# Game Maker's Toolkit
**Game Maker's Toolkit** (GMTK) is a YouTube video series about video game design, created and presented by the British video game journalist Mark Brown (born 1985). Each episode analyzes a design topic, such as how *Half-Life* teaches without tutorials or how *Resident Evil 4*'s adaptive difficulty works, and illustrates it with examples from specific games.[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/game-makers-toolkit) • [2](https://medium.com/hackathon-entertainment/gmtk-game-jam-q-a-with-mark-brown-72b157961472)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First episode | "Adaptive Soundtracks in Games", uploaded November 6, 2014[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/game-makers-toolkit) • [3](https://gameinformer.com/2018/07/09/the-new-vid-economy-making-a-living-from-crowdfunded-game-analysis) |
| Format | Documentary-style educational episodes on YouTube, averaging 15 minutes[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/game-makers-toolkit) |
| Creator | Mark Brown, a British games journalist formerly of Pocket Gamer, Wired, Edge, and Eurogamer[2](https://medium.com/hackathon-entertainment/gmtk-game-jam-q-a-with-mark-brown-72b157961472) |
| Funding | Crowdfunded through Patreon; by 2018 about one percent of viewership provided his income[3](https://gameinformer.com/2018/07/09/the-new-vid-economy-making-a-living-from-crowdfunded-game-analysis) |
| Notable series | Boss Keys (Zelda dungeon design) and Designing for Disability (accessibility)[3](https://gameinformer.com/2018/07/09/the-new-vid-economy-making-a-living-from-crowdfunded-game-analysis) • [4](https://puzzlebyrinth.com/en/articles/designer-brown) |
| Game jam | The GMTK Game Jam has run since 2017; around 38,000 people entered in 2025[4](https://puzzlebyrinth.com/en/articles/designer-brown) |
| Own games | *Mind Over Magnet* (November 13, 2024) and *Word Play* (2025)[5](https://thinkygames.com/features/video-interview-gmtks-mark-brown-on-his-foray-into-game-development-with-mind-over-magnet/) • [4](https://puzzlebyrinth.com/en/articles/designer-brown) |
## Spoilers
### Content and series
The channel's episodes examine a single design issue and how specific games implement it. Examples cited across coverage include how *Half-Life* teaches without tutorials, the hidden difficulty system of *Resident Evil 4*, the feel of Kratos' axe, and the freedom of the original *The Legend of Zelda*.[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/game-makers-toolkit) • [3](https://gameinformer.com/2018/07/09/the-new-vid-economy-making-a-living-from-crowdfunded-game-analysis) • [7](https://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/02/26/latest-game-maker-39-s-toolkit-video-discusses-the-freedom-of-the-first-legend-of-zelda.aspx) Production can be extensive: Brown said that for an episode on the Souls-like genre he recorded footage from about 70 different games.[3](https://gameinformer.com/2018/07/09/the-new-vid-economy-making-a-living-from-crowdfunded-game-analysis)
**Recurring series.** A look into *The Legend of Zelda* grew into Boss Keys, a side project covering virtually every title in the series with an intricate mapping system describing each dungeon's layout.[3](https://gameinformer.com/2018/07/09/the-new-vid-economy-making-a-living-from-crowdfunded-game-analysis) A later series, Designing for Disability, covers accessibility in game design.[4](https://puzzlebyrinth.com/en/articles/designer-brown) On his Patreon page, Brown also lists episodes on the Nemesis System, teaching complex games, how Sims make decisions, video game economies, and game-by-game breakdowns of the interconnected level design of Zelda and Metroid games.[8](https://www.patreon.com/cw/GameMakersToolkit?l=en-GB)
## Origin
Brown worked in traditional games journalism, writing for websites and magazines including Pocket Gamer and Wired. By the early 2010s he saw that fewer people were reading game-related content and more were watching it on YouTube, so he decided to try video. He did not want to imitate the reaction-style content he saw, but after finding film video essays, specifically the channel Every Frame a Painting, he realized he could combine his interest in game design, his journalism background, and that style of video-making.[2](https://medium.com/hackathon-entertainment/gmtk-game-jam-q-a-with-mark-brown-72b157961472)
His interest in design itself began with Valve's 2007 releases, including *Portal* and *Half-Life 2: Episode 2*, whose developer commentary modes explained how psychology, architecture, and composition were used to lead and train the player.[2](https://medium.com/hackathon-entertainment/gmtk-game-jam-q-a-with-mark-brown-72b157961472) In a ten-year retrospective video, Brown said he started the channel without expertise in game design and aimed to learn through research and share what he found with viewers.[6](https://videohighlight.com/v/Cm2_drGLGbc?aiFormatted=false&language=en&mediaType=youtube&summaryId=SmSyRwXERpW2Xuy2_hrA&summaryType=default)
