View post on imgur.com

The goal is to get over the fear of releasing and “completing” games. And to form strong consistent game dev habits.

To just have fun! And to keep improving (even if 1% every day).

Inspiration

I’ve always been a fan of things like doing daily mini projects and of game jams.

Things like Daily Art (Beeple, etc), and Ludum Dare, TriJam (3hr game jam) and one hour game james. Books like Art & Fear, Art Spirit, and The Creative Act, Feck Perfuction.

I’ve also been a big fan of articles and talks outlining the weekly game jams done as part of courses or companies:

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/how-to-prototype-a-game-in-under-7-days?hl=en-US

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/audio/game-a-week-getting-experienced-at-failure?hl=en-US

Youtube Talk

10 min daily games

I recently discovered 10 minute games (from Jonas Tyroller + Brackeys ). I really love this idea, it gives you no excuses.

So the goal is to just go and not have any excuses. Sure learn an engine as you go but use w/e you already know (even pen and paper) and start now!

Ideally, a small community could form around the idea of doing everything possible to improve at making games.

The Initial Proposal

My proposed idea is to do these in ranking order (ideally do all but start small if needed):

DO NOT FORCE YOURSELF TO DO ALL OF THESE, do what you can. But the first 2 are required!

Make a 10 minute (or longer) game every single day for at least 1 week. To form a strong habit. We will be aiming for 30 days but let’s at least do a full 7 day cycle! You can do multiple games per day if you like, but you must do a game EVERY SINGLE DAY! Pen and paper games are fine! Ideally start from scratch, but you can build up on your past work if you really want.
Publish and document said progress somewhere (blog, social media, etc). Ideally on itch, but not a must for 10 min daily games. A must for weekly games (which we will graduate to )
Play 2-7 demos every week. So ideally play as many short indie games as possible. Write down what you liked, what you didn’t like, and at least 1-3 things you would improve/change.
Learn /review game design. Watch one video or one page from things like (& try to apply lessons to your games):
1. Free: https://www.youtube.com/@sora_sakurai_en (or similar channels)
2. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell (or similar books)
Learn one math or physics concept daily from things like (and try to apply them to your game dev):
1. Math Coding (free): https://www.youtube.com/@codingmath
2. Nature of Code (free, web book or channel): https://natureofcode.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@TheCodingTrain
3. Physics Unity Courses or w/e engine you use
Experiment with adding juice to some of your prototypes when you have time:
1. Juice Talks
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0a-IE5xawo
Immerge yourself as much as you like with game dev stuff like podcasts + communities BUT don’t just do this part:
Make games with w/e tools you like (controversial, even AI if you like and of course pre-made assets). But ideally, from time to time, you do stuff all on your own, from your own character controller etc. But also try “unusual” tools like physical games (pen and paper, arduinos, etc) , construct, p5.js , etc.
Take care of your mental and physical health (meditation, constant stretching/walking breaks, sleep, etc)
Have fun and make weird stuff if that’s your thing!

Weekly Games:

Ideally we can graduate to weekly games, after doing daily games for 1 week. And to start introducing a weekly game. And do this for at least 1 month. So four weekly games + your daily 10 min game! Even just cloning an existing game and adding a minor tweak (even just different art style, etc)

So a game we work on for at least 2-7 days of the week. One format could be:

Stick to a theme (like gravity, swarm, springs, etc) for every other week (optional either way). So sometimes theme constrained but sometimes free for all.
Take one of your daily games and work on it for at least 1-6 more days. A good suggestion might be to do 2-3 daily prototypes on the theme, and then pick one and work on it for the remainder of the week.
Remember, almost all games can be prototyped in less than week!
Work at least 5-10 minutes per day on your game for more than one day of the week
Document your progress and release! Publish your game somewhere, itch.io for example.
Post about your game on social media, get feedback!

Sometimes, skip a week so we can take one prototype further, but never past 14 days without a release to get feedback. And to abandon games that are not fun to work on past 14 days, and just release and move on to the next one. Most game devs probably have more ideas than they can ever make in their life time anyway.

Start Today, No excuses!

Doesn’t matter if you can or cannot code, like mentioned before, do a paper version if you must or use a no-code tool or something you already know how to use (react, java, ios, etc)
It is okay for the games to be crappy! And failure is part of the learning process, perhaps the most important part
Remember, EVERY DAY, you gotta fight resistance, that little monster, telling you that “you can’t do it” or w/e it is that keeps you from just doing! Make art and have fun!