I visited the profiles of the latest theme-complainers. Oddly enough of those only one has taken part in more than 2 jams.

Kinda makes me think, that those who are overly critical of themes maybe just lack the experience of what can actually work as a theme.

NOT...

I really hope I can get to make something for this Ludum Dare. I am going to be traveling the weekend of though, so who knows. Maybe I can get something done on the Plane. Whatever I do, I'm sure it won't be great, given the limited resources and time, but still, hopefully something.

So I've been a long time lurker and have always wanted to take part in a jam. I'm thinking this one might just be the one! Not sure whether I'll pull in some friends or have at it solo... It's been a long time since I wrote some code for my own fun.

Tools: - Godot, LIBGDX, or Unity (not entirely sure yet) - Audactiy - Paint.net, GIMP, Piskel, Pixlr - Various other things....

Should be a good time!

This is gonna be my first OFFICIAL Ludum Dare! I'm going to be using Love2d, VSCode, LMMS, and Photoshop CS6 to make everything. Let's hope it turns out well and good luck to everyone participating!!

~~Unrelated: what's up with all the hitchiker's guide theme suggestions? Is it some kind of inside joke??!??~~

That was tiring! This is the first time I was able to go through all the themes. Hopefully, we will have a great theme this time (fingers crossed)!

But whatever the theme is, don't forget one thing:

HAVE FUN!

Is it me or there is too much "42" related submissions?

IMO I don't find this relevant for an LD theme, and through these 3k+ themes, only a bunch was interesting/new.

What's your thought people?

Fancy a warmup but don't have enough time to spare? Try a 30 minute jam! I've done it twice now and boy is it stressful. Livestreams linked below for proof :wink: sorry, there's no audio - I couldn't get my mic working. I've got a new one on the way, though, so I'll be able to stream LD42!

You can play my latest one here - the aim is to get the green ball to the gold star, without hitting the red ball. Click and hold with your mouse to affect gravity.

If you do one, feel free to tweet me or reply here and show off what you've done! Looking forward to seeing what people come up with :grin:

https://youtu.be/9icn5uanICU

https://youtu.be/tTAq1fcayDY

If anybody is interested here about me streaming the hole ludum dare 42 i am more than glad! Let me know in the comments down below!

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

Hi everyone, so from thursday on, there will be intense art practise for the upcoming ludum dare event. Probaby going to practise Low Poly and Voxel art, because these styles are fast and easy to realize during a game jam.

Greeting Luca =)

Just 1 lesson in storytelling for you. If you are watching / playing as someone who is not the main character, then they ARE the main character, regardless of if they are a villain or not.

Likewise if your hero is not the player character, he is NOT the main character.

Imagine a book where we follow Voldemort for the whole thing instead of Harry. Guess who the main character is for this book..

Now, to learn something more about vector art and animation and I'll be ready to go. Perhaps anyone has some quick tips for Affinity Designer? ;)

Alrighty! 42 is a good number.

And it happens that I still have free time on the weekend of the LD. So I'm most likely in!

So there are always people who show their slaughter charts, where they killed of about 95% of the themes. I made this little graphic to show why that's a bad thing.

To read the graphic a couple of things are important:

1. There are no objectively good themes that everyone's going to pick. Every themepick comes down to personal preference in the best case and chance in the worst case.

2. There are more theme-suggestions than voters. If we took the ideal case, which would mean anybody who picked suggestions also votes for all themes we'd still have three times the themes than voters.

In this overly simplified example I chose to show the voting process for 6 voters and 18 themes. So that would be the absolute ideal case.

See how the first variant fails to generate any meaningful data? Even putting the entire first set ontop of the second one would barely impact it, even though the same amount of people voted.

So - the conclusion I came to is, that if you vote to sparsely you'll just waste your time because your vote will impact the result extremly little if you can't generate enough overlap.

Because the slaughter-process is long and arduous certain random factors like fatigue will inevitable creep in - the stricter you vote the more impact those random factors will have.

@Samusoidal @Shelvid @GexAlmighty @EX3D0

I'm so hyped, my first Ludum Dare I participate to , wish you guys luck with the coding , probably some don't need it and probably some do anyways let's create awesome games guys, I can't wait anymore.

Anyone co-locating in London for LD42? Enquiring minds want to know.

Hi! We all know that LD42 is near ,and its comming fast!soooooooooo Im looking for a teammate to work with As everyone says "two brains is better than one"so if you are intrested to work in groups please contact me at discord My tag :Nag games#3992

Good luck everyone!🍀

Id Like to Have The User Fexgem to be part of my game but i need to friend him first. Please help me.

First Ludum Dare ever, first game jam in a long, long time. Going straight into Compo!

Using:

• C++ + SDL2
• sfxr
• WolframTones
• possibly runtime generated graphics

Wish me luck!

I'm notoriously picky when it comes to slaughtering themes. I maybe say YES to 3 or 4 out of the 2,000 theme suggested.

So here's my list of rules I use, and 50 themes, what rules they break and why

I Reject if the theme is:

1. 1 Word
   • Often overlaps with rule 14. One-word themes are often too broad and can be interpreted too liberally to be nearly pointless
2. A Meme/Too Meta
   • Everything from TV shows to Internet-in-jokes to development In-jokes. That instantly puts people who are out-of-the-loop off joining the jam.
3. Restricts Genre(s)
   • While having too broad a theme is a bad thing, restricting the theme narrowly is also undesirable. Rules 3-6 reflect the desire to be able to make almost any game you want with the theme.
4. Restricts Game Mechanics
5. Restricts Setting
6. Restricts Graphical Style
   • This is a short, intense, game jam. Entrants are not always the best designers and will not join if they don't feel comfortable switching up the graphics style they're used to using. It would also eliminate certain development tools like, say, Pico8 (with its 2D graphics and limited colour pallete) if the theme was "HD Graphics"
7. Is a Simple Contradiction (ie 'Destroy what you create')
   • Usually the opposite problem to rule 1, these are often too restrictive and limit the kind of game you make. With the example you'd first have to have a game where you both create and destroy things. Be it in game-play or narrative. And they're usually incredibly unimaginative.
8. Too wordy
   • Ideal themes should be between 2 and 5 words long. Often they get too specific.
9. 'Fill in the blank' (ie You have too many _) , or implied blanks (ie One too many), or emphasis on pronouns (mostly 'it's')
   • Similar to rule 1, often too broad.
10. Starts with "What" or "You"/"Your"/"You're"
    • These often feel like demands from a topic, rather than a request. Tend to be very broad topics too.
11. Is a Question
    • Often are unimaginative, regularly bleeds over to rule 2 as well.
12. X the Y, X to Y, etc
    • Again, unimaginative and vague.
13. Overtly Political
    • Not against political games, but you shouldn't be forced to make one if the theme demands it.
14. Very Broad Concept
    • Really a catch-all for any theme that still feels too broad without falling directly into the above
15. Already been a theme, or very similar to an old one
    • Simple explanation, people love submitting old themes, slightly tweaked... and it's unimaginative and boring to retread old ground
16. Bad Spelling/Grammar
    • You're not writing a novel. It's a single line. It's not hard to proof read.
17. It's just bloody stupid
    • Come on, some of these are just stupid
18. Would put off Beginner Devs from joining
    • While this is at the bottom of the list, it is a very important one. I will instantly slaughter a theme if I think it would put off a dev who is new to Jams, or new to development, from joining in. A theme, at face value, must allow you make something simple, like snake, or pong variants or something, out of it. If the answer is no, then it's not a good theme. If the theme passes this test and doesn't have very many creative variants, then it puts off experienced devs looking for a challenge. I'll slaughter it then too.

Not all of these rules are created equal. I know a lot of you wont' care about rules 7 through 14, and that's your prerogative. These are my rules, subjective as they are, but any theme that passes them is going to be a great theme.

