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[ZeppelinCaptain]

UPDATE: I am done, and here is a final follow-up post, with a list of all the games: http://zeppelincaptain.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/31-games-in-31-days/

One game a month, you say? Far from enough, I say!

As the title says, I am challenging myself, a humble no-name wannabe game maker, to create a game every single day for a month. I am making them in Game Maker Studio, using between 30 and 60 minutes per game (with a few exceptions).


I am doing this in order to practice my prototyping skills and in order to try out different mechanics that I come up with. Also, I think it will be fun to do, and it might be interesting to follow for other game devs.  


I cannot guarantee that I will succeed at making 31 games, but if I fail, you will at least be able to watch and laugh with scorn when I shame my family name! Between all the other stuff in my life, managing time might actually be the biggest challenge, although it is only 30 minutes a day. If I miss one day, I will try to catch up the next day.  

All games will be uploaded to dropbox and shared in this thread.
They are playable in the browser, but 1-11 NOT IN FIREFOX! Launching them in Firefox crashes the universe apparently, but Chrome and Internet Explorer are fine.

Please do tell me if I am breaking any rules, I am just trying to do something interesting!

And please try the games, they only take a couple of minutes each! Although this project is mostly for practice, I make games for the reactions, so don't keep it to yourself. Especially if you have constructive criticism!

Very happy to be here  
-ZC

[Fervir]

Welcome to the forums!

This is really cool!
I think this will be really good practice for you.
Even if they don't turn out as good as you want them to, you're still getting some extremely valuable practice!

Don't be so hard on your self and just go make games.
Nobody can make a good game without first practicing and I think you'll learn a lot from this series of short games over 31 days as opposed to one game developed over 31 days.

Good luck!

[ZeppelinCaptain]

FIRST GAME IS DONE WOOHOO  

Download it here: http://bit.ly/GAyC61
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/18XvsTI

It is about controlling one dot and trying to avoid red circles. But then another dot is added. And then another one. And one more. And so on. And you control all of them at the same time.


My high-score is 1631  

I think I am off to a great start! I am actually quite pleased with this game   Original mechanic, game doesn't feel off in difficulty, and is actually a bit entertaining to play. Try it out and tell me if you agree, it won't take more than 4 minutes of your time if you are in a hurry!

It was made in exactly 30 minutes and 50.9 seconds, from pressing "create a sprite" for the first time to pressing the final "create executable".

Welcome to the forums!

This is really cool!
I think this will be really good practice for you.
Even if they don't turn out as good as you want them to, you're still getting some extremely valuable practice!

Don't be so hard on your self and just go make games.
Nobody can make a good game without first practicing and I think you'll learn a lot from this series of short games over 31 days as opposed to one game developed over 31 days.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for the encouraging words! It was a bit discouraging to see NO comments in the thread after almost a day. And yes, practice is the main point of this, but I would definitely also like to see some reactions  

[tanner bananer]

This is extremely clever and enjoyable thank you. 

[rundown]

Only one day a game? Will you sleep this month?

What if you want to develop a deeper kind of game? Or are they all going to be "simple" prototypes?

[Whiteclaws]

Only one day a game? Will you sleep this month?

What if you want to develop a deeper kind of game? Or are they all going to be "simple" prototypes?

Hey , calm down , you want to kill him ?

[ANtY]

Only one day a game? Will you sleep this month?

What if you want to develop a deeper kind of game? Or are they all going to be "simple" prototypes?

Hey , calm down , you want to kill him ?

let the man speak

[ZeppelinCaptain]

This is extremely clever and enjoyable thank you. 

Thank you very much! Extremely happy that you enjoyed it!

Only one day a game? Will you sleep this month?

What if you want to develop a deeper kind of game? Or are they all going to be "simple" prototypes?

I have found that sleeping seems to be a crucial part of surviving, so yes, I do indeed plan to.
All games this month will be simple prototypes, making the focus of the games the basic mechanics. If I then like one of them a lot, I might take it further later on, but not in October. Depth is not for this month!

[wccrawford]

Good luck with this, and congrats on Day 1!

[Excy]

I once had a go at making a game in an hour, also inspired by 1GAM. Turned out horribly buggy but continued development and it turned into a fun little game. I'll follow, best of luck!

Also, I've JUST got into Game Maker. Have you thought about recording and uploading some of these? Could help out guys like me.. and I'm a guy like me so I'd love it.

[ZeppelinCaptain]

Second game is DOWN. To party  . Or play. As it is a game. And not a party guest.

Anyway, download here: http://bit.ly/16JRyf7
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/19yKjoG
(the random color chooser is weird in the browser version)

It's about being at an arcade and smashing boxes with a ball. Press space to make super psychic force fields and push the ball. Smash all the boxes!  



I like the basic mechanic of this one, but some parts feel off. First, the game is a bit too slow somehow. Second, there is not much challenge to it, mostly just patience (but then your time gets high, so maybe you want to beat that?). Third, you don't have as much control of the ball as I was hoping for, because the collisions are kind of buggy, and I think I set the cooldown just a bit too high.

But despite all these points of critique, I am actually still pleased with the result, as it really is not too shabby! Try this Redonkulous Arcade and tell me if you like it or hate it!

(I somehow failed at setting up my timer, so I don't know how long this took to make. Probably something like 45 minutes.)

Good luck with this, and congrats on Day 1!

Thanks! Feels good to have started  

I once had a go at making a game in an hour, also inspired by 1GAM. Turned out horribly buggy but continued development and it turned into a fun little game. I'll follow, best of luck!

Also, I've JUST got into Game Maker. Have you thought about recording and uploading some of these? Could help out guys like me.. and I'm a guy like me so I'd love it.

