The Games That Designed Themselves

[@GMTK]

Quick correction: I'm quoting Seth Coster from Butterscotch Shenanigans here, not Sam (who is Seth's brother, and also works there). Whoops!

[@Messilegend1000]

Liking your own comment? I wish you would like mine as well. :) I think Spelunky was a great model of "Design Itself" because every iteration, every level, every playthrough follows the fun, where fun is in the randomness and pacing and decision making. There is no actual "proper Spelunky sample size" until you play a level.

[@Shoxic666]

I have a strange feeling you might enjoy Into The Breach somewhat

[@jksf4485]

Design of counter strike video ?

[@dr.cuacklujancarrion2365]

ya fuiste te vamos a mandar la moto

[@THEROGUEGUY3214]

Can you cover Rain World's AI its pretty good

[@aprofondir]

GTA was famously originally Race N Chase, until the police AI just started ramming the player's car, and the rest is history

[@JainaSoloB312]

Oh I didn't know that, that's very interesting!

[@TheEdenSnow]

Everybody gangsta until the police AI goes *Whoop-whoop!!* *THAT'S THE SOUND OF DA POLICE!!* *Whoop-whoop!!* *THAT'S THE SOUND OF DA BEAST!!!*

[@deeps.]

Was about to say this, I'm surprised it wasnt mentioned in the video

[@ujjwalmishra8962]

You were suppose to follow the damn train cj

[@xx_th3_h0ly_sh1t_xx5]

Amazing that a single bug created a multibillion dollar ip

[@wyatttibbitts8603]

Basically, make games like you’re Cave Johnson in Portal 2. “We’re throwing science at the wall here to see what sticks. No idea what it’ll do.”

[@morganpriest7726]

Will it explode? Likely. Will it do nothing? Probably not, but we may as well try!

[@roguedogx]

maybe with less sadistic murderous robots though.

[@sinon7000]

@@roguedogx actually I'd prefer more sadistic murderous robots

[@ShyDigi]

Duck King “This process involves taking an initial idea - *HOWEVER LOOSE, FUZZY, OR UNORIGINAL IT MIGHT BE*” Seems to indicate that the original comment indeed holds true.

[@ariezon]

@@aliasmcdoe the "randomly throwing stuff at the wall" is not truly random. it has to go to some stages. at first choosing what stuff to throw at the wall, expecting stuff to happen, Throw the stuff, see the result, and goes along with it. in more scientifically way will be, Choose the subject, Make hypothesis, Held a test, compile the result and then conclusion.

[@LethalChicken77]

Notch: *screws up dimensions of model* Notch 10 seconds later: "it should be green, it should explode and destroy your hard work"

[@Vallam23]

notch 20 seconds later: should women have rights? I'm just asking questions

[@Vallam23]

notch is famously a terrible bigotted piece of trash. GMTK even got him to delete his awful twitter for a minute but unfortunately it didn't stick

[@animarblemarblerace9232]

"Follow the no-fun"

[@pedroks7756]

@@Vallam23 what

[@pedroks7756]

@@Vallam23 who tf asked

[@mahedros]

Stepping outside the realm of video games, anyone who has run a game of Dungeons and Dragons (or a similar game) will understand that while you may start out with some idea of where you want the narrative to go, in all likelihood the actions of the players aren't going to align perfectly with that idea. As the dungeon master, it's your job to "follow the fun" and adjust what you're doing to work with what your players are doing.

[@meganr9102]

Absolutely my experience, and there's a related phrase I've seen on author advice blogs frequently; "be prepared to kill your darlings." Even if you loved creating it, if it's not the fun path, gotta know when to chuck it and improvise

[@MrTreyblob33]

I watch GMTK almost exclusively for DMing tips. So many concepts overlap and in the end, it's all about finding something fun and entertaining for people to enjoy

[@caryxiao1603]

ah the classic "rule of cool"

[@rekindle7602]

@@meganr9102 in my experience, "kill your darlings" usually refers more to the need to cut out words during the editing process, I think it comes from something Hemingway said. But you're right, it can also be applied to larger scale structural changes in the story.

[@tickoyo]

As a DM, this is absolutely correct.

[@shawnheatherly]

Being able to drop ideas that aren't working takes true courage for a game developer.

[@deanc9195]

Honestly it takes a lot for any person to let go of something that isn’t working for them, too.

[@Runix1]

Yeah, sunk cost fallacy is dangerously powerful.

[@nok9355]

Runix Runix college

[@signalised9540]

I agree, I dropped a prototype that was too big to make for the size of my team and felt bad for a considerable amount of time, dropping something is not easy

[@tbotalpha8133]

It's true in almost any artistic endeavour. I've heard a similar maxim in writing: "murder your darlings". You might grow deeply attached to a particular turn of phrase, or passage, or character, or plot development, and not want to remove it from your writing. Yet you might end up editing and re-writing the rest of your work to the point where your "darling" simply has no place anymore. At that point, the best thing you can do is murder your darling and move on. You'll come up with other writing down the line, that's just as good if not better. But only if you let go, right now.

