I'm in for LD40! I've just started my Base Code, and I'm anxious to see what the theme will be!

Hopefully I'll do as well as I did in my last game jam! :D

I'll be using: - Python (language) - Pygame (graphics library) - MS Paint/Px Editor (art) - Bosca Ceoil/Beepbox.co (music) - BFXR/SFXR/Some Random Microphone (SFX)

Check out my twitter please. DaFluffyPotato

I don't like making posts without images, so enjoy a pick from my last 48 hour game jame entry. :3

hey, i am new to coding and making games. this will be my first attempt with a ludum dare, i will be using game maker studio 2.

good luck to you all.

I'm currently planning on making a VR game with Unreal Engine, and I'll be using my own VR boilerplate included in my LiVRary project. The Git repo has stuff I won't be using too, but the Content/VRUUM directory contains the boilerplate, if you're interested.

I'll be using free-as-in-speech libraries and tools again.

I have other stuff to do but WHATEVER

Hopefully I do better than last time :wink:

Computer science student from Central CA here. This will be my first Ludum Dare, and have made a few small games before. It's been a while since I've made any games, but I'm hoping to get some good feedback and gain some new skills along the way. Good luck to everyone and have fun!

I'm in, but I might only get the Saturday to work on the game. Going to spend the rest of the week preparing, so I can make something quickly :)

Third Ludum Dare I participate in, and also my third consecutive LD. Let's go!

Hello there. While this is going to be my second LD, it will be my third game jam. I plan on doing compo just like in LD 39. I typically use GameMaker, although this time I plan on using Unity instead as my game engine. I'll also probably be using LMMS for music and Aseprite for the art. Good luck to all.

My wife and i are in! Both of us got a new laptop :smile: and are looking forward to the 40th LDJam!

2nd time to do this and I'm ready!

Me and a colleague are in for the third time, I'll probably use Love2D again since it was so easy to learn last time and surprised me with its capability. We're In!!! Let's go <3

Hi there! We are Volcanic Giraffe, we are in for 5th time, and it will be hard to improve our 22th place in Jam, but we'll do our best!

You've probably noted that our team has a great artist - just look at these title screens from our previous games!

But sometimes I (a programmer guy) have to do something by myself. Will I try to draw something…? Maybe in Photoshop…? No, I’m a programmer, aren’t I? Let's generate some graphics!

For example, in Galvanica we needed moving stars on the background. Shall I ask our artist to draw some dots? Naah, he is busy with the chair painting, let’s just put some yellow spots randomly.

You may say: «Ha, that is easy. What about something more complex?»

Well, here is fire sprite drawn by our artist: And these ones are code-generated using particles:

And this dangerous-like mass is also completely generated - our artist just adjusted some colors to fit the overall style. So what I wanted to say: even if you are not an artist and cannot paint something beautiful, you still may code it! Looking forward for your games with generated assets. Maybe did someone generate some music? Levels? The whole game? 😃

Work might take over my weekend... we'll see

Hello there, I'm a student in Game Design and I'm searching for a (not so bad) programmer, and why not an artist. I'm french but I don't have any problem working in english. If you wanna join me don't be scared to add me on Facebook, it will be easier (Kilian BAPTENDIER).

We are in with a new line-up! Our former artist and our second programmer will not be with us this time. But we got three game design students from Berlin to fill the gap they leave! As a "regular" engineer, for whom making games is just a hobby and who has no professional education or experience with it, I am super exited to see them "in action" :smile:

We also have switched from GameMaker to Godot, which allows me to use my favorite operating system (the one with the penguin :wink: ) on my dev machine. Yay!

Unfortunately, other circumstances don't leave as much time as I wish we had, so LD40 is gonna be a ~30h-jam for us.

Have fun everyone! :grin:

This will be my first time doing any game jam and I'm super excited. I'll be using Unity, Aseprite, and Boscaceoil to make my game.

Hi, this will be my 17th ludumdare in a row. xD i started at LD24, and am still here :-). I'll be using these this time:

IDE: Visual Studio 2017 Community - Microsoft

Engine: Otter2d - kyle pulver

Graphics: aseprite/paint.net -david capello/Rick Brewster tiled - Thorbjørn Lindeijer

Sound: audacity - Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg

Music: Musagi - Tomas Pettersson

Timelapse: Chronolapse - keeyai

Well, the obligatory "I'm in" from me!

