Fami Your Consideration
Game of The Year
Game Builder Garage
The dream became real this year. Like, literally.
”When will we get Nintendo’s Dreams”?
Well, now.
Game Builder Garage does, of course, have nothing against Media Molecules game engine monolith in terms of pure breadth and depth of options, but what it does have is a niche in the level creation genre that is completely its own. The rather simple games one can make becomes increasingly deep as one stretches the boundaries, sure, but Game Builder Garage is equally concerned with the process of making, and learning.
The 5 or so hour tutorial is so much more than a tutorial, it is a game of its own, and a tremendously fun one at that. Completely unexpectedly, this game beats everything else I've played this year in terms of tactile feedback, a part of game design evaluation typically reserved for movement and combat. When using the touch screen to place out nodons and draw lines, one can’t help but smile at how pleasant the gentle and snappy sound effects and vibrant animations are in this game.
Game Builder Garage does have depth, too, with a lot of nodons such as the pixel creation nodon and the movement pattern nodons allowing for increasingly intricate implementations. As of writing this, someone has made a mind-blowing horror game called ”Shackled”, which could easily pass as a real 3D computer game from the late 90s. First-person horror games seems to be a fan favorite, as I’ve seen many impressive ones. Other creations include a 3D Kirby character model, the lovely "Link Goes Crazy In Town" pictured above, and the first game from Squid Game, recreated down to every detail. Even the background music nodon seems simple at first, but has a wealth of options and tweaks one can indulge in to make one’s game sound truly unique.
I spent 80 hours in this game constructing a multi-game game called Rebecca’s Fire, a rehash of an old idea I had about a girl who travels through the internet to save the world. Game Builder Garage is a masterclass in game pedagogy, and it gave me everything I needed to know and set me off wild into the open. While the ”spaghetti code” could become difficult to navigate, it was both motivating and entertaining to do what I needed to do, and I had the most fun I’ve ever had this year. The nodons and their options, the way they can connect to one another, and just the fact that they added some completely bonkers stuff like the ”reduce gravity” nodon, and a Neon preset, all come together to create a groundbreaking way to approach the game creation subgenre.
Again, Game Builder Garage isn't exactly Dreams, but the focus is, primarily, the joy of creation, rather than the end product. This is a ”journey” type of game, and the journey is always, always rewarding and totally worth it. The simple act of connecting nodons to build your games feels great, and Nintendo's excellent skills in pedagogy makes the games feel laughably simple to create.
Game Builder Garage is astonishing. Surprisingly deep and endlessly fun to just tinker with, this game should be hailed as one of Nintendo’s greatest original IP’s of the Switch era.