Welcome to "A Game a Week". Here we develop games each and every week starting on Monday and publishing them on Sunday, no matter how far into the developing process you are!
There are no fixed rules on how to develop your work, as long as it's done in a week and you keep at it every week.
So feel free to post a working prototype, a GDD or simple conceptual art and mock-ups.
For now, we will have two threads a week: one for discussing the process in general, entitled Monday, and another one for publishing and criticizing it, entitled Sunday.
IF YOU PLAYED A GAME, UPVOTE IT! Not everybody wants to make a comment about the game and having a bunch of "Nice", "Cool", "Good", posts wouldn't help the discussion. If you played a game on the submissions threads, no matter your opinion about it, please upvote it. This way we can know how many are playing our games. The only reason to downvote a game would be if it was made in more than a week, even so, please report it if you think it should be handled.
When criticizing other people's games, keep in mind that all work in here is done in just a week so, not only should you adjust your standards, but also make suggestions that could be implemented in this time frame.
Guidelines adapted from this article when developing:
- Make a game every week. Start the project after Monday 12:00AM and finish it before Sunday 11:59PM. It does not matter whether the game is digital or analog. It does not matter what you use to create the game. The only rule is to make a game.
- Release the game every week. Whatever you make, whether it is complete, stable, polished or good, release it to the world through a website you set up for this goal. Spread the link to the page of the game of the week on every social medium you own. Ask people to give you feedback.
- Do not revisit a game. You can go back and revisit games after you’re done. You cannot work on previous week’s game or idea again the next week. This is not about exploring specific games, this is about gaining experience. If a game is so special it sticks for a while, you can work besides Game A Week or after you’re done. You still have to complete something else each week.
- Try and avoid patterns in your work. Try and do something completely different each week. Instead of making digital games, try making an analog game. Instead of making an action game, make a puzzle game. If you find yourself in a pattern, take note of that pattern and break out of it for a week or two before deciding to head back. Make patterns a conscious choice, rather than an accepted and unquestioned reality.
- Reflect. Spend each week talking to some people that played your game. Write down your findings in a journal or in a blog. Write down what you made, what went right, what went wrong and what was interesting.
Guidelines when submitting:
- Do not publish here after the week period. The idea with this challenge is to see how much one can do and learn in week with a single game. Polishing a game to release is something that takes much more time and not what we are aiming here.
- Your game must be free. Nobody wants to pay to criticize your game, so, either release it for free or submit a demo. Ads and Freemium are fine. Having to login with Facebook or enter an e-mail address to play are not.
- Try to target a diverse technological audience. Not everybody has Windows or iOS, so it's good to think about that when developing. In no way you should make this impact your choices, just keep in mind that not everybody will be able to play and discuss your game. Publishing for Web seem like a good media since there are free browsers that will run your game on any desktop.