This time I am going to post as my new pseudo indie label "WizzardMaking" and I hope I can finish this time.

The Tools:

• Unity 2017.2
  • Haven't done anything in the brand new version of unity. Lets hope it does not explode on me!
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2017
  • One of the best IDEs for C# (and other) in my opinion. I love IntelliSense and the UI is so great.
• Adobe Photoshop
  • My go to 2D program. Can't really work without it anymore
• Blender3D
  • Blender 2.79 to be specific.
• Spotify
  • Its Christmas time! I will mostly listen to some 80's-90's songs and a ton of Christmas hits like Wham!
• bfxr and Audacity
  • Those two will probably fulfill my sound needs. I'm still unsure whether my sounds will be real or made with bfxr though.
• Twitter and Snipping Tool
  • I will (maybe :wink:) post a ton of updates on my twitter pages (wizzardmaker / wizzardprivate)
• OBS - Studio
  • That is just a maybe though. I don't know if I can stream, but if I do it will be at: wizzardmaker

That's it! I hope I can find the time and remember to keep the scope as small as possible.

Let us hope the theme will be great and don't forget to sleep!

Hello everyone!

This is my first Ludum Dare attempt. I would love to make a game, that at least works :smiley:

I'll be using: - Unity 2017.2 - MonoDevelop - GIMP 2.8.22 - Adobe Photoshop CS6 - Audacity 2.1.3 - Blender 3D 2.78 (possibly) - Adobe After Effects CS6 (possibly)

I believe that's all, but something may change depending on the theme and ideas.

I do hope that I will be able to finish my game before the deadline :slight_smile:

Surely Ludum Dare will be a great journey!

I'm In and I will be in the compo this time because of school. I will livestream Ludum Dare 40 on my YouTube Channel. If you are interested you can find my channel here.

Goodluck to you all and here are the tools I will be using:

• Unity 2017
• Photoshop 2017
• Visual Studio Community 2017

A usual toolbelt for someone who uses the Unity Framework.

my second LD. will be using love2d, pyxeledit and everything I’ve learned since the last time.

LD40, woo!!!

I'm feeling pretty refreshed after the Thanksgiving weekend -- hopefully the coming week will be relatively calm so that I can be prepared for LD both physically and mentally as well.

This'll be my 17th time participating in Ludum Dare. I'm joined by my faithful partner-in-crime @xellaya who will be handling all things art and animation, but we'll also have @littlecloudflower on board helping us with writing, dialogue, and scenario! We'll assuredly be making something that has a narrative involved since we'll have a team member dedicated to helping out with that, so look forward to that! @xellaya also has a spiffy new Cintiq that she'll be taking for a whirl this time around, which I'm sure will be really exciting as well.

As always, I’ll be using some starter code which you can see here.

Tools:

• Unity3D with Monodevelop as IDE, deploying to WebGL
• FL Studio for music and audio
• LabChirp and Freesound for any additional sfx needs
• Paint Tool SAI/Photoshop/Illustrator for art and animation (along with the spiffy new Cintiq!)
• GIMP for any additional image processing I need to do on my end
• Aseprite if we do any pixel art
• Tiled and Tiled2Unity if we end up needing tilemaps

My personal goals for LD40:

• Keep it simple!
• Leave enough time for music
• Don't kill myself...(I failed on this one last time)

TODO list before LD starts:

• Brainstorm about ideas and inspirations
• Vote on themes!
• Big grocery run to stock up on groceries and snacks.
• Set up dropbox folder
• Set up bitbucket repo and create Unity project

Good luck to everybody else participating this time!

Hello world!

My name is Brenden Barton, and this will be my first game jam ever! I'm quite excited for it, and I'm really looking forward to taking part.

I'm not expecting to blow anyone away here, but I definitely look forward to any feedback I can get, and learning from the whole experience.

Tools I'll be using: * Unity 2017 * Visual Studio Community * PhotoShop and/or GIMP * Bosca Ceoil and Audacity for Music and SFX.

Well back to voting for the theme I suppose, I look forward to seeing everyone's submissions next Monday!

