Game Maker's Toolkit
Mark Brown's YouTube channel analysing game design, level design and accessibility; he also runs the GMTK Game Jam and made Mind Over Magnet and Word Play.
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- How I Coded the Perks in my Roguelike
How 150 roguelike perks were structured in code so modifiers stack and stay maintainable.
youtube.com · Jun 2026 - The Secrets Behind THAT Cyberpunk 2077 Montage
Breaks down how Cyberpunk 2077's famous montage scene was built from in-engine systems and editing.
youtube.com · May 2026 - How Rockstar fit an entire city into PlayStation 2 memory
How GTA on PS2 streamed a whole city through tiny memory using chunking and asset tricks.
youtube.com · May 2026 - Has Zelda Changed Forever?
Analyses how Tears of the Kingdom's systemic building changes Zelda's puzzle and exploration design.
youtube.com · Mar 2026 - The World Design of Hollow Knight: Silksong
Maps Silksong's interconnected world, gating, shortcuts and navigation to explain its metroidvania structure.
youtube.com · Dec 2025 - What's the Point of Prototyping?
Why and how to prototype mechanics quickly to find the fun before full production.
youtube.com · Nov 2025 - How Games Do Destruction
Surveys how games implement destructible environments, from scripted breakage to physics-driven simulation.
youtube.com · Oct 2025 - What's The Point Of Hard Games, Anyway?
Examines what difficulty adds to games and how designers tune challenge for different players.
youtube.com · Sep 2025 - Why Word Play's score doesn't carry over (design thread)
Design thread on why resetting score each round improved pacing, strategy and balance.
bsky.app · Jul 2025 - How I Made Word Play
Development story of Word Play covering prototyping, perk design and balancing a roguelike word game.
youtube.com · Jul 2025 - Hue-shifting colours for nicer shadows
Colour tip: darken shadows by shifting hue as well as brightness to avoid muddy tones.
bsky.app · Jun 2025 - Word Play's accessibility features (thread)
Concrete accessibility options for a word game: readability modes, input choices and forgiving rules.
bsky.app · Jun 2025 - Blue Prince: Can a random puzzle game actually work?
Looks at how Blue Prince combines randomised room drafting with handcrafted puzzle solutions.
youtube.com · May 2025 - Why Monolith Mattered
Explains the design legacy of Monolith's games, including the Nemesis system and enemy AI.
youtube.com · Feb 2025 - How to find amazing game ideas
Practical methods for generating and evaluating strong game ideas, with examples from successful indies.
youtube.com · Feb 2025 - Civilization VII's diplomacy screen framing (thread)
How character framing in Civ VII's diplomacy UI undermines the player's head-of-state fantasy.
bsky.app · Feb 2025 - Can I fix Zelda's UI using Unity?
Rebuilds a Zelda menu in Unity to demonstrate concrete UI and UX improvements.
youtube.com · Feb 2025 - How a Super Smash Bros. Fighter is Designed
How Sakurai designs Smash Bros. fighters: translating a character's identity into moves and mechanics.
youtube.com · Jan 2025 - The most innovative games of 2024
Written roundup analysing the most mechanically innovative games released in 2024.
gmtk.substack.com · ~Jan 2025 - 10 Game Design Lessons from 10 Years of GMTK
Ten distilled game design lessons drawn from a decade of analysing games.
youtube.com · Nov 2024 - What Makes a Game Feel Mysterious?
Techniques games use to create mystery: withheld information, environmental clues and player curiosity.
youtube.com · Sep 2024 - The 100 Games That Taught Me Game Design
Long-form survey of 100 games and the specific design lesson each one demonstrates.
youtube.com · May 2024 - Balatro's 'Cursed' Design Problem
Analyses Balatro's dominant-strategy problem and how scoring design can narrow viable builds.
youtube.com · Apr 2024 - I just changed my entire game (Developing 13)
Devlog on pivoting a puzzle game's core structure and why the redesign improved it.
youtube.com · Mar 2024 - Why Spec Ops: The Line Mattered
How Spec Ops: The Line uses mechanics and player complicity to deliver its narrative critique.
youtube.com · Feb 2024 - Super Mario's Invisible Difficulty Settings
Reveals hidden difficulty-adjustment systems in Mario games that quietly help struggling players.
youtube.com · Jan 2024 - How Jusant Makes Rock-Climbing More Immersive
How Jusant's climbing controls map hand movements to buttons to make climbing feel physical.
youtube.com · Dec 2023 - How I polished my indie magnet puzzle game (Developing 12)
Concrete polish techniques for a puzzle game: feedback, animation, juice and readability.
youtube.com · Dec 2023 - How Nintendo Designed Ultrahand
Breaks down the design of Tears of the Kingdom's Ultrahand building tool and its constraints.
