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2021 Year in review
🕑 Added 2021-12-30 08:55:15 +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.
Now these are fun to write when things have gone really well, but not quite so enjoyable when things haven’t gone the way I want them to. But, transparency is key, consistency is important, and you have to learn from mistakes!
Please grab a cup of tea, sit back, and let me talk you through GMTK in 2021.
The Channel
So, after a blowout 2020 (40 million views, 300k subscribers), 2021 was a big slip back (25 million views, 170k subscribers). Which is basically what I got in 2019. Here’s the graph.
I’m obviously disappointed with that. I can’t expect constant growth, but nevertheless it feels like a big drop.
The culprit? Well, quite simply: video quantity. While I’ve consistently made fewer videos each year (e.g. 24 in 2018, 23 in 2019, 21 in 2020), this one was a big, big low: just 16.
Now I could try and spin this! It’s quality over quantity! Which is true - and I'm very happy with most of the videos I made. But I don’t think they were significantly better than previous years.
Or how about… my videos have been getting, on average, longer every single year! And in 2021, not a single video (other than the Developing announcement) was shorter than 15 minutes in length.
But, I still put out fewer minutes of content total than previous years, and didn’t do a massive video like Hollow Knight (40 mins) or Commanding Shepard (50 mins)…
So, no, that’s not it either.
As I’ve talked about a few times on the Patreon (so I’ll keep this short), I just got burned out on GMTK. After hitting my million subscriber challenge last year, I found it hard to pick things up again in the new year.
I couldn’t commit to video ideas, everything just took much longer to do (even though I was working the exact same hours), and I stopped playing as many games. At one point in 2021 I was doing a talk about game design and realised that… I just didn’t care. At all. I seriously thought about quitting GMTK altogether.
But I took a break (which coincided nicely with me getting married), and thought about what I wanted. And I realised that I needed a change… which ultimately turned into Developing.
Which totally worked! Not only am I really enjoying this new project - both making the game and telling the story of its development - but I just feel much, much happier about GMTK in general. It’s been fun to work on other videos (like Boss Keys, the accessibility wrap-up, and the Forgotten City video) and I am buzzing with ideas for 2022!
We can actually see this working: if I plot my release schedule against previous years you’ll see 2021 got off to a slow start, with big gaps between videos… until a flurry of activity after my break.
Now there’s been a tiny bit of a backlash to the new “direction”. I lost some subscribers (‘subscriber loss per month’ pictured above) and Patrons.
It’s nothing too drastic, but I’m still going to mark it as a mistake. Some people got the impression that GMTK had fundamentally changed - from an analysis channel to a devlog channel. And I helped give that impression by making lots of Developing episodes, and far fewer classic GMTK episodes.
But that’s just because I was super excited about the series and wanted to focus on its early growth. But going forward, I plan to find a much better balance between GMTK and Developing videos.
And I’m also excited for my Developing experience to bleed into GMTK. For example, I want to do a GMTK video that dives deeper into the idea of mixing up genres, inspired by the challenges with my game. And I have a video planned where I will show game design decisions, in the flesh, using Unity. Gonna be good, I can feel it!
The Videos
Okay, let’s look more closely at the videos I did actually make in 2021. And I want to say that I’m really proud of pretty much every video I made this year.
The Nemesis System video is one of my favourite GMTK episodes in a long time - it’s exactly what I want to make: a complex topic; distilled into an easy-to-understand video; thanks to a clear structure, illustrative motion graphics, and entertaining storytelling.
The GMTK Game Jam was another huge success story (more on that soon), and the resulting video was fun to put together as always.
The “How to be a game designer” video is an important and valuable video, and required an enormous amount of work. I talked to over 100 designers and had Zoom calls with more than a dozen people in the industry. It was important to get this right.
The videos on movement, tutorials, and heads up displays feel like classic GMTK episodes: an interesting topic, explored through the lens of a dozen different games.
I'm especially pleased with the visual design of the UI episode - the Photoshop-inspired branding was fun to make. And the video on complex games really resonated with people who had similar experiences with struggling to learn those games.
I continued annual traditions - my accessibility wrap-up was praised in all corners of the industry for shining light, and throwing shade, on the biz. And I've now been diving deep into an innovative game for seven years in a row!
