Third time's the charm !

Locked and loaded for LD40 lets get it everyone!

Going to be making another 2D game using SFML and C++ so I think its time to start preparing my framework ready for it! Will defiantly be brainstorming ideas within the next week in order to prepare for this! I hope I can figure out a great idea this time round, my creative abilities aren't very decent.

After being unable to actually do anything for the last one, I'm in. Using Paint.net, BFXR, Eclipse.

https://discord.gg/9mPX39Q You can join if you want, for dev and art related ! cya and good ld to all of you !

College, work, and sleep are going to have to wait. I have a trash game to make!

Ludum Dare Discord

Hey guys, some may know me, some may not and if you don’t then we must duel it out.

Anyways I’m ieyfo, I run the official unofficial dicord for Ludum Dare it was stared back for LD36 and we have grown as a community to over 520+ members and growing more everyday. I personally love the community we have formed and I want you to become a part of it :).

Last Ludum Dare was amazing 100s of new people and so many good chats and opinions. We hope to continue this for teh next Ludum Dare.

Just recently we were asked to partner with crowdforge.io and now there Ludum Dare area has a direct link too our discord. Also we have been added to the side bar for the Ludum dare reddit the next step would be a link here.

Why Discord and why my discord for LD?

First I know many people loooveeee IRC well for you if you don’t wanna switch don’t that is up to you but know change is happening and more and more people are switching over every day. I think now is a good time to join us :).

Next Discord is an amazing place with voice chat, video chat, screen share, all super fast and better than anything Iv’e ever used. Also discord is amazing for sharing project assets or anything you wanna no need to link images like IRC just paste them in. You’re not just a name and a string of text you are you and people can easily get to knwo you.

Next why to join our discord well we are the biggest 420+ strong and growing. In a non biased opinion the most fun and organized discord with section and channels for everything you could need whether you’re doing Ludum Dare or game development or programming in general we got you!

We hope to see you there INVITE LINK-> https://discord.gg/kwSW9SR

Cross posted/ Reposted for relevace.

Development on main game must pause!

Hello, we try to create a developer community, we are not a lot for the moment and we want to make the community grow up. If you want to join us, there is the link : https://discord.gg/9mPX39Q Happy ludum dare and best of luck everyone

It's that time again, time to make a game!

I started game dev 3 months ago. I remember watching tutorials by the twitch streamer GamesPlusJames to learn Unity. I then went to seek him out on Twitch and found he was competing in Ludum Dare. It made me want to get involved, but at that point I knew so little. 3 months on, I've gained a lot of experience. I am still very restricted in what I can do - but feel like I am capable of creating something on my own for the competition. Looking forward to it <3

In hopes to improve the situation when the next voting stages come, thought I'd write about my Theme Slaughter Experience™.

Most themes are really, really bad. The biggest issue I've seen is that they're just not inclusive and welcoming to all kinds of game concepts. Which I think is quite sad because variety of games is what makes playing them much more interesting. And it makes development much easier too.

Before I go into detail, here's a summary of my Slaughter Experience™:

Now, let's start with all the reasons why I'd slaughter a theme:

Reasons:

• I do not want to see 1000 programmer art versions of said object or place.
• It probably took a lot of time just to do the art for that thing/place for most developers.
• This isn't an Etch A Sketch competition, it's a gamedev competition - the focus should be on the game.
• Many people probably hate that thing/place. Examples for me: water/space (both very common in theme list).

I get it that someone loves a game or genre enough to request more such games. I also get that it's purely selfish and shuts out tons of people who aren't into making such games.

It gets old fast. Revelation can only work once, so it's not a foundation for any kind of gameplay.

This usually limits genre options, which may put people off for having no experience developing such games.

Since the core gameplay is always some kind of loop, such a theme would require to overcompensate on the repetition part, basically demanding a boring and (you guessed it) overly repetitive process.

It's no more helpful to game design than choosing cutlery is to decide what to eat for lunch.

Also, developers should not be stuck with bad controls just because the rules say so. Controls generally change as design evolves so it's really hard to commit to a specific scheme up front, so the design is likely to suffer.

This is similar to the very first issue - themes with object/place.

The time to develop the prerequisites takes time away from developing the most important parts of the game. Some people are good at, say, drawing characters, some are not (like me), hence it's not very inclusive.

I believe jams and competitions such as this one should be light-hearted and thus keep politics and heavy discussions out of the process. It should be a choice of each developer if they wish to tackle a heavier theme in their creation.

I get it that whoever picked that theme liked that thing. Most people probably would. And yet it doesn't get anyone closer to figuring out what the game should be about. Do you make a game about the specific situation, about the lyrics of a song or the story of the movie? Do you interpret it literally? Not a lot of options, all very restrictive.

Bonus points for trying to be inclusive though.

Someone has probably tried to be clever again. Unfortunately, this means that more time is spent on trying to understand the theme than on making the game.

And even then, chances are someone might disagree with your interpretation, or find it hard to rate how well the theme is used.

There can be themes that are too specific, as well as ones that are too vague. If it's not limiting the creative choices somehow, it's just not doing its job.

So, all these rules for what a theme shouldn't be -- what should it be then, you ask? Well, it's quite simple. Even if coming up with one is hard. Here's my attempt to define it:

• A theme should be frictionless. Easy to read and understand, even reason about.
• A theme should be a concept. Not something concrete, but an idea of an abstract structure.
• A theme should carry no weight. No prerequisites that take time to develop.
• A theme should have room for a conflict. Something that invites a collision of different opinions.

To conclude, I have two examples from the last Slaughter Experience™ that I still remember. Having seen 3000 themes, it's hard to remember all the good ones, and I forgot to write them down.

The reason why I like this one is because you can make just about everything with it, and still keep things exciting.

The player character (if there is one) can either work for such a corporation, possibly as a double agent, trying to destroy it from within, or fight against it from the outside.

This idea can also support tycoon/strategy/clicker games and even puzzles.

Location is also unrestricted, giving people the ability to make games set in space, ocean or both (whatever floats your ship).

Instead of the theme trying to be clever like some others do, it's letting developers be creative about interaction design themselves. I couldn't wait to think what other people can come up with.

I hope my little post has inspired someone to be more inclusive with their choice of themes. I'm leading by example and I've slaughtered every single theme that was a game genre/object/situation that I like.

This is the end of what I have to say, so - thanks for reading!

If you want to know what I think about your theme, or if you disagree with me, please let me know in the comment section.

Last Dare, I tried. This time is no different!

We competed in LD37 and LD38 (@dregs, @juri and I) but the team missed out on LD39 because reasons. So this will be our third jam. Getting a feel for how things work, even if our guys hit the middle road, still feels an accomplishment to finish games!

Not sure if this is a thing, or should be, but i developed a tool with @dregs to make slaughtering the themes easier, including being able to change votes (hate clicking and being all like meh, accident!), viewing all the themes at once, and also, viewing votes for previous rounds, and suggestions i made back then, because i keep forgetting and it amuses me.

Its a standalone website that does EVERYTHING front end - literally no server side code, so no storing or any details etc, no danger of naughtiness, and obviously does nothing the API doesn't allow (and all credit for the functionality on that side of things goes to Mike (@pov) and the Boys of course).

Feel free to use it, download the code to see for yourself (i have a standalone, static page version if you want it), or dont, thats cool too - and if i have stepped out of line here, just shout and ill take the site down, it was a personal project for me and @dregs but figured it might be useful. You can use the page to log in, or you could just load the page in the same browser you are already logged into LD with and it will use the same session to retrieve your themes and votes.

Anyhoo, if its useful to you, great. See you on the other side!!!

http://ludumdare.silentsloth.co.uk/

Nate

Finally finished the theme Slaughter (first time completing it), While I agree with nearly everyone that will be moaning about the themes - I also must admit it was fun!. SOOO many neat ideas for future games. That to me is the best part of the slaughter, with every theme thinking (unless it was crap) ooooh, how can/would I make a game from this.

I am curious to know how my three suggested themes faired against the onslaught. @POV, can we please have that feature - I think it will help people to make better suggestions in the future if they see how badly their suggestion got shot down.

Anyways, time to sit back and wait for the final rounds to begin!

LudumDare 40 is coming: Because that I will try participate as last two LD... what I improve those last two LDjam?

That is the main idea about this note;

First LD was a dissaster, yeah... I asume that, I am also happy with that, because at 1st LD I was entering at the world of Unity and 3D game-programming and 3D scripting... so, I do my best, and I try much more than what I can made at these time... What I learned?... most of the basic stuff but something more about 3D vectors and how to move the player and things like this... yes, the physics was the worst error but... I learned another interesting thing about "FixedUpdate" and "Update" funtions... the 38 LD game can be improved much, I know... but at least the game have completed his mission...

At second Ludum Dare, What I learned?... at same way at my first Ludum Dare I learned about this "the first idea is not the best idea to use at game making for the jams"... what that means?... that means the first idea I got at two LD was too "BIG" for jam... also, was over... greatest that I can hold and plus I can made... my knoledge was too small to make a 3D game that use something called vector and some like "quaternions" and those strange things that have a 3D desing... but... even on that novice mistake and others more... I learned about vectors, and plus, I have learned much about UI and canvas... until the last weeks I was trying to make or fix the pink UI errors, so, I learned how to fix that :D too...

I learned a lot... I tryes a lot more... and still working on these "minor" errors to fix... I need to learn some other thing at next LD I know... but I will take the next one with another perspective... this time I will focus on jam... why?... because the time... and because this time I will try to use a particular model to make the game... Iodesha the robot girl below this post... and making some "side quest" for her or "side history"... I don't have a cientist model now but maybe during Ludum Dare I will work on them...

What I plan to do at Ludum Dare: Acording to the theme result I will try to use o discard the posibility to do something surrounding the theme... but I will focus on the main idea, the idea behind Iodesha side history... so I plan to do some 3D game like a thirth person game like an FPS but without weapons, some sort of aventure game... or maybe action... Iodesha can't use long range weapon and maybe she is a "Limitated" 3D model to make animation or other stuff but I guess It will be ok... the bones she have are low ammount and the limitation can make her hard to animate, I tryed a lot but it's really hard model at Blender using my PC... or maybe it's me? :'D

So... that is the main idea, I will still using the basic idea for LD 38 and LD 39... the history will continue focus on these groups of robots... and the same history behind Sammy the Sputnik from LD 38... this time... focused on Iodesha... !https://static.jam.vg/raw/377/3/z/9245.png

What have Iodesha to give: In other words... what can do Iodesha?... Iodesha is a "hard" rock robot from the preview robot legions... a difference of -simov https://static.jam.vg/raw/377/3/z/61ef.png she is full metal and she have a higger HP or resistence... she is called a "assistant social" or "social robot of company" but like Sammy the SputNik... they two were made with old ways to make machinery... and because that they are more strongest than the fragil body of -simov... because that, Iodesha and is "failed hands" to take a weapon, and is robusted body... can only use a first like weapon... owhever... the history?... Idk really much what I want to do... but... let's enjoy and let's see what happen :D

Ideas to make at LD 40 Iodesha's Game - 3D simple enviroment - 3D action game with 3th person camera - Simple dialog screen with a RPG style... - at least 3 scene... three maps - at least two enemies... - a history reference to -simov or Sammy the SputNik... - some dramatic dialog xD - some side history dialogs about the war history... - maybe... Iodesha inner conflicts... :v - yeah... maybe the game turns into a drama :'D - simple animations... (because my animation levels) - audio?, music? xD ok... if I save time I will make a ringtone :D

