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Hey, it’s Mark with Game Maker’s Toolkit.

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You know the drill by now!

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Every year, I use my last video on this channel [br]to celebrate a game that did something different.

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A game that was innovative, [br]inventive, or just plain smart.

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In previous instalments I’ve looked [br]at masterful murder mysteries,

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micro RPGs, and slithering snake-based adventures.

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But this year, for 2023, I… need [br]to wind the clock back a bit.

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So, back in 2015 I made a video [br]about the new Tomb Raider games.

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Well, they’re not new now [br]- but they were new then.

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Anyway - the video was all about how [br]dull the climbing is in those games.

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Lara Croft’s heroic scramble [br]up a cliff face is represented

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by… pretty much just holding up on [br]the analogue stick for, like, 5 minutes.

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And since that video’s release… [br]well, things haven’t changed much.

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Alloy hikes up the mountains of Horizon with [br]little need for the player's involvement.

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And Atreus’s epic climb up the [br]wall of Asgard might have been

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terrifying for him - but it was no problem for me.

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However, in 2023 we finally got a game [br]that dared to do things differently.

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A game that makes climbing… [br]interesting and engrossing.

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And so, without further ado, I want to tell you [br]that this year’s most innovative game is… Jusant.

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Jusant, from developer DON’T NOD, [br]is a wistful, zen-like odyssey up

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a mahoosive mountain - and the only way [br]to the top is to start climbing.

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This video does not contain [br]any spoilers for Jusant, by the way,

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so feel free to watch [br]before you go play the game.

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Okay, so like I said in the intro, one of my [br]biggest bugbears with Lara’s climbing is that the

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action on screen feels completely disconnected [br]to the stuff you’re doing on the controller.

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But Jusant tries something different.

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Lemme break down how climbing works.

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When we’re on a wall, we can use the left [br]analogue stick to hunt for nearby handholds.

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Moving the stick essentially shifts a [br]cursor around in two dimensions - and

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if that cursor overlaps with a valid [br]handhold, the character will reach out.

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This system allows us to freely pick whichever [br]handhold we want - even picking between one that

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is close and one that is far away, simply by [br]moving the stick further away from the centre.

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And yes, I did spend an entire [br]day remaking the game in Unity…

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for the benefit of this 10 second demonstration.

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That, that probably wasn’t worth it, to be honest.

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But here we are.

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Anyway - if the character is reaching towards [br]a handhold, we can grab it by using the

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corresponding trigger - left trigger for the [br]left hand, right trigger for the right hand.

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That trigger must now remain held down, [br]while we hunt for the next handhold.

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So - this system ends up creating a [br]deep connection between what you’re

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doing on the controller - and what [br]the protagonist is doing on screen.

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You push the analogue stick [br]out to hunt for handholds,

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just like how the character reaches out their arm.

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The rhythmic switching from the left to right

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triggers mimics the hand-over-hand [br]movement of real-life rock climbing.

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And having to hold down a trigger at [br]all times means you’re gripping the

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controller… in the same way the [br]character is gripping the wall.

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You let go, they let go.

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And DON’T NOD did want to go even further - an [br]early prototype had you controlling both the

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arms and the legs, using all four buttons [br]on the top of the pad for hands and feet.

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But that proved overly complicated.

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The developer also wanted to involve the [br]controller when jumping to far-off handholds:

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the idea was that you had to tilt [br]the stick opposite from the jump to

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coil up and build momentum before [br]releasing the stick to spring up.

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But this proved difficult to teach and execute.

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So in the end, the devs settled on holding the [br]jump button to, essentially, charge up the jump.

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Now, look, it’s obviously not [br]essential for a game to have you

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mimic the character’s actions on the controller.

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But this sort of kinaesthetic design, [br]as it’s called, has proven to be a

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wildly successful trick for making game [br]mechanics more immersive and engaging.

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Whether that’s holding the button down [br]for longer to make Mario jump higher.

