So it's LD50! That's... a lot. My first Ludum Dare was #16 (yes, I had to check) waaaaay back in December 2009 (yup, got that from Wikipedia) and looking back at the archive website, it looks like I did pretty well too, with #12 in Fun! Sure, there were "only" 121 participants but it wasn't a bad start.

Funny thing, I actually ended up making the game in just around four hours. My original, much more ambitious idea involved building a level from tiles similar to Carcassonne, but I never figured out what the game would be, exactly. On Sunday evening, I just scratched that and quickly whipped up a game based on a very old (mid-90s) DOS game I had started but never finished, where you explore a maze while your torch slowly dies down. I had no time to polish it and it just used Unity's primitives and didn't have any sounds, but it managed (accidentally, I might add) to get a couple of things right:

• It was super simple to learn
• It was short

Those two are important pillars for LD success, I feel. Even though I did got them right at first, I did not do so well on all the the subsequent tries. All in all, from 2010 to 2014, I only managed to finish two games out of 8 I started. Out of those two, one was kind of a Civilization clone with an evolution theme (LD24), which was pretty ambitious and kinda worked out ok too.

From 2015 on I started a working in a team. That helped me make games that actually look good and also frees a lot of time, since even making my crappy coder art is very slow. Out of the Jam games, two have actually even ended up as getting published outside of LD: first Super Snowball Roller Mayhem 2000 in LD34, and second Ignis Universia, for which I'm actually working on a sequel right now!

For several years now, I've strived to play and review as many games as possible, with 100 as my yet unattainable goal. I think my personal best is around 70? The main reason for that being that I obviously like getting feedback myself, but there are always some gems to be found. To be able to play as many games as possible, I really, really, prefer playing web games for several reasons:

• It's the fastest way, as I don't need to download, unzip, etc.
• I'm antsy about running random stuff downloaded from the net
• They run on all (desktop) platforms

Last point is a bit moot now since I'm on a Windows PC, but I used a Mac exclusively for years, which prevented me from playing anything that wasn't native or web. So, if you're using Unity or other engine that supports WebGL exports, always make a WebGL version. There's really no excuse. Does your built-in-a-weekend jam game really need a feature not available in WebGL? Yeah, I thought so too.

Also, I still think we should have a story category!

the (old) rules state that you can use premade intro cards. I went ahead and made mine (with my logo and whatnot), but decided to do one for the general public as well with the ludum dare logo. So, feel free to grab this and use it! . I also have the individual frames if someone needs them (I am using GDevelop, so I have to use individual frames, as it does not support gifs

Hey all, I'm looking at building a VR game for the first time with my brother for this game jam. Something we've taken into consideration is that we will have less plays and therefore less ratings/feedback. I think we are both alright with fewer plays for the tradeoff of making something fun in VR.

Any tips or opinions on doing a VR game? We intend on trying the Jam format at start to keep scope low, but then possibly extending to the new format for polish if it goes slower than expected.

Thanks for any advice!

My goodness, it's been a while since I got back into this! The last time I participated in a Ludum Dare jam was in #43. Let's hope the theme for this jam is a doable one! Wishing everyone taking part in this the best!

Welcome to Ludum Dare 50, and the 20th anniversary of Ludum Dare!

Yes, we ran the very first Ludum Dare 20 years ago, back in April of 2002. That's a lot of caffeine ago. :sweat_smile:

Without further ado, lets get to it.

Final Round Theme Voting has begun

Cast your vote here: :ballot_box: /events/ludum-dare/50/theme

For rules and other info, visit the event page here: :trophy: /events/ludum-dare/50

If you don't want to figure out timezones, the theme announcement is when the clock (top-right) reaches zero.

TIP: The ldjam.com website gets really busy before the Theme Announcement. We recommend you follow the official Twitter account, and sign-up for the E-mail Newsletter.

NEW: Extra, the new casual Ludum Dare

I'm thrilled to announce that Ludum Dare has a brand new format!

When submitting your game, you can now choose between the Jam, Compo, or the new Extra format. Extra is Ludum Dare's casual format. There are no winners in the Extra format, but you get to choose your own schedule. Create and submit your Extra games anytime between Friday April 1st and Thursday April 21st--that's nearly 3 weeks! Submit early, and you still get to be a part of Ludum Dare's feedback process: Give feedback, and get feedback.

Learn more about Extra here: /events/extra-the-new-casual-ludum-dare

Rules updates: Extra format, optional Theme, Unfinished games

We'll be publishing a brand new version of Ludum Dare's rules soon. The main difference is the inclusion of the new Extra format detailed above, but there are few other changes I'd like to highlight:

• You can now optionally opt-out of the Theme category. This is not required.
• Please only submit finished games using the Jam, Compo, and Extra formats.
• If your game isn't finished, choose Unfinished instead.

That's everything new this time.

