12 months 12 games challenge

The Fool · Mon 05/10/2015 23:25:05

I'd like to make an experiment

For the past two or three years I've had a couple of relatively interesting ideas for games, but never been able to finish anything.
I'd always come up with something I was excited about, but then killed it with far too much second guessing, over-analyzing
and pondering whether or not my current idea was "the right one".
Then I recently rewatched and got really inspired by Mark Applebaum's crazy and brilliant TED talk
and decided to try something (completely) different.

I'll attemp to make one game a month for the next 12 months with only one primary goal, and that is
to enjoy the process of creating them as much as possible.
Of course I'd also like to make them original, memorable and really fun to play but
I don't to worry about these things too much and be OK with the very real possibility, that
I may end up making nothing worth downloading whatsoever.

Allowing myself any result I'm really excited about where will the process take me.
Will I end up making just a bunch of hasily made and insane Legacy of the icecream man games?
Or will I be able to come up with something good?

I'm starting today and will post the first finished game at 5. of november.

Wish me luck and enjoy the ride!

selmiak · Mon 05/10/2015 23:43:55

xil tried to enter every mags for a year earlier this year, made some really cool games and got to 4 games in 4 months.
So it could be possible, maybe using mags themes as an inspiration but not a binding theme could work for you if you happen to not like the theme in a month.
It's good to have ambitious goals and wanting to make game that are original, memorable and really fun to play. But keep in mind you will probably not make 12 supergreat games in 12 months. This is my personal opinion and you are reading it already, so either prepare to make some crap games inbetween to fullfill your goals or burn out or rather concentrate you energy to one really good game, start small and give it 1-5 months. I mean 12 games in 12 months is a huge task! No really! But don't let me talk you out of it, rather show me it's possible. Good luck on your journey

Stupot · Tue 06/10/2015 00:00:36

Brave soul. Definitely get in touch with Xil for advice. He has created some crackers.
I would very much suggest making your first month's game very very small. Like think if a small idea and then halve it. Even if it's just one room and one puzzle. Then each month, when you start from scratch with a new game a lot of it will become muscle-memory. Allow for the early ones to suck a bit. Or to be great, but very small. The last thing you want is to get over-ambitious with one of your early games, and end up demotivating yourself because you missed a deadline.

All the best, mate :-)

Gurok · Tue 06/10/2015 02:14:36

Quote from: selmiak on Mon 05/10/2015 23:43:55
xil tried to enter every mags for a year earlier this year, made some really cool games and got to 4 games in 4 months.

I think Grok might be unofficially doing this right now. He's had entries for the last three MAGS. :O

If you're making games every month anyway, consider timing them so you can enter MAGS. Might be good to get some extra feedback/visibility/encouragement that you wouldn't ordinarily get. Good luck!

Crimson Wizard · Tue 06/10/2015 09:36:09

Slasher is releasing a new game like every 3 or 4 months, I think

BTW, I recently watched this video, and I think it may be inspirational for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chtFbRyxdIo

Radiant · Tue 06/10/2015 11:17:53

Sounds great!

A while ago I also wanted to try this, by entering each MAGS for a year. Didn't work out for me because of lack of time, but it sounds great and I wish you the best!

The Fool · Sat 10/10/2015 14:51:41

Thanks for all your encouragement and inspiration, guys!

I played Xil's Aractaur and really enjoyed it. That Ludum dare video is pretty damn amazing too.

Slasher · Sat 10/10/2015 15:41:19

My thoughts on your post are this:

You need to have a backbone and the need/want 'to-do' to make games.

Far too many people never get to make a game because they either don't have a backbone or the need/want 'to-do' or are attempting things way beyond their capabilities. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of newbies that want to me mr gilbert with their first game

On top of this are your own circumstances like time restrictions, lack of ideas, enthusiasm etc etc

For me it was through an illness that nearly took my life and much of my memory (failure to recall certain things). While i'm a lot better these days with my memory almost intact i know the price of everyday you have life. So procrastination is not on my agenda.

While i always had to refer to my own saved scripting files (yes, i made a filing system of useful scripts) so now i don't have to look at them so much as i can remember. My system for keeping scripts is a great way to learn.

