A Note on Email Spam | GMTK Newsletter (Feb 2017) (Patreon)

Hi everyone. Before I start, I want to talk about email spam. 

I'm very aware that I write more posts than the average Patreon creator, and while I think that's a good thing - I do know that can also be an issue for those who don't want to be spammed with email notifications, like, 6 times a month. 

To fix this, I've come up with a solution. If you want to limit your number of emails from me, read on:

First, go into your Patreon "Account Settings" and click "Email Settings". 

Scroll down to your email settings for my channel, and untick the box that says "When Game Maker's Toolkit posts free content". 

From now on, you will only receive emails when I release a new episode (as they are set as "paid" content). And going forward, I will make sure to put a list of everything I did on Patreon, prior to the new episode, in that post. 

Which means when I release a new episode you'll see that I have also done - for example - a reading list, a GameClub poll, and a behind-the-scenes blog post, and you can pick and choose the bits you want to read. 

Hopefully that makes sense and is satisfactory. If you have a better idea of how to do this, lemme know!

Okay. Onto the rest of it. 

Post Script

The Magic of the First Legend of Zelda

With Breath of the Wild coming out, and with Nintendo saying that this game was to take inspiration from the first Zelda, I knew I couldn't ignore that ol' NES game any longer. 

I had always admired its bold vision for freedom and non-linearity, but its reputation for difficulty and inscrutability had put me off. I should never have listened: I loved the game.

I played it feverishly over the course of a week in January - on trains, in unfamiliar towns, late at night, early in the morning - and didn't stop until it was over. I knew I had to make a video about it. 

I wanted to dispel some of the myths surrounding the game, and look at the design to see how Nintendo subtly guided players through the world. It was fun to make, and the reaction was really good. I know plenty of people love the new Zelda games - I do too, of course - but there's plenty of support for a more adventurous entry in the series. 

The episode was pretty easy to make. The only tough bit was making a map of Hyrule. I experimented with lots of different things (putting filters and whatnot on the actual in-game atlas), but in the end I decided to just spend a few hours making one by hand. I think it looks pretty nice:

The Secret of Mario's Jump (and other Versatile Verbs)

I want to share the thought process that lead to this video. I'm going to pepper in some of my doodles and notes as I go. 

So, this video started out as a collection of interesting mechanical things I've noticed in games.

Including: you lower your shield to restore stamina in Dark Souls, you slash enemies to regain ammo in Hyper Light Drifter, you hold and release the boost button to maintain nitro in Motorstorm.

When I tried to figure out what all these things had in common, I realised that they were all player actions that had multiple outcomes on the same button (shield button is both "guard" and "restore stamina", slash button is both "inflict damage' and "regain ammo").

So maybe I could do a video about how smart designers can do "more with less"? 

The video started out as this thing about how modern games have loads and loads of buttons, and radial menus and context sensitive buttons. But well designed games can get as much gameplay with fewer buttons.

But this didn't really satisfy me. The real purpose of this, I soon figured out, wasn't about reducing buttons (still a worthwhile goal, and a good byproduct), but about increasing depth. 

By having a different outcome when you hold or press a button, or when you hold or release a button, you're forced to make a tactical choice. And when you have different outcomes depending on how many times you hit a button, you can modulate the effect of that one action (provided you have good timing!).

This felt much better. But it did mean that I couldn't include the Hyper Light Drifter example. In that game you slash enemies with your sword to restore your ammo - it's really good (it reduces the need for ammo crates or a reload button, and encourages the player to get in close), but it's not about choice or modulation.

It simply didn't fit the other examples. So it had to go (and will be appearing in my next video on verbs).

Anyway, I needed a way to wrap all this stuff up, and thought using Mario's jump - one of the most versatile verbs in gaming - would be a good example. My only hesitation is that I already talk about Nintendo too much! But, oh well, what are you gonna do.

Anyway, it was also nice to be able to do some more foundational stuff on the channel. I know that my videos are used in class, and by young and student designers, and that means I need to cover the basics as much as anything else.

Mark's Month

I was ill for about a week this month, which certainly slowed me down. But, I'm still pleased with what I achieved on the channel.

I finished Resident Evil 7, and replayed Psychonauts to completion for GameClub. I've also been playing Yakuza 0, Obduction (the brilliant new puzzler from Myst-maker Cyan), and Night in the Woods (a charming story game about young adult animals).

For Honor was one of the biggest games of February. I quite liked what I played, but it's definitely a multiplayer game first, and the singleplayer (the only bit I tried) really just felt tacked on.

There's some good stuff with the action: it's like Dark Souls, with light and heavy attacks and how you try to get in quick attacks to tickle your opponent as they wind up for a heavy. But it's also like a fighting game, with full-on combos. 

Perhaps the strangest part is that the enemy's attacks are represented as a triangle, and one of the three sides will flash red when an attack is coming. Which basically means that instead of watching the enemy's animations for tells and telegraphed moves, you just watch a triangle the whole time. 

(Though, there's more to it when multiple enemies get involved, and there are environmental hazards. Plus, I'm sure high level players will start to ignore the triangles in favour of animation and auditory clues in the future).

But, I dunno - it felt a bit unnecessary to me, when games like Punch-Out, Dark Souls, Street Fighter, and Infinity Blade all communicate this information through strong animation, rather than a gaudy HUD overlay. 

I would have played more if it were a singleplayer game, but oh well - looks like the multiplayer has got a following and that's super cool. 

I was also on a judging panel for one of these big gaming awards. This is my second. This one (which I sadly can't talk about) involved playing a lot of games, and then going to London to discuss the nominees with the other judges. 

It was a cool experience, and fascinating to play some games that I never, ever would have touched otherwise. Hopefully I can talk about that in the future. 

Sneak Peek

So, not sure what I'll be doing in March. I definitely want to take a bit of time off to play Zelda. I'm sure some sort of video will come out of that - after Boss Keys and the Zelda 1 video, lots of people have asked me to comment on Breath of the Wild. 

I might also be going to Sweden for a freelance gig. We'll see. 

My next video has to be Boss Keys, though. It's getting really long between videos and I need to finish this thing up! I'll be playing Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks for the rest of this week, while I wait for my Switch!

I do want to do a video on Psychonauts. I worry that a lot has been written about the game, but I can't see too many in-depth videos about it, and I have some more to add too. 

And I want to do this follow-up verb piece sooner rather than later, while it's fresh in people's minds. So, things I may be covering are:

• multipurpose verbs (Hyper Light Drifter slash, Splatoon ink, Doom glory kill, etc)
• committed actions (Dark Souls) and cancelling actions (Bayonetta)
• verbs used in different contexts (Wall jump, bayonetta witch time)
• using verbs for as many things as possible (shoot the doors in metroid)
• limiting (stamina meters, ammo, cooldowns)
• maintaining actions (grinding in THPS, sucking ghosts in Luigi's mansion)

That's just the start. Got any other good ideas? Would love to hear from you on this one. 

Okay, bye bye.