A New Year Brings a Fresh Start

I swear, I’m not going to start this post out with how disappointed I am at my lack of writing output over the last year. Oops…

The Problem

A possible solution

Something I’ve seen work really well for other people who struggle with producing consistent output are what I think of as “creative challenges”. Things like the “take a picture every day for a year” challenge that a lot of people are doing to improve their photography.

I just can’t face the idea of a “blog a day” challenge, though – I like the idea of something a little more long-form, and a daily deadline would force me to cut corners to an extent I’m not ready for yet.

So instead, I signed up for the OneGameAMonth challenge. Game design is one of my non-programming passions, so I feel like I’ll be able to stay motivated and really try to see this through. A month is a long-enough deadline that I feel like I can produce something worth examining, and the practical problems and “stuff I learned along the way” should provide ample material for *at least* one blog entry a month.

The Plan

I haven’t planned the whole 12 months out yet, but here’s what I do know my plans:

• I will create a variety of games in different formats, including video games, board games, and card games
• I will explore different genres in each format
• Everything I do will be open-source on my Github account
• I will write at least one blog entry every month, about the current game
• If I don’t finish a game in a particular month, I will not give up – I’ll just do something less ambitious for the next month

The Proof

And to prove that I’m not completely full of it, here’s the in-progress game for January, after two days of after-hours hacking:

It’s named Rocks!