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Making an Impact (GMTK Insider, August 2018)
🕑 Added 2018-08-30 10:11:13 +0000 UTC Hello everyone!August has been a bit of a funny month - I’ve been working like crazy but strange scheduling problems, waiting on people to get back to me, and organising the jam, has meant I only got one episode out. The next video (Super Metroid Boss Keys) is really close, though, and will be out next week!
For now, though, I wanted to talk about this…
When I started Game Maker’s Toolkit, I had no idea that it would actually be watched by people in the games industry. In early videos I did say things like “if you’re making a game…”, but I was literally just copying Every Frame a Painting, who would say stuff like “if you’re shooting an action scene…”.
But as time has gone on, the show has gotten more popular, and I’ve tackled different subjects, more and more developers have actually been watching the show and started using their lessons.
The one that everyone likes to use is Super Mario 3D World’s 4 Step Level Design. And that makes sense - it’s a really simple way of structuring interesting platformer stages. It was important for me, though, to follow it up with videos about Rayman and Donkey Kong (and more to come on Super Meat Boy, Celeste, Sonic, and more) to show that there are other ways to do stages.
Boss Keys has been a popular one, too. A lot of developers use the graph system to procedurally generate dungeons and Metroidvania style levels - most notably the recently released “roguevania” Dead Cells. I’m hoping my new season on Metroidvanias will prove helpful. Personally I think these games need a human touch, rather than an algorithm, but oh well!
I’ve also seen people use the versatile verbs episode, good AI episode, detective episode, and puzzle episode, among others.
For example, just yesterday, the developers behind Furi announced that it would be getting a new “invincibility mode” for newcomers, disabled people, speedrunner practice sessions, and more. Turns out: it’s because of the episode on Celeste’s Assist Mode, where I talked about adding in helpful modes without damaging the core experience.
In fact, it’s a regular occurrence now to talk to developers behind new games and hear that GMTK episodes helped with development. I chatted to the people behind Semblance, recently, who said “some of your videos, namely the Toki Tori 2 video, influenced the design of this game”.
There’s one huge AAA game that has awesome design, where the level designer sent me an email to say they used my videos. But unfortunately I was sworn to secrecy! Gah!
Established developers are one thing, but it’s really cool to be of use to people who are just starting out in the industry, or are in school, or have no design experience at all. I routinely get told that my videos are shown or discussed in schools and universities, and I’ve also been lucky enough to visit some of these places and talk to the students myself.
I actually got my first taste of this way back, when Super Mario Maker came out. I did a video about Mario level design, and then asked people to submit their handmade levels. It was clear to see that people were taking on board the ideas I discussed in that first video and it genuinely made their levels more enjoyable!
I actually got a bit emotional to see that people were taking my information on board!
This has now morphed into the GMTK Game Jam, but hopefully Mario Maker will return on Switch and we can do another round of level design. Or maybe another game, like Level Head or Dreams.
Now, why am I saying all this? Am I just bragging? Well kind of! But more crucially, I think it’s been a really important shift in Game Maker’s Toolkit. When I started I just made videos for fun but now when I choose topics, I specifically put them through a filter of “how can this help”?
I remember feeling very conflicted about the episode on the Metroid 2 remakes, thinking that this video is only helpful to people making remakes of Game Boy games… not a huge audience. And it made me realise that what’s important is for videos to be able to inspire and help others making games.
I mean, at the end of the day, I also have a massive gamer audience and I will always make stuff that appeals to them too. So “unhelpful” episodes will still come out! Don’t worry, I will still nerd out about Nintendo games until the cows come home. But the primary focus of the channel is different now.
It also means I feel more responsibility to get stuff right. To talk about stuff in terms of feasibility (the Rayman episode, for example, was about level design when you don’t have the budget of Nintendo to make unique mechanics for every single level). And to advocate for stuff that’s truly important.
That’s why I’ve been doing these accessibility videos. If developers are watching my videos, then I don’t just want them to think about mechanics and level design and whatnot - but also about making their games more playable to those with disabilities. It’s only right!
And ultimately, this is my favourite part about GMTK. It’s really good to have a job where you make a difference and are having an impact on other people. I love all the comments and feedback, but I live for the ones where people say that my stuff has helped their work. I only wish I had more time to play the games that were inspired by GMTK videos.
So look forward to more stuff like this going forward. But, as always, there will always be lots of different types of video on this channel so whatever your cup of tea, I hope you’ll find something to enjoy. Cheers!
Comments
I've been pushing a steady ~80 students a semester your way, doing what I can to help the cause ;) Seriously though, it's crazy how many more students have already seen your videos recently. The other day I had one ask me about how to approach a game analysis for a written assignment, afterward he said "Oh, you mean like a Mark Brown video?" ... yes! Exactly!
