Smart move delaying it so it didn't come out on Election Day. I can't rightly imagine having spent last night trying to get into a new game that requires actual thought and problem-solving ability. Ended up mindlessly playing American Truck Simulator to kill time between checking live election results. That little anecdote out of the way, congratulations on your journey as a creator both of TH-cam content and of an actual video game!
I remember that Mark Brown talking about Game Design and I was thinking "Who is this man and why does he have me engaged so much about design?" and now, I attribute part of my indie success to your videos. Thanks Mark!
I'm an engineer at ProdigalSon Games and we released our first steam game this past August called "Attack on hex island". Almost all decisions about user feedback and gameplay came from GMTK
Right. Our studio started on the first GMTK Game Jam and almost 8 years later, we have grown so much with the knowledge Mark shares that we were able to make our first successful steam release. The game actually started on GMTK 2022 Game Jam. So trully and sincerely, thank you @GMTK
The expert isnt the guy who knows everything beforehand, but the guy who has a real genuine excitement to improve and learn more. Faking it IS making it! Proud of you man.
I am not even a game dev i just watch his video for fun, very insightful, beautfiul video, good script, good voice. Genuinely happy to found out he has actually build quite a big name of himself in the industry. Well deserved
*#1:* If you want to understand why a game makes you feel a certain way, ask yourself: how do the mechanics contribute to the experience? *#2:* The only way to judge a mechanic is to ask whether or not it can contribute to the experience you're trying to forge. *#3:* When it comes to making a video game, you have to decide who this game is for, and tune your mechanic appropriately. *#4:* Options and bonus content can be used to make a game appealing to those who are more hardcore than the target audience. *#5:* Options, accessibility settings, and easy modes don't have to pose a threat to your intended experience. *#6:* Designers should think of genres in the loosest possible terms. *#7:* The best solution for a complex problem is whatever provides the most interesting experience to the player. *#8:* A game idea is worthless until you've proven its value through a prototype. *#9:* Frequent playtesting should be used to make sure your design is effectively producing the results you desire. *#10:* Always figure out for yourself if a game design lesson is true for you, and for the type of games you want to make.
This is THE channel that started my game design career. Thanks mark for 10 years of exploring what makes a game! And more importantly, thanks for sharing it with US!
While you arent an ultimate authority on game design i have found little that inspires me and pushes my brain in just the right way to come up with some new idea as your channel. So thank you for all the many hours of hard work you've done that have helped me and many others on our own journies in life
I can’t imagine how liberating it must be to say that 10 years ago you started all this without really knowing anything about game design hahah You should be immensely proud that, even if the begginings were humble, you’re now without a doubt a major inspiration to game designers, definitely one of the biggest I can think of. You deserve it, Mark. Cheers!
lesson 6 is probably one of the most important lessons i learned from this channel. once you detach yourself from the idea that your game must be a specific way because it was made in a certain genre, it becomes easier to make your game more fun since you're not trying to meet yourself to impossible standards, but also because you're thinking of how you can do things on your own and come up with new ideas.
I think it's telling how you've found your success on TH-cam, Mark - there have always been great GDC talks and design theorists on the internet, but your skills at script writing, visual artistry, and of course snappy editing have made something so fantastic that even Masahiro Sakurai wanted to emulate it. I appreciate how you've evolved your opinions over the years and taken a more holistic appreciation of the artform of games. Wishing all the best for Mind Over Magnet's success and all the future insights you're able to derive from it.
Hi, Ringling College Game Art student here. Thought you'd want to know that several of my game design and history classes in my 3 years here have pulled up your videos in class as examples/learning material. Just yesterday, my Visual Development class used your UI design video to prep us for our UI/UX assignment. Crazy to see you've come this far! 🔥
A QA Joke: A QA engineer walks into a bar. Orders a beer. Orders 0 beers. Orders 99999999999 beers. Orders a lizard. Orders -1 beers. Orders a ueicksjdhd. First real customer walks in and asks where the bathroom is. The bar bursts into flames, killing everyone.
Is this joke a ref to that animation or is it simply the joke of that animation? Hmm, is it a ref if they're indistinct? Are all memes, aside the OG, a ref?
I think it’s a programming joke. Feel free to open the comment if you want an explanation(if you don’t need one, no worries): In programming, coders need to test edge cases as well as normal cases. This Quality Assurance(I think) employee tested a bunch of edge cases with his orders and didn’t even look at the normal bathroom case, causing Bar.exe to stop responding when a real customer asked for it.
I never thought you had a Game Design background but what I did always think was that your videos are always on the point. When I was studying Game Design, your videos were part of recommended resources to keep an eye on in your free time. Others might have not stuck with me, but your channel definitely did.
Did anyone else here start playing video games/find out about indie games cuz of this channel? I did, after seeing some of your early hollow knight stuff I decided to play it, my first indie game(dont have Hollow Knight as your first Inide game) and then all the rest. Thanks Mark I love making video games as a hobby.
Thanks for those 10 valuable lessons 1. If you want to understand why a game makes you feel a certain way, ask yourself: how do the mechanics contribute to the experience? 2. The only way to judge a mechanic is to ask whether or not it can contribute to the experience you're trying to forge. 3. When it comes to making a video game, you have to decide who this game is for, and tune your mechanics appropriately. 4. Options and bonus content can be used to make a game appealing to those who are more hardcore than the target audience. 5. Options, accessibility settings, and easy modes don't have to pose a threat to your intended experience. 6. Designers should think of genres in the loosest possible terms. 7. The best solution for a complex problem is whatever provides the most interesting experience to the player. 8. A game idea is worthless until you've proven its value through a prototype. 9. Frequent playtesting should be used to make sure your design is effectively producing the results you desire. 10. Always figure out for yourself if a game design lesson is true for you, and for the type of games you want to make.
I have watched every video of yours multiple times and I recommend this channel to ANY aspiring game dev in the world. YOU are the very reason I found my passion and you will forever be my Guru. Thank you Mark, for everything. Will keep supporting you until I die.
