On July 19, 2017 I was mad about people denigrating novice-friendly creative tools. In response I posted a thread of tweets. This thread is probably my single most impactful piece of writing to date; it's also maybe still the most accurate existing description of why I do what I do. It now seems that Twitter has more or less drawn to a close, so I reproduce the tweets in question below.
a reminder: if inexperienced creators are using your tool to churn out loads of half-baked garbage, your tool is a phenomenal success
for gamedev, the barrier to entry is absurdly high. most people, including most potential Great Designers, have no idea where even to begin.
that’s why, if you care about games as an expressive medium, and you notice a flood of broken games by people with no idea how to gamedev…
…your first reaction should be *immense excitement* about whatever tool it was that finally managed to pry open the floodgates.
Q: what’s it look like when a new generation of innovative creators is just beginning to get its bearings? A: a torrent of mostly crap
there’s a few diff reasons for this. partly it’s bc we’re judging the new by the standards of the old. mostly it’s bc people are learning!
now consider a whole bunch of people, all starting out in a new medium at around the same time, bc a new tool lowered the barrier to entry…
…& extrapolate forward 5-10 years from the initial flood of crap. that’s what a renaissance looks like
glitchy Unity games. barely readable fanfic. the thing you spent a few weeks on in 10th grade that’s *almost* recognizable as a webcomic.
and then, the people who made those things – who learned, in the process, what works & what doesn’t – picking themselves up & trying again.
as for those who spend their time shaming novice creators for daring to publish their early work? there’s a special place in the afterlife