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Two months into 2020 - a few GMTK updates
🕑 Added 2020-03-03 15:42:58 +0000 UTCHey all! So we’re two months through 2020, and I thought it was time to check in and let you know what’s been happening.
The channel
So the first video of 2020, The Two Types of Random, was a tremendous success! It lead to loads of new views (700,000 at time of writing) and subscribers, and led to articles on sites like Kotaku and Polygon. I’m really proud of it - though, I can’t take all the credit as Patrons who got an early look at the video contributed some great ideas.
The second video, on Shovel Knight’s Signature Moves, didn’t do nearly as well with traffic. It kinda just petered out. But I’m not too bothered - I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It’s like a nice extension of the Celeste video from last year, has some great developer insights, and it’s packed with lots of cool visual effects and demonstrative footage.
And then a few days ago I did the video on environmental storytelling. Mostly pleased with the video and its reception thus far. Maybe I should have focused a bit more on a specific subject rather than trying to do all three in one video? Initially the video was going to just be about designing levels for emotional / evocative purposes, but I decided to also talk about more traditional environmental storytelling, too. Focus Mark, focus!
The original thumbnail
One other issue I ran into with this video… it got age restricted! I got an email from YouTube this morning telling me that the video “has been placed behind an age restriction” for graphic violence. That’s the first time that’s ever happened to the channel.
I assumed that this was because of the footage of Bioshock Infinite where the dude’s face gets mashed up by a spinning saw blade. So I used YouTube’s built-in blurring tool to hide (what I assumed to be) the offending footage and sent an appeal. Soon enough, the age restriction was removed and the video is back to normal. Phew!
But it’s a good reminder that GMTK is supposed to be for a more general audience, including educational institutions. And while I’ve censored nudity and swearing in the past, I should also be more careful about excessive violence and gore. A good lesson!
I’m unofficially looking to get to a million subscribers before the end of the year. Which means I need roughly 23,000 new subs a month. January was a roaring success with over 30,000 subs, but February came in a little low with just 21,000. Fingers crossed for March!
Other business
So this month I did my first proper bit of game design consultation. I went to a game studio, played their game, and wrote a big chunky report about what I thought. I can’t tell you anything about the game, the studio, the platform, or anything - but let’s just say it was for an unannounced game from a major (major!) publisher.
This was a really cool experience! I got to play the game for two whole days, and got to chat with the designers on the team. I also got to see a game in a pretty early state of development with placeholder graphics, unfinished music, features that were set to be killed, and cutscenes where the developers did the voiceover in place of the professionals who would be drafted in at the end of the project.
It was also just fun to chat about design with real game makers. We talked about ideas for making mechanics more interesting and how to make visual designs read better. It also gave me some ideas for new videos. Hopefully the publisher liked my work and will want me back for future projects!
Next, I was a judge on a rather prestigious awards ceremony. So I got given 10 games to play - from small indie titles to obtuse simulation games and so on. I had to play all the games, then pop into London and talk about the games with my fellow judges. We then whittled that down to the six nominated games, and picked a winner.
I have to admit, my category - which sadly I can’t name - was a bit difficult. The games were so different to each other that picking a winner was very much an apples-to-oranges comparison. But I did my best and look forward to seeing which game wins (the judging was secret, so the judges don’t actually know who won yet).
Finally, I was also asked to be on my current favourite gaming podcast, The Spelunky Showlike. I actually played a short clip of the show in my random video, the hosts heard it, and asked me to come on and chat about randomness! I was initially reluctant - I don’t like doing podcasts, as I prefer to use a script. But they talked me into it and, in the end, it was okay! I didn’t make a huge fool of myself. Hooray.
Personal stuff
Unfortunately, 2020 has already proven to be very challenging from a personal standpoint, as if 2019 wasn’t tough enough. One of my family members has been struggling with mental health issues, and has actually taken several attempts at their own life. Luckily they weren’t successful, and I feel we’re now finally on the long road to recovery with the right therapy and medication. But, as you can imagine, it was pretty scary, sad, upsetting, and time consuming.
Things are finally looking up though, so me and my fiancé are currently finishing up wedding prep ahead of July! Going suit shopping this week.
I’ve also started doing a little bit of game development on the side. I tried to do some in the past but lost enthusiasm due to some really tricky programming problems. However, I was (weirdly) inspired by Dreams to return to game dev.
When I played the game, I thought to myself “why bother learning this when I could learn an actual game engine like Game Maker or Unity?” And then was like “you know, that’s exactly what I’m going to do!" So, uh, watch this space.