We will continue to evolve the Extra format over the next few events. See the future section for a sneak peek of what's to come. We'll have more to share in September/October for Ludum Dare 51.

On chat communities, and future plans

I shared a short Twitter thread the other day. The TL;DR is that I've been told several times that some folks don't feel welcome on the chat servers that represent Ludum Dare. We don't run any, but that may have to change. This unease is in part due to the "male skew" of gaming and technology, but also because nobody is really trying hard enough. If you'd like to share your experience, my inbox is open. Sometime after LD50, I'd like to engage and chat privately with folks about it.

I don't use public chat rooms, so I don't have ambitions to create some "ultimate" chat server or anything, but it has become clear this isn't something we can ignore. I've always intended for Ludum Dare to be a welcoming and inclusive community, a place for creators new and old to come together. Chat rooms play a vital role for many.

I'll work out the details in the coming months, but my intention is to hire someone to run and moderate an official Ludum Dare chat and help channel, someone that isn't a cis-white-dude like me. I do my best to be conscious to the issues, but I could do one better, and bring on someone with life experience. Their job will be to run and moderate the chat (a potentially quiet chat between events), and they'll have a direct line to me for anything that needs escalating. I'd like to find other ways they can help out, if nothing else, steering me in the right direction when it comes to issues a cis-white-dude might be blind to. I don't have a huge budget for this, and I don't expect them to be glued to the chat, but I'd like it to be worth their while.

Again, I have no interest in dethroning or replacing any of the chat servers out there. I just want is ensure there is a place everyone feels welcome and safe talking about Ludum Dare.

NEW: the Ludum Dare & Game Jams Twitter community

Twitter recently launched "communities", a new way for groups to tweet about a shared topic. Naturally we created one for ourselves. Community feeds are public, but interactions within the community (tweets, comments, likes) are limited to members only. To start, it's wide open and anyone can join. If we need to restrict or moderate it, we will.

I also decided to cast a wider net with it. Right now, Ludum Dare events only happen twice a year, over a couple 5-8 week periods. That's a lot of inactivity. So because "why not", I decided to try and make it the community for Ludum Dare and other Game Jams on Twitter. They key is that we (Ludum Dare/Mike/Interactive Snacks) are taking responsibility for it. If it becomes something, we'll give it the attention it deserves.

Join the Ludum Dare & Game Jams Twitter community at the link below.

twitter.com/i/communities/1509183497361104896

NOTE: Be sure you're logged in to Twitter, else this link will fail.

Keynote: Keynoter's Reunion, 20 years in the making

At long last, it's time for your featured presentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC2KGu__2Ws

Thank you everyone that contributed to this. :wink:

Wrap-up

That's it for me. See you Friday for the main event.

I'm in baby!!! Check out my twitch tonight: https://www.twitch.tv/shxdowcorey

I can't wait any longer. About 15 minutes until it starts. I'm literally dying inside (in a good way lmao)

I'm about to start getting things ready. Come join my twitch and say hi: https://www.twitch.tv/shxdowcorey

Magic has just been taxed. As the last profitable magician, you must fight tax collectors who come at you. This time I went back to a platformer gameplay, let's see where it'll go.

I have all I need for at least one level, but I plan for a second level and a boss for tomorrow.

Here are the basic enemies, here to collect the magician's tax:

It's going well enough with our egg society (just noticed: no eggs in this picture). Idea feels a bit overly ambitious, but i always like the challenge.

Road and building placement is done and works nicely, but no goods are produced or transported yet - not to think of attack/defend mechanisms. Will be a close one! But we got a super team assembled - details later :D

this time I decided to get an actual artist on board, woah!

Remaining tasks: - Add an ending (and a final boss?) - Make a pause menu with basic settings (toggle music, sfx, and that funky scanline effect) - Fix some bugs - Publish!

Streaming a bit of our development :) No time to chat though. https://www.twitch.tv/bippinbits

My game is now published. And now for the rating part! (I usually play 2-3 games before the deadline, can be helpful to find bugs while there's still time)

Good luck to all participants, you can do it!

The mini economy seems to flourish now. I'm sure there are some edge case bugs hidden, but the right feeling starts to come together.

Day 2 is done! I feel like the most difficult bit is over, namely the production and logistics system. Works all nice and tidy, although i'm sure some things will come up in testing. Tomorrow is left for battling the monsters, playtest, polish, sounds, win/lose condition, tutorials. No time to waste :D

We just published our entry for the 50th (and our second) Ludum Dare!

It's about protecting an plant you brought in from your touchy colleagues and dehydration. But looking at the amount of colleagues in the office, it feels inevitable that the plant will perish at some point.

Here it is! Hope you guys play it and share your high scores in the comments!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/$277342

WIP

Will probably update it, but I just wanted to flex on everyone.

we have nintendo switch release and xbox releases for our game. Would love some feedback on how they run for those who want to try that out! Current version is a little unstable, but it is fully playable.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/untitled-lobster-game

Lobster for tax