I’ve done it! My first #1GAM game is complete. Joust! can be played here. Total coding time: 14 hours 47 minutes, with 1 hour 13 minutes left.

I should be honest here. CODING is complete. The artwork is not quite complete with two/three icons missing- These are being done by someone else and are still being updated. Be that as it may, the game is complete and playable right now with only a couple of object graphics missing.

Did it go to plan? The answer is yes and no. It has taught me to be more disciplined with my time for sure, meaning a short but efficient design document, simple gameplay rules and most of all a project that could actually be finished.

However, part of the 16 hour rule was that this game was supposed to take the whole month, with bits of coding here and there. It meant that I still had time for other projects and my fiancee. The reality was I spent about 4 days of spare time charging through the logic whilst it was all still fresh in my head and getting it done. Fiancee? Who is that again!? Luckily she was supportive and enjoyed my little side project. My other projects did suffer however and now I am a little behind on my targets.

I think the key to succeeding here doesn’t just lie in completing the games, but also doing it without taking up all of your time. I will not begin #1GAM2 until Feburary the 4th. I already know what it is, so the new challenge is to not work on it!

What are my thoughts on Joust? Well, You get out what you put in. It’s not a bad game at all, but there’s only so much you can do in 16 hours. The game needs balancing, and it needs to be more obvious how you have won. I still technically have 1 hour 13 minutes left and I may yet use that to get rid of the rapid clicking required, and turn it into a pure card based game, which may actually be far more fun! Player a scores , Player b scores , based off the attributes of their weapon cards. Perhaps roll a dice to multiply against that score to see who comes out on top? Who knows. Presently the game is at exactly the state described in the design doc, with some small balancing done to the guesswork within. I am happy and hopefully players will be too!

So, What’s next?

Well, those of you who read my old blog know I wrote Mash ‘Em Marbles in 4 weeks, start to finish. #1GAM 2 will be Mash ‘EM Marbles 2, which was touched on last year somewhat, but we are going to have it ready in Feburary. This is an update, not an entire game, hence it’ll be less work and seem a more polished product than Joust. More on Mash ‘Em 2 later, though!

#1GAM has been extremely inspirational to a lot of people and I am very grateful that Christer put this together.

Joust itself has inspired a board game called Latvian Lances, which sounds to be a pretty cool print-and-play board game. I’m waiting for images to show it off, but it’s being developed by a guy named Martin Corns as we speak.

Thank you very much, #1GAMers!