Apologies for the lack of #LDJam updates. Found myself crunching on a few unrelated things the past week(s). I have something due by midnight, and I sincerely hope I have that working soon. If all goes well, I'll open up signups tonight. 🤞😅
Quite glad that Mike is able to get LD57 started, and it's exciting to see that theme suggestions are open. My theme suggestions are, •Liminal (occupying a position at or on both sides of a boundary)• •Non-Newtonian (resistance to force changes with force applied)• No idea how good or bad they are, I just thought it would be fun if the theme were some fancy science word and I can think of some interesting ideas from it.
The last theme was a bit of a surprise for me. Here are my themes: -Creation -Uncovering the past "Uncovering the past" was inspired by me revisiting Minecraft Infdev and deobfuscating the game's code in order to make a mod for it. "Creation" was just the two past themes combined - LD 54 and LD 55 combined into LD 56. March is very busy for me, yet luckily, LD 57 is in April. Looking forward to it!
I've tried in the past to come up with themes that aren't stuck to a rigid image and i think i failed at that, so this time I wanted to bring something very open to the suggestions.
"Rings" there is a very wide range of things that this could mean, fighting ring, sonic style collectable rings, ring weapons, magic rings, halo rings etc.
and
"Doctor(verb or noun)" this could be medical, or manipulated, altered, changed, etc, lots and LOTS of open space here for interpretation, maybe too much.
But my suggestions are really not the better I ever proposed
Well, they're not the worse either, so I guess it's ok.
Hey everyone!
I have a Meta Quest 3 and recently discovered that Godot is available on it. So, I’m going to try making my first game jam entry entirely inside my headset!
This will be my first compo, my first time using Godot, and my first VR game, so I’m keeping my expectations low. 😄
That said, I plan to prepare for a week or two before the jam. If you have any tutorials to recommend—especially "Unity to Godot" guides—I’d love to check them out!
I’m also looking for tools that can run on the Quest to create assets (images and sounds). I already have ShapeLab for modeling and Virtuoso for music, but I’m open to other suggestions. Android apps and web-based tools should work as well. Also, if you know any good ways to use Git directly on the Quest, that would be super helpful!
And if you have a headset (especially a Quest 3—I’m not sure about compatibility with other devices yet), let’s connect! I think it’s going to be tough to find testers… 😭
Thanks in advance for any tips you can share!
Honestly, I think imitation could be great for everyone.
First, just wanted to say I have plenty of those Ludum Dare patches available if anyone wants them: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-call-of-qthulhu/iron-on-laptop-bag-patches-for-donations
Second, I was wondering how new users get their invitation code? I have some colleagues who want to join and they're asked to provide an invitation code while signing up. I've been searching but can't find any info.
Let's all invent the Torment Nexus from the famous sci-fi novel "Don't invent the Torment Nexus".
If my schedule allows, I might participate this time around!
Because there are a lot more newcomers than veterans among participants, it is common for theme suggestions to fall into the same traps. This is why the theme slaughter round exists! But how do we make them better, and more importantly, how do we increase the quality of themes that make it to the final rounds?
Well, I got you covered! Over a decade of jamming, I've somewhat identified the patterns that make a theme sterile and difficult to work with, and came up with 3 rules to follow:
This opens things up to more varied interpretations. "Stuck in a loop" can be trimmed down to "Loop", which is less restrictive.
Many words have a wide array of meanings when decontextualized, such as "Fall" which can be an action, or a season. Also, the simpler the theme, the easier it is to scope, as it tricks the mind into not thinking too much.
A theme is a seed that grows through the personality and experience of the people making the game. Thus, a seed that has potential not only in terms of game design, but also art direction, is much more powerful.
From my experience, "things that do things" make for pretty great themes, because they give you a foundation for both function (game design) and context (dressing). "Consequences" is functional but will not give you an immediate visual interpretation, whereas "Tide" serves both purposes.
Try to also be as genre-agnostic as possible: You might love puzzly strategy games and will come up with themes that are skewed towards these, but they can sabotage jammers who specialize more in fast-paced action games! Try to imagine an interpretation of your theme from both of those extremes, and see if they work and seem fun.
This is the most important one! I've seen many people struggle (and have struggled myself!) to make games on poisonous themes that are actually game ideas in disguise.
A theme is not and should not be a rule or mechanic, and it should not try to be subversive, nor descriptive! Avoid things like "XYZ is key!", "You are/have XYZ", "Only XYZ", or "X but Y", like the plague! These are very heavy handed, pointlessly complexify things, and are more difficult and unfun to work with.
"Restriction breeds creativity" is only true when you know how to creatively navigate around it. Experienced and/or talented jammers will always find a way to make a great game with a really cool interpretation of just about any theme. But a good theme can and will make the difference between a beginner dropping out at the starting blocks, and them releasing their first game and being very proud of it!
Some examples (that you can steal if you're really out of ideas :stuckouttonguewinkingeye:): Mist, Mirror, Glass, Land, Horn, Spray, Vision, Ammunition, Mask, Scream, Gift, Dispenser, Train, Advertisement, Book, Clean, Accident, Cactus, Tower, Giant.
One-word, straight to the point, "things that do things". All creative seeds that "push" instead of "pull"!
As for jam advice: Preparation has the biggest impact! Tidy up your gamer cave, make a basic framework with utilities (singletons, scene loading, save system, audio manager, event bus, etc.) functional menus and settings that can be used for any game (this is huge, and does not break Compo rules!), get comfortable with your tools, buy food in advance, rest well, go outside and stay hydrated!
Happy jamming and see you on the 4th!
Hey everyone!
Super excited for this Ludum Dare, it's gonna be awesome.
Since last LD I started working on my first commercial game: Bleached!
It's an incredible journey already. You can already wishlist on Steam to show your support, join the Discord and watch the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln_3J-8sE78
Cheers everyone, and have a nice LD!
Count me in.
So glad to say I will be doing my 33rd consecutive Ludum Dare. Was extremely disheartened by the news but I'm really happy the community and industry came through for Big Kasprzak. LET'S JAM
Might call me unimaginative...
...but decided to dig my previous suggestions from three years ago and give them a shot again!
I tried to make them abstract enough for creativity but specific enough for inspiration. Hope you like them!
As always, it's mandatory to post the suggestions, innit?
It will be my 1st Ludum Dare, goodluck to ya'll!
Here are my theme suggestions:
Super excited for LD 57! When does voting start?
I think a lot can be done with either one.
Communication can be done any number of ways: talk, sign language, telepathy, leaving notes or messages on signs, smoke signals, morse code, cryptic patterns and clues and many more.
Direction is a course and also guidance/instruction. Lead or follow which way to go, cook meals by following recipes, take advice from the right (or wrong) NPCs, travel from planet to planet or town to town, go step by step with a treasure map, etc.
Hey, guys! My friend is trying to sign up and it appears this message. Can I find such invitation code somewhere?