[@Localdumpsterman]

For those who dont know, the spy from tf2 was from a glitch in the original tf where players could disguise as the enemy

[@rosko5570]

And rocket jumping is a fault in the engine, yet a big feature now

[@chaomatic5328]

@@rosko5570 The question is: *how do you do it!?*

[@PiercingSight]

@@rosko5570 - I'm pretty sure rocket jumping (or using the push of a rocket blast to enhance movement) was originally an unintended effect in Doom, which was then used a lot more in Quake, again unintended. Many games have since copied the mechanic, either intentionally or unintentionally.

[@badmanjones179]

how do you bug so badly that your game lets you be the other team

[@Localdumpsterman]

@@badmanjones179 maybe its not true, but i think it doesnt let you be from the other team, its about changing skins that are supposed to be from the other team. Also, do you code or make games, sir?

[@NintendoCapriSun]

I'm not a game dev by any stretch, but a few months ago I had a dream in which the entire world was flooding, and I was constantly trying to get to higher ground. I met up with people on the way, sometimes the tide stopped rising and we'd try to build something or prepare in some way, then it would all start up again. I still think that would make a pretty rad game, but I can only imagine what it would evolve into over time!

[@hotfire660]

i want to make this lol

[@ActuallyRocatex]

Does that water ever go down? Would Wooden platforms drift? How would mountains and rivers affect this idea?

[@dithaingampanmei]

Noah's flood

[@toowiggly]

You should play Catherine. it has a similar idea in it.

[@cromanticheer]

Love it! I've had dreams of potential game ideas as well. One of which involved "competitive roguelike firefighting." Might be something there.

[@umorlex]

One of my favorite things about gmtk is that even though it seems that he only talks about games, (to me) he's actually talking about something more fundamental, something that (for me) apllies to any kind of storytelling. Be it film, book, music etc etc. It's the reason why I still watch them even though I have no intention to be a game designer.

[@danielvibez4000]

Intelligent. It could really be applied anywhere.

[@videoket]

So glad "Journey" made it into this video. In his soundtrack commentary on YT, composer Austin Wintory said that the whole game creation process was iterative. He'd get a description of an area, compose a rough song, and the game designers would listen to it. They'd change the level design based on what they heard. Then Wintory would play the new version and end up changing the song. They'd keep going back and forth between soundtrack and gameplay like this. He said they probably would STILL be doing this if they hadn't had to commit to a release date. That's why the music and gameplay mesh so well in Journey!

[@beardlessdragon]

This is so cool!!! I didn't know this! Journey has a phenomenally good soundtrack with some of the best atmosphere I've heard in a game, and this explains why!

[@rooty]

This explains so much. It was the first game to ever make me cry (after playing games for like 25 years), and I couldn't even understand why since there is no dialogue and the plot is vaguer than vague. But when I was playing through the Paradise section after dying on that mountain... Niagara Falls, Frankie angel

[@CoffeeStained]

The main thing about Journey (which isn’t about love, but the journey of life) is that I became so concerned for other players when I was playing it. If I came across another player and they were lost or confused, it was genuinely distressing and I desperately chirped at them to help them find the way.

[@Grim_Pinata]

The Ape Out example at the start was just an excuse for Mark to use it's style for the rest of the video. No one can dispute this. But I can't really blame him. Ape Out looks and sounds smooooth. Such an awesome game.

[@jacobshirley3457]

Interestingly, the jazz music of Ape Out is generated on the fly.

[@thehearingaid]

Saul Bass is probably the most famous artist in this style, you can see it had a massive influence on the art of ape out.

[@SageofSorrow]

4:08 Capcom basically created the concept of “combos” in fighting games this way in Street Fighter II. They initially weren’t part of the base game but later discovered extremely high level players were finding ways to “link” attacks and create chains. At first they were working to find a way to keep players from doing this in later revised versions but discovered it created more depth to the gameplay and opened up more options and an entirely new world for fighters. Then they actually started working combo systems into the game and the rest is history.

[@charlierose7153]

Same with special cancels in sf2

[@FractalPrism.]

specifically: when striking the enemy with a hit, if you input the special attack motion for a fireball before the attack ended, you could "cancel" into the fireball earlier than intended.

