Magnetic (first person puzzle game)

Hello fellow Unity developers!

My name is Joel Juvél and I am the Lead Programmer at Guru Games. We're a small 12 person indie game studio based in Skövde, Sweden. We are currently working on our first game called Magnetic.

Magnetic is a first person puzzle game that lets the player manipulate and master magnetic forces. The mechanics are focused around a single tool: The magnet gun, with diverse applications that helps the player navigate the deadly futuristic prison-maze they have been cast into.
The prison facility is controlled by the Warden, a sadistic and arrogant middle aged man that claims you have been placed there for past crimes, and that you deserve no better. Each chamber within the vast prison offers a unique challenge, ranging from classic puzzles to moral choices.

The Game is inspired by games such as Portal, Antichamber and Quantum Conondrum. We’re also inspired by the environment and the world seen in the Cube movies.

The game mechanics are focused both around solving puzzles but are also skillbased as you can soar through the air and manipulate the environment by using magnetic forces. The game is therefore a blend between fast paced action and logical puzzle solving.

The trailer of the game can be seen below:

Picture showing one of the playable Cubes inside Magnetic


Picture showing one of the playable Cubes in Magnetic​

If you have any questions regarding Magnetic feel free to comment and we will do our best to answer your questions. Each week we will also make a larger update from one of our developers in the form of a development blog, therefore you can follow the games production from either a programming, design, artist or sound-perspective, whatever you’re interested in!

 

i love it, will there also be some enemys in the game or only puzzling?

 

Hello!

Thank you for the kind words! The game will focus on puzzle and performative skills and there will no "visible" enemies for the player to encounter.

 

Some updates on what we're currently working on! Some news on how we're thinking when designing levels and how to make a nice flow for the game.

We're now moving on to new areas and new places for the players to explore inside the Cube Network of Magnetic. Like many puzzle games, such as Portal, understood during their process of creating a game, we also understood how boring it can be to be stuck in one area that's always the same. In our case, this is the Testing Cubes which the player spends the majority of the game inside. After spending hours inside these chambers you want to see something else. You want to see what's outside the large Cubes which you've traversed through. We have therefore worked with an area in which the player can get outside and be on the Cubes, solving puzzles over a larger area, making large leaps from one cube to another with the help of the Magnet Gun and so on. We also want to make this an area where the player doesn't have to solve puzzles 100 % of the time, but also explore the world and see that the facitlity where the player is actually is a large prison and not just the Cube Network.

Concept Art for the large chambers where the Cubes are moving around
​

Making areas where the player can breathe and explore is something important for us right now. Successful games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent works with this alot (in my opinion) and creates areas in which the player gets a moment to just breathe and take a break from immense gameplay. We have therefore started designing a few levels where there is not alot of Magnet Gun interactive gameplay, but more story focused in order to make the game world more alive.

Concept Art from an area which is more focused on the story of the game than intense gameplay.​

Concept Art showing a broken pathway inside the Cube Network​

So guys. What do you think about these design philosophies, good or bad? Is there anything you feel that most 3D-puzzlers are missing out that you'd love to see in a game? Talk to us and let's have an interesting discussion about the subject at hand!

 

havent played much puzzle games, but i like the explore and take a breath idea, maybe add a female computer voice and tv sreens occasionally like in the first system shock game, its just an idea

 

Appreciate the feedback and the ideas! We've actually planned for the polishing phase on adding screens like in the first System Shock Game. Great minds think alike I guess.

 

great! that will give a sense of not being completely alone in those cubes

 

Hello everyone. My name is Petter and I work at guru games. We tried out doing a developer walkthrough of one of our levels this week. Martin is talking a bit about the design process of the map and what inspired him.

What do you guys think? is it to long? to short? Is it at all interesting? What would you like to see more/less of?

 

looks great. will be interesting to see what kind of puzzles you guys can come up with.
I imagine keeping the variety of challenges for the player will be a challenge for you level designers

 

As soon as i saw "Magnet Gun" my mind just screamed "Portaaal!"
haha Amazing art, i'm interested to see where you guys go with this

EDIT: Watched the video, frankly i'm a bit wary cause it seems a bit too portal-ish
with the rooms and level design... I would recommend changing it up
a tiny bit but really solid looking gameplay! Keep it up!

PS: Also the color palette used to make the level isn't too eye appealing
in my opinion, it makes things look abit....Hmm Dull :L

 

Thanks for the feedback

We have been walking a fine line through the whole project when it comes to being like portal. The thing is that there isn't many FPS puzzle-platformers other than portal. So when it comes to jumping and solving puzzles, the game is definitively similar to portal. However, the magnetic gun is in no way like a portal gun and let's us design puzzles very different to portal. You will not be thinking with portal, you'll be Magneto

We have a different set of color pallets throughout the game, I hope you won't find all of them ugly

Thanks for your time

 

Steam page, Publisher and PAX South!

Hello everyone, Petter here again,

A lot of things has been happening lately and the time has finally come to go public with it! As late as the day before Christmas the papers with Gambitious was signed and thereby ending our very long search for a good publisher. It has been a long search and we have been very close to signing some deals that we would probably regret today. Ever since everyone got back to work after the holidays we have been preparing frivolously for everything from localization, QA, Consumer shows and console support together with Gambitious and it's been going great!

Today marks a big day for Guru Games, our very first game Magnetic: Cage Closed is now up on Steam for the public. I can't say I didn't have my doubts in the start but it very nice to finally reach this milestone.
Store.steampowered.com

We are also glad to announce we will be attending a great number of consumer events before lauch, first up is Pax South. If you are in Texas at the end of January make sure you drop by! More info on our steam page..


Furthermore we have a smoking new trailer that definitely is our best one yet.

 

Hello everyone! Just wanted to bump our WIP thread and tell everyone that Magnetic: Cage Closed has now been released on Steam! We're planning on showing it off in the Showcase section where discussions about the finished product can be held.

We still plan to make Challenge Packs and so on and we will keep on continuing writing in our WIP thread if we have anything new and interesting to show!