Blaine Talbut
Good, careful, surprising games criticism like yours is rare. I'm disappointed to read that you think the value of your videos is primarily instructional. Anyone who needs to decide where they stand on the question of player agency vs. directed experience benefits from seeing it worked out in a specific, real context, as you did with your defense of backtracking in Boss Keys (especially if they disagree with you!). Your Zelda videos would have a lot less meat on the bone if you had cut that material because it was too subjective or too abstract to be of use to the working adventure game level designer. Your video on Metroid 2 is a persuasively argued reminder that what we see as “issues to be solved” might actually be key to constituting a game’s meaning. Surely that’s not valuable only to people remaking Game Boy games? I think it’s the fact that you criticize games as craft that makes your stuff useful to craftsmen—as opposed to most games criticism, which isn’t useful to anyone at all. But we’d all lose out on something special if you took away from this that your work is most useful when it’s imparting narrow lessons about craft.
Game Maker's Toolkit
Thanks Kyeli! I made that change in Episode 2, and will continue to work on my language for this series
Miles07
You won't always know which episodes are "unhelpful" though.
Kyeli Smith
I cannot get enough of the series on disabilities and gaming. It's so amazing, so rare, and so desperately needed! One thing, it's "people with disabilities" rather than "disabled people" - one makes us feel like we're people first, the other tends to make us focus on our disabilities. As a person with several different disabilities, it's a small difference, but an important one. That said, everything else in the series is fantastic. I've felt overlooked by game devs my whole life, and here you are talking about it all. Thank you! <3
Josh Foreman
Hell yeah! The reason I support you here is because I consider your work to be continuing education. And for the record your vids get passed around the studio on a regular basis. That's probably true of most studios.
Tanner Methven
Even though they aren't making games, all the people I know who are interested in how video games work are watching GMTK. Everyone's video essay playlist is a bit different, but you're the one constant so I think it's safe to say your doing a damn good job.
Seth Powell
As a AAA dev myself (well I was until last week, I've just left and am now going indie!) I've found your videos immensely useful in conveying ideas within the team. I regularly share your videos when trying to hammer home a point as you lay them out in such a digestible way that just resonates instantly with people. While I wouldn't say the concepts are new, it's your delivery and structure of them that just allows them to make sense to everyone. Also, I'll add that many of my friends also share them routinely around the studios they work for (all major AAA companies). Just wanted to let you know that your reach is spreading far and wide.
Felipe Dal Molin
More than helpíng us developers in making our games, your videos are of immense help in making design knowledge more widespread. As a designer, it is often difficult to get a point across and communicating an idea that's based in previous study and experience rather than common sense. It's way easier to do that when we have high-quality visual material to back it up and make it simple to understand :) The same goes for talking to students. I think you're helping form better, more informed game criticism too. Critics, players and developers win with criticism that's based not only in raw opinion and common sense, but in deeper understanding of the craft.
Rich Stoehr
With the excellent analysis and quality and depth of your videos, I think developers would be stupid not to be watching them carefully! I'm glad they're not stupid. ;)
Game Maker's Toolkit
It's out! I actually did a video about how good the design was, before I knew GMTK was an influence :P
"There’s one huge AAA game that has awesome design, where the level designer sent me an email to say they used my videos. But unfortunately I was sworn to secrecy! Gah!" Will you be able to tell us which one when it comes out ?
For me, the metroid remake video inspired me to watch out for what values to keep in mind when designing games. How small changes can impact the entire feel of the game. Please do keep making videos like these, as they inspire to keep a certain quality and to think different than what I at least did when designing. Thanks for all the great content!
Dan Root
Well your Celeste video has certainly given me the inspiration and idea to have a "Fun mode" in my game I'll eventually make, which removes any kind of hindrance from death so you can blast through and just have fun.
As I write this I am literally in the process of adding some assist mode style features to The Persistence. We're also hoping to add in various other accessibility settings and tweaks, too. This came about as a result of me simply asking in a meeting, 'hey, can we do some accessibility stuff?', and it's thanks to GMTK, as well as Noclip's interview with Ian Hamilton, that I felt compelled to ask such a thing in the first place. I don't imagine the number of people that will benefit from such features in a niche PSVR title is huge, but hopefully there's a few, and it's something I definitely want to push for on future projects too. So I guess this is just a big 'thanks!', Mark, for doing what you do; keep it up! I'm really enjoying the accessibility videos & am actively changing the accessibility features I'm working on based on what I'm learning from your videos.
SForM
Yo that shoutout to Every Frame a Painting my fav YT channel. Honestly speaking your channel reminds me so much of what tony Zhou was able to do in every frame a painting and between that and GMTK got me into watching video essays
Aadit Doshi
Of course you have been highly influential! Why do you think so many people want to back you on patron? We really believe in what you are trying to do! Games has so many diverse elements to it, it's hard to explain specifics. So now instead I just link my team to your videos.