[@Copperhell144]

Some Capcom devs had commented that combos were actually planned to be in the game from the beginning of SF2. Can't find the source now though

[@emilyarmstrong83]

There's actually another example of a Capcom game "writing itself," as it were. After Dino Crisis 2 launched, Shu Takumi was given a small team of developers and told to just make a game - didn't matter what kind, they just had to make a game. The original plan was a game about a private detective who got accused of murder and wound up having to defend himself in court because he was given an incompetent lawyer. But then Takumi realized that his protag was spending way more time in court than he was investigating crimes, and was like "Hey, we can run with this." Bada bing, bada boom, Ace Attorney was born.

[@natchu96]

@@emilyarmstrong83 sure explains the ace attorney moments where the lawyer has to defend themselves in court because the detectives were incompetent...

[@knock1582]

It’s not a GMTK video without a section about Into the Breach.

[@taketheleep]

Don't forget about Spelunky 😆

[@Dark_Peace]

And a footage of Speelunky

[@BenBonk]

And some sort of Jonathan Blow game

[@Ramsey276one]

Can't blame him

[@vedaryan334]

Far cry 2 will be missed

[@Table53]

In the board gaming world it's "rush to prototype". Same philosophy, if you've got a game idea then build _something_ out of paper and play it by yourself to see what works and what really doesn't.

[@mikemarks6136]

Ngl that sounds pretty boring tbh then again I never liked board games or table top games

[@Table53]

@@mikemarks6136 Yes I imagine the process for designing a board game doesn't sound particularly exciting to someone with no interest in board games.

[@madmanofthemoon1798]

I went to a 3 part board game development seminar and at the end of the first session, they gave us a box of stuff and told each of us to make a game in an hour. In that environment you have to have a single idea and work from that, and I am now in the process of turning that idea into a full boardgame, with the intent to publish it!

[@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149]

Rush -B- prototype.

[@CubicGC]

Table 53 lmao gottem

[@hcworkflow]

>"Games that designed themselves" >starts video with jazz music Brilliant.

[@renn4913]

?

[@HueManatee]

renn jazz is a genre where the musicians make up the music as they go; as they do, they develop motifs and phrases that they might go back on or just follow whatever theyre currently playing to think about what notes to play next

[@renn4913]

@@HueManatee ah ok i get it now ty

[@jac4026]

@N N R U you are very cool :)

[@p-y8210]

@N N R U ?

[@porkyorcy1715]

Love how I can spend 2 days straight working, fall into a lull that'd usually result in a depressive few weeks of not making anything, but instead watch a GMTK video, and immediately be like 'aight back to it'

[@delphicdescant]

Ugh, that's way too familiar to me too.

[@exLightningg]

Good luck with whatever you're working on! Keep it up.

[@porkyorcy1715]

@@exLightningg Thank you :D

[@inventorofmachines]

I've been in the depressy spell for the past two weeks. Hoping this is the video that will rouse me.

[@MarkChimes]

I want to know more about the bugs that became features in Spy Party.

[@GMTK]

Check the source link the description - there's a talk where Chris Hecker goes in-depth on some of the exploits

[@carlotta4th]

Was that different than the one you linked to with two people competing in some sort of tournament? I watched that whole video and although they mentioned bugs a few times it wasn't clear what the bug was or how they developed it later into a mechanic.

[@usualtoaster3586]

Spy Party is an amazing game. Also 6:24 I’m famous!!!

[@GMTK]

Sorry, that's the credit for the video I used. The talk from Chris Hecker is listed under sources. Or just click here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/iqfGnmarisetd9k

[@LuminousDecibel]

That monologue starting at 10:35 is such an important message. Not only for game making, but all art. It's a very significant lesson for poem or song writing, painting, sculpting, prose fiction writing, choreography, cinematography, etc. Don't wait for some eureka stroke of genius inspiration. Don't wait for inspiration at all. Just keep working, even if you're slugging through bad ideas. Then, if you keep working and keep striving for improvement, the good ideas will happen. Find inspiration, don't wait for it to find you.

[@iwiffitthitotonacc4673]

Quake is often forgotten when it comes to this. There's no classes or any enforced "meta" that decides playstyles - all playstyles are emergent. Weapon denial and item control/awareness were not designed but simply came into being as people played.

[@aurumcoinforge4582]

sounds like i have to check out quake then!

[@iwiffitthitotonacc4673]

@@aurumcoinforge4582 Diabotical plays like Quake but it's newer and with more features, including an ingame map editor and an ingame HUD editor. I would recommend that if you're new to arena shooters.

[@WhiteKnuckleRide512]

I’d argue that that is a slightly different situation, as these classes and play styles were found and elaborated on on the player side, rather than the developer game.

[@thtr7663]

Woo! Diabotical!!!! See you in the arena!!!!!!

[@iwiffitthitotonacc4673]

@@WhiteKnuckleRide512 That's not true, actually. Everything that emerged in Quake 1 and 2 were elaborated on and perfected in later iterations, to the point of people actively getting angry if something was made to reverse it, like John Carmack and strafejumping - strafejumping was a bug in Quake 2 that people absolutely loved, but John Carmack didn't like it so when he tried to remove it in Quake 3, people were understandably upset. Strafejumping has been a stable in both Quake and other arena shooters since then.