This will be my first time to enter Ludum Dare. I’ve wanted to for a couple of years now but never found the time.

Anyway, I’ll be using Unity, Blender, and Bfxr for making my game, and I’ll be uploading my entry to itch.io when it’s done.

This will be my 14th event that I will be participating in. Looking forward to a great weekend of #gamedev.

Tools

• Unity 2017.2 (Engine)
• PyxelEdit 0.4.x (Pixels)
• Bfxr (Sounds)
• Visual Studio 2017 (Coding C#)
• uModules (Project Management)

Paul

Hi how are you, I'm joining please! Welcome and be lucky to you!

Using PyGame, Paint.NET, Audacity, and! LabChirp No starter code because I am bad coder

Working solo flying like han solo

I am in again but will miss out on the Monday again stupid work :(.

I have a few ideas on what I would like to make but will depend on the theme :).

I will be using the following tools:

Engine: Unity 3D Graphics: Photoshop Voxel Package: Qubicle Animations: Mixamo (maybe, depends on the game I create) Audio: Audacity and Adobe Audition Project Management: Trello Source Control: Git with Github IDE: Visual Studio 2017

Base code: Repository created ahead of time. https://github.com/wiltaylor/LD40

Contains the following: * Build scripts * Some helper scripts that do things like auto save whenever the project is run. * Menu and credit screen templates

I'm doing game jams and I'm still alive.

My first LD! I'm an amateur in all aspects of making games,but I'll try my best to create a complete game.

Yay! Ludum Dare is almost here again! I can hardly wait!

Going with a team this time and as it's very likely that we're going with HaxeFlixel, we made a template to act as a base for the LD project. Just to avoid the annoyance of setting the basics up.

It contains a menustate, a gameover state and a gamestate as well as tilemap loading and arrow controls. The graphics are just solid colors. We're starting with that, I hope it's useful for someone else too!

It's likely that we'll tune it (the structure needs some simplification) a bit still before the jam, but if anyone wants to take a look or comment (or use it), feel free!

You can find it at https://github.com/hunttis/haxe-ld-template

This Is Going To Be My First Ludum Dare! I've Been Programming For Almost 5 Years Now. And I Think Its Time For A Competition. I'm Going To Be Using Unity. I Know It Isn't The Best And Most People Hate Others Using It. But I'm A Great Coder So Hopefully, I'm Going To Make It Worth While. But I'm Not Good At Graphic Design So That's Something But I Will Still Do My Best Also I'm Going To Be Streaming It On Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/0benj/ And It Will Be On Github After Its Over

This will be my Second LD (after LD39). Cause i like the Time pressure on the Game Jams i can't wait to start :). Tools that i plan to use: - Unity 2017.2 - Asperite - Photoshop CS6 (but only maybe as Asperite should be enough) - Bfxr (Sounds) - maybe LMMS or Famitracker for Music - Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition

So this friday i will go early to bed and wake up early to start jammin. I also really excited to see what you all will be creating.

This will be my 5th Ludum Dare. I will be using: - GameMaker: Studio - Aseprite - GIMP - ChipTone

Good luck everyone!

Hey! I'll try to build a game with Phaser!

Hi everybody, we are in! This is the second time we'll do Ludum Dare as Mineo Games!

Last time we made Dung Beetle (btw we made a full game out of it)

Team members : - Clemzd : developer and music maker - Louspirit : developer - Popo3744 : designer - Liing : designer

Awesome tools we use:

• Unreal Engine 4
• 3DSMAX Design
• Abobe Photoshop
• Paint .net
• Ableton
• Unstoppable Willingness

Good luck to every one, have a great weekend :smile:

Hello!

I finished up with my first jam this weekend, so next I'll be trying my first Ludum Dare. Excited to find out what the theme will be! I'm sure I'll not win, but I'm entering to further my experience and gain your feedback.

I'll be using GameMaker Studio 1.4, Aseprite, and Bfxr.

Howdy. I've been doing art for about two years and games for about one. LD40 will be my first Ludum Dare and my first Combo, I'm looking forward to it.

