Last year's #1GAM was something of a bust; I only managed one game, and even then it was extremely barebones.

I'll be trying again this year, but with some changes to how I do things:

• I'll be trying to stick to a mechanic and for each game.
• There will be a dedicated hub on the main site, rather than just a side page on the lab
• I'll enter at least one game jam. For some reason trying to build a game in thirty days is much harder for me than doing it in a weekend.

Everything related to this year's event will be available on the #1GAM 2017 hub page.

You also can read about my experiences here, on Twitter (@Sodaware), and on my #1GAM profile: http://www.onegameamonth.com/Sodaware

Back in the 80's Usborne published a variety of coding-related books. They'd usually contain listings for creating different software programs. My favourites were the ones that concentrated on building games, and one of the first ones I ever copied (by myself) was a game called "Trip into the Future". It seemed like a good starting point for my #1GAM 2016 journey.

You're in a spaceship and want to return at a specific point in the future. The tricky part is balancing the internal and external times. The game is based around the theory of relativity, so time flows differently depending on how close to the speed of light you travel.

It's not a particularly complex game, but the memory of it has stuck with me over the years. This version is web-based and has some really (really) bad ASCII art.

Play "Trip into the Future"

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If you're interested in seeing the original source code for this and a whole bunch of other games, you can download the book from the Usborne website: Computer Space Games

Things didn't go quite as well as I would have liked for #1GAM last year. In fact, they didn't really go at all. I had plenty of ideas but nothing really came together.

I'm going to make another attempt this year.

I'll be writing about my experiences here and on Twitter (@Sodaware). You can also view my #1GAM profile on the One Game a Month site: http://www.onegameamonth.com/Sodaware

It's a new year, and that means I'll be taking part in the One Game a Month challenge again.

I didn't do particularly well last time around, and after the midway point of the year things ground to a halt as work projects needed more attention. It was definitely a learning experience though, and I learnt a lot about the mistakes I make and (hopefully) how to avoid them.

As before, I'll be writing about what happens here and on Twitter (@Sodaware), and you can view my #1GAM profile here: http://www.onegameamonth.com/Sodaware

Good luck to everyone that takes part!

For the past few years, the Ludum Dare community has been running the October Challenge. The idea is to create a game, release it and earn $1. Earning money from creating a game can be even more difficult than creating the game itself, so the challenge is a good way to test the waters without too much pressure.

There is also the Games 4 Doge contest going on this October, where the challenge is to create a game that incorporates the Dogecoin digital currency in some way.

For October I'll be taking part in both, and documenting the process here and on my Twitter account.

Good luck to all the entrants, and I look forward to trying all your games!