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Or pulling back on the analogue stick [br]to reel in a ghost in Luigi’s Mansion.

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That little up-down flick of the stick [br]to do a manual in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

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Or the infamous arcade stick inputs needed to pull [br]off a fireball or an uppercut in Street Fighter.

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And of course, we have seen [br]this applied to climbing before.

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The developers at DON’T NOD were notably [br]inspired by the way you clench the controller

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in Shadow of the Colossus, in order to [br]stay hanging on to each massive monster.

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And Ubisoft’s Grow Home inspired the use of left [br]and right triggers for the left and right hands.

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What makes Jusant special, then, is doing all [br]of this stuff simultaneously - and doing it

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with a human character, rather than a goofy [br]red robot that can bend in unrealistic ways.

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Sidenote: It’s very much worth noting that [br]complex wrangling of a controller can

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prove problematic for players with [br]certain types of motor impairments.

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I mean, heck, I had to play Jusant in [br]like 20 minute sessions because holding

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the triggers down for so long played [br]havoc with my repetitive strain injury.

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So - hats off to DON’T NOD for also offering a

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number of accessibility settings [br]that can provide easier input.

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Now - the simple control scheme [br]is not my only problem with the

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Uncharted-era of climbing systems.

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You can’t make a game better just [br]by adding in more buttons - or else

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every game would have you walk [br]around like you’re playing QWOP.

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No - the real problem is that [br]climbing requires next-to-no thought,

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no problem solving, no decision making - [br]none of the stuff that makes games great.

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And that’s completely at odds with real climbing!

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Like, did you know that in rock climbing, a [br]route up a wall is actually called a “problem”.

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And that’s because climbing [br]isn’t just about strength and

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stamina - but it’s about planning how [br]you’ll move from handhold to handhold.

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How you’ll shift your body, and [br]how you’ll use different holds,

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positions, and grips to get to the top.

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That’s pretty tough to capture in a [br]video game - but Jusant gets close,

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with the use of two tools: [br]the rope, and the piton.

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So whenever you start a climb, the character will

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automatically attach their rope to a [br]carabiner that’s embedded in the wall.

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This means that if you fall, you’ll get [br]snagged by the rope and can climb back up.

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But then you’ve got the pitons.

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These can be wedged into the wall [br]to create, essentially, checkpoints.

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Now when you fall, you’ll be [br]caught by your most recent piton.

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You only have three to spare, though, [br]so you’ll need to use them judiciously.

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This puts you in charge of when and where to save [br]- giving you more decisions to make as you climb.

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However: the rope is not just a [br]clever twist on the save system.

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You see, the rope is not infinitely long - [br]it is, in fact, exactly 40 metres in length,

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and so you’ll need to ensure that you have enough [br]slack to make it to the top of the current climb.

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That might mean you have to take a shorter [br]route - or work back on yourself to pull

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out a nuisance piton that’s pulling [br]the rope in the wrong direction.

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And the rope is also a proper physics object that [br]can get caught and tangled on different objects.

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So at times, the rope is your saviour, but [br]at other times it’s your biggest obstacle.

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Though - DON’T NOD does make a couple concessions.

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For one, there’s a little [br]cheat in the player’s favour:

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when you are close to a ledge, the rope [br]will magically grow an extra five metres,

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to avoid those annoying moments where the rope [br]is just a little bit too short to make it.

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And also there are these relay points which allow [br]you to reset your entire rope to that point.

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These are a nifty addition - relays [br]give you a specific point to aim for,

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so you’re not always simply going up.

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And without the relay, there would be a [br]strict upper limit on how long a climb

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could be without giving the player [br]some flat ground to reset their rope.

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With the relay, though, DON’T NOD could add a few

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epic climbs where you’re on the [br]wall for significantly longer.

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It’s such a relief to get to the top [br]and finally let go of those triggers.

