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GMTK Year in Review - 2018
🕑 Added 2018-12-17 08:06:09 +0000 UTC Hello!The year is coming to a close, which can only mean one thing: an obsessively detailed, brutally honest, statistically overloaded look at my last year’s worth of work.
Let’s jump right into it.
What did I make this year
In 2018 I made 15 episodes of Game Maker’s Toolkit. You can see them all above.
9 of the videos are “topic” videos, where I explore an idea or concept through the lens of lots of games. That’s feedback loops, systemic games, assist mode, puzzles, engagement, combat systems, score systems, mistakes, and skill trees.
The remaining 6 are “analysis” videos, where I look at a single game or series - Rayman Legends, God of War, Overcooked, Spider-Man, Mega Man 11, and Return of the Obra Dinn.
Last year I wasn’t pleased with the ratio between the two types of videos, as I had way more analysis videos than topic videos. Probably down to the fact that 2017 had a deluge of amazing games.
But topic videos are where GMTK started (with my video on adaptive soundtracks) and are what makes GMTK stand out. Where many other channels look at individual games, I look at entire topics and bring in loads of different games for unique perspectives. So while they often take longer to make, they should be my focus and, happily, that’s what happened in 2018!
As for the actual videos, this year I made some of the best videos on the channel, in my opinion.
I love the episode on Feedback Loops, which I think does a good job of explaining a relatively complex and misunderstood concept. Assist Mode talks clearly about a topic I find really interesting - balancing designer intent and player accessibility - and it has already inspired titles like Furi and CrossCode. Puzzle Design is a really tricky topic, and I think I did it justice by exploring concepts I haven’t seen talked about before, like the way puzzles misdirect you.
I also really like the editing in Mega Man 11 and God of War’s videos. They look professional. And I was pleased with the reception of the systemic games episode, where designers said it did a good job of explaining the basics of the topic.
But this year, I also made some videos I’m not especially proud of. Keeping Players Engaged and Building Better Skill Trees are my weakest. Neither are awful videos (though, the Skill Trees episode got a lot of dislikes because of something I said about Path of Exile) but I don’t think they’re up to my high standards.
The truth is: they were the result of being pushed for time, feeling a need to get a video up on the channel, and doing a topic that I could tackle without a tremendous amounts of research.
So they don’t have that feeling of a GMTK episode - where it’s like I’ve locked myself in a room for a week playing puzzle games or detective games until I emerge - unshaven and unwashed - with some secret formula that makes games great. And that’s not good enough.
I’ll talk more about this later. But for now, let’s just say that in 2019, I’m going to try to manage my time better so this situation doesn’t arise again.
I also have issues with the Spider-Man video. I feel like I maybe reviewed a game I wanted to exist (a bonkers, expressive, web-swinging platformer like Mirror’s Edge), rather than the game that the developer was actually making. And that’s not on. Will try not to fall into that trap again
I also made 5 episodes of Boss Keys. I “finished” Boss Keys Season 1 by talking about Breath of the Wild, did a mid season special on Dark Souls, and then started Season 2 by talking about Metroid and Castlevania.
I say “finished”, because I didn’t complete the entire series. You see, Boss Keys was supposed to be my research for a GMTK episode on Zelda dungeons. But I still haven’t done that episode. The truth is, I just got burned out on Zelda dungeons. I’m sure I’ll do that final wrap-up video one day, but I need something (maybe the announcement of a new Zelda game) to spur me on.
I really like the video about Dark Souls’s world design. It’s a complex, tricky subject - with lots to discuss, like how it helps you navigate, fast travel, difficulty curves, non-linearity - but I think I did a good job. I also like the video’s style. I think it matches the game well.
The new season is going well. Started off a little iffy - I understand the feedback that I didn’t talk enough about Zero Mission’s sequence breaking stuff - but is rolling along nicely with Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. The main thing this time is to not take on too much. I won’t be playing every Metroid game, or every indie Metroidvania - just some select titles that I think hold significance.
I estimate that I will play Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2, the GBA Castlevania games, the DS Castlevania games, Axiom Verge, and Hollow Knight. And then leave it there. I don’t want to talk about locks and keys forever
Also this year, I made 3 episodes of Designing for Disability - on auditory, visual, and motor disabilities.
This is a topic that I am passionate about. People I love live with disabilities, and I have RSI myself, so I know too well how games can be made accessible or inaccessible through their design and options. And thus, I wanted to create an easy resource for developers to reference when making games.
I’ve had a lot of help on this - every episode has involved getting tips and feedback from gamers who live with the disabilities mentioned and from accessibility consultant Ian Hamilton.
