What just happened? Google loves to come up with unusual tools to help spark user creativity. Its Music Maker service was a good example of that, but now we have an even better one: Game Builder, which has been accessible for some time but only received a major reveal today.
If you've never heard of Game Builder before, it's pretty much what the name implies: a piece of software that lets you piece together everything from a simple 3D platformer to the "next indie hit" in a sandbox environment. If you're concerned that you might not have the coding skills to create even the most basic games, don't worry.
Though Game Builder does allow you to "live-code" your game using JavaScript if you have the knowledge to do so, it's been designed with the average user in mind. Instead of coding with text, you can use a "card-based visual programming system" to bring your creations to life. You will drag, drop, resize, and manipulate objects and characters in your world, and use various script cards to dictate their behavior.
You can program an enemy slime to move side to side, for example, or make your main character jump when the space button is pressed. It's all fairly simple stuff, and after an initial learning period, it probably won't be long before even less tech-savvy individuals can create their own fun 3D platforming experiences.
Interestingly, if you really want to emulate the experience of game development in a rudimentary way, you can even invite your friends on board to help you create games cooperatively in real-time.
Game Builder is available on Steam Early Access right now for free. It's being maintained by Google's "idea incubator" division known as Area 120.