And the Themes I slaughtered:

• Pathfinding
  • Rules 1, 4, 18
  • Forcing a game to involve pathfinding, or at least suggesting pathfinding (even if you come up with a creative alternative meaning for 'pathfinding') would put off new or uncertain devs.
• Carrot and Stick
  • Rule 12
• Drift
  • Rule 1
• At least one thing procedural
  • Rule 18, procedural generation is difficult. To the point that there's a Procedural Jam that allows you two whole weeks to make something, and doesn't care if you submit something you've been working on for years. It's not something you can do in 48 hours, especially if you're a new dev.
• World drained of colour
  • Rule 6, for all the reasons stated in Rule 6.
• The Keyboard as a weapon
  • Rule 4 because having a weapon restricts the Genre to one that requires a weapon. It would encourage people to make a game first and shoe-horn in the theme after the fact, which doesn't make for fun games.
• 2d shooter
  • Rule 4
• Build-a-Dungeon
  • Rules 12, 14, 18
  • Again, while creative ideas can be made with the theme that don't involve actually building a dungeon, it's incredibly limiting, and at face-value many new devs would feel put-off by such a daunting task.
• Cheat to Win
  • Rule 12
• Close to Home
  • Rule 12
  • Note: I submitted this theme. I never said I was perfect.
• pixel art
  • Rule 6
• Buildings
  • Rule 1
• Not enough power
  • Rule 15, "Running out of Power", (See the game I made for LD 39)
• communism
  • Rule 1
• Just a minute
  • Rule 12
• pirate
  • Rule 1
• If you're moving you can't ____.
  • Rule 9
• Background
  • Rule 1
  • Honestly, this wins the award for the vaguest theme I've seen yet.
• your weapon will not help you
  • Rule 4, 8. Again, restricts the game you make to something that has a weapon.
• Make Two from One
  • Rule 9 (Implied blank: Make Two ____ from One ____)
  • Rule 12
• Platformer Gimmicks
  • Rules 3 and 4
  • Seriously, I love making platformer games. And Gimmicky ones at that. But I wouldn't force that on everyone.
• Survive in Space
  • Rule 12
• Time to Think
  • Rule 12
• Heat
  • Rule 1
  • Okay, got something that's ousted Background from it's vague throne
• not a game
  • Rules 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 14, 17 and 18. But mostly 17. Definitely mostly 17.
• With Wings
  • Rule 9 (Implied blank: ____ With Wings)
• These Themes All Suck
  • While true, it's definitely breaking rule 17, and 2 (those rules tend to go hand in hand to be honest)
• Random Powers
  • Rule 4
• Superpowers in day-to-day work
  • Rule 8
• More than the sum of its parts
  • Rule 8
• Joke with battle royale
  • Rules 2, 3, 16 and 17. This structure sentence english not.
• An unusual form of currency
  • Rule 14, really vague. This could apply to almost anything in a game. Easy to shoehorn in to anything, makes the jam too easy.
• Charge
  • Rule 1
• Lose to Win
  • Rules 7 and 12
• Why Are We Still Here
  • Rules 11, 14
• Topsy turvey world. Roles are reversed
  • Rules 7 and 8
• Fusion
  • Rule 1
• Never Ending
  • Rule 9 (Never Ending ____)
  • Rule 14
• Love You Enemies
  • Rule 7 and 16
• Lost the Instruction Manual
  • Passes!
  • Firstly, I can think of numerous different ways to apply this to very simple games that would make them fresh and exciting. How this theme might inform everything from story, to mechanics, to presentation. It's a very open theme, but not too vague. It's not restrictive, but instead provides guidance into more creativity.
• heat wave
  • Rule 14
• Always expanding
  • Rule 9 (Implied blank: ____ Always Expanding, or Always Expanding ____)
• Glow
  • Rule 1
• It's alive!
  • Rule 9 (Implied blank: 's alive!)
• combine game and gamedev tool
  • Rule 18, very much so. Like, I've been programming for 20 years and making a game-dev tool in 48 hours is daunting, let alone a game and a dev tool that can be used in game at the same time.
• Anti meta, meta game
  • Rules 2, 7 and 18
• Big world, small you
  • Rule 7
• Decremental
  • Rule 1
• Maze
  • Rule 1
• OS simulation
  • Rule 3 and 18

Well, if you made it this far, good for you. I hope you're not bored to tears, but it felt good to get this all down in writing.

Hoo-wee, that's a lot of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy references to sift through that belong in past decades because everyone's already heard them by now. I also noticed that the idea of subverting expectations is not a theme that subverts expectations lmao. That said, there were a lot of themes I really would like to see implemented!

Hello jammers!

Pygame is slow for jams

I've participated in the compo twice --- both times from scratch with python and pygame. I tend to focus more on graphics and visuals than on complex games, which means lots of development and troubleshooting of makeshift sprite classes specific to that event.

I'm writing some graphics objects

In an effort to streamline this process, I'm writing a few graphics classes for pygame development. These would hopefully make some aspects of the pygame-compo less painful.

Currently, I have a couple classes to handle sprites and read spritesheets, but I'm looking to add the following things in the next week and a half before LD42 (probably in order of importance):

• Camerawork (slowdowns, zooming, panning/following an object)
• Particle effects
• Non-sprite animation framework (i.e. animations that just rotate, bounce, or spin)
• Menu/Interface

Call to action

If you have used pygame for Ludum Dare or another project, drop some comments with suggestions for graphics capabilities you would find useful!

Alternatively, if you want to contribute, throw me a pull request at https://github.com/jeremycryan/pyracy. Feel free to use some of this for the upcoming jam; I'm primarily making this to streamline my own process, but it would be awesome if other people benefited from it as well.

Thanks!

Welp I'm in

*Engine: * Unity 3D

*Modeling: * Blender

*Audio: * Audacity

*Music: * Fl Studios/Ableton

*FX and Stuff: * AE and Sony

Cyallout there, best of luck

also heres a rando pic, tell me if ya recognize it ;)

Assuming I get my internet back up on time. I will be participating in this Ludum dare.

I will be using c# Engine: Unity Modeling: Depends the theme really Audio: Audacity The rest of what I do is entirely dependent on the theme, like modeling software etc.

And as a side note: Why does my computer want to correct "Ludum" to Dumdum?

New Update of On Thin Line (LD 41st, a Rhythm Runner Adventure game)

1) New control system: Keyboard & Mouse. (You don't need an XBox controller to play it anymore. But I still highly recommend it.)

2) Fix bugs.

3) Minor modification on menu and instructions.

4) New ReadMe.txt in downloads. (English and Chinese accessible)

Play online or download at: https://lotusli.itch.io/on-thin-line

Walkthrough Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2EWUggCfVY

We're a new team. Just looking to finish making a game.

I’m still looking to join a Jam group for music / game design. (Please note: I’d prefer a group that did at least somewhat decent in a recent LD.)

Here’s some examples of my music from previous LD games: https://parsecproductions.bandcamp.com/album/dare

One other thing to note is that the earlier LD start time means that I'm going to be missing the first 9 hours of the competition, since I'll be at work (I'm basically free for the rest of it though).

I haven't LDed for a few years now, having some serious withdrawals. So work schedule willing, I'm in this year!

Tools

• Unity
• Blender
• Gimp
• Krita
• Inkscape
• Audacity

We're in for the second time! With a little change : we lost a dev and we won an artist. Jammin'! Team ready for making a great game! I hope this Ludum Dare will be the answer to life, the universe and everything.

This is my first time doing this and i am hoping i will get some good feedback on how i can improve.

My Tools are - Unity - Blender - Photoshop - Bosca Ceoil

Hi,

This is my first time participating in a Ludum Dare challenge. I'm a Unity developer. Any artists who are willing to collaborate, feel free to drop me a message.

Hey guys, a friend of mine can't seem to register, since the website will ask you for your e-mail address, and it will throw an error ("session expired") when you enter either an "n" or a "y".

I tested it myself, and I'm experiencing the same issue. Is anyone else having this problem?

(Edit: Just noticed, it isn't an issue when you try registering in incognito mode.)

Finally decided to take the plunge and participate in LD42 after a colleague of mine did LD41.

Going to be using Unity and doing the Jam. Even taken a couple of days off the day job to do this :-)

Good luck and have fun, everyone!

Theme slaughter is tiresome but fun. Although many themes are useless, a lot of them instigate nice ideas. Out of 3360, I kept only 69 themes (~2%). The slaughter question is "Would this be a good Theme?" but near the end, I realized that I was answering a different question: "Do you like this theme?". Looking back, I should have been more open and kept much more themes.

My personal view about themes

I believe that restrictions should only be a side effect of the theme and the main goal should be inspiration. That's why themes should be broad as long as you can discern games that follow it from those who don't. For example, GGJ 2015 theme "What do we do now?" is too broad because anything can fit in. I see themes as a tool to break creative blocks (like randomly browsing a dictionary) by motivating the mind to explore new possibilities outside its current box.

