GameMakersToolkit
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2022 Year in Review
🕑 Added 2022-12-28 10:30:18 +0000 UTCHello everyone. It’s time for the annual “year in review” post, where I take an analytical look at my last 12 months’ worth of work, and see what worked, what didn’t, and what could be improved for next year.
So, after a disappointing year of stats in 2021, this year... has been even worse! GMTK had the lowest yearly new subscriber intake since 2016.
The videos received, overall, fewer views than previous years.
And there are fewer backers on Patreon. Though, that's one being seen by a lot of creators - understandable, given the economic reality.
But this time: I don't really care! Simply because 2022 has been one of my favourite years doing Game Maker's Toolkit - I'm so proud of the quality, variety, and impact of this year's content, and I've had an absolute blast making it.
So while the stats don't quite match my own enthusiasm, I'd rather get good views on content I love making, than huge views on content that I hate working on and feel ashamed to put into the world.
Anyway. Let's talk about what I did in the last 12 months.
The videos
I made 19 videos in 2022 - that's a nice jump from last year (where I only made 16).
I find the best way to compare their reception is to look at how many views they received in the first ten days of release - that keeps it consistent, and ignores how long a video has been online. So, here I've ranked them in that order... (I'm writing this before Xmas, so the last couple videos don't have enough data yet).
Okay, let's break them down into their individual shows...
Game Maker's Toolkit videos
As usual, my best performing content has been the classic game design videos that helped grow my channel in the first place. General design topics seen through the lens of lots of games, like invisible choices, economies, combining genres, and problem solving.
I'm really happy with these videos - especially the one on solving problems. It's a video I've been working on for years as I had been slowly collecting the 11 stories that would make up the final episode. And it did really well, with over one million views in just nine days - I've never had a video blow up that fast before!
The video on economies is also one I'm really proud of - the visual design really aids my explanation, and it's a complex topic but distilled down to an something easy to grasp. That one has gone on to surpass invisible choices, in terms of views, over time.
There were also some game-specific videos on Elden Ring (technically a Boss Keys episode), Deathloop, Hitman 3 (another stab at On the Level), and Rollerdrome, which were more mixed. Elden Ring had a fantastic reception, but Rollerdrome was predictably less popular (it's a pretty niche indie game).
But that last one is totally fine. The Rollerdrome video had a very specific purpose which was to celebrate the fact that the GMTK Game Jam has spawned an awesome, award-winning indie game. It's also a great advert for promoting GMTK's impact on the industry.
So, basically, these videos are the backbone of the channel, and so it's important that even when I'm experimenting with other formats, or doing game dev, I'm always topping up the views with one of these big design videos. Plenty more to come in 2023!
Developing
Last year I began my new series, Developing, where I'm sharing the process of making my first video game. Performance of the videos has been mixed, but people are really enjoying the series and I can already see how making the transition to being an actual game developer and designer is improving the channel.
For example, the video on combining genres was directly inspired by my own challenges with defining my game's genre (and my game was used as an example in the video). And getting better at Unity led to two big videos: more on them in a second.
I also released two playable demos of the game, which is quite a monumental step I think! And overall, I'm just really enjoying the process of making this thing, as well as sharing the process with y'all.
My only disappointment with Developing is... I still haven't finished this darn magnet game! More on that later.
Platformer Toolkit and Unity Tutorial
I'm so pleased with Platformer Toolkit - I think it's one of the coolest things I've done on Game Maker's Toolkit in a long, long time: it's bold, unique, and has had an amazing reception (though, the video to announce its existence didn't get many views, sadly).
If you haven't seen it, Platformer Toolkit is an interactive episode of GMTK. It's like a video where I talk about how different stats and features can change the feel of a platformer. But now you don't have to just see or hear me explain it - you can feel it for yourself, as you get the tools to tweak how the in-game character works.
Platformer Toolkit couldn't have been made without me learning Unity, so that's another bonus for Developing. And I've had a great reception from teachers and parents who want to use it to help explain game design to youngsters.
The Unity tutorial was also good - though, again, views are predictably low (only a small fraction of my viewers are beginners who want to learn Unity - hopefully the numbers will pick up over time as more and more people search for the topic).
