30d30g - 30 days, 30 games
Table of Contents
I often feel like I can’t finish anything.
So, in June 2021, I gave myself a challenge: finish one tiny game per day, for 30 days straight.
What could go wrong?
Some may say that 30 is a lot.
Well, some actually did say it.
But being warned wasn’t enough to stop me.
So — what did I make?
The Games
Some technical context
Two days before the challenge started, I got accepted into the jai language closed beta.
I spent the weekend reading the awesome how_to/*.jai files included with the compiler —
and two days later, I was ready.
On the dev side of this journey, I had a blast coding in jai.
About the reported work time
Each day, I tracked the time I spent working on that day’s game.
This was early in my time-tracking habits, and I’d do a few things differently today.
First, I only tracked strict active dev time — not:
- thinking about the idea (often 30min–1h)
- preparing social media posts (1–2h: capture, cut, write, etc)
Second, I used to pause the timer for every tiny break away from my keyboard.
That included things like:
- bathroom (while still thinking about the game)
- snacks (still thinking about the game)
- walking around (you guessed it — still thinking)
These days, I’d count at least some of that as work.
So if you want a more realistic picture, you could easily add 2–4 hours per day to each time report.
Day 01 - Snakefall
A snake that constantly falls but can land on platforms.
There’s probably an interesting puzzle-action game buried in here, but I stopped after 3 hours — starting slow and easy.
(Dev time: 3h)
Day 02 - Pong Breaker
A mix between Pong and Breakout.
Adding a special racket hit to speed up the ball could make it more interesting.
(Dev time: 4h30)
Day 03 - Sokoback
A Sokoban where time runs backwards: you move in reverse, pulling crates.
Once solved, the whole sequence is replayed forward.
(Dev time: 4h)
Day 04 - Spin4
Like Connect 4, but with a twist - literally.
After placing a token, the player rotates the board left or right.
As soon as someone has more lines than their opponent, they win.
(Dev time: 5h)
Day 05 - QWERUIOP
Like QWOP, but worse: you control a snake with 8 joints, each movable in 2 directions — that’s 16 keys.
It’s somehow both more and less controllable than it looks.
(Dev time: 6h)
Day 06 - Tranche2D
You play as a 2D character who can rotate around themselves, gradually revealing a 3D world.
You’ll have to build a full mental map of the 3D level — from a limited 2D perspective.
(Dev time: 6h)
Day 07 - Centipew
A shoot’em up where your space centipede grows longer with each kill —
adding firepower but making dodging harder.
Take damage, and you shrink again.
(Dev time: 5h)
Day 08 - Fire Fight
Fight fire with fire — and it actually works.
Create controlled burns to contain a spreading blaze.
Thanks to @Koeust for the idea!
(Dev time: 4h30)
Day 09 - Upside Right
A 2D character walking on a cube’s surface.
The fall direction depends on your current orientation — which itself depends on your path across the cube’s faces.
(Dev time: 7h)
Day 10 - Little Bang
Survive an asteroid field using only an attractive beam.
One could imagine a scoring system that rewards bold or stylish maneuvers.
(Dev time: 6h)
Day 11 - Top Crop Circle
Create the perfect crop circle — using just sticks and string — and aim for a front-page-worthy masterpiece.
Just avoid getting caught. Some people don’t appreciate art as much as you do.
Thanks to @spectrenoir06 for the idea!
(Dev time: 5h30)
Day 12 - Slobot
Bad news: enemy turrets spotted you — you’ve got 0.1 seconds to live.
Good news: you can channel everything into bullet time and one final laser shot.
(Dev time: 7h)
Day 13 - Block Breaker Breaker
The roles are reversed: move the blocks to minimize the paddle’s score — and hopefully make it lose.
Here, a stuck ball is your worst nightmare.
(Dev time: 5h)
Day 14 - Deadocracy
Control the collective will of a zombie horde.
Convert humans, resist attackers, and use your numbers to survive.
(Dev time: 4h30)
Day 15 - Tetratetris
Tetrominos fall from all four sides toward the center.
Complete a full ring to clear it and collapse nearby blocks — sometimes triggering chain reactions.
(Dev time: 5h)
Day 16 - Cyberglider
Take a chill cyber-stroll with your cyber-hang glider.
