Nintendo reveals Game Builder Garage, a game about programming
Players will be able to design and share their own games from June
Nintendo has announced a new Switch game designed to teach players the basics of programming.
Game Builder Garage will be released on June 11 at $29.99 and features a series of interactive lessons that explain how programming works. As the player progresses through the lessons they learn the various techniques they need to help them make their own games.
The lessons involve small creatures called Nodon, which each represent different elements of programming – objects, buttons, music, textures, counters, effects and so on.
By learning what each Nodon does, players develop the ability to use the software’s visual programming language to create their own games.
As well as the lessons, Game Builder Garage also features a Free Programming mode, where players can use the skills they’ve learned to program their own creations. Playes can swap between the programming screen and the game screen to test their work as they’re creating it.
Players can also share their created games with others. This can either be done via local wireless connection, or by uploading the game to Nintendo’s server, at which point their game will be given a unique code that can be shared with others (similar to Dream Addresses in Animal Crossing: New Horizons).
Although the game supports the Joy-Con controller and Pro Controller, Nintendo says players can also plug a USB mouse into the Switch dock and use that instead.
Game Builder Garage is the latest of Nintendo’s efforts to teach programming to players. Its Labo range of products included a Toy-Con Garage mode where players could make their own creations using rudimentary programming techniques.
In 2009 Nintendo released WarioWare DIY, a DS title that taught players how to make their own mini-games, from programming the rules to creating the graphics and the music. Game Builder Garage appears to be an evolution of this.
