The one thing you need to finish your game (Developing 11) 

You can now add my game to your Steam wishlist! store.steampowered.com/app/2685900/Mind_Over_Magnet/

I was not at all prepared for the reality that this project started 2 years ago, it's making me come to terms with how fast time seems to be passing me by. If you had asked me how long its been i probably would have guessed something like 9 months.

It's always funny to see someone realize the power of planning. Like, we all KNOW it's a good thing, but then we convince ourselves we'll be fine just winging it. Then when we finally break down and do some planning, we're always like "Have you guys heard of this planning stuff?! It's amazing!"

The switchable magnets "Maggie" and "Meg" could maybe have names to do with their North and South polarities? (for better player readability)

I think there's another detail with "changing the plan" vs "noodling around": Changing the plan requires you to actually pause and _think_ about why you are making the change, and if it's worth making. Instead of getting lost in the infinity of possible choices, it becomes a simpler task of "Is this change going to be better than the current plan, and what will it cost me?" Figuring that out can still be hard, but it's significantly less stressful.

Giraffe DLC confirmed! Definately wishlisting it! Good luck on the further development.

My favorite thing about this series is how genuine you are with the amount of work it takes to create a game. You've really mastered the balance between "holy shit this is hard I want to take a 6 month break" and "here's productive advice for actually developing". Excellent content as always

Just the first minute of this video really hit home for me. I've been developing a game since 2017 and idk if I will ever finish it. I get motivated for a few months before I drop off and don't touch it again for even longer. In this time I have moved dozens of times, battled depression, transitioned and struggled to find a job where I make enough to live and have enough left in the tank at the end of the day. I hope to one day finish it because its the one thing in my life that brings me happiness even if it does seem like nobody cares.

A lot of this can carry over to more disciplines than just game making. I started to learn how to animate in Blender in early 2021 after surviving a cancer scare and I went full guns blazing for like 6 months. Then I dropped off for 9 months to keep paying the bills and such. I have a similar problem to what you're describing with the game. I often feel like I'm not making any progress cause I get wild ideas I wanna go try and never actually finish any of my projects. PS: You should totally sneak in an easter egg with a giraffe now.

Now we need a secret room in this game with a giraffe easter egg.

I love how much of this series has been "In becoming a game designer I inadvertently also had to become my own producer"

that is SUCH a good logo, i'm honestly so much more hype about this game seeing all the visual design work going into it! i love watching these videos for tips about my TTRPG system i've been working on, it's not the same thing but a lot of game design tips are kinda universal, but this video is what made me go from "hey i think i might play this game" to "i really want to play this game," haha!

Mind Over Magnet is a really lovely name, I'm glad you went with that one

Great work Mark! Having a plan is indeed the difference between a finished game and "dream game". Perhaps consider trying the logo you made in pixel art style since that would match the game better? Everything is looking great, very excited for this game! Wishlisted!

Thanks for the transparency! It's always nice to see a game dev show that making games isn't always sunshine and rainbows. That being said, congrats on the Steam page! It's been awesome to watch your progress on this game.

7:15 I'm eagerly awaiting the hidden giraffe Easter egg.

I was starting to get worried that you would just stick with "Untitled Magnet Game", so I'm glad you gave it a real name. It's a great name too!

100% gonna be a giraffe easteregg in the game.

Congrats Mark! That is a HUGE step forward in your game developing journey! I'm gonna go and wishlist it right now.

"We're all just praying at the alters of robots" - I feel that. 😅 It's exciting to see this game getting closer to the finish line! You've been a huge inspiration to our little dev team.

This is one of the reasons story can be important to a game. Having even a super basic one can help guide your progress to being "finished."

Mark learning the difference between pre-production and production phases :) When he comes back to making videos it will be interesting to see if he has any interviews with Producers lined up.

Showing Silksong while talking about early storepages is both cheeky and torture at the same time

GMTK has taught me so much over the past years. But this time, I could've easily told Mark he needed a plan for this game. For once, i had the knowledge. I HAD THE POWA.