I guess it's all... this time I will use some code... I guess dialog screen from last two games can still be used, same as the models... now I can control the camera... it's not so hard... I must start soon make the models for the maps, the enemies?... well, I have a "failure turret" or two, at least... they can appear :D using the same code from -simov the 39 LD game with changing the movement angle of course... history references? well... I must think about that... the basis idea is put the history after Sammy fly to the moon (38 LD game) and -simov still frozen or without power (39 LD game)... dramatic dialogs?... Maybe the doctor that make Sammy and Iodesha dies during the history... no?... sounds like a good idea... the fallout?... Mmmmm... Iodesha conflicts?... Thinking about her... she wants to?... she wants to do?... mmmmm... what she wants to do?... follow Sammy?... support -simov?... do she wants? turn the game in a drama?... well... if 'unnamed' doctor die... could be a drama... if Iodesha cry... it's became a drama... Animations... needs to make them all... Iodesha don't have any animation... so... even walking to running, and all face expresions... well she is a robot but still... hard, because I am the problem at animating things... jajajaja... audio? I forgot the web I used last Ludum Dare... but... as same as always... :D I don't really care about sound and music, these two are not what I am seeking for... let's enjoy the Silence Jajajaja

Make the game together: If someone is seeking for make the next LD with another person or group of persons... and want to join the project... ask me... let me know... and let see if we can work together... I will still wainting before the 1st of december... of course, after LD start I will stop seeking for a partner or someone to make the game together... I can change the game and the history, even I can participate at your own game if you wish... but... only if the idea and the game type I wish to do... so... put a message here... and let see if we can work together :D

I really wish do a game with other peoples... maybe is a good idea learn how to work with others

I forgot mention the tools?: Unity 2017.1.0f3 (if necesary I can update), Blender... Photoshop 7.0 (it's my last version :'D), Word & Excel (2010), and Google translator

Hello, we try to create a developer and artist community, we are not a lot for the moment and we want to make the community grow up. If you want to join us, there is the link : https://discord.gg/9mPX39Q Happy ludum dare and best of luck everyone

Oh boy am I excited to get down and dirty with another Ludum Dare, August was the last time I've had a chance to program and my last Jam was in January as the artist! Wish me luck.

I'll be keeping it simpler than normal with my crash course needs in Unity C#, and probably editing some traditional arts work within Photoshop. I'll figure out what to do about sound on the day...

GLHF homies, looking forward to playing everyone's work.

Can't wait for next Friday, have been looking forward to this since LD39 finished. I actually landed a job in the game industry in between, and I think the experience gained in LD39 played a key part in that.

My LD40 project is all setup with a collection of free libraries that I might need and highly recommend (is there anything more exciting than File > New Project...?)

• Dot Tween
• InAudio
• JsonDotNet
• LeanTouch
• TMPro
• Thread Ninja
• More Effective Coroutines
• Unity UI Extensions
• Probuilder Basic

...as well as a few general utility scripts for Monobehaviour Singletons, Object Pooling, StringToInt.

I also own a number of excellent paid libraries but that kind of goes against the idea that someone can download your project from Github, play with and compile the thing, so I won't be using any of those.

My first Ludum Dare (or any game dev jam for that matter)! I guess I'll be happy if I can end up with anything barely playable!

My Plan

Theme will be announced at midnight in my time zone. I am considering sleeping early on the Friday and starting early-ish on the Saturday, fully charged. If I go to bed after seeing the theme, I'll have a hard time getting some sleep -- which doesn't sound like a good to start to me :smiley:

Anyway, whatever time it is, I'm planning to spend a couple of hours on the idea and basic design. I'll try to follow some advice I read here: find some very simple core idea that can be implemented quickly, then add bells and whistles as the time allows.

I am going to use the Godot game engine, which I haven't really used much, but already makes me feel more productive than any other lower-level tool I used before.

So, let's see how it goes!

Hello, I'm DarkSamus9000.

This December I will be participating in Ludum Dare 40, my first programming competition ever. I'm currently a self-taught game programmer, working primarily in Java and C# while I practice learning lower level languages like C and C++. I plan to study computer sciences intensely when I go to university and aspire to become a tactful and diligent software developer and game programmer.

Even with the tight restraints on mine and my friend's schedule, I plan to enter the Ludum Dare jam with my friend @URNext7634. We will be writing the game in Java using a custom-built engine written on top of Slick2D. Although I've been teaching myself how to program through games for a while now, this will be my first attempt at writing a fun, polished game. I don't expect to do well, but I hope to learn a lot about game development in the process - this is the primary reason for choosing to participate.

We look forward to the challenge and to seeing everyone else's products. Good luck, and happy programming!

I'll be joining Ludum Dare 40, using an open web framework as usual. I'll work from my RocketBoots open source JavaScript toolkit, using techniques I've honed in my many other games. Since some of my games and tests ran into some performance issues while using canvas (such as http://deathraygames.com/projects/galGen/) I'm considering combining in Pixi.js to take advantage of its fast WebGL rendering.

My toolkit and past games: https://ldjam.com/users/deathray/

I've been looking back at time, and wow, its quite interesting to me that I've been in Ludum dare since 32 ^-^

Well during 39th, I was sooooo sick and I couldn't participate, but now. . .

I'm in!

So lets hope I don't get sick again xd

Competing for the second time with the same toolkit as last time:

Unity Engine with C#

FL Studio for music

Blender for modelling

Photoshop for textures and graphics

Also featuring:

@kubap, who's going to make some beautiful models,

Me as dedicated code monkey and musician,

@dibblechud is "l'artiste de sandwich",

First time im gonna be participating in ludum dare :D i am very new in gamemaking and only started 1 month ago and i learned everything by myself but that isnt stopping me from having some fun :D

and goodluck too you all :D

Honestly I thought I was being nice compared to other people :P

But really I'd probably seen like 30 "you are the villain" and 10 "bad game"

To the first, I get it, but to the latter, WHY? Isn't the entire point to make a good game in a small amount of time?

I've done a couple of game jams before, but never this one. I'll be going solo in the 72-hour jam. A bit nervous, but a lot excited!

I'm done with the slaughter. Bring on the voting.

This will be my 3rd jam! I'll be changing from writing everything using the default Java libraries, to using Unity 5. I will have an artist supplying me with assets and another developer helping with the process! It will be a long 72 hour, and I can't wait!

is my first time, luck for everyone! i will use construct 2, and i´ll be the artist too.

Ludum Dare #40 will be my first time participating in this prestigious event. I hope my entry will not lower the overall average too much. :cold_sweat:

Looking forward to December 1st! :grin:

Engine: Unity Language: C# Modeling: Blender Rigging: Blender Animation: Blender Photo: Gimp Sound: Audacity

I created a quick poll for the engines used, I will be using GameMaker Studio 1.4. And you?

http://www.strawpoll.me/14459560

I am in, using pygame for code and gimp for images. I will also have a handicap because of my four hour drum circle rehearsal on friday December 1 that I need to go to or I will be kicked out of my drum circle team; therefore I will have four hours less to work on this game and you should definitely keep that in mind

This time the LD will start on my birthday. That's kinda cool, now I can expect family lovely members to interrupt my jammin'! Seriously though, I'm exited for this one, balancing my birthday and personal stuff with the jam should be interesting.

I'll be using GameMaker Studio 2 for my engine, Aseprite for art and SFXR/Bosca Ceoil for sounds.

Good luck to everyone jamming!

My team may miss our first Ludum Dare since our first (LD30) due to other game development responsibilities, but if we can get free it'd be great to enter again. I was going through the theme slaughter and came across what may be my new favorite theme: "worst game ever." There's something about the inherent possibilities that come to mind with that theme that gets me fired up. The potential for humor, frustration, and sheer WTF-moments while rating dozens of "worst game ever" entries also makes me nervously smile. However, the number of intentionally (or unintentionally) broken, unplayable entries ("it fits the theme!") does temper my enthusiasm somewhat.

In the end, I hope that theme it doesn't make it any further than it already has, because in reality it would undoubtedly be a lot less entertaining and more frustrating than it is in my head. Some fantasies are better off left to the imagination.

I'm totally in on this one but with a new baby on the way and trying to take care of the fam (wife included due to her being in bed rest) we'll see how this round turns out :) I missed the last Jam and was quite depressed about it....but I've been working on my game and am excited at the prospects of what this Jam is gonna make!

“Make games,” they said.

“It’ll be fun,” they said!

Let’s see what happens.

Hello! Im in on current game jam (if I can learn, how do post my game on this new site..) Defold/Photoshop/FL Studio, good luck!

It was a difficult job, but someone had to do it, right?XD Here my theme voting resume, I feel like I was a bit too harsh looking back, but sadly can't fix the past. Sometimes the script lagged or went of out of synchro, so I ended badvoting some actual good themes, I'm sorry! =(

But let's talk about the themes!

Mine were "Under Pressure", "Don't Stop Me Now" and "We Will Rock You" and yes, you can notice some Queen influence on me xD I choose them out of insipiration, trying to select those song titles that could fit properly in different ways in a game. And that was kinda my meter on judging the themes: originality and applicability. I skipped many genre suggestion, I'm gonna partecipate and don't want to be forced on a fixed kind of game. So away all "platformer"/"RTS"/"RPG" and likewise. Christmas is too boring guys! And too many themes were too much detailed! I was expecting to find mostly vague themes but no, i found lots and lots of detailed themes that takes out the fun in interpreting the subject. Such a pity!

Anyway even if I rejected over 3 thousands themes (too many cus of repetition) I have to admit I enjoyed scrolling them! I got really many ideas reading themes, some were very clever and gave me the thrill to start programming right now! Damn, had to hold my horses! XD

So thank you very much for proposing so many themes and thank you to whoever like me is spending time judging them. See ya soon on the LD40!

Earliest i've ever posted this. Usually I use the standard Unity/Blender/Photoshop etc. but, I might, just maybe try something different. I'm thinking about a html5 game engine like Phaser. I figure I could probably learn what I need to know in the next 8 days. Then again I might come up with a 3d game idea I really like and go back to Unity. Only time will tell!!!

Found the way. Thanks

Been a Unity user for 3 years but I'm learning Godot right now and I will use it this coming Ludum Dare. Hope that I will be able to finish whatever game I'll be making!

I am planning on spending as much time as I can making a game this time. I will be on my own, with less preparation then I had hoped learning Lua, Love, and its libraries, and I expect to have numerous distractions throughout the weekend. However! I will try.

Hi all, it's been a while since I did one of these, it was on the old site actually. Anyway, I'm back, and I can't wait to take part! I'm not very familiar with this site layout, so please contact me on Twitter (@JackWillTweet) if I need to take any further steps to apply for this Ludum Dare. I wouldn't want to miss it for the world!

I'm in for the fifth time ! Hope I will be better than previously ! Objective : more than 3.5/5 ! I will use LWJGL 3, gimp 2.8 and FL studio 12 ! Badly, I will only have 20 or 25 hours max because of important things I have to do. But anyway, I will do my best :)

If you want, you can check my oldest entries :) http://www.gamejolt.com/@mathiouza

See you there !

I'll admit, I selected YES a lot more at the start than I did at the end. There's always kind of a transformation from being a wide-eyed, enthusiastic potential-seer to a tired old cynic who wants to open a bottle every time the same old gimmick-theme comes around. :smile:

My (intended) method of selection mostly revolves around whether the theme idea gives me a sense of opportunity. If synapses start firing off, I'll click yes, even if it's a game mechanic or a restrictive topic. In truth, I usually prefer restrictive themes, in any case. Maneuvering within a restriction is kinda fun to me, while a very open theme gives me no clear direction. But that's all pretty personal.

Next up, workflow warmups. :grinning:

Hello! This is my first ever Ludum dare, so I'm still finding the ropes, but hopefully everything will go smoothly, and I'll submit my game in time. I'm not particularly good at programming, so I'm using Unity, and I'm going to use Gimp for my graphics because I'm a cheapskate who doesn't want to fork out the money for photoshop :P

Well, that's all from me, Good luck to everyone else!

