GMTK Digest (June 2025)

A whole new (Mario Kart) World

Hello GMTK supporters!

Okay, I'm gonna level with you. My game is releasing in two weeks. I've been spending every spare moment fixing bugs, tweaking the balance, making trailers, and all the other stuff you have to do before a game comes out.

So this ain't gonna be the best GMTK Digest I've ever done. But I hope you dig it nonetheless! I'll hopefully be back on form for the next one!

New releases

Played: Mario Kart World

Oh yeah, we got a new video game console in June! Hello Switch 2! The big release is, of course, the latest Mario Kart game. This one is just as fun, silly and polished as the rest of the games. And it's packed with nostalgic nods (including a truly enormous soundtrack that references almost every Mario game you can name).

But it's also got an open world that is, for my money, kinda bad. Free roaming around this lifeless universe feels pointless. And the GP mode now features these long stretches of liminal, interstitial nothingness between the "actual" tracks. From my experience this adds nothing to the game... except for the fun knockout mode where you have to survive while racing across the entire island. That, I'll admit, is pretty fun.