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CAUTION: The start of this blog post is a bit ranty. Feel free to jump down to the good stuff if you’re offended by people stating their opinion on other people’s work.

Take some time and really digest the image above.

Really ingest it.

This is what someone thinks constitutes a game. By any developer worth anything, the above screenshot could be developed in XNA in about 5 minutes. Apparently some people think that a day or even a week is too much time to spend on a game and appear to be delusional enough to expect people to pay good money for their game.

When viewing this game when it had been put into review on Sunday 26th September, after I got mad and failed it for using a prohibited word (“Leaderboard”), I started to wonder how long he’d actually spent on making it..

[Ending Rant]

Enter the XNA ONE DAY CHALLENGE

Yes, one DAY. I started my game on pure impulse intending to show what could be created in a day. But as it turns out, even I have standards and even though I could move my character and blow stuff up, there’s no way I was going to call it a game worth of mentioning to anyone.

Enter the XNA ONE WEEK CHALLENGE

So I decided to change it to a week instead. It’s a short enough time span that the desired effect of showing what could be accomplished in a short enough amount of time was still possible. So on that, here are my original goals for the challenge I set myself:

1. It must not be a genre that I’m working on for my main project (A 3D space shooter), so as gameplay elements must be created from scratch.
2. It must be of sufficient quality that it can pass review without issue. That basically means basically not adding potential fail-prone code (online high scores, network play etc).
3. Do not re-use art assets from my other projects. Avoid purchasing assets where possible, but if unavoidable, maximum budget for entire game is AUD$50.
4. Must demonstrate gameplay which is fun and which is not a direct clone of another game.
5. Re-using utility code or engines from my other projects was allowable.

The intention with these goals was basically to force the creation of code, rather than repurposing of existing code and to force me to keep scope small enough that I could complete a new codebase within a week.

I addressed the above goals with my project like so:

1. I chose to make a 2D side-scrolling twin-stick platformer.
2. Keeping the concept simple (traverse a level as quick as possible, destroying objects in your way) kept scope small and as such, gives me more time to get stuff right.
3. I decided to base my game around a character made from a Stick Figure to keep art assets simple and also meant that I could create them myself.
4. I like the idea of moving through a level as quick as possible whilst having to navigate or destroy obstacles. I added some more natural/parkour style movement to the main character so that it feels “right” as he runs and jumps around. Also the ability to shoot obstacles changes the game from basic obstacle avoidance to a “run and gun” style.
5. I re-used the engine base from my main game, Galactic Ranger, but since it’s 3D I tore it to shreds and changed to be oriented more for 2D. No graphics or gameplay elements survived this process. 

My Challenge Game

Name: Stick City
Started: Sunday 26th September 3pm AEST
Due: Sunday 3rd October 3pm AEST
Genre: Side-scrolling twin-stick platformer
Premise: You’re a guy traversing the roofs of your city, trying to get home in time to watch your favourite TV show, Sticks and the City.
Gameplay: You navigate across the rooftops of buildings, jumping spans and avoiding obstacles. If in doubt, use your trusty hand-cannon to clear the path!
Art style: Basic 2D graphics using Photoshop. Main character animated in “Styx”.
Sound: Voiceovers by yours truly. Music from a library that I had previously purchased.

I’m currently on day 3/7 and the only thing I’m willing to show at this point is the 10 minute title screen:

Shortly after posting a comment on twitter about it, fellow XNA developer @DustinTigner picked up on the idea and started planning his own XNA One Week Challenge. You can read about Dustin’s progress over here

If you decide that you’d like to see what you can accomplish in a week and show those lazy cash-grabbing massage-app-using zombie-loving honourless XNA developers what some effort in a short amount of time can produce, feel free to let me know and I’ll keep a registry of XNA One Week Challenge games and they’re progress and sale results.

Also feel free to use #xnaoneweekchallenge on twitter so fellow one-weeker’s can see what you’re up to.

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