[dovyski]

I participated in One Game a Month (1GAM) in 2013. It was an amazing experience, even though I managed to make "only" 5 games. It's astonishing to read that the author had the very same problems I had.

Even when I had a clear vision of what I wanted to make, it was pretty hard to avoid feature creeping. When you hit the 90% completion mark, the TODO list starts to grow so scarily fast that the only way out is to develop/improve focus and the ability to ship things. That's when you level up as a developer :)

1GAM is a great opportunity to learn how to ship things, managing time and scope.

[squeaky-clean]

This seems like such a fun challenge. I just completed my first Ludum Dare Jam with a friend (72 hour gamejam), and we both learned a lot. Right from the start we had to manage a "72-hour TODO" list and a "Maybe we'll enjoy this game enough to take it past the weekend TODO" list. And things kept being moved from one list to the other.

I think the most important take-away for me was how important careful planning is right at the start. As we got closer and closer to the deadline, the code got nastier and nastier. But I made sure we spent several hours just planning our design before even touching any code, and that the foundation was solid. It wasn't until the final 6 hours or so that we had other entities animating on the screen. But by then everything just came together, and filling the game with more content and additional levels was a breeze. Need to add a complex feature? Great! We've already planned for it, and it takes 2 lines of code.

There's a short little blog entry I read years and years ago that I still remember, called "Black Triangles" which is similar. About developing a game for the original Playstation, and spending over a month to just get a black triangle rendering on screen. http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=7745

We actually have decided to take our little game past the weekend, so maybe this will become our first One-Game-A-Month Game.

[dovyski]

Yes, it is a lot of fun. I used two TODO lists just like you did, but my "v2 past the deadline" list had way more items in it.

I like to plan my actions methodically too, but sometimes I had to use 1GAM to develop my improvisation skills. When I was short in time and the month was about to end, I had to quickly come up with something before the deadline. That's when I had to prioritize the "get things done" instead of "plan the whole thing". I've learned a lot from it.

I wish you and your friend all the best regarding you game :)

[thirdtruck]

I was just thinking of starting "one game a month" on my own, but I didn't know about 1GAM. Thanks for the heads up!

[dovyski]

You're welcome! One of the best aspects of 1GAM is the community behind it. You can get feedback, motivation and experience from everybody. When you join the action, there are thousands of developers doing the very same thing: trying to ship games. I've learned a lot from the community and I've met several great folks.

You will not regret joining 1GAM.

[thirdtruck]

I believe it! Been meaning to get back in touch with Christer, in fact. I miss Ludum Dare. :)