So I’ve “started a game studio”, by which I mean I bought a domain, registered a few online accounts, and set aside some dev time every week. For a while now I’ve toyed with the idea of getting more serious about game development, but the urge is always tempered by the sheer quality and quantity found in the industry today. How could I possibly stand out against the tide of quality indie games being released on a daily basis?

But then I decided, fuck it. It’s all about me. I’ve done a few jams and tinkered with a few half-finished games, and the one thing they all have in common is I thoroughly enjoy my time with them. Now is not the time to worry about what other people think. Now is the time to hone my craft.

I’ve been developing software for years, so I don’t anticipate any problems building game engines. But I need to practice just about everything else.

• Graphics
• Sound and music
• Level Design
• Project Management / Release Cycles

I could outsource some of this of course, but as I said, it’s time to hone my craft. Even if I’ll never be a good artist, there is value in doing the art myself. Doing my own art in my past few projects has taught me the importance of selecting a resolution and palette early on. And paying attention to details surrounding the art like ensuring a clear delineation between the background and the foreground. Basic stuff, but stuff that’s easy to ignore when you’re focused only on implementing gameplay. I can only assume that continued practice will pay game-improving dividends in the future.

The Format

A while back, I literally stumbled upon a good way to structure seemingly-overwhelming endeavors. It’s easy to get distracted in the first few weeks, easy to give up when you start getting bored of something, easy to despair at endless task ahead of you. Enter the 52-week trial period. 52 weeks is long enough to really get something significant done, but also short enough that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. If you find yourself at the end of a year without the oomph to continue, no hard feelings, you’ve completed the trial run and have ultimately decided that the trial was not a success. When I first structured a project this way, ultimately I decided against a weekly piss-up at the end of the 52 consecutive drunken Mondays, but it’s an achievement I can look back on with pride to this day.

BrickBeet’s Phase 1 will use this structure (the trial period, not the drinking). A 52-week period in which I set aside half a day for game development every week. And release a game every 2 months. This schedule is clearly insane. Each game won’t have much more time put into it than your average jam. But I have a lot of half-complete games lying around and clearly have trouble finishing things. I wanted a structure that would force me to get to the Release phase of projects and get used to the full project cycle.

Streaming

I’ll be streaming a lot of my dev sessions. This is driven in part by me looking frantically for a way to engage the community so people actually see my games. But it’s also another way to keep myself engaged. I force myself to keep a schedule by making a promise to be online at the same time every week. It’s working so far. Even with an average of 0 – 1 viewers since I started, it’s hard for me to skip a week when I feel I’ve made a commitment to other people.

I’ve also noticed it’s a slightly different experience than my usual coding, both better and worse. It’s better because I find myself playing the part of dev tutor. I’m explaining what I’m doing and why. I have to articulate a lot of the things I normally do automatically. I’m noticing things about my process I’d taken for granted before, and talking through the code can help find bugs.

The downside, of course, is that it feels so slow. There are times you just want to put your head down and just send the code from your head through your fingertips for an hour or two. It’s the greatest feeling in the world as a coder, but also the second-most boring to watch (the most boring is watching me stare angrily at the same line that’s not fucking working for an hour or two. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of that, too.)

I’m starting to realize I’ll need two modes of coding. The streaming mode for trying new stuff out and doing “shallow” work that plays around with existing features, and a pure-dev mode where I’m working on core features that may require intricate code or intense debugging.

The Code

Speaking of the code, I’m also planning on giving away the code for at least this first year of games. Like streaming, this is partly a desparate “Look at me!” move to try to build an audience. But it’s also just good citizenship. There are a lot of people out there trying to build games, and the more tools they have the better the entire community gets as a whole.

The Future

Where do I go after this first year? Well, assuming I want to keep doing it, I’ll probably move on to more ambitious projects. The 2-month release cycle doesn’t allow me to explore much beyond a basic concept. I’ve got a few half-written games I’d be happy to expand on, and a few cool ideas I’d really like to sink my teeth into. I’m also hoping that one of the games created this year will provide sufficient inspiration that it’s worth revisiting and expanding in the future.

But for now? I’m just going to peck away at my low-risk, rapid-development, skill-developing games. Because right now it’s not about being ambitious or creating the next blockbuster. It’s all about me.

— James

---

Postscript: “How can I help?”

What did I just say? This is all about me, so just go about your merry business.

Okay, wait, come back. Actually, I’d really appreciate it if you could sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of the page or follow me on social media. I stream weekly on Twitch, I’ll be releasing the games on Itch.io, I’ll give occasional updates on Twitter and Facebook, and will be sending out a newsletter when a game is released.

If you’re feeling exceedingly generous, you can support me on Patreon. It feels really weird to ask for money to support what is at this point a hobby project, but I promise you my undying respect, and your money will do some real good in this world, like paying voice actors to scream into a microphone for ten minutes.

Edit Aug 2023

Holy shit, I mean, I knew the schedule was ambitious, but didn’t realize it was completely ludicrous. Let’s pare down those expectations from “every 2 months” to “whenever it’s at all possible”.