Challenge

Tweaking The Challenge Structure

This is where the big change will happen.

Below is the original challenge structure. I split it into 2 sets of 5 games (with alternatives). We are going to call these groups sets and link them together to form paths. All paths will start with the default set (beginning with Pong and Flappy)

flowchart TB
  %% Top 5
  subgraph Top["Set 1 (Arcade Classics)"]
    direction TB

    subgraph S1["Game 1"]
      direction TB
      P1["Pong"]
      F1["Flappy Bird"]
    end

    subgraph S2["Game 2"]
      direction TB
      B2["Breakout"]
      J2["Jetpack Joyride"]
    end

    subgraph S3["Game 3"]
      direction TB
      SI3["Space Invaders"]
      FR3["Frogger"]
      RR3["River Raid"]
    end

    subgraph S4["Game 4"]
      direction TB
      AS4["Asteroids"]
      SW4["Spacewar!"]
      IN4["Indy 500"]
    end

    subgraph S5["Game 5"]
      direction TB
      PM5["Pac-Man"]
      TT5["Tic-Tac-Toe"]
      CL5["Conway's Game of Life"]
    end
  end
  
  %% Bottom 5
  subgraph Bottom["Set 2 (FPS Path)"]
    direction TB

    subgraph S6["Game 6"]
      direction TB
      SM6["Super Mario Bros."]
      PF6["Pitfall"]
      VV6["VVVVVV"]
    end

    subgraph S7["Game 7"]
      direction TB
      WO7["Worms"]
      DD7["Dig Dug"]
    end

    subgraph S8["Game 8"]
      direction TB
      MB8["Super Monkey Ball"]
      SF8["Star Fox"]
      CB8["Crash Bandicoot"]
    end

    subgraph S9["Game 9"]
      direction TB
      DO9["Doom"]
      MK9["Mario Kart"]
    end

    subgraph S10["Game 10"]
      direction TB
      MC10["Minecraft"]
      PO10["Portal"]
    end
  end

  %% Progression links between game groups
  S1 --> S2
  S2 --> S3
  S3 --> S4
  S4 --> S5
  Top --> Bottom
  S6 --> S7
  S7 --> S8
  S8 --> S9
  S9 --> S10

Expanding sets

Going forward, things will look more like this (looking at just sets, not games)

flowchart TB
S{{Start}} -->
A[Starting Set] 
A --(Artist Focus)--> B["FPS"] --> E
A --(Programmer Focus)--> C["RTS Set 1"] --> D["RTS Set 2"] --> E
A --(Short Challenge)--> E{{Challenge End}}
A --(Etc.)--> F[Other sets...] --> E

We can add as many sets and paths as we need. People can still fully customize their challenge if desired, but the goal would be to offer sets for goals. If you are an artist and want to get better at that skill, make an FPS or 3D platformer with little code but lots of art. If you are a programmer and want to get better at those skills, make an RTS. If you aren’t worried about skills, but want to make the games that are selling on Steam, take the RTS Path. If you just like making mobile games, take the mobile game path.

Hopefully, this approach can give different people with different goals a few decisions to make while maintaining a general structure. We can have a “default” path similar to the classic challenge for people who don’t want to make decisions. But for people who want to shape their journey, they can select their own sets to follow, or modify the individual games within their chosen path.