You Can Now Become a Game Designer with Nintendo’s “Game Builder Garage”

Time to get creative fam.

Have you ever wanted to try creating your own video game? Well, you can now give it a crack with Nintendo’s Game Builder Garage available for the Nintendo Switch.

Launching on 11 June, Game Builder Garage will teach anyone how to design their own video game that they can play and share with friends.

Best part is you don’t need any prior experience; Game Builder Garage will give you guided lessons covering the basics of visual game design.

How it works is players connect colourful creatures called Nodon (classic Nintendo name right there). There are dozens of Nodon in the game and each one has its own unique function.

For example, you want to make the Person Nodon move? Just connect it to the Stick Nodon. To now make the Person Nodon jump just connect it to the Button Nodon. Confused? We were too. Just check out the above video from Nintendo to see Nodons in action.

From there you can explore Game Builder Garage and get as complicated or as simple as you want. Plus, there is a huge variety in the type of games to build like side-scrolling platformers, space invader-style games, combat and even racing.

Game Builder Garage looks super cool.

Honestly, it's always great to see anything that might get young children interested in the basics of designing and programming. I felt the same way when Sony released Dreams on PlayStation 4 one year ago.

— Emily Rogers (@ArcadeGirl64) May 5, 2021

One of the cooler things about Game Builder Garage is Nintendo aren’t throwing you in the deep end either thanks to Lesson Mode.

Here you will meet all the Nodon and be taught the basics of how to program in the game through interactive lessons that you can work through at your own pace.

“These lessons are designed to be fun, engaging and perfect for people of all experience levels, with checkpoints in between for players to test their knowledge by solving small puzzles or tasks,” Nintendo said in a statement.

Once you’ve completed the lessons, you can then jump into Free Programming mode where you can put the lessons you learned to the test and then test out your creation in an instant with the simple press of a button.

Seriously, this game looks lit and would be perfect for anyone who is interested in a future in game design.

To add to that, the Australian Government have announced today that they want to support Australian-made video games and increase our influence in the industry.

A statement straight from the desk of Prime Minister Scott Morrison reads that Aussie game design companies will get a “Digital Games Tax Offset of 30 per cent to support Australia taking a greater share of the $250 billion global game development market.”

Want to cry about this news.

We put in a lot of hard work at @igea to get a refundable tax offset for video game development in Australia. To see it happen all these years later is incredible.

Huge congrats to the team at @igea today. I feel proud to have played a small part. https://t.co/kEsgLHvAh0

— LoneVaultWanderer (@LoneVaultWander) May 6, 2021

Game Builder Garage is available in Australia and New Zealand on 11 June, with a suggested retail price of $49.95.

Header Image: Nintendo