You don't have to pay a dime for the best school of game design | Gamedev Dairy #62
Hacks for learning, productivity, having work-life-passion balance and finally game development!
TL;DR
I'm sure you're missing out
If it's not too late to add one more skill to learn...
I'm sure you're missing out on this one!
I did mention it before - Masahiro Sakurai's YouTube Channel - when he shares his knowledge on making games.
I guess some people would be discouraged.
Not only is it in Japanese which makes it hard to focus (although there are built-in English subtitles), but it's also made by the guy who's not perceived as one of the greatest. People who know him will beg to differ, but when someone from outside (like outside of the Nintendo fan club) looks at his portfolio sees...
Kirby (which is a cute game about a PINK blob for children/casuals)
Kid Icarus (a cutesy action game for people who don't mind that it treats ancient Greek mythology very liberally, to use a euphemism)
or Super Smash Bros (which is okay, but nobody wants to learn from a fighting game expert, at least outside of Japan).
It's an unfair point of view, I agree. One I had myself some time ago (before I bought a Nintendo Switch).
And yet, when I read what he has to say (obviously, I don't understand Japanese) I realized I understand more and more about game design.
There's one more thing you might add: his advice is good for someone who works in the Japanese market, but that's hardly ever the truth. He does show examples from old Japanese games (not only Nintendo games), but so far there was none I didn't recognize, so you won't have a problem either.
At this point Sakurai-sensei shared his thoughts on the following categories of topics:
Work Ethic
Game Essence
Planning & Game Design
Design Specifics
Animation
Graphics
Effects
UI
Team Management
Audio
Programming & Tech
With two additional non-mandatory categories like Grab Bag (miscellaneous topics) and Game Concepts (about the games he designed).
With a video every two or three days he already shared 58 videos, this is a channel with the value given to us on the same level as Game Maker's Toolkit! I can only hope that someone will back this up and publish it as a book before Google decides to end YouTube (because who knows what these weirdos are thinking? #rememberStadia).
I myself am making transcripts for my Second Brain, but I skip graphical examples and Sakurai's personal notes from the Grab Bag category, so I don't consider what I do as backup, but I might include quotes if I ever share a Game Dev's Second Brain.
I encourage you to give it a try! It's the perfect start for learning game design. And once you (I mean me, I'm trying to sound wise and universal, bear with me ;-) ) finish that, learn your tools, and then there will be time for Game Maker's Toolkit (re-watch!).
If it's not too late to add one more skill to learn...
I finally finished Limbo. I rarely play horror games, as I am a scaredy cat. Being the precursor to Inside it is less polished, and includes no choices at all, but remains a solid puzzle game with great graphics.
But, all those artistic gray-scale landscapes reminded me of something.
I saw multiple times how Thomas Brush creates 2D landscapes and the graphics of Limbo looked like someone did it with a Brush-like workflow and perfect results. It made me wonder whether it should be a valid goal for 2023. After all, almost every gamedev noob makes a platformer game, right?