Patrick's Parabox

Patrick Traynor advises making a puzzle's limits obvious to players. After playing the Mind Over Magnet demo for two hours, Traynor told its maker, Mark Brown, to show clearly what the player cannot do. If a gap is too wide to jump, make it very wide. If a door closes too fast to pass, have it snap shut immediately.

The aim is to let players rule out wrong approaches so they don't waste time on impossible solutions. Traynor's phrasing: "So, if a gap is too big for the player to jump, it should be a really big gap."

Traynor says to simplify levels when testers find them tedious, even if easier. Traynor advised Brown to simplify levels even if that made the game easier. Brown ignored it until his dad's playtest. After the rework, GDC players found the challenge about right.

Players called Mind Over Magnet 'a real video game' and refused to give the Steam Deck back until they finished. One fiddly level still needed more simplifying. Brown: "Turns out it was completely the right move to make the game easier, and in fact, I hadn't gone far enough."

Traynor treats thinking like a player as a skill you can hone. Designers who have played for months know the rules as well as their author. That leads to overtuned difficulty and mechanics that are never taught. Traynor says putting yourself in the player's shoes can be improved over time.

Brown made both errors in Mind Over Magnet: difficulty tuned too hard and mechanics left untaught. His takeaway: "always challenge your assumptions about your players."