Game design is a rather complicated field which leaves plenty of hardcore gamers curious as to what exactly goes into their favorite titles. It's due to this desire to understand what goes into a video game that plenty of developers such as Masahiro Sakurai of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. Fame get asked to give tutorials and lessons by their fans. After Sakurai ended his daily Super Smash Bros. Ultimate screenshot posts, the developer announced a new project.
Sakurai has launched a brand-new YouTube channel titled "Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games." According to Sakurai himself, the channel serves as a YouTube series in which he plans to share his knowledge in an accessible and fun way for both the most casual gamers and game developers alike.
As Sakurai's been a rather prominent developer in the gaming industry for years, he's been asked to speak at game development schools and conferences. He hasn't liked the idea of how limited the audiences in those spaces are, which led him to YouTube as a way to educate as many people as possible about basic game design. The first video on the channel serves as an overview of what it offers and specifies what Sakurai's plans for the series are.
In the overview video, he stresses that the channel won't go into overly technical concepts, but will "offer a glimpse" into the industry and give players "a little boost" to round out their knowledge about game development. Due to this, Sakurai says that he may cover topics that are widely understood among professionals and that those who know the basics shouldn't get mad at him for stating what might seem rather obvious.
However, Sakurai also emphasizes that this YouTube channel is solely his own project, which means he won't have approval from other developers and IP holders, and certain "trade secrets" must be kept as secrets. However, Nintendo will be asked for approval on a few uploads as certain development documents of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be used as teaching materials. The developer also says that he'll be losing money to make this series as he isn't planning to make revenue with the account through ads, and he aims to pay his translators and editors.
Due to the fact that Sakurai is running the account in his spare time with his own funds, the entire channel is a love letter to gaming as he's essentially offering to teach new game developers for free. It's certainly a resource that those who are interested in how video games are made should definitely use, and those who enjoy the games by Masahiro Sakurai should definitely keep their eyes on it to understand his titles more closely.