Create a video game level

A 3D model, a sprite sheet, an animation or a sound effect, made to the size and format a real engine wants and dropped into one.

Build a whole game in a weekend to somebody else’s theme: Ludum Dare, the GMTK jam, or a jam in a room with other people.

Put something finished in front of strangers, with a page, a price of your choosing and a download counter that is honest.

Score a game, or write one chiptune track under the constraints of a real sound chip - three channels and a noise generator.

Change somebody else’s game: a balance patch, a total conversion, a Skyrim follower who talks back. Half-Life became Counter-Strike this way.

A cabinet with real buttons and a real stick, whether it holds an original board or a small computer running MAME.

Carmack and Romero build id Software and Doom; the video-game industry's origin story.

Jason Schreier on how ten games got made, from Stardew Valley to The Witcher 3.