Building a Game in a Month
Video games are an expression of art, and it is one of the things I wanted to do most as a child. I wanted to build what seemed so cool to me at the time, but to make it my own. Now, as a professional software engineer, I know that I have the technical ability to do so but I have never actually had sat down and tried to figure out what it takes to make one. Until now.
Motivation
Deciding to build a game is the first step, but actually dedicating the time and the energy to do so is a completely separate thing. I found the best way was to dedicate myself to a month-long game jam. A game jam is an event where the goal is to make a game in a specified amount of time with certain themes or conditions. For example, the game jam that I took a part in had the constraint that it must use at least four assets from opengameart.org.
There are hundreds of similar game jams on platforms such as itch.io and joining one was just the right amount of motivation to help me cross the finish line. It also was great getting to play games made by others and share our learnings and experience.
Creating the Game
I wanted to make the game easily accessible for players to play and also wanted to be able to iterate on my ideas quickly. This is where game engines come in. With a game engine, you are can use someone else’s code for things that are usually difficult but don’t need to have the wheel re-invented every time. For example, generating the game’s canvas, loading assets, and even physics can be fully taken care of by a game engine.
After sorting through and reading top 10 lists of many different game engines, I ended up building my game with Phaser 3. A simple and easy to pick up engine that lets you render your game to any platform. The language is Javascript which made it especially easy for me to begin coding and start creating the game.
I used another program for aligning sprites called Tiled and Paint 3D for modifying or editing my assets. I spent around an hour or two per day about five or so days a week throughout the month in order to complete my game.
You can play my game Jalia’s Journey here.
In the game jam, I ended up placing 4th out of 6 games but had an absolute blast while doing so and now have a game that I am able to share with my friends and family that I had built.
If you are considering creating a game of your own, I would highly recommend joining a game jam on itch.io, you can view jams that are currently accepting submissions here. With a community of people on your side, and tons of free tools creating a game has never been a more accessible or enjoyable experience.
Good luck, and happy gaming!
