Mark's Month - November 2024

Hello lovely Patrons! Thank you for another month of support. Here's a rambling diary diatribe of what I've been up to in the last month - and what's happening in the future.

What I've Been Working On

Well... a video game! I finally released Mind Over Magnet on Steam in November. After a lengthy development period I was able to wrap the game up and stick it up for sale.

Now, I'm actually working on a video about the game's launch, talking about what it was like to release the game (scary!), how well the game did (great!), how many bugs the game shipped with (quite a few!) what the reviews were like (mostly positive, but some big criticisms!), and what I learned about game dev (loads)! So I'll save that for the video.

But what I can say here is what a relief it has been to get this thing done.

I typically work on things (i.e. YouTube videos) in 2 to 3 week bursts. And as it turns out, that fits my brain perfectly. I find that my attention, passion, and motivation starts to wane after about a month, so having projects wrap up before that can happen is good.

But the game... the game went on for 3 years! And so a big part of development was just finding ways to stretch out that attention window. Big breaks. Drastic changes to the game. Milestones. Anything I could do to keep going.

And by the end I was simply running on empty. It could not stretch any further. And so to have that massive weight taken off my shoulders and out of my brain just feels so good.

And the main thing I want to do right now? Make videos! Go back to what GMTK is all about! But I know that it's not healthy to immediately go back to work. So I'm planning to take a nice big break before I get back to that. So lemme explain my plans...

What I'm Working On

Right now I'm working, as I said, on the video about the game's launch. It will be the final episode of Developing. I've planned out the script and will be recording it tomorrow, with the hope of releasing it either later this week or early next.

And then - I'm stopping. I'm gonna take the rest of December off to just fully reset. To digest the enormity of what I just did. To rest my brain. And to muster up the energy for what I want to do in 2025.

I will be taking part in the GMTK Patreon jam! But that's a fun thing with friends, not a work project.

This does mean that, sadly, I won't be making my annual "Most Innovative Game" video. I know, I know - it is a fan favourite to see what I pick each year. And I'm really bummed to break the streak. But I just don't have it in me to make another video. And while I could come back to it in January... I just need to put 2024 in the rearview mirror, come New Year's.

I will, however, write some stuff about the games I was considering for the list. I'll chuck that on Patreon or Bluesky or both, later this month. So if you use the yearly video for recommendations then you'll still get that.

But in general, I've been meaning to rethink this video idea anyway. "Most innovative" is a little odd and clunky. And as we saw with the Watch Dogs Legion video, simply looking at "innovation" in a vacuum doesn't always lead to well designed games.

In other years I've wanted to highlight a game for its design (say, Neon White or Baba Is You), and have had to sorta crowbar it into the definition of "most innovative". Again, this year, I might have wanted to talk about Balatro or UFO 50... neither of which is super "innovative", but both deserve attention and discussion.

So maybe I'll bring it back in 2025 as the GMTK Design Awards, or something. Make it more inclusive.

GMTK in 2025

That's not my only plan for 2025! I'm not ready to talk about the videos I'm gonna make next year, but I'm excited to return GMTK to how it was pre-2021 (when I started Developing).

Though, naturally, GMTK can never go back to that point. Simply because I've had this experience of being a game developer now. All of my videos will be coloured, biased, informed, and - in my opinion - improved by this experience.

Don't worry, I'm not suddenly gonna start titling all of my videos "Professional Game Designer's Opinion On...", or bring up Mind Over Magnet in every episode. But the lessons and learnings from getting this game done will always be in the back of my mind.

Another plan for 2025 is to finally transition GMTK into the 4K era! 2160p gang rise up!

I want to release GMTK videos in the highest quality possible. I want them to look great if you're watching on a TV. And I feel as one of the leading creators in this space, I should make sure I'm not falling behind other creators in terms of video quality.

One important piece of this puzzle was purchasing the Retro Tink 4K, which is a video upscaler for older consoles. It's kinda incredible what it can do to retro games like Gamecube, N64, PlayStation 2, and Dreamcast (see above). So look forward to seeing more retro games on GMTK, and in super gorgeous 4K!

What I've Been Up To

Thankfully I've had time for some other stuff, besides releasing a game. Including three parties - none of which were celebrating the game launch, funnily enough!

My wife and I played through Until Dawn - not the buggy Unreal Engine 5 remake, but the original PS4 release. Which actually looks and plays really nicely on PlayStation 5, so I have no idea why they thought this game needed a remake.

It's still a fun time. It's a campy, shlocky slasher movie in video game form. It's got some fun moral choices. And some good twists in the story. Sadly we had an unfortunate thing where a single QTE slip-up at the very end of the game caused a favourite character to die, which made the ending a bit anticlimactic.

Oh well - looking forward to checking out Supermassive's other horror games like The Quarry and the Dark Pictures games. Somehow have never checked them out! (Though reviews on Backloggd suggest I might not have missed much).

I also just started STALKER 2. Which I'm sadly struggling to vibe with. It looks great and has the lovely Eastern European jank I've been missing. But it also feels pretty basic and generic. Wander around. Kill dudes. Loot their bodies for ammo and sausages. Wander. It reminds me of Fallout and Metro Exodus... but never reaches the heights of either.

I'll keep going! Maybe it needs a bit more time to soak it in. But, yeah, this hasn't grabbed me yet.

In other mediums, I went on an Alien marathon for no particular reason. Alien and Aliens totally hold up! Alien 3 is actually kinda fun - it has that grungy, sweaty look that I miss from 90s movies. Alien Resurrection is just utter nonsense.

I'm still going with my Sidney Lumet marathon! This month I watched The Group, The Deadly Affair, Bye Bye Braverman, Last of the Mobile Hot Shots, and The Anderson Tapes. The latter was the only one I really dug. But I'm about to hit the golden era of the 1970s! I've been reading his biography and his book Making Movies alongside the films to add more context and information.

And there we have it. Thanks for reading. And I'll check back in at the end of the year!

Mark