10 Lessons from Making 100 Games in 5 Years was originally given as a talk at IndieCade 2017. This is an adaptation of that talk. 

It’s over! From June 2012 through June 2017, I made 100 games in 5 years.

Before we dive in, it’s important to have some framing about the 100 games in 5 years, why I’m writing about it now, and lend some quick numbers and facts about the games themselves.

Some Framing

Back in 2012, I considered the challenge a long-term safe strategy. I figured that, by the end of the 5 years, I would know for certain if game development was both something I would enjoy doing and something I would be good at doing.

I also knew that even if the games themselves were bad (many of which are), at least the challenge itself would be noteworthy. While I can’t say that I learned more through making 100 games than I would have on another path, 2012-James was right about a few qualities of the ambition. The 100-in-5 placed me in Forbes 30 Under 30 2017, solidified a well-founded design voice, and introduced me to more wonderful, insightful, intelligent games folk than I ever anticipated. I fondly call the goal “the smartest idea young me ever had.”

It’s important to mention that I was supported throughout the challenge. For starters, I was a student for the duration of it: first as undergraduate at Miami University of Ohio and then as a graduate student at the University of Southern California – institutions where teachers were profoundly helpful. The challenge was of my own design and my own volition, but it wasn’t self-funded, nor should it be seen as such. It did open doors and help me secure financial aid, but my parents and grandparents helped as well. In addition, there was a lot of encouragement and support along the way – more support than I will be able to repay.

To mentors, peers, parents, family, collaborators, players, and all: thank you for making this possible.

Why Write Now?

The final game was made in June 2017, exactly a year ago from when I’m writing and posting this 10 Lessons piece. Why wait so long? The honest answer: I needed a break – I needed time to collect my thoughts and adjust to living outside of the goal. Five years is a long stretch. Spanning from age 21 to 26, the challenge was almost a fifth of my life. That’s a lot of time to devote to rapid iteration!

Not to say I haven’t been busy since, it’s just been a different kind of busy, one with slower paces and real-world deadlines. Since the challenge, I have made a few games: 4 tiny ones. I’m also still working on eCheese Zone. In development for 6 months now, eCheese Zone is tied with You Must be 18 or Older to Enter and The World the Children Made for the longest development period I’ve spent on a single project. But now, on the anniversary of completing the 100 games in 5 years, enough time has ebbed for me to write about it.

A Few Quick Snips from the Outcome

Engines Used:

In total, there were 12 analog games (non-digital) and 88 digital. Over 60 of the digital games were made with GameMaker and GameMaker Studio. While all free, a few allow donations.

Regarding donations, my goal with this challenge was never to earn from it. I had not considered monetizing the 100 until late in the challenge – as late as 2017. As of now, total donations (from the few games that allow it) have made less than $400. For the whole challenge, I was a full-time student, so game development was a hobby. Even so, I am happy to say that both Miami of Ohio and USC often provided travel grants and financial scholarships for my work, but it isn’t the same as actual income. As such, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to aim for a similar goal unless they have appropriate backing to do it – both social and financial.

Relevant here and to the lessons, the way I defined success was:

To be clear, this is how I defined success for these games – it isn’t an expectation to be projected on others. Gauging game development as a potential career path, it was important to have a tangible (albeit subjective) metric of success.Generally, one in eight exceeded my expectations.

For general trends with the 100 games, they were all small – the longest two, The World the Children Made and Innovative Food Company, take about 30 minutes to play. The majority are without menu screens or save systems. None have online multiplayer. Lastly, none of them were truly made alone. Be it direct collaboration, the use of an artist’s music, or through being inspired by others’ work, they all have community contributions.

VIP of the 100 games is my brother Joe Cox, who worked on over 40 of the games through art, design, or often music and sound effects (as I have no musical ability). We are now running our studio Seemingly Pointless and wrapping up development on eCheese Zone – a very rude crowd punishment party game, ow!

Additionally, something I had not anticipated from this challenge was the resulting interactive portfolio. I now have a strong body of working examples: experiments I want to expand and experiments I learned not to repeat. It’s easier for me to evaluate new projects based on this library of prior work.

Final Notes Before the Lessons

I learned these 10 lessons through this challenge – lessons that could potentially be learned in other ways, yet ones I picked up while making the 100 games. I hope they may be useful one way or another.

Keep in mind that I was making short form freeware games – experiences designed and built to be audience ready quickly. This development framework came about from my internal rule for releasing: I would only release a game when I felt it was complete. I had to be able to explain to myself how the game was audience ready. Therefore, I usually created games in quick compartmentalized stages – focusing on making a polished core experience before adding on extras. This way, if I had to stop development on any project, I could just release it. Many of my games had features cut in this way.

This method of development can easily clash with processes used to create longer games. For instance, it doesn’t navigate well with deeply intricate systems. As my focus was to make sure the game could launch after each additional feature, there was effort exerted into polish at each additional feature that would not be prudent to implement on larger projects until later.

The applicability of each lesson will vary depending on individual situations.Each lesson will be accompanied by an example or two from the 100. The number-of-plays noted in examples were current as of June 2018. 

On to the lessons!

1: More Development Won’t Save a Game

Polishing and juicing a game that doesn’t have oomph early on won’t yield much extra oomph – You can only squeeze so much out of an experience that was already lackluster.

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Yikes! Example: RUNNER