Mark's Month - October 2024

Hello Patrons. Here's your monthly Markly update for October.

What I've Been Working On

October was all about finishing up Mind Over Magnet. That includes all those last minute things like Steam achievements. Plus a final extra feature: a developer commentary track!

I then put together a small team of QA testers on the GMTK Discord and had them run through the game over and over again. Together they found over 80 bugs and problems, which was... fun!

So every day I would update the bug spreadsheet (a Google sheet with a description for the bug and how important it was to fix from 1-5). And then go row by row, fixing issues.

That included such things as... the resolution picker breaks on 16:10 screens. The game doesn't save progress until level 1-2. Magnus moves slightly to the left if you bounce him off a ceiling. Typos and grammar mishaps in the cutscenes. And more.

It was gruelling, but well worth it. The game is now pretty polished and, hopefully, doesn't have any massive bugs! I guess we'll find out in a couple weeks.

What I'm Working On

I've also been putting together a video for the 10 year anniversary of GMTK, which lands on November 6th. I went back and forth a lot on what sort of video to make. Something sappy and self indulgent? A quick 1 minute 'thank you'? I just couldn't figure it out!

In the end I've gone for a look back at all the lessons I've learned in the last decade. What are the key takeaways? It's a chance to wrap up the last 10 year's worth of videos, and also lets me look at times where I've been completely wrong and stupid. What's an anniversary without some self deprecation?

That will be out on the 6th, to mark the milestone.

Finally - I've been working on a couple new videos. I've done the bulk of the research for one, and about half the research for the other. Sadly I don't feel like I can work on either properly until this Magnet-shaped millstone is off my neck. But hopefully at the end of the year or early 2025!

What I've Been Up To

October is usually a time to stay inside, bed in, and hibernate. But I've actually had a few different events. Including another developer meet up, and a fun escape room... thing.

It's called Enigma Arcades, and features 30 small rooms. Each one contains a little challenge or puzzle. Like, in one we had to jump on coloured tiles on a massive LED rig on the floor. In another we had to redirect lasers using mirrors. And so on. Each one lasts 5 minutes.

So you've got an hour to run from room to room doing different challenges. And others are racing alongside you - all competing for score. So sometimes you'll be fighting over rooms!

The whole gave me a vibe of like... real life Wario Ware. While the rules of the room are written outside the door, the time pressure meant it was better to just get in the room and figure it out on for yourself.

Anyhoo, it was good fun. Thanks to Patron David for reaching out and inviting me!

As for video games... I've been playing Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. I like it quite a lot! It hasn't grabbed me like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. In fact, I've had the game for a month and I still haven't finished it. But I do like being able to overcome problems - or completely break the map - by spawning in objects.

I'm surprised the game doesn't discourage using the same objects over and over, mind you. I find myself gravitating to the same few strategies on repeat - I'd appreciate something to force me to mix it up and try something else. Also the UI is pretty bad - once you have a bunch of echoes to pick from, having everything in a single row of icons gets ridiculous.

I also played a bit of the Silent Hill 2 remake. It's very pretty, but turning this game into yet another behind-the-bum shooter is weird to me. I love Resident Evil 4, but does every horror game have to copy it? I just wanna get lost in a spooky town, not beat up the same enemy 50 times.

Finally, I talked last month about finishing up the two System Shock games. This month I went ahead and replayed BioShock. And to make it interesting I turned off the omnipresent, Crazy Taxi-inspired floating compass arrow. And... wow, the game is much more engrossing and immersive. Who would have thunk it!

And what's wild... the game is really quite easy to play and follow without the arrow. The environments are covered in signs, arrows, and labels. And the quests are clear and intuitive. I wonder what led Irrational to believe that people would be unable to play this game without an arrow pointing the way?

Anyway, that's me. Back to my hibernation! See you next month!