Hope you'll enjoy following my adventures! Can you link me to the game you made?
I hadn't thought of recording it, but umm, that is probably possible! I am a bit scared of doing that, but I guess it might actually be fun. If I do it, I'll do it in the weekend. Is Fraps the best for that?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

no, fraps is not a good choice, because it stores uncompressed video. recording your screen for 30 minute with fraps would take up well over a terabyte of hard drive space

[Excy]

Hope you'll enjoy following my adventures! Can you link me to the game you made?
I hadn't thought of recording it, but umm, that is probably possible! I am a bit scared of doing that, but I guess it might actually be fun. If I do it, I'll do it in the weekend. Is Fraps the best for that?

I don't have a link at hand and I'm just about to leave work, I'll look for it later
Nah man, I'd subscribe, I'm really interested to see how you do it, even if you're doing it wrong (which I'm not suggesting you are ) I'd still learn from it.
Camtasia may be a little better for that actually. Fraps just records games/one application.

no, fraps is not a good choice, because it stores uncompressed video. recording your screen for 30 minute with fraps would take up well over a terabyte of hard drive space

That too.

[ZeppelinCaptain]

Third time's a charm, and the third game is charming, since it has more graphics than dots, circles and squares. It has masks and smileys, and all kinds of fancy stuff  

Download it right here: http://bit.ly/17AYokL
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox), watch out for occasionally sticky keys: http://bit.ly/GRaFI6

The game is about being insecure and putting on masks of fake emotions in order to hide your true self.  



This one has a bit more complicated mechanic, and it took 48 minutes to make. I started out with what I thought was a fully-fledged idea (I always try to do that, in order to be more efficient), but while making the basics, I realized it would be no fun, so I modified it a little, removed some things and added others, pulled some levers and pressed some buttons, and voila! There was a game that I was proud of having made. You should try it! My high score is 50 (some luck required to get that far), see if you can beat it  

no, fraps is not a good choice, because it stores uncompressed video. recording your screen for 30 minute with fraps would take up well over a terabyte of hard drive space

oh. Guess that's not a good idea then... Thank you!

Nah man, I'd subscribe, I'm really interested to see how you do it, even if you're doing it wrong (which I'm not suggesting you are ) I'd still learn from it.
Camtasia may be a little better for that actually. Fraps just records games/one application.

Oh, I am most probably doing a lot of stuff wrong. My first priority is to make things work, and do that fast  
I'll try out Camtasia then! I have ZERO experience with recording stuff like this, but I'll probably try at some point in time during the weekend.

[Excy]

Oh, I am most probably doing a lot of stuff wrong. My first priority is to make things work, and do that fast  
I'll try out Camtasia then! I have ZERO experience with recording stuff like this, but I'll probably try at some point in time during the weekend.

Well you could use it for future reference, maybe at the end of October you can watch some of the earlier videos and see how much you've improved in the way that you develop

[ZeppelinCaptain]

Four in a row. That's a good game.

Grab no. 4 here: http://bit.ly/18BQmHV
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/GVW3GE

It's a game about catching balls inside circles. The WASD keys expands a circle each. ALSO: this game must be better than the others since this one has LEVELS  



Because of some technical difficulties (figuring out how to handle the state of the balls; whether they are caught or not), this one took a full HOUR. Who uses an HOUR making a game???  

Unlike the others, this is a pretty relaxing game. No timers, no lose condition. It kind of feels like a digital version of those games where you have to tilt a board just enough to make several balls fit in a hole each.

I posted this project to r/indiegaming and it got some attention. I've replaced all download links with bit.ly-links, in order for me to track how many people actually download the games, but sadly I did it after it peaked on reddit, so the click counts are depressingly low.

Tomorrow: possible recording session, and I'll probably edit the thread with some screenshots from the games, to make things prettier.

[diegzumillo]

I am really enjoying this, all your ideas so far are really interesting!

[rundown]

How do you choose the type of game you will be making each time?
Like things you havn't done before or are a small challenge?

[ZeppelinCaptain]

I am really enjoying this, all your ideas so far are really interesting!

Wow, thank you! I try my best to make every one of them original.

How do you choose the type of game you will be making each time?
Like things you havn't done before or are a small challenge?

I sit for a while before starting and brainstorm ideas. I mentally scrap all the ones that are unrealistic to make in such a short time, and things that are not original (this is important to me, because I think there is such a vast array of unexplored mechanics available, so I don't want to make just another breakout clone). Then I just sit and think until I have an idea for a mechanic that is simple to make (I actually go through the programming steps that I would have to do, in order to see if I can do it) and seems like it could be fun.

Thanks for checking out the project, if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask

[ZeppelinCaptain]

Five games. I give them all FIVE STARS.

Get the fifth game right here: http://bit.ly/1bJwrb6
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/1axoTGP

This one is about SPLITTING YOUR BRAIN IN TWO  
You control the small green dot and the blue bigger dot, and you switch between the two with the space bar. You then have to collect coins and avoid red dots. When one of the dots collect a coin, another red is added to the opposite playfield, forcing you to think strategically about which coins to collect  



I recorded myself making the game this time! EXCITING! Recording and editing was a bit more time-consuming than I thought it would be, so I couldn't get around to uploading more than the first ten minutes of making it. The rest will come later.

Anyway, first ten minutes of making the game is here (no sound, so play some awesome music with it for better enjoyment):


(I ended up using Camtasia, which was great. Thank you Exception!)

For some reason I thought this would be a lot simpler to make than it actually was. In the end I ended up spending way too much time writing things like "random(308-16-16)+16+320", because my brain just couldn't comprehend the way the random numbers worked  

It turned out playable and without very notable bugs though, and with a (IMO) very interesting mechanic. It's a bit too hard though, and that makes the games very short. So it won't take long to try out  

Also, I prettied up the thread with some pictures! Enjoy!