I ran out of time before adding cyber-birds — sorry :(
(Dev time: 5h)
Day 17 - Drag Race
A car racing game where you drag a boulder to the finish line.
The boulder can also be another participant.
But you probably guessed all that from the name.
(Dev time: 4h30)
Day 18 - Coriolize
A basketball-loving robot struggles to make shots under weird artificial gravity.
The Coriolis effect makes trajectories unpredictable. (Look it up, it’s pretty cool.)
(Dev time: 4h30)
Day 19 - Dragonuage
A peaceful, flowing ride on a super-flexible dragon.
Controlled entirely with the cursor — built for relaxation and contemplation.
(Dev time: 7h30)
Day 20 - Slide’n’Jump
A platformer inside a sliding puzzle.
Rearrange the level tiles to collect all the hearts.
(Dev time: 4h)
Day 21 - Don’t Go
A twist on Go: each turn, you must place a stone and move one.
You can place and move different stones, but you have to do both.
(Dev time: 4h)
Day 22 - Curious Bicopter
A combat drone that moves by firing its two independent machine guns, one on each side.
Also: it strictly refuses to harm teddy bears.
Nobody knows why.
(Dev time: 7h)
Day 23 - Bat Man
Hit and speed up an ever-growing swarm of bouncing balls — without getting hit yourself.
The more (and faster) the balls, the better your score.
This is the training method of the famous “Bat Man”.
Thanks to @TimHarrio for the idea!
(Dev time: 5h)
Day 24 - Dice Chess
In Dice Chess, each pawn is a die that:
- moves by rolling,
- travels exactly as many squares as its top face shows,
- captures on the square it lands on.
You lose when none of your dice show 1.
(Dev time: 7h)
Day 25 - Archipont
The construction of the Archipont will never be completed — due to lack of wood.
But by dismantling the back, you can build the front, making movement on the archipelago possible.
Be careful: the inhabitants don’t like to wait. Or drown.
(Dev time: 5h)
Day 26 - Mustash
I know what you’re thinking: “isn’t this just game #12 with a mustache?”
It’s not.
The Drag’o’bot latches onto enemies as its only weapon — and relies on humor as its only shield.
Again: nothing to do with Day #12.
(Dev time: 7h)
Day 27 - Cthu-lou
Take a peaceful dive in the Cthu-lou: a tiny submarine for tiny ocean strolls with tiny fish.
Don’t forget your tiny camera for a tiny souvenir photo.
(Dev time: 7h)
Day 28 - cloom
In cloom, you’ll learn why you don’t bring a finger to a gunfight.
No weapon — just dodging, clever tricks, and a dash to the exit.
Thanks to @Clornide for the idea!
(Dev time: 7h)
Day 29 - 28 Games Later
Hope you’ve been paying attention.
“28 Games Later” is a quiz about the past 28 games.
Beware: it gets harder and harder to pick an answer — even when you know the right one.
(Dev time: 5h)
Day 30 - 30 seconds, 30 games
The grand finale: “30seconds30games”.
Mini-games inspired by the previous 29 come at you faster and faster — until you make 3 mistakes.
(Okay, it’s actually 8 mini-games. I ran out of time. Use your imagination.)
(Dev time: 7h)
What went wrong
That’s it, 30 games in 30 days!
But at what cost?
Every night, I streamed a short debrief on Twitch.
Here’s the 48-min cut on
YouTube
, if you’re curious.
It’s probably clear from the video: I didn’t come out unscathed.
By day 3, I already doubted I’d make it. (I wasn’t even sure I’d find enough ideas.)
My mental energy tanked fast.
Every day felt like the same desert walk, over and over.
Who would have thought? 30 is a lot.
Still, I finished every game on time.
Many turned out better than expected.
It felt good to finally turn (sometimes old) ideas into real, playable prototypes.
I think I became better at sorting ideas and executing them.
So…
Would I do it again? No.
And I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.
There are big problems baked into this challenge — it’s a perfect recipe for burnout.
It took me 2 weeks to recover.
(Which, to be fair, is way better than my work-related 6-month burnout some years ago, but still.)
The lack of break days may be the biggest flaw of this format.
That said, I’m pretty proud to have finished this ridiculous, self-imposed, hellish challenge.
And now, I have 30 little weird games to show for it.
Check out the itch.io page if you want to try them!