While self-employed it seems vital to always be looking at ways to improve my situation and work habits, so I’m starting a new habit: each month I will challenge myself with a difficult task.
During June and July I challenged myself to create a commercial HTML5 mobile game in under 24 hours. The first time I failed, finishing my game in 30 hours. And then in July I succeeded in making a game in 9 hours which has gone on to earn over $3000 so far.
This month, August, I’m taking the same concept further. I’ll be aiming to completely finish 5 HTML5 games within 5 days.
What’s The Point?
This is a test to see if I can really focus on simplistic designs and maintain a limited scope. In a typical month I seem to only make a single new game so I also want to establish a productive streak where I can just focus on game development.
By the end of the week, I’ll have 5 brand new HTML5 mobile games available to extend my portfolio and license to publishers. Additionally, this challenge will help to improve my financial stability in preparation for moving out next month, but it’s primarily a design challenge. Making even a single commercial-quality game in 5 days can be tough!
What Are The Rules?
I decided that the key restriction would be that I can only work on one game per day. That way I’m not tempted to create 4 basic games and 1 complex game. That would be against the point. So no matter what game I choose to create, I must dedicate an entire day to it, and no more!
If a game is not finished by the end of a day, I will have failed the challenge.
I will allow myself to make minor improvements to the games before sending them to publishers, after the end of the challenge.
I’m allowed to use purchased graphical assets, and I can use a pre-made base project to work from (a basic structure not related to any game in particular).
What Will I Make?
I’m going to stick to extremely basic concepts. The point of these games is not necessarily to push any boundaries but I will try to give things my own spin. For day one I plan to recreate Tic Tac Toe with a faster pace and stylistic visuals. For day two I plan to make a themed Breakout clone. These types of games have a purposely low scope which leaves me to focus on polish and presentation. Plus, they will be excellent fillers for my HTML5 mobile portfolio.
I have not entirely decided which games to make yet. I’m making it up as I go along.
So That’s That
This personal challenge is nothing special, just a bit of fun that will hopefully have some interesting results. I’ll update the blog as I finish each game, and I’ll tweet about my progress on Twitter as well @TrueValhalla using the hash tag #555challenge.
If anyone wishes to join in and challenge themselves to make 5 HTML5 games in 5 days, let me know how it turns out for you! There’s not set time here, just start when you’re ready to.
Wish me luck!
Matthew
Good luck! If you read this before the week’s end, shame on you! Get back to work! =]
Inspirational. I’ll have to try something like this soon.
I suppose I will do this, although I only have created a few HTML5 games. I will start with an easier challenge, perhaps, 3 HTML5 games in 5 days.
I’ve done Global Game Jam before, and that was stupid fun. The game was a broken disaster, but it was fun. Wish I had more time for game-jam-like events.
MadameBerry recently posted..First Impressions of BrashMonkey’s Spriter: Easy Animating for 2D Games
i created and tested some gmhtml5 game on my htc explorer, the fps is very low, about only 12-16
Performance depends on a few things. But you should not use an Android device to benchmark HTML5 performance given how fragmented Android is. I use my iPod Touch to benchmark performance. If I can get a steady 27-30 FPS then performance will be “good enough” on other devices.
Matt I’ve played your games and they are very good. I am worried that you want to fill your portfolio with “filler” games. You’re commerical now mate and doing very well at it. Please don’t compromise on the quality for the sake of a challenge.
That said I’m intrigued to see what you come up with
Good luck.
Mark recently posted..Converting Robotron in to an HTML5 mobile web game
This is what actually set me back during the challenge…I couldn’t be satisfied with 5 very simple games because I knew they wouldn’t be of quality high enough that I’d feel confident to license them. So I ended up making only a few games, but ones that were good enough to license.
I’ve been meaning to write a follow-up post to the challenge but I haven’t gotten around to it just yet. Soon!