[@JTMConceptions]

The most iconic case of this was with Halo: Combat Evolved. What was originally intended to be a top down rts game, the entire studio shifted gears in development when they were testing around driving the warthog. They had such a blast driving the warthog around in testing with a controller, that they decided to scrap the entire rts idea and instead develop a first person shooter that all around felt good to play. And as a result of this, completely overhauled how fps games are played, and set the framework to shooter mechanics that is now a template for every fps to this day.

[@NamidaSai]

I find it incredibly hard to “drop an idea” once I’ve started brainstorming/creating it. Game Jams are really good to get these out of my mind and actually let them go once I’ve seen what they’re like. Thanks for the great insights as always!

[@novikovPrinciple]

The custom graphics and animatics (like at 11:06) are an amazing touch that help get the point across in ways that typical stock footage can't.

[@sleepysnorlax9384]

I love how much detail you put in all elements of these videos. Playing jazz the entire time in a video about improvising while game designing, okay Mark I see you.

[@safekeno]

It's like tasting your food continously throughout cooking

[@Drekromancer]

This is one of the best analogies I've ever heard.

[@Fawriel]

I'm not even an aspiring game developer, just a general artistic type, and this is still great advice. Thank you.

[@Drekromancer]

Yeah! It's great to see this apply to most creative endeavors. "People are using physics exploits to jump using the rocket launcher. Let's make this a game mechanic!" "This line in my portrait drawing doesn't look like a hand, but it kinda looks like a tree. Let's draw a forest instead!" "That line in my script wasn't supposed to be a joke, but people loved it! Let's write a whole scene around it."

[@ssssssstssssssss]

@@Drekromancer Yeah. And this is great advice for scientific research (which is creative also). Though this video makes this process sound easy. It's not. But it can take you to really interesting places that you wouldn't have imagined.

[@skiaphrene]

All this perspective of "the game designing itself" and the developers "discovering" it reminds me of the ancient Roman definition of "genius"... Great video!

[@Wafflyy]

Nice

[@Jan12700]

The Anno series would also be a good example, too. Anno 1602 the first game in the series was supposed to be a RTS, like AoE or Star Craft. The developers then spent more time to building their cities than fighting each other, so they focused more on city building.

[@o7k4vokb0ksp5n2]

That's both random as hell and a good example lol

[@CircusBamse]

I have a friend who doesn't want to play aoe with me because he doesn't like that he has to build a new city every time... Maybe he should try Anno

[@scaredyfish]

Sim City was inspired by the level designer in Will Wright’s earlier game which was more fun than the game.

[@terrortalks3037]

It's just like in writing; I've heard many authors talk about how a story "just happened" as characters seem to pull the plot in different directions.

[@terrortalks3037]

@jocaguz18 i read an article a week or two ago stating it's actually a pretty common experience for writers that is unconnected with mental illness, I'll see if I can find it again.

[@beardlessdragon]

@jocaguz18 Nah, dude. I can confidently say that once you've birthed your brain children, you're just along for the ride XD

[@jasonsorin1021]

Heat Signature was so underrated. You have a grenade shotgun, a gun that shoots EVERYTHING at guards, and a gun shooting the highly corrosive acid used as money. You can even teleport into someone with your sword already in their chest.

[@iamnoimpact]

Great video! As a creator by hobby, I love the idea you brought to light of “fail faster”. I will definitely take that to heart going into future work.

[@scampjot]

Great video! I wish it would've also talked about limitations, which are one of the reasons indies actually make many iconic design decisions. Limited resources, time, and manpower may require an extra dose of creativity to solve problems that sometimes can lead to the best results.

[@die9132]

“Fail faster” YandereDev: *confused internal screaming*

[@rewrose2838]

He's got the first half down perfect 🤣

[@ThreeBeeHDb]

@@rewrose2838 I wish there was something like a "sarcasm check" to check if someone was being sarcastic. The only real way to check if something is sarcastic on the internet is to ask so... Are you being sarcastic?

[@rewrose2838]

@@ThreeBeeHDb yes 🙃 (and I can totally relate, sarcasm is often lost on me)

[@KuraIthys]

@@ThreeBeeHDb That's just basic communication though isn't it? I'm autistic and that has a lot of problems, but on the upside I'm acutely aware of the fact that I'm likely missing a lot of 'obvious' cues. But then I was also into science, so I've read research papers and stuff. Gave up on it eventually, so I can't easily cite sources anymore. Even so, when it comes to human communication it was something like pretty extreme like 90% of communication is body language, 8% is tone of voice, and only 2% is the actual words used. Now apply that to youtube comments, and it should be pretty clear why people struggle to spot sarcasm. XD We've thrown out 98% of the message, and then still expect people to get it without being extremely obvious (with things like /s or the like that make it explicit...) -shrug~

[@CasualCosta]

I was thinking something like that.

