A downloadable manifesto

a manifesto for community, resistance and change

fuck the culture of secrecy

Big companies keep their practices secret.
They want to make it seem:

scary
impossible
expensive
anti-social
time consuming
lonely

to create games.

They only care about money.
Fuck this.

We often fall for these lies and copy these practices.
We pretend that games can only be made by certain people.
We need to reject this.

embrace making

Big companies want to be the only ones creating games.
They don’t want you to make games:

in your bedroom
on the train
for fun
on your phone
in the library
in Notepad
as catharsis
with friends
while walking
on a piece of paper
as a joke

but we do and you can.

You can create games.
Embrace it.

Fuck good, polished, marketable, new or brilliant.
Make for the sake of making.
Enjoy the process of it.

games by community

Games are made by a community, even when made by one person.
Games draw upon and are shaped by the:

politics
tutorials
testing
experiences
advice
inspirations
templates
struggles
designs
tools
source code
triumphs
assets
dev blogs
feedback

of the community.

We share the labour of creation.
Cherish this.

Even when you post your game quietly to the internet,
you show that people can make games too.
You add to the community.

games for community

So make your games for the community.
Do not create silently.

When you create:

gather
play
learn
write a blog
hold a meetup
share your practices
make a video
talk about it
teach someone
post screenshots

and add to the knowledge.

You make it easier for the next person.
Encourage this.

Post your failed project online.
Share code, assets and ideas freely.
Give back to the community that helped you.

"as for shitty art, all art is perfectly imperfect — like the world itself — and to some extent value judgments on art are largely subjective and beside the point. Creating art is about growing the world and increasing its reach, and it has more to do with the act of creation itself than what is actually made."
~ Nick Cave, Red Hand Files, 2021

This manifesto was created late for Manifesto Jam 2022. I began writing it to get some thoughts together about my thesis. I almost didn't post it because as I really failed to stick to my previous manifesto. As Robert Yang wrote in his 2017 blog post: "a manifesto is a funny thing because you're trying to predict what you're going to make over the next few years, and people will easily be able to judge you for it... a manifesto is like a weird paradoxical show of strength as well as vulnerability. It's a bit of a risk." Publishing anything feels scary, which is why part of the manifesto just encourages you to create shit and put it out there. I ultimately had to follow my own advice. Enjoy.

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