Are content-creation tools everyone’s cup of tea?

You sit down in front of a television set and pop in an old 8-bit Super Mario Bros.cartridge. Immediately Duck Huntand Mario Bros. scrawl into frame. 

“Look at these graphics! Ancient!”

You select Mario Brothers, then immediately “World 1-1” and a Mario appear on screen. Then…

Dah-dah, dah, bump-bump, beep, bump!

Welcome to the 8-bit Mecca: World 1-1 of Mario Brothers. You move in one direction. You walk, jump, or run. Down is duck. Jump on baddies to destroy them, shoot them with fireballs, throw shells at them, or run through them with the invincibility star; all of the gaming mechanics are introduced in World 1-1. There are no fancy head-shots, killer traps, or combos to vanquish your enemies: just simple mechanics, simple game-play, and simple graphics. 

You say to yourself, “This…I could easily create something like this! It’s so simple!”

Could you? I mean, really, could you? Developers, these days, give consumers the tools to do just that: create a game. 

Creation Tools are arguably the single most important tool to be released to the public in the history of video gaming. Is this amazing? Yes! Is it revolutionary? Yes and no. No, in the fact that creation tools have been around since Quake 2. That was 1997, making creation tools “ancient” in the gaming world as technology progresses faster and faster. But in the grand scheme of things, yes, this is unheard of. No other medium gives you something as pre-packaged for creating as game developers do in creation tools. 

Developers give consumers the tools to create their own games without needing to develop any sort of game engine, character design, or digital effects. Yes, you can now develop your own game without having to study the tedious tasks of C++, create skins and 3-D models, or have to worry about developing textures, music, or anything else that goes into creating the foundation of your game! It is all done for you, oh-so-wonderful creator of games! 

So, you have everything you need to create your own indie game, right? Now what? Well, now it's time for you to walk the walk. This is where the average consumer may dabble here and there and attempt to create something before giving up and never returning to content editors again, but this is where the select few dive even deeper; tweaking, toying, and tinkering.

You see, creating games is not for everybody. Although we all love playing games, creating games is better suited for those who are a little…shall we say, “off”? Game creators are the nerds of the "nerds." They are to game creation what statisticians are to baseball. You have to eat, sleep, and breathe what you do — and you have to love it to a level that is boarder-line creepy. While most people would think of level designing as tedious, these people salivate at the mouth, the way a normal person would at the mention of Jenny McCarthy in her prime. 

The greatest thing to happen to hardcore gaming in the past decade is creation tools. League of Legends, multiple tower defense games, and even the newest addition to the indie-game pantheon — Minecraft — are all byproducts of creation tools, or games within other games. Warcraft 3's World Editor, Minecraft, Mario Paint, and Garry’s Mod are all examples of creation tools. 

Whether you were the creator, or if you were the consumer of a said created game, there has been nothing in the history of gaming that has given more power to the Average Joe (get a job, Joe) than the modification tool/world editor. 

The advent of games made by the people, for the people, and of the people is upon us. These creation tools are not made for everybody, though. Although they are easily accessible, consumers quickly discover how difficult it is to create a game. Given a blank canvas with all of the proper tools, the infinite possibilities that come with creating a game is often far too daunting of a task for the pipe-dream game creator to handle. It is the diligent creator who will find these tools most useful. 

I remember dabbling in Warcraft 3's world editor, and although I found it incredibly fun I could not put together a level that actually played decent. Eventually, I gave up and was perfectly ok with downloading Defense of the Ancients, Tower Defense, and Coliseum battles — which have since turned into staples for the computer gamer. 

Creation tools are so popular that entire games are based around creating worlds, levels, people, etc. Case in point? Minecraft. People can create a world as simple or abstract as they wish, and every day you can watch it change and grow. The Creation tool has become so popular that you can now call this its own genre. I think it has outgrown the title of RPG or MMORPG; it’s beyond that now. Case in point? The slew of creation tool based games that have come out since Minecraft: Terraria, Blockland, and FortressCraft. These are building games, but they give consumers the chance to create games within the realm of their world. 

Players are becoming so creative in-game that mini-games are becoming the norm in Minecraft. Much like the world creator in Warcraft, players are creating their own racing games, arena games, and puzzle games. Just go to YouTube and search away. It's quite amazing. 

Are creation tools for everybody? No. Are they made for everybody? Yes. They give every consumer the same tools to be successful, but it isn’t about the tools, it’s about the person wielding the tools. So if you think you have what it takes to make the next big thing, load up a world creator, create a new concept, and tinker away. 

The accessibility, pre-created content, and interface of world creation tools are the gift from the gaming gods. It is a phenomenal learning tool that can lead to much more exciting things. A kid could open up a world creation tool, create their own mini-game to show their friends, and spark some form of interest that could take them down the path of greatness. All because game developers are doing something that most of us don’t take the time to learn and understand — they are giving us the tools to create what we love most dear: Video games. 

Some of us are meant to develop games, and some of us are meant to play them, but I think we can all agree on one thing: As much as we love to rag on developers, they have absolutely gotten the creation tool 110% correct. And for that, I am ever so grateful.