How to make a game in 6 weeks | Hacker News Reader

How to make a game in 6 weeks

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73 pointsabijlani10 comments

Congrats on putting out such a great looking game so quickly! Solid polish and fits right in on the app store. I bought it an gave it a try and it was pretty fun. I was able to figure out a trick pretty quick that took most of the challenge away, but for the six weeks, very impressive.

A couple pieces of the article did bother me though:

I think all the planning you did helped you stay on course, but I also think it is important to constantly question your game and take time where needed to make sure it is fun. Creating a game that is fun is not usually an easy and quick task.

"Users never like what you like" - I beg to differ. While it is important to make sure that you are not the only one that likes the game (if you want it to sell), most indie game developers focus on making something they love. This concept has lead to an amazing revolution of really original and amazing indie titles.

I used to host a programming contest called 3HGCD, as in 3-Hour Game Design Contest. You'd be surprised what people can do if they focus their attention on one thing and keep it simple.

My favorite is still the game about driving a car as a bear. You used the mouse to move a bear's arm to either push the gas or turn the steering wheel. You were trying to find fish to eat and prepare for the winter before you found a cave to hibernate in. It really felt like you were a bear trying to drive a car.

EDIT: Oh hey! Looky thar, I found a repository I made that has all of the games: https://3hgdc.codeplex.com/

Oddly enough I think that game was a guess the game on ABC's Good Game a few weeks back. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/

They picked it due to it being zany. I had no idea that it was made in 3 hours.

I think you guys are talking about Enviro-Bear 2000. Which had a lot more work on it before release, it was also an entrant and winner of a TIGSource month long competition. [0]

As for time constrained game challenges, the Klik of the Month Klub[1] gives 2 hours and 0 Hour Jam[2] gives participants just 1.

I did KotM a while back and was pretty surprised at how much I managed to get done. [3]

[0] http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4964.0 [1] http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/44 [2] http://0hgame.eu [3] http://joeba.in/klik53/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGQJaAjrZLA

Hilarious! How does one come up with ideas like this? There must have been substances involved...

Surprised nobody has mentioned Ludum Dare [0]. It's a competition to make an entire game from scratch in 48 to 72 hours, when all is done, it's judged by your peers -- everyone who made a submission. A good example of what can be done in 72 hours is "Leaf Me Alone" [1].

[0] http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8V202sUbBY

Grilly the Cheese has terrible download numbers for a free app. This is why I think games are a bad idea for anyone hoping to make any kind of money.

I don't know if that app was always free, but with 30,000 free downloads I would be surprised if it could sell 100 copies at $0.99.

Developing indie games and working in the games industry in general is a terrible way to make money. I went to university with someone who is working for one of the big game studios. He get's around half what you would expect to get building enterprise applications and regularly works long hours. Not everything is about making money though, it was his dream to work in the games industry, he loves what he does and is happy doing it.

Or he could work for a decent enterprise shop and spend the excessive part of "long hours" executing his vision on his projects.

> Users never like what you like, and they never do what you think they will do.

Users also don't know what they like and they don't know what, when and how to do at all.

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