Welcome to the 38th edition of onegameamonth.com

I'm posting this keynote a little early because I'm moving this weekend. We just bought our first home, which is a huge life milestone for me! As I unpack boxes and slowly build my dream arcade in the basement, I'd like to encourage you to think about where you live. The people you live life alongside; family, room-mates, pets, and visitors. The things you surround yourself with; furniture, art, games, and your music. Your neighbourhood, your city, your country, your planet.

This month's new 250xp theme word achievement is: "HOME"

Imagine modelling your childhood home for a game level. Visiting a long-lost homeworld. Defending your home base from invaders. The start page for your internet presence. The nostalgia that is the memory of your home town. That place in your heart that provides the comfort, safety, and necessities of life we all need. Home might not even be a place for you as much as a feeling. It might just mean the people you surround yourself with.

If your game has pigeons or missiles, let them be homing. If your game has prose or poetry, always return to the start of the line. If your characters set off on a grand adventure, let them finally return from whence they came. If there is destruction or antiquity, renovations may be in order. Whether home is a bird nest or a bear cave, a space station or a fading memory, focus on home in your game.

Home is often a place to rest. A place to heal up. A place to save your game. Maybe even a place to escape, a broken home in need of fixing. Perhaps home for you no longer exists, and is merely a place to simply remember.

Home is often behind us - a place to backtrack to, withdraw to, or visit all too infrequently. Perhaps it is something in your future - a place you're still searching for. A place to call your own. Home represents both a starting point and a final destination. We all set off on adventures, and we all long to return home.

Home is the place where you belong. Whatever the word HOME means to you, this month go back to that place. Explore it. Repair it, or tear it down. Get into real-estate or build a dream home for yourself in your next game. Good luck!

- Christer Kaitila aka @McFunkypants
- onegameamonth.com
- twitter.com/McFunkypants