Mark's Month - June 2025

Hello Patrons! I'm back with my monthly newsletter about what I've been up to in the last month.

And, for the most part, the month can be defined by two words...

Word Play

Yeah. My new game, Word Play, is coming out on July 14th. And so I basically just spent the entirety of June working on the final touches for the game.

They say "the final 10% of making a game is the hardest 90%" and I think there's some truth in that. For one thing - you can't make certain decisions until the game is all done and fully playable. It was hard to know how difficult the game was, and how balanced certain aspects were, until the game was done.

And also - this is when you've got to fix and polish everything up. You can't put that bug off any longer. You can't leave that options menu half-designed. You can't leave that placeholder asset for later. It's all got to get done. So it's been a bit of a slog.

Luckily I've had an amazing team of playtesters and bug finders over on the GMTK Discord. It's a mix of Patrons (shoutout starfool, Duckamoly and Garrett especially) and some other community members, and they've just been playing the game non stop looking for problems. I simply could not have done this without them.

Even still - I fully expect there to be bugs in the full game. Consider: this game has 160 perks. A bag of 90 tiles that can all be upgraded, converted, deleted, or duplicated. Multiple special rounds, difficulty modes, and so on. There are so many possible combinations that by around round 3, you'll have a screen that no one else will ever see. Ever. So - we can't catch all the bugs.

But at some point my energy simply ran out. In fact - it was today. I woke up, checked the Discord, saw a bunch of new bugs and just thought... I've hit my breaking point now. I slowly fixed them, pushed version 0.99, and then vowed to only fix a few remaining critical bugs before pushing 1.0 ahead of the launch next week.

My ability to hyperfocus on a project is pretty useful - but it has its limits. My engines are burned out, my tank is dry, my tires are shredded. It's time to get this thing out. Now: my focus is on making a video to release at the same time as the game.

Nintendo Switch 2

I played a lot of Mario Kart World this month - alone, with my wife, and with my nephews. It's a good time!

Though I'm still not crazy about the interstitial courses (the giant roadways and highways that link up the different courses). So I typically play in a mode where you can simply teleport from track to track, and do three-lap courses - just like classic Mario Kart. It's a bit of a faff to set up so I hope that Nintendo will patch in a more streamlined experience down the line.

I've noticed this is a bit of a thing for Nintendo lately: essentially putting quite controversial design choices in their games. Big swings that might be for the betterment of the design overall - but still end up frustrating players. From breakable weapons in Breath of the Wild to the clunky UI in Echoes of Wisdom.

Though, they sometimes walk these things back. For instance, the Switch 2 update for Echoes of Wisdom finally adds in the obvious option to "favourite" Echoes - which makes the whole UI system a whole lot less tedious to deal with. Then again, this isn't the first time Nintendo changed its mind about a Zelda game's design...

The Great Sea

So I also ended up playing through The Wind Waker on Gamecube this month. I'll explain why in a sec. But it's an interesting game to play because the remake - on Wii U - makes some pretty massive changes to the way the game works. You can get a sail that makes the boat go faster and always has the wind at its back. The Triforce shard quest is scaled down. And more.

This is perhaps the biggest example of Nintendo walking back its design choices. And it kinda signals that the original game was "wrong" or "bad", because it had to be "fixed" for this new Wii U version. I spoke about playing the game to a friend and they said "oh yeah I could only ever play the Wii U version because it fixed all the problems in the Gamecube version".

So it's been fun to play the GC original and see that... it's not bad at all! It just feels like it was a game from a different time - when games could be slower and more deliberate. And that's kinda what I wanted this time around - I didn't need a game that shaved off any friction or frustration to help me get to the end more smoothly. I wanted a game I could live in. A game that demanded a certain level of patience and dedication.

Anyway - it's an interesting thing about remakes. It doesn't just create a new game but it can retroactively recolour the original. Both games have their place, and I'm happy to own both - but one does not replace the other.

Back in Time

But anyway - after I finished Wind Waker I started playing... Super Mario 64. And yeah, I've basically been on a bit of a retro kick lately. Preferring to play games from yesteryear than the most recent releases.

I think there's a few reasons for that. I've been so busy with work and stuff in my personal life that when it's time to play a game... I don't want to have to learn some complex new roguelike deckbuilder or something. I want something familiar and comfortable.

I've also just been realising that there are various games from my childhood that I played to death... but never actually finished. So with The Wind Waker - I played the first few islands over and over again as a child, but never went any further than that. Then for Boss Keys I played all the dungeons - but did no sidequests and didn't complete the story. So this was a chance to finally finish the game.

Same with Mario 64 - I've played that game so many times, but I've never finished it. So for whatever reason it felt like a good time to right that wrong.

I'm also just feeling so disconnected from AAA games at the moment. For the most part AAA games are either time-sink live service junk, hollow style-over-substance, or for a completely different target audience to me. I don't watch Summer Game Fest or follow the news anymore. Other than Donkey Kong, I have no idea what games are coming out in 2025!

The antidote in this case is usually to play indie games instead - but you can also play older games! So I think I'm gonna live in the past for a while - until I get my mojo back.

And more

Not much more this month - it's mostly been coping with the big European heatwave. So lots of fans, lots of water, and bad sleep. Looks like July isn't much better. I love a hot summer but this is a tad too much.

Anyway. Next time I do a Mark's Month the game will be out and the Game Jam will be in full swing. No rest for the wicked! Speak to you then!