Mark's Month (January 2025)

Hello Patrons! Mark here with an inside look at what I've been up to this month.

What I made

So January started off with a big video - a nearly 30 minute deep dive into the design of Smash Bros. fighters. It was really fun to make - lots of research, loads of motion graphics, and other fun touches. I wrote more about how I created the video here.

And then I brought back Weekender, with a look at an upcoming detective game. I was a bit unsure whether or not to feature a demo on the series but as someone who knows what it's like to get wishlists and build up that pre-release hype, I thought it would be okay to show off a game that's still in the works.

A few people have asked me if I am going to turn to publishing, like fellow YouTuber Dunkey. And my main thought is... it would be cool to support and champion good indie games. But also... that seems like a lot of work!

So instead I can use platforms like Weekender to show off and support games that fit the GMTK audience. I just don't get paid anything for it, but that's where you come in :P

What I'm working on

I'm in the middle of two episodes at once, which is not something I usually do. Here's what happened...

So I started working on a video called "Where do game ideas come from?". It's a look at how people come up with good ideas for games and breaks down the sometimes surprising origin stories of popular games. But the video also tries to answer the question of 'how do you know if that idea is worth pursuing'?

For that bit, I enlisted the help of Jonas Tyroller - developer of Thronefall and fellow YouTubin' game designer - to offer some thoughts on evaluating game ideas.

This will actually be the first part of a mini series on the different stages of indie game development - with episodes covering topics like ideation, prototyping, planning, production, and so on. It will feature some of what I learned (and got wrong) when making Mind Over Magnet, different developer guests, and lots of advice for budding game makers.

New videos will be released throughout 2025.

However, half way through the making of that video I suddenly had an interesting idea for a video. You know the new Zelda game, right? The one where Princess Zelda can copy and paste stuff to solve puzzles and fight monsters. Well, it's great... but it also commits some serious crimes against UI design. Almost everyone who plays it will complain about the Big Long Line of menu items.

So I thought it might be fun to recreate the menu in Unity, and then try a bunch of different designs in order to "fix" the issue. Maybe we could break the menu into a grid with tabs? How about a design inspired by the PS3's cross media bar? How about a radial menu? Or even a spiral menu?

So I spent a day messing around in Unity and actually came up with some really cool designs! And I think it will make for a super fun video about UI, prototyping, iteration, and more.

So now I've just got to decide which one to finish first! But both will be out in February, so please look forward to them.

Oh, and I'm still working on game number two. But I'm only doing one day of game development a week and so progress is pretty slow. I might need to take a week out of February to focus on game dev - I'll let you know!

What I go up to

I don't know about you, but the chilly climes of January don't really inspire me to get out and do stuff. I prefer to hibernate until spring. Like a bear.

I did attend a game developer meet up. I finally feel like I can go to these things and not feel like a massive imposter. I did a little bouldering. And saw Nosferatu and A Real Pain. But for the most part I stayed snuggled up inside!

In terms of games... I wrote a bit about the new releases in this month's digest. But for those not on that tier, my favourites were The Roottrees are Dead - a new detective game about genealogical research on a 56k modem - and Blade Chimera - an action-heavy semi-Metroidvania with stunning pixel art.

I'm also still working on my "bucket list backlog" from Xmas...

If you didn't know, every Christmas I like to use the time off to play a game or two from the deep recesses of my backlog. You know - that pile of games that I really should have gotten to by now. The games that it's frankly embarrassing I haven't played by this point.

So for 2024, I picked Chrono Trigger. Yep! Look - I'm not a big JRPG guy, but I figured I should at least be familiar with the genre's heavy hitters.

And, you know what? I'm enjoying it!

If you haven't played it, Chrono Trigger is a SNES-era RPG that takes place on a tiny continent - but you can travel back and forth through time. So you'll see the same area as a medieval town, a prehistoric camp, a sci-fi dome, and so on. And that's really fun - stories and quests spill out across the ages, and it does really clever things with the time travel concept.

It's also, like most JRPGs, pretty long. So while I am close to the end, I'm still playing it long past the Christmas break and, now, into February. Whoops!

Right, that's all from me. Chat next month!