Happy New Year, everyone! 2007 finds me one year older and 52 game ideas lighter. A few months into the challenge I realized that coming up with a new game idea every week was both the smartest thing I’d ever done, and the most insane thing I’d ever done. The experience was motivating, educational, brain-erasing, relaxing, exhausting, and yeah… pretty much insane. Trying to come up with ideas that had absolutely no bearing on my real-job was a nice break most of the time, but at times it required mental gymnastics that I’m not in a big hurry to repeat.
But hey, I think it was worth it. Every once in awhile I’d end up stumbling upon a solution for a design problem I’d been thinking about at work, just by trying to not think about it. Other times I’d come up with ideas that I really, really liked and decided to stash in the war chest. And now I have 52 new game ideas that I can try to make some day. But there was a cost. The ideas cost me a good deal of sleep, and some of the wackier ideas ended up getting posted around 5 am. By the end of the year I was really digging deep to come up with ideas that didn’t step on the toes of a previous idea… or hadn’t been announced by some other game developer.
I certainly could not have done this alone. So many friends helped out with brainstorming and knee-jerk reactions to ideas. Many thanks to Erin, Eileen, Devin, Ron, Melinda, Ryan, Toby, Lui, Christopher, Mason, Erick, James, Mike, Nate, Jill, Toby, YiMay, Patrick, Drew, Colleen, Matt, BJ, Tom, Erik, Raph, Cliff, Neill, Chip, Kraig, Alex, and the Steves. Thanks to all the websites that helped spread the word about this nutty game design experiment. And extra special thanks to everyone who posted comments right here on the site! Knowing that people were reading the site made this a hell-or-high-water project for me.
So what does 2007 hold for me? Well, I’m not going to be posting another 52 ideas. As it is I’d have to live for a couple centuries to make all of the ideas on the site. And besides, I want to spend time working on my other personal projects… my wiki, my essays on game design, and my wacky web-based games. Oh, and of course we’re finishing Stranglehold this year. I’m going to keep the website active, but someone else is going to have to pick up the torch of the weekly game ideas.
I hope that you all have a fantastic 2007. It’s an exciting time to be alive and making games!
Posted in Game Ideas, The Site
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