Not even on video games. I've used your design techniques for other systems like Table Top and for Live Action Role Playing games. Thank you for all your work!
I think that's the secret 11th rule. Don't put things into your game and expect they won't be exploited in some way. Players always find a way to break your game. If someone finds an exploit you didn't want, don't be afraid to tweak things until it works as intended. Players will always think of some way to exploit things in a way you don't expect, you just have to pick your battles and decide how which exploits are okay and which are game-breaking.
It's kinda funny how a lot of game design boils down to players not knowing what's best for them, and game designers trying as hard as they can to stop them from ruining the fun for themselves. I'm having a hard time getting immersed in certain games because I can't look at them without my game design glasses on (things like enemies easing off on you when you're failing too hard, sneaky signposting of where to go next, etc) and the older I get, the more I value weirdness and fresh experiences over something being polished.
I'm a sports fan, and every time someone complains about sports being too optimized ("launch angle" in baseball, threes-and-layups in basketball, that sort of thing) I'm reminded of Soren Johnson's famous quote "Given the chance, players will optimize the fun out of a game." It's so true even beyond gaming.
That's why there's an entire textbook on Game Balance. It's essential for a game to function! For me, it's much more fun to play games and analyze them. Though I suppose that's why my channel is unique lol
I think that this video explicitely shows exactly why it is that you're so popular in the industry. At the start of the video you sum up a lot of reasons why your content is popular outside of the actual game design analyses. It's not just the way you speak and how you present your information, but you do acknowledge it helps. You're very aware of what you think, do, make, what you present and how you do so. You remain conscious, entertaining and most of all humble. On top of that you acknowledge failure and come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, you're just a guy forming opinions that may or may not resonate with you. I don't think there's much more a person could do to present themselves and the information they give in any better way and for me it's exactly why it resonates with me, despite having no interest in ever becoming a developer. Thank you for ten years of content and I can't wait for however many years you continue to make these!
I'm not a game designer, but I love watching your videos because you offer good perspectives on game design. I appreciate my favorite series like Pokemon (even though you've never covered it), Zelda, and Mario more from watching your content. Thanks Mark, and congratulations on 10 years!
0:29 We knew. We didn't care. You made and still make engaging videos, and you dug in the way any of us who didn't know about game design would. We learned as you learned, and that's what's made it so great!
Having watched EVERY. SINGLE. VIDEO. Over the better part of eight years I've learned from you and now I'm a less advanced carbon copy (complete with british accent that gives me an air of authority), thanks for everything, here's to many more years of making stuff!
I'm really excited about this. Over the past ten years, these videos have had many common themes, so it's really nice to have them all in one place distilled down.
Thank you Mark! GMTK videos have been one of the things I've looked forward to and have even fueled my own game development journey. The GMTK Game Jam this year was the first Jam I participated in, and it was so much fun! So, again, thank you for all that you do for the game dev community everywhere!
Sorry for the long letter. Perhaps an email would have been better. Nonethelss I really hope this comment happens along your eyes as I want to address you personally. 1. Thank you SO MUCH for your confession ala being an outsider knowing jackshit at the outset. The value of your disclosure CANNOT be understated. Learning in public is the BEST way to learn, and you have provided such a good example to follow as well as proof of its viability. I KNOW so many people are going to be inspired to make what they've always dreamed of making because of you. Hopefully they will explicitly note you as a key influence, but perhaps your influnece on them would be so first-order that they cannot even notice it. Here I am not talking only about game-developer-youtubers, but ALL kinds of artists and content creators in various fields. 2. All ten insights are AMAZING. The conciseness speaks to the quality and truth of your advice. Some advice seem obvious (praxis > theory) but the way you present them recontextualises and adds credence. Just wow, what a great written script. Tolstoy would be proud. You could expand on all ten ideas into a huge video essay (if you wanted) but keeping to your personal ethos of manifesto-like essays is arguably even more difficult, and this video has thrown into sharp relief your incredible talent as a writer. 3. As a fellow ADHD, I am triply inspired by you. Parasocial attachment be damned, I can almost SEE how this project has helped you manage your ADHD and rethink your relationship with it. For me personally, if anything else, your channel and this video in particular has almost brought me to tears. The magnitude of your accomplisment is tremendous. Trailblazing into a field with no regard for success but only curiosity and quality, you have greated the game jams, your own game, a working schedule, and a job that brings both value to you and the community at large. Thank you. I am so excited to see your further developments.
Mark, you created something unique for countless number of game developers and designers. You are an expert to me. And you actually proved it by reaching the top and claiming you are no expert. We all know nothing, but we learned a lot. Thank you!
Heh... for some reason I cried at the very last moment, thank you Mark for these beautiful years and time I spend each Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, watching your essays. I remember that day I found one of your first videos and was amazed by quality of transitions and that beautiful voice. It was really one of the first TH-cam channels talking about game design and I realized that a new era for our industry just started. As a passionate game developer myself working at studio I was impressed by the content, many of my colleagues don't knew about your tips or don't cared. But I did, and started learning game design too being a game mechanics C++ programmer at the first place. I was inspired by you and can think of you as my teacher or even better to say - sensei. It was really funny to observe when you started programming and saw all the stuff we are dealing with, seeing our side. Truly a great man the world deserves, thank you for all these years Mark
Thanks for all of these videos. They started my interest in game design and today I'm studying it at an university. You have been an imense help through these years and I really hope your game does well! My biggest tip to everyone that wna make games is to just create, no matter how bad it turns out, you will always learn something new applicable for your next stupid project, good luck!
Mark biggest aspect of your discussions I'm grateful for is how much I look at games I love differently. Why do I love that game and what are the design steps that worked? Was it a miraculous narrative like Last of Us, was it gameplay creativity like many Zelda games. It's so fun to explore.
I'm one of the many people who has started making games because of your channel! and it was one of the best decisions of my life! So thank you mark! for donning what you do!