And I brought back Boss Keys! I’m pleased with the Metroid Dread video. Throughout the history of Boss Keys I’ve struggled to balance an objective analysis of the dungeons with my more personal feelings on the game. This one feels way more even-handed.
I’m also pleased with the turnaround time from the game’s release to the video’s launch.
While “On the Level” hasn’t resonated with audiences in quite the way I wanted, I’m still proud of it. It’s a unique approach to covering game design, and gets the people who actually make these things to tell their stories.
And, of course, Developing - I’m just really happy with it so far and I'm excited to continue it into 2022.
But lets get into the stats.
Here’s an overview of the stats. I'll dive into them below. But it shows how many views each video received in the first 8 days (top line, blue). How many people clicked “subscribe” under the video, in the first 8 days (middle line, red). And how many people joined the GMTK Patron within 3 days of the video launching (bottom line, yellow).
Those aren’t perfect stats, but close enough. And there’s also not quite enough data, at the time of writing, for my video on The Forgotten City… so I’ll leave that one out of this analysis. That leaves 15 videos to look at.
Here’s the videos ranked by how many views each video received in the first 8 days. Things mostly stayed the same as time went on, though the video on learning Unity has gathered a lot of steam, while Boss Keys kinda burned out a bit. I might refresh the thumbnail on that one, actually.
Overall I’m happy with this - the big GMTK videos did best, but Developing has performed surprisingly well, even beating out “classic” GMTK episodes. It’s sad to see On the Level doing so poorly, of course.
Ranking the videos by subscribers gained in the first 8 days of release, and things are similar… but even better for Developing. The episodes on prototyping and Unity really encouraged people to join the channel, though the analysis paralysis video wasn’t as hot on this front.
But things really change if I order them by how many people joined the GMTK Patron within 3 days of the video launching.
Developing has done especially well, with the announcement video and the Unity episode drawing in a lot of backers. This also shows that videos that get lots of views and subs (like Nemesis and Tutorial) also lead to Patrons, which is good. Quality matters!
But woah, what’s with the Ori On the Level episode right up there? Number two spot!
This certainly shows that people cared about On the Level enough to support its creation, so perhaps I was a bit hasty in putting it on ice. I’ll reconsider that. But there’s another thing: at the end of the episode I promote the Patreon by pointing out that backers can get an exclusive full interview with the developer.
So that’s an interesting thought. If people watch a video, and then get told that they can get more, relevant content by backing me… that can convert a lot of new Patrons. That’s certainly something to consider in the new year. I was already planning to make early builds of my game exclusively available to Patrons, but this data is cementing the decision.
GMTK Values
So in 2020’s year-in-review post, I made a list of values that I want GMTK videos to follow - to ensure that they’re of the utmost quality.
In short, they were to make GMTK inclusive (more diverse interview guests, add content warnings), accessible (subtitles, colourblind readability), balanced (provide opposing viewpoints, challenge my biases), factual (get expert advice, provide sources), responsible (be critical of things like lootboxes, crunch, and exclusionary design), and unbiased (avoid conflicts of interest).
I think I did pretty well this year.
For example, in terms of interviews I chatted to professional designers for the videos on movement, becoming a game designer, heads-up displays, accessibility in 2021, The Forgotten City, and complex tutorials. And, of course, showed level designers in the On the Level videos. I also reached out Monolith for the Nemesis video, but didn’t get a response.
That means I spoke to experts for almost every video on the channel this year! Nice! (And I probably should have released more of this stuff for Patrons, based on what I talked about a minute ago).
I continued talking about accessibility in my 2021 round-up, and considered the accessibility of my own videos (like using specific colours in my motion graphics and creating subtitles for every video - even Developing, which isn't scripted so can't be automated). The next step is to talk about accessibility in my magnet game, in 2022.
I’m pleased with these principles and will continue to follow them in the new year.
Beyond YouTube
So what else happened this year?
The GMTK Game Jam went from strength to strength. I did a full post-mortem earlier this year, so lemme give you the most important bits. Over 21,000 people joined the jam, and they submitted 5,883 games - both were record-breaking numbers for GMTK. And server-smashing for itch.io, as is tradition.
This year I was pleased with the community-made team finder app, the fact that we had better rules that were easier to enforce, and how quickly I was able to get the results video out. But this year’s theme (Joined Together) wasn’t as popular, and I had a lot of trouble with late submissions. As things are going well, 2022’s jam will be a slight refinement of this winning formula.
