Hi, all! With all 3 preliminary rounds of Theme voting live, I wanted to lead a little discussion about what makes an interesting theme for a Game Jam and how to identify a good or bad one. I've personally identified 3 conditions I look for when voting for themes, each building upon the previous:

1. First and foremost, a theme must be accomplishable in a short period. This includes themes that hint at complicated, difficult mechanics like anything with significant RPG elements, enemy AI, etc. But more subtly, many themes almost entirely suggest story elements rather than mechanics, which can create a roadblock for less skilled developers and/or those on smaller/solo teams. Keep in mind that most completed game jam games take the form of simple arcade-like games based more on some single mechanic than on any amount of content, which takes additional time to make. For any developer working in a short period of time, mechanics must always take priority over theme/story, and theme choice should reflect that. "Automation," for example (suggested in this year's voting) is really fun in games (speaking as someone who loves playing Space Engineers, Minecraft, etc) but would be extremely difficult for most people to implement in a single weekend in my opinion.

2. In a Jam like LD, the event doesn't end when we submit our games. We spend a single weekend making our game, but the next two weeks playing games! Thus, it is essential that a theme produce games which are not just fun to make but also enjoyable to play. It is not uncommon to see some themes that emphasize heavy restrictions like "single button input" or "losing control." While it may be fun to program a game with some of these restrictions, they might not actually be fun to play, like if Call of Duty made you spend more time searching for ammo than actually shooting.

3. Regardless of how fun a game made from a given theme may be, Ludum Dare isn't just about making and playing a single game--by the end of the jam, a dedicated community member may play dozens and dozens of other games! This means that not just quality but also variety are important! The question that should be asked when considering a theme should be not "can I make a fun game out of this?" but "can the wider community make a diverse variety of fun games out of this?" A theme like "projectiles with recoil" can make a fun game but in a broader theme will likely mean the same game idea made over and over again. I particularly love themes with a homonym, meaning a single word with multiple possible meanings. Words like "power" for example, can hint at political power, physical strength, electricity, and more! (Though I do think this year's theme suggestion of "you are the power source" is a little restrictive because it describes mechanics). One-word themes are always my favorite because they are by nature vague enough to have lots of possible tie-ins and don't restrict you mechanically.

Some of my favorites are: 1. Sanctuary: Can refer to either a church or a generically safe place (multiple interpretations). The "safe place" idea is something widely applicable in game design but does not restrict mechanically. I can see this one going a lot of different ways.

1. Reflection: Could be a mirror reflecting light or images. Could be physical surfaces reflecting balls, projectiles, or more.

2. Strength in Numbers: "Strength" and "Numbers" can both be interpreted tons of creative ways!

Otherwise, almost any of the one-word themes.

But that all said... we all know good and well that it wouldn't be LD without complaining about a terrible theme and being forced to come up with an idea anyway, so I wish everyone the best no matter what is voted through!

What are y'all's thoughts on the subject?

Check me out on Twitter at https://twitter.com/wingman_gaming to see my long-term project Call of the Stars, a survival game about building civilizations!