The Concept

So! The first thing to do is decide upon a concept, a game design, a platform, and a programming language to create it in.  Boy, that's a lot of first things!

For platform, I'm definitely doing PC.  Creating a game for a mobile device is just one too many things to deal with here in the hospital.

For game design, I think I'm going with a simple top-down tank shooter.  I strongly considered doing a puzzler, but most of the actual programming for puzzle games is pretty easy; most of the challenge is in tweaking the mechanics.  Also I've made a puzzle game before, and I want to push myself to try something new.  A top-down shooter is complicated enough to provide a real challenge, but simple enough that I can realistically get it done within the time limit.

For programming language, I think I'm going to use Python.  I wanted to avoid GameMaker or Construct 2 for this challenge, as again, it makes things too easy and the whole point is to program something from the ground up.  I did consider using Unity, but the truth is I'm just barely learning how to use Unity, and too much of my time constraint would be used up just trying to figure out what I was doing.  I have a good general grasp of Python and Pygame, but have never done a complete project with it, so again this seems like the right amount of challenge.  Plus Python is intuitive enough that I'm expecting to be able to get things up and running pretty quickly.

As for the concept... I think I want to do something fun and silly.  If I take things too seriously, my perfectionist gene will kick it and I'll never get it finished by the deadline.  Stay tuned for details!