NATIONAL GAME DEVELOPMENT MONTH

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What is National Game Development Month?

The idea is similar to National Novel-Writing Month, but aimed at game developers instead. To win NaGaDevMo, you have to put in 60 hours of game development during November, which is an average of two hours a day. You can set a higher goal for yourself if you want, though!

What counts as game development?


Besides actual programming and working in the editor, scripting, spriting, composing music, writing, etc. all count. So does planning, for example a plot outline or design document, but you have to actually be writing things down. Thinking about it doesn't count. Multitasking is also fine as long as your primary activity is related to game development. For example, I like to stream TV shows while spriting, but as long as I'm primarily spriting, that's fine. Also, you don't have to work entirely on one project, or even your own project. It just has to be time spent in some way relating to game development. Unlike NaNoWriMo, you don't have to start a new project or finish by the end of the month.

The one caveat is that nothing you're required to do, for example schoolwork or a job, counts. The goal is to motivate you to work on something that you didn't otherwise have a concrete deadline for. Also, you can start after November 1 if you want, but you still have to get 60 hours by December 1.

How are we keeping track of this?

I've made a forum for this on HBGames, and when the event starts, each person will make a thread where they post daily progress entries. Since peer pressure is a big part of the expected effectiveness of this event, I really feel that keeping everyone in one place will help it work better. Anyone who's ever done NaNoWriMo knows how important the community is in helping you stay motivated, and the more people in the community, the better.



Questions, comments, concerns?
Sounds like a great idea. I would enter but, I don't like making accounts on forums if I can't be of any help in them or just for competitions.
Feel free to make a thread here if you prefer, but speaking as an admin on HBGames, I have absolutely no problem with you making an account specifically for this event and then forgetting about it afterwards. I just think that the more people we have doing it together in one place, the better it'll work. Totally up to you, though.
You mentioned "win" in the second sentence there. What's the prize?
The prize is having put 60 hours of development into your game.

I use win in the same sense as you win NaNoWriMo, i.e. complete it. It's just an event to motivate yourself to work on your game. I dunno how it is here, but at .org, we have a lot of people who like to talk about making games but not actually make them. So this event is designed to just get them working on it. And getting the community involved makes it more fun.
The only thing I think is bad (and it's a pretty big "bad" in its own way) about this idea is that it happens at the same time as nanowrimo. Surely there must be another available month out there (which isn't occupied by nanoedmo, script frenzy, make music album month, make comic book month or make art month).
Well, I originally started this because I was feeling left out since I wasn't doing NaNoWriMo this year, and then some other people wanted to participate as well. If people like this one, there's no reason we can't do another one during a better month. It can be more often than once a year.

What month would you prefer?
I'm not sure they need a month for that. National Bricklayers Month.
I don't know. Some month I'm not doing nanowrimo I suppose :)
Okay, well, maybe we'll do this again another month. Good luck with NaNo!
Ocean
Resident foodmonster
11991
Well I don't believe everyone who's making a game is working on a novel for NaNoWriMo. In fact maybe I'll give this a shot. Might still be a good amount of people who aren't in NaNoWriMo so yeah it'd be a fine alternative. I should have an account there so I can probably take a look.
Great! You should totally participate. It'll be lots of fun. I'll be unlocking the forum around midnight Brit time.
Awesome! I unlocked the forum since it's now the first in England. Feel free to make a thread if you want.
There were certain things I noticed in your post that seems to cancel out most RPG maker users, programming is one of them. What if the prgram doesn't have a true way to program? Does it count?
Oh no, that's fine. As long as the time is spent in some way related to game development and isn't just thinking about the game, it's totally legit. That includes work in the editor, of course!
Fallen-Griever, the name is based on National Novel-Writing Month because the idea is based on National Novel-Writing Month. And they picked the name before it became an international thing. So, take it up with them.

That said, no one ever specified which country it's national for, so couldn't you apply it to your country of choice?
What about RPG maker users? Are they allowed?(this may be a stupid question, but just in case)
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