We all know that making games can be an especially lucrative business but, as someone who writes about them, I couldn’t tell you where to start. I don’t know the first thing about building games and while Media Molecule has tried to teach me a thing or two in LittleBigPlanet and Dreams, none of it stuck.
Perhaps Nintendo’s latest announcement will be the thing that does it for me; Game Builder Garage was announced last night and beyond looking delightful it also appears to be a very cool gateway into building actual videogames. Players can use the tools in Game Builder Garage to design and make their own games and share them with others through the software. Like Mario Maker but with less Mario and an equal level of making.
The trailer shown off by Nintendo paints a very accessible yet (eventually) robust system. All players need to do is select an element, be that an analogue stick or button, and drag a connection from it to a specific command. Great, now you’ve got a control scheme, how easy was that? Then they’ll be able to build levels thanks to a variety of assets provided by Nintendo as well features to help players build their own UI, backgrounds and even simple AI from the looks of things. It looks very simple but that’s not a bad thing, especially if your kids are looking at pursuing some kind of career in this field and you want to help them get started early.
When you’re done building your game you can share it with other folks via the internet (I imagine that’s just a quick and dirty upload to a server) or with friends through local wireless connection. Game Builder Garage launches for the Nintendo Switch on 11 June so if that seems a little too far off right now, just go back and play Dreams. It’s still good, I’m sure.
Last Updated: May 6, 2021
