I posed the question to myself: can I make a game in 4 hours?
The answer: a resounding "kinda."
I later revised the challenge to allow 12 hours to produce a game.
Projects
| Project Name | Participants | Elapsed Time | Latest Challenge Release |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunchtime for Nessie | Jade, Kinoko | 7 1/2 hours | Download (826 KB, Windows XP) |
| Awesoman | Jade | 4 hours | Download (591 KB, Windows XP) |
| Scurvy | Jade, Kinoko | 6 1/2 hours | Download (599 KB, Windows XP) |
| Claustrophobia | Jade, Kinoko | 12 hours 5 min | Download (1.23 MB, Windows XP) |
Participate!
- If you wish to participate in these challenges, just let me know and I'll post your results
- It helps to start with a Prompt - a word or phrase that you get from someone else
- You're on the honors system not to go over 12 hours
- When its done, its done - even if you don't think its done. Don't be afraid to share it
- You may plan and research ahead of time, but as soon as you pick up a pencil or open notepad - It counts toward design time
- It helps to work in smaller pre-allocated blocks
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- Example:
(4 hours) - create the game prototype in 4 hours
(4 hours) - taylor the game to fix bugs & finish the stuff you couldn't fit in in the first 4 hours.
(4 hours) - final game polish, polish up the graphics work, add sound effects & music - Most of my games focus around programming, for an art heavy game these times would be different
- Example:
- The 12 hours does not have to be consecutive, and for multiple people can be concurrent. You are allowed to make a 4 hour prototype, let friends play-test for a week, then work another 4 hours
- I encourage you to use the Aki Limited engine if you need, but it isn't required
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- You may use any engine you like, as long as the content is all owned by the creators
- The participants are allowed to use sound, art, and code they have previously made
- The project is more a question of what you can pull together in a day than what you can write completely from scratch
- Using non-original content is frowned upon (I.E. using RPG maker with default characters/tilesets/sounds/music/etc)
- You may work in a group
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- The 12 hours includes the combined work of all participants
- Know how quickly you can expect other people to get things done ahead of time (And I mean how fast they actually work, not how fast they say/think they work)
- It helps to designate a project leader, be they artist, designer, coder, or sound technician. Committees of equals are not time effective
- Sometimes it works, sometimes it really doesn't
[-]
- It's important to know and understand that 4 hours of programming really means (roughly): 1 hour of creating struct's/classes, 1 hour of coding the dynamic, 2 hours of debugging
- It isn't impossible, but you have to keep things simple
- Perfectionism will kill you
- Your final project will likely not be up to your artistic / debugging standards. You of course may fix the project after the 12 hour limit, but this will not be counted as part of the challenge (For example: Claustrophobia)
- If you have an idea but need a programmer, I might be willing to help you out. I know this engine and these projects are so short its really not too big of a deal.