In the 3 GGJs and 3 LD jams I participated in, I feel that GGJ submissions had more diversity in theme interpretations compared to LD. My hypothesis is that GGJ themes translate to personal experiences while most LD themes translate to game mechanics. For example, GGJ16 "Rituals" has no translation to game mechanics and its interpretation differs with culture, age, gender, activities and so on. GGJ 17 "Waves" is broad too and can be seen as sea waves, sound, light, signals, enemy waves, heat waves, trend waves, mood waves and so on depending on your background.

On the other hand, LD39 "Running out of Power" easily translates to "limited and consumable resources" (energy, fuel, moves, time, etc). LD40 "The more you have, the worse it is" is very similar to "The game gets harder as you make more progress" so many games just increased the difficulty when you collect coins, items, etc. Some games still had their unique interpretations. LD41 "Combine 2 Incompatible Genres" had more diversity since it has no obvious translation into certain game mechanics.

The main thing I like about LD is that even if many submissions in LD 39 & 40 interpreted the theme as similar mechanics, they still experimented with many unusual combinations with other mechanics and genres.

What do you think?

For the 42th LD, it's almost mandatory to be in, when you are a Douglas Adams fan - like me. 😄
I just hope that this time, the theme will not be choosen by The Infinite Improbability Drive… 😒

This will be my 17th Ludum Dare in a row. You can see all of my previous entries and post mortems at https://levidsmith.com/game-list/?jam=ludumdare

TLDR: I'm looking to join a team as the music composer and producer. Discord: Martin#2351

Long story

After much consideration, I realize I can't possibly make an entire game for the upcoming LD42. I do the jam solo but since I have some non-negotiable appointments on saturday and monday, I just won't have the time.

But I will have enough time to just focus in one aspect, my favorite, the music. So if you or your team is ready to tackle LD42 and you think a music composer and producer could be some help, let me introduce myself.

So, What kind of music do you do?

I've been playing and studying music for around 10 yerars. I've pick up a lot of different styles and genres I know and I enjoy doing. I tend to stir towards Synthwave, Rock, Funk and Jazz, but if the game calls for it I could try any genre we think of.

Other important aspect when I do music for games is to try to do a Dynamic Soundtrack, meaning that the music changes or evolves depending on what's happening in the game. My previous LD entries are perfect examples. For LD39, I did a game where you had to fuel an empty spaceship tank. The music starts in an all acoustic arrangement and it evolves into an electronic version of it as you put fuel in the tank. For LD40, you had to pick up passengers as a bus driver, and the music added instruments as the bus got full. If this sounds interesting to you I'd be happy to try something out.

But are you any good?

If you want to listen the music I made, as I mention earlier, you could play my past Ludum dare entries. Optionally you could check out my stuff on Soundcloud, or the few videos I have posted on Youtube.

Interested. Reach out!

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to comment. If you are insterested, contact me on discord: Martin#2351

Hello, My name is Josh and my wife Sara and I make up FacetStarlight.

I'm a self taught Java and OpenGL developer and Sara is an artist, 3D modeler, and programmer.

We will be using Unity for this dare for simplicity, we are excited to show the world what we're capable of creating!

Come and join Geta's upcoming Geta Game Jam, between September 15 and 18!

The theme for this jam is CHAIN REACTION!

Make a game in three days completely from scratch, using whatever tools or engine you like! Teams are allowed.

JOIN THE JAM HERE

BECOME A PART OF OUR WONDERFUL DISCORD COMMUNITY

FORM TEAMS ON OUR CROWDFORGE PAGE

I want to start by giving a huge thank you to everyone that played, rated, and/or gave feedback on my submission for Ludum Dare 41. The feedback was incredible and I was delighted with how many people enjoyed it! The criticism was also super constructive and has given me a fairly clear view of where to take the game next, as I do wish to continue developing it. I'll definitely be writing a post at some point about my plans for the game in detail, but rest assured that all of the suggestions I've received are important to me.

But enough about that! Ludum Dare 42 is coming, and I'm in! I've been sifting through some themes in the slaughter round and I've seen some really good ones! I'll try to post my progress throughout the event this time; reading others' posts was one of my favorite parts of the last Ludum Dare! For anyone wondering what I use... - Code: C++ (using SFML) - Art: Paint.net - Music and sound: FL Studio

Good luck to everyone else! I'm excited to see some more awesome games!