I did a few talks at universities and game studios, including an awards ceremony for some students. But the pandemic meant they were all virtual and I didn’t get to travel anywhere for another year, which is a bummer. I’m talking to some people about 2022… but Omicron might wreck those plans, too.
Sigh! I’m thankful that my family and friends have dodged serious illness and death from the virus, of course - I’ll take cancelled travel plans over that, any time.
I did a few other extracurricular projects: I’m helping out with a game that’s being designed for patient rehabilitation, and I did a peer review on an academic paper about accessibility. I was on the Beyond the Screenplay podcast talking about Mass Effect, and the People Make Games podcast chatting about GMTK.
But I guess most of my downtime this year was spent planning a wedding, and learning Unity!
The Patreon Survey
Okay, so lemme finish with this. A few weeks ago I asked people to complete a survey about the GMTK Patreon, so I can make it better next year. I got a lot of information, so I’ll try and sum up the most important and interesting stats.
For people who backed GMTK but have since left, the majority stated that their financial situation changed, but there were a few people who said they weren’t interested in the channel’s new direction with Developing. As I said before, I need to clarify that GMTK hasn’t really changed!
As for current backers (that’s you!), the Patreon received primarily 4 and 5 star ratings on overall quality, and mostly 5 stars on transparency. For frequency of posts, 92% said it was just right. And 98% of backers feel satisfied in the number of rewards they receive. That’s all great.
For those who signalled interest in rewards, I asked how important these rewards are to them. This led to some interesting results…
So people like getting their name in the credits - great, that’s easy for me to do.
Early access to videos was surprising - people largely don’t care about this. So I looked into the feedback and discovered that people find it too much of a faff to watch the videos through Patreon, compared to YouTube (because the video’s not in your sub box, it's not as easy to watch on smart TVs, etc). And for 24 hours of exclusivity… it’s not really worth it.
So, I’m going to think about that one. One solution is to investigate YouTube Memberships, which should make it a lot easier to see content early. But perhaps I should give stuff much earlier than 24 hours beforehand - giving people a chance to really contribute to the final thing? I’ll think on that.
Editing tutorials are a mixed bag, and understandably people aren’t all that aware of them - because I haven’t done many. I think this would be better as just general “behind the scenes” content, which may be about editing - or making thumbnails, or writing scripts, or whatever else.
The playlist is well liked, but the main feedback is that people wished it was longer. Right now the playlist is a fully scripted video like an episode of GMTK, but perhaps I could try talking a bit more conversationally, a bit more off the cuff. Could be a fun experiment.
The reading list is really well liked, and so that won’t be going away. The key feedback is that it’s a bit long and overwhelming - so I could perhaps curate it further, or always have a “top pick” recommendation. A lot of people also said it should be on a higher tier, considering the amount of effort that goes into it. I'll think on that.
The Discord is really not popular, and that’s fine. It’s not going anywhere - the people who do use it (myself included) use it a lot. I could maybe find ways to make it more welcoming and popular, but that might not be worth it - it's okay for it to be a niche thing.
And finally, people like the general updates. They appreciate honesty and transparency, and like seeing stats (hope you're enjoying these!) - but would like to hear more about upcoming projects, as well as past ones. I'm always hesitant to talk about the future, but perhaps I can try.
This has given me a lot to think about. And I’ll probably be shaking up the rewards a little in the future. I’ll let you know in the new year.
In conclusion
In general, I’m a bit disappointed and embarrassed by 2021. Even though I worked the same amount as previous years (I treat GMTK as a job with normal hours), I just didn’t produce as much. If you feel let down by that, I’m truly sorry.
But, I am proud that I was proactive about finding a solution - and overjoyed that I found one. I am truly looking forward to improving things in 2022. I want to finish Developing (Season 1) next year, and make loads of awesome GMTK videos! I’ve got plenty of topics to talk about, and I’ve started playing lots of games again - so the well ain’t gonna run dry anytime soon!
But I need to prove this. So I’ll be back in March to talk about how things have gone in the first three. And you can hold me to my word!
Now, I know some people will read this and think “bruh, you’re too hard on yourself” or “don’t overthink it, just make videos!” And you’re probably right - but it’s important for me to note that I never take your support for granted, and I never let myself forget what an incredible position I am in thanks to all of you.
