Game Dev December #2: Gamestar Mechanic

Gamestar Mechanic
Credits: E-Line Media and Institute of Play, 2010
Genre(s): Weird/unclassified (game development)


It's time for Game Dev December!--a very special "mini-issue," if you will, of transcending pixels where every week's new game of interest will come from the area of game design and development. In the same way that we write books on how to write books, some people have designed games or gamification methods that provide instructions on using a game designer's toolbox.


And what better way to learn game design than through playing games about game design?

Learning about different types of endgoals in level design as part of the main story quest.

Enter the widely popular kids' site Gamestar Mechanic, produced by the Institute of Play in New York City, obviously intended for educational purposes but not in the traditional academic sense of "gamification." And despite its target audience of preteen kids, it's good clean gaming fun for any age and surprisingly delightful for anyone interested in getting started on making games right away.


Three components exist to GM's design: the story/quest mode through which you learn elements of good game design through a linear narrative and earn materials, such as sprites, that you can use in the workshop to design your own games and finally submit them to the public gallery for others to play, rate, and review. In story mode, your character is simply a generic stand-in for yourself, an aspiring game designer living in a world where video games themselves are a natural way of life (in my opinion, an appropriately contrasting utopia to the current stereotypical bias against seriously playing and creating games as an honorable/normal hobby and career path). While on a tour of the official game designer's headquarters, your midichlorian count problem-solving potential is recognized by one of the higher-ups, and you're quickly recruited into the League in the midst of a crisis regarding the troubling Rogue Designers (in my opinion, a metaphor for the triple-A companies versus indie startups? I haven't finished the main story yet, but I have a hunch about its interpretation...).


Obviously, GM's biggest appeal to students and players is its elimination of the need for internal nitty-gritty coding and animation and effects customizations. While this is a disadvantage for anyone already used to the game-making process, it is an enormous benefit to beginners who just want to get their hands dirty doing the "fun stuff"--creating the concept, writing the rules, laying out the game world and mission objectives, and best of all, getting to instantly publish and promote it on social networks and on the GM community of players who are already familiar with the limits and idiosyncrasies of the program and so are already looking to give your game a favorable review.

Comic-book style narration between design gameplay. Notice the infamous Star Fox reference in the close-up image?

Unfortunately, additional story content (and consequently more sprites, backgrounds, items, etc.) are hidden behind the barrier of "Premium Membership" subscriptions (which you can get individually for six bucks a month, or obtain a family subscription at a cheaper rate). Unless you're totally in love with the program as your particular development niche, or want to pursue the family subscription option for, well, family reasons (GM strongly promotes parent-child-sibling interaction opportunities), once you feel comfortable with GM it's best to move on to a different educational program that better suits your age and skill level, or start getting your hands icky in the real deal (which options we'll talk about next time). 


Fortunately, however, the expense barrier doesn't appear to significantly affect your ability to get the most out of Gamestar Mechanic as a platform for experimenting and developing your own games under the tutelage of a friendly community of like-minded players constantly looking to defy the inherent limits of the available technology to create engaging shoot-em-ups to storylike puzzles and mazes. Furthermore, industry cred's involved: GM's creators have official connections and positions within the game industry such that the GM workshop is promoted as a development space for players interested in well-known competitions for young students like the National STEM Video Game Challenge and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.


Anyone who wants to pursue game design has to start somewhere. Why not start with your inner kid and try out Gamestar Mechanic?


Tune in next week for Game Dev December #3 for learning game design through games! So incredibly meta!