Hey Mark, i wanted to say thank you for your videos. I have been watching for probably 8 of the last 10 years and its because of you and a few other channels that i got my first job as a game designer three years ago while i was still in college. I have now graduated with my degree and made 6 games and now make my own indie games. I might have made it here without you, but im a much better designer because of your videos, and like you said, I tried to apply your videos. So thank you so much for everything and keep up the good work
love your videos Mark! I'm not a game developer but it's still incredibly fascinating to learn the design elements behind amazing games. keep up the fantastic work :)
I never felt like you were an expert. I'm not. I felt like you were a buddy philosophizing about what makes a game a good game and I was here for it. I'd watch a video then argue for or againist your points to friends to spark discussion about topics we love.
I've been a working as a professional game designer for 14 years. GMTK has been very helpful and thought provoking along the way and has shaped the way I think about many aspects of design to this day. So thanks a lot Mark for this resource! The flipside is that, every now and then, a junior (or aspiring) game designer will believe they're a lot better than they actually are, because they think they can substitute real world experience with watching lots of TH-cam videos. But I guess this is probably true of every other profession out there as well. Good thing there are no "how-to do surgery" TH-cam channels.
This channel has really gotten me into game design, provided valuable insights, and is where I can always come back to for inspiration. Thank you so much, Mark! I love what you've done.
Mark was the inspiration for millions and more! And I attribute 90% of it to the british accent :D I learned: I'm probably not a game designer, and maybe not even a dev. But I enjoy watching others thrive in it for I may never do :D Congrats on the 10 years & the release! (It's already been a decade? Holy cow!)
Thank you Mark for all the effort, research, and passion you put into your work. You have helped me and countless others learn so much over the years. Here's to the next 10!
I'm designing my first game, and despite it being a board game, your videos have always helped me to overcome the challenges that came with the design process (this video will be of great help too). Congratulations for the ten years of good work, and here we go for ten more! 🎉
Not sure if you'll see this, but I've been following you for a long time Mark (from different TH-cam accounts) and you've been one of the biggest inspirations in regards to how you make content. Whilst I'm not a game developer, I am a content creator, and there was always something so satisfying about how you make your videos and design your thumbnails that inspired me to make sure my videos are polished upon release. Thanks for the inspo, and here's to ten more years!
Congratulations, Mark, on all these years of consistently creating high-quality videos! I love your content, and it inspires me to make games. Thank you!
0:30 To tell you the truth, it was extremely apparant from the start. Frankly, the subject of your videos never quite shake the "self-taught analyst" vibe, but that is also a good thing. Your videos are entertaining, accessible, simple to understand and excellent entry points.
It’s amazing to see how far you’ve come, my guy. Keep up the amazing work! At lot of these have small, but extremely informative game dev analysis, lessons, and tips, etc…that I use constantly when thinking about the game design of my own game! Thanks again!
"It depends" is in my opinion THE single most important lesson to acknowledge in game design. It applies to everything. Everything comes back to what experience you want people to have and who your audience is. Its why I believe in a methodology i call "foster the fun" (a twist on follow the fun) which is about giving players more freedom to customise their own experience. Things like game assists for difficulty, accessibility options, to even aesthetic customisations. It allows players to hone in on what they find to be fun.
Loooooove this video. You, Polyphonic (music essays), and Oddheader (video game secrets) are literally the only 3 YTers that I constantly am checking if there's a new upload. Seriously man, thanks for 10 years of incredible content and congrats on Mind Over Magnet!
Congrats on 10 years for your channel! Your videos have always inspired and entertained us whether we're game designers ourselves or just players and we love your enthusiasm for the hobby. Wishing you all the best for the next 10 years, whatever they bring!
Congrats on 10 years! I've been along for the ride since the beginning and I've never stopped recommending you. Congrats on your upcoming launch, and here's to 10 more years!
What is most helpful about this channel is just seeing someone talking about game design at all on youtube. As a game designer, just seeing that made me happy.
It's awesome to see you learning the same lessons we game designers all learn together! I doubt my high-quality, in-depth, evidence-based, game design case studies will ever become popular like your snappy videos, but I'm here for it either way. I always love to see more free resources for indie devs. Your channel is a beautiful journey, that's for sure! Congrats on 10 years! You're spot on about every single thing requiring context. Game design a complex WEB. It's the most difficult and complex thing in the entertainment industry. There are clear guidelines, but it all depends on the specific game. That's why I'm so passionate about my channel's unique value and how I assist indie studios in the background. It's very difficult but rewarding. One correction. What you're looking for when discussing lesson 3 is "depth". The combat system requires skill and has depth, so they could've added more depth to the traversal, not necessarily punishment or complex inputs. I'm not saying they SHOULD have, but I'm saying you gotta consider the other pieces of the game, and it's not about complexity or punishments. That's something else entirely. I haven't played the second Spiderman so I can't compare the traversal systems. I'm sure it's something worth studying.
That channel didn't turn me in a video game creator. But it helped me think more and differently about them and renew my love in them at a time i was slowly losing interst
thank you Mark for sharing your insights! you've been bringing great value to youtube since the beginning. i wish you a succesful launch on your game and here's to another 10 years!
Thanks for all the years you’ve given us Mark. You’ve made me and so many other people be able to learn and think more about game design and to pursue our love for video games. Thank you very much Mark ❤️
Congrats on the 10 years Mark, Been following you since the Pocket Gamer days, and it's so cool to see your progression to where you are now. Here's to another 10!
I remember back in the day watching your amazing video on the Half Life 2 invisible tutorial, ever since then I was always on the lookout for your most recent updates and videos, being a Patreon on and off during the years, it's quite something seeing a channel grow with you, can't believe it's been 10 years already. Here's to many more to come. Special kudos on raising the issue of accessibility which is often overlooked. Cheers.
This channel has come to define my interest in game design. Not only have you shared many valuable ideas across the years, but you've pushed me to the point where I can easily think critically about game design for myself. Mark, I can't say thank you enough.
Always looking forward to GMTK videos! super interesting and engaging even if I'm only a player not a dev, I've found so many amazing games to play thanks to this channel, and I even took a few of the accesability tips for my graphic design work =) here to another ten years!
