2016 Game Development Goals

I tell my students every term that their blogs are a great place to showcase their passion for games and game development. I tell them that every term and here sits my own blog. Empty. Neglected. FORGOTTEN.

photo by Ed Stecki

So, befitting the start of a new year, I had my students in Game Design 2 (howdy, y’all!) draft three SMART game development goals for 2016. I joined them in this goal-setting and here are mine:

GOAL ONE

Reboot my blog with a post a month for the entirety of 2016. This goal is totally fruit of the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ business I was rocking with my students. AND NEVER-YOU-MIND THAT THIS POST IS IN THE TWILIGHT DAYS OF JANUARY. January is January.

 

GOAL TWO

In 2016, play six games that having not played usually elicits this comment: YOU HAVE TO PLAY THIS GAME.

  • Dark Souls
  • Castle Crashers
  • Kingdom Hearts
  • Thomas Was Alone
  • Shadow of the Colossus
  • Earthbound
  • Bonus game: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

I know, I know. A goal for playing games. Come on. There are a ton of games out there! And I want to play a lot more than I have time to play — so I’m picking these out as a focus.

I am starting with Thomas Was Alone and Castle Crashers because I own them. And because I suspect they’ll take the least time to complete in the first few months of 2016 which are going to be packed. I’m giving myself about 2 months per game and will hopefully play through even more than these. Games that aren’t on the list, but could be: Heavy Rain, Hotline Miami, Dead Space, Braid, Chrono Trigger, Journey. AND MUCH MORE.

 

GOAL THREE

Actually make Namesies in a Hatsy! This is a party game that is a lot of fun, but a chore to set up. It’s PERFECT for an app to handle scoring and serving names and timers.

For those of you who haven’t played this game, you might know it as Celebrity or Salad Bowl. Each player picks the names of 5 people. They can be living, dead, fictional, historical, personal acquaintances, anyone. The players are divided into two groups and take turns getting their teammates to guess the names as fast as possible. Play proceeds in rounds with the way clues are given changing in each round. Round 1 is a free-for-all you can give clues any way you like save rhyming the Namesy. Round 2 is charades. Round 3 is single word clues. None of these elements are difficult to solve, though it might get dicey to involve a phone in a game that can get… vigorous.

It is a game that needs to exist and I want a playable version of it by the end of Q2.

Twenty Sixteen is going to be a great year!

 

Author: Karen M

Game designer and instructor.

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