How To Build a Game In A Week From Scratch With No Budget

By: Tim

On: November 11th, 2006

I don’t remember if this article was ever posted (it’s over a year old). An interesting read for anyone who has not seen it.

Posted in Community, Developers

gum

Wow. So it CAN BE DONE! (if you have been writing computer and console games professionally and as a hobby for over twenty years)
;)
Hmm

In light of all rapid development efforts (Speedhack and TINS, Ludum Dare, 72hour GDC, experimental gameplay, indy game jam, minorhack, etc) it’s hard to really see the point of this article. It doesn’t really try to be a “How To,” and we already knew it could be done. It’s just another postmortem — and for a relatively mediocre game, even in the context of rapid development.
http://www.rampantgames.com/blog/ Coyote

Mediocre? You flatter me :) I keep wanting to revisit this article with a sequel about making a game in 1 week with a familiar toolset and a limited budget.

I did learn PyGame in the course of creating the game and the article, so that was a nice bennie.

As to the point: This was largely instigated by a number of aspiring game developers on forums at gamedev.net, garagegames.com, and other places who complained about lacking the time or budget to even start making games. Guys like Tom Bampton (who was the guy who gave me the “no engine” restriction, durn him) who had a monthly “Game In A Day” competition, and other experienced game devs kept trying to explain how none of this was a necessity, but even their projects and “proof” fell on deaf ears.

Sure, some of the forum posters were really just after making excuses, but I figured some of them really, sincerely wanted to make games, but had no idea where to start. They just assumed that with enough funding, expensive tools, and team members it would miraculously work out.

It wasn’t just proof they needed.

So I figured I’d go through the process, and take notes hour-by-hour to show how I did it, in an attempt to not only whip out a game, but actually take it to something resembling an “alpha” stage for a finished project. Not that I’m any kind of genius developer or anything (I wish!), but I have done it a couple of times now. I hoped I could let aspiring developers kinda “ride shotgun” and see my thought process every step of the way. Not just the programming efforts, but where I went to find resources, how I solved bugs, what sort of problems I ran into, etc.

I’ve gotten some really awesome feedback and emails from folks who have told me the article really helped them out. It feels awesome to know I helped in some small way. So I guess that was the point.

If you are already an experienced developer, particularly someone who’s participated in Ludlum Dare or a similar project, you aren’t the intended audience. You are probably better at it than me, and I’d like to read an article seeing how YOU did it… I still have a lot to learn!
Tim W.

I have a link to the Swarm Racer dev log, but I won’t post about it unless lex is fine with the idea. :)