GMTK Insider (January 2018) (Patreon)

Hello everybody! Welcome to the first insider article for 2018. I kicked the year off right with lots of happenings, so let’s get right to it. 

Videos

I released three videos this month. And I wanted to start as I mean to go on, with a design theory / topic video, which features lots of games and examples. That being the feedback loop episode.

I had never really heard of positive feedback / negative feedback loops before. Or at least, I didn’t know what they meant. I had simply played Pyre, and thought that the game was doing some smart stuff that “fixed” the complaint Tom Francis had about XCOM’s “snowball problem”.

After a bit of Googling I discovered that it’s actually called a positive feedback loop, so I learned everything I could about them (and their negative cousin), and put together a video explaining the concept and pointing out the successes of Pyre. I'm pleased with this one. 

I had a number of people let me know that this video taught them something new, or helped them understand feedback loops in a way they didn't before. That's awesome: I tried to focus on really clear examples (Call of Duty and Mario Kart) and talk about the concept from lots of different angles - including both multiplayer and singleplayer.

Video two was of course Boss Keys Breath of the Wild. 

The research for this one was a little different to the other games. I always try to rush through the overworld bits to get to the dungeons as quickly as possible.

But while BOTW makes that easier than any game since Zelda 1, it's not actually a sensible idea. I was so lacking in health and stamina that I really struggled with the challenges along the way and the boss fights inside the divine beasts!

Luckily I also intended to talk about shrines, so I visited a bunch of them while building Link up to take on the dungeons. 

The dungeons themselves were sort of like a culmination of everything in Boss Keys, which was fitting. They have the puzzle box aspect that I’ve focused on in the series - but they are let down by focusing too squarely on that side of things and missing other elements like lock and key navigation, combat, aesthetics, etc. 

Anyway, I’m just happy to get Boss Keys done. I really enjoyed the process but I was also pleased to finish it and move on. 13 episodes was a lot, and it was hard to build new things on top of a foundation that I wasn’t always that happy with. Then again, I think seeing me change and grow in my analysis - inventing two different types of graph no less! - was interesting for viewers. 

It was funny to see people ask me to write a book, or analyse the leftover Zelda games, or look at Zelda-like games such as Okami. It felt like telling someone who has just run a marathon that there’s a 200m dash they might be interested in. Like, no thanks - I need a rest! That said, I appreciate the enthusiasm for the project!

I’m looking forward to season two, though. I learnt a lot from Boss Keys - both in terms of analysing the games and making the videos - that I think the second season will be really cool. I’ve also got a mid-season special coming which should be a nice surprise. 

The third and final video for the month was about Rayman Legends. Wanted to do something short and sweet to finish things off. And, crucially, I was looking to do a video about platformer level design that offered an alternative to Nintendo’s designs. 

Making a new mechanic for every single level is surely the gold standard, but it’s not always feasible. And, besides, as highlighted in the video: there are benefits to keeping a mechanic around for longer. As people use my videos to help with their own games, it’s really important to offer different perspectives and suggestions. 

I’m doing well with platformer design videos - I’ve done lots of level design videos, and stuff on Mario’s jump. Next up, and inspired by the excellent Celeste, I think I’m gonna tackle character movement. Action and decay, gravity, coyote time - stuff like that. 

Also, it was nice to do a shorter video. One of the aims for going monthly, instead of per-video on the Patreon, was to get away from this idea of every video needing to be on the same level as each other. Instead, I can do shorter videos like this, or perhaps just one big long video.

New gear

I did a bit of upgrading for the new year. But it didn’t really work out as planned. 

So I had been feeling a bit insecure about my microphone set up, which is a Blue Yeti USB mic. That’s kind of a cheapy hobbyist solution, and so I decided to check out a more professional solution. 

I got a Shure SM7B, an audio interface, a preamp, and an XLR cable. Set it up, hit record and... wasn’t that impressed. 

Okay, so here’s what I didn’t know at the time (I’m bad at researching purchases because it’s boring). The Shure is a dynamic microphone, which means it isn’t as focused on vocal clarity as it is on durability and noise cancellation. So I could use this thing to hammer a nail, and also I can use this thing without sound treating the walls and it still sounds good. 

But just in terms of my voice... the Yeti sounds better! So I’ve stuck with that for the videos. Which I should have done in the first place to be honest as I’ve had nothing but compliments about the audio in my videos. 

