Review | Mind Over Magnet for Xbox - An Interactive Dev Diary
On September 16, 2021, the video “What’s next for GMTK?” was uploaded to the Game Maker’s Toolkit YouTube channel. This video was a non-commercial announcement that Mark Brown, the host of Game Maker’s Toolkit, had begun developing his first video game, following his at that time nearly decade-long focus on game design on the channel, which started in 2014. Originally released on PC in 2024, the resulting game, Mind Over Magnet, came out on all major platforms on August 15 of this year. This date also marked the final video in Brown’s development YouTube series — simply titled, Developing — which announced the game’s simultaneous console release.
Whilst it was not typical for reviews of Baldur’s Gate 3 — for example — to open by describing the game’s change of hands from BioWare to Larian and then detailing the early-access and development stages, this approach feels the most apt for Mind Over Magnet. Experiencing the game is experiencing the final milestone of a nearly half-decade-long project from a well-regarded and semi-prolific content creator, and the best recommendation that I can give the game keeps the whole journey in mind.
Mind Over Magnet is a 2D puzzle platformer where you, the player, control a small robot called Uni and utilise the powers provided by your magnet friends — Magnus, Min, and Max — to clear and solve short, room-based challenges. Each room requires you to reach a goal at the end by beating puzzles that stem from a layman’s understanding of magnets and polarity (e.g., magnets are drawn to certain metal surfaces, and holding a strong enough magnet can pull you towards them also).
I found that the puzzles were mostly quite easy; however, the increase in challenge as levels progressed — whilst not ridiculous — was adequate for the game’s two-hour runtime. I halved the length of my playthrough when I took another punt at beating the game, and I’d chalk it down to the time I spent stumped by some of the later levels’ puzzles.
Most of the puzzles hinge on one to three of the game’s two dozen or so mechanics (such as switches, weighted boxes, or magnet throwing), and the last few rooms combine more of them to create a mechanically satisfying conclusion. The game’s best puzzles hold a more complicated solution behind a simple façade, requiring more thought after the initially obvious-seeming approach fails to clear a room. Brown identifies this as a strength of Mind Over Magnet in the game’s director’s commentary track early on. However, I’d argue that this more nuanced approach to difficulty in game design is underutilised, and a harder game overall might’ve left a more resonating feeling of accomplishment after rolling credits.
The game’s overall lack of friction alludes to its biggest shortcoming: its oddly corporate identity. Uni is a dismissed company drone who chooses to help his recently laid-off colleagues — the magnets — leave the workplace where almost the entire game is set. While the short length and minimal difficulty can evoke the impression of a commercial product sanded down for the widest possible demographic, the aesthetic and tone of Mind Over Magnet are far worse offenders in this regard. The presence of narrative is light and weakly gestures at the issues with corporate hierarchy and bottom-line preservation with plot beats such as getting laid off; however, the game refuses to diminish its positive and happy exterior to meaningfully explore the implications of these problems or comment on their presence in the games industry. Furthermore, the clean and sharp art style with distinct colours results in an unfortunate pairing with the soft music and the lack of foreground elements — à la Hollow Knight — to elicit the feeling of company training videos and corporate-sponsored advertisements. Braid, Bokura, and even the recent Everdeep Aurora all manage to maintain their readability as puzzle platformers while harbouring more texture in their art styles. It’s a shame that the only element of Mind Over Magnet’s aesthetic to remain in my memory after playing was the background artwork.
Having said all of that, I can attest that the art style does at least succeed in retaining the polish expected from the creator of videos on the GMTK YouTube channel. Seen as the finale of the game development series, the aesthetic of Mind Over Magnet isn’t just excusable; it can be quite charming. Cementing this idea is the game’s developer’s commentary option, which becomes available after hitting the credits for the first time. In this mode, most of the game’s rooms contain a speaker that, when activated, plays a track of Brown monologuing over your gameplay. A personal highlight of this mode was finding out about the physics and design concessions made to favour the player’s experience, pointing my attention to something I can now — somewhat — recognise in other games. In allowing us to choose when he narrates over the game, Brown has afforded players the autonomy to turn Mind Over Magnet into an interactive dev diary or YouTube video during a second playthrough.
With no technical flaws or glitches to speak of on Xbox, Mind Over Magnet feels polished to the point of almost being too clean. Whilst this does hold back the game's memorability as a piece of interactive art, I certainly appreciated — and certainly recommend — the feeling of being involved in the GMTK’s clean Developing finale, and participating in the home run to Brown’s long game development journey.