Congrats Mark on everything you've achieved. You're channel really enhances the value of the discussion about video games on the internet. Can't wait to see what the next 10 years of GMTK are going to be about; and when those 10 years will be gone, I'll wait for the next 10.
Thank you for 10 years of engaging, thoughtful content, Mark! Here's to 10 more and lots of success with Mind Over Magnet and any future projects of yours!
aka. the 10 "meta" lessons about game design? Personal anecdote tangent: 20 years ago when the Internet was still very much younger, I remember finding an early site that allowed _ordinary people_ to publish online reviews of video games (and other things). I remember signing up & writing personal reviews of various games I played at the time, trying to at least imitate the style of professional reviewers in print magazines, but ... in hindsight my reviews were so naive, I just didn't have the experience and skill to write a "proper" critical review. I would be very surprised if anyone would be able to dig up _those_ fossils, but I do remember some specific portions: In more than one case, I disagreed with creative decisions over a game's storytelling -- essentially, confusing matters of _personal preference_ with the standard "objective" indicators of actual _quality._ I did enjoy interacting with those games _while_ playing through them! In one case, I remember levying a specific mechanical criticism against a game's design that, turns out, was actually misinformed on my part: the specific thing I was criticizing the game for not having, actually *WAS* present in exactly the way I wanted it, I just didn't notice that the game even provided it at all until revisiting the game many _(many)_ years later.
Congratulations on a decade as one of the best channels - was so relieved when you said 'the FIRST ten years of GMTK' as it felt like a retirement video. Brilliant work as always
I learned about MDA through you. Now it's my starting point when designing anything. (Well, actually the inverted MDA. I start with aesthetics->dynamics->mechanics.) Thank you Mark! Good luck with the launch.
Man, this channel has been such a blast to follow. I think another lesson that's useful for Devs to understand is that your players don't always know what they want/talk about 😂
I love how well polished your game has become with how your youtube channel, and thoughtful analysis and services to a broader community enabled you to make a rather polished indie game ^^
mark please please please come out with a long form version of this video!!!! i love watching them all the way through, especially 100 games that taught me game design
Wow, 10 years already. Have been here since early 2016, not the whole time, but quite some time I think. Love the fact that you're so humble, something which really contributes to your eagerness to learn I'd imagine. I think I haven't seen one which I didn't enjoy. Unfortunately I can't support you on Patreon due to financial limitations, but will always give you a view:) Here's to another 10 years, and to your very own indie game; almost perfect as a 10 year celebration!!:)
Please continue giving us insights into making a game even after release. We often get documentaries about games being developed but rarely do we get to see what it looks like afterwards, from promotion to patches to assessing the market
Even as someone who has watched every single episode since the start, it's WILD to realise you've been at it for 10 years. What a privilege a watch and learn from (and often with) you. Looking forward to all that is to come :)
Thank you for all your fantastic videos, I would be so much less aware of the game design process without your work. And because of that, I'm hard at work on my own game, happy to see Mind Over Magnet coming to its finish line!
Wow. I got emotional. Ten years? Congrats, Mark! This channel helped me carry the passion for video games through some hard times. Hopefully it will finally carry me through creating games of my own. Here's to the next ten years of GMTK!
Love the content, love learning about video games! Please keep up the great content - it's one of my favorite things when I see you've released a new video!
Happy 10th anniversary, Mark ! If it wasn't for your channel-and certain other channels that came after-I never would've gotten into thinking deeply about game dev, especially on dungeon design. Your dungeon graphs have been a massive help !
I'm currently developing a game (survivor-like gerne). Most other survivor-like games have HP-bars but I prefer using lives (04:11) as it gives the game a much more intense feeling when every single enemy can damage/kill the player with one touch!
Bruh what a coincidence I just watched the 100 games video yesterday. Congratu-fucking-lations on a fucking DECADE of hard work. I'm a new subscriber and notice that the quality of your videos is top notch!
Mind Over Magnet launches next week! store.steampowered.com/app/2685900/Mind_Over_Magnet/
Smart move delaying it so it didn't come out on Election Day. I can't rightly imagine having spent last night trying to get into a new game that requires actual thought and problem-solving ability. Ended up mindlessly playing American Truck Simulator to kill time between checking live election results.
That little anecdote out of the way, congratulations on your journey as a creator both of TH-cam content and of an actual video game!
I hope it is Steam Play/Proton/Wine compatible
Hey man! If you want I cant translate it to Brazilian Portuguese for free!
Do you know if you will ever port it to Nintendo switch, PS5, etc.?
Congrats!
My kid is going to be excited. He's been playing the demos from the beginning and kept asking when more will release
I remember that Mark Brown talking about Game Design and I was thinking "Who is this man and why does he have me engaged so much about design?" and now, I attribute part of my indie success to your videos. Thanks Mark!
Hope it keeps going. Hard path it is.
Tell us more about your indie development journey and what you're currently working on. Would love to see and hear more!
I'm an engineer at ProdigalSon Games and we released our first steam game this past August called "Attack on hex island". Almost all decisions about user feedback and gameplay came from GMTK
Right. Our studio started on the first GMTK Game Jam and almost 8 years later, we have grown so much with the knowledge Mark shares that we were able to make our first successful steam release.
The game actually started on GMTK 2022 Game Jam. So trully and sincerely, thank you @GMTK
@nerusongear cool! Im gonna go check out ur game. Cheers!
The expert isnt the guy who knows everything beforehand, but the guy who has a real genuine excitement to improve and learn more. Faking it IS making it! Proud of you man.
it's never fake if it's well researched and argued, experts need to do the same too
You'd be hard-pressed to find any game dev worth their salt that hasn't heard of GMTK. It's been an amazing 10 years and here's to many more!
I am not even a game dev i just watch his video for fun, very insightful, beautfiul video, good script, good voice. Genuinely happy to found out he has actually build quite a big name of himself in the industry. Well deserved
*#1:* If you want to understand why a game makes you feel a certain way, ask yourself: how do the mechanics contribute to the experience?
