How to make a game in 48 hours

by O. Kaya

Step 0 - Team

• Diminishing marginal returns
• Everyone having distinct roles helps you not step over each other’s feet.
• A 3 person(ie artist, programmer, music) will usually outperform a 6 person one.

Step 1 - Ideas

• Ideas are easy, execution is often harder than expected.
• You really want to get moving within 2 hours.
• My first game was supposed to take two weeks but doable in one. It took 3 months.
• Come up with one mechanic, and do it well.

Step 2 - Take care of yourself

• 48 hours is tight however you do not want to actually work for more than ~12-20, or you risk burning yourself out and/or being super inefficient.
• I’ve solved more programming issues in the shower than on my desk.
• Play games, sleep, eat some pizza with your team.

Step 3 - Version Control

• You will break things.
• You can do without using github or any other version control, however it would be a good idea if you have more than 1 person programming.
• Work on different parts of the project(different scenes on Unity) unless you’re together on the same computer with one person actually editing the project.

Step 4 - Polish

• People care about gamefeel and appearance.
• This sucks, but there’s a tradeoff between content(& innovation) and smoothness, and people prefer a simple short game that plays really well.

Bryce Bucher’s 1B1B1B: high polish & complexity

General Advice

• Good artists steal: Use asset stores and online resources(credit these)
• Bodge: messy does not matter as long as the end user cannot feel it.
• Minimal effort maximum outcome is your target.

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Unity Asset Store, SketchFab, OpenGameArt, Freesound, 1001Fonts

Scoping example: Rustbucket Revenge and Record Time

• Very few mechanics
• Liberal use of readymade assets

Scoping example: Coffin Mall

• Rustbucket Revenge expanded
• Additions:
• Entirely original art
• Multiple interactive environments
• Driving
• Better AI
• Narrative