## Business model and growth
Brown left his position at Pocket Gamer in January 2017 to work on the channel full time.[4](https://puzzlebyrinth.com/en/articles/designer-brown) Unlike large streamers, his income comes mainly from Patreon, where about one percent of his viewership supports him; by July 2018 the channel had more than 90 videos and 450,000 subscribers.[3](https://gameinformer.com/2018/07/09/the-new-vid-economy-making-a-living-from-crowdfunded-game-analysis) He reached one million subscribers in November 2020.[5](https://thinkygames.com/features/video-interview-gmtks-mark-brown-on-his-foray-into-game-development-with-mind-over-magnet/)
## GMTK Game Jam
Since 2017 Brown has run the GMTK Game Jam, an annual game-making event tied to the channel. Around 38,000 people entered in 2025, making it one of the largest game jams in the world.[4](https://puzzlebyrinth.com/en/articles/designer-brown) The 2020 jam continued during the pandemic, with participants joining from across the world.[2](https://medium.com/hackathon-entertainment/gmtk-game-jam-q-a-with-mark-brown-72b157961472)
## Move into game development
In 2021, after reaching a million subscribers, Brown began work on his own puzzle platformer, *Mind Over Magnet*, documenting the process in his "Developing" series.[5](https://thinkygames.com/features/video-interview-gmtks-mark-brown-on-his-foray-into-game-development-with-mind-over-magnet/) The game was released on Steam for Windows on November 13, 2024.[5](https://thinkygames.com/features/video-interview-gmtks-mark-brown-on-his-foray-into-game-development-with-mind-over-magnet/) A second game, *Word Play*, a roguelike Scrabble game, followed in 2025.[4](https://puzzlebyrinth.com/en/articles/designer-brown) He has also made smaller interactive pieces such as Platformer Toolkit, described as a video essay you can play.[9](https://gmtk.itch.io/?trk=public_post_reshare-text)
## Influence
A 2026 Game Developer feature on video-essay criticism named Brown repeatedly among the creators developers cited, describing his award-winning output as ranging from puzzle design to open-world navigation and, through *Mind Over Magnet*, the development process itself. The creators of *The Case of the Golden Idol* told Brown they were directly inspired by one of his videos on detective games, though most developers described such influence as indirect and holistic.[10](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/what-developers-can-learn-from-this-generation-of-games-criticism) His channel has also been used to explain technical subjects to a general audience; a 2026 GamesRadar piece on a developer's rewrite of the *GTA 3* source code drew on Brown's demonstration of how the game streams Liberty City's assets into the [PlayStation 2](https://www.edgepedia.org/playstation-2)'s 32 MB of memory in small sectors.[11](https://www.gamesradar.com/games/grand-theft-auto/dev-rewrites-gta-3-source-code-to-reveal-what-rockstar-was-hiding-and-show-how-liberty-city-fit-on-a-ps2/)
## References
1. [Game Maker's Toolkit, TheTVDB](https://thetvdb.com/series/game-makers-toolkit)
2. [GMTK Game Jam Q&A with Mark Brown, Hackathon Entertainment on Medium (2020)](https://medium.com/hackathon-entertainment/gmtk-game-jam-q-a-with-mark-brown-72b157961472)
3. [The New Vid Economy: Making A Living From Crowdfunded Game Analysis, Game Informer (2018)](https://gameinformer.com/2018/07/09/the-new-vid-economy-making-a-living-from-crowdfunded-game-analysis)
4. [Inside Mark Brown's Philosophy, Puzzlebyrinth (2026)](https://puzzlebyrinth.com/en/articles/designer-brown)
5. [Video interview: GMTK's Mark Brown on his foray into game development with Mind Over Magnet, Thinky Games (2024)](https://thinkygames.com/features/video-interview-gmtks-mark-brown-on-his-foray-into-game-development-with-mind-over-magnet/)
6. [10 Game Design Lessons from 10 Years of GMTK, Video Highlight summary](https://videohighlight.com/v/Cm2_drGLGbc?aiFormatted=false&language=en&mediaType=youtube&summaryId=SmSyRwXERpW2Xuy2_hrA&summaryType=default)
7. [Latest Game Maker's Toolkit Video Discusses The Freedom Of The First Legend Of Zelda, Game Informer (2017)](https://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/02/26/latest-game-maker-39-s-toolkit-video-discusses-the-freedom-of-the-first-legend-of-zelda.aspx)
8. [Game Maker's Toolkit (GMTK) on Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/cw/GameMakersToolkit?l=en-GB)
9. [Game Maker's Toolkit on itch.io](https://gmtk.itch.io/?trk=public_post_reshare-text)
10. [What developers can learn from this generation of game criticism, Game Developer (2026)](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/what-developers-can-learn-from-this-generation-of-games-criticism)
11. [Dev rewrites GTA 3 source code to reveal what Rockstar was hiding, GamesRadar (2026)](https://www.gamesradar.com/games/grand-theft-auto/dev-rewrites-gta-3-source-code-to-reveal-what-rockstar-was-hiding-and-show-how-liberty-city-fit-on-a-ps2/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Early English-language web series (1997–mid 2010s)*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license