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But there’s even more to the rope [br]- because there’s also the way

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that it greatly expands the available play space.

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With climbing and jumping alone, you [br]can only really explore the area that’s

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immediately around you - there always has to [br]be a viable handhold within jumping distance.

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But the rope lets you go much, much further.

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You can place a piton in the wall, abseil [br]down, and then swing along the wall - this

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gives you a massive arc to explore, letting you [br]grab onto ledges far away from any handhold.

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And later, the game takes [br]this into the third dimension.

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You might have to climb a wall, [br]then dangle down beneath it,

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and swing beyond the wall to another [br]climbing surface further back.

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And elsewhere in the game,

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DON’T NOD adds in additional challenges [br]- through changes in the environment.

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Like - you can hit a button to make these plants [br]sprout buds that you can use as handholds. Useful.

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But if they’re in direct sunlight, then [br]the buds will slowly wilt and then die.

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This forces you to move fast, [br]and use your pitons for safety.

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At times, Jusant reminds me of the classic [br]Tomb Raider games, where you have to size

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up the space and decide how you’re going to [br]use your different jumps to get from A to B.

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A proper three dimensional puzzle game.

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Though… I don’t want to oversell it.

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Because, okay… I’ll come back [br]to that thought in a minute.

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The final thing that makes [br]those old climbing systems

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boring is that there’s absolutely no danger.

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No stakes. No peril.

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In this scene, where Lara Croft is clambering up a [br]wobbling radio tower, she’s absolutely terrified.

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But I’m just… not.

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Changing the controls to be more engrossing [br]might help me connect more with the character.

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But I think it has to go further than that.

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Earlier this year we looked at the [br]mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics framework,

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which shows how the game’s mechanics [br]can impact the player’s behaviour,

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which can, in turn, impact [br]the player’s emotional state.

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And so game designers can pick game mechanics [br]that will put players in the right frame of mind.

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Whether that’s making the player feel like [br]a badass, or feel absolutely terrified.

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And if you want players to feel scared,

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then you probably need some [br]sort of consequence for failure.

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And in these sections, Tomb Raider just… doesn’t.

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But, well, neither does Jusant, really.

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For one, you simply cannot die in Jusant.

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There are invisible walls to stop [br]you from walking off a cliff.

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And because you’re automatically attached to the [br]rope at the start of every climb, then letting

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go of the handholds will just send you back [br]down - or back to the last piton you placed.

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And even then… it’s extremely [br]rare to ever fall off in Jusant.

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The most likely reason would [br]be to run out of stamina.

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You see, completing a valid action will [br]deplete some stamina - a tiny amount

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when grabbing a handhold, or a lot when jumping.

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Now DON’T NOD went through [br]many iterations of this system,

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including having independent [br]stamina gauges for each arm.

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A chunk system where if you [br]deplete an entire chunk,

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it wouldn’t regenerate until you touch the ground.

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A system where you could only regenerate [br]stamina while hanging from the rope.

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And a system where if you run out of stamina,

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you’d have to manually descend all the [br]way back to the ground and start again.

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Ultimately, playtesting showed [br]that none of these were a good fit.

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Some felt overly punitive, others [br]disrupted the climbing flow,

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and others were difficult to [br]communicate to the player.

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In the end, DON’T NOD went with something [br]far more simple: your stamina drops,

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but it can be replenished, at any [br]time, by clicking in the left stick.

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However, big actions like jumps [br]will permanently reduce the size

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of the stamina bar until you’re on flat ground.

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So the more you jump, the more [br]often you’ll need to rest.

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This means that the only way you [br]can ever really run out of stamina

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is to completely ignore these obvious [br]prompts to stop and rest for a second.

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And so stamina management just ends up being… [br]like, a little nuisance thing to nurse.

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Never something you’re really worrying about - [br]like you might in, say, Shadow of the Colossus.

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And this means Jusant almost never makes [br]you feel like you’re in any real danger.

