Hey everyone! Welcome back! I hope you had a good break. Between launching a game and taking on the responsibility of best man at my friend's wedding, I've been keeping busy. But it's good to be back. :slight_smile:

You can sign up for the latest event right now (just login and click the join event button at the top of the page), and you can also start making theme suggestions for the upcoming event. :smile:

New Month, New Time

That's right, it's a brand new month for us: October! Ludum Dare events now happen every 6 months. Every April and October.

Also, last year we ran a bit of a test: We ran the August Ludum Dare event at an earlier time. It was so successful, that the servers couldn't handle it. :sweat_smile:

People have been asking for an EU friendlier start time for over a decade. And since the Global Game Jam came around, I've been getting requests for early-access to the theme by organizers in the EU. Early access doesn't really work for us (and I've repeated the same "no sorry" time and time again), but starting earlier is something we can do. And now, it's a permanent part of our schedule.

Ludum Dare schedules look something like this now:

• Mid-Late April, starts at 9 PM EDT/6 PM PDT/01:00 UTC+1
• Early October, starts at 6 PM EDT/3 PM PDT/22:00 UTC

The countdown clock on the right-side of the webpage should automatically convert the start time to your local time.

New Font?

Yes! This is a little project I started shortly after the last event. I used to make pixel fonts back in the day, and I decided to challenge myself to make a real and proper font anyone could use.

https://github.com/mikekasprzak/font-ludum-dairy

The font itself is built using Font Forge. There's still more work to be done. The font lacks punctuation glyphs and kerning, but it should be complete enough for folks that want to create personalized Ludum Dare headlines on posters and banners.

Hopefully by Ludum Dare 46 I'll have found time to finish the punctuation glyphs. In the near term I hope to get the logo updated, and start using the numbers as well.

What about the October Challenge?

We used to do an event around here called the October Challenge. This was a month-long event where we challenged you to earn $1 from a game. We're not quite ready for an October Challenge just yet, but there is a reason why I scheduled the October Ludum Dare event for the first weekend of the month. :wink:

The games market has changed a lot since I started the October Challenge. Like Ludum Dare itself, it was started to light a fire under our butts to push us to finish something. When it does come back, I'd like it to be a better resource for creators.

So not yet, but there is plotting and planning to bring it back.

Wrap-up

That's it from me. We'll see you again in a few weeks. :wave: