GMTK Insider (April 2018) / New Video! (Patreon)

I’m going to start this newsletter with more of a personal update. And then we’ll get to the video stuff.

So, Game Maker’s Toolkit is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’m so immensely proud of what I’ve achieved, and have enjoyed almost every minute working on it. I’ve had so many successes, from hitting 400k subscribers, to making YouTube my full time job (thanks!), to getting awards, and being invited to perform talks and guest lectures.

But I also have to recognise that I’ve sacrificed other things in my life to make this all possible. When I was working at Pocket Gamer, I used every evening and weekend I could to make videos on the side. And even when I went full time, I was still overworking. I let other things slip, and put my real life on hold while I binged on my career. It wasn’t healthy, and it took me a while to admit that.

So at the start of 2018, I vowed to change things. I needed to get my own house. I need to learn how to drive and get a car. And I wanted to start looking for someone to be in a relationship with. Three life-changing goals. Run of the mill things for most people, I know, but important to me...

Well, it’s only April but things are going pretty bloody well.

I’m writing this newsletter from the sunny office in my new house. I’m renting right now (I looked into buying, but mortgages can be a pain when you’re self employed), but it was the right move in retrospect. I went from viewing the house to holding the keys in about two weeks, which suited me well.

And so I’ve been buying (and building) IKEA furniture, generally learning how to be a functioning adult, and setting up the GMTK headquarters.

It’s awesome to have a dedicated space for work. I now have a great set-up with my Mac and PC right next to each other, which is perfect for capturing footage, or streaming. I’m working on making a new audio booth, and need lots more storage space for games, consoles, VR headsets, and the like.

I’ll get some pics when it’s all set up. Right now it’s all messy cables and empty IKEA boxes.

I’m also madly in love with a woman, who I’ve been seeing this year. It’s been the best relationship of my life, and we’ve become very close, very fast. She’s also been reinventing herself, in a way, and so we’ve been supporting each other’s personal growth. All this change in my life would have been impossibly scary, but it’s just so easy (and fun!) with her by my side.

And then I’ll figure out the driving a little later in the year. I think I deserve a break from big changes. Plus, I need to focus more time on the YouTube channel! I know I’ve been a bit quiet and a bit slow, but hopefully you’ll know why now. As things settle down, I’ll be back in my usual groove. 

So long story short: I worked incredibly hard on GMTK, but let some parts of my life suffer. Right now I’m working on fixing that, and I appreciate your patience and support while I do. In due course, everything will balance back out.

Okay! Now on to the real stuff.

Keeping Players Engaged 

As someone who plays a lot of games for work, I’ve often thought about why some games hold my attention better than others. I’ve found some games almost impossible to put down, while others - games I’ve been enjoying - just kinda fizzle out and end up on that infamous pile of shame.

So it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot, and wanted to sum up a bunch of different thoughts on things like pacing, foreshadowing, difficulty flow, and the like. And I’ve long wanted to talk about Uncharted 2’s wonderful movie-like pacing.

The most important thing, however, was to separate good design from the nasty psychological tricks that we seen in lots of mobile games. I only want to advocate for design practices that I think are healthy and responsible, and I’m trying to use my platform to make gaming a better place. That’s something I’ll be doing more as time goes on.

There’s lot of stuff in games that I’m not happy about. Representation. A focus on violence and combat. Toxic communities. Lootboxes and designing for addiction. I’m probably not going to make full episodes on these things (maybe the combat one…) but I will be fighting for the things I believe in. Regardless of how the comments turn out!

The World Design of Dark Souls 

I really, really enjoyed making this one. It’s been one of my favourite videos to produce so far. 

So, if you haven’t played it, Dark Souls 1 has a world that’s pretty close to a Metroid map or a giant Zelda dungeon. Lots of branching paths, backtracking, interconnected pathways, and secret zones. It’s pretty darn neat, and presents a huge opportunity for discussion.

Like, what are the advantages of making this sort of non-linear world. But also, what are the design challenges - and how did From Software approach them? 

It was also fun to make the graphs, maps, and other images. Dark Souls is a complex game with lots of opportunities for sequence breaking and whatnot, so I had to be especially careful to get all this stuff right. Thanks to Charlie from The Gaming Brit for looking over my charts and pointing out some errors I’d made.

I’m writing this before the video is out public to the wider world, so we’ll see what people actually think I guess. But I’m pleased with how it turned out.

What’s next?

So I still want to do that cooperative design video. That’s a big topic that deserves a proper investigation. Beyond that, though, I’m really not sure! I’ve got trillions of ideas, and people put in requests every day, so I’m not worried about finding a topic. I’m just gonna let my mind wander for a while and see what idea I latch onto next. 

I guess the main issue is that I normally use the game I’m currently playing to help generate ideas, but I’ve been too busy to play a lot of games lately! I’ve basically just been playing PUBG on mobile while I chat with friends, and some Yakuza 6. 

I definitely need to get on that new God of War. Everyone’s going crazy for it. And I’m gonna be playing some indie stuff this week for the playlist. Like I said earlier, I just need to get back into the groove of things.

I’ve got some events and stuff coming up. I think I talked about the London and Amsterdam talks last time. I’ve also just put in my press accreditation for Gamescom, so I may see some of you in Cologne, which would be awesome! 

But right now, I’m very much living in the moment and enjoying the best year of my life.

I would not be here without all of you. You’re an incredible group of people for helping some random dude in England follow his dreams. Thank you, so much, for your support. I hope to keep making it worthwhile. Normal service should be starting to resume, but your ongoing patience is massively appreciated.

See you around!

Mark