"The Plan" to me sounds like the design document you would get at the end of pre-production. What I'm referencing here is the talk Mark Cerny held at the 2002 D.I.C.E. Summit 2002 in which he describes how the first part of game development should be a mostly open ended and free exploration process and the second part should be a highly structured production phase in which levels and content is produced. The bridge between the two is a relatively short document, a plan if you will, how the stuff you found in part one should be fully realised in part two. As an arm chair dev I'm talking out of my ass here but I like finding these kinda consistent little details while watching different people develop games.

Way to go Mark on getting the plan set in and making such amazing milestones set.

Honestly, thank you for this video. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who ignores their game for months and months. I started my game about a year before you started yours, and I’ve followed you since basically the beginning of your channel. I remember the magnet name announcement, and 2 years later you are much further along then me, but facing the same issues and that makes me very happy. After 2 engine changes, about 10 ‘from scratch’ implementations, and many many hours of feeling hopeless and lost, I’m happy to know I’m not alone.

Can't wait for the release of M.O.M.!

I am the "plan maker" (product manager) in software development and your point about not mak8ng the plan too early is what we call the double diamond. First you open up to ideas, then you decide what to do and define the scope narrower and narrower.

Early on in the video I was actually wondering "we still don't know the name of the game yet, do we?" and lo and behold it comes up. I think it's a brilliant name, by the way, the logo looks really cool and fits with the aesthetic of the game, I'm very excited about this now.

I had a similar plan when making a game as a hobby as I had a part time job at the time that often left me too exhausted to work on the game leading week long stretches of no progress. I didn't have a plan, I had a to-do list. This was a list of tasks I needed to do listed in priority and whether I was working on it last time, listing what I did and where to go next. This meant when I came back to work on it I could quickly get back up to speed or if I didn't want to work on the big thing I could choose a different, more preferable task for how I felt after work like bug fixing or asset creation or researching if someone already did the thing I'm trying in the engine to see if I can adapt their implementation to my purposes. In a way I did have a plan, it just more a pile of things that needed doing and working what felt practical at the time.

Starting to hit the that lag spike towards the end of my first game. It's so hard to keep momentum. Thanks for making this video, it's just what I needed.

Really like the honesty in your videos. There is no "I'm the best, I did that" but more "I did that and damn it was stupid let me explain how you can do better"

Devlogs + Game Dev is too much to take on and sometimes I feel like giving up on my open world farming game. This video is something to which I will be coming back again and again for inspiration. Thanks!

It’s interesting how you can disregard a piece of advice a thousand times and then you hear it phrased in a specific way and it finally clicks. So thank you.

The best info I got from this video is to make a A PLAN after the prototyping phase to encourage creativity, which is something I will definitely do. This has been said before, but I stilll can't believe you're the first person that though about making a puzzle game with magnets, it's such a clever idea!

The way the first 3 minutes of this video basically summed up my game dev experience was such a jumpscare. I felt so called out.

I've seen a lot of people compare your game to Portal, but to me, it reminds me a lot of the two Klonoa games on GBA, especially on the subject of level design. I'm really digging these new backgrounds your making, it's good to introduce new aesthetic elements regularly, or the player might get bored after a while. Good work!

I find having a plan essential to making games. If I don't I find it really difficult to know what to work on and end up just staring at a screen and twiddling my thumbs.

It's such a relief to find someone talking openly about getting stuck in the "just noodling around" creative phase, and struggling to even remember that making a plan is an option. That's a place I've ended up SO OFTEN in creative projects of all kinds, and it makes me feel so much better to hear that it's not just me, and that there are ways out of and around it. Thank you for that encouragement, and best wishes for the rest of your game! :)

I love this series so much! I'm not even a game designer, but just as a creative person, it's really nice and honest to see each part of the process. The pitfalls and "aha" moments are all parts of the creative process, even if we only ever see the final product. It's really inspiring to see you figure it all out and make new progress.

It's an honor following you on this journey and I can't wait for your next journey once this one is over.

WOAH! The letters in magnet drawn toward the “A” looks amazing!

Awesome progress Mark! You've inspired me to finally make a Plan for my board games that I've been working on for....(checks notes)...far too long. And while I can't afford to join the pateron as much as would like to, I can at least make an offering to our algorithm overlords by wish-listing, commenting, liking, and sharing this video. Keep up the great work!

This actually helps. Got a story in the back burner and the habit of not working on it only to work for a rush reminded me of my awful procrastination skills 😅

Your approach to puzzle design is so interesting and motivating! I know that this would be a huge task, but I wonder if adding a level editor could be fun. That way, players can do some of the work for you, creating a new aspect of infinite replayability.

