Game Builder Garage Reviews
Game Builder Garage is a unique title for anyone that wants to create a game with no prior programming knowledge. Whether you’re old or young this game provides lots of tools to let your creative juices flow. A wonderful experience to share with a family or loved one. Whether you’re a brand new budding game developer or you just want to have fun creating games, Game Builder Garage is a great way to express yourself.
Once again, Nintendo shows they have the magic touch with a unique experience that is very outside the box thinking. With the help of seven very complete interactive lessons, learn the basics of being a programmer with a simplified approach that eases us into the complexity behind making video games.
Review in French | Read full review
Game Builder Garage is signature Nintendo. For better and for worse, GBG exemplifies the Japanese company’s commitment to innovation, and it’s a real compliment to the already brimming back catalogue of titles. What GBG represents is a company dedicated to game development, to young and aspiring programmers, and to the future of video game design. Naturally, anything ‘signature Nintendo’ does come with a few concessions that hold it back from being everything it could be, but that shouldn’t deter anyone even remotely interested in this games’ offering.
Creating games ain't easy, but Game Builder Garage does a great job introducing the logic and workflow of game design with simple and intuitive tools.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Game Builder Garage manages to explain the logic of making games in a fun way with its simple interface and Nodon system.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Like any good game creator, it’s a quick way to jump into fast access game development to explore creative ideas on the fly anywhere you may be, and it’s accessibility for the young makes it a good jump start in interests towards game development as a hobby or career.
If you're new to programming and want to see what it takes to make a game, this is a wonderful and humorous introduction. It does have limitations, though, and mastering its intricacies can take a long time.
Nintendo's latest game creation tool is defined both by the Switch's limitations and the impressive breadth of creative expression it enables.
"These games will stay inside your garage."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
With all of this said, is Game Builder Garage worthwhile? The answer to this question largely depends on the mindset one goes into the game with. Keep in mind that this isn’t a traditional video game. Rather, it’s an application for game development. This isn’t Super Mario Maker 2 where, despite the focus on level creation, a full-fledged game exists within it. Game Builder Garage is all about building levels and projects from the ground up. This isn’t to say that the game lacks value for those uninterested in game development. This is where the user-generated content mentioned earlier comes into play. Within days of Game Builder Garage‘s initial release, a number of promising projects hit the internet. Everything from a first-person shooter level inspired by Doom Eternal to a Super Mario Kart track to a recreation of Minecraft can be seen and downloaded right now. Furthermore, even without an online sharing option in the game, there are fan communities that ensure such creations are found and experienced. YouTube channels such as GameXplain have been actively showcasing many of the best Game Builder Garage creations, generating that much more awareness. If you’re willing to do some digging online, you can find an ever-growing treasure trove of concepts waiting to blossom.
Game Builder Garage seems like a game that will live or die based on the strength of its community. If players pick up where Nintendo left off and provide quick online tutorials for achieving the trickier game-building techniques that Bob doesn't cover well enough, it might become something special. Even without that, it's a decent first step for anyone looking to learn about programming, especially kids.
As a learning tool, Game Builder Garage provides an easy-to-follow experience that makes learning the basics of game programming fun. With that in mind, there are definitely more comprehensive and robust ways to create games on console.
Game Builder Garage might be pitched at a younger audience - and I can genuinely see Nintendo selling a bunch of Switches to schools for use in the younger grades as an introduction to the all-important education space - but the systematic clarity with which the tutorials of Game Builder Garage are arranged, and then the ease of use and accessibility of the software to play around with afterwards, makes it the best introduction to programming that I've come across, for anyone of any age.
Game Builder Garage is a decently realized editor, which unexpectedly lacks one function, but even in this situation, the production can awaken dreams.
Review in Polish | Read full review
If you want to make your own games and share it indirectly, or if you want to experience the productions made by others, it will be a good choice.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
While it may not reach the lofty creative heights of Dreams on PlayStation 4, or match the accessibility of the Super Mario Maker franchise, Game Builder Garage offers the tools to help realise some of your dream gaming creations. If you’re not a creative type and don’t care much about programming, I would avoid stepping into this Garage. However, if you do decide to peek inside out of curiosity and you’re happy with some deep learning, you’ll have everyone else’s creations to experience, and it’s just a matter of time to see what the online community will come up with.
Learn how to create your own games. It is really fun and informative.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
If you would like to create your own video games, this is key that may open that door.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Nintendo’s best development toolkit to date, with a gamified process that makes creating enjoyable, even if the curation tools are sub-par.
Game Builder Garage makes programming fun, with easy-to-follow tutorials and plenty of in-game resources to help you if you get lost. It’s easy on the eyes too, although a lack of visual customisation options was disappointing to see. With so many things it does right, it’s astounding that Nintendo would shoot themselves in their own foot so badly by not including any in-game search function. It may find an audience with some budding game designers, but it’s unlikely to become the phenomenon it could have been.