Just one year ago, I participated in my first Ludum Dare. This will be my fourth experience, and I\u2019m absolutely sure this event has changed my life.<\/p>\n
I went through the experience of the past three Ludum Dares with different life events and different moods, resulting in quite a different game in Ludum Dare 25 when compared with 24 and 26.<\/p>\n
I came to participate in Ludum Dare for a few reasons. I\u2019ve struggled with depression my whole life, and I\u2019ve been programming since 5th grade. Things were reaching a point where I couldn\u2019t work on anything consistently, whether they were hobby projects or school work. I had been thinking about joining up in Ludum Dare but didn\u2019t ever commit to it. But then, sometime last August, something clicked. I picked up L\u00d6VE, a nice platform that allowed me to use a language I knew well \u2013 Lua \u2013 and still produce games that seemed pretty great.<\/p>\n
I agreed to Skype with a friend of mine, Luke Weber, for the whole weekend while we both worked on games. He was working within ROBLOX, and though I\u2019m not sure his game really fit within the rules of Ludum Dare, he had a lot of fun. Half way through the competition, I had very little to show for my work. Luke pressured me to continue on even if it meant my game wouldn\u2019t be the one I had the vision of making going into the challenge. In the end, I created \u201cUNBOUND,\u201d<\/a> which wasn\u2019t really a game at all, and it hardly fit into the theme of \u201cevolution.\u201d Everyone posted rather constructive comments on the game and I was happy with what I produced.<\/p>\n For my second attempt at this challenge, I came in a little more prepared. I started about a month before the competition on a project \u2013 a framework on top of L\u00d6VE that would get rid of all the mundane stuff like content management and make development of the actual game come first and foremost. I didn\u2019t make anything too terribly impressive, and in the end I created a game that was much simpler than in Ludum Dare 24. It was a game about throwing people off of a bridge, called London Bridges<\/a>. Why? Because my girlfriend of the time was an aspiring engineer. Other than that I have no justification for such a concept, but it was fun, and was remarkably more happy than what I produced in Ludum Dare 25.<\/p>\n By this time, the girlfriend I had in the previous go at Ludum Dare had dumped me. I was interested in a new girl, but it wasn\u2019t going to work out. I had sunk pretty low again, and had been keeping a journal full of awful things. After participating in Ludum Dare, and creating a game that was essentially a spiritual successor to UNBOUND, JOHN<\/a> I felt free of whatever burdens I had been carrying before, but with them went my emotions. I felt empty.<\/p>\n Things got better eventually, and that was four months ago or so. I\u2019m excited for Ludum Dare 27 and whatever it brings, as long as the theme isn\u2019t something like \u201cevolution of kitten fishing\u201d or the like.<\/p>\n See you all around.<\/p>","time":"August 6th, 2013 9:13 pm","title":"Methinks it\u2019s a fourth go!","title_was_empty":false}Ludum Dare #25<\/h2>\n
Ludum Dare #26<\/h2>\n