Making an Impact (GMTK Insider, August 2018) (Patreon)

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!