Game of the Day and the daily release
One Game a Day is organised around a calendar. Each day has one release slot, and a slot holds at most one game.
When the new game arrives
A slot opens at a fixed time of day in one fixed time zone. Both the time and the time zone are settings chosen by the team, so this page does not quote them. The current values are printed in the footer of every page of the site, in a sentence that begins "A new game is released every day at", and again on the About page.
Two things follow from this:
- A "day" on the site is a day in the site's time zone, not necessarily in yours. A game's release date can therefore differ from your local date.
- The release time is a clock time in that time zone. If the zone changes its clocks for daylight saving, the release moves with them.
When a slot opens, the game scheduled for it becomes visible at that instant. Nobody has to press a button. How a game is published each day describes the mechanism.
What the front page shows
The top of the front page always features one game, with a label that says exactly what it is:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Today's game | The game released in the slot that is currently open. |
| Latest game, with "released yesterday" or "released N days ago" | No game has been released in the current slot, so the most recent release is shown instead. The site never presents an older game as today's. |
| Featured game | The team has chosen to feature a particular game for a period. |
If nothing has been released at all, the page says that the first game is on its way.
The countdown
Under the featured game is a row of calendar days. When a next release is actually scheduled, the row starts with a box reading "Next game in" and a countdown.
- The countdown runs to the real instant of that scheduled release.
- It shows hours, minutes and seconds, or days, hours and minutes when the release is more than a day away.
- When it reaches zero it reads "Unlocked!" and the page reloads itself a couple of seconds later to show the new game.
If there is no countdown, either no upcoming release has been scheduled yet or the team has switched the countdown off. A missing countdown does not mean the site has stopped.
What happens to yesterday's game
It stays. Releasing a new game does not remove or lock the previous one.
- The row of calendar days on the front page shows the featured game followed by the five most recent other releases. When the featured game is today's, the release before it is labelled "Yesterday".
- The "Recently added" section on the front page lists the ten newest releases.
- Every released game is listed on All games and keeps its own page at a permanent address.
Release numbers
Each release gets a sequential number in release order, written with a hash sign and at least three digits, such as #001. The number appears on the game page and in the release history.
The release history
The release history lists every release, newest first, grouped by month. Each entry shows the date, the release number, the category, the title and the tagline, and links to the game's page. The entry for the current day is marked "Today".
Long histories are split into pages of sixty releases, with "Newer" and "Older" buttons.
A game the team has retired stays in the history, marked "Retired", and can still be played from its page. Retired games no longer appear on the front page, in search or in the rankings.
Following new releases
The site publishes an RSS feed of releases at https://onegameaday.net/feed.xml. Add that address to a feed reader to see each new game as it comes out.
The feed holds up to thirty of the most recent releases. Each entry gives the game's title, a link to its page, its release time, its category, a short description and, where the game has one, its artwork.
Not available yet
There are no email notifications and no email digest of releases. An optional email digest is on the roadmap as a possibility, with no date.
If a day is missed
If a slot opens with no game in it, nothing breaks. The front page keeps the most recent game and labels it as the latest release rather than as today's, and the next scheduled game appears when its own slot opens.
See also Finding games for ways to browse everything that has been released.