Nintendo will teach you how to make your own games with the upcoming Game Builder Garage, a hybrid between a game and a game engine. The game was announced today, with a trailer that showcases its own visual scripting tools, developed to make coding easy even for beginners.
In the trailer, Nintendo shows exactly how Game Builder Garage will work. By connecting different boxes, the player will be able to create statements that the game interprets as commands. For example, by connecting a “button” object with a “jump” action, the player will tell the game it wants a character to jump every time a button gets pressed. This is Nintendo’s very own visual script, a tool that allows people to program without even noticing they are actually writing code.
Game Builder Garage is just the latest of multiple tools release as a way to make game development become more intuitive. Last month, Core hit the Epic store with this intention, while Dreams allows players to build games on the PlayStation. Other more focused tools, such as Super Mario Maker, allows players to design and build levels inspired by their favorite franchises. What makes Game Builder Garage unique is that the tool will also come with guided lessons that will actually teach players programming logic.
Without a doubt, the scariest part of developing games is dealing with code, a bunch of words and numbers mixed together that doesn’t seem to make any sense. However, with a fun and colorful visual scripting tool, Game Builder Garage guides players through the pure logic behind games, making a complex task accessible to anyone. Behind the moving parts and funny characters, a game is nothing more than a set of rules, and by learning how to build these rules anyone can develop a playable experience.
Developing games is still an activity that seems alien to most people, even to those who play games every day. As technology evolves, though, building games start to become as easy as taking pictures or making videos. Not everyone has the patience and will to learn the craft and make the next huge success, but everybody can actually have fun by bringing their own ideas to life. It's this fun that Game Builder Garage will bring to the Switch once it becomes available.
Game Builder Garage comes exclusively to the Nintendo Switch this June 11, with both physical and digital copies. Check out the announcement trailer below: