A year ago I posted some goals for the new year. I thought I completely failed at those goals, but re-reading it now, I think perhaps that’s not the case.

Last year, I continued to join jams such as Alakajam, LD and the 1hgj. However I also joined a couple of longer jams - the EGAJAM and the 3 color jam - where I made some slightly longer, more polished games. What I didn’t do was to keep plugging at some game idea over an extended period of time - the longest effort was a week or two. Still, I think that qualifies for the original goal: “Spend a bit longer on a bigger project that isn’t completed in one or 48 hours”.

So with that in mind - what’s this year’s goals?

I agree with myself a year ago, but let’s make it even more focused: I want to spend several weeks on a single game idea, ideally taking it through a prototype into a polished game. I enjoy doing jams, and why not continue something I enjoy? But in addition to these I want to have a project that I can keep adding to throughout the year.

But I also want to play more games. I have a lot of games in various digital libraries, I have many unplayed games for various consoles (old and new), and there’s a ton of indie games available online that I want to try.

I think it’s a good idea to try out other people’s ideas as a game developer. I want to try many games - not necessarily complete them - and I want to learn from them by noting down good ideas or even frustrating design.

My aim is 50 games; that’s basically trying a new game every week, with two weeks to spare. I’ll try to make some notes of each game, but I imagine some weeks it’ll just be a couple of bullet points having spent an hour actually playing the game.

Here’s to 2018!