The comments are amazing, though. I really wanted to make an inspiring tutorial that would effectively introduce people to Unity and C Sharp coding. And I've had comments from people saying they used it to make their first game - and comments from educators and Unity users who say its among the best tutorials they've seen. Really pleased with that.
The real proof will come a few months, or years, down the line - did it actually lead to people learning game dev? We'll have to wait and see.
Game Jam
The game jam was another success. We, once again, had more sign-ups and games than ever before, and the GMTK Jam remains Itch.io's biggest jam.
I've talked a lot about this one in a post mortem post, so I'll save my word count. The main takeaway: the theme ("Roll of the Dice") led to a lot of similar games, and invoked a lot of 'dice fatigue'. And so next year's theme will definitely not include a noun!
GMTK Mini
Finally, I ended the year with a new format called GMTK Mini. Here's what happened: shortly after the launch of God of War Ragnarök, people were chatting about the game's design (specifically, how often the characters provide hints to puzzles) all over Twitter, forums, and articles. I wanted to join in the discourse... but how?!
GMTK videos typically take one or two weeks to produce, so the discussion would be over by the time I joined it - plus, the topic just didn't feel big enough for a full episode. And I could do a Tweet thread, but that would only be shown to a tiny fraction of my audience (and, besides, Elon Musk had just bought Twitter and so I'm less interested in the site than ever before).
In the end I decided to try something new: make a short and scrappy video in a single day. I wrote it in the morning, recorded my voice before lunch, edited it in the afternoon, and uploaded it just before dinner.
And it was really fun! Putting that time pressure on myself made for a fun creative challenge. And by acknowledging the fact that this isn't a real episode of GMTK, I gave myself permission to talk about something small, and to be more opinionated.
I enjoyed it so much, I soon followed it up with a sequel - this time inspired by the launch of Fortnite Chapter 4. I look forward to doing more in 2023.
Beyond YouTube
While most of my work is on YouTube, I also did some stuff elsewhere in 2022. So let's talk about that.
Talks and lectures
One of my favourite bits of the job is getting to go to schools, studios, and universities to meet people and talk about game design.
The pandemic put a stop to that in recent years, and in 2020 and 2021 I didn't travel at all. But I made up for it in 2022! I did talks in Boden and Skelleftea (in Sweden), in Berlin, and in London. And, best of all I was made a special guest lecturer in Breda, in the Netherlands. I gave four guest lectures and workshops, and gave feedback to student projects.
I also stayed in Amsterdam, which was a blast. I visited studios and other universities in the Netherlands, and held the first ever GMTK meet-up! Thanks to all that came to drink and say hi!
Doing these talks was a great deal of fun - my standout memory was doing a workshop where we just threw Pokemon Arceus up on the big whiteboard screen and chatted about its UI for ages - well into the students' lunch time.
I hope to do more of this stuff in the future - it's a really rewarding thing. And being asked to take endless selfies is a nice boost to the ol' ego, for sure.
Itch.io
An added benefit of releasing games and demos... is more stats!
In 2022, Platformer Toolkit had 155,000 views, 100,000 browser plays, and 20,000 downloads. The Untitled Magnet Game demo had 67,000 views, and 30,000 downloads. Fun!
It will be great fun to see the stats of the magnet game when it's finally finished.
Nebula
Back in February I joined Nebula (a streaming platform with ad-free YouTube videos). Unfortunately, this one hasn't really worked out. It's very hard to make money on the site unless you're promoting it (that's why so many channels talk about the Curiosity Stream bundle in their sponsored bits). Or you're making them exclusive content (all my bonus stuff goes directly to Patreon, only).
And so I hardly made anything from the site! Whoops! I'll probably remove my content from Nebula in the new year and focus exclusively on YouTube and Patreon. Nevermind.
YouTube ads
Okay, so this one actually is about YouTube, but I can't find a better place to talk about it. Also this year I made a decision on YouTube advertising: the new rule is that when a video turns one year old, I turn on ads for that video (just skippable ads before the video - no mid-rolls or anything like that).
I think this worked really well! It ensures that my new content is ad-free for everyone - but my older library of legacy content can make some extra passive income. And it's done well: my YouTube revenue has gone up 50%, and has covered the shortfall in Patron drop offs.
