This article originally appeared in Dev.Mag Issue 26, released in October 2006

Compared to most other game development competitions, Game.Dev's fondly-named "Comps" have always stood out on one particular front: each new incarnation has always set out to challenge, direct and develop entrants within the field of game development. Instead of the oh-so-typical "create a game about kitties and/or mudkips" mentality that many mainstream events focus on, the Game.Dev competitions have always sought to home in on an aspect of game development that people don't always consider and try to train new developers in the techniques that it describes. Although some may frown upon this method and drop out as a result, those who engage with the competitions often emerge from the experience as more mature and insightful developers.

Since January 2005, Game.Dev has worked to inspire and lead game developers with these competitions, and some truly intriguing titles have come about as a result. What follows is an overview of early Game.Dev Comp history, along with the lessons that people have learned along the way. Read on and be inspired.

Comp 1: Make a game. Any game. Go for it

The Game.Dev competitions had very humble beginnings, as most things tend to. Comp 1 started off as a simple idea posted on the NAG forums in January 2005, before Game.Dev itself even existed. The concept was basic and the criteria were broad: make a game, any game, and post it on the forums for judgement. The competition eventually produced five games, most of them using the recommended development tool, Game Maker. These entries were crude compared to later offerings, but they proved one thing: there was an interest in game development amongst gamers (who would have thought?). Even though some people scoffed at the idea of such a 'childish' tool being used to craft games, anyone who bothered to download this free application and take the time to fiddle about with it was generally able to produce results by the time the competition came to an end.

Comp 2: Circles vs squares

After a month of downtime (and the creation of its own forum) Game.Dev decided to host its second competition, themed around circles versus squares. The group was still rather young and wide-eyed at this point, but the competition provided several entries from members who would later become influential components of the Game.Dev group. In any game, it's important to look at the fun factor first – you can get to the rest of it later. Comp 2 produced some hearty entries from people who used circles and squares to their best effect to create a fun and engaging experience, limited to a simple graphics set and forced to figure out how they can make their game stand out from a field of similar-looking entries.

Comp 3: Remakes

Game.Dev's Comp 3 asked gamers to do a remake of famous old-school games (aside from a few horribly cliché ones like Pong and Tetris). The results were interesting, to say the least. Some opted to take the classics and improve upon old dynamics with the availability of better development tools and greater processing power. Others took even more creative routes and merged several classics to create an entirely new game using rules from each. This competition was possibly the first to display the game development maturity of entrants: the top games homed in on the most fun aspects of these bygone offerings, proving that they understood what made great games great, and added improvements in the correct places to make these titles even better. After all, everybody knows that Pacman is famous: not everybody truly understands why. To excel in game development, Game.Dev wanted entrants to analyse the games they play more critically, and adopt that special 'game developer' mindset that's critical for anybody who wants to do gamecrafting for a living.