I'll be using one or all of the following:

Unreal Engine 4.18, Modo, Zbrush, Blender, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Photoshop, SpeedTree, and Simplygon

Hello i am in on my own but ill do the jam

Hi! @SPGoding and I will be in for our first Ludum Dare!
SPG - Programming, Design
Me - Music, Sound, Design
We will be using the .NET framework with SharpDX for the heavy lifting, REAPER and Serum for music and sound, and GIMP for some boxy graphics since we both can't draw.
(Sorry, we don't have much experience with porting or engines so the game will be most likely Windows only)

Good luck and have fun everyone!

Hello LD community :) I'm very excited for LD40 as it'll be my first game jam and real test for me as an aspiring developer, however something that I just realised today is that since the Compo ends at ~2 am here in England I'll be unable to submit my game during submission hour (since I know my Mum won't be up on the idea of me staying up till 2 am to upload a game to this Ludum Dare stuff)

I just need to know whether it's possible for me to submit my game early (I've already searched). Thanks :)

SO excited to do this! Here is our awesome team and social media links!

• Nikotoh (Unity)
• Skebamies (FL Studio 12)
• Sanis (Unity, Blender, PS)

I wish I hadn't missed the theme suggesting phase though!

I'll be working with Unity3D 2017.2 on Linux!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7k-wCkF_4U

Since I haven't used Unity3D for 2D games before, I wanted to make sure that I'm not going to google every second step when starting to work on a game for LD40. I also got myself much more familiar with Krita and learned how to use the integrated animation features - they're incredible! You can create a whole scene as usual in different layers and animate single layers to add some flavour. That way you're able to prepare a complete scene in all its beauty and export it as single sprites before using it in unity.

This is the best workflow for 2D I have found so far and it allows me to stay on Linux and use Open Source software whenever I can.

• OS: Arch Linux (yeah I know)
• Graphics Editors: Gimp, Krita, Blender
• Engine: Unity3D 2017.2
• Coding: VIM with Omnisharp (https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity3d-with-vim.355814/)
• Audio: Audacity, FL Studio

If I'm streaming my jam, you'll find it at: https://www.twitch.tv/mrodrez

Looking forward to the jam!

This time I join the ld compo again, and try to do it better than the last time.

I was on the fence... But I should have time to do something. This will be my 4th I think? Using unity or possibly just doing straight html, i guess it depends on what the theme ends up being. Look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Joining for my 7th or 8th year in a row, one in for the competition!

Will be using unity, paint.net, and audacity.

I hope I'll be able to do something ok ^^

It's my first time for Ludum Dare. I'll try not to fail)))

Hey folks, just some little story happend at home here. as background i am a grown up at the age of 30(aah i mean forever 29 ;) ). so i do ma uyual theme slaughter or voting till my wife joins me and takes the lead. later in the sunday we talk about our week and i say something like "yeah friday i gona prepare some food for ludum dare" so usually i expect to get killed for telling her i am developing the full weekend. BUT her answer: oh honey its no problem i can make food for you then if youre working..

hell tears are near and i love her so much

ps: sorry for bad formating just needet to get it of my soul ;)

I remember last year when I started.... Here we go again :D. Will be coding from scratch using java on eclipse, paint.net, and audacity

Another Ludum, another test... another game? I hope so!

After a long time gone from gamedev and programming, I've spent the last 3 weeks getting familiar with my tools again. I'll be joining LD this time with:

• JAVA (Netbeans) pure or LWJGL
• GIMP
• BLENDER
• Some music/sound tool yet to be chosen
• ...

Will I make it after a long pause in development? We're finding out this weekend!

This is my second Ludumdare, and this time I have time to fully develope my entry (so I don't need to stop midway through, like last time) :wink:

:happy: I'm excited for the challenge

Finally managed to make it to an LD! I missed the last couple because of vacation and not believing I was "ready" but this time ready or not I'm excited to give it a shot! I'm not particularly good when it comes to time limited tasks so I'm interested to see how I'll do. :)

Hello world, this is my first time ^^.

Blender Game Engine with Python all the way!!

My tools: Language: Python, Sound effects: bfxr / sfxr, 3D Assets: Blender, Images: Gimp / mspaint

How do you make a new line? Because if i press enter like here... ...nothing happens, i can see it in the editor, but when i preview it, its one line. Only if i create two lines like...

...here it actually works, but it creates two lines.

Am I retarded or what?