Referring to your one game a month:

keep them simple (maybe one / four rooms)
have a basic idea of the game and the outcome
keep characters to the minimum (maybe one or two)
add a few well thought out puzzles
keep within your learning boundaries but stretch one or two
use a different techniques for each game (build up a repertoire)
don't stretch yourself too far but stretch a little with each new game
above all have enthusiasm and determination to complete them.

i've had more one blue cups over the years than most in this learning curve and at 60 i'm still in the running

when you get an idea and it rings bells go for it and plan to do it in a way you know you can and not spend months looking for answers, for that is a killjoy.

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours

slasher

Mandle · Sun 11/10/2015 03:54:58

Very inspirational post there Slasher...And also a balanced guide for a sensible approach to game development!

xil · Sun 11/10/2015 19:11:34

Yes unfortunately life got in the way a bit for me and I had to make the decision to stop (for my own sanity). I ended up doing 6 games in 6 months but I still haven't released the one I did for the Hendrix MAGS (I will soon I promise) and I also did a game in Stencyl rather than do the MAGS because I simply didn't have enough time in that particular month.

After 6 months I also felt absolutely drained to be honest, so I'm taking a nice big break at the moment and will be re-entering the fray towards the end of this year with a larger project that I'm doing with a musician.

From that 6 month experience/experiment, my main advice for the overall task (12 games in a year) is that you should be aiming to make an entire game within a week. I made the mistake of thinking I had 30 days to literally make the game... WRONG!

. Try a simple one room approach first, try to think of a story that begins and ends even if it's stupidly simple, and don't get too caught up on the MAGS theme if you are entering that. Once your game is done you will want to test it (need to test it

) so don't forget how long that can take! (Hint: sometimes testing can take longer than making the game). And most importantly, after a week of making a game, then a week of testing and tinkering:

Take. A. Break.

I cannot stress that enough! When after the third month of jam packing everything into the month with only seconds to spare. I woke up the next day and see the next MAGS theme and it was not a great feeling I promise. I was putting too much pressure on myself to create some epic masterpiece in a fraction of the time that potentially a team of people would take

Slasher's advice is also spot on and comes from an extremely reliable source if you count how many games he has started and finished!

P.S. One extra thought, try to 'jump' into the game as much as possible. Don't spend a day completing 4 walk cycles for a character and doing the main screen. Get a single character sprite done and make the first room first! Once you've started and have something tangible, you can then go back and add what polish you like depending on the time you have left.

Retro Wolf · Mon 12/10/2015 02:39:36

You could always team up with someone to take the load off a bit. How cool would it be to work with a different AGSer each month? I'd love to do that!

Shepsus · Mon 12/10/2015 10:29:46

Maybe your issue with the passion is that you don't have a small team. You seem to enjoy the actual development, but maybe you can find someone who likes developing story or artwork?

The Fool · Thu 29/10/2015 19:57:07

Sorry for not responding, guys. I'm still working on it!

Huge thanks to Slasher and Xil for a dose of inspiration loads of valuable tips.
I'm currently in the proces of making a small and absurd first game I think I can actually finish even with my current limited skillset.
The only thing I'll need to do is to extend the deadline till 5. november, but that should be technically allowable since that will make
exact full month since creating this topic

The idea of cooperating with different people is pretty cool, I agree it would be much more fun to do some of the games
that way. The small team would be probably too much at this point, but teaming up with one more developer sounds great

vertigoaddict · Fri 30/10/2015 14:19:55

Teaming up with a different developer each month sounds like an interesting idea and may be the best way to find the Johnny Depp to your Tim Burton, or your Thomas Regin to your Dave Gilbert, your Ben304 to your Grundislav, your french fry to your chocolate sundae.

I guess you can always initially treat your games like a OROW (one room, one week) entry, then use the rest of the month tweaking it and sanding down the rough edges. It's proven time and time again that restrictions in game development could lead to great creativity.

Break a leg (just don't start randomly using it on everything 'cause it's in your inventory) =P

The Fool · Fri 06/11/2015 00:21:47

I think I'd like to try bigger games too, but I definitely need to learn to manage my time better and to give myself enough space to just test and play.
I had to make last month's entry (Beard Beverage) as a save project in two days because there just was no way I could finish project I was working on it time.
And that one is a 3 to 5 minute game and it would still deserve few more days of testing (coding should be fine, but I would be much more at ease if I'd got
some pre-released feedback on dialogs.)
It's not a tragedy or anything, but I really want to take all I learned from the past month's mistakes and do it better this time