I thought I was being kinda harsh. Maybe not given some of the other comments here lol. Looking forward to seeing which themes make it through to the next stage!

On team news, I now have a small number of newer participants who might work with me. I still will likely do the bulk of the work but they all seem like they could support in some way. This will be exciting, because it's my first time leading a team for LD. Many years ago I participated in a team, and I did LD38 solo. If anyone has advice for me I'd love to hear it! :)

I've been nice!

The last few times I've been struggling to really participate the Compo, for several reasons. One might have been not feeling it on the weekend and also I wasn't much into the theme that was chosen.

I'm hyped for the coming Dare though and hoping for a decent theme getting voted for!
Sadly the Compo starts at 3 AM here in Germany, so most likely I'll have a good nights sleep and wake up fresh in the morning, instead of lurking until the night.

Definitely I have to organize myself a bit better and make some kind of rough work plan/schedule.

As for the Tools I will use:

Game Engine: Unity3D (C#) or Godot (GDScript)
2D Graphics: Photoshop, Pyxel Edit
3D Graphics: Blender
Audio: Mixcraft, Audacity
Editor: Visual Studio (Code)
Source Control: GitHub (Git)
Organisational: Trello
Screen Capture: OBS (to Twitch) (Not sure if I live stream yet.)

Well then, I'm currently slaughtering my way through the themes and will hopefully see you all around next weekend!

This is my first Ludum Dare ever! I made a bunch of 'scrap games' and stuff before but never finished any project. I think Ludum Dare will help me out! Gamemaker 2 is my engine and i might be doing a Compo.

Please change my User name form "ravi058989" to "ravi05989". Thanks in advance :)

I am too lazy to fill out more, since im writing this on a phone..

As someone has already mentioned earlier (sorry, cannot find the reference), theme should be chosen carefully and we should actually think about how would LD look like with that particular theme. There are thousands of participants, so we need to have thousands of different games. Imagine how boring it would be if we will have to play "Jumping Guy Shooting" thousand times.

So now imagine having theme like "One Room" (I think it's from last year) where you can do anything with one room. You can make horror game, or a farming strategy or use it abstractly, where won't be any physical room at all. This is a good theme.

Try to avoid too obvious or too shallow themes like: Like Dark Souls, Shooting, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Player is superhero, 1 vs 1,... and so on.

Theme should be more abstract and it should be able to be used for all genres, subgenres, and types of gameplays. So themes like: The other side, Life, Civilisation, Small World (from last year), Nature...

I know these examples are too short and abstract, but I hope you get my point.

The event is drawing closer, and it is time for preparations, so I wanted to put down some notes on how I plan to manage my time during this LD. Those might look like pieces of advice, and you are free to use them as such, but in reality those are just notes. They might not even work for me.

1. Chomp the chunks. The Game Jam format is wonderful, because it offers you a strict deadline. And setting deadlines is a huge part of Time Management. Having a start there is wonderful, but this is only a starting point. Now we need to plot this time we have as a timeline and chomp it into chunks. Firstly - plot the time you need to sleep. Then add a couple breaks for eating, and going for a walk - you'll need those to keep your productivity up. If you have other obstructions that you know will take your time - plot them on the timeline as well. Now you are left with the time you can actually spend on the game. But since the development is not a homogenous process, split this time into 3 chunks: Plan, Prototype and Polish. Those are going to be the main stages your development process. My plan is to spend 6 hours in planning, about 4 more in Prototyping (yep, that might look like not much, but more on this below) and about 3-4 hours of Polish on Saturday. Sunday is Polish all the way. This is about it for planning before the event. But all those time chunks need to be chomped into even smaller partitions each having a smaller task that needs to be completed. And if those tasks end up being too big - they will still need to be cut into even smaller chunks. In theory your plan should end up having no task that would take you longer than 5 minutes to complete individually. But in reality, I will stop partitioning if the tasks are about 20-30 minutes each.

2. Planning Stage This is probably the main stage of the process. And this is why is plotted to take almost half of the Saturday. Obviously this stage includes thinking up the idea. Or several ideas. And possibly some basic asset creation. And a lot of time allocation. But most importantly - the end of this phase means that there is no turning back from current game idea. At the end of planning stage I am committed to the game I am making, and so I must be sure that I can pull it off. In order to assure this I will do something like this:

   • Imagine a game.
   • List all assets required to pull it off.
   • Split all assets into 2 groups: Essential and Cosmetic. Essential assets are something that is required for the game to function. Imagine the game without this asset. Can it work? Sure it will be less of a game anyway but will it still be a game? If yes - than the asset is not Essential.
   • Split the Essential assets into Familiar and Experimental. Experimental assets are the ones I am not sure I can build. Not to the point of "not having a clue how to handle it" - having those on the list would meant the idea needs to be scrapped... or at least modified not to require them. I need to have a rough idea how to make it, but I am not comfortable estimating how long it would take me to build. All those assets must be done by the end of planning phase. And if there are too many - down the trash bin they go.
   • Evaluate time and the amount of experiments and if you can fit in. If no - what would be more feasible - down-scope this idea?
   • If necessary - start over.

3. Prototyping Stage By the beginning of this stage I should have a number of assets prepared and a comprehensive list of things to build. This means that at every stage I can focus on executing limited tasks, rather than wasting my mental capacity on reevaluating what to do next. The only thing to consider - reserve some time towards the end of the process on "Assembly" - making sure the assets work together as a game.

4. Keep calm and carry on. Once the prototyping stage is over, I will have a piece of mind knowing that I have something to publish already. And on top of it I will have list of potential improvements. And if I end up not implementing some of those - not a big deal. This will not ruin the game anyway...

Finally I've done the Theme Slaughter! :)

I kept only the 8% of them... Am I a little bit too selective? Basically I kept only themes that were not too restrictive and not focused on one genre.