Good Luck To Everyone on 40

@pov Hey, just letting you know the calendar for us Kiwis still shows the start date etc of America (I assume). Over here we actually kick off on the Saturday the 2nd (as highlighted with the "Starts Saturday" line :).

I know you guys must be insanly busy, but can I request a tweek to the cal and "coming up" sections to use the users local date, not the server date.

For me this is going to be revenge on Ludum Dare 39 since I did not end up finishing that one.

I will be streaming live on twitch.tv/sniperninja564

I will be using: - Engine: Gamemaker Studio 2 - Art: paint.net & aseprite - Sound: bfxr.net - Music (if time): Bosca Ceoil

2nd Ludum Dare, not done much coding since the last one, though, so don't know how it's gonna go. Using MonoGame, Paint.net, bxfr, and Bosca Ceoil

Hi guys, this is my first ludum dare and my first Combo too. I'm very excited for this challenge and I hope to finish the game on time.

I will work with blender, gimp and unity to try to make something cool or at least fun.

Good luck everyone and enjoy this weekend!!!

My first solo jam!

This time I've decided to make a game solo and with new technology for me which is Unreal Engine! 1. Engine - UE 4.18 2. SFXs and music - Reaper with some virtual instruments and couple of mics 3. Art: 2d Aesprite / 3d Blender

I’m in. Hopefully the theme is inspiring this time around.

Will be using GM: Studio 1.4

Good luck everyone.

Its been a while since I've actually made a game so I feel commited to make something worthwhile.

I'll be using:

• Haxe with HaxeFlixel
• GIMP for making sprites, maybe Pyxel Edit if I can go through the hell that is installing the newest version on Linux
• SFXR, maybe BFXR for making sounds & maybe Bosca Ceoil for music if I get time
• Arch Linux because no messing about with PPAs

I'd livestream as I work on it but my graphics card is too old to use any streaming tools I've tried.

This is going to be my first ludum dare.

I am doing jam.

I am going to use unity. Hope theme will be inspiring.

If you are at RIT come hang out and jam with us, even for a team! All skill levels are welcome

https://www.facebook.com/events/150836262339444/

This is now my 4th time doing this, hopefully I can finish my game in time to submit to the compo instead of the jam this time. I'll be using Unity, Photoshop, Bfxr, and Blender if my game is in 3d. Good luck everyone!

I see a lot of people trying Ludum Dare for their first try. It's amazing how such event is so popular amoung rookie devs (like me for example, i've started coding 11 months ago by now).

I see people use popular engines like Unity, UE, Gogot, HaxeFlixel, different languages and even bringing their OWN game engines. I wonder if somewhere there are people who try to develop their own language or something?

Anyhow i will be using Unity 2017, i will be streaming after the initial submition and will try to help anyone who is interested in Unity and C# coding even though i'm just a rookie dev.

My twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/dioinecail1

And you can probably find me in Discord by "Dioinecail", contact me if you need any help with Unity (mostly 2D).

Good luck everyone, and don't forget to check for Null :D

2nd Jam here o/ Risu and me, but Calli couldn't unfortunately be with us, we'll try finding someone else for music this time or do it by ourself ahah

I'm in for the first time, though I've been planning to join for years.

I'll be using my engine Abysmal engine.

Ludum Dare 40 is this weekend.

For this jam, they've made a minor change to the ratings system: to allow half-star increments. I don't see the point of this. Apparently people were torn between giving a 4 and 5, so we're giving them 4.5. I'm sure there was popular demand for it, but I still don't see what benefit this will bring.

Simple is better

These days, I like simple, and I like quick.

If I asked you to pick your favorite color crayon out of a box of 8 crayons, you're going to have an easier time doing that than if I give you a box of 64 crayons. 

With the 8-color box, you pick whichever color is closest to your favorite, and you don't think about in-between shades all that much, because they're not there, and because every color is very distinct from the others.

It's blue, isn't it?

With the 64-color box, you still pick whichever color is closest to your favorite, and maybe now there is a color that is closer to your actual favorite, but the trade-off is that you now have to do a lot more thinking, because there are a few shades that are really close, and it's harder to choose between them all.

But which blue?

