LD30 was my first entry, and I had only heard about the competition a month or so prior to it. I was excited to join and became quite happy with the game I made. Somehow I thought that would be the end of it, but that’s when I discovered the whole voting system. It hadn’t even crossed my mind all of these thousands of games would need to be rated. I think the system itself is genius – the more you rate, the more you get rated. It’s the perfect incentive. So I started rating games. Every game I played was something new, something that someone put real effort into – and that alone was amazing to me. I learned so much just looking at all these different interpretations of the theme, the different ways of approaching the creation of a game. Verbalizing what in my opinion was great and what could be improved was great practice. I stumbled upon everything from absolutely wonderful, incredible games to the opposite end of the scale. This was when it hit me.

Normally on the Internet, when I see something that’s perhaps not up to par, I barely want to look at the comments. People have no inhibitions destroying whatever they get a chance to. Personally, I never think the opposite end of the scale is just crap. Someone with an idea, a person that has put real effort into something, has created something specific, and although it might not have turned out amazing, there’s still work that’s been done and an aspiration to go somewhere. Here’s what amazed me then and does this time around as well: Everyone agreed.

In Ludum Dare, it doesn’t matter what you’ve created. No one is out to destroy you. I don’t have that much time to rate and play, but throughout these two competitions I’ve rated close to 100 games, and I have not seen one single destructive comment. Everyone is constructive, and even one game in the previous competition where I felt like there was nothing I could say, I started reading the comments and found plenty of awesome suggestions, all related to the very base of computer game creation, and it inspired me to find something to add to the suggestions.

With every game I rate, and with every rating I get, I learn something. This community is impossible to beat, and I’m proud to be part of it.

(PS: *Commercial warning*: If you want to try out and rate my game for LD31, it’s available here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=38819)