The Shure hasn’t gone to waste though. I’ve clamped it to my desk which makes it a great permanent mic for podcasting, Skype calls, some streaming, and any video tutorials I end up doing. So, thumbs up. 

In the future, I may check out a condenser microphone (I.e. the same type as the Yeti, but a more professional XLR variant) which should sound more clear and vibrant. 

Another purchase was more successful: hard drives! I’ve been faffing around with different external hard drives for a while but decided to just buy three 4TB drives of the exact same type so I only need one power supply and USB cable and can simply swap the drives out. 

These drives are essential. Need to mention a game like, I dunno... ReCore for 5 seconds? Instead of downloading the game and capturing footage, I can just plug in a drive and get some video in no time. This makes those videos with 20, 30 different games in them actually viable to make.

Events

I got invited to an event in London this month, to be on a panel of judges for an indie game competition. 

The games were very interesting - there was an iPhone murder mystery game, a Telltale-style game where the world changes as you make choices, a twin stick shooter with ghost busting, and more. 

It was a bit of a shame that we didn’t actually get to play the games - just saw PowerPoint presentations. But it was still a cool experience. 

I also got to meet some GMTK fans. Caught up with some old Pocket Gamer colleagues. And I met up with Tom from SFB who I knew previously from his mobile games like Detective Grimoire - but is now an indie star after making Snipperclips. I got all the goss about making games with Nintendo from him!

Games

I’m on a bit of a retro-ish kick at the moment. Get it? KICK! Like the picture. Gosh I'm funny.

Uh. So I’m still working my way through the Yakuza games, in anticipation of Yakuza 6. I finished Yakuza 4 this month, and rather enjoyed it. 

It’s the first game with protagonists other than Kazuma Kiryu. There’s a pawnbroker, a guy on death row, and a cop. And you’ll play as each, plus Kiryu, in their own chapters. 

They have their own features, different fighting styles (Akiyama has lightning fast kicks, Seijima has charge attacks, and Tanimura does parries) and their chapters almost feel like different genres. A film noir, a prison break, a cop drama.

I’ve now started Yakuza 5. More on that next month I imagine. Kazuma‘s a taxi driver now!

I also finished Metroid Prime 2, in anticipation of some Boss Keys-related stuff. This is one I’ve never played, despite getting it from the Nintendo Stars Catalogue (any Europeans remember that?) many years ago. 

Now, in some ways, this game actually has more in common with Zelda than Metroid. The’s a sort of overworld area, and three distinct zones that work like dungeons. They even have keys, and the game’s got a light world / dark world thing like Link to the Past!

Unfortunately, things fall apart at times. 

After having two “dungeons” that are self contained (you go in Agon Wastes and don’t need to leave until you fight the boss. Tarvos Bog only has a little backtracking to the front door of the dungeon), the third zone, Sanctuary, will see you needing to go back to a completely different area to get an important upgrade. 

Now that’s pretty normal for a Metroidvania, but having set up this dungeon paradigm in Prime 2 Echoes, it felt like a betrayal of the concept to send me back into a different zone. It’s as if halfway through the Fire Temple in Ocarina, you actually need to venture back into the Forest Temple to get something. 

Basically, the game starts by saying “hey, you only need to think about one dungeon at a time”, and then later says “oh, just kidding. I hope you’ve remembered the entire map”. Like do one or the other chaps. Can't really have both.

The dark world / light world thing doesn’t really make that much sense to me, either. There’s no consistent logic to what will change about the world as you swap between the two worlds. 

And there's also a final thing where you have to explore the entire world to find 9 more keys, which feels a bit like the Wind Waker Triforce Shard hunt. I quite enjoyed it, though, so I'll go to bat for that bit.

Anyway. This gives me lots to explore in a future video. And while the game was tricky at times, I still enjoyed my time with Metroid Prime 2. I just can’t get enough of explore ‘em ups, it seems. 

Also, I played some indie titles (Playlist coming soon), very briefly checked out Monster Hunter World, and I've got that Shadow of the Colossus remake but I haven't started it yet. Guess I'll save it for the stream.

The end

Okay, there’s more I could say but we better wrap things up. Thanks for reading and for your support this month. New videos coming in February!