I have some advice about the theme selection

Maybe @pov or @sgstair find something usefull to insert in this list. If you have other advice post them into the comment. :) - Merge repeated themes: Maybe before starting the slaughter round, lower case all the themes and merge the ones that match. In this way we don't need to vote 3300 themes (but maybe something like 2800) and maybe we will have less scattered votes. Also Instinctively I noticed that I slaughtered some duplicated entries. - You should not be able to vote your own theme. - Make edit possible: Sometimes I slaughtered a good theme by mistake with no way to edit it. - Hide buttons after put a vote and then wait the response from the site before re-enable them: With my smartphone I clicked 3/4 times on the button because of a non response of the LD site... and after that I noticed I voted by mistake 4 themes. - Insta-ban Snow/Christmas theme (joking lol). - A badge when you vote them all: Maybe a reward will push more user to vote all the themes.

BTW I'm in for LD40!

I'll be hosting a local jam in my mountain house with other two devs. I don't know if we will join the jam individually or as a team... we will see!

This will be my 4th Ludum Dare, yay! I hope to release something! XD

Good luck to everyone! :D

- havana24 (http://twitter.com/hav24)

I haven't done an LD since LD30. Are "I'm in" posts still a thing?

...anyway, I'm in. :D

This is my sixth LD. Let the games begin.

I've wanted to join in for a long time, but I never have the whole weekend to work on it. I don't this time either, but I have 29 hours of it, so we'll see what I can accomplish!

I'm pretty jazzed about the Godot Engine right now, so I'll be using that.

Hey all, the compulsory "we're in" post, but we're still looking for an artist to join us if someone is interested. It's always more fun in a well oiled team! Check us out at https://crowdforge.io/jams/ludumdare/teams/685 all links to our work is on there.

This is my second Ludum Dare (I had to pass on LD39). I will be using GameMaker Studio 2, Adobe Photoshop/Audition, and a Keurig coffee machine.

Hey there, I'm finaly in !

It's been a long time since I want to be a part of it, there was always something that prevented me from being in the jam. I'm in with a good friends and our weapons will be Unity 2017, Pyxel, Photoshop and maybe Blender.

I hope we'll have a good jam, and a good jam to all of you guys !

What is Geta Game Jam?

Geta Game Jam is a 3-day long event where you get to make a game based on the theme of 'Chaos and Order'. It runs between January 13 to January 16, and is going to be an annual event that occurs twice a year. It begins on the Saturday, at 11am aest (this is the same time as to when Ludum Dare starts), and ends Tuesday 11am aest. In this jam you are allowed to work either individually or in a team.

Want to learn more? Make sure you read the itch.io page: https://itch.io/jam/geta-game-jam-01

REMEMBER TO CLICK 'JOIN' ON THE JAM PAGE!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/GetaGamesTeam

JOIN THE OFFICIAL DISCORD SERVER: https://discord.gg/dwH9nYa

Apparently I was really generous!

Doing my first game jam with a small team.

Can't wait for Ludum Dare 40! This will be my first time and I'm stoked!

Here we go again, but now, with friends! I am planning to build team with at least 3 people in it! This is going to be massive! My previous game, you remember it? Rubish! This, man... this is going to get #1 in a hour!

Let's do it!

Here are some MS Paint graphics I've just made in a few minutes for a homework (the first was 2 days ago)...

Needs more polish (or not! :wink:), but... Enjoy! :smile:

.... even though I maybe was a bit too kind :grinning:

Look at how many themes survived :thinking:

Hello! This is going to be my first Ludum Dare. Excited to participate!

Lets do this! :D

At least, I hope so. It will be on a school weekend so I won't be able to spend as much time on it as I'd like, but I'm gonna join anyway. My last (and first) jam went quite well, so I hope it does so again!

If you want to try my last jam game, click here

There’s a lot of people asking about how to make music without the know how or experience. To me it boiled down to two main problems:
1. The programs are insanely hard to understand.
2. Making music sound good is even harder.

But last LD I ended up top 10 in audio, it was my second time making music for a game. Back then I wrote an article, but it was mostly a post mortem. Now I present you a way (not the way) based on what worked out pretty good for me last time. It is a really methodic way, so it’s kind of hard to screw up. I will not explain all terms, you can google them, but I think most should be high school basics in most countries.

An example piece I just finished in 30 minutes is this.

Let’s-a-go!

