Welcome to year FIVE of the www.onegameamonth.com challenge.

This month's optional 250xp theme word is: FRIENDS.

Make a game with the word "friends" in the title, explore friendship of any form, and tell a story about the bonds that connect us to others. Explore loneliness, or imagine a future where everyone gets along.

If this is your first time here, you may be wondering what the #1GAM challenge is all about. We're all friends here; game developers who aspire to get better at what we do. Join us! Everyone is welcome, whether you're a first-timer or a pro gamedev.

Your quest is to make games, a lot of them, as a way to levelup your gamedev skills. Build a portfolio, and have fun working on small projects by joining game jams. You're also free to simply develop whatever games you wish; you don't have to join a game jam or anything.

There are NO RULES here. You're allowed to team up with people, you're allowed to work on existing projects, you don't have to start from scratch.

This is simply a gym, where people just like you who make games like to get together and tally their achievements along the way towards getting better at what they want to be good at. Dozens of beginner game deveopers have completed the challenge an then gone on to jobs in the games industry.

This has been a labour of love and is a project I feel really proud of. Thanks everyone for joining me.I am grateful so many people have joined me on this never-ending journey of self-improvement.

Remember: you are officially a game developer
if you are working on a game.
Even by publishing a single finished game you'll have set you apart from a million dreamers without a finished game.

So this is it. The challenge you need to get over the learning curve. To level up your game development skills and learn the tools you need to really make a go of game deveopment as something serious.

Welcome to the training dojo. Get ready to work out repeatedly, habitually, and with discipline. This is what it will take for your to get to the finish line. You can do it. So go for it. We're here for the long run - because it's fun!

Keep on submitting games, levelling up, and earning achievements. Keep on joining game jams and talking about the art of game development with your friends.

Making games, whether professionally or as a hobby, is the good life. Be grateful you are able to spend time doing something so fun. Don't worry so much about the end product - focus on the next step and take action.

Good luck, my friend.