youtube.com · Oct 2023 - The World Design of Banjo-Kazooie
Maps Banjo-Kazooie's hub and levels to show how its collectible-driven world is structured.
youtube.com · Oct 2023 - How to Make a Good 2D Camera
Covers 2D camera techniques like deadzones, look-ahead, smoothing and framing for platformers.
youtube.com · Sep 2023 - The 3 Types of Detective Game
Categorises detective games into three deduction models and explains how each tests players' reasoning.
youtube.com · Aug 2023 - The Genius AI Behind The Sims
Explains The Sims' utility-based AI where objects advertise needs that drive character behaviour.
youtube.com · Jun 2023 - Valve's "Secret Weapon"
How Valve uses extensive playtesting to iterate on design and teach players without text.
youtube.com · May 2023 - How Nintendo Solved Zelda's Open World Problem
How Breath of the Wild uses towers, landmarks and sightlines to guide players through open worlds.
youtube.com · May 2023 - Why Capcom is the King of Remakes
Analyses which design choices Capcom keeps or changes when modernising classic games in remakes.
youtube.com · Apr 2023 - Don't make this assumption about your players (Developing 10)
Playtesting lesson on not assuming players think like the designer, with puzzle-game examples.
youtube.com · Apr 2023 - How To Think Like A Game Designer
A framework for thinking like a designer: goals, constraints, player behaviour and iteration.
youtube.com · Feb 2023 - How I make puzzles for my indie magnet game (Developing 9)
Step-by-step process for designing puzzles around a single mechanic in a magnet puzzle game.
youtube.com · Feb 2023 - How Neon White Lets You Speedrun Speedrunning
How Neon White structures levels and routes to teach speedrunning techniques to all players.
youtube.com · Dec 2022 - How Fortnite Exploits Your FOMO
Examines FOMO-driven retention mechanics like limited-time shops and battle passes in Fortnite.
youtube.com · Dec 2022 - The Unity Tutorial For Complete Beginners
Beginner Unity course building a Flappy Bird clone covering GameObjects, scripting, prefabs and UI.
youtube.com · Dec 2022 - Why do God of War's Characters Keep Spoiling Puzzles?
Discusses hint systems and when companion characters revealing solutions undermines puzzle design.
youtube.com · Nov 2022 - The World Design of Elden Ring
Maps Elden Ring's open world and legacy dungeons to show how exploration is structured.
youtube.com · Nov 2022 - How Game Designers Solved These 11 Problems
Eleven common design problems and the clever solutions developers found for each.
youtube.com · Oct 2022 - How To Combine Video Game Genres
Techniques for blending two genres into one cohesive game, with successful hybrid examples.
youtube.com · Aug 2022 - The stuff no one tells you about game development (Developing 7)
Practical lessons about game development scope, motivation and workflow learned while making an indie game.
youtube.com · May 2022 - Making Hitman 3's Best Level
Level design analysis of a Hitman 3 mission: layout, opportunities and replayable sandbox structure.
youtube.com · May 2022 - How Video Game Economies are Designed
How in-game economies are designed with sources, sinks, currencies and balancing.
youtube.com · Apr 2022 - How to make a good platforming character (Developing 6)
Tuning a platformer character: jump arcs, coyote time, input buffering and acceleration.
youtube.com · Apr 2022 - Wait, Didn't Arkane Already Make Deathloop?
Compares Deathloop to Arkane's earlier immersive sims and their time-loop level design.
youtube.com · Feb 2022 - The Power of Invisible Choices
How games offer subtle, non-explicit choices through playstyle rather than dialogue menus.
youtube.com · Jan 2022 - How The Forgotten City Creates The Perfect Mystery
How The Forgotten City builds a mystery around a time loop and information gathering.
youtube.com · Dec 2021 - Why is it so hard to make game design decisions? (Developing 3)
Strategies for making game design decisions when every option has trade-offs.
youtube.com · Nov 2021 - Why You (Probably) Didn't Get Lost in Metroid Dread
How Metroid Dread prevents players getting lost using gating, map design and guidance.
youtube.com · Oct 2021 - The mistake every new game developer makes (Developing 2)
Explains the overscoping mistake new developers make and how to plan a smaller first game.
youtube.com · Oct 2021 - Making It Takes Two's Best Level
Level design breakdown of It Takes Two's best level and how it varies co-op mechanics.
youtube.com · Sep 2021 - Dishonored 2 Devs Explain the Clockwork Mansion
Dishonored 2 developers explain designing and building the shifting Clockwork Mansion level.
youtube.com · Jul 2021 - Can we Improve Tutorials for Complex Games?