I'm willing to bet you could rank an 8-pack of crayons in order of favorite to least favorite color in about a minute, maybe less.  With the 64 pack, if you can do it at all, it'll probably take you way more than 8 times as long to sort 8 times as many colors.

Numbers and perception

For theme voting, we get a 3-position scale:

-1 | 0 | 1

And it works. It's fine. You either like it, or you don't. Make a decision and move on.

You wouldn't "improve" this system by adding a "kindof like it" and "kindof don't like it". There would be no point, other than to muddle the theme voting and make it more complicated.

For game rankings, LD has always (as far as I know) used a 5-star system. Which has just been changed to allow half-star ratings. So, if you count the number of actual steps, you don't get 6 anymore, but now 11:

Then - 6 gradations: n/a | ★ | ★★ | ★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★★★

Now - 11 gradations: n/a | ½ | ★ | ★½ | ★★ | ★★½ | ★★★ | ★★★½ | ★★★★ | ★★★★½ | ★★★★★

My thinking is that from a mathematical standpoint, all we've done is switch from a 5-point scale to a 10-point scale.  Calling them "half stars" is just semantics.

But, from a psychological standpoint, there's more to it than that.

With the three-position scale, -1 implies that you do not like it, 0 implies that you are neutral, and 1 implies that you like it.

With a 5-star scale, many people assume that 3-stars is "neutral" or "OK", while 1- and 2- star rankings are "bad" and 4- and 5- star ratings are "good".  People who think this way tend to use 3 stars as their default rating, and "reward" good things with a 4- or 5- star rating, and "punish" bad things with a 1- or 2- star rating.  The result of this is that the 1-2 ratings are seldom used.  Some raters will also take the position that 5-stars should be  ultra-rare, as it is a signifier of the highest standards, of perfection, and so they're really constrained to using 3 and 4 star ratings for almost everything, the occasional rare 5-star for something that is truly outsanding, and withholding 1-2 star ratings most of the time.

The implication is that there is a spectrum of quality, and that the scale represents the entire spectrum, but that the vast majority of things are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and thus the middle of the scale.  The ends of the scale don't get used, other than to show the range of the scale. And this, I conjecture, is why some people feel like they need half-stars: having sacrificed the bottom end and sometimes the very top of the scale, they need to slice up what's left in order to have "enough" meaningful gradations between 3 and 4.5 stars.

This is similar to the loudness wars in audio formats, where dynamic range is sacrificed in order to make every song as loud as all the others, because being loud is what gets you noticed.

So, to restore the lost dynamic range, people want to cram in extra numbers somehow, e.g. to add in half-stars.

I would prefer to see a ratings system with a wide dynamic range, so I recommend using the entire scale.  Hand out those 1- and 2- star ratings.  Don't feel bad about it.  1 > 0, so 1 star is better than nothing.  It's like a score: more is better, but you can still win with just one point.

The thing is, it's difficult to remove the psychological stigma associated with 1-2 stars.  Like fighting against the loudness wars, advocating that people change the way we think about the meaning of <3 stars, so that we can use the entire available spectrum is an uphill battle.  It's easier to just slice up the stars and let people have their 6-point range (5 stars plus n/a), and label the points n/a, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5.

But it also feels dumb.  I keep thinking about the scene from Spinal Tap, "Why not make 10 louder?"

Instead of using fractions, why not switch to a 10-point scale?  We could even eliminate the stigma scores, and have still have a 5-point scale, but labeled so that they're values from the 10-point scale that people would actually use:

6 (3 stars) | 7 (3.5 stars) | 8 (4 stars) | 9 (4.5 stars) | |10 (5 stars)

I look at it like a way to fool people into having the 5 points they really need without having to think that they're handing out "negative" ratings when they rate something with only 1-2 stars.

Two graphs: in one, the same scores are inflated with 5 "vanity" or "participation trophy" points, in order to signify the reluctance of judges to give "negative" ratings by rating below 5, which is very common in 10-point ratings systems. We feel better about handing out those scores than we do the lower scores, but the difference between a 10 and a 7 looks like less than the difference between a 5 and a 2, even though the difference in both cases is 3.

The only problem with that approach, as I see it, is that you can keep slicing stars arbitrarily thin, and eventually you end up with a big box of crayons problem.  We could use a 5-star scale, a 1-10 scale, or a 100 point scale.  But it's harder to decide if something is closer to 80% or 82% than it is to decide if something is closer to 80% or 90%. And you don't actually gain anything, just more complexity and more muddle.