I also haven't had any major backlash, or heard any issues with educators wanting to use my stuff. So I'm going to keep going with this - and maybe change it so videos receive ads after six months, instead of 12.
Other stuff
This year I also won the Unity award for best devlog. I was on a panel for the first time - talking about detective games with Obra Dinn designer Lucas Pope. The Hollow Knight Boss Keys video was added to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. And I got recognised in McDonalds.
Weird year.
Conclusion, 2023 Goals
So, overall I'm really proud of what I managed with GMTK.
The content is varied - with analysis videos, opinionated minis, developer interviews, Boss Keys, a game jam, an interactive essay, a tutorial, and dev logs.
It's having an impact - in education, in game jam games that turn into full releases, and inspiring viewers to learn game dev.
And, best of all, I'm just really enjoying making it!
I spoke in 2021 about my near year-long burn out. But now I feel as excited as ever to make GMTK as good as it can be. The videos were a joy to make, developing the game has been rewarding, the talks and trips were a blast, and I feel really proud of everything I'm putting out.
The only thing that's nagging at me is... I still haven't finished my dang magnet game!
And a big reason behind this, I think, is that whenever I work on the game, I feel guilty and anxious that I'm not working on normal GMTK videos for YouTube. But... when I'm working on videos, I feel guilty and anxious that I'm not working on my game! That's not a good combination!
So I think a good way to fix this would be to give myself a bit more structure. What I'm going to try in 2023 is to alternate months between game development and video making. So I'll spend January working on my game (and release an episode of Developing), and then February making YouTube videos, and the back to game dev in March, and so on.
This should hopefully mean that both sides of my channel get equal treatment, that it's never going to be too long between videos or devlogs, and that people should know what I'm doing - and I don't have to worry that people might think I'm not working hard.
And so I only have one goal for 2023. Sure, I have plenty of video ideas for next year and loads of other plans. But in terms of a concrete goal to work towards, there's one, big, singular plan...
Release the magnet game!
Thank you
Thanks so much for your support in 2023. It's hard to state how thankful and grateful I am for you all. There is simply no better way to help a YouTuber than through direct, monthly donations like you do here. You literally make it possible for me to spend every working moment being focused on delivering high quality game design content to the world.
Next year I'll try to deliver more behind the scenes content - that's always fun. And, as usual, more reading lists and bonus videos!
Cheers - have a happy new year and I'll see you in January!
Comments
JC
To provide some insight, from my own personal standpoint: One of the reasons for decreased engagement and lower retention overall is, I just don't think the "Developing" / Unity series is that interesting. When I first subscribed to your channel a couple years ago, I came for the high-quality video essays and design docs that detailed elements of games I liked. Seeing it suddenly switch to a new format in which you talk at length about something that, to me, is far less interesting, has been disappointing, and eventually I simply stopped watching those particular videos altogether and only watch ones you upload that are done in "classic" GMTK style, such as your video on game economies, or your design dive on Ori and the Will of the Wisps, to name a couple of examples. I'm a gamer, not a game developer. And while I do like learning about the medium I enjoy so much, I'm just not interested in videos that go into the minutiae of developing for Unity. Take this for whatever it's worth. At the end of the day, the reason I still stick around is because you haven't yet entirely abandoned the "classic" GMTK video essay format, and because I like your voice, I think you have a slick editing style, and I can tell you generally put a lot of work into your videos and that you're both knowledgeable and passionate about the topic.
Harsha
Really insightful! I can certainly say your content has felt better than ever before. Really glad to have joined as a Patreon supported and plan to keep doing so for a long time till this kind of content is coming in :)
Tom Page
I don't know - I don't run a YouTube channel and don't have the domain knowledge to make a good decision. I think if you are unhappy then definitely that's a good indicator something is wrong, so conversely being happy is a good measure of some success. Patreon subscribers is probably not a bad measure of whether you have a following who are interested long-term in your work (noting, as Mark has said, that you would need to normalise this for general trends in Patreon membership). But I wouldn't listen to me on the right way to measure success, partly as it's almost certainly a bundle of measures, and partly as I'd instead speak to other creators of videos who are happy and running sustainable channels.
What would you consider a primary success metric?
