... I hope your all getting prepared for the week!

Hmm... I'm honestly not sure of how much preparation there is to be done (for me, at least)--after all, the game is to be developed from concept to completion within the confines of the contest, and the rules prohibit any development beforehand.

That said, I have been considering what bits and pieces I have available to me at the outset. I have most of my traditional elements: my game-saving, key-mapping, and animation-blended actor modules, specifically. For a very small game--such as fits into a week's worth of concept and development--this should be sufficient alongside the elements provided my engine of choice (which remains Panda3D).

I've also made a decision regarding one matter regarding what I intend to make for the competition--specifically, what I intend to eschew making. I might go into this in more detail in a blog post, but in short I've noticed that I have a tendency to fall back onto distant-third-person dungeon crawlers (generally procedural) when making small games, and I've decided that this time I intend to do something different. This doesn't necessarily mean that I won't use procedural generation, or even dungeon crawling--a game along the lines of Darkest Dungeon wouldn't be excluded under this little restriction of mine, for example. Still, I want to branch out a bit in this competition. (All of this is presuming, however, that nothing in the themes pushes me towards that sort of game specifically (which seems unlikely).)

Hmm... That does bring up a question for the judges, if I may: are there any gameplay genres that should be avoided due to one or more judges disliking or dismissing them? For example, would a "walking simulator" or a visual novel be marked down (perhaps in the "gameplay/fun" category) just for being such?

Hmm... That does bring up a question for the judges, if I may: are there any gameplay genres that should be avoided due to one or more judges disliking or dismissing them? For example, would a "walking simulator" or a visual novel be marked down (perhaps in the "gameplay/fun" category) just for being such?

One more bit of preparation: I've started thinking out a rough plan for my use of the competition days. (I think that I recall doing this last year, too.)

As in the previous two competitions, I intend to use six of the seven allotted days. My outline, at present, is then this:

Day 1: Concept.

- If I develop a concept early enough, I'll likely start in on implementation. There's risk in this--I find that concepts benefit from being given time for issues and refinements to be revealed--but I'm dubious of my ability to sit in contemplation all day, and time is short in this competition.

Days 2-4: Implementation

- At this stage I intend to use whatever art I have lying around, with only minor modifications, if any. Some of this might remain in the final version, some of it may be replaced later.

- I intend to release prototypes as I go, ideally one per day--feedback on these can be invaluable, I believe!

- Depending on how things go, I might implement basic sounds and music-handling during this period, using sounds and music that I already have lying around. This might result in an easier "sound and music" day (see below).

Day 5: Sound and Music/Ambient Sounds

Day 6: Polish and Final Art

- It's at this point that I intend to replace any art that wants for replacing.

- If I'm running behind, this is the day that's most likely to be sacrificed.

This is why you should also seek outside play testers(family, and friends are a good resource if you can have them spare a few minutes) to ensure your on the right path, and not blinding yourself to making something that might not be all that fun, or needs work to polish off some of the unfun mechanics.

True, perhaps--but this wouldn't really answer my concern, I feel. For example, if a judge holds that visual novels are inherently poor in gameplay, then my testers enjoying a visual novel prototype wouldn't be a useful indicator.

However, if there are none such genres, then I'm glad. ^_^