I can tell quickly if I want to give something a 4-star or a 5-star rating, but if I start asking myself does it deserve 4 stars, or 4.5 stars, I have to slow down and think about it too much.  As a result, I think I would spend more time on fewer games.

What was the point of all this, again? Oh yeah, to rate games

Ranking things like games is subjective, full of gut instinct and arbitrary taste. But with quantifying a gut reaction, there's a point at which additional granularity isn't really useful, and actually becomes counter-productive, because it makes people more indecisive.

It's already somewhat laughable to think that these are things that can be quantified, but we do it, because you can't really compare and rank things otherwise.  Picking a number is way quicker, and easier, than writing a paragraph or an essay.  And it's way more feasible compare numbers than it is to convey subjective full-text reviews.  That's the reason we use number ratings.  Like, that's literally the only reason to do it.

I want to rate quickly and decisively and move on, so I can play and rate the most games. Precision and accuracy aren't the most important thing, here.

Consistency is far more important.  If I can rate a lot of games, and apply my personal, subjective approach to rating consistently across all of them, it's possible to compare those scores against each other.  This is true even if "my three" is very different from "your three" -- as long as we're both consistent in how we rate.  We get precision and accuracy from the weight of averages.  If you can get a few dozen reviews of your game, average the ratings numbers, you get pretty good confidence that the numbers are about right, even if you don't really know what a "3" or a "4" actually means, and even if any N individual judges can't agree on what "3" or "4" means.  The math of averages end up giving us decimals anyway.

Conclusion

To get better ratings(1), we need more ratings, not more gradations. This is true even when the quality of individual reviews is low, (so long as the quality of reviews is consistent from game to game by any particular reviewer.) 

Thus, simplifying and streamlining the process of rating games, so that we can rate more games, would be better than giving individuals the means to assign ratings with finer granularity.

__

(1) I'm talking about better quantitative ratings, obviously; better qualitative ratings would be nice, too -- but that's another topic.

nice, i like make game, i look into forward ludomm dare 40

This will be my 4th Ludum Dare, but my first one doing the Compo, and I'm kinda nervous. Any tips for from more experience Compo jammers?

So, mandatory "I'm in" post here :sweat_smile:

I spent a looooong time wondering if I should do my game with classic HTML5 languages I'm very confortable with, or if I should use big CASE software I already know by heart... like I did when I was a (more-)beginner dev back in 24th and 26th Ludum Dare.

I really wanted to change things, and to be able to tell "look, I programmed this game from scratch!"... But after thinking about it (and watching my warm-up week get spent on working for school), I think enjoying making my game is more important than having something nice to put on my CV. So here I am, heading into this Ludum Dare seeking to have a good time, and not to invest my week-end showcasing my awesome new 'engineer' skillset.

So I'll be using my beloved ClickTeam Fusion 2.5 (french softs are the best! <3), coupled with maybe GraphicsGale, maybe PhotoFiltre, maybe SFXR, maybe Audacity, but certainly a lot of tea.

Enjoy your Ludum Dare too, xoxo :heart:

I've done lots of LDs in the past (5? 6?) and have had great success. Hopefully I can do the same. If my internet (and mental state) holds up, I'll livestream on my twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ebernerd

Hope to see what you guys have in store!

I'm in and very much looking forward to a fun weekend of game development!

I haven't done much game dev for a while as I've been busy working. Hopefully I'm not too rusty.

I plan on using the following tools:

Engine: Unity Art: Gimp, Blender (If I'm feeling confident enough to tackle 3D) Sound: Audacity and... BFXR? God knows, I never really get the time to consider it during these jams...

Good luck everyone! Can't wait to play the games that get made this weekend.

I have been coding off and on for a while and am trying to get back into it, and just in time for my second Ludum Dare

There have been so many failed attempts at Ludum Dare. This time, I fully intend to submit a game. I can't wait! Previous attempts were abandoned due to my not knowing how to manage the time properly on such a short development cycle and this time I fully intend to fix that. Good luck everyone! :D

Hello everyone! Over the past few years, and after a few LD's under my belt, I have grown in power. My colleague has also grown in power. An artist the likes of which I am proud to be associated with. With our powers combined, we will learn a new game engine (as we use LD as a learning event) and will achieve new personal heights.