My first jam, I'm excited :)

For this Ludum Dare I have decided to use the Godot Engine. I have been playing around with Godot for some time now and I want to see how it performs during a Game Jam. I have been using Unity "forever", but of late I have found the Engine to be full of "bloat", and I am still underwhelmed with the Performance of WebGL, not to mention that it still takes well over 10 minutes to make a build for WebGL. I am really looking forward to this Jam.

• Godot 3.x
• PyxelEdit
• Bfxr
• FL Studio

Ahhhhhhh 9 days to go, how did this happen?

Errrrrr, so this is where I would normally list what tools/environments/ide's im using buuuuuuttttt, i'm not sure yet....

SO it will be either: - Java/OpenGL - Java/Java2D (so pure java) - could be software rendered 3D, or just 2D - C++/OpenGL - C++/Direct2D - C++/Vulkan (this would be sooo cool) - JavaScript/WebGL

I'm not actually up to Vulkan yet, but one day I will do it!! I am much more interested in game engine technology then actually making games, which is why all my games are basically tech demos, so it makes sense that I would try and actually make a LD game in Vulkan.

If I'm using Java2D or Direct2D I will get pixel access in some way (Java2D: BufferedImage Raster, Direct2D: WICBitmap lockBits, then render it to the screen by converting to ID2D1Bitmap) then I will render to the pixels, this is quite cool, because you have all the control of a graphics API but without loads of GPU state objects. Even if I'm making a 2D game I will probably do it this way.

If I'm targeting the web, I will use WebGL even if I'm making a 2D game, since the Canvas 2D rendering context thing is software D: (sooo... I'm only ok with software rendering if I'm doing it :) )

In terms of 3D software rendering, I can do pretty much everything in the usual graphics pipeline, the only problem is clipping, I would need to do that on the fly.

If I'm doing a web game, I need to remind myself of the web audio APIs. I also need to remind myself of OpenAL (and probably rebuild it because idk what settings I used last time)

In terms of the type of game I think I'm going to make, I'm might try and making something atmospheric (which will be a mess because there isn't much time), I'm also tempted to do something Isometric, because I like how it looks. I might also do some funky hacky sprite based top down 3D that I've been formulating in my head.

If you read right to the end of this post, please leave a comment advising which options I should pick :)

Thanks,

Ned

I'm in! I'll be using GameMaker: Studio, Photoshop, Audacity, sfxr, and maybe blendr (depending on how brave I'm feeling) EDIT: forgot about music >> Reason Essentials!

Let's gooooo!

I’m thinking about putting my LD entry on itch.io with an optional payment, as I’ve seen a few other devs do in the past. I was wondering what everyone here thinks about that practice: do you mind as long as the game is also available for free? Does anyone ever donate to these devs?
It would be the first revenue I’ve ever generated from a product of mine, so I’m eager to hear what you think.

All right, time to tackle my first Ludum Dare. Here's hoping 42 is one to remember.

I've had some bad luck for the past two years working on teams, so I figured I'd do a solo project to wash away some disappointment. And if you're wondering: no, the team projects weren't broken by horrid in-fighting or anything so ugly. It was just people dropping out midway through due to busy lives, and ideas falling to the abyss of unfinished projects on permenant hiatus.

Depending on the project, I'll be using: * Unity * AssetForge * Photoshop CC * Bosca Ceoil * Sfxr * Audacity * Blue Yetti Microphone * A Windows laptop with a pulse * Artisul D13

I'm most likely entering the Jam despite going solo and doing everything from scratch so that I can sleep properly and still complete a decently ambitious project.

Wish me luck! I look forward to seeing what incredible projects you all cook up this time around.

-Jake

The weekend has been set aside, so I'm in for LD #42. As always I'll be working with the open web stack - ECMAScript (JavaScript), HTML, CSS.

