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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Sandbox   >   Kongregate shows gamers how to *make* games

Kongregate shows gamers how to *make* games

By on October 15, 2008

Kongregate Labs is Kongregate’s attempt to show its users how to make games themeselves.

It’s a sensible strategy – user-generated games are hard to make compared to Wiki entries or home videos, and yet Kongregate’s lifeblood is garage developers. Giving users a walkthrough on a basic Flash game has the potential to push more gamers/designers into the Indie space, in much the same way that home computers like the Sinclair Spectrum and the BBC Micro kick-started the games business in the UK in the 80s.

So a simple-to-follow tutorial that takes designers through building a sideways-scrolling shooter, including backgrounds, key commands and user interface design, is a welcome addition to the site. I confess I haven’t been through it myself (if anyone has, please let me know), but initial comments around the web are promising.

Kongregate Labs games tutorial 

Of course, being able to make a game technically is a very different problem from making an entertaining, addictive, just-one-more-go game. So hats off to Kongregate, now lets just see if the output lives up to the promise.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com