As a point of comparison, in big studios, there are 'closers': producers whom only goal is to get this game out the gate at the correct level of quality and on time. This is a universal step in game dev IMHO.

Really appreciate you sharing this journey with us and the ups and downs you've been facing. I relate to a lot of this trying to finish my own game and your tips and warnings have been a huge help and inspiration!

Even though I am also a solo game developer, making a game is a whole different level of difficult compared to critiquing one. Moreover, doing it alone is extremely hard. I think it's really amazing that you're trying to complete it to the end. Your game is really of high quality. I hope you keep up the good work till the end.

You guys should do a video on how to biuld a map , because as insignificant as it sounds , I find that to be a challenge being a solo dev, I swear I've done some amazing mechanics before but ended up getting completely beaten on how to go about with the map. Please, I've been commenting this any chance I get so please consider, thanks mark.

Thank you so much for this video, i often have trouble finishing and this has been a long time comming

Wishlisted your game. I'm in a similar boat, finishing up my moose Sokoban puzzler, Mooselutions. Like you, I decided to stop at 50 puzzles. That's totally reasonable, especially if it's your first game. I'm a little mixed on story elements. Some people say you need them, but again for your first game it's kind of a lot to put on your plate. I mostly focused on player feedback, addressing all of the problems they ran into. It's nice to get to a point where you've got a finished game already on Steam, and you just keep updating it up to your announced launch date. It removes a lot of the stress. It's gonna release on the date, how polished it's going to be on that date is the variable. Best wishes. The game looks really fun 🙂

Congrats Mark! Almost there! Thank you for letting us ride along your journey.

Not sure what the plan is for the "final world", but it'd be good if there was a (bonus?) section with just, the most dastardly difficult puzzles you can come up with, combining more mechanics than usual in weird ways, not caring if most playtesters can't figure them out

Seeing this update has been reassuring. I’ve spent the last year and a half trying to learn programming while also working and juggling life issues, and despite a basic portfolio, I don’t have a plan besides “apply to junior roles, grind at portfolio projects, and try not to burn out”. I don’t know what I can do beyond that, though.

Protip fellas: next time you need to last longer in bed, just think about what you need to do to finish the game you're working on. 😂 60% of the time it works all the time! 👍

One of the best statements I've heard about creative pursuits - "an idea without a plan is just a dream"

Never feel bad for taking time off on some projects. Your mental health is important, and super important not to burn yourself out. We're here whenever the regular RU-vid content starts rolling in bro.

Yes, Mark! I've been looking forward to you reaching the finish line and it sounds like you are really going to make it there soon!

Mark: uploads Every cell of my body: *pure happiness*

Please put a secret giraffe somewhere in your game, after that whole giraffe/draft bit, like Kirby’s secret HAL rooms. That would be just lovely.

I feel way better about myself. I was beating myself up for weeks I've made no progress. But I have a system, and work on it regularly-ish. Maybe I do have hope in succeeding, if someone as big as you can with so many missed months. Game looks amazing btw! Thank you so much for the video!

I decided to make a 2D platformer. This is the perfect motivation I need to put 4 years into this.

Just promoting the video in the Algorithm. I have 18, and I really want to go to college to study game design and your channel has helped me get a good start on the process. I wish I had a pc to play mind over magnet

this game looks great! i'm a little weirded out that the magnet characters seem to reproduce the male-as-default trope we see a lot in games (max/magnus just look like magnets, but the sisters have bows to denote them as female). it might be nice to change up those assumptions somehow.

You touched on some pertinent points here. I've been dealing with many of these issues myself over the past year. It wasn't until I created some strict, unbreakable design rules, that true progress started being made. And then the cycle of technical debt begins again! Well done on your progress mate, steam page looks great!

I've experienced the same problem of not working on the game for months at a time! I'll have to make my own trello board with every missing task to do so I can actually balance my daywork with the game work. Appreciate you sharing your journey

It's so great seeing your progress over these 2 years. It's amazing how closely it's mirrored my own game's development, with us starting about 20 months ago and only recently having a steam page up and ready. We also use Trello and I can't overstate how important it has been for planning and execution. I'm embarrassed to admit I also even had about a 9 month long break somewhere in the middle, but now things are the smoothest they've been, and I'm even looking forward to attending the upcoming GDC to show off our game there!

