Magnet Agent Dev Log #3

The art style of Magnet Agent was inspired by a platform adventure game I absolutely love — Pikuniku (10/10，highly recommended).

It’s extremely minimal, yet incredibly lively.

Clean visuals, playful shapes, and full of comedic tension.

At the time, I thought:

“This style would be PERFECT for a ridiculous, absurd comedy game like Magnet Agent.”

Hehehe… (villainous scheming laughter)

And then I fell straight into the pit.

1. The War of Colors

Magnetism is the core mechanic of this game.

Since it’s all about opposing poles, I immediately chose red and blue as the main colors — the most intuitive representation of magnetic polarity.

But that was only the beginning of the real challenge.

Once the screen fills up with different elements, how do you make sure red and blue always maintain the highest visual priority?

The background can’t steal attention.

The UI can’t interfere.

Decorations can’t blur the focus.

Every color adjustment becomes a trade-off.

This is the cruel truth of minimalism:

Too many colors? It’s chaos.

Too few colors? It’s boring.

2. Simple… But Not Simple

“ Isn’t this style supposed to be simple? ”

Yes. And no.

Without outlines, every object must rely entirely on:

• Color contrast

• Shape language

• Visual hierarchy

• Rhythm and composition

The simpler the shapes, the less room for mistakes.

The cleaner the colors, the less tolerance for error.

This kind of “simple but not simple” design actually demands more refinement than complex art styles.

3. Backgrounds: My Greatest Enemy

To be honest —

I’m really bad at drawing backgrounds.

Environment design became the most torturous part of the entire project. I’ve tested countless versions.

Redrawn, adjusted, scrapped, and redrawn again. And I still feel like there’s so much room to improve.

Sometimes I doubt myself. But every iteration is at least slightly better than the last one.

(Yes… slightly. Just a tiny bit.)

Maybe that’s the romance of being an indie developer.

4. The Reality of Being a Solo Artist

I’m the only artist on the team.

Characters, UI, environments, effects, asset integration —

everything goes through me. It’s a long-term battle of stamina and mental energy. But because of that, the game’s visual language stays consistent. Pain and satisfaction always arrive together.

Closing Thoughts

Despite all the struggles,

we’ve survived the chaotic early phase.

The project is steadily moving forward.

Thank you to my boss, Bridge —

I promise I’ll finally learn how to properly set UI anchors.

And thank you to my teammates for supporting me,

and for tolerating my occasional meeting breakdowns and incomprehensible noises.

I hope this game can be completed successfully.

And I hope one day, players will be able to see our persistence reflected in every frame.

—

Artist,

Lulu Bear