Oh, and finally, March 2020 marks the 10 year anniversary of me being a proper games journalist!
I’d done some stuff before then, like running British Gaming Blog, Bacon’s Bargains / VG Bargains, NinSprites / The Spriter’s Resource, some freelance work for Ready Up and Games Radar, and an internship at Wired. But in March 2010 I started as News Editor for Pocket Gamer, which was my first proper, paid, full-time(ish) job in games.
My first article was the exceedingly interesting "ngmoco's Eliminate Pro gets free co-op mode". Pulitzer Prize material right there.
From there I became Features Editor, then Deputy Editor, and finally Editor! (My last job title before leaving was “Editor at Large” as I reduced my hours to focus on GMTK). Plus, I did some more work for Wired, and freelance jobs for places like Eurogamer and Edge.
I don’t really miss it: GMTK gives me all the fun of journalism but with a bigger audience, more editorial control, no advertising issues to deal with, and - ahem - a better salary. But I wouldn’t be where I am today without those first jobs in games journalism.
Comments
Tydup00
Thanks for all that you do. Holding a space for your loved one. Congratulations, on the engagement, and here is too a splendid ceremony. Cheers!
Blake
Congrats on the extra stuff outside GMTK! That's sure to open more doors for your career. I noticed that the environmental storytelling video didn't plug Patreon like usual. Any impact on traffic to your Patreon?
Lena LeRay
Best wishes for the health of your family member!
Boz
I'm honestly afraid to watch the Shovel Knight vid because I haven't played any of it yet and keep meaning to get around to it. Maybe that's the same for people with the newest content.
Wander
Sounds like you've been insanely busy, Mark!
Game Maker's Toolkit
Definitely coming soon! A lot of it is researched and planned, just got some other topics to take of first :)
Ben Byford
suit wise get something jazzy! I love suit shopping and cant wait to get married for just this reason :)
Game Maker's Toolkit
There's definitely been an explosion in video essays, and there's some amazing stuff out there. But yeah, I think people assume making videos is easier than it is, but without the rigorous research, structure, and editing, they're gonna feel a bit hollow.
Game Maker's Toolkit
I did think about that, yeah - but when they were trying to do such different things it kinda goes back to the initial problem :P
Game Maker's Toolkit
Yeah, the PS4 game :)
droid
What is Dreams? Is it a game or a person or some other entity? Or is it actual dreams? Maybe it's the game on PS4?
John Roebuck
For ranking dissimilar things, I read some interesting advice a while ago: Determine what they were trying to do, and then gauge how well they did it. Probably easier to do with music (as they were talking about) than games, but it's something.
Matt Hauke
Sorry to hear about you’re family, Mark. Despite everything you’re still pushing out great and informative content which I think we all like and respect you for! Sounds like you’re going from strength to strength! Excited at what 2020 holds for GMTK. On a completely different subject do you think gaming video essays are becoming a lot more common nowadays, to the point it might be lowering the general standard? I ask because I get a lot of YT recommendations and they’re not nearly half as creative or well structured as yours but they are quite ‘clickable’ so generate a lot of views. I wondered if you’ve notice the increase as content creator yourself.
Luis Guillermo Jimenez Gomez
Sorry to hear about your family. I wish you the best and hope you all got the support you need. And I'm glad you continue to thrive and produce such great work in spite of the difficulties. And for the record, I actually thought the Red Dead Redemption 2 footage in the last video might get you into trouble. I wouldn't have expected the Bioshock Infinite footage to be an issue, probably because it's been so widely used by other YouTube channels.
Gunnar Clovis
I'm sorry to hear about your family; I've had somewhat similar events with my family this year. But congratulations on everything else! I'm very interested in your experiments with game development! I very much would like to hear your development efforts!
Tobias V. Langhoff
Sorry to hear about your family member. Really looking forward to your forays into game development! You obviously already know this since you run a gigantic game jam yourself, but jams are a great way to get into it with low barriers. I probably join at least one game jam a month, which is a good way to get some prototypes going.
Matthew S Sechrist
Very sorry to hear about your family. I hope for the best for you and them. Secondly, I agree with your post video thoughts. My favorite videos of yours, and the ones that I think are the most informative, are the ones that look at a single subject and pick it apart. The Level Design video did seem to rush on to the next category of level design after briefer-than-usual analysis. I did, however, very much enjoy the analysis you did provide.
Dr Tenma
I'm sorry to read how challenging is being 2020 and hope things go better.
