Can I make a game in two weeks?

A year or two ago, I took a very short course in game design from the Open University. It's not had an overwhelming impact on my life, but all the same, I'm glad I did the course. It taught me a lot about games, development, and design, and pointed me toward a lot of resources I would not have found otherwise. More importantly, it pushed me to design games. Not massive, sprawling RPGs like I aspire to, but smaller, simpler games that can be made in a short amount of time, but still prove challenging.

In rifling through old documents on my computer, I came across the folder with the work from this course. Included in that work was a design document for a simple maze game. I remember being really pleased with the design, and excited to get started on it. I also remember the serious development problems I had making it. You see, this course focuses on the students using GameMaker. GameMaker is a decent tool for development, don't get me wrong - but it really only works well for certain types of games. For the style of game I wanted, it simply was not working, and proving to be far more trouble than its worth. (It should probably also be said that because this course focused on design, not programming, there was little to no emphasis on learning to code or script games. I still lack skills in that area.)

Fast forward to today, when I read through the document and once again felt that excitement I had when I first wrote it. I still want to make this simple little game. I still am dead set against doing so in GameMaker, and I'd rather not code and script the entire thing by hand when there are so many other tools available to make the process easier. I still have every intention of learning those things - but not on this game.

I do have another option, another game development tool which I have experience with, and I believe will be much more suited for this kind of game. I want to make this game, both to build up my development skills and experience, but also to prove to myself that I can make a whole, finished game. It may be simple, it may have nothing but pitiful programmer art, and it may be so pathetic that nobody would ever want to play it. But I'm going to do it anyway.

Now, I honestly believe it's a small enough game that I could finish it within a couple weeks. That makes it a contender for April's Project of the Month, if I manage to finish it in that time. I'll update both here and on Twitter as development progresses, and include screenshots where I can. If there is any interest in the game, once it's done, I'll offer it as a free download for anyone who wants to try it. Today's task: sort through the design document and fill in any holes I've left, and start planning the development process!