Since it's AGameAWeek's 15th anniversary, I decided to get Bing to ask me some interview questions, that I could fill out for fun.

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What inspired you to start AGameAWeek.com and how did you come up with the name?

Over at CodersWorkshop, we launched a weekly coding challenge. Called Wednesday Workshop, a theme would be set each Wednesday, and we'd have to try to make related games before the following Wednesday, when the whole thing would start all over again.
When CodersWorkshop was unceremoniously destroyed by a rampaging Idigidragon, the SoCoder forum was created as a replacement, and the Wednesday Workshop continued, there.
After years of doing these weekly games, I decided to make a whole site dedicated to my insanity, and that's when I created AGameAWeek.com
The name seemed rather obvious!

How do you manage to create a new game every week? What are some of the challenges and rewards of doing so?

Writing games is what I do, and I really enjoy putting the commands together to make a game. Whilst other people might enjoy the thrill of putting jigsaw pieces together to make a picture, or words to make a poem or book, or notes to make a piece of music, my thrill is in connecting words to make enjoyable playability happen.
It's just a hobby. And it's a hobby that I still get a thrill from, each time those commands link up to make a fun experience.
The challenges are mostly having to organise all of the chaos, do uploads to a bunch of different sites, and try to promote the games as I go. I'm not very good at that bit!

What are some of the tools and technologies you use to make your games? How have they changed over the years?

I've used various forms of BASIC through the years, from Amstrad's Locomotive BASIC, through AMOS and Blitz on the Amiga, to Blitz2D/3D/Max and Monkey on the PC. I've also written over 150 games using SmileBASIC on the Switch.
My choice of using BASIC isn't a lack of skills in other languages, more than it is that I can make things quicker using BASIC since I'm more familiar with it. C/C++/C#/Obj-C/PHP/.net and more have all been experimented with, to varying degrees of success, over the years.
Recently I've been learning a lot of HTML/Javascript stuff, and have managed to build up an alarming number of games using that, but I'll still happily switch back to BASIC whenever I can.

What are some of your favourite games that you have made and why? What are some of the games that you are most proud of and why?

JNKPlat is still my favourite. It's not very popular, but it's the game I have the most fun replaying. Proper levels, nicely laid out, tricky puzzles, and fun platforming.
The most popular game from my arsenal, though, is definitely SpikeDislike. Originally created frantically in a few minutes to fill a slot in an Advent Calendar, the game proved to be oddly satisfying in a way that I haven't really replicated. For all its retro styled graphics, and alarmingly simplistic gameplay, it's managed to keep on being popular for over a decade, and even made enough money to buy a window for the house!
Nice!!
.. I wouldn't say I'm "Proud" of SpikeDislike, though.
I'm still somewhat annoyed that a game I whipped up in a few minutes is one of my most popular games.

How do you come up with new ideas for your games? Do you have a process or a method for generating them?

In the world of AGameAWeek, anything goes. From typing random commands until a game emerges, to having an odd sound effect stuck in my head and trying to decide what kind of game might make that sound.
Some days I'll be scribbling random pixelart and a new character will leap out of the page and into a new game. Other times I might be waffling away on Social Media, and a bizarre idea might pop into my mind.
There's loads of ways that ideas can appear.. The trick is trying to remember them all!

How do you test and debug your games? Do you have any tips or tricks for finding and fixing bugs?

Since I'm whipping up games so quickly, debugging very much takes a backseat. This is probably something I should focus more on, but if I can manage to play it for 10 minutes at a time without it breaking, I'm usually ok with the output.
One thing I've found to be quite useful is watching LetsPlays of my games.
During my OUYA days, Otakupunk would play almost all of my games, and getting to see his realtime-playing would help me find all kinds of crazy bugs!
I'm incredibly thankful to the LetsPlayers, but especially Otakupunk, for letting me see how other people experience my games.

How do you balance making games with other aspects of your life, such as work, family, hobbies, etc.?

Back in 2012, I had a brain cyst removed, and everything kinda went downhill thereafter. I've now got mountains of balance/motion issues, and simply moving around the house can be enough to make me nauseous.
Since then, life has kind of been on hold for me. Family life now takes precedence whenever it has to, though due to my health conditions, I have had to miss out on an awful lot of things, most recently my Niece's wedding day. It's kinda depressing, if I'm honest.
And so I keep on coding. I make the games that keep me cheery, and stop me from spiralling into what could very easily be a pit of despair.
I always make time to fit other things in, but only if I can manage to do them.

How do you measure the success of your games? Do you track any metrics or feedback from your players?

I used to worry about that kind of stuff, but a while back someone called me out on it, and how I shouldn't be downhearted when I'm making so much content. Though I might have a disappointing release one day, there's always the next game to make a splash with.
As such, I've stopped trying to watch the stats, to the point where nowadays I can't even tell which of my games people are playing. I can monitor someone heading to Browsercade or Shoebox, for example, but beyond that I have no metrics for the individual games that they play.
I've simply stopped worrying, and base all my metrics on how many people mention the games on Social Media.
That's more than enough.

How do you keep yourself motivated and inspired to make games every week? Do you have any advice for aspiring game developers who want to follow your example?

Motivation comes mostly from seeing people enjoy the games, and knowing that the next game might make even more people happy. I like that my games occasionally bring joy to those that play them.
I'm also motivated by numbers, so making more and more things, and having increasingly insane levels of content on the site, is a little bit of a motivator for me.
There's also the creativity element of it all. Trying to make new interesting things, even when it's quite obvious that I ran out of fresh ideas a long long time ago!!

My advice to anyone wanted to try to do this, is to not get too bogged down in the strict weekly deadline. Take plenty of time out. If you don't feel you can finish a game in a week, make it a two week, or month-long project.
If you get too focussed on the "A Week" thing, you'll probably end up finding it more of a chore than it should be. When it feels like you're doing a job, you're probably not doing it for the right reasons.

As long as there's still joy in what you're doing, then you should be able to keep going a little easier than when it all becomes a stress and a chore.

What are some of the goals or plans that you have for the future of AGameAWeek.com? Do you have any dream projects or collaborations that you would like to pursue?

Honestly, I'm not sure any more.
In 2021 I created GotoJSE.com, which is a form of BASIC that runs in your browser. That was definitely something I've never managed to tackle before in my life, and I'm quite happy with how it's turned out. I think THAT is probably the "future" of AGameAWeek, but even that's now in the past. Two years ago!! Gosh!!
Collaborations would be cool, but trying to fit a collab for a game, which I haven't planned yet, but is due to be released in a couple of days, can be hard enough trying to get myself organised, let alone trying to involve other people. For that reason, I've mostly been alone in this journey.

The future will probably be more games.
That's what it's been this whole time, and I expect that won't change any time soon.