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But here’s the thing… that’s not [br]what DON’T NOD was going for.

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The developer tells me that the intention for [br]this game was to make a peaceful experience

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without pressure. A chill, atmospheric [br]adventure - inspired, primarily, by Journey.

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And so the developers deliberately removed [br]aspects that would cause friction and frustration.

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That’s why I don’t want to oversell [br]the game’s problem-solving gameplay:

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there’s some smart ideas in here, but nothing [br]that’s going to cause you significant trouble.

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And that’s because it would [br]disrupt DON’T NOD’s intended flow.

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And developer intention… is something I’ve perhaps [br]struggled to consider in my previous videos.

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Like, let’s go back to the climbing [br]in Tomb Raider and Uncharted.

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Were the developers ever actually intending [br]this stuff to mimic real-life rock climbing?

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Probably not.

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As I explored in this video on mixing genres, [br]the climbing sections are just supposed to be

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something simple to do as a bit of downtime [br]between the more involving combat sections.

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And so, at times, I have criticised games [br]because they haven’t incorporated some mechanic,

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system, or idea… even though the games were [br]never trying to do that in the first place.

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I wanted Spider-Man to have a complex web-swinging [br]system that took skill and effort to master.

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But Insomniac just wanted every [br]player to feel like Spidey from

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the moment they picked up the controller.

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And maybe this is me getting older [br]and wiser and realising that, hey,

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not everything is supposed to revolve around me.

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I am not the protagonist of reality.

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Maybe this is from talking to more [br]developers about how games get made.

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Maybe this is from becoming a game developer [br]myself - and having my own developer intentions!

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Whatever the case, if there’s one regret I [br]have about past episodes of GMTK, it’s this.

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So instead of saying - hey, I [br]wish Jusant was more challenging

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or more punitive - I’ll instead [br]take the game on its own merits.

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Then I can look at the stuff I like about [br]the game - the immersive control scheme,

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the clever rope physics, the thoughtful [br]checkpoint system - and stash that in

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the ol’ toolkit as a good example to point to.

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And for the rest - well, instead of seeing it [br]as something for Jusant to fix, I can see it

0:15:25.400,0:15:31.640
as an opportunity, for another developer, with [br]different intentions, to tackle in the future.

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What I’m saying is - hey, Square Enix,

0:15:34.280,0:15:39.080
if you want to give the next Tomb [br]Raider game a new identity… play Jusant.

0:15:39.080,0:15:42.120
It’s on Game Pass! It’s great!

0:15:42.120,0:15:43.240
Okay. Hello.

0:15:43.240,0:15:46.400
That got a bit weird and [br]personal towards the end, huh?

0:15:46.400,0:15:50.760
But then I brought it back to Jusant [br]before things got out of hand. Phew.

0:15:50.760,0:15:54.960
Thanks so much to DON’T NOD for [br]speaking to me for this episode.

0:15:54.960,0:15:58.160
And for sharing those behind the scenes videos.

0:15:58.680,0:16:01.600
It's now time for some[br]honourable mentions!

0:16:01.600,0:16:04.760
Storyteller is a wildly ambitious puzzle game,

0:16:04.760,0:16:08.120
where you are given an empty [br]comic book and a title.

0:16:08.120,0:16:12.320
Now you have to fill in the spaces [br]with characters, objects, and themes,

0:16:12.320,0:16:15.080
to make a narrative that fits the prompt.

0:16:15.080,0:16:21.760
It plays on visual language and, well, story [br]telling to make a completely new type of puzzle.

0:16:21.760,0:16:26.320
Terra Nil is a city-builder [br]with a stark ecological message.

0:16:26.320,0:16:28.880
Instead of stripping a planet for resources,

0:16:28.880,0:16:33.720
the game is actually about undoing the [br]greedy grubbing of a previous generation.

