Challenge Forge

Concept

Challenge Forge began as a way for me to have fun clearing my backlog, games I otherwise was not going to play. It worked by rotating through multiple titles with escalating constraints, keeping things fresh and giving me a reason to stick with them.

It has since grown into a modular framework & ruleset that can be shaped to fit almost any style of play. Much like a Nuzlocke run in Pokémon, it is a self-imposed challenge designed to make familiar games feel new again, but here the structure is more streamlined and consistent thanks to the app automatically tracking timers, rotations, and handicaps for you.

You can build your own pool of games for any platform or genre. You can create custom handicap lists, split into permanent and temporary rules, which are then pulled at random during play to keep you adapting on the fly. You can adjust rotation rules to swap games after a set time, a death, a level, or any trigger you choose. You can dynamically set different timers for each game, so a speedrun segment might get 15 minutes while a longer endurance section gets an hour. You can export and import seeds so others can run the exact same setup, whether for casual play, community races, or competitive speedruns.

Because the system does not hook into game code, it works with any game. You can apply the same framework to everything you play and customise the rules to fit your style. A long form endurance run might rotate between three RPGs, each with its own 90 minute timer and strict resource limits. A short experimental session could cycle through several platformers in 10 minute bursts with temporary handicaps like "must keep moving" or "no jumping for 30 seconds." A structured speedrun race could give each game a different timer based on its category length, paired with handicaps that force new routes or strategies. A community challenge night might use a viewer submitted seed with a curated mix of games, timers, and rules that everyone can load and attempt.

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Rotation and Sessions

Set up 1-10 slots, each representing one game in your rotation order. The challenge works with any number, but more slots create more variety and allow temporary handicaps to spread across multiple games. Slots can also be used for different categories of the same game, alternate save files, or different difficulty settings.

Each session lasts 1 hour per slot, tracked with the slot's timer widget. The timer length is fully adjustable per slot. You can give a speedrun segment 15 minutes, a grind heavy RPG 90 minutes, or run without a timer for a play until death format.

Progress through slots in order. When the final slot finishes, the rotation repeats. At the end of each rotation, all temporary handicaps are cleared.

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Timer System

Each slot has its own adjustable timer that tracks your session. This is how you progress through the rotation - if you don't die, you will automatically swap to the next game once the timer runs out. Use the timer controls to start, pause, or reset your session. The default duration is 60 minutes, but you can customize this for each slot based on your playstyle.

Timers are perfect for speedrun segments (15-30 minutes), RPG grinding sessions (60-90 minutes), or any custom duration that fits your challenge style. The timer system ensures you rotate through games even when you're playing well, keeping the challenge fresh and varied.

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Deaths and Temporary Handicaps

When you die in a slot, immediately switch to the next slot. You can change this trigger to something else, such as swapping on boss defeat, level completion, or a set number of in game days.

That death also triggers a temporary handicap assigned to a future slot within the same rotation. Only slots appearing after the current slot can receive the handicap. Slot 1 is immune to temporary handicaps caused in prior rotations, since all temps clear at rotation end.

Temporary handicaps always last one session and naturally stack if multiple deaths target the same future slot. In a large rotation, the final slot can end up carrying several temporary handicaps at once.

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Permanent Handicaps

Permanent handicaps are game specific constraints that persist across rotations. You can make these as light or as punishing as you want, from "no fast travel" to "permadeath for party members."

Each game can have a maximum of 3 permanent handicaps to avoid softlocks. The option to raise or lower this cap will be added in a future update.

Rolling a permanent handicap selects from that game's database pool, avoiding duplicates.

At the end of each rotation there is a 1% chance to clear all permanent handicaps. This chance is configurable in the Optional Rules (Settings) page.

Beating a game completely immediately clears 2-3 random permanent handicaps from your active slots, giving a strong incentive to finish titles rather than just rotate through them.

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Tokens and Achievements

Every achievement earned (in any game) has a 20% chance to grant a token. This chance is configurable in the Optional Rules (Settings) page, where you can also tie tokens to other milestones.

Tokens can clear one permanent handicap.

You may use at most one token per rotation.

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Progress Tracking

Challenge Forge automatically tracks your progress with several key statistics: Total Games in your active rotation, Completed Games you've finished, Active Handicaps across all slots, Deaths across all games, Rotations Completed, and Total Completed Runs for lifetime completed challenges.

These statistics help you track your improvement and see how the challenge system affects your gaming habits over time.

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Rotation End

Finishing a rotation (dying in the final game, or reaching the hour timer) clears all temporary handicaps.

There is a 1% chance at rotation end to also clear all permanent handicaps (configurable in the Optional Rules (Settings) page).

The rotation counter increases by one, and token usage limits reset.

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Database and Game Selection

Build your own game and handicap database with separate pools for permanent and temporary handicaps. You can keep multiple databases for different genres, difficulty levels, or community events.

Adding Content: Use Add to Database to create new games and handicaps, Bulk Add to add multiple handicaps at once, Load Example Seed to start with pre-made content, or Search to find games quickly in your database.

Game Selection: Each slot lets you select a game from your database. Handicaps are automatically pulled for whatever game is actively slotted. You can also manually assign specific handicaps if you prefer curated challenges.

Managing Content: Edit game names, adjust max handicaps per game, or delete content you no longer need. The database grows with your challenge collection.

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Sharing and Saving

Challenge Forge automatically saves your progress, but you can also export and import seeds to share challenges with others or backup your data.

Use Export Seed to save your current challenge setup, Import Seed to load a shared or saved challenge, or Load Example Seed to start with pre-made content.

This makes it easy to share challenges with friends, participate in community events, or backup your progress before trying experimental settings.

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Goal

Clear all games in the fewest rotations possible. Fewer deaths, smarter plays, faster clears. Clearing a game entirely not only removes it from your backlog but also clears 2-3 random permanent handicaps, making it a powerful way to improve your odds in the rest of the challenge. Or adapt the system for variety streaming, speedrun gauntlets, or community challenge events.

Here you can customize various aspects of your challenge.