Tom Page
I'm really glad you're *enjoying* your work more now. This really matters (probably more than almost anything else). I was never that much of a fan of "this video had this many views, and this video has this many" because it made it look like the primary success factor was views. Obviously it's good for more people to see things, but it's not the primary metric. I've not found the Developing series as engaging; it's perhaps a bit less universal and I suppose a bit too uncomfortably close to home given I'm a real procrastinator at times. But *this is fine*! It's okay to make some videos that some people don't like - what is more important is you enjoy it, and you have an audience who engage and are enjoying with you.
Love the stats. Andy Grove (from Intel) has an excellent point in “High Output Management” that goals should always be paired with quality and quantity metrics to avoid perverse incentives inherent in either. That way you don’t do a crap job putting out as much volume as possible. With the volume stats you mention up front, it makes me wonder what the “quality” stats could be. Possibly engagement? Possibly longer Patreon retention stats? I see you providing lots of qualitative assessments that assure you of quality but I’m curious if measuring quality from a quantitative metric might help pressure test those assumptions. How do other content producers measure quality?
Josh Foreman
Glad you got your groove back! I'd love to see a meta analytic breakdown across YouTube in general. I'm active in game design, art (which I have a channel for) and breadtube, and all of these categories have ballooned with great content over the past couple years to the point of over-saturation. I used to "run out" of content related to my interests, but now I'm drowning in it. I can only imagine this is cutting up the pie into thinner and thinner slices now that most people who would watch YouTube ARE watching YouTube. (Very few people just discovering YT for the first time these days)
Nick Vance
Thanks for the detailed reflection post. I'm bummed that Nebula has not been doing well for you. I've really come to love the service over the last year with tons of my favorite video essayists including you joining the site. I noted your latest GMTK Mini on Fortnite didn't even get posted there. 🙁 I don't know what the LoE is for you to continue using Nebula even if you don't promote it, but selfishly I'd love for you to stay on the service. I just find it to be a much nicer and cleaner watching experience (especially from the TV app) compared to YouTube's mass of content and algorithmic recommendations.
Dave Pickett
Always apprecaite these reflection points. Really happy to hear you say "I don't care!" Given how close you were coming to burn out, it's a glorious thing to see you reenergized
Wawro
Incredible work. I really appreciate how much effort and time you put into your passion. I will be a continued subscriber. Keep it up!
Matteo @Paleblue Narratives
So glad to hear that you are at peace again with your job. Happy new year to you, your family and all the GMTK patrons <3
Jason K
Cheers, Mark! It's really great to see how much you've reoriented your work around creating what makes you happy rather than pumping subscriber numbers or view counts. It's better for you, and ultimately, I think your content is better for it as well.
jt
So glad to hear that you're excited - I feel like that's also come through in the videos you've been making! Also I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but thank you for mentioning your talk at LudoNarraCon - both yours and so many of the talks were wonderful to listen to! Hearing you talk about juggling making videos and finishing the game is a struggle I also have balancing different projects. Your approach of trading off months has given me a couple of ideas to try for myself in 2023. Thanks for another great year and looking forward to 2023!
Virak
Love the postmortems you do at the end of the year! Super inspiring to see all that you’ve done in 2023! Love the new types of content like the minis too. Happy new year Mark!
This has by far been one of my favourite years for GMTK. The Unity tutorial/dev videos got me back into making games and working on side projects again. As a youtube premium sub I don't have input on the ads, but I rarely clicked off a video if it had an ad at the beginning so putting them on after 6 months shouldn't be an issue, especially if it helps support the channel. As a software engineer, I am always in support of more devlogs as I love seeing more behind the scenes, even if they ended up being patreon-only posts. Even if the stats don't show it, this has been an outstanding year for GMTK, from the devlogs, design vids to the mini's I hope to see more in the future, Happy new year!
Mickaël Godard
Thanks for sharing all that with us, it is very interesting and inspiring. I am glad you feel so positive about your evolution. That also makes me feel good about supporting you. I am excited about the content you will bring in 2023!
Tom Stuart
Before I read this post, my subjective impression was that this has been GMTK’s best year ever, mainly because of the increased diversity of what you’re producing (e.g. everything Unity-related), as well as it generally seeming more sustainable from the outside. So, while it’s a shame the stats don’t bear that out, I still think you should feel incredibly proud of what you’ve made this year. Happy new year Mark!