And I think it’s just gone down really well. They don’t see as many views as my other videos, but still - getting over 100,000 views on each video, for stuff about disabilities? That’s amazing! It’s really hard to get people to care about this stuff.
The videos are now floating around different game studios, according to designers who have DMed and emailed me. And so hopefully we’ll see even more accessibility options in future games. I’m really pleased, in particular, to hear that the videos were shown at id Software. Here’s hoping DOOM Eternal has better colourblind support!
I’ve got one more episode in the series to do - script is written, I just need to apply the feedback I’ve been given. But I’ve got more to do on this topic. I’m thinking about doing a video on accessibility myths (It’s expensive! Players will use it to cheat! Hardy anyone uses this stuff!), a quick-fire “top 10 options to add” video, and then round-ups in the future (like “accessibility in 2019’s games” type stuff)
And finally, the GMTK Game Jam! I made four videos (announcement, jam start, voting start, best games), but only the best games video is still online. The rest have been hidden.
I’ve talked about the jam at length before. Basically: hooray, it was bigger than before! But I still need to work on some stuff like voting. The jam will obviously be back in 2019 and will hopefully run smoother than ever.
Overall, that’s 24 videos on the channel (excluding those removed game jam videos, and a delisted update video about Twitch). That’s my target - an average of two a month. But it’s also the bare minimum and lower than previous years.
In 2017 I made 29 videos (though, one was a short bonus ep, and Dead Space was split into three videos), in 2016 I made 27 videos, and in 2015 I made 22.
Who watched the videos?
Let’s talk stats!
Up to December 16th, GMTK had 18.7 million views. That’s up from 16.5 million in 2017! The average view duration was 58% of the video (down from 2017’s 59%), and I had 89,000 comments (up from last year’s 73,000).
Most of the views, like 95-97%, came from YouTube itself - a very small number came from Reddit, Google, Twitter, and Facebook. 38% of my views came from the US, and the other most popular countries are UK (8%), Canada (6%), Germany (5%), and Australia (3%).
Most people watch on a computer (Windows, by and large), Android is way bigger than iPhone, but iPad is the most popular tablet, and almost double the number of people watched GMTK on a PlayStation, compared to an Xbox.
My top 10 most viewed videos in 2018 were:
- How Game Designers Protect Players From Themselves (2017) - 1.2 million
- How to Keep Players Engaged (Without Being Evil) - 511,000
- What Make a Good Puzzle? - 450,000
- The Rise of the Systemic Game - 450,000
- What Makes Good AI? (2017) - 422,000
- How Games Use Feedback Loops - 421,000
- The World Design of Dark Souls - 415,000
- What Makes a Good Combat System? - 396,000
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s dungeon design - 380,000
- What Makes Celeste’s Assist Mode Special - 374,000
Mostly new videos! But some vids have long legs and I’m still pulling in views from last year’s videos. The one on protecting players is now past 2 million views. That’s cool. The Resident Evil 4 train finally hit a dead end, with just 279,000 views this year.
This year, I started putting other people’s videos into my end screen, under the tag “Mark Recommends”. These have been pretty successful and get clicked on way more often than links to my own videos.
Here are the 5 most popular recommended videos
- The Importance of Keyframes (Dan Root) - 13,000 clicks
- The first non-Valve game on Steam (People Make Games) - 8,400 clicks
- What Makes a Good Platformer Boss? (Skip the Tutorial) - 7,600 clicks
- Stalking for Love (Pop Culture Detective) - 7,500 clicks
- What Makes A Game Punk? (Writing on Games) - 6,300 clicks
GMTK also hit half a million subscribers which is, just, wow. That was one of my goals for the whole year but I passed it months ago.
What games did I talk about?
Something I try to be cognisant of is not just talking about the same games over and over again. GMTK almost has a “canon” of favourite design-y games like Spelunky, Hitman, Far Cry 2, Breath of the Wild, Dark Souls, and XCOM.
Happily, I only mentioned Spelunky in two videos, Far Cry 2 in three videos, Hitman in four videos, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild and XCOM games in five videos each.
My most referenced games were MGS V and God of War (6 videos each), and Uncharted 4, Dark Souls (whoops), Assassin’s Creed Origins (7 videos each).
I showed 299 unique games - from 1978’s Space Invaders to 2018’s Return of the Obra Dinn. I mostly talked about recently released games, as you can see from this graph. Would be nice to discuss more retro games
I’m still mostly talking about single player, character-driven games. These sorts of games are just my wheelhouse, but I always want to leave my comfort zone, explore new things, and learn. So I’m going to try to surprise you with the types of games I talk about going forward.