When I started modding the game "Cookie Clicker," I stumbled upon a plan-adjacent system that really worked for me. What I'd do is, every time I had an idea for something to put in my mod, I'd write it down somewhere, in this case in a big comment at the top of the single .js file it ended up being. Then, I would categorize ideas into discrete updates I planned to release for the mod; some things would go into an update that revolves around interactions with the game's season system, while others would go into a comprehensive menu overhaul. I could also pepper in smaller changes and bug fixes with each update, so I'd have something to work on whenever I was stalling on the main attraction. What this did for me is it enabled me to forget about parts of the mod that had nothing to do with what I was currently working on, and it made it way easier to keep the intricacies of that particular update fresh in my mind. It also allowed me to narrow my scope; sometimes I would have grand ambitions to do something wild with a particular game mechanic, so I'd file away that idea and have time to sleep on it. When I'd look at the idea later, I'd realize some critical issue that would massively inflate the complexity of that update and ultimately decide it wasn't worth the effort, without falling prey to the sunk cost fallacy. A similar approach could be taken with a game like yours; if you stumble upon an interesting interaction between two mechanics, you can file that idea away for when you're working on levels that revolve around one of the two mechanics, for instance. Then, if you have a better idea for that mechanic, you can prioritize that idea without having wasted time on something you might have to cut later anyway. Obviously you wouldn't want to rely on a system so fluid for a product you intend to sell on Steam, but it can serve as a good transition period between noodling around to find the fun and filling things out so you can release a full game.

Yay! You’re back in it :) The one thing I’d like [asap] is that I don’t have to start at the beginning every time I go away and come back. I’ve played the first 2 levels so many times and run out of time to keep going 🙏

This is the kind of game where a level editor and an easy way to share your levels might be nice to have. If you get all the game mechanics and graphics done, the community could take part in creating at least some of the levels. I can only imagine how time consuming and tough creating puzzle levels is.

Commenting to stay on the algo, wishing you luck on the game! Its been a long ride!

Simon WIllison has an excellent talk "Coping Stragies for the Serial Project Hoarder". It's about having your documentation and testing pipeline templated out, as if future you were an entirely different developer. Sharing the work with future you requires as much care as sharing with a stranger. It's completely changed how I work, and you may find it helpful for your hiring in the future.

Thank you so much!!!! I followed along with the planning phase (as just a roadmap to my demo) and seeing it all for the first time made me so happy. I can see this "little" project of mine getting done now.

The crazy thing is just a few weeks before you posted this I started working on my NPCs, of which there are 99 non-quest related ones I had to make, I made a graph of checkboxes for each NPC I make with incentives for every 5 NPCs. I can't have any substantial free time before I complete each row, and once that free time has expired I need to work on the next row. Planning, organization, and incentive have helped skyrocket my production and I'm still finding time to do other things like playing video games. In fact, I'd say that since I started actually putting my mind to working on my game I've had *more* meaningful free time, which I think is just the result of no longer waffling about and trying to decide what I want to do instead of having time that I value. In your case, I'd think that "complete x amount of levels before working on a RU-vid video" could be a good incentive, since it would push you to create so you could go back to your job and thus help further fund the game.

Dear Mister GMTK - Mark - You do great job with your game, time after Time you worked on it, get new impressions on it, changed it - it works very well. I hope you do amazing! You are amazing! Thanks for sharing your work!

project scoping and scope creeping are terrifying things to control, its good to see you finally sticking with a plan that's send you to the right direction. can't wait for the finished product

Great video. From the title, I was expecting it to be more like putting the finishing touches on a nearly complete project, which is where I'm at with my Grimrock 2 dungeon. That's the video I look forward to seeing: that transition from beta testing to 1.0 release.

youre my favorite developer/tutorial guy/youtuber, every time someone tells me "i wanna make a game but idk how" i always recommend your channel it's so good it's the best

Your experience with gamedev, especially the on-and-off development, the many months not spent progressing, and the small changes without a plan, hoping to get things done at some point, sounds a lot similar to how I felt while writing my Bachelor's thesis. I spent two years writing it on-and-off, with not a lot of plan, juggling the thesis and coursework, sometimes not working on it for 4 months, and returning to it became very daunting. For me, what helped the most was getting a plan, especially the part where I list what is absolutely needed for it to be somehow finishable, polish can come later once the thesis feels more or less complete. The second thing that helped was setting a deadline. I knew it was a self-imposed deadline and not final, but it helped a lot with getting things to progress. I finally finished my thesis in September, and it was a wonderful feeling, and I wish you all the best in finishing your game as well. You're great!

