''Game Maker's Toolkit'' (''GMTK'') is a video game analysis video series created by British journalist Mark Brown. Beginning in 2014, the series examines

video game design Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the Video game development#Pre-production, pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the Video game development ...

and aims to encourage developers to improve their craft. It is hosted on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and funded via

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a monetization platform operated by Patreon, Inc., that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service and sell digital products. It helps artists and other creators earn a recurring income by provid ...

. Additional topics include game accessibility and

level design In video games, a level (also referred to as a map, mission, stage, course, or round in some older games) is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progressively incre ...

. Since 2017, Brown has also hosted an annual ''GMTK''

game jam A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...

itch.io Itch.io (stylized in all lowercase) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie video games, indie role-playing games, game assets, comics, zines and music. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 1,000,000 ...

. In 2024, he released a

puzzle game A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are different ...

, ''Mind Over Magnet''.

History

From 2009, Mark Brown worked as a

freelance writer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

and critic, contributing to ''

GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', '' Edge'' and ''Computer ...

'', ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'', '' The Escapist'',

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

and ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' among others. Brown joined ''

Pocket Gamer ''Pocket Gamer'' is a video game website and former print magazine that focuses on mobile, portable and handheld games. It was launched in 2005 by Steel Media Limited. The publication covers portable and mobile gaming formats, including iPhone, ...

'', a British

mobile game A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any Mobile device, portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet computer, table ...

s publication, in August 2012 as news editor and later as features editor. In September 2013, he released ''Pixel This!'', a

nonogram Nonograms, also known as Hanjie, Paint by Numbers, Griddlers, Pic-a-Pix, and Picross, are picture logic puzzles in which cells in a grid must be colored or left blank according to numbers at the edges of the grid to reveal a hidden picture. In ...

game developed using Codea, on the

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

. Brown began releasing episodes of ''Game Maker's Toolkit'' in November 2014; each discusses a certain issue in

and its implementation in specific games. The series was inspired by ''

Every Frame a Painting ''Every Frame a Painting'' is a series of video essays about film form, editing, and cinematography created by Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou between 2014 and 2016, published on YouTube and Vimeo. The series is considered a pioneer of film criticis ...

''. Brown launched a crowdfunding profile for the series on

in 2015. He left his position as

editor-at-large An editor-at-large is a journalist who contributes content to a magazine. They are typically credited in the publication's masthead, even if they technically are not on staff. The responsibilities of the editor-at-large may change project to proj ...

at Pocket Gamer in January 2017 to focus on ''Game Maker's Toolkit''. In 2016, Brown started a segment, ''Boss Keys'' dedicated to analysing the layout and design of

dungeons A dungeon is a room or Prison cell, cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An o ...

in ''

The Legend of Zelda is a media franchise, video game series created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flags ...

'' franchise. Brown developed a mapping system to describe layouts of the dungeons. In the second season, which began in July 2018, Brown discusses the layout of game worlds in the

metroidvania Metroidvania is a sub-genre of action-adventure games and/or platformers focused on Nonlinear gameplay, nonlinear exploration and guided progression with a need to acquire key items to enter certain areas. The term is a blend word, partial blend ...

genre, such as those in the ''

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...

'' series. A second segment, ''Designing for Disability'', launched in July 2018, explores accessibility in video games. It describes obstacles which may prevent some people from enjoying specific games and presents guidelines and practices that make video games more welcoming for players with

disabilities Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physica ...

. In September 2021, he began ''Developing'', a series focusing on the development of his puzzle game ''Mind Over Magnet'', which released on November 13, 2024. In May 2025, Brown announced his second game, a

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most ro ...

scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...

game called ''Word Play'', based on his entry for the GMTK Patreon Jam 2024.

Reception

Brown's ''Game Maker's Toolkit'' videos have been covered by video game websites, such as ''

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'' (known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021) is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget and acted as the online sister publication to the print maga ...

'', ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

'' and ''

Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' ...

''. ''Designing for Disability'' series is included in ''

''s summary of "The best video essays of 2018" and its writer names Brown "one of the most measured and meticulous people" in video game criticism. ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'' mentions Brown as one of "20 gaming YouTubers you should be following", describing ''GMTK'' as "an intelligent look into the design philosophy behind popular games". Arts magazine ''

Hyperallergic ''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinki ...

'' includes ''GMTK'' video "The Challenge of Cameras" in its roundup of web documentaries.

''Game Maker's Toolkit'' Game Jam

''Game Maker's Toolkit'' has hosted an annual

since 2017. Competing developers have 48 hours to design and create a video game fitting a theme unveiled at the beginning of the jam. The themes are design challenges.

Works

References

External links

* {{YouTube, u=GMTK, ''Game Maker's Toolkit'' Gaming-related YouTube channels Online edutainment Video game critics YouTube channels launched in 2014 British YouTubers Crowdfunded web series Game jams