*#2:* The only way to judge a mechanic is to ask whether or not it can contribute to the experience you're trying to forge.
*#3:* When it comes to making a video game, you have to decide who this game is for, and tune your mechanic appropriately.
*#4:* Options and bonus content can be used to make a game appealing to those who are more hardcore than the target audience.
*#5:* Options, accessibility settings, and easy modes don't have to pose a threat to your intended experience.
*#6:* Designers should think of genres in the loosest possible terms.
*#7:* The best solution for a complex problem is whatever provides the most interesting experience to the player.
*#8:* A game idea is worthless until you've proven its value through a prototype.
*#9:* Frequent playtesting should be used to make sure your design is effectively producing the results you desire.
*#10:* Always figure out for yourself if a game design lesson is true for you, and for the type of games you want to make.
This is THE channel that started my game design career. Thanks mark for 10 years of exploring what makes a game! And more importantly, thanks for sharing it with US!
While you arent an ultimate authority on game design i have found little that inspires me and pushes my brain in just the right way to come up with some new idea as your channel. So thank you for all the many hours of hard work you've done that have helped me and many others on our own journies in life
I can’t imagine how liberating it must be to say that 10 years ago you started all this without really knowing anything about game design hahah
You should be immensely proud that, even if the begginings were humble, you’re now without a doubt a major inspiration to game designers, definitely one of the biggest I can think of.
You deserve it, Mark. Cheers!
lesson 6 is probably one of the most important lessons i learned from this channel. once you detach yourself from the idea that your game must be a specific way because it was made in a certain genre, it becomes easier to make your game more fun since you're not trying to meet yourself to impossible standards, but also because you're thinking of how you can do things on your own and come up with new ideas.
The exact same thing happens in music. The idea that "You can't do X thing in Y genre", when that's exactly how new genres happen!
@@Resopheedabsolutely! every one of my songs is basically genreless cause of that, i just sorta compose whatever lol
I think it's telling how you've found your success on TH-cam, Mark - there have always been great GDC talks and design theorists on the internet, but your skills at script writing, visual artistry, and of course snappy editing have made something so fantastic that even Masahiro Sakurai wanted to emulate it. I appreciate how you've evolved your opinions over the years and taken a more holistic appreciation of the artform of games. Wishing all the best for Mind Over Magnet's success and all the future insights you're able to derive from it.
Hi, Ringling College Game Art student here. Thought you'd want to know that several of my game design and history classes in my 3 years here have pulled up your videos in class as examples/learning material. Just yesterday, my Visual Development class used your UI design video to prep us for our UI/UX assignment. Crazy to see you've come this far! 🔥
A QA Joke:
A QA engineer walks into a bar. Orders a beer.
Orders 0 beers.
Orders 99999999999 beers.
Orders a lizard.
Orders -1 beers.
Orders a ueicksjdhd.
First real customer walks in and asks where the bathroom is. The bar bursts into flames, killing everyone.
😂😂😂 Okay dang this one got me good
This joke seems like a reference to one of the funny animation videos made by the youtuber PixelzwithAz.
Is this joke a ref to that animation or is it simply the joke of that animation? Hmm, is it a ref if they're indistinct? Are all memes, aside the OG, a ref?
I think it’s a programming joke. Feel free to open the comment if you want an explanation(if you don’t need one, no worries):
In programming, coders need to test edge cases as well as normal cases. This Quality Assurance(I think) employee tested a bunch of edge cases with his orders and didn’t even look at the normal bathroom case, causing Bar.exe to stop responding when a real customer asked for it.
@@ultimaxkom8728 Humour is a copyright violation.
I never thought you had a Game Design background but what I did always think was that your videos are always on the point. When I was studying Game Design, your videos were part of recommended resources to keep an eye on in your free time. Others might have not stuck with me, but your channel definitely did.
Did anyone else here start playing video games/find out about indie games cuz of this channel? I did, after seeing some of your early hollow knight stuff I decided to play it, my first indie game(dont have Hollow Knight as your first Inide game) and then all the rest. Thanks Mark I love making video games as a hobby.
Thanks for those 10 valuable lessons
1. If you want to understand why a game makes you feel a certain way, ask yourself: how do the mechanics contribute to the experience?
2. The only way to judge a mechanic is to ask whether or not it can contribute to the experience you're trying to forge.
3. When it comes to making a video game, you have to decide who this game is for, and tune your mechanics appropriately.
4. Options and bonus content can be used to make a game appealing to those who are more hardcore than the target audience.
5. Options, accessibility settings, and easy modes don't have to pose a threat to your intended experience.
6. Designers should think of genres in the loosest possible terms.
7. The best solution for a complex problem is whatever provides the most interesting experience to the player.
8. A game idea is worthless until you've proven its value through a prototype.
9. Frequent playtesting should be used to make sure your design is effectively producing the results you desire.
10. Always figure out for yourself if a game design lesson is true for you, and for the type of games you want to make.
I have watched every video of yours multiple times and I recommend this channel to ANY aspiring game dev in the world. YOU are the very reason I found my passion and you will forever be my Guru. Thank you Mark, for everything. Will keep supporting you until I die.
Not even on video games. I've used your design techniques for other systems like Table Top and for Live Action Role Playing games. Thank you for all your work!
I must admit, I really expected 'players will optimize the fun out of a game'. Although I suppose that's sort of implicit in the other rules
I think that's the secret 11th rule. Don't put things into your game and expect they won't be exploited in some way. Players always find a way to break your game. If someone finds an exploit you didn't want, don't be afraid to tweak things until it works as intended. Players will always think of some way to exploit things in a way you don't expect, you just have to pick your battles and decide how which exploits are okay and which are game-breaking.
It's kinda funny how a lot of game design boils down to players not knowing what's best for them, and game designers trying as hard as they can to stop them from ruining the fun for themselves. I'm having a hard time getting immersed in certain games because I can't look at them without my game design glasses on (things like enemies easing off on you when you're failing too hard, sneaky signposting of where to go next, etc) and the older I get, the more I value weirdness and fresh experiences over something being polished.
