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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 
to celebrate a game that did something different.

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

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In previous instalments I’ve looked 
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 
to wind the clock back a bit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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And Atreus’s epic climb up the 
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 
that dared to do things differently.

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A game that makes climbing… 
interesting and engrossing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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action on screen feels completely disconnected 
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 
analogue stick to hunt for nearby handholds.

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

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

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

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

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And yes, I did spend an entire 
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 
a handhold, we can grab it by using the

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corresponding trigger - left trigger for the 
left hand, right trigger for the right hand.

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

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

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doing on the controller - and what 
the protagonist is doing on screen.

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You push the analogue stick 
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 
movement of real-life rock climbing.

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

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controller… in the same way the 
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 
early prototype had you controlling both the

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arms and the legs, using all four buttons 
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 
controller when jumping to far-off handholds:

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

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coil up and build momentum before 
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 
jump button to, essentially, charge up the jump.

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Now, look, it’s obviously not 
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, 
as it’s called, has proven to be a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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prove problematic for players with 
certain types of motor impairments.

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

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the triggers down for so long played 
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 
that can provide easier input.

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Now - the simple control scheme 
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 
by adding in more buttons - or else

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

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

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no problem solving, no decision making - 
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 
route up a wall is actually called a “problem”.

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

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

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How you’ll shift your body, and 
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 
video game - but Jusant gets close,

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with the use of two tools: 
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 
carabiner that’s embedded in the wall.

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This means that if you fall, you’ll get 
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 
to create, essentially, checkpoints.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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So at times, the rope is your saviour, but 
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 
cheat in the player’s favour:

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

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

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

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These are a nifty addition - relays 
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 
strict upper limit on how long a climb

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could be without giving the player 
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 
wall for significantly longer.

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

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But there’s even more to the rope 
- 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 
can only really explore the area that’s

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immediately around you - there always has to 
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 
down, and then swing along the wall - this

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

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And later, the game takes 
this into the third dimension.

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

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

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And elsewhere in the game,

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

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

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

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

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

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up the space and decide how you’re going to 
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 
to that thought in a minute.

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The final thing that makes 
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 
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 
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 
mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics framework,

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

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

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

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Whether that’s making the player feel like 
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 
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 
you from walking off a cliff.

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

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

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

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

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You see, completing a valid action will 
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 
many iterations of this system,

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including having independent 
stamina gauges for each arm.

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A chunk system where if you 
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 
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 
way back to the ground and start again.

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

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Some felt overly punitive, others 
disrupted the climbing flow,

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and others were difficult to 
communicate to the player.

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

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

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However, big actions like jumps 
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 
often you’ll need to rest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Were the developers ever actually intending 
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, 
the climbing sections are just supposed to be

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

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

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

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

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But Insomniac just wanted every 
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 
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 
developers about how games get made.

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

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

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

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

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

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the clever rope physics, the thoughtful 
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 
as something for Jusant to fix, I can see it

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as an opportunity, for another developer, with 
different intentions, to tackle in the future.

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

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if you want to give the next Tomb 
Raider game a new identity… play Jusant.

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It’s on Game Pass! It’s great!

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Okay. Hello.

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That got a bit weird and 
personal towards the end, huh?

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But then I brought it back to Jusant 
before things got out of hand. Phew.

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Thanks so much to DON’T NOD for 
speaking to me for this episode.

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And for sharing those behind the scenes videos.

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It's now time for some
honourable mentions!

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Storyteller is a wildly ambitious puzzle game,

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where you are given an empty 
comic book and a title.

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Now you have to fill in the spaces 
with characters, objects, and themes,

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to make a narrative that fits the prompt.

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It plays on visual language and, well, story 
telling to make a completely new type of puzzle.

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Terra Nil is a city-builder 
with a stark ecological message.

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Instead of stripping a planet for resources,

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the game is actually about undoing the 
greedy grubbing of a previous generation.

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So you have to carefully plop down buildings 
that will replenish and revitalise the

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land - and then pack everything 
up and bugger off back into space.

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Shadows of Doubt is an epic detective simulator.

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The game generates a city block, filled 
with hundreds of people who have lives,

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jobs, relationships, and daily routines.

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When one of those citizens is murdered, you’ll 
have to work the case in order to find the

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killer - using stuff like fingerprints, 
CCTV recordings, and employee databases.

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All neatly organised on a caseboard, 
complete with pins and red string.

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Pseudoregalia is a Metroidvania 
that looks like a lost N64 game,

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and has some of the best 3D platforming in years.

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You can mix and match various moves 
- like a long jump, a ground pound,

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and a wall kick, to navigate 
blocky obstacle courses.

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And, if you’re good enough, break 
the game’s sequence entirely.

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Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom deserves a 
nod for its brilliant Ultrahand system.

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This thing lets Link fuse things 
together in order to make vehicles,

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weapons, and problem-solving tools.

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It’s elegantly designed, to make 
it easy to build whatever you want.

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And it means you can play the game 
in pretty much any way you desire.

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There’s a full video on the 
channel about how Nintendo made it.

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Viewfinder is a mind-blowing 
technical masterpiece.

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You can take a photo, and 
then place down the Polaroid

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to summon the photo’s contents into the world.

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That never stops being impressive.

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And it’s also just a very good puzzle game with 
lots of clever twists on this central mechanic.

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And Chants of Sennaar is a game about language.

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You must decipher an unknown alphabet in 
order to make your way up a massive tower.

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You’ll have to use contextual clues and leaps

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of logic in order to guess 
what each letter symbolises.

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And then do it all again, with a fresh 
set of glyphs, on the next floor.

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Wow - turns out there were loads of 
incredibly innovative games this year!

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Let me know if I missed any 
in the comments down below.

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Thanks so much for watching 
Game Maker’s Toolkit this year.

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In the last twelve months I’ve made videos on 
The Sims, Zelda, Banjo Kazooie, Resident Evil 4,

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detective games, the MDA framework, 2D 
cameras, and Valve’s playtesting approach.

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There was another record-breaking game 
jam, a new series about short indie games,

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and four devlogs for Mind Over Magnet - 
which you can now wishlist over on Steam.

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I’ll see you in January, for the - can you believe 
it - tenth year of doing Game Maker’s Toolkit.

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Time flies when you’re having fun.