Approaches to tutorials for complex games: layered teaching, context and reducing overload.
youtube.com · May 2021 - Making Ori and The Will of the Wisps' Best Level
Level design analysis of Ori and the Will of the Wisps' escape sequences and pacing.
youtube.com · May 2021 - The Power of Video Game HUDs
How HUDs communicate information and when diegetic or minimal interfaces work better.
youtube.com · Apr 2021 - How to Turn Movement into a Game Mechanic
Ways to turn character movement itself into a core mechanic with depth and mastery.
youtube.com · Feb 2021 - How the Nemesis System Creates Stories
How Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system generates personal stories from procedural enemy hierarchies.
youtube.com · Jan 2021 - How Watch Dogs: Legion Generates Infinite Londoners
How Watch Dogs: Legion procedurally generates playable characters with traits and backstories.
youtube.com · Dec 2020 - How Zelda's Puzzle Box Dungeons Work
How Zelda's puzzle-box dungeons interlock rooms, keys and state changes into one large puzzle.
youtube.com · Nov 2020 - Who Gets to be Awesome in Games?
Discusses power fantasy and representation, looking at which characters games let feel heroic.
youtube.com · Oct 2020 - Are Lives Outdated Game Design?
Examines the history and purpose of lives systems and modern alternatives to failure.
youtube.com · Oct 2020 - This Psychological Trick Makes Rewards Backfire
Explains the overjustification effect and how extrinsic rewards can reduce players' intrinsic motivation.
youtube.com · Sep 2020 - The Games That Designed Themselves
Games whose designs emerged from experimentation and technical accidents rather than planned specs.
youtube.com · Aug 2020 - Making The Last of Us Part II's Best Level
Level design breakdown of The Last of Us Part II's Seattle open area and its pacing.
youtube.com · Aug 2020 - Commanding Shepard
Deep analysis of choice, consequence and dialogue design across the Mass Effect trilogy.
youtube.com · Jun 2020 - How do Stealth Games Deal with Detection? - School of Stealth Part 3
How stealth games handle detection states, alert phases and giving players feedback.
youtube.com · May 2020 - Should Designers Listen to Negative Feedback?
How designers should interpret negative feedback and separate symptoms from real problems.
youtube.com · May 2020 - The Five Types of Stealth Game Gadget - School of Stealth Part 2
Categorises stealth gadgets into five types and what each does for player strategy.
youtube.com · Apr 2020 - The 4 "P"s of DOOM's Amazing Combat
Breaks DOOM 2016's combat into push-forward principles: glory kills, resources and movement.
youtube.com · Apr 2020 - How Stealth Game Guards See and Hear - School of Stealth Part 1
How stealth game guards perceive players through vision cones, hearing and awareness meters.
youtube.com · Mar 2020 - The Genius of Prey's Gloo Cannon
How Prey's GLOO Cannon serves combat, traversal and puzzle solving as one versatile tool.
youtube.com · Mar 2020 - How Level Design Can Tell a Story
Techniques for environmental storytelling through level layout, props and spatial sequencing.
youtube.com · Mar 2020 - Shovel Knight's Signature Moves
How Shovel Knight's bosses and moves build on classic NES mechanics with modern tuning.
youtube.com · Feb 2020 - The Two Types of Random in Game Design
Distinguishes input and output randomness and how each affects strategy and player agency.
youtube.com · Jan 2020 - How Baba Is You Makes Brain Busting Puzzles
How Baba Is You's rule-pushing mechanic produces puzzles built on surprising insights.
youtube.com · Dec 2019 - The World Design of Hollow Knight | Boss Keys
Maps Hollow Knight's world, abilities and shortcuts to explain its interconnected design.
youtube.com · Oct 2019 - What Pac-Man Brought to Game Design | Design Icons
Explores Pac-Man's design contributions, including distinct ghost AI behaviours and maze design.
youtube.com · Oct 2019 - Clockwork Games and Time Loops
How clockwork worlds and time loops schedule NPCs and events for players to learn and exploit.
youtube.com · Oct 2019 - The World Design of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption | Boss Keys
Maps Metroid Prime 3's world and ability gating to analyse its more linear structure.
youtube.com · Sep 2019 - Why Does Celeste Feel So Good to Play?
Breaks down Celeste's game feel: forgiving jump mechanics, dash, coyote time and assists.
youtube.com · Jul 2019 - Can We Make Talking as Much Fun as Shooting?
