GMTK Redux - Roguelikes, persistency, and progression (Patreon)
Content
Hey everyone!
So for the first time in GMTK history, I've decided to remove a video, remake it, and reupload a new version.
My original video - "Should roguelikes have persistent upgrades?" - received some negative comments about the video's approach. That doesn't usually faze me - there's always some backlash! - but this time, I found myself agreeing with those comments.
The main issue was that the original video leaned too heavily on my personal opinion (i.e. that roguelikes are better without persistent upgrades) - and made it seem like my preferences were “correct”, and everyone else’s was “incorrect”.
That’s not true, of course, and so I’ve tried to make the video more balanced and evenhanded - by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of both including and not including persistent upgrades. That's how it should have been from the start.
I also felt like the original video had comments that seemed to be in favour of things I’ve vehemently fought *against* on Game Maker’s Toolkit!
The original video praised roguelikes for being unbeatable by low-skilled players, but I dislike inaccessibility and gatekeeping. So I've presented that as a drawback of the genre and talked about ways to design around that.
Also, the video could have be seen as me being in favour of very restrictive genre definitions ("roguelikes must never have persistent upgrades!!!") whereas in reality, I think restrictions like that can lead to boring games. So I've tried to get away from that in this new script.
I’m sure some people will be just as negative about me changing the video - but I think this was the right move for me and the channel.
GMTK is a tricky beast because it balances opinion and education and, sometimes, I’m just going to get that completely wrong. You've seen me struggle with that here on Patreon before, and I'm going to keep on dealing with it until I get it right. Thanks for your patience while I wrestle with this.
Cheers! More Patreon rewards coming later this week!
Mark