Most of you don't know who I am. My name is Seth. I'm a newcomer here at BGDF; I've cruised around the forums and site for a few weeks now. I'm immensely interested in games, especially board games. I've created many games by myself and now I'm ready to open up to ideas a little more.
Now, the catch; I'm only 16 years old. But please, don't judge me. I'm quite intelligent, especially for my age. I have taught myself everything I know about card and board games and have come a far way (ah, the days of making killer pokemon decks... how times have changed). Now I'm on to bigger and better projects, some of which I hope to disclose on this blog.
Anyway, now to the idea of 100 Games in 100 Days. For years, all my friends have turned to me whenever they were bored. "Hey Seth, make a game!" "Seth, you're the game man, make up something." And time after time, I've rattled my brain for the next great idea that would jump out at them as a gripping and exciting game. I've had my successes, and my failures, but I have learned a lot about the art of game creation and think I can handle a project as massive as 100/100.
The toughest part of this will be having enough ideas to fill this. With enough ideas and themes for possible games, I think I can achieve this task. But I need help, from you, to stock my imagination with possibilities of un-developed ideas and games. These can vary anything from board games, card games, party games, games with a deck of playing cards, and so on. And I won't start until I have a good base of ideas. But I hope to start soon, and I need your help! If you have something good, please message me or comment here. Once I get going, I'll either post games in blocks of 3 every three days, or strive for a one per day goal. Either way, I'll try my hardest not to disappoint.
Thanks to everyone in advance!
-Seth
Comments
Games for difficult themes
1) a set-collection and tile-laying game about the lifecycle of the Notostraca (Triops)
2) a realtime cardgame playable by three players about the Spanish Inquisition
3) an abstract that somewhat represents cell mitosis
4) a roll-for-action-points wargame depicting the battle of Okehazama
Why?
Is this just a hotdog eating contest or is there some underlying goal?
Why?
I've always wanted to do this. I suppose there are two reasons. Personally, to see if I could actually accomplish this, and for the community, to give ideas for games that other members could possibly use to branch off in their own directions with.
Thanks dnjkirk. I'm quite certain those are un-developed :P
One thing that this place
One thing that this place isn't short on is ideas. Good luck. Ill throw a few onto the fire.
Furniture making, to the death!
soap bubbles trying not be eaten by dogs
Dinosaur musical theater
Put deodorant on the con-attendee, Its kinda like minesweeper
Bloggle, it combines boggle and blogging
Placate your depression! You have to temporarily cure your characters depression through shopping, eating, gambling or chemistry.
Electrici-tea, Combines power grid style economic play with the refined pallette of a smooth breakfast tea.
Termite, lead your colony to destroy the house before you are discovered and exterminated.
I wish you the best of luck.
Hi Seth,
In January 2000, I started posting one game every month at Invisible City Productions ( www.invisible-city.com ). I've kept it up pretty much non-stop since then, and posted my 109th game last month.
So, speaking from experience: 100 games in 100 days is a very, very ambitious goal. I wish you only the best in this venture, so don't take this as a slight. You may want to scale back just a tiny bit to 100 games in 100 weeks, or even 100 games in 200 days. That way, if you stick with one game per day, you can get ahead of schedule and if you miss a day you're still on schedule.
I'd like to see you succeed, and I'd like to see you set a goal that encourages your success. The portfolio of games I built up by making one game every month got me the best job I ever had (other than owning my own business). It also led to the creation of two games that I've licensed to a publisher (and should be available later this year!). It was a very valuable and positive experience for me, and I'd like it to be like that for you too.
Best of luck, and best regards,
Jonathan L.
I was hoping Jon would post
I immediately thought of his game-per-month effort when seeing your post.
The key point to take away is that you want to set yourself up with a project that you will likely succeed at. In my opinion, 1 game per month was a very aggressive goal, assuming you want to make playable games with rules, testing, etc.
Unless you are just talking about doing a quick written "treatment" for each game, I am hoping you will back off on your projected pace ... it will be too easy to get hung up 1 day and then fall behind and then give up.
I also wish you luck on your effort and will keep an eye on what you will be creating. For additional ideas, you can look at the "Game Design Showdown" forum and look at each of the monthly Challenge announcements for things to base your game ideas on.
Cheers,
-Bryk
I so hope you can do
I so hope you can do this...
So I feel like the party pooper when I offer you the downsides of what you are attempting:
1. Lack of quality play testing: you may have a game in a day but how honed is it? Is it really more an idea than an actual game?
2. Inadequate time to make a prototype: you may find your self spending most of the day just making the bits for the game. This takes longer than you think and more money too!