I look forward to this challenge, and I can't wait to see the truly awe inspiring games everyone will create!

I failed to finish in time for an LD a few months ago so I'm bringing in a friend of mine to help me with the game so hopefully I can finally submit a game on time!

The themes are looking like a 50/50 right now. I am curious and worried and excited all at once

Goal: Get better in Humor and Graphics :skull_crossbones:

I'm actually a bit ill at the time, but i wouldn't miss a Ludum Dare! Hopefully this time my game won't be eaten alive by bugs. What i'll be using:

Java (IntelliJ) / Unity (depending on the theme) -> Game development

GIMP 2 -> Graphics

FL Studio 11 -> Music/sound effects

I wish everybody good luck, and have a great time!

Havn't done a LDJam since 35 so I can't wait to jump back in. Really looking forward to making some small games again :D

This will be my second Ludum Dare and my third game jam over all. I am super excited! Having made a dictator-space-rocket-card-game-thing last ldjam, It will be interesting to see how "bendable" the theme this time! As always I'll be using my own home brewed JavaScript game engine. I just hope I don't have to do some major re-writing of the game engine this time as well. At this pace it is turning in to a very time consuming running gag :) That being said, I always appreciate a good challenge! My goal this time is to try to make a simpler yet more "polished" game, so that it is more fun to play! Managing project scope is a skill I really want to get good at.

I'll be posting tons of WIP stuff on twitter (https://twitter.com/tim_9009) if you want to tag along :)

Here are the tools l will (probably) be using: - Home brewed game engine (with a lot of personality...) - PhotoShop - Bosca Ceoil / Garage Band / Audacity - Sleep and lots of coffee-naps

Happy jamming ladies and gentlemen! Looking forward to see what you can come up with :)

Hey. I'm in I guess. Working with somebody for the first time. @Yecats is here to do art. You don't have to look at my tragic drawing this time, just his.

Last time was a bit of a trash fire. I was using ancient base code left over from an abandoned project, so I spent most of my time dealing with its unfinished and fatally flawed nature. Music was thrown in extremely late. The game was okay, but much shorter than it should have been.

This time, the base code is a little less of a mess, and @Yecats working on art should give me time for music. Feeling good. Just wish we could use that extra day, but we're both busy Monday. Hope you all beat us. Thanks for reading.

I completely forgot to participate last time! I should make a calendar entry or something.

I have a brand new Vive, so maybe I could make something with that? (Don't worry desktop players, if I do, I'll make a desktop-only build after the competition.) Of course, I've never programmed for VR before, and I probably won't be able to learn in 3 days. Still an option on the table, though. (Hmm, maybe turntable-style gameplay would be quick to make?)

I'm interested but there seems to be no info on how to sign up...

This is my first time doing ludum dare. Not doing compo (yet) because I'm not that great yet. GL everyone!

I'm in for the second time! The first time (LD39) I had a blast, with a very satisfying feedback on my game and getting around 300th position.

Rolling with Unity, Blender, Krita, BFXR, Rezoner/chiptone/bosca ceoil. Good luck and have fun, everyone! :D

Taking the opportunity to join Ludum Dare 40!

I've contributed to a handful of jams before with my Unity mentor MartianGames. This last Halloween 2017, I released my 1st WebGL mini-game "Blue Balls" & I think I finally know enough C# to complete something amusing even if my partner is too busy to help much due to a current deadline coming up!

...So... I'm In!

I love streaming the dev process, playing other submissions on my channel Twitch.tv/JenniNexus, and connecting with the dev community, so stay in touch if you'd like. :-) I'll be sure to make time & feature a handful of LD games during judgement week. Looking forward to it!

:video_game: Jenni Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Do I have to do anything specific to enter the jam?

There are a lot of great themes in the theme voting! I can't wait to see what the final theme will be. So far my favorites are: * Multiple Perspectives * Strange Combinations * You are not the Main Character * Mutation * One Minute * The More You Have, the Worse It Is

I'm in for my third Ludum Dare! Good luck to all and lets have some fun!