1. Use a music application that forces you to use scales. Scales make sure notes don’t sound all too bad and match together. It will slightly limit you, but will make it easier to use as well. You probably have seen it in classical pieces; the "Prelude in C Major" stuff. For an easy cross-platform tool with this functionality I suggest Bosca Ceoil (BC) by indie legend Terry Cavanagh. I learned this program during writing this tutorial, so it’s pretty easy. I will not go into details on how to use this program, the tool’s page explains how it works. I will show some images of the program.
2. Begin with playing music that match the style you are going for before you start making music. I listened the first few hours of LD39 to the Hyper Light Drifter OST, while making art for my game.
3. Start out with a drum loop. Slow bass drum goes first, then some extra repetitive beat using a snare, and finally make a few hi-hats that break your loop a bit. I use chiptunes here because they are supposed to sound static, which is what synthesised music automatically sounds like and it’s very much accepted in this community. Make sure the beat’s tempo is close to your reference music, since changing it later will be either hard or will not give you the results you like. In BC you should make sure all drums are on about the same pitch, and your bass drum is not too low or high. Also you might want to lower the volume of both the snare and hi-hats. You can do both the pitch and volume later during the process in BC.
4. Now lets make a bass, it will lead the melody of the rest of your song. Make sure you pick a nice scale, you will have stick to it for the rest of your song. Easy scales are major or blues, but check which one sounds a bit like your reference material. Remember you don’t have to (shouldn’t) copy anything, just the general tempo and feel. In general bass notes are long and smooth, and fall into the background. However don’t stick just to one note length, it will get old soon. Bass should be a low octave, around 3 or 4. Sometimes it’s good to use the low pass filter to put it a bit more in the background, with less higher frequencies and mainly low ones, if you feel it is taking up too much space, you can do this later as well. As you work, it is good to layer all different instruments you intent to use at the same time so you hear how it will sound together. But do not forget to also listen to your sections solo. Rule of the thumb: don’t make it overly complex, complexity comes from layering your instruments.
5. Then add some chords and/or arpeggios. Chords are two or more notes, often close to each other (like A and C# in the same octave) played at the same time. Arpeggios are two or more notes in rapid succession. The latter is often used in chiptunes (often due to hardware limitations). When using a scale, its very easy to just pick a note interval and repeat that for all arpeggios/chords, using a different base (not bass) note. Loosely follow what you did for your bass line. That is, the first note of your arpeggio line should roughly be the same note on the start of each bass note. However make sure to break away from it often enough because it will sound boring otherwise, I usually do this at the end. But it is an easy trick to match the first note of each section the same, to give the listener some handhold on where your music is heading.) I usually use a mid range for chords and arpeggios, this is around the 7th octave. In the example I use the arpeggio technique.
6. Then add some higher notes. I like to keep it simple, especially when using arpeggios in the mid as they can be quite space filling already. Use some notes that are higher pitched, around the 9th octave.
7. Now let’s make some variations on at least the high and mid ranges, and perhaps the bass. If you made some complex stuff, make it less complex, if you made simple stuff make it more complex. (Make sure you copy your composition, and don’t overwrite it, as we will use it in the next step.) If you wish to change the bass melody, make sure you redo the mid and high sections as well to match this, it might still sound good but it’s harder to tweak. You can do this as much as you want, and it will help to make your song less repetitive. I made them both simpler in the example.
8. You probably have about 20 seconds of lead sound. Thats quite short, isn’t it? We can make it longer, just repeat it, and disable some of the element. Just disabling any of your drums or bass line for a bar will make it noticeably different. Use this to build up your song, probably at a slow pace, depending on what your reference material is. Start out with one instrument plus one or two drum loops.
9. Listen to your music for quite some time on loop while working on your entry, it will help you find flaws, but also help getting the art and feel sync up nicely. Also let other people listen to it. Just make sure you don’t throw everything away because “it sucks”, a rule that works for most parts of a Ludum Dare.

Must-Read Tips

1. Use speakers/headphones/plugs that have a good range. Anything below 30$ is probably not good enough. If you don’t use that anyone with better speakers might hear mistakes outside of the frequency range you have on your speakers.
2. Learning some music theory will help, I recommend Dave Conservatoire. It goes way beyond what I describe in this article, but it will take some time to learn.
3. When you are done you can tweak/change your instruments, slightly move your notes and experiment a bit more to make it a bit more unique.
4. Having a part really stand out in your music helps people remember the music. It will also make it quicker to see the repetitions in the music. You can do this by making a “break”. Fade out some instruments and emphasise on one melody. (You can play it with multiple instruments).
5. Practice the tool for a few hours before Ludum Dare and make a musical piece and find out what the hard pieces are. Think of a game to make it for so you can check if it fits (maybe one of your previous LD entries).
6. Like a lot of musical applications, when everything fails: there’s a panic button.
7. Sound effects might be more important than music. Like a lot of people I like bfxr when using chip sounds. And FreeSound.org + Reaper otherwise. Check your open source licenses.
8. I love Reaper (over Audacity) for my final audio edits. It has a free very long trial, but it's cheap.

You can find what I made to test my methodic approach with Boscal Ceoil here, and the .ceol files here. It’s not a master piece, but it’s alright and gives me the “I made this in 30 minutes” bragging rights. Feel free to download it and use it as reference. (Released under CC0)

Picking Instruments

Small and quick addition regarding picking instruments. Check the name first, if it says high-hat or snare, its a drum's high hat or snare. Bass can be either a bass drum or a sustained bass note, so check that! Some notes fade out over time, while others (notably pads) are notes that change how they sound slightly over time, and are made for multi-second long notes. Rule of the Thumb: Does this sound like the instrument I want to use it for? Press a few different notes an in different octaves at different lengths and listen to it.

Good Luck!

I hope this helped you a bit in making a better game, with music! I wanted to explain a lot more, but I think (hope) this is both short and helps most of the people that are clueless about music. I hope the project files make it easier to get, if not, don’t hesitate to ask!

If you used this guide let me hear what you made on Twitter: @abductypus or in the comments below. If you liked it and have an urge to repay me, follow me or play my game after the LD40 weekend.

Well, I'm going to give this a shot. Together with a Ludum Dare veteran, if all goes well.

Hello jammers old and new! Just in time before LD40 I managed to finish my LD39 documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uMQXdjRvls

So, we are in! Here is our theme slaugthering so far. See you in 6 days!

I've been following LD for a while, but never went all in and made a proper game. Time to make something interesting with some new tools.

• Code - Rust + ggez
• Art - PS, paint.NET with a cheap tablet
• Sound - bfxr/sfxr, atrk-bu.py
• Text Editor - emacs
• Level Editor - Tiled

This my fourth Ludum Dare, and far from being last one. I don't really know what I'll do this time, or even with what tools. I always have Unity as option, it has served me well. Last time I used LibGDX but I dont think I want to take that route again. Java isnt just that enjoyable for me anymore. I have a small engine in the works, so I'll see if I'll get it done in time. There is also a chance I wont need an engine at all, since Ive lately wanted to make a text based game for LD

• Engine: Unity or homebrew
• Code: Intellij IDEA or VSCode depending on engine
• Models: Blender
• Textures: Gimp
• Sound: Audacity and FLStudio
• Drinks: Coca-cola and ice tea

Lets see what I can get together this time

i will be taking part in Ludum Dare 40.