[@BikoFactory]

Just a moment of appreciation for the constantly amazing presentation of these videos. Mark is a madman when it comes to editing and visual style!

[@oiiopo]

This is great advice for any creative endeavour, and I love it when games are the medium that drive innovation in other creative spheres. I give similar advice when teaching creative writing; I say that the blank page is the most terrifying and difficult thing to work with - once you start putting sentences on it, at some point you'll chance upon a good sentence that you'll want to build a story around.

[@arrowrandoman]

I've always wanted to be a writer, but I've had a hard time just getting to it because I tend to focus on making the perfect story first. I think this video has helped me start to get out of that mental trap. Thanks!

[@HigaaraEnd]

Not a writer myself but a good teacher of mine, after reading my 12 y.o essays, told me that "It's always better to throw out a lot of everything and keeping what sounded good rather than always questioning the same idea you absolutely want to expand on". So try out as much stuff as you want, even if it sounds stupid, because you may find gold in the dirt.

[@arrowrandoman]

@@HigaaraEnd Thanks! I actually just found some little things I wrote in high school I was going to look at. Your comment and timing are perfect.

[@allterraincapybara6749]

I've been looking at this from a writing perspective too. I had a super good professor in uni and he had a saying called "chase the heat" in writing, meaning that as you write and find something that excites you or starts writing itself, you ride that flame and feed it. I have a huge inner critic which sucks for writing, but I've been working up to it again. I want to revamp a novel I wrote which is trash but i like the central idea. I love writing, it's when I feel happiest, but I feel so critical it just 'feels better' to avoid it My advice is just write and see where it goes :) if you end up liking it, that's great. If you dont, you still learned something. I wrote a 50k word novel in a month and while it sucks, it's still something!

[@arrowrandoman]

@@allterraincapybara6749 thanks! I totally understand the 'feels better to avoid.' I hope you keep going strong.

[@cromanticheer]

Part of the reason why I started doing fan fiction is because it's usually low stress and easy to "fail fast." There's certainly authors who use beta readers and heavy strict outlines, sure, but a lot of writers just throw stuff out there without much worry, and hopefully learn something about writing in the process.

[@loreleiloriestone9179]

As a writer, I'm familiar with this premise. Characters do the exact same thing! I had one character who was supposed to be a generic badass turn into a wide-eyed and naive one who was secretly amazingly tough. That ended up being way more interesting, so I ran with it! I think you find this phenomena a lot in creative processes.

[@brettd2308]

This is one of your best videos, amazing work.

[@jan-lukas]

Creepers were created whilst notch tried modeling a pig

[@RandomMcSomethin]

Thinking of exactly this while I was watching! Glad someone brought it up.

[@Irondragon1945]

Uhhhhh?!

[@ThePC007]

Only their model, though, not the idea of them exploding and breaking your stuff.

[@DrPumpkinz]

@@Irondragon1945 You know how pig bodies are long horizontally and short vertically? Notch mixed up his axes and ended up with a quadruped that was short horizontally and long vertically.

[@Blitterbug]

@@DrPumpkinz Ah, I see - pretty much like how he mixed up his tweets with racist ones accidentally! Excellent point. Joke btw...

[@blitheringape5321]

ape out is just a top down shooter where you reload by hugging people it's brilliantly simple

[@InsertReviews]

Really shows the creativity and flexibility of the devs to be willing to make these changes and make whole new games almost around these fun mechanics.

[@tinytrtle5681]

10:20 "this game would explore the theme of love" me, a person who has played journey: wait. was that what it was abaout?

[@greenredblue]

I know, right? It's hard to get that from wandering the graveyards of a civilization erased by weapons of mass destruction.

[@TheFlyingslug]

*Cocks gun* Always has been.

[@cl0ud5urfer]

Same lol, I always thought it was more about life, navigating through the challenges, the scary times, the easy times, the fun times, etc etc

[@RobinTheBot]

You did not explore alone, friends. You loved your scarf dragons, and if you got good drop ins, you felt the warmth of companionship (assuming you played online). At the end of my second run and first drop in, I regretted so much I Couldn't say anything to the wanderer who'd gone the whole way with me. He drew a heart in the sand, so I did too, and I like to think we both felt better. I heard the message about love in that.

[@aheumedivirtoXD]

Right? And here i thought it was about apreciating the journey lol XD

[@RobotPlaysGames]

Very inspiring. Creatives in many fields probably wrestle to keep their egos and their well-laid plans from snuffing out fun and spontaneity. These "happy accidents" came up a lot when I used to write songs, for example. Great video, as always!

