Nintendo, a forefather of video games, is sharing its wisdom with fans young and old with a new Switch title called Game Builder Garage.
If you’ve been feeling less gratified on Animal Crossing and The Legend of Zelda of late, the upcoming Game Builder Garage might offer the sense of accomplishment you need. It shows budding developers the ropes of basic game programming, as well as offers the necessary visual tools, to help anyone finally build their own games—in a fun and personable way with no prior experience necessary.
Rather than putting players through a series of long-winded tutorials, the game acquaints them with dozens of creatures called Nodon, who will help them create games. Each Nodon possesses a unique strength to achieve different concepts. “You’ll be able to create a wide variety of different types of video games too – from side-scrolling platformers, to kart racers, to space blasters!” Nintendo notes.
For those who’d prefer to jump straight to the learning bit, there’s also a ‘Lesson’ mode where they can attend step-by-step lessons on visual programming.
Of course, since one of the purposes of designing a video game is that others can play it, users can upload their creations “over the internet or via a local wireless connection” for friends and family members to enjoy.
Game Builder Garage will be available starting June 11 at a price of US$29.99.