A 2014 indie game maker contest post-mortem

    Hello and Greetings Gamasutra! This is my first post and it couldn’t be about anything better! I decided my entry into blogging about my experience with game design should start with me and my friend David’s first foray into a Game Development Contest. We had already decided we were going to make a game this summer. But just as we are about to start… I get word of the “2014 Indie Game Maker Contest” and I convinced David to participate in this endeavor.

    The rules for this Competition are simple. Start Making a Game at the beginning of June, Submit the Game by the end of June, and the Game must be “complete”. It can be of any genre and use any tools.

    However I don’t want to talk specifics about our game, what I want to discuss is my experience with the high pressure environment that having only one month to develop a game can create. If I had to describe myself in one word this month… it would be tired. This challenge exhausted me much more than I originally imagined it would.

    I’d start the mornings by programing whatever task was next. I’d go to work if I was scheduled that day. Then I’d get home and program some more until 4-5 am in the morning. I’d go to sleep for 4 hours at most, and the repeat.  For those who don’t know, Wikipedia list the effects of sleep deprivation. That list consists of the following : aching muscles, confusion, memory lapses or loss, depression, hallucinations, hand tremor, headaches, malaise,  stye,  periorbital  puffiness, increased blood pressure, increased stress hormone levels, increased risk of diabetes ,increased risk of fibromyalgia, irritability, nystagmus (rapid involuntary rhythmic eye movement) ,obesity, seizures,temper tantrums,yawning, and mania. I can say I experienced at least a good handful of those.

Eventually my brain decieded food didnt need to have form and as a result the following picture became a regular meal... which i still enjoy eating. What your looking at is a pile of shredded chick covered in cheese and doused in Taco Sauce. try it sometime.

    Aside from the physical/mental effects of this contest, I also learned a few things. For instance I’ve never worked on a project together with somebody before this. Turns out it’s not the easiest process to settle into. I honestly believe the only reason we met our deadline was because of constant communication. We talked and updated every day and it definitively made a difference. I was set on being feature locked after 3 weeks. Anything afterwards was to be merely tweaking of various spawn rates and aesthetics.  A goal we managed to meet with time to spare.

   I also learned about the magic of a checklist. The biggest leap in progress occurred when we made a list of things we need done next. I got everything done on that list within a day every time. The days we went without such a list our progress was definitely held back a bit.

   The Last bit of growth I experience was I went from making a feature that worked to make a system that my partner could then use to quickly make new weapons/levels. In our case the systems I designed allowed new weapons/levels to be made with a short list of numbers. It’s a technique I’m definitely going to use going forward.

    Overall I am very happy with the product and my experience with its creation. I definitely need a break at this point, but it’s something I would definitely participate in again.

For those curious the contest can be found here: http://contest.rpgmakerweb.com/

There’s a panel of judges for most awards, but there is one people’s choice award.
There are plenty of games in this contest worthy of your vote, so please check out everybody’s hard work. Voting is only open from July 1st to 7th!!!!

Here is the link if you wish to vote for us: http://contest.rpgmakerweb.com/game/view/id/482#.U7FcErGTEmA