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In the light of a revolution in independent games, there have been many individuals who have attempted to capitalize on this success. One example is The 7 Day FPS Challenge. Just as the title suggests it challenges developers to make a full, playable first person shooter in just 7 days - A massive feat for any independent developer. Despite the challenge, in the first round there have been a number of developers who have come up with innovative, new and simply fun gameplay mechanics. It’s hard to believe that people are able to come up with something playable in such a short period of time. The rules are simple:

1. Make a game
   
2. Have fun

With the competition concluding just over a week ago, we can now look at the full range of successful entries available. One attention grabber was Receiver. With the limitation of just one weapon, the player in this FPS must search through a hotel full of enemy robots and find tapes scattered around the sci-fi / Deus Ex styled environment. Receiver shows off a beautifully rendered world which is situated within a city hotel in the midst of the night. The environment combined with the “Film Noir” styled lighting creates eeriness as well as an inkling of fear within.

Another which must be noted is Timescale. In this game you are placed in a TRON styled area where you are a cube with a gun. You must fire this gun at attacking cubes and last as long as you can. Quite a simple concept but at the same time very effective. With this simplicity comes a high amount of difficulty. After 100 seconds in this black and white world, enemies seem to be coming from every direction.

Overall, it's a great start to a competition which is bound to become a popular event in the years to come. Encouraging more people to make unique and great games is always a fantastic way to shake up the industry. It is also great to see a large amount of people having a go at making one of the hardest genres in video gaming. With initiatives like this, the days of FPS blandness may be numbered.

Check out all the games and support the people who made them at the 7 Day FPS Challenge website linked below.

The 7 Day FPS Challenge

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