Hey team
After I finished my Breath of the Wild video, I toyed with this idea of doing a bonus follow-up video, to touch on that same topic, but from a different angle.
This would allow me to make stuff without the epic production schedule of a usual episode (using a more off-the-cuff script, and re-using footage gathered for the main video), and also touch on topics that don't exactly fit GTMK's remit.
So I made this video, touching on some of the more interesting elem...
2017-03-23 07:38:33 +0000 UTC
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Had to do it! Lots to talk about in Breath of the Wild (from climbing to adaptive soundtracks to immersive sim design to wayfinding to whatever, it's full of stuff I have praised on GMTK), but decided to focus on the open world design, and how it avoids the usual tropes seen in lots of other games.
Video will go live to the world in a few hours.
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Since my last paid-for post, I did the following Patreon blogs:
2017-03-20 13:56:41 +0000 UTC
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Lemme know what you think!
2017-03-18 16:26:43 +0000 UTC
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One of the most controversial aspects of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the fact that weapons are super brittle. Like, a powerful knight's sword will break down faster than a launch era Xbox 360.
I've been thinking about this system, and trying to figure out why Nintendo used it, where it is beneficial for the experience, and when it falls down.
I didn't think this was quite interesting enough for a full ep of GMTK. Besides, I'm already doing a BOTW video, focusin...
2017-03-16 21:32:52 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone. Just wanted to check in, as it feels like forever since we last talked.
As you can imagine, I have been absolutely wrapped up in Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This is a huge, addictive, absorbing game, and it's been great to sink my teeth into it.
What do you think of the game? I have some reservations - stamina meter and weapon degradation are both pretty stingy, fast travel points are too generous, and the game world is possibly a tiny bit too big - but I'm really...
2017-03-10 07:47:36 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy! Let me know if you try any of the games :D
2017-02-28 18:45:59 +0000 UTC
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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 cli...
2017-02-28 09:29:02 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone!
Thanks for taking part in the first GameClub, on Psychonauts. It was so great to read all your thoughtful responses to the game.
I think Julian really summed up the game for me, saying it's like a classic adventure game, but uncomfortably squeezed into the mould of a collectathon platformer.
"The parts that could have easily translated to an adventure game (the writing, the visual design, the scenario, the logic, the GOD DAMNED WRITING) are really really excelle...
2017-02-27 12:47:28 +0000 UTC
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Hello boys and girls. It's that special time again, when I unleash a whole bunch of interesting articles, engaging video essays, and weird internet discoveries.
Hope you enjoy!
Resident Evil 7
How a dirty house turns Resident Ev...
2017-02-27 09:26:15 +0000 UTC
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Now with 100% fewer audio bugs (hopefully!)
2017-02-27 07:18:22 +0000 UTC
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OOPS. There's a nasty audio bug in this upload. Will fix and re-upload tomorrow. SORRY! Replaced with the previous video for now.
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Hello!
My new episode is out tomorrow. It's about Mario's jump, versatile verbs, and the importance of strong player actions.
I've been meaning to do some back-to-basics type stuff on the channel. And this was really fun to do - from making diagrams to getting in footage from loads of different games.
As I say in the episode, the...
2017-02-26 19:24:24 +0000 UTC
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Hello!
So, this was fun to make. I haven't done something like this in a while - where I look at a general design topic, and use examples from loads of different games. So it was nice to revist this style of video making!
Let me know what you reckon. I'm still deciding on title, thumb, etc. And sorry, no subs yet.
Mark
2017-02-25 17:17:11 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone! Hope you had a chance to play some Psychonauts - and enjoyed your time.
For me, it was great to go back to this game (I hadn't played it in about 10 years). While it hasn't aged amazingly well, there's still so much to love in there. I ended up completing the game, and even going back in to a few levels to get some of the bonus stuff.
But... actually, I don't want to start this off - I don't want to hog the limelight! This is your thing. So, the floor is yours.
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2017-02-23 16:35:12 +0000 UTC
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Hey! Here's a new video for you. Sorry, no subtitles, thumbnail, or description yet. Will be doing all that on Monday (when the video goes public)
Do let me know what you think!
2017-02-18 10:02:45 +0000 UTC
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Hello super special $5 Patrons. Thanks for your advanced support.
So, Breath of the Wild will be taking inspiration from the first Zelda game. Here's why that's exciting (and why Zelda 1 isn't the inscrutable retro nonsense some claim it to be!)
Sorry, no subtitles yet. Going to mess around with the mic volume / compression - not ultra happy with it - and may reupload before it goes public on Monday.
2017-02-17 09:28:49 +0000 UTC
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So, a while back IGN asked me if I'd like to work with them, either by syndicating my content on their channel or having me make exclusive stuff.
I asked you guys for advice, and we came to the conclusion that it would be okay for them to syndicate, but I should make everything for my channel first. Good call.
Anyway, so I agreed to that and then things went silent for ages and I assumed they just forgot but then, they finally got back in contact and now the video (Shovel Knight) is onli...