The tools I will use to make the game:

• Unity (2017.1.1)

• Visual Studio Community 2017 For Mac

• GIMP 2.8.22

• Audacity

I had took part in Ludum Dare 39 and had learnt not to try anything i don't fully understand as that leads to a buggy game, I also realised that i can't make music... so i will try to learn how to make music a few days before so when it comes to making music i can actually make something that does not want you to take your ears out.

LudumDare! What a great way to close 2017. I've been feeling a bit uninspired lately, so hopefully the compo will get me back in the development mood!

I’ll be using the usual software:

🍔 Construct2: HTML5 game creation software!

🍔 Aseprite: Pixel art program!

🍔 GIMP: Open source photo editor!

🍔 LSDJ and bgb: Authentic Gameboy synthesizer and emulator!

🍔 Audacity: Open source sound editor!

🍔 itch.io: Amazing storefront!

This will be my first Ludum Dare. I've made 5 games so far, and this is something I really need to get myself back into the Game Dev grind. I will be using:

• Game Maker Studio 2 for game
• Aesprite for sprites
• BoscaCeoil for music
• BFXR for sounds

Good luck everyone!

I'm in once again. I think this is my sixth Ludum Dare so far (time flies). Not sure if I'll be able to complete a game this time as I am rather busy, but might as well give it my best shot. I'm going to try and actually put music in this next game (my last 4 all didn't have any), as now I actually have a basic understanding of how it works...

Also is there a wallpaper masterpost anywhere? I always used to love picking out a wallpaper to use, it got me really motivated for the event.

• PROGRAM - Gamemaker Studio
• MUSIC - Fl studio or Musescore (depends on the game)
• GRAPHICS - Gimp and Krita
• SFX - BFXR or Fl

Good luck everyone! It's gonna be fun

Cannot wait for LD 40 to start. This is my 11th Ludum Dare so far, and I have a few ideas for what I'd like to do this time around. Here are my tools for surviving this round: - RPG Maker MV - Paint Tool SAI - Lots of candy and lots of cokes

If there are any fellow RPG/visual novel devs out there participating as well, feel free to hit me up, I love talking to fellow RPG Maker/Ren'Py/etc. devs.

Check out the article here. I’d paste it here, but I’m on mobile.
EDIT: Why is the picture upside down?!?

This is my first attempt at properly crackin' down and pushing a game out there. The only thing I can really say from here is dunno, just gonna have to wait and see how it goes i guess. Got friends on hand to help me out with art, audio and ideas so I'll be able to focus on programming which should be nice.

I'll be using Unity2017.2, MonoDevelop and Paintdotnet.

My colleagues will be using Autodesk Sketchbook, Reaper and other DAWs.

If I don't report back, assume it was a caffiene overdose.

This is going to be fun :) And my first one

Engine - Gamemaker Studio OR Unity Art - Gimp/Infinty Music - Not sure

Nyo-ho!

A team of programming "experts" will try to take on the LD (and most likely drastically fail anyway) still its amazing experience and some level-ups for skills.

I hope 72 hours will go smoothly for everyone, good luck!

Very long time lurker, finally jumping in. I've been aware of LD since I think #6 Light & Darkness, and have thought about competing numerous times over the years. But one bit of life or another has always gotten in the way. Well, this time around I'm taking the leap - may well sink, but as long as I stretch my skills along the way, it's all good.

• Unity
• Monodevelop or Visual Studio
• GIMP / Inkscape
• Assetforge
• Kenney Assets

Members of Knoxville Game Design will be getting together at 7pm Eastern Time on Friday December 1, 2017 for the Ludum Dare Kickoff. We usually hang out until the theme announcement at 9pm and then have a short discussion / brainstorming session after. Since our monthly meetings are now online, this is one of the few times we actually get together and meet in person. All game developers in the East Tennessee area are welcome to join us.

For details on the meeting location and more information about our group, please see http://www.knoxgamedesign.org/

I've been wanting to participate in an LD for ages, but it seemed before I found out about it after the fact. A few days after it was over, I would hear about the jam. My tools. MonoGame in Visual Studio 2017 with my own barebones engine. Paint dot net Magicavoxel BFXR

That is about it.

Y'know, this Theme Slaughter round might not take fourteen hours if there was a way to automatically lose the 95% that are utter nonsense. "My Dog Has No Nose" and "The legend of El General Kaillensopoulos !" to name but two.

Not to mention those spelled incorrectly or in lower case, which are automatic rejections in my book....

Let's hope the cream still rises to the top, I accidentally voted down a few good ones as I was in a trance from clicking 'NO' :D

This is my second Ludum Dare I am attending to, and I am ready as I'll ever be!

So, this week's Ludum Dare (which kinda snuck up on me this time),

is the weekend before mock exam week -_-.

BUT I've competed in every Ludum Dare since I started, so I have to do something. I haven't really decided what tools i'm gonna use yet, but I want to make my first web game.

Sooooooo I will be using: - Visual Studio Code (as a text editor) - Photoshop (as a pixel-art tool.. Lol) - SFXR (or something similar) - WEBGL (as a way of utilizing graphics hardware FROM A BROWSER [which is awesome]) - JavaScript/ECMA whatever (as a way of adding logic to a browser application) - I might use Typescript or Dart or something to compile to JavaScript... Or maybe not... We'll see. - Ummmm....... - Ooohh maybe Famitracker if I decide to add music.

Anyway, this game is gonna be pretty small one, I'm probably gonna write some base code, so that I'm not writing loads of WebGL over the 48 hours.

It's gonna be a small one, because I can't stay up till 2:00 am, which just makes it all the more fun!

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYBODY ELSE, I HOPE YOU WIN.

Thanks,

Ned

This will be my second attempt at the Compo. First was LD38. I had to skip 39 due to reasons. But ready to go this time!

Tools: Unity Blender Krita GIMP InkScape LMMS sfxr

Is there a Ludum dare discord server which I can join?

Quick question: What engine will you use?

http://www.strawpoll.me/14459560

I was gonna go up to 3333 themes slaughtered, turns out there are less than that. Now let's see if I can actually get something done in time.