Man "bored" makes game in 24 hours, calls it 'Thomas Was Alone'

What have you accomplished on a project worth 24 hours? Blitz Games’ Mike Bithell - 24 years-old - has managed to develop an entire game.

He wanted something simple focused on ”one interesting mechanic,” and then going a bit crazy with it. Bithell lived off ”diet of pizza and red bull.”

A lonely rectangle wants to make friends - that’s the premise - and he’s got a lot of platform puzzle jumps to do. ”I wanted to make a simple game focused on one interesting mechanic, spinning it out in cool ways to create something fun and challenging,” said Bithell of Dead To Rights: Retribution’s Blitz Games. ”I was also bored.”

”I made it in 24 hours, spread out over the course of two calendar days. I had breaks to sleep and eat - that’s it. And I only slept for five hours. I managed to keep going on a diet of pizza and red bull.” Play the oddly great Thomas Was Alone for free at Kongregate.

Big budgets, huge development teams and long lead times can suck it.