2017-02-16 20:09:55 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone.
So, I decided to dip into the Patreon coffers last month to finally get something I've been meaning to buy... a PC.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Console peasant and all that. I used to be a PC gamer back in the day, when they had much better picture quality than consoles, and exclusives I really liked. But I fell out of love with PCs and Windows a few years back and switched to an iMac.
That's done me well, and I'll still be using it for making videos, but I def...
2017-02-05 20:22:31 +0000 UTC
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Okay! By a considerable margin, the winner of the first GameClub poll is... Psychonauts!
Let me give you some historical context for this one. Psychonauts is the first game by Double Fine - a studio formed by Tim Schafer (Full Throttle, Grim Fandango) after he left LucasArts.
The game was made by a bunch of ex-LucasArts employees, with writing by Portal funnyman Erik Wolpaw.
Psychonauts has some leftover ideas from Tim's work on point and click adventures, but is u...
2017-02-02 15:37:16 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone!
So, as promised (ages ago, sorry for the delay!) I'm going to be running a game club on Patreon. It's like a book club, but with fewer paper cuts.
Obviously, this is entirely voluntary. If you don't want to take part it should only add a few extra emails/notifications, but I do apologise for the spam. Please note that Patreon offers lots of options for this stuff, and I'll also use the word "GameClub" in the post titles if you wish to filter them out!
2017-02-01 11:20:49 +0000 UTC
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Hey team. Thanks so much for your support in January.
Post script
So, this was my first month doing Game Maker's Toolkit full time. It was fun and weird and it completely flew by and I think I worked harder than I have any other month of my life!
For the first time in ages, I managed to release three videos. There was one on The Last Guardian's skill at telling stories through...
2017-01-31 11:26:22 +0000 UTC
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Thanks for your extra support this month. Here are three indie games, released in January, that I enjoyed.
2017-01-31 09:33:03 +0000 UTC
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I wanted to talk about two awesome FPS games, and how they focused on fun gameplay above anything else.
Okay, I think I can put 2016 to rest now. Got some nostalgic stuff coming up in February. Will keep you posted.
2017-01-30 14:29:06 +0000 UTC
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Hello all!
I've put together an absolutely weird hodgepodge of stuff this month. There's no overarching theme, no crossheads, and no telling what you'll get from link to link!
There are a lot of easy-going, light reads. But you'll find some deeper, more analytical stuff too. Let me know if you particularly enjoyed any of the links!
[Video] Why doesn’t Sid Meier still make Sid Meier’s Civilization?
2017-01-30 10:25:06 +0000 UTC
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Decided to use January as an excuse to cover some 2016 games I didn't catch last year - namely, The Last Guardian, Doom, and Titanfall 2.
Subtitles enabled, all other bits coming on Monday when the video goes live.
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Definitely need to do some older games / design principle stuff now to redress the balance.
2017-01-28 20:45:20 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone. Thanks for your questions this week. Here are the answers - hope you find them interesting. If you have any suggestions for longer posts, like Julian's Q about scripts, lemme know.
Right, weekend time now - new episode and Patreon rewards out Monday and Tuesday!
2017-01-28 08:10:18 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone. Earlier today I asked you to contribute questions that you'd like to hear me answer in a Q&A video. (Please add some more!)
One of the questions, from Julian, is probably better suited to a full written thing rather than a quick comment in the video. So here we go. Here's Julian's question:
Can you name some of the GMTK videos that you think have the strongest-structur...
2017-01-19 22:38:41 +0000 UTC
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Right. After a brief hiatus, Boss Keys is back!
This series is getting hard. The dungeons are generally more straightforward at this point in the series and so I'm either going to end up moaning or just won't have much to say.
But I think this one went okay. There's some interesting stuff about Nintendo repeating the same structure across multiple dungeons and a nice look at an architectural puzzle.
Let me know what you think! As ever, I don't charge for Boss Keys episodes.
2017-01-19 14:52:38 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone!
Things are going well - Last Guardian episode got great comments and the video was covered on Engadget. Twilight Princess Boss Keys is exporting now and will be live today or tomorrow. And the next episode of GMTK is in the scripting phase.
I haven't done a Questions & Answers for a while, so let's do it! Please leave your questions in the c...
2017-01-19 11:17:46 +0000 UTC
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Hey all!
So I thought it might be interesting to look back on what 2016 looked like for Game Maker's Toolkit. See what did well, what I achieved, and what I can learn.
This post is really, really long and potentially very boring but I decided that if you don't care you'd skip it whatever the length and if you do care you'd appreciate the level of detail. So fill your boots.
(Hopefully the embedded images work.)
What I made
So in 2016, I release...
2017-01-11 14:05:53 +0000 UTC
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Hey all!
In this video, I used The Last Guardian as a way to talk about how games can communicate story, character, and ideas through their mechanics.
This video has closed captions available now!
Video available for y'all now. Open to the public on Monday.
2017-01-07 15:09:39 +0000 UTC
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