Possible libraries:

• RocketBoots for boilerplate game functionality
• PixiJS for graphics
• jQuery for basic dom manipulation
• Lodash
• AStar if I need pathfinding
• Three.js if I get really ambitious and want to do 3d
• Node.js, Express, and Socket io if I get crazy ambitious and want to do multiplayer gameplay
• Maybe other open source libraries

Possible Tools:

• Pickle for pixel graphics
• Photoshop if I need something that Pickle can't handle
• Bxfr for audio (but I rarely have the time to add audio)
• Chrome for debugging
• SublimeText for all typey-typing that will be needed

Plug for overlapping game jam:

The LDJAM weekend will fall within the time of the Low Rez 2018 game jam, so I encourage everyone to consider trying to add in the additional limitation of making your game in 64 x 64 pixels. For LD #35 I was able to submit my game Reptilian President for both jams, and I enjoyed the challenge of working in 64x64.

Good luck everyone!

Here is a little wallpaper. It isn't that good but yeah, it's quite a tradition ^^ So you can take it if you want :)

Plus, I made a timelapse of the creation. The music used is again by me and you're free to use it ^^

https://youtu.be/tRYaQ2-J4GM

(you can share the video, it helps :D )

Tools: Anything FOSS. Typically Tiled, GIMP, Inkscape, and Blender have served me well.

Languages: C++ and Lua are my go-tos. Next jam might be Rust though!

Libs / APIs: Anything FOSS. Sqlite, SDL2, OpenGL ES2, IQM almost always show up.

I'm also looking into a way to receive analytics data from the game. If I have analytics / telemetry they'll be opt-in because I respect your privacy!

I hate doing art!

Me, Polymorpher (@polymorpher), and Sentrovasi (@sentrovasi) are in for Ludum Dare 42: The Jam!

This will be the second LD that me and Polymorpher participate in (first time to submit in time hopefully) and it'll be the first for Setrovasi!

As long as we make it in time, that is!

We hope everyone has fun and best of luck!

With this being my first Ludum dare naturally, this was my first slaughter round too. I'm a pretty open-minded person but some of the stuff people put on there is outright stupid.

Somethings I learned that maybe some others will take away is...

1. We only have 2 days I say this for the themes like "Battle Royale or AAA title guys legend of Zelda, pub or Minecraft were not made in 2 days...

2. So restricting The ones like "1 color" or "no controls" A. How is anyone gonna see anything on the screen if its all 1 color and how is it a game if there are no controls to make it function.

Some of the themes I liked 1. (My own) "Don't break the egg" I like this theme because it creates an objective and an object to build the game around while leaving it open to a variety of art styles.

1. "Escape The Room" Again I like this theme because its an objective not restricting the art, and leaving it open to anything this could be 3d, 2d pixel art, or heck even a text adventure.

2. "30-second game" I like this one because it keeps in mind that we only have 2 days to make this game. I can think of many small minigames to make from this theme.

Last LD there was some drama regarding top games breaking the rules. Based on this thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/ludumdare/comments/8jrij7/sogamethatwas1stinmoodincompo_used/) there was no action taken to change anything. however in one of the post here there was a lot of proposals to avoid such situations. Was anything improved since LD41 ?

So ludum dare 42 is in the same weekend when I'll be travelling back from holiday. So I'm planning on designing my idea in the car and programming it in a few hours...

I'll use: GameMaker studio 1.4 Bosca ceoil Sfrx Isopix (Maybe more)

Have fun everyone with the jam!

I'm In! This is my first LD, and only my second game jam, but I look forward to it.

My tools (probably): -Godot, because Unity was too scary -Aseprite, because 3D is also scary -Beepbox, because it sounds nice and I can throw together a "decent" track in about 15 minutes. -SFXR, for not-sound-design

I hope we all get to finish something we can be proud of! :D

I don't normally do things like this but I thought since I have some time between work projects, I may as well join in to Ludum Dare 42!

To make this interesting/fun, I will be using an engine I'm not familiar nor comfortable with (I normally use Unreal Engine 4 at work).

Tools I may use: * PlayCanvas. * Blender 3D. * Photoshop CC. * Substance Painter. * Bosca Ceoil.

EDIT: I'm now wishing my colleages were available...

Ready for my first Ludum Dare, this will sure be interesting!

I will be using:

• Unity
• Visual Studio 2017
• Piskel and Gimp for graphics
• My guitars and Fruity Loops/audacity/Guitar Pro for the music

Good luck, have fun everyone!

This is about my third LD, and I'm hoping that since it's summer I'll have more