Game Builder Garage Reviews
Game Builder Garage is a robust, yet easy to learn, game engine that's absolutely delightful.
Some standard Nintendo limitations get in the way, but this is still an invaluable education in some of the fundamentals of game creation.
An impressively visual approach to building your own games, with a fully formed tutorial that demystifies complicated ideas with typical Nintendo charm and aplomb.
Children are like sponges, eager to learn and soak up new knowledge to apply to the decades ahead of them. If you’re an adult who’s curious about how games work, Game Builder Garage is a fun, informative experience most of the time — but it’s one you may prefer to experience in short bursts, lest the slow-moving lessons force you to snap your Switch in two.
Nintendo's new game creation software may not let you make the game of your dreams, but it's a fun-to-use toolkit nonetheless.
If you have aspirations of making your own video game but haven’t taken that first step, Game Builder Garage is for you. Just keep your expectations in check. You probably won’t be able to make your perfect game with just this software, but it could provide the creative spark that pushes you to turn your game developer dreams into a reality.
An interesting game making tool, easy to learn and powerful enough to create and share our own minigames. Still we miss some utilities such as importing assets or composing music.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A fairly satisfying experience that immerses us fully in the world of programming without requiring hundreds of lines of code. It adapts perfectly to object-oriented programming, although with much simpler concepts achieved thanks to the 'nodon'. Without a doubt, a great stimulant for your imagination.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Overall, this is not your typical “game”, but it is still a lot of fun one to play. Game Builder Garage is also a game that is uniquely important and necessary for people to understand how games work. While all of this may sound like a chore, it really isn’t, as Nintendo is probably the only company that could make visual scripting actually fun. That alone is a huge achievement and one I am excited as well as relieved to champion.
Much like most people's first efforts with Game Builder Garage, it's a good first effort. It's just not something people will be revisiting after a few weeks pass.
An interesting videogame development software with a bit of a target audience issue.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Game Builder Garage seems to want to showcase just what it’s like to make a game, albeit in a simpler way. It’s sometimes challenging to the point of being headache-inducing. It is unrelentingly complicated. When it clicks, however, it’s fun, magical, and incredibly rewarding.
Game Builder Garage is typically brilliant Nintendo, offering a way of creating levels that is only stymied by the lack of online community and curation options.
Game Builder Garage is a great way to learn the basics of game programming through an easy to use visual language. The tutorials may be overbearing for some, holding your hand through each step, but the engine is surprisingly robust and will let you create whatever you want. However, there is no active sharing or receiving interface in the game itself which is incredibly frustrating and limits learning opportunities.
In reality, Game Builder Garage feels like the perfect place to build a game prototype. You can create a basic idea, see if it works and is fun, and then maybe take that concept into a real game engine development kit - but not much more. It can truly pique the curiosities of kids, and I hope it does, but it's launched in a world where it has big competition, and the depth and charm of those tutorials which only Nintendo could pull off so well can't carry the rest of the experience.
From Mario Kart racers to 2D platforms, this charming game-maker gives you access to the Nintendo toolkit
Game Garage Builder is wonderful. Nintendo has come up with a new programming language made up of hilarious characters, tasking the player with having them interact with each other to code their games. A real video game laboratory, where you can experiment and learn with a smile on your face.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Nintendo has created a fun and accessible product that is a great introduction to programming. Through the perfectly paced interactive lessons, anyone can start making games in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, the omission of in-game community creations does hinder what could have been a complete creative suite, however, this won’t stop enthusiasts from creating and sharing their games in other ways.
Game Builder Garage attempts to turn a scary and complex task like programming into something easy and fun with its simple mechanics, clever design and bags of personality. While it can feel frustratingly restrictive at times (especially in the beginning) and the tutorials don’t so much hand hold but grab on tight with no intention of letting you go, they do make it a playful and charming experience.
Game Builder Garage is a frighteningly powerful game creation tool dragged down by a few limiting factors. The lack of an object creation tool (and pyramids) means that most games are going to look like they were made in a game creation suite, but the sheer scope of what's possible helps to take the sting out of the tail. This will actually teach you how to make games, the tutorials that lead you through are by-and-large excellent, and the inclusion of USB mouse support is a godsend. We're probably unable to even conceive of half of what Switch owners will be able to create using this software, but we're certain this is going to help propagate the next generation of game developers.