Alright, let me walk you through my little “bluegames” adventure. It was a pretty fun side project, and I learned a bunch along the way.
So, it all started with me just being bored one weekend. I was scrolling through some game dev stuff online, and I thought, “Hey, I could probably whip something up myself.” I had this idea kicking around for a simple, kinda retro-style game – something you could play in your browser without needing to download anything. That’s where the “bluegames” name came from – just a placeholder, really, but it stuck.
First thing’s first, I needed a game engine. I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, so I looked around for something lightweight and easy to use. Ended up going with *. It’s Javascript-based, which I’m fairly comfortable with, and it seemed to have a good community behind it. Plus, plenty of tutorials online – always a bonus when you’re just starting out.
Next up, I had to figure out what the game was actually going to be. I started with a basic concept: a little blue square (hence, “bluegames”, again, super original) that had to avoid red obstacles. Think a super simplified Geometry Dash. I spent a few hours just messing around with Phaser, getting the square to move, adding some basic collision detection, and making the red obstacles appear and scroll across the screen. It was clunky, but it was something.
The real challenge came with making it… well, fun. Just dodging squares gets old pretty fast. So, I started experimenting. Added a scoring system, increased the speed over time, and eventually threw in some power-ups. One made the blue square temporarily invincible, another slowed down the obstacles. It was all pretty basic stuff, but it made the game a lot more engaging.
Then came the art. I am not an artist. I can barely draw a stick figure. So, I went for a minimalist style. Everything was just simple shapes and colors. The blue square was, well, blue. The obstacles were red. The background was black. It wasn’t pretty, but it was functional.
Getting the game to actually work in a browser was another hurdle. I hadn’t really done much web development before, so I had to learn about HTML, CSS, and Javascript deployment. I ended up using Netlify to host the game. It was super easy to set up, and it’s free for small projects like this.
After a few weeks of tinkering, I finally had something that resembled a playable game. It wasn’t perfect – far from it. The code was messy, the art was basic, and the gameplay was repetitive. But it was my game. And, more importantly, I had learned a ton in the process.
What I Learned:
- * is pretty cool.
- Game development is harder than it looks.
- Even a simple game takes a lot of time and effort.
- I am not an artist.
Honestly, “bluegames” isn’t something I’m planning on releasing to the world or anything. It was just a fun learning experience. But it definitely sparked my interest in game development, and I’m already thinking about what my next project will be.
If you’re thinking about getting into game development, I’d highly recommend just jumping in and trying something. Start small, don’t be afraid to fail, and most importantly, have fun! That’s what “bluegames” was all about for me.