I'm a sports fan, and every time someone complains about sports being too optimized ("launch angle" in baseball, threes-and-layups in basketball, that sort of thing) I'm reminded of Soren Johnson's famous quote "Given the chance, players will optimize the fun out of a game." It's so true even beyond gaming.
That's why there's an entire textbook on Game Balance. It's essential for a game to function!
For me, it's much more fun to play games and analyze them. Though I suppose that's why my channel is unique lol
I think that this video explicitely shows exactly why it is that you're so popular in the industry. At the start of the video you sum up a lot of reasons why your content is popular outside of the actual game design analyses. It's not just the way you speak and how you present your information, but you do acknowledge it helps. You're very aware of what you think, do, make, what you present and how you do so. You remain conscious, entertaining and most of all humble. On top of that you acknowledge failure and come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, you're just a guy forming opinions that may or may not resonate with you.
I don't think there's much more a person could do to present themselves and the information they give in any better way and for me it's exactly why it resonates with me, despite having no interest in ever becoming a developer.
Thank you for ten years of content and I can't wait for however many years you continue to make these!
I'm not a game designer, but I love watching your videos because you offer good perspectives on game design. I appreciate my favorite series like Pokemon (even though you've never covered it), Zelda, and Mario more from watching your content. Thanks Mark, and congratulations on 10 years!
I've watched a bunch of your older videos and didn't realize they were from 9 or 10 years ago. You've been great from the very beggining!
0:29 We knew. We didn't care. You made and still make engaging videos, and you dug in the way any of us who didn't know about game design would. We learned as you learned, and that's what's made it so great!
Came to say the same thing. I don't think it was so much a secret as much as it was getting a chance to go on the same journey.
Well done my boy! Your video game controllers video was the first one I ever watched, been hooked since.
Oh Christ, I need this today.
I think we all do.
Yeah, same...
Life will go on. Be strong!
APOCALYPSE IS UPON US!
GET TO YOUR BUNKERS!!!
Agreed. Tremendous way to make a great day even better!
Trying to explain something to other people is one of the best ways of learning, it’s so nice to see that as a kind of lesson zero here.
Having watched EVERY. SINGLE. VIDEO. Over the better part of eight years I've learned from you and now I'm a less advanced carbon copy (complete with british accent that gives me an air of authority), thanks for everything, here's to many more years of making stuff!
I'm really excited about this. Over the past ten years, these videos have had many common themes, so it's really nice to have them all in one place distilled down.
Thank you Mark! GMTK videos have been one of the things I've looked forward to and have even fueled my own game development journey. The GMTK Game Jam this year was the first Jam I participated in, and it was so much fun! So, again, thank you for all that you do for the game dev community everywhere!
Sorry for the long letter. Perhaps an email would have been better. Nonethelss I really hope this comment happens along your eyes as I want to address you personally.
1. Thank you SO MUCH for your confession ala being an outsider knowing jackshit at the outset. The value of your disclosure CANNOT be understated. Learning in public is the BEST way to learn, and you have provided such a good example to follow as well as proof of its viability. I KNOW so many people are going to be inspired to make what they've always dreamed of making because of you. Hopefully they will explicitly note you as a key influence, but perhaps your influnece on them would be so first-order that they cannot even notice it. Here I am not talking only about game-developer-youtubers, but ALL kinds of artists and content creators in various fields.
2. All ten insights are AMAZING. The conciseness speaks to the quality and truth of your advice. Some advice seem obvious (praxis > theory) but the way you present them recontextualises and adds credence. Just wow, what a great written script. Tolstoy would be proud. You could expand on all ten ideas into a huge video essay (if you wanted) but keeping to your personal ethos of manifesto-like essays is arguably even more difficult, and this video has thrown into sharp relief your incredible talent as a writer.
3. As a fellow ADHD, I am triply inspired by you. Parasocial attachment be damned, I can almost SEE how this project has helped you manage your ADHD and rethink your relationship with it. For me personally, if anything else, your channel and this video in particular has almost brought me to tears. The magnitude of your accomplisment is tremendous. Trailblazing into a field with no regard for success but only curiosity and quality, you have greated the game jams, your own game, a working schedule, and a job that brings both value to you and the community at large.
Thank you. I am so excited to see your further developments.
Mark, you created something unique for countless number of game developers and designers. You are an expert to me. And you actually proved it by reaching the top and claiming you are no expert. We all know nothing, but we learned a lot. Thank you!
15 minutes of respite... Thank you Mark. My mental health thanks you.
Heh... for some reason I cried at the very last moment, thank you Mark for these beautiful years and time I spend each Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, watching your essays. I remember that day I found one of your first videos and was amazed by quality of transitions and that beautiful voice. It was really one of the first TH-cam channels talking about game design and I realized that a new era for our industry just started. As a passionate game developer myself working at studio I was impressed by the content, many of my colleagues don't knew about your tips or don't cared. But I did, and started learning game design too being a game mechanics C++ programmer at the first place. I was inspired by you and can think of you as my teacher or even better to say - sensei. It was really funny to observe when you started programming and saw all the stuff we are dealing with, seeing our side. Truly a great man the world deserves, thank you for all these years Mark
Thanks for all of these videos. They started my interest in game design and today I'm studying it at an university. You have been an imense help through these years and I really hope your game does well! My biggest tip to everyone that wna make games is to just create, no matter how bad it turns out, you will always learn something new applicable for your next stupid project, good luck!
Mark biggest aspect of your discussions I'm grateful for is how much I look at games I love differently. Why do I love that game and what are the design steps that worked? Was it a miraculous narrative like Last of Us, was it gameplay creativity like many Zelda games. It's so fun to explore.
I'm one of the many people who has started making games because of your channel!
and it was one of the best decisions of my life!
So thank you mark! for donning what you do!
