Hello, and welcome to Devtober 2019!

What is Devtober

It's pretty simple - it's a personal challenge where the only rules are as follow:

• Work on a game a little every day
• Post your progress on social media (use the hashtag #devtober!)
• On the very last day, write a post mortem

That's it!

It's heavily inspired by the popular Inktober, which is a challenge about doing an inked drawing every day of october. Except, if you're here, it probably means you care more about gamedev than inking, right?

Most people - probably including you! - want to make games, but struggle to find the time to get started, let alone stay motivated for long periods of time. 
So, this challenge focuses on not only honing your skills, but most importantly getting in the routine of working on your game every day. You basically want to avoid relying on motivation, and instead develop good habits and discipline!

And please, don't skip on the post mortem. It's important, not only so you know what you've learned, but also and mainly so that other people can learn from you, too!

Theme

Devtober doesn't really have a theme! This is definitely not a contest, and instead of trying to come up with a new game idea, consider instead starting that game you've always wanted to make, pick up that project you put on hiatus months ago, or just make something small. What matters is only making something!

If you really want a theme, consider this: make something small - even smaller than you'd think - and focus instead on releasing it by the end of the month. Make something, polish it, debug it, test it, and push it to market. Make it your objective to make at least one dollar by selling whatever you've made, by the end of october. How does that sound?

F.A.Q.

• It's the last day... I need to write a post mortem, right? How do I even do that?

I've written some thoughts and guidelines for you over on our twitter account. Check it out right here:
https://twitter.com/devtober/status/1189612484900077570?s=20

• Ok so, when is it?

All of october! Hence the name, dev-(oc)tober.
Start working on october 1st, you complete the challenge if you work a little every day until october 31st.

• Why not another month? I think Devuary sounds better. Or Devember. Or even Devarch.

Devarch? Really? 
Look, it's arbitrary. October is actually a pretty quiet month - not a lot of game releases, away from both summer and winter vacations... and besides, you're absolutely free to take on the challenge at any time that works best for you. 

• So, it's not a contest?

Nope! It's a personal challenge. No one is judging you and there is no participation prizes, but the satisfaction of improving yourself and/or achieving whatever goals you set. 
I actually highly recommend that you set your own goals.

• Well, then, what should I do?

Again, it's your choice. I suggest making a very small game from start to finish, so you have something to show for it. But maybe just prototyping something you want to try would be a better fit for you! Or maybe make a vertical slice of that game you really want to make, so maybe you can pitch it to publishers or investors. Or maybe go back to a game you've already released, but fix some bugs, or add content?
You set your own goals within your own schedule and free time. Just make sure you set realistic objectives, you don't want it to end up being demoralising! 

• So it shouldn't be a new game?

No no, it doesn't have to!
You can definitely keep working on whatever you're doing right now, if you have something. All that matters is being consistent about progress.

• What happens if I fail?

I'm going to assume that you're gonna be sad about it. And honestly, that's it.
Failure is a very subjective thing. Your goal should just be to work a little every day, it's all about developping good working habits. 
For my first devtober, what I wanted was to make a game from start to finish. And boy, did I overscope and went way over my head! In that regard, I totally failed... but at the same time, I worked a little on my game every day. 

Did I fail? I dunno. Either way, I improved a lot, got better, and learned about myself and how I work.
I genuinely believe that's all that matters!

• I'd like to know more, how was Devtober last year? 

Well, it was a mess, if I'm being honest - it started as a personal thing, and I had absolutely no expectations that people would follow along and make their own stuff.
You can find my own post mortem here - it's not much, but I hope you'll appreciate it.
There's a bunch of games that were made or worked on! 
Feel free to browse the #devtober tag on twitter. Some people are sill working on them to this day- there's even a few games that actually released commercially!