I was pleased to make a video specifically about co-op in the Overcooked episode. And now I have a whole series planned about multiplayer for 2019.
Also, I like that GMTK can be talking about the big new releases - and from a different, more design-focused perspective than other channels. So this year I had videos on God of War, Celeste’s Assist Mode, Spider-Man, Mega Man 11, and Obra Dinn.
I have lots of thoughts about Red Dead Redemption 2, but I think it’s actually part of a larger conversation on open world design and the pursuit of realism, so that can come later. And I do want to do more on Celeste’s actual game design. I was also working with IO on a video about Hitman 2 but working with PR and publishers is so slow.
There are more games I could have talked about but, as ever, I’m not gonna make stuff just because it’s in the news or everyone else is covering it. I’ve gotta have an angle I care about, first!
What else did I do in 2018?
Oh my, so much.
So for most of GMTK’s existence, work has been my life. I pored a lot of myself into my career - both as a games journalist and then as a video maker. And I missed out on a lot of stuff because of this.
For 2018, I knew it was time to make a change. I moved into my own place. I bought a car and passed my driving test. I’ve met the love of my life, and we’ve been exploring the world together. And I’ve been exploring new hobbies, and trying to make sure that work time is work time, and leisure time is leisure time.
This has had a knock on effect on GMTK. Hence the lower number of videos compared to last year, and the two videos I admit that I rushed out the door. I was probably busy getting driving lessons, or going on a much needed holiday, or whatever.
Now, in some ways I don’t regret it at all. GMTK 2014-2017 is the result of a person working almost exclusively on the channel. And GMTK 2018 is a person who is living a more normal and healthy life, with breaks and weekends and other things in his life. And so I can’t expect to have the same level of productivity.
However, I am learning how to get more done in the time I am giving myself. I’m working smarter, not harder. And learning to manage my time better. So I’m confident that I can keep up a really good workflow of great episodes in the new year. And I just won’t be rushing videos just so I have something new on the channel.
Anyway! What else did I do?
Well, I was lucky enough to be invited to two different universities to speak about games. I chatted to students in Breda’s NHTV and London’s UAL College of Communications. I love doing this, and want to do more going forward.
I also spoke at AdventureX, about detective games. And TechShare Pro, about accessibility. I’ve got more events planned in 2019, including an awesome speaking appearance at a major (major!) video game studio in January!
I also started doing some writing work again. After I quit Pocket Gamer at the end of 2016, I’ve only written scripts and tweets. But when Polygon asked me to write about Tomb Raider’s grisly death scenes I was like, eh, why not! And I enjoyed it. So when Medium asked me to write about Nintendo’s approach to accessibility I was like, sure! I’ll continue to do this here and there.
Oh, and live streaming is going well. I bounced from YouTube to Twitch, and back to YouTube again. It’s fun. I don’t take it too seriously, and enjoy the audience interaction a lot. I’ll try to do it every week.
In conclusion
2018 was an incredible year for me - both personally and for the channel. But I readily admit that my personal life had an effect on my work life. Going forward, I will work really hard to find the right balance between the two. I appreciate your patience and support this year - it’s been incredible. I hope to make you proud going forward.
Major goals for 2019 are - three overseas speaking roles. 750,000 subscribers. Start at least 2 new series. Start learning how to make a game!
Eek. We’ll see how I get on.
Mark
Comments
I've absolutely loved your videos Mark. Ive also especially enjoyed the reading list you put together, I've found a lot of interesting channels to follow and also enjoyed many of those thought provoking articles
temppatreonname
Path of Exile fans are a pretty vicious lot, don't take that one too personally. The moment you brought it up I knew you'd get some backlash.
Drew Green
It's been a fabulous year of content from you and I look forward to more in the future! Keep up the great work (and as others have said, KEEP TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF! That's so important!) <3
newyou
cheers to 2018! I stumbled upon your channel through your breath of the wild video and have binged everything in your archive since. can't wait to see you continue to thrive next year! thanks Mark for everything you do!
Game Maker's Toolkit
Hmm, okay I’ll look into this soon. Thanks for the heads up!
I don't know if it's by design, but it seems like some content is not available for $10 donors. I can see this post, but the early access for Obra Dinn is locked for example and also it seems like the playlists are locked as well.
Wait a second... Mark did you just say you got burned out on Zelda dungeons!?!?