Hey Mark, i wanted to say thank you for your videos. I have been watching for probably 8 of the last 10 years and its because of you and a few other channels that i got my first job as a game designer three years ago while i was still in college. I have now graduated with my degree and made 6 games and now make my own indie games. I might have made it here without you, but im a much better designer because of your videos, and like you said, I tried to apply your videos. So thank you so much for everything and keep up the good work
love your videos Mark! I'm not a game developer but it's still incredibly fascinating to learn the design elements behind amazing games. keep up the fantastic work :)
I never felt like you were an expert. I'm not. I felt like you were a buddy philosophizing about what makes a game a good game and I was here for it. I'd watch a video then argue for or againist your points to friends to spark discussion about topics we love.
Please never stop making videos. I am a Hong Kong creative media student. My university also used your videos as learning materials.
I've been a working as a professional game designer for 14 years. GMTK has been very helpful and thought provoking along the way and has shaped the way I think about many aspects of design to this day. So thanks a lot Mark for this resource! The flipside is that, every now and then, a junior (or aspiring) game designer will believe they're a lot better than they actually are, because they think they can substitute real world experience with watching lots of TH-cam videos. But I guess this is probably true of every other profession out there as well. Good thing there are no "how-to do surgery" TH-cam channels.
I already had figured you weren't an expert, but I stayed to hear about the stuff you learned and learn together what makes good game design
This channel has really gotten me into game design, provided valuable insights, and is where I can always come back to for inspiration. Thank you so much, Mark! I love what you've done.
Mark was the inspiration for millions and more!
And I attribute 90% of it to the british accent :D
I learned: I'm probably not a game designer, and maybe not even a dev.
But I enjoy watching others thrive in it for I may never do :D
Congrats on the 10 years & the release! (It's already been a decade? Holy cow!)
Thank you Mark for all the effort, research, and passion you put into your work. You have helped me and countless others learn so much over the years. Here's to the next 10!
I'm designing my first game, and despite it being a board game, your videos have always helped me to overcome the challenges that came with the design process (this video will be of great help too). Congratulations for the ten years of good work, and here we go for ten more! 🎉
Not sure if you'll see this, but I've been following you for a long time Mark (from different TH-cam accounts) and you've been one of the biggest inspirations in regards to how you make content. Whilst I'm not a game developer, I am a content creator, and there was always something so satisfying about how you make your videos and design your thumbnails that inspired me to make sure my videos are polished upon release.
Thanks for the inspo, and here's to ten more years!
there has been so much growth with this channel and the very last lesson is nothing but a proof to that. keep it up man
Congratulations, Mark, on all these years of consistently creating high-quality videos!
I love your content, and it inspires me to make games.
Thank you!
Thank you for all these years.
I currently make a living as a game designer and it is largely thanks to everything I have learned from your videos.
I'm watching your videos for almost 4 years now. i learned a lot from them. Me and my partner are making our own game.
Thanks Mark❤.
0:30 To tell you the truth, it was extremely apparant from the start. Frankly, the subject of your videos never quite shake the "self-taught analyst" vibe, but that is also a good thing. Your videos are entertaining, accessible, simple to understand and excellent entry points.
It’s amazing to see how far you’ve come, my guy. Keep up the amazing work! At lot of these have small, but extremely informative game dev analysis, lessons, and tips, etc…that I use constantly when thinking about the game design of my own game! Thanks again!
"It depends" is in my opinion THE single most important lesson to acknowledge in game design. It applies to everything. Everything comes back to what experience you want people to have and who your audience is.
Its why I believe in a methodology i call "foster the fun" (a twist on follow the fun) which is about giving players more freedom to customise their own experience. Things like game assists for difficulty, accessibility options, to even aesthetic customisations.
It allows players to hone in on what they find to be fun.
Loooooove this video. You, Polyphonic (music essays), and Oddheader (video game secrets) are literally the only 3 YTers that I constantly am checking if there's a new upload. Seriously man, thanks for 10 years of incredible content and congrats on Mind Over Magnet!
Congrats on 10 years for your channel! Your videos have always inspired and entertained us whether we're game designers ourselves or just players and we love your enthusiasm for the hobby. Wishing you all the best for the next 10 years, whatever they bring!
Congrats on 10 years! I've been along for the ride since the beginning and I've never stopped recommending you. Congrats on your upcoming launch, and here's to 10 more years!
What is most helpful about this channel is just seeing someone talking about game design at all on youtube. As a game designer, just seeing that made me happy.
Been here with you from the start and just wanted to say thanks for so many thought provoking and entertaining videos.
It's awesome to see you learning the same lessons we game designers all learn together! I doubt my high-quality, in-depth, evidence-based, game design case studies will ever become popular like your snappy videos, but I'm here for it either way. I always love to see more free resources for indie devs. Your channel is a beautiful journey, that's for sure! Congrats on 10 years!
You're spot on about every single thing requiring context. Game design a complex WEB. It's the most difficult and complex thing in the entertainment industry. There are clear guidelines, but it all depends on the specific game. That's why I'm so passionate about my channel's unique value and how I assist indie studios in the background. It's very difficult but rewarding.
One correction. What you're looking for when discussing lesson 3 is "depth". The combat system requires skill and has depth, so they could've added more depth to the traversal, not necessarily punishment or complex inputs. I'm not saying they SHOULD have, but I'm saying you gotta consider the other pieces of the game, and it's not about complexity or punishments. That's something else entirely. I haven't played the second Spiderman so I can't compare the traversal systems. I'm sure it's something worth studying.
Thanks so much for entertaining and educating us for 10 years! You have one of the best channels on youtube
Thanks again for all your hard work! I'm happy to learn all these things with you and this incredible community!
That channel didn't turn me in a video game creator. But it helped me think more and differently about them and renew my love in them at a time i was slowly losing interst
thank you Mark for sharing your insights! you've been bringing great value to youtube since the beginning. i wish you a succesful launch on your game and here's to another 10 years!
