I made 111 one-button mini-games in 2021. I also made other games besides one-button games, so the exact number of games I made in 2021 would be 139.

For making many games in one year, I would need to create one game in about 2 or 3 days. For creating mini-games in a short period, it is better to make regulations of what to make and how to make it. In 2021, I started creating a game with the following regulations.

• Aim to make a game that we can easily play in a browser, like a dinosaur jumping game on Chrome.
• Controls should be limited to three types that are easy to operate on a smartphone: one-button, sliding left and right, and tapping a specific position on the screen.
• The game should be a traditional game where the player only tries to get a high score.
• The maximum duration of a game is about 5 minutes, and the game becomes difficult gradually to induce players to make mistakes.
• Increasing the difficulty is done by increasing the game speed. Even if a player makes a mistake due to an increase in game speed, players are unlikely to feel that it is unreasonable.
• The code should be written in a single JavaScript file, with a size of 100 to 300 lines.
• The basic screen size is 100x100 dots, with characters as small as 6x6 dots, making it easier to create pixel art.
• Simplify the implementation of drawing the screen by limiting the objects to be drawn to only squares, lines, circles, and particles except for pixel art.
• Provide a mechanism to play the game from GitHub Pages by simply committing the code to GitHub.
• Automatically generate background music and sound effects to reduce the time and effort required to create them.
• Prepare my own game library with the above mechanisms.

• Prepare a mechanism to take screenshots easily. After the implementation of the game is complete, post screenshots on Twitter along with the URL where we can play the game.

If you continue to create the game under the above regulations, you can mechanically go from coding to release in a short period.

The problem is to come up with ideas before coding, and this is the only thing that is difficult to formulate.

Game Idea Generator - Let's Make a Game

Game Idea Generator allows you to get a random prompt to help spark new game ideas for video games (and even board games) or to challenge yourself somehow

letsmakeagame.net

One way is to use a game idea slot machine, but this has the disadvantage of limiting the number of ideas you can come up with. We need to continue to think about the patterning of game ideation. Following a pattern even in idea generation runs the risk of losing the most enjoyable part of game creation, so it might be better to consider whether it is necessary in the first place.