Knight After Knight

"Help the good Knights across the river. Drown the villainous Vikings!"

This game is a collaboration with the nefarious Ryan Sandvik

Huzzah! Knight After Knight is Game Bootcamp's first venture into the world of 3-D. It's also our second collaboration. Break out the mutton and mead! Play it now.

Moonkid

"The moon is falling and you can only watch." A hybrid game/animation. Experience it now.

Fresh New Branding & Social Media

Game Bootcamp is back in session, soldiers! After traveling 3,000 miles, I've arrived in Los Angeles. That means production can start again. Stay tuned for incoming new games!

I'm also proud to introduce brand new Twitter & Facebook pages and an all-new Salyh.com. I'm taking my branding, social media presence, and other buzz-words to the next level!

Be Right Back!

Hey Bootcampers! Sorry for the lack of activity this week. There's a good reason though: I'm on the move! I've been driving from Boston to LA, and have yet to figure out how to code while driving.  My Wacom tablet is also in the shop for repairs. So, long story short: Game Bootcamp will return in a week or two. Thanks for being patient while I have silly adventures in middle America.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: I made a sequel to Acid Panic! You can check it out here! Until next time friends, may your bucket never overflow with acid.

New Game — Sweep Miner

Uh oh! A group of kids got themselves lost in a mine full of landmines! Use your memory and wits to navigate through the mineshafts and save the minors. This game is a collaboration with my brother, the CynicSama. Play it now.

New Collaborations, New Deadlines

I'm here to announce some exciting news: in the coming months, I'll be working with other artists, designers, and coders to produce Game Bootcamp's first ever collaborations! We're talking bigger, better games. I'll explain the details when the time comes, but until then: get pumped!

Secondly, I'll be switching Game Bootcamp over to a bi-weekly schedule. When I first started this site, I never imagined the games would become so popular. I'm extremely thankful to all my viewers and players! Ensuring that every game lives up to the Mike Salyh Quality Standard™ requires I spend a bit more time on each game. So... new game every two weeks!

Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to Wolve of Wolve's Weekly. He makes weekly games, and they're awesome. If you like what I do, you have to check his games out. That concludes today's announcements! ;-)

Shave Time!

Are you the funkiest barber in town? Use your shaving cream, razor, and brush to give the perfect cut. As a special bonus for following this blog, you've earned the secret code. Enter the word BOOTCAMP into the game to unlock a secret character. Play it now.

A Sneak Peak At My Next Game

Hello Bootcampers, allow me to introduce Shave 'Em Up! The beard-blasting, barbershop hack-and-chop extravaganza.

This is probably my silliest idea to date. It's also the most ambitious, with multiple game modes and characters to balance. For that reason, I've decided to take this game into overtime. Shave 'Em Up will be released next Friday, August 1st.

As a special bonus for following this blog (and being so patient), you'll get a secret promo code. Enter the word BOOTCAMP into the game to unlock bonus content! I'll see you all next Thursday. Until then, keep your beards tidy!

New URL and a Twitter

Good news everyone! Thanks to the amazing feedback and interest this project has garnered, I've decided to get Game Bootcamp an official URL. From now on, you can find this blog at

gamebootcamp.com 

And for my followers on Tumblr, Game Bootcamp now has a sister blog: gamebootcamp.tumblr.com. Be sure to give it a follow so you never miss a post!

Edit: The Tumblr sideblog is being discontinued in favor of a Twitter page. Follow @MikeSalyh to never miss a post!

New Game — Genesis

Genesis is my first attempt at a narrative game. It's better experienced than described, so what're you waiting for? Get to it! Play it now.

Coming Up Short

Hello readers! This week marks an important milestone for Game Bootcamp: my first failure! Hooray? 

Making games is hard. I knew that eventually a week would come when I failed to deliver (I was hoping it wouldn't be so soon). Still, this is a good opportunity to establish some ground rules for failure. If a weekly game is unplayable, I'll write an article on what went wrong. There's a lesson to be learned from every failure.

I know it's hugely disappointing to go a week without a game; no one is more upset than I am. But they say that "not taking any risks is the greatest risk of all". Part of that is trying new mediums and accepting the uncertainty that comes with them. So, even when the road gets rocky, let's continue to develop and improve our games together. 

Acid Panic

Acid Panic is a modern take on the old Game 'N Watch Classic Oil Panic. Don't let the acid touch the ground! Play it now.

Viking Breakfast

My first game is a head-to-head runner. Play as two hungry vikings on a mission to eat chicken. Dodge houses and collect poultry to score points. The high score after one minute wins! Play it now.

Generating Game Ideas

When I invented Game Bootcamp, I was daunted by the task of designing so many unique games. Then I remembered something Mark Rosewater, head designer of Magic: The Gathering, wrote:

The key to being more creative is learning how to use randomness as a tool. [...] When I'm trying to design new cards and I'm stumped, I like to give myself random challenges. Design a card inspired by a donut. Design a card that doesn't have the letter "e" in its text. Design a card that would make sense if the Mona Lisa was the art. What this does is force me to approach the problem from a vantage point I've never had before. While not every solution is golden, it does free me up to think about the problem in a whole new way.

Mark is also the man who originally inspired me to pursue game design as a career. So, in honor of MaRo, I'm going to base my first game off of a random Magic card. I reached into my box and pulled out the card Armageddon. (For those of you unwilling to click the link, it says "Destroy all lands")

Wow, that's a bad-ass phrase! And a great starting point for this week's game. Tune in next Thursday to see the result.

Welcome to Boot Camp

Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Mike Salyh: Game Designer, Artist, Animator, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm. 

And I'm on a mission. I plan to make a new game every week for an entire year. I want to push my creativity (and sanity) to the breaking point. New content will be posted every Thursday by 11:59 PM pst. 

The Origins of Game Boot Camp:

This project has two main inspirations. The first is Noah's Art Camp. Noah Bradley is an incredibly talented artist who hosts a twelve-week long painting program. I've attended twice and both times were great. He showed me how much I could achieve by keeping my nose to the grindstone. Second, I teach a game design course at Digital Media Academy. My students work in teams and produce simple games over one or two weeks. I'm always impressed by their creativity, especially under such tight deadlines.

Game Boot Camp feels like the natural extension of everything I've done up to this point. I hope to have a fun year developing, playing, and learning just what makes games tick. So, let's get to work!