Thanks for all the years you’ve given us Mark. You’ve made me and so many other people be able to learn and think more about game design and to pursue our love for video games. Thank you very much Mark ❤️
Genuinely one of the best TH-cam channels out there, I love your evolution and foray into actual game-making!! Thanks for 10 years of great insight
Congrats on the 10 years Mark,
Been following you since the Pocket Gamer days, and it's so cool to see your progression to where you are now.
Here's to another 10!
Thank you, Mr Toolkit! You’ve brought me so much joy over these years.
Shows how some humility and intelectual honesty can make up for lack of experience. All the best to you Mark!
I remember back in the day watching your amazing video on the Half Life 2 invisible tutorial, ever since then I was always on the lookout for your most recent updates and videos, being a Patreon on and off during the years, it's quite something seeing a channel grow with you, can't believe it's been 10 years already.
Here's to many more to come.
Special kudos on raising the issue of accessibility which is often overlooked.
Cheers.
shout out to GMT for making great content with lots of nuggets of wisdom and still being fun. thank you
This channel has come to define my interest in game design. Not only have you shared many valuable ideas across the years, but you've pushed me to the point where I can easily think critically about game design for myself. Mark, I can't say thank you enough.
Always looking forward to GMTK videos! super interesting and engaging even if I'm only a player not a dev, I've found so many amazing games to play thanks to this channel, and I even took a few of the accesability tips for my graphic design work =) here to another ten years!
Congrats Mark on everything you've achieved. You're channel really enhances the value of the discussion about video games on the internet. Can't wait to see what the next 10 years of GMTK are going to be about; and when those 10 years will be gone, I'll wait for the next 10.
Thank you for 10 years of engaging, thoughtful content, Mark! Here's to 10 more and lots of success with Mind Over Magnet and any future projects of yours!
I've been away from TH-cam the past two years to serve a mission and I just came back to this. This is the perfect welcome, thank you!
aka. the 10 "meta" lessons about game design?
Personal anecdote tangent:
20 years ago when the Internet was still very much younger, I remember finding an early site that allowed _ordinary people_ to publish online reviews of video games (and other things). I remember signing up & writing personal reviews of various games I played at the time, trying to at least imitate the style of professional reviewers in print magazines, but ... in hindsight my reviews were so naive, I just didn't have the experience and skill to write a "proper" critical review.
I would be very surprised if anyone would be able to dig up _those_ fossils, but I do remember some specific portions:
In more than one case, I disagreed with creative decisions over a game's storytelling -- essentially, confusing matters of _personal preference_ with the standard "objective" indicators of actual _quality._ I did enjoy interacting with those games _while_ playing through them!
In one case, I remember levying a specific mechanical criticism against a game's design that, turns out, was actually misinformed on my part: the specific thing I was criticizing the game for not having, actually *WAS* present in exactly the way I wanted it, I just didn't notice that the game even provided it at all until revisiting the game many _(many)_ years later.
Congratulations on a decade as one of the best channels - was so relieved when you said 'the FIRST ten years of GMTK' as it felt like a retirement video.
Brilliant work as always
I learned about MDA through you. Now it's my starting point when designing anything. (Well, actually the inverted MDA. I start with aesthetics->dynamics->mechanics.) Thank you Mark! Good luck with the launch.
Man, this channel has been such a blast to follow.
I think another lesson that's useful for Devs to understand is that your players don't always know what they want/talk about 😂
I love how well polished your game has become with how your youtube channel, and thoughtful analysis and services to a broader community enabled you to make a rather polished indie game ^^
Thanks for all the incredible content. You've definitely increased my enjoyment of this passtime
mark please please please come out with a long form version of this video!!!! i love watching them all the way through, especially 100 games that taught me game design
Congrats, Mark, and thank you for creating these videos and sharing with us what you learnt in the process :)
Wow, 10 years already. Have been here since early 2016, not the whole time, but quite some time I think.
Love the fact that you're so humble, something which really contributes to your eagerness to learn I'd imagine. I think I haven't seen one which I didn't enjoy. Unfortunately I can't support you on Patreon due to financial limitations, but will always give you a view:)
Here's to another 10 years, and to your very own indie game; almost perfect as a 10 year celebration!!:)
Thank you Mark Brown for enforcing my love for game design and gaming !
Please continue giving us insights into making a game even after release. We often get documentaries about games being developed but rarely do we get to see what it looks like afterwards, from promotion to patches to assessing the market
Thanks for all your hard work, you're an inspiration for us game designers, wannabes, hobbyists, and professionals.
Even as someone who has watched every single episode since the start, it's WILD to realise you've been at it for 10 years. What a privilege a watch and learn from (and often with) you. Looking forward to all that is to come :)
Thank you for all your fantastic videos, I would be so much less aware of the game design process without your work. And because of that, I'm hard at work on my own game, happy to see Mind Over Magnet coming to its finish line!
Huzzah to 10 years! Thank you for all the amazing content. You are hands down my favorite gaming content creator on TH-cam.
Wow. I got emotional. Ten years? Congrats, Mark! This channel helped me carry the passion for video games through some hard times. Hopefully it will finally carry me through creating games of my own. Here's to the next ten years of GMTK!
Love the content, love learning about video games! Please keep up the great content - it's one of my favorite things when I see you've released a new video!
legit one of the videos of all time, i'm glad you let us all share our love for games through your journey Mark!
Cheers Mark, best of luck with your indie game launch! And thanks for all the cool videos!
Happy 10th anniversary, Mark !
If it wasn't for your channel-and certain other channels that came after-I never would've gotten into thinking deeply about game dev, especially on dungeon design. Your dungeon graphs have been a massive help !
Hope to see another 10 years. Thanks for showing us some great stuff and teaching us to look deep into what makes games special
I'm currently developing a game (survivor-like gerne). Most other survivor-like games have HP-bars but I prefer using lives (04:11) as it gives the game a much more intense feeling when every single enemy can damage/kill the player with one touch!
Bruh what a coincidence I just watched the 100 games video yesterday. Congratu-fucking-lations on a fucking DECADE of hard work. I'm a new subscriber and notice that the quality of your videos is top notch!
Finally, some game design content. Thanks Mark
More to come!