In a bit of a surprise announcement Nintendo has revealed Game Builder Garage, a game for making games that uses a block-based programming structure to make content.
Easy to access programming like this is fairly common and Nintendo itself used the same kind of process for its Labo series. For those unfamiliar block-based programming is a way of making code which usually doesn’t involve typing or uses it to a minimal extent. Instead users drag, drop and connect blocks which contain functions that have been pre-written.
You can see how this works in the reveal trailer embedded below. Players / programmers can assign the buttons of the Switch to interact with the environment in certain ways using blocks.
Things start simple in the trailer but by the end there’s a massive range of games all made inside of this system. Card games, fighters, racing games, puzzles, shooters and more.
There’s also a graphical element here so the games don’t all look the same and use stock assets.
We can learn a bit more about Game Builder Garage on its store page, the first of which being the fact that this is a $29.99 game. This is an absolute rarity for first party Nintendo games, and we’re happy to see a lower price as it will mean more people can get it on it.
“Have you ever dreamed of building your own video games? The Game Builder Garage software is a great place to start! Anyone can learn the basics of game design and visual programming with step-by-step lessons created by the minds at Nintendo,” reads the description.
The store page also points out how the guided game creation lessons are broken down into smaller parts which can be tackled at will. This is another clever feature as, even with all the game creation tools out there, starting with even a small project can be daunting.
We couldn’t find specific mention of it in the store page but we hope that whatever games are made inside of this software can be shared online. Super Mario Maker 2 really showed how creative people can be when given simple tools, and maybe this can be a repeat of that success.
Game Builder Garage will have a rather short span of time between its reveal today and its launch on the Nintendo Switch on 11th June.
