've been hard at work on making puzzles for my untitled indie magnet game. But was I able to make 30 levels, as promised?

=== Links ====

Puzzle Level Idea Strategies | Patrick Traynor

=== Credits ===

Music By:

License for commercial use: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported "Share Alike" (CC BY-SA 3.0) License.

YouTube Audio Library

=== Subtitles ===

[johnjekyllson]

This is how I make puzzle levels in Mario Maker. I pick two or three main gimmicks (depending on how big I want the level to be) and write down every novel interaction I can find between them.

[sunnyaliceart]

This is one of my absolute favorite series that you do. I really admire and appreciate your honesty going through the process of making a game. The "Oh God I wanna delete this and live in a cave" to "I can see the End" is really inspirational and something I think we can all relate to. Keep doing your best! You got this!

[haflaen]

Does anyone else find the Developing intro/outro music super relaxing? It has this vibe of, “ok, we’ve got a lot of work before us, but let’s just take it one step at a time and we’ll get through it together”.

[diguififficial]

Finally a video with really applicable and reproduceable steps to create good puzzles, and not just superficial tips or analysis. This video just turned "only geniuses make good puzzles" into "i can make good puzzles if I organize myself and follow these steps"

[omegaminoseer]

My speedrunning brethren, the time has come to once again exploit GMTK's game and break it in ways that he'd never foreseen. We are still reeling from the removal of the laser clip, but I believe that wall-techs are still possible. When the game goes live, trust that I will work my hardest to exploit the game as much as possible. You have my honor.

[PokeHearts]

My favorite thing is that the puzzle matrix idea cures the "blank page issue" where you're stuck staring at a blank page (or in this case a blank stage) and not sure what to put on it. Which is extremely clever!

[lightningstrike]

This reminds me of your episode on Baba is You as well. You described the puzzle making process as starting from a Solution and then working backwards until you reach a satisfying starting position.

[Lugmillord]

26 of 30 is amazing! One thing that can be very demotivating in gamedev is not getting "enough" done (according to your own plans). It's beneficial to think in terms of "I got these things done" instead of "I didn't get those things done". A very simple psychological trick. Today I spent 9 hours designing rather small areas on paper and I got 3 of 5 done that I wanted to design. And while I could say "damn, almost half of it is still on the todo list", my mind is rather at the point "man, 9 hours! Can't believe I was able to focus for so long and the areas turned out great". This mindset is especially helpful when the project takes a long time in total.

[SeanNoonan]

That puzzle matrix is essentially a gameplay variety matrix - something I used at Ubisoft a bunch. It's pretty much the driving force behind maintaining variety across a game's campaign!

[HelperWesley]

Always a treat when a GMTK video gets released. 🥳

[yalilitman]

This has been such an inspiring series not only as someone who adores game development but as someone who wants to work in creative fields. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for making this.

[spoonsweet]

Puzzle matrix seems lik a very nice and methodical approach. Thank you for sharing this process!
Especially how it became a starting point for further work and mental freedom

[FireallyXTheories]

That matrix is insane. 22x22/2 = 242 possible levels with 2 mechanics alone and 252 if we built from 2 mechanics up to the full 22. 494 total possibilities. And the best part is they're visually easy to see and sort out. Now that's some productive genious!

[VideoGameAnimationStudy]

What I love about your process Mark is that you incorporate research into it, experimenting and exploring methods to better aid your production. It's so easy to get burnt out and demotivated, but sometimes a bit of research can go a long way into boosting your enthusiasm and plotting out a new route for success!

[EmperorsNewWardrobe]

Very useful, especially the puzzle matrix at 3:48. Thanks, Mark

[shawnheatherly]

The spreadsheet is really clever! That's a great idea to see what mechanics are being underutilized or perhaps popping up too much.

[Roxfox]

I genuinely want to play this now! Not just out of curiosity, like before, but some of these puzzles look really inviting and rewarding!

That idea matrix is a tool that can probably used for every type of game. I've seen similar charts with enemies and weapons used to dissect why Doom and Halo have such rich combat scenarios. I bet something similar was going on in the minds of whoever decided that Burnout Paradise should have three different boost systems that reward different types of driving, and which cars should have which boost combined with which stats. Fill up all the possible slots, prototype them, get rid of the ones that don't make sense or aren't fun. Boom, game development.

[hamzafasih]

Mark you're making such quick progress, it's truly an inspiration. Can't wait to see the finished game 🔥

[AndreasToth]

I love the logical process. The puzzle matrix leads to individual experiments, some of which lead to discovering useful combinations that then lead onto becoming the foundation for a level design, which then lead to multiple levels being created, that then lead to the puzzle bible, that then highlights gaps in the levels and hence the need for new new level designs utilising the identified combinations that they need to include. It's like you have gamified the process from begging to the end since each part leads to a reward that then builds on the previous to then complete the game, which in this case results in a game being created! I love it!

[Sitskier]

I love the idea of this puzzle matrix! One thing I would encourage you to do is to remember the solution for older puzzles once you figure out some basic order and reuse some of those solutions as pieces of puzzles further down the line as I think it would be nice to add depth and allow for the player to have a callback to something they solved before and have it be just a portion of the overall puzzle down the line with a bit of a twist maybe too! Love the progress! Keep up the great work! (Obviously it’s your game so so as you please but just figured I’d offer my thoughts)