A GameMaker community called Loungeware are making their own motley collection of microgames. They may be the largest GameMaker community collaboration ever, so we interviewed space, La Presidenta of Loungeware, to get you the low down.

Can you introduce Loungeware?

Yeah! Loungeware is a collection of microgames made by volunteers all over the world using GameMaker. The microgames are played back-to-back, with each one being just a few seconds long, and the challenge is to beat as many as you can in a row while the difficulty ramps up. 

If you’ve ever played a WarioWare game then you should know exactly what kind of thing to expect.

Loungeware is also a community of GameMaker developers who have come together to create microgames, chat about hogs, and share pictures of cats. 

So far our contributors have made over 40 microgames, each weirder than the last!

How did WarioWare inspire and inform Loungeware? 

I've always been a big fan of the WarioWare games - particularly the first game in the series. 

For those unaware, they're just a bunch of tiny and ridiculous microgames played one after the other in quick succession. Nobody would play them alone, but together they form something greater than the sum of their parts. 

I thought this seemed like the perfect format for a GameMaker community collaboration, because it gives developers a platform to create a game with miniscule scope, and still find people to play it as part of this larger project.

Another great thing is that it doesn't require developers to be actively working on it at the same time. People can dip in and drop a new microgame whenever they want. 

How did Loungeware get started?

I doubt I was the first person in the GameMaker community to suggest that a WarioWare-style project might be cool, but it didn't seem like anyone had actually tried to do it.

In an attempt to get people interested I tried my best to make some flashy transitional screens featuring the Loungeware fantasy console, hoping that would coerce people into wanting to make games for it.

It seemed to work decently well, because we quickly had a bunch of super talented people working on microgames, and on the base project too.

There was so much Loungeware talk in the GameMaker discord server that we ended up having to make our own server to contain it.

Can you tell us about the community?

The community is the best thing about Loungeware. We have developers from all over the world, with all different skill levels, from complete beginners to professional game devs. 

The amount of effort and work that these people have been willing to put into this project is just incredible. Not only do we have amazingly talented microgame contributors, but we have people like:

 - net8floz. I probably would have given up pretty quickly if he hadn't pushed me to get Loungeware working. He really got the community behind the game and has contributed so many things, from live services, to config systems, and also 6 microgames of his own.

 - Zandy, who has made over 30 music tracks for people to use freely in their microgames, plus a ton of additional music for the base game. Despite making all this music, he has made zero microgames and would definitely want me to mention that fact.

 - baku, who made multiple microgames as well as drawing a ridiculous amount of Larolds for our Larold Archive, and she also spent days hand-making multiple Larold plushes to use as prizes..

 - Katsaii, who did a bunch of work on the base game, gave Loungeware its name, and currently holds the record for most microgames made.

- Meseta, who contributed various pieces of music including co-writing the Loungeware theme song along with Zandy. He also set up various backend systems.

- Nahoo, creator of Beenade, who was the first person to get on board and make a microgame, before the project was even in a repo!

 - tfg, who in addition to writing the wiki and creating her own microgames, also built a full-size Loungeware arcade machine.

This list is already getting long so I will stop now, but there are so many more who deserve to be named.

I've gotten to know so many amazing people through Loungeware, and made lifelong friends (not to mention meeting my girlfriend too).

I am intensely proud of every one of them. 

Tell us about the microgames in Loungeware - which is your favourite?

We have so many great games, it is impossible to pick a favourite. But there are a few that I like to use as examples of what makes for a great microgame.

There is "Hats", by Antidissmist. This microgame features various types of hats falling from the sky, and asks you to avoid them and grab the single pair of shades among them.

It is 4 seconds long. To me, this is the perfect type of microgame. It's fast, It is immediately clear what you need to do, and it feels great to execute it.

Another one is "Dinner Date" by Mimpy. All this game asks you to do is "Rest". The game is 6 seconds long, and if you do anything during that time, you lose.

It's a lot harder than it sounds when you've been frantically mashing buttons just seconds earlier. I love the way this one challenges your expectations.

Are there any stipulations about how the game has to be?

For creators, we tell them to aim for your game to be around 4-6 seconds.

Only use assets that are either yours or you have permission to redistribute. Loungeware is open source which means we can't have assets in the project that are not allowed to be redistributed. You can use an asset that you didn't make in the following cases:

• The asset is original (created by you), or has a CC0 license
• You have explicit, written permission from the author
• If you need to give credit, you can do so in the credits field in the microgame config.

Microgames should be straightforward enough that someone could figure out what to do within 1-2 tries. They should also be possible to beat every single time they are played.

Nothing lewd, offensive, or illegal is permitted.

This info can be found on the wiki

Is there a message you’d like to share with our readers and potential collaborators?

If any of this sounds cool to you, come and join our ragtag group of misfits! We welcome new members and we'd love to see what you can make. Even if you just want to stop by and say hello, that's fine too.

You can play Loungeware at loungeware.games or find them on Discord.

Written by Samuel Wain

Sam Wain is a digital marketer at GameMaker. He runs the YouTube channel, writes blogs, and leads influencer marketing. In his own time he's often found crafting stories, composing music, and implementing his sound effects into a new game or project.