0:16:33.720,0:16:38.600
So you have to carefully plop down buildings [br]that will replenish and revitalise the

0:16:38.600,0:16:43.120
land - and then pack everything [br]up and bugger off back into space.

0:16:43.120,0:16:46.880
Shadows of Doubt is an epic detective simulator.

0:16:46.880,0:16:51.440
The game generates a city block, filled [br]with hundreds of people who have lives,

0:16:51.440,0:16:54.480
jobs, relationships, and daily routines.

0:16:54.480,0:16:59.400
When one of those citizens is murdered, you’ll [br]have to work the case in order to find the

0:16:59.400,0:17:05.120
killer - using stuff like fingerprints, [br]CCTV recordings, and employee databases.

0:17:05.120,0:17:10.520
All neatly organised on a caseboard, [br]complete with pins and red string.

0:17:10.520,0:17:15.440
Pseudoregalia is a Metroidvania [br]that looks like a lost N64 game,

0:17:15.440,0:17:18.920
and has some of the best 3D platforming in years.

0:17:18.920,0:17:22.960
You can mix and match various moves [br]- like a long jump, a ground pound,

0:17:22.960,0:17:26.520
and a wall kick, to navigate [br]blocky obstacle courses.

0:17:26.520,0:17:30.240
And, if you’re good enough, break [br]the game’s sequence entirely.

0:17:30.240,0:17:35.040
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom deserves a [br]nod for its brilliant Ultrahand system.

0:17:35.040,0:17:39.120
This thing lets Link fuse things [br]together in order to make vehicles,

0:17:39.120,0:17:41.400
weapons, and problem-solving tools.

0:17:41.400,0:17:44.840
It’s elegantly designed, to make [br]it easy to build whatever you want.

0:17:44.840,0:17:48.320
And it means you can play the game [br]in pretty much any way you desire.

0:17:48.320,0:17:51.720
There’s a full video on the [br]channel about how Nintendo made it.

0:17:51.720,0:17:55.120
Viewfinder is a mind-blowing [br]technical masterpiece.

0:17:55.120,0:17:58.040
You can take a photo, and [br]then place down the Polaroid

0:17:58.040,0:18:01.040
to summon the photo’s contents into the world.

0:18:01.040,0:18:03.280
That never stops being impressive.

0:18:03.280,0:18:08.800
And it’s also just a very good puzzle game with [br]lots of clever twists on this central mechanic.

0:18:08.800,0:18:12.280
And Chants of Sennaar is a game about language.

0:18:12.280,0:18:16.960
You must decipher an unknown alphabet in [br]order to make your way up a massive tower.

0:18:16.960,0:18:19.600
You’ll have to use contextual clues and leaps

0:18:19.600,0:18:23.160
of logic in order to guess [br]what each letter symbolises.

0:18:23.160,0:18:27.720
And then do it all again, with a fresh [br]set of glyphs, on the next floor.

0:18:27.720,0:18:32.160
Wow - turns out there were loads of [br]incredibly innovative games this year!

0:18:32.160,0:18:35.280
Let me know if I missed any [br]in the comments down below.

0:18:35.280,0:18:39.120
Thanks so much for watching [br]Game Maker’s Toolkit this year.

0:18:39.120,0:18:45.760
In the last twelve months I’ve made videos on [br]The Sims, Zelda, Banjo Kazooie, Resident Evil 4,

0:18:45.760,0:18:51.560
detective games, the MDA framework, 2D [br]cameras, and Valve’s playtesting approach.

0:18:51.560,0:18:56.720
There was another record-breaking game [br]jam, a new series about short indie games,

0:18:56.720,0:19:02.200
and four devlogs for Mind Over Magnet - [br]which you can now wishlist over on Steam.

0:19:02.200,0:19:08.760
I’ll see you in January, for the - can you believe [br]it - tenth year of doing Game Maker’s Toolkit.

0:19:08.760,0:19:11.320
Time flies when you’re having fun.