🎯 Goal

Ship your first small indie game in 12 weeks.

🧠 Skill Breakdown

• Engine basics
• Game loop
• Art & sound on a budget
• Polish
• Distribution

📅 Curriculum Plan

Week 1: Pick engine

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 2: Tutorials

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 3: Game design doc

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 4: Prototype

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 5: Core loop

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 6: Levels

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 7: Art pass

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 8: Sound

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 9: Polish

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 10: Playtest

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 11: Bug bash

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

Week 12: Release

• Objective: Build, playtest, iterate.
• Practical Tasks:
  • Build feature
  • Playtest with 1-2 people
  • Iterate
• Expected Outcome: Tangible game progress.

🚀 Final Project

Release a small but complete game on itch.io or similar with at least 5 playtesters.

📚 Books & Long-Form Reading

• A canonical book or course in this field

👥 Communities to Join

• Active subreddit, Discord or forum for this topic

🔁 Progress Tracking

• Weekly self-check questions and a clear "ready to move on" criterion