Game Maker's Toolkit
Game Maker's Toolkit (GMTK) is a video game analysis video series created by British journalist Mark Brown. Beginning in 2014, the series examines video game design and aims to encourage developers to improve their craft. It is hosted on YouTube and funded via Patreon.
Additional topics include game accessibility and level design. Since 2017, Mark Brown also hosts an annual GMTK game jam with design challenges on itch.io. In 2024, he released a puzzle game called Mind Over Magnet.
History
From 2009, Mark Brown worked as a freelance writer and critic, contributing to GamesRadar, Wired, The Escapist, Edge, Polygon and Eurogamer among others. Brown joined Pocket Gamer, a British mobile games publication, in August 2012 as news editor and later as features editor. In September 2013, he released Pixel This!, a nonogram game developed using Codea, on the App Store.
Brown began Game Maker's Toolkit in November 2014, each video discusses a certain issue in video game design and its implementation in specific games. The series was inspired by Every Frame a Painting. Brown launched a crowdfunding profile for the series on Patreon in 2015. He left his position as editor-at-large at Pocket Gamer in January 2017 to focus on Game Maker's Toolkit.
In 2016, Brown started a new side-show called Boss Keys exploring the layout and design of dungeons in The Legend of Zelda franchise. Brown developed a mapping system to describe layouts of the dungeons. In the second season, which began in July 2018, Brown discusses the layout of game worlds in the metroidvania genre, such as those in the Metroid series. A second side-show, Designing for Disability, launched in July 2018, explores accessibility in video games. It describes obstacles which may prevent some people from enjoying specific games and presents guidelines and practices that make video games more welcoming for players with disabilities. In September 2021, he began Developing, a series focusing on the development of his puzzle game Mind Over Magnet, which released on November 13, 2024.
Reception
Brown's Game Maker's Toolkit videos were covered by video game websites, such as Gamasutra, Kotaku and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Designing for Disability series is included in Polygon's summary of "The best video essays of 2018" and its writer names Brown "one of the most measured and meticulous people" in video game criticism. The Telegraph mentions Brown as one of "20 gaming YouTubers you should be following", describing GMTK as "an intelligent look into the design philosophy behind popular games". Arts magazine Hyperallergic includes GMTK video "The Challenge of Cameras" in its roundup of web documentaries.
Game Maker's Toolkit Game Jam
Game Maker's Toolkit hosts an annual game jam on itch.io since 2017. Competing developers have 48 hours to design and create a video game fitting a theme unveiled at the beginning of the jam. The themes are design challenges.
Works
- Brown, Mark; Anderson, Sky LaRell (26 October 2020). "Designing for Disability: Evaluating the State of Accessibility Design in Video Games". Games and Culture. 16 (6): 702–718. doi:10.1177/1555412020971500. ISSN 1555-4120. S2CID 228982342.