[krapp]

One Game a Month projects aren't about producing quality games, so much as learning to complete something within a deadline. If you can finish even a simple game in a month, then you know you can finish a more complex, longer term project. Finishing games is a skill in and of itself, and one most new game developers may not realize they need to develop.

Far from being aimless programming, it's meant to teach you to judge the value of your own initial concepts and estimate the time and effort it would take to pull them off, and to prioritize practical work over bikeshedding and unnecessary iteration. Having the arbitrary deadline is what helps you focus on the end goal - projects with open ended or nonexistent deadlines tend never to be finished.