Explores ways to make dialogue and conversation mechanically interesting like combat systems.
youtube.com · Jul 2019 - How to Make Your First Super Mario Maker 2 Level
Level design guide applying Nintendo principles to building a first Mario Maker 2 stage.
youtube.com · Jul 2019 - Why Metro Exodus is so Immersive
How Metro Exodus builds immersion through diegetic UI, physical interactions and world details.
youtube.com · Jun 2019 - The World Design of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes | Boss Keys
Maps Metroid Prime 2's light and dark worlds to analyse its backtracking structure.
youtube.com · Jun 2019 - The Challenge of Cameras
Covers third-person and platformer camera problems and the solutions games use to fix them.
youtube.com · May 2019 - The Tragedy of Halo 3: ODST
Analyses Halo 3: ODST's open hub and narrative structure and why it stood apart.
youtube.com · Apr 2019 - How Games Get Balanced
How designers balance games using data, playtesting, counters and asymmetric options.
youtube.com · Apr 2019 - The World Design of Metroid Prime | Boss Keys
Maps Metroid Prime's world and upgrades to show how its interconnected layout works.
youtube.com · Mar 2019 - How Synergies Make Slay the Spire Fun
How Slay the Spire's card synergies and archetypes create interesting deckbuilding decisions.
youtube.com · Mar 2019 - Making Hitman 2's Best Level
Level design breakdown of a Hitman 2 mission and its layered assassination opportunities.
youtube.com · Feb 2019 - Improving Games for Those with Cognitive Disabilities | Designing for Disability
Design techniques that make games more accessible to players with cognitive disabilities.
youtube.com · Feb 2019 - Roguelikes, Persistency, and Progression
How roguelikes balance permadeath with persistent progression and meta-unlocks.
youtube.com · Jan 2019 - The Year Stealth Games Got Serious
Looks at how 2018's stealth games handled systemic AI, levels and player tools.
youtube.com · Jan 2019 - How Return of the Obra Dinn Turns You Into a Detective
How Return of the Obra Dinn's deduction mechanics make players reason like detectives.
youtube.com · Dec 2018 - Building Better Skill Trees
Principles for designing skill trees that offer meaningful choices instead of mandatory upgrades.
youtube.com · Nov 2018 - The World Design of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night | Boss Keys
Maps Symphony of the Night's castle to analyse its exploration and ability gating.
youtube.com · Nov 2018 - How Mega Man 11's Levels Do More With Less
How Mega Man 11 introduces, develops and twists a single mechanic per level section.
youtube.com · Oct 2018 - Making Games Better for Players with Motor Disabilities | Designing for Disability
Design options such as remapping and input alternatives that help players with motor disabilities.
youtube.com · Oct 2018 - Does Spidey's Web-Swinging 'Make You Feel Like Spider-Man'?
Analyses Spider-Man's web-swinging mechanics and how they balance physics with player fantasy.
youtube.com · Oct 2018 - How Overcooked’s Kitchens Force You to Communicate
How Overcooked's kitchen layouts and hazards force co-op players to communicate.
youtube.com · Sep 2018 - Playing Past Your Mistakes
Designs that let players recover from mistakes instead of failing outright, keeping momentum.
youtube.com · Sep 2018 - The World Design of Super Metroid | Boss Keys
Maps Super Metroid's world to show how abilities, gating and sequence breaks interlock.
youtube.com · Sep 2018 - Making Games Better for Gamers with Colourblindness & Low Vision | Designing for Disability
Techniques for supporting colourblind and low-vision players through colour, contrast and audio cues.
youtube.com · Aug 2018 - The World Design of Metroid 1 and Zero Mission | Boss Keys
Maps Metroid 1 and Zero Mission to compare how their worlds guide exploration.
youtube.com · Jul 2018 - Making Games Better for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing | Designing for Disability
Subtitles, visual sound cues and other features that make games accessible for deaf players.
youtube.com · Jul 2018 - Forging God of War's Leviathan Axe
How God of War's Leviathan Axe throw-and-recall mechanic serves combat and puzzles.
youtube.com · Jun 2018 - Are Score Systems Still Relevant?
Examines what score systems contribute to modern games and how they encourage mastery.
youtube.com · Jun 2018 - What Makes a Good Combat System?
Breaks down the components of good combat systems: enemies, moves, feedback and depth.
youtube.com · May 2018 - The World Design of Dark Souls | Boss Keys
Maps Dark Souls' interconnected Lordran and its shortcuts to explain its world design.
youtube.com · Apr 2018 - How to Keep Players Engaged (Without Being Evil)
Ethical engagement techniques that keep players playing without manipulative compulsion loops.
youtube.com · Apr 2018 - What Makes a Good Puzzle?
Principles of good puzzle design: clear rules, catch, insight and avoiding red herrings.
youtube.com · Mar 2018 - What Makes Celeste's Assist Mode Special
How Celeste's Assist Mode offers granular difficulty options without compromising design intent.
youtube.com · Feb 2018 - The Rise of the Systemic Game
Explains systemic game design where interacting rules create emergent player solutions.
youtube.com · Feb 2018 - Breaking Down the Best World in Rayman Legends
Level design breakdown of Rayman Legends' best world and its musical rhythm stages.
youtube.com · Jan 2018
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