Hello World.

Hey Internet audience, I'm Steven Zavala and I'm a game developer. Well, I'm lots of other things too but in keeping with the old school tradition of being defined by what you do for a living, that is how I would introduce myself: Steven Zavala, Video Game Developer. The thing is I haven't really done that much game development. I've worked on a few games you've never played and I'm currently working on some more games you will never play but I haven't really created much of anything. After doing some thinking on it, I've decided that that is really lame. It feels like the equivalent of someone churning out a few commercial jingles and then claiming the title of songwriter—while it's technically accurate, it just doesn't feel right. So I've decided to do something about that. Taking some inspiration from Jonathan Coulton and his Thing a Week songwriting project I am going to challenge myself to make a Game a Month for as long as I am willing/able

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The concept is pretty much self explanatory based on the name, but to satisfy my habit of over-elaborating I'm going to break it down a little. Every month I will design and develop a new original game that I will then release to the cruel unfeeling Internet. I may use some code and art assets that I can legally acquire, but I will do all of the gameplay programming (and likely much of the art) myself. Games can be a lot of work and a month is not a lot of time, so this means the games will not be the most sophisticated works of design and technology the world has ever known. They will be simple, potentially bordering on crude, and buggy, potentially bordering on broken, but that's not the point. The point is that they will be complete in their own special participation-prize way and that they will be something that I can actually claim responsibility for and maybe even be proud of. Along the way, I will update this blog with information about the design and development process of the current Game a Month as well as my disorganized rants about games and anything else that drifts through my head.

I'm not starting the clock for the first Game a Month just yet, as I am in the process of moving and such, but I'll update as soon as it begins.

Preemptive FAQ! or Me Talking to Myself!

Q: If you really wanted to make a game, why limit yourself to a month? Wouldn't more time be helpful?

A: Time is nice, yeah. But I have a habit of wasting it. Whenever I try to tackle something big, I always lose interest or come up with a new idea or decide that the idea just isn't as good as it should be. By only taking a month per game, I can work within my limited attention span and cover more creative ground. There is now no idea that is too stupid!

Q: What tools are you going to use for development?

A: Most (more likely all) of the games are going to be developed in the Unity engine as it is great for quick development and it is the engine I have the most experience with. For art, I will likely be using GIMP for 2D stuff since it is free and Maya or 3ds Max for 3D since I should have a student copy floating around here somewhere.

Q: You said you would use some assets that you can find. So does that mean I can contribute?

A: Of course you can, hypothetical helpful question asker! If you feel like you have some audio or visual assets that would fit the theme/setting of the current Game a Month, let me know. Help with music would be most appreciated as that is the one thing that I really cannot fake.

                                                                       

Q: What happens at the end of the month if the game isn't done?

A: I suppose I’ll have to choose to strip the game down to whatever can be considered “done”, release it as is, or flee from the Internet in shame. Or give myself more time. The cool thing about creating a challenge for yourself is you can change the rules whenever you like. And I likely will. Often.