I hope I can truly show you that in 2022! See you then!
Mark
Comments
tgva8889
I will say part of the reason I didn’t watch much of On the Level was I either didn’t care much about the game, or wanted to play the game but hadn’t yet and wanted to avoid being spoiled. For a deep dive on a specific game I usually avoid those videos if it’s a game I intend to play but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Sjors Boomschors
I think reflection is good, but feeling embarrassed because the growth dropped off a bit is definitely being too hard on yourself. I'd argue you should be proud for acknowledging that you were burning out and pivoting to doing more stuff that you actually enjoy. That is a much more sustainable way of evolving your work than just quantitatively following the numbers (and hitting a wall at some point). I enjoy most of your content, and maybe sometimes there's a video that's less appealing to me, but that's perfectly fine. It also offers me a chance to learn about stuff I'd otherwise wouldn't even consider. I'd rather have quality content, than just a lot of repetitive echo chamber stuff. Just do what you enjoy, and it's already been shown that a lot of people enjoy what comes out of that.
Luis Guillermo Jimenez Gomez
When you said 170k subscribers I thought you meant total subscribers and had lost thousands of subscribers, then I realized you meant new subscribers. That scared me for a second. I understand your concern about consistent growth but I think these numbers still look good and after a million subscribers it's naturaleach new one will take a little more effort. But you still got more than a million subscribers.
Celes
Man, I really appreciate your appreciation of our appreciation. Still, bruh, you’re too hard on yourself.
Thanks for all your hard work! I want to give you a personal bit of feedback regarding your On the Level videos. I'm pretty far behind on games I want to play, and some of those games (Ori comes to mind) I haven't played yet, and am pretty sensitive about spoilers. So I haven't watched those but am looking forward to it when the time is right!
Graham Tattersall
Thanks for the great writeup and reflection on 2021 Mark! Even if it didn't go as well as you'd hoped, maybe it just means other years will be better for it. Keep up the great work!
Podhead
Agree wholeheartedly about not wanting the reading list to be a higher tier. One reason On The Level may not be performing as well as you hoped is people may not want to watch it if they haven't played the game yet. That was my experience. The videos also require your full attention, whereas other videos can be viewed while multi-tasking. There's no reason to be embarrassed by the last year of GMTK. I'm sure it's tough to find as universally appealing topics after years creating videos for the channel, but what you're doing is as compelling and high-quality as ever.
The reading list is what I read during most of my free time, it actually introduced me to a lot of great smaller youtubers, would be upsetting if it was in a higher tier
Great retrospective, was very interesting to read. Regarding the reading list: Please don't make it a higher tier. For me the is the single reward why I think this Patreon is really great, honestly I don't care about all the other stuff (besides wanting to suport you and the updates from you, of course :) ). Taking that away would feel really bad and I don't understand why other supporters would even suggest that. In any case, keep up the good work and don't stress yourself too much. Happy new year!
Boz
You're doing great! You're an inspiration to us all.
Swolomo
Agreed on the reading list!! It’s the main reason I subscribe, among other things like this post, and it’s always great.
Shaun
bruh, you’re too hard on yourself But really, I appreciate how much effort you make to not only create great content but provide us with a level of transparency. Part of what attracts me to your channel is the openness you show your community.
Andrei Alupului
i really appreciate this! on some level, hearing you talk through your "GMTK block" and what pulled you through it is a useful illustration to me of how to get through similar blocks i face in my own work from time to time. it also speaks to your integrity that you basically can't fake giving a shit about this stuff. that's great! it makes me even more eager to support you moving forward, because those are the kinds of creators i care about, and the kind i want to be myself. anyway, i never comment, but been following/supporting for years and i'm still very happy to be doing so. p.s. please don't make the reading lists shorter for their own sake, unless there's less stuff to share. fwiw i never find it overwhelming, except in the way that like a kid in a candy shop is excited to eat all the candy even if it's physically impossible to, you know? anyway, happy new year mark!
I’ve watched so much GMTK that when I read these posts I don’t hear them in my voice - but in Mark’s voice!
Mark Gould
I enjoyed reading this write up, thanks Mark!
