Game Maker's Toolkit (GMTK)

Hey everyone. Here's the new episode of GMTK. You can watch it on YouTube or Nebula, or read it as an article on Substack. This accidentally turned into my longest and most ambitious video ever. It started with a cool idea (hey! If I made a list of games and their genres from the last 50 years I cou

For GMTK Game Jam 2026, more than 10,500 games were developed using the theme "Count Down". These were my 20 favourites from the ones I played. See the results: https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-jam-2026/results/creativity See all the submissions: https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-jam-2026/entries Sign up to GMTK Gam

Hey everyone - just wanted to let you know that my spelling roguelike Word Play is finally available on iPhone and iPad, via the App Store. It's a free trial, and then you can unlock the full game with a single $5 in-app purchase. I've been meaning to make a mobile version of the game, so this felt

Hello everyone! There are more than 100 games on Steam that started life during one of our GMTK Game Jam events. To celebrate these amazing developers, let's look at 100 games that made the jump from jam to Steam. Watch this on YouTube or Nebula, or read it on Substack Join the 2026 jam See all GMTK

Hi, me again! Sorry for the double post. Just wanted to let everyone know that GMTK Game Jam now has a date - it's happening July 22nd at 18:00 BST, and ends July 26th at 18:00 BST. All the details at the jam page, here. This is the 10th game jam, which is pretty crazy! It'll probably be my most han

Hello peeps! I've got a quick bonus episode for you today. Basically: while I was working on the GTA video I remembered the technically impressive montage from the start of Cyberpunk 2077 and started to get distracted thinking about how they pulled it off. And so I made a deal with myself that I'd p

Hi everyone! I've finally finished the next video for GMTK. It was supposed to be a quick one... but ended up being one of my more ambitious projects! It's about Grand Theft Auto 3, and the technical innovations that let Rockstar fit an entire open world city in the tiny memory pool of the PS2. An i

Hey, it's Mark. New video is here - watch it on YouTube or Nebula, or read the script as an article below: So, back in 2013, longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma promised that the next big Zelda entry - coming soon to the Wii U - would completely reinvent the Zelda franchise. He said... "Our mission

Hello Patrons! Here it is - my massive deep dive into the Metroidvania design of Silksong. It's an hour-long episode with lots of analysis, more than 50 custom motion graphics, and lots to learn for anyone making their own Metroidvania. You can watch it on YouTube or Nebula, or read it on Substack.

Hello Patrons! I'm returning to my "Game Dev 101" series for this video, with episode two looking at prototyping games. With special guest Luke Muscat, of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride fame. You can watch it on YouTube or Nebula, or read it on Substack. Sorry for the delay between episodes on this

Hello Patrons! Here's my new episode of Game Maker's Toolkit - looking at how games do smashing, crashing, and bashing. From Control to Teardown to Red Faction - it's the secret of how to do dynamic, real-time destruction. Watch on YouTube or Nebula, or read on Substack. Chat soon! Mark

Hey all! I'm hard at work on the first new episode of GMTK since my break. But I took a day to make this Mini video so I could join the game design discourse on Hollow Knight: Silksong. I wanted to look at why the game uses a higher level of difficulty, and the different ways its implemented. Hopefu