I have always appreciated how self-reflective and transparent you are in your videos. I want to also add that, as a high school math teacher, these videos almost always make me think about teaching problem solving. Your description of a time to be creative and a time to plan reminds me of the need for divergent and convergent thinking, respectively. The metacognition required to make, revise, and carry out a plan is such a useful life skill that I try to teach my students. Best of luck with the end of this journey!

I will fully anticipate a giraffe in this game now thank you Mark

This is exactly what happened with my first board game -- it took me 5 years. 4 years of noodling around and 1 year of actually putting together a plan and getting it done. Having learned my lesson, I made 6 board games in the 2 years following.

As soon as this game comes out I am going on a hunt for the giraffes that are definitely in this game

Love the logo, nice and simple and the tilted letters is a nice touch!

I love the sly announcement of the giraffe DLC.

Reminds me of a lecture on creativity from John Cleese, where he speaks at length about open and closed phases of the developpement of a creative endeavour. If you want to prolounge the reflexion about when to start planning and when you prefer to keep your horizons opened, that would be a good place to start probably.

I've played some of the demos and I'm Really excited for the finished game! This series has been really inspiring! Thank you Mark and I can't wait to play!

Achievement unlocked: release a game before Mark does :D A plan is an essential thing, especially when it comes to throwing out dozens of trello cards that aren't really as important as you've thought they are, and estimating the scope of what's left. Wishlisted the game, good luck with finishing it!

The letter 'A' in Mind Over Magnet looks like an amongus. I like these videos, they help motivate me when working on my own game! good video.

This comment is to support you, my man. You have given me countless pieces of advice on game Dev. Thank You!

congrats! you've hit a super large step in the process. it's all home stretch, now!

If you are planning on doing similar work in the future, having another project or what-not; you should have a video series where you do something that doesn't require as much effort: Reaction videos to youtube comments etc, with gameplay in the background that is related

I'd argue (from personnal experience) that a plan can also be hurtful especially if you're a solo dev looking for new ways to blame yourself. It can be daunting, disheartening and make everything look like it takes forever ... But then again, noodling around too. To me the real game changer (haha) was to get involved with other devs in their projects. I can't do long tedious work for myself, I'm broken that way. I lose faith fast. When someone else believes in doing the stuff, I am much more forgiving to the little flaws the game will have to carry till the end. That's another huge point, avoid struggling for better everytime you can, accept flaws. Good is good enough. Finishing an imperfect game is better than giving up a perfect one. Also don't forget your mental health check, and take care of yourselves.

"There's no giraffes in this game." Well, that's your DLC plans right there. Add giraffes.

I’ve been a hobbyist game developer for 12 years now. I started when I was 12 years old, in scratch, I learned c# and Unity when I was 14. I’ve graduated from college with a degree in game development. I’ve still not finished one single game ever, for precisely the reason you’ve mentioned in the first 3 minutes. I cannot for the life of me ever figure out what exactly I need to do to move a game past a fun prototype into an actual game, eventually grow frustrated with the lack of progress, realise the prototype could never be actually be a full game or grow the hate the game I’m making and start again, with a whole new game idea, and the cycle begins again. This video was very inspiring to me, to see another person struggle with the same problem, because this is genuinely the first time in over a decade I’ve seen anyone else talk about struggling with the same thing, and has slightly helped the major imposter syndrome my inability to finish anything has given me.

The first couple of minutes of this are extremely relatable. I have a game that's been on and off the back burner for years. The most productive periods I had were where I had a full plan for the game set out. That said, still entirely possible to get derailed.

Will definitely play it, Mark. Thanks for your efforts!

One of the most honest dev videos I've seen

Congratulations Mark! I'm glad you get to this point. Whistling it right now! Are you listening, robots? Push this thing up in search results and recommendations!