Josh Foreman
I wonder if Monolith didn't' get back to you because those who designed the Nemesis system don't work there any more. I worked with a guy who says he pretty much designed it. (He disliked the LOTR franchise and his boss told him to FIND a way to make it interesting, and that's what lead him to the idea.) Also, when I see the design attributed, it's not to this guy, but someone else. So contested origin + originator no longer working there = embarrassing interview, haha
Dave Pickett
Congrats on another successful year of GMTK! Not to dismiss your very real emotions of anxiety and embarrassment, but you did something incredibly impressive this year and I'm very proud of you. Cutting back in overall quantity and trying a whole new content type takes a lot of courage. The YouTube hustle doesn't typically reward self-reflection and risk taking. But it is so clear watching Developing how this new series is benefitting your creative health. Really happy to see you prioritize yourself while also continuing to create some of the most insightful game design content month after month.
I’m super biased as a dev who changed careers based off stuff I learned in game jams, but have you considered doing two a year? Like, GMTK Jam Winter and Summer? I know they’re a lot of work to run, but the jams consistently pump out amazing content and the videos seem to do well as well. Just a thought.
Willhart
Reading list is great because it is so large and sprawling. It is bound to have stuff I've missed, and would not check otherwise.
Will Kommor
My hack for watching early access vids on my TV is bookmarking them as Watch Later, which the YouTube app can access! Works for any unlisted videos.
Kris Arruda
Maybe the extra work that made your 2020 so successful was the same thing that burned you out in 2021. It’s all about balance. The quality of your videos (specially the motion graphics) are amazing. And have you considered turning “On The Level” into a podcast. I think would be the perfect kind of content for it. Have a happy new year, Mark!
Virak
Love your updates! Regarding updates regarding future/past, I enjoy the ones about the past more so, I guess the retrospectives? So I'm not bothered by your reluctance to talk about the future too much. Thanks for all that you do! Looking forward to GMTK in 2022!
Tobias V. Langhoff
Isn't it possible that there wasn't really a big drop off in 2021, but that 2020 might have been a fluke? Of course you should look into how to replicate that, but it might have been because of external factors such as the pandemic and people working from home and surfing YouTube during work, for example.
Game Maker's Toolkit
Hey! It's a very good point and question. It’s a tricky one because the most important thing for me, ultimately, is that I get to do what I enjoy and make stuff I’m passionate about. But I do also feel the pressure of keeping up consistency (in both content type and frequency of uploads), especially for Patrons. It’s not particularly based in any kind of reality, but it's just a surface-level anxiety I feel that GMTK must always grow, or at least stay the same. Luckily, Developing has shown me that my fears around this sort of thing were, mostly, unfounded. There was a little backlash and drop-off with its announcement, but nothing terrible and the positive response far outweighed anything negative. So I now have something concrete to point to (when arguing with myself!) to say “you can do other things, it’s fine”. Edit: Just wanted to add: I guess subs, views, and Patrons are the most obvious and clear depiction of how GMTK is doing, and so if those go down a lot it looks/feels like I'm not working very hard. And that's probably a bit mad because I know I am working hard! But in a world where I'm literally asking random people on the internet to give me money for, ultimately, no real benefit, the last thing I want to seem is lazy.
Tom Stuart
I’ve loved GMTK in 2021, so thank you for another great year of videos. I’d be interested to hear more of your reasoning behind the implied subtext, which is that you’re only succeeding if you’re growing. I don’t know anything about the cold hard economics of YouTube or Patreon so I don’t have any intuition about whether this is objectively true (e.g. ad rates go down each year, or whatever, so you have no choice but to run faster just to stay still) or more of a subjective standard that you’re choosing to apply to your own career (e.g. subscriber growth is the most important signal that the content is still good). To be honest and a bit selfish, the weird asymmetry of the producer/audience relationship means that, as a fan of GMTK, it actually doesn’t affect me at all whether your subscriber count goes up and down, as long as the videos keep coming! Like, is it necessarily true that you have to keep getting more subscribers/patrons every year (versus “just” keeping the existing ones happy/paying) to be able to say that GMTK is a success? Or is it okay to be proud of another year of high-quality videos, keep being your own boss working on something you enjoy, and hopefully make a decent living while you do it? I have no idea, but I’m curious to hear about what success means to you and what goals you might already have in mind for 2022 that you’ll be using to judge your own achievements in another 12 months.