Anthony LaBella
Thanks for the breakdown Mark, there were some fantastic GMTK videos this year! And personally I was very happy with the 2018 output, so don't feel pressured to do too much in 2019. Taking care of yourself is also important - I'm sure being happy and motivated in your personal life also results in better GMTK videos!
Blackthornprod
Yep, I completely agree !
Tanner Methven
Please don't feel the need to apologize for taking care of yourself. I think I speak for many of us when I say we'd rather you be happy than making yourself miserable for these videos.
If anything, your Spiderman video was too generous toward the web-swinging mechanic. In my experience, holding down R would detach and reattach Spidey automatically, turning traversal into a driving game without any obstacles. Love the show, keep up the great work!
I'll add to the chorus of voices saying that I'm glad to hear that you're making time for all aspects of life in addition to your work. Like all creative endeavors, your work will be the richer for the time you spend doing and seeing all the other things! Thanks for a great 2018 - best wishes for a great new year!
Hey Mark! Glad to hear you're making time for your personal life, that's always important. Maybe you should think about hiring another person to help you with GMTK: that will give you more time and assure there's still more content coming out. It might be worth it!
Dave Pickett
I'm really happy that you were able to find balance this year and make time for your personal life. As someone who burned out after doing YouTube full-time for 2 years, I know just how difficult it can be to make time for yourself. You should be really proud of that accomplishment.
Matt Hauke
So glad to hear things are more settled and calmer now. I'm really proud to have supported the channel since its inception! In fact it's the only thing that got me into Patreon and the only channel I support. Admittedly I do sometimes feel a little underwhelmed with some videos, but that's maybe 5-10% of the time so the standard is really high in general, Mark. Would you ever consider crowd funding a series? That way you can pull a lot of time into a series with more research so to avoid having to rush videos towards the end of the year. If it's a subject I'd like to see I'd definitely contribute towards it! Just a thought. Either way, you're doing a great job Mark, I'd love to go to a talk of yours if they're ever open to the public and in London.
Matt Kimmich
Quick comment on the Spider-Man video: I think it's absolutely legitimate for you to take an existing game as a starting point from which to riff on how you could do a certain premise differently. What didn't work for me with the Spider-Man video was how you framed it, namely as a review - and, to be honest, I don't think that your biggest talent like with reviewing. Not that it's possible to draw a clear line between analysis, interpretation, critique, review etc., but my impression is that you're at your strongest when you talk about game design and game systems, and with games where the main appeal isn't systems (e.g. because they're relatively shallow - e.g. Spider-Man - or don't allow for interesting choices - e.g. RDR2 --> arguably both of these games have their reasons for these creative decisions, but these lie outside what seem to be your main interests) you sometimes tend to criticise these games for what they're not rather than try to analyse what it is they actually are and what they attempt to do. You definitely have interesting things to say about such games or to take them as starting points for related discussions, but I'm not sure that the review format is what allows you to say these things best. (Does this make any sense? I'm not sure I'm at my most articulate this Monday morning...)
Paul Andrei
Thank you for for a marvelous year! I would love to see more retro games, competitive multiplayer not so much, but I'm not the only one in your audience so do what you must :) Have a wonderful new year, take care of you and your SO and pace yourself. Being physically and physically healthy is better, on the long run, than hitting a deadline. For us as well :D
Honestly, I love that your personality comes through in all of your work. You're one of 3 creators I support on here and one of the first content creators that made me consider becoming a Patron in the first place! You have been a huge inspiration for me and my friends to attempt learning game development. Thank you for that. As happy as I am to hear about all the videos you have planned for 2019, I'm just as happy to hear that you've been leading a much healthier life overall! Happy Holidays Mark and anyone else who's reading this.
Jakub Pander
So great to hear you are living your life happily, this will definitely make for even better videos and content - I don't care if it less than usual as long as you put your heart and soul into them :) Keep it going Mark, best wishes and good luck!
Tom Stuart
This is a wonderful post — the degree of honesty, thoughtfulness and determination to do the best possible work for its own sake is genuinely inspiring. Thanks for all the great videos & writing in 2018, and congratulations on achieving a healthier work/life balance. Can’t wait to see what 2019 has in store!
Game Maker's Toolkit
Hey! I always put the names of the games I feature into the video's description. So it was just a case of copy and pasting them into a Google Sheet and doing some statistical magic :)
Chris Plays Games
Content like this is why I continue to consider the GMTK Patreon the best one I subscribe to. One question I had on some of your more detailed stats (like the list of 299 games that you've mentioned): Do you track these things in some way as you make the scripts/content, or is this something you do after the fact using your scripts? Thanks for continuing to create amazing content, and thoughtful self-analysis.