3. Writer’s block: it can really come in and strangle you.
4. Time, man, just time: when will you have time to do other things with your friends? Make sure you get some fresh air now and then! ;)
Honestly, if you wan to follow an EXCELLENT model, follow that of InvisibleJon and do one game per month. This will give your games a better perception that they have been vetted and play tested. One game per month is still a Herculean task I assure you and people on this forum will be more than impressed. Because it’s going to be summer vacation and you are 16 and blessed with free time(!) maybe trying one game every fortnight (~two weeks) would be ok too.
If you really want to do something intense, the best advice I can offer you is this: PLAY 100 different games in 100 days concurrently with designing one game each fortnight. There are plenty of free games out there:
www.pagat.com
http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/index.html
Or hell, just play all of InvisibleJon’s games!!! Can’t imagine a better education.
If you insist on the 100/100, here’s my suggestion (actually I suggest this no matter what pace you choose): limit your game pieces (components) from the start. Design all the games from this pool components. (Of course you can sketch up a board if need be or add one or two things here and there.) Setting this limit and sticking to it will very much help you focus on the game design and not worry about prototyping or production. Have them all at the ready, design the game, write the rules, move on…NEXT! It may seem counter intuitive to set such a limit on components, but I promise that this will let you focus more clearly on the game design and problem solving.
BEST OF LUCK!
Suggestion
I think this is a very good idea, provided just making 100 (likely not very good) games in 100 days is not the final objective. I'm a graphic designer by profession, and one exercise they give you in design school is to quickly sketch 100 thumbnails for a given simple concept, like "an ad for a brand of apples." Or whatever. So you do that. Then you take the 20 best ideas and do a more detailed sketch. Then you take the 5 best of those and do a proper mockup. Then you take the best of those and actually make a finished piece from it.
That's what I think you should do here. After you've done your 100 games in 100 days, take the best 20 and spend another couple of days on each of them, polishing them up a little. Then take the best 5 of those and spend like a week on each, trying to work out the kinks. Then take the best one and work on it for the rest of the year.
Then get your parents to lend you a few grand to get proper artwork done, and show it around to publishers. If you actually go through that whole process, I'm pretty sure you'll have a killer game at the end of it.
By the way, no shame in being 16... the quality of your writing shows you're not a typical teen by any means. And the advantage of being that age is that you don't have to worry about paying rent or feeding a family, so you actually have the luxury of going whole hog in pursuing your dream. Don't waste that opportunity, or you'll regret it when you're 30 or 40...
Don't do that!
Alex’s refinement scheme sounds like a good plan all but the above part. Spending big money on art for a prototype to show to a publisher is a waste. If you do sell it they will have it redone. In the end if you make a few grand you'll have done well.
Use clipart, it only needs to be functional.
Paper
I like the post card with the little colored edges. You can do a lot with the basics.
Jon knows of what he speaks
Check out some of his games, there are some diamonds there. If you are planning on developing 1 idea a day that is reasonably well fleshed out, that is probably doable. The thought of making 100 ideas, developing 20, then gradually narrowing it down until you have a core of good designs is great... and it gives you an awesome resource of ideas to go back to and reincarnate into another game.
Thanks for the correction.
Thanks for the correction. I'm an artist myself, so I do my own art and it's thus a moot point for me. I assumed that it was like the video game industry and that it was easier to get a deal with a "publisher" if you already had a finished product and they were really just acting more as a distributor + assuming the risk of the production costs. The publisher I deal with on a regular basis here (I'm a freelance artist for him) does it both ways... some people bring him games with finished art and he just publishes them, others bring him prototypes and he gets me and/or his other regular freelancer to create the art. He's a much smaller operation than e.g. Rio Grande or whoever, though... I imagine you're right, and the big guys prefer to have their own artists do everything to have a consistent style.
Well, the idea was not to
Well, the idea was not to create 100 completed games, but instead to write a quick draft of the rules and what you need to play. To create 100 working games in 100 days is way too ambitious of a goal for me.
Also, I was going to write out games days in advance, so in case I get stumped for a day or do not have time to write it out I have that day's post ready. Once I get a few more done, I would like to start this. I've done about 3 a day so far, and have the next several picked out.
Also, I'm not sure if I posted this in the introduction, but the games aren't limited to board games. They can be card games, party games, playing card games, etc.
Been very busy lately. I'll
Been very busy lately. I'll try to get the first ones posted soon, hopefully by the end of the week.
sounds ambitious, but 100
sounds ambitious, but 100 games in 100 days might be just too much.
How about 52 weeks, 52 games? :)
Oopsie...
I misunderstood your intent. 100 drafts is a lot different from 100 finished games. I think you can do it. Have fun!