[@StoryToGo]

Love this. It's like taking advantage of the teachable moment. Just took a course on game design, and this adds perfectly to what we began to learn about game design there.

[@matthawkins123]

"Follow the trails of whats fun" Thats a refreshing thing to hear in 2020

[@rrni2343]

"Follow the fun" is also an improv technique

[@Drekromancer]

And an interviewing/conversational technique!

[@binchamers]

This is also why elements that can all work together in level creation/creative games lead to so many fun creations that the devs would have never thought of, some times leading to whole new games or genres. And having elements react and adapt not just to the player but also to each other can lead to even more amazing things. Like cats in dwarf fortress that got drunk because there was a system that made them dirty when walking through puddles of beer in bars, a system for them licking themselves clean and a system for getting drunk.

[@civilwarfare101]

I can relate to this more than ever. Sometimes, I just have days where nothing really goes as planned but something still came of it.

[@benzymatic]

I’m an R&D engineer and honestly a lot of this is just great general design advise too. “Follow the Fun and Fail Fast” but replace “Fun” with whatever design criteria (that ideally starts with an “F” lol). Anyway, well done, I wasn’t expecting to get advice for my own non-game design job when I started this video!

[@prithviproduction4412]

This is basically just- "Ok I made the prototype, Now gotta fix the bugs" "Wait, that bug wasn't intentional but it fits the theme so I'm gonna leave it be" And that little bug changed the whole aspect of game, thus, creating a unique famous game!

[@amrfadel]

Mark, your channel is awe-inspiring. Not only do you offer the best video game content, but this is some of the best content on KZbin. Your thoughts are very orderly and your intuitions, piercing and spot on. I am going through all your content in order. How time and time again you vocalize and expand profusely on issues that I pick up on but not always able to put them into words is magnificent. You are a true journalist and your ethic and talent are comparable to none. Thank you for sharing your vision and making the best possible use of this platform. All power to you.

[@sajibmazumder3778]

"Bugs creates feature" Bethesda games: I know. It just Works. Every time...

[@zachwilson301]

Such a great message that can be applied to so many different mediums.

[@avimoses5956]

I think this is one of your best video's yet, up there with the talking instead of shooting video

[@MZONE3D]

Spot on! The Development is also about what is manageable for the person or team that is designing it. You soon discover what your strengths and your weaknesses are, which in combination with the "game evolving itself", will ultimately dictate what your game/project materialises in to.

[@onedeadsaint]

2:19 BUTTERSCOTCH SHENANIGANS! huge fan of theirs! very happy to see them included in this video!

[@Bayb0b]

Yep, I love those guys. They have a great podcast as well!

[@lorddiego]

I totally agreed with you. I've participated in Brackey's Game Jam a week ago, and the starting point is always hard. Sometimes the ideas come, sometimes don't. But once something appears and you prototype it and watch and play that prototype, that's were the magic happens and everything starts to flow. New ideas you probably never thought materialize just there. And you must learn to use them and try them to see if they're as interest during gameplay as they're in your mind. Great video

[@atymtimagames]

I was just making the devlog today about this level design concept, and suddenly this video pops up. Great to see so many examples of games with the similar approach, amazing video!

[@djgautz]

This, for me and lots of thers, is almost exactly like making music, you start with an idea and try to sketch that down as much as possible, try new things, ask "whats happens if ?", and then see what comes up that is interesting and lean in on that. If you start with the endgoal in mind and only focus on that, your perfect song or game will never be finished, gotta learn to go with the flow. The final product can turn out completely different than the original idea was to start with.

[@cameronvanhook7388]

Another great video! There's something similar to 'follow the fun' in writing, or any kind of artistic medium I guess. Writers have to be very flexible and receptive to new ideas. You have to listen and feel what the story wants to be, and you often have to completely re-write scenes (that you often love) for the sake of the story to work as a whole.

[@kothemagica]

So basically developers should understand "If it is not fun why bother"

[@zeinnanla5422]

Neil Druckmann would disagree

[@GalGreen]

The game I'm working on started as an auto-generated hex puzzle about balancing planets' gravitational pull, and changed direction to become a hand-crafted puzzle game about combining and manipulating colors. Edit: Thanks for the likes :) If you're interested in checking out the game, I recently released a trailer (+free demo): kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3vVn2muYseIeq8

[@jofremusic]

As a musician, I feel these two ideas also apply to composing or other creative arts. "Follow the fun", just follow your idea and see what works instead of having a preconcieved plan and forcing yourself to stick with it. And the "game jams" idea, from time to time i spend several months composing one new idea every single day. Some of those are crap, some are meh, some will be good. Great work, great channel!

[@14zrobot]

Could also be called the importance of prototyping. Projects that spend too much time in idea stage can catch Star Citizen disease

[@GustavoSilva-ny8jc]

Only 2:28 and geez, this video and channel is just way too good. It really gives you a feel of how much META there's on building a game - all steps precisely classified, with detailed explanations on how to do a game from A to Z - and how many professionals there is that are dead serious about what they do, giving you a wake up call that this endeavour is just as skilled and using old principles as other respectable professions like Architecture and Agriculture. And it gave me the MIND BLOWING EPIPHANY that whatever you're trying to do someone already tried, for generations, and there are people that are doing, some at an incredibly high level (the only exception is maybe some futuristic stuff). Just follow they're steps you dofus! Even if your area is totally new, like Feynman searching Quantum, you can develop this by expanding on what is known today.

[@TrentDonelson]

Skiing in the original Starsiege: Tribes was a total accident. It was discovered by one of the Dynamix QA testers that if they rapidly tapped the space bar (jump) while sliding down a hill, they could pick up a lot of momentum, allowing them to boost off an up-slope with a massive amount of speed. Of course, it eventually broke the intended gameplay, but enabled the game to far out-last it's original lifespan. And it was incorporated into all the Tribes sequels as a core mechanic.

[@XyloBetaGames]

Mark not only gives awesome game development advice but also philosophical advice for life. *What a guy*

[@Dark_Slayer3000]

Actually can confirm it slightly because when I make mods for a game, sometimes there are unexpected interactions that lead to deph and strategy :D

[@honeyway3104]

I love that your videos are totally applicable to so many other things than just games... like the teaching you give us all is very important to me for, character building, world building in general, like any form of art can be influenced by what you teach us... heck even life lessons are given in here.... thank you so much..

[@highc7812]

"they're not glitches, they're just free extra content"

[@mohammadwaled409]

Its not a physics engine exploit its "rocket jumping"

[@TheAlison1456]

I deeply appreciate you talking about Gunpoint as that is one of my first PC games and is to this day a favorite. Games are truly beautiful. Also thank you even more for putting the sources in the description!

[@Joel2Million]

GMTK videos since Mark has mentioned "Into the Breach": 000 Sometimes I wonder why we bother installing two digits on the sign, let alone three! No hate on the game tho, sure it must be fun if it gets mentioned every other episode.

[@Zackapo]

Hey, it's an amazing game with a cool design.

[@Rexodiak]

should be Spelunky, that game is Mark's weakness

[@Ails1234]

But he didn't mention Celeste!

[@TheDrugSong]

@@Rexodiak I hate Spelunky. Tried it many times and it always ends with a nervous breakdown xD

[@ZacharyStiles]

Into the Breach is for chess nerds that enjoyed FTL but wish it was less RNG. Total fucking dweebs, really. (It's me, I am the nerd dweeb)

[@eduardorpg64]

Awesome job (as always)! This has actually helped me. I've been having many ideas on what kinds of games I want to make, both if I wanted to make an indie game, or a AAAish kind of game, and I've felt mentally blocked since none of my ideas convince me. My game ideas either sound boring to me, or sound too ambitious, so I've felt stuck. Thanks to your video, now I could try just makeing a quick and dirty prototype, and then I would "listen" to the game to see what works and which ideas are fun. That would be in a long time since I've been a bit busy and I'm still learning the basics of game programming. But still, thank you for making this video! You have helped me get a clearer idea on the kinds of games I want to make.

[@ge789]

I have some gameplay gimmicks in mind for when I eventually learn to code. I’ll certainly keep this information in mind when I try to make them reality.

[@lachlanrussell18]

Oh my god, the editing in this video is SO good. so stylish and awesome

[@ultimateprogamer5843]

I'd love for you to do a video on "horror" sections of games that otherwise aren't horror related and how they worked a couple examples I can think of is Big Boo's Haunt from Super Mario 64 and another is Queen Vanessa's Manor from A Hat in Time. Both are more light hearted fun games but have that one section that even grown up you still get spooked by them. I guess you could call it "How to make Horror in non Horror games"

[@MatthewTaylor86]

Another great excuse to talk about Ravenholm, too!

[@jsihavealotofplaylists]

@@MatthewTaylor86 I think all of half life, and the new alyx is, and are, especially good at having horror aspects. Lots of zombie tunnels, dark areas, etc. Halo 1 flood too. (more annoying than scary but still)

[@Lolboy30]

I'm currently struggling to become a professional game artist, however, i just suck up every video of you, because the production value of your videos is so high nad it's so much fun to watch you talking about anything,.. keep your work up, its both inspiring as well as educating us.. big fan!!

[@meikahidenori]

Tf2's spy class was all because of an accidental glitch. I love when games and features are just rolled with till they make a signature feature

[@napolpettone]

wow this video is perfect. i'd like to start a school of game design and i wanted in these days to try and create a board game to try but since i'm always scared of failing i stopped and start looking for ideas that were actually good. now i'm motivated again. thank you, Mark

[@divyanshuthakur]

I opened youtube and a GMTK video? Monday is good.

[@xx_th3_h0ly_sh1t_xx5]

Oh shit it’s monday

[@elmori616]

Been watching your vids for so long! What a fantastic creation methodology. Loved it. This how most artists draw, they start with few seconds long rough sketch, and start drawing over the lines they liked, for example. Great Vid!

[@deadlandplacebo1695]

Love the animated psa style In thus video. This channel's editing is always top notch

[@davidtorstensson5761]

Thanks, that's super inspiring! Been waiting for the perfect game idea for years...

[@SlightlyInDepthGaming]

Dang this video has such high production value especially the animations I wish my videos could look as good as this

[@Leonardorth.]

I have no idea how you do it but I truly needed this at this very moment. Thanks for another fantastic video !

[@taketheleep]

The animated text cards in this video are so dang aesthetically pleasing. Great production as always to go along with the super cool insight.

[@elliotmarcus1482]

This is such a great video. I know that it’s about game development, but the lessons hold true for the creative process in general. You can substitute the word ‘game’ in this video for just about anything, and it still is applicable - writing, filmmaking, drawing. Just start, try, fail and try again. Review what you’ve done and see what works and what doesn’t. I love GMTK videos, but I think this is the best one ever. it’s the first one I’ve ever really felt inspired by.

[@RetepAdam]

Can’t imagine there are too many people who are *so* smart, *so* innovative that their ideas go directly from their head to the history books.

[@RaVirrTheTrader]

I absolutely LOVE this topic, so I'm so happy you made a video on it. Side note: this is how SimCity came to be. Will Wright originally co-designed an attack helicopter DOS game called Raid on Bungling Bay, and realized he had more fun making cities in the map editor than the actual helicopter mechanic, so it resulted in "Micropolis", renamed to SimCity (source: LGR). Thanks for always uploading such high quality and informative content - can't wait for the next one! :)

[@Scerttle]

I don’t want to make a game but I still needed to hear this advice. Fail fast, follow the fun.

[@HostileAtHeart]

If I could watch only one gaming-related KZbin channel for the rest of my life this one would be it. Haven't been disappointed in years of watching! Cheers mate!

[@AaditDoshi]

"The True Game is the Fun you find along the way"

[@SlamBolts]

This reminds me of an art mantra I have "let the piece talk back to you, it'll teach you about yourself" Awesome video, lots of life advice in it!

[@cloud_and_proud]

I think it's also important to realize these ideas aren't in actuality made by the game, they're still designed by you. It's important to keep this in mind, because you may otherwise replicate problematic stuff like stereotypes, thinking that "That's just what the game wants, not me,"

[@andrewp6738]

Yup! Although many of the adages in this video are about "games that design themselves," it's more like "game designers who allowed their plans to change in response to prototyping"

[@crazy_pyromaniac]

​@@andrewp6738 Why didn't he just choose that as the title? 🤷‍♂️

[@cloud_and_proud]

@@crazy_pyromaniac doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? :P

[@Ayoul]

@@cloud_and_proud A more accurate title could simply be "Iterating with prototypes", "The importance of prototypes", etc. Games that made themselves is just weirdly inaccurate to me.

[@cloud_and_proud]

@@Ayoul I'm guessing he's trying to help people struggling with perfectionism.

[@diro999]

This was really inspiring. I really needed this as I've been in a bit of a design rut. Thanks again mark for the great content.

[@luuketaylor]

GMTK: The Kurzgesagt of game related KZbin content :)

[@father042]

You mean pretentious insufferable liberal who puts style over substance?

[@nikolashoag942]

Not only useful information towards game development but art in general. Sometimes you conceptualize a song, a story, a poem, etc. and you find that in the process of bringing that idea into physical being, that working on the idea over time forces you to sit on it and think about it as it takes shape. In reviewing the work over and over, you will find what works and what doesn't. It's ideally the proper way of growing a true understanding about one's own craft, and if you are not willing to relinquish that control over your work, you'll hit more plateaus to walk flat than hills to climb towards something higher.

[@arogustus3984]

You always manage to impart a valuable lesson in every video you make. Well done. With Crash 4 coming out in a month, why not make a video analysing what made the original level design of the first three Crash games so beloved? Seeing that Toy's for Bob have managed to figure that out, I'd like to see it put into words of someone like you.

[@RicochetForce]

Another excellent video from Mark. And I just have to say, the audio in was just sumptuous. It was amazing to listen to.

[@joebidengaming7709]

fun fact: sticky jumping was originally a bug in team fortress 2 but became one of the most fun tricks to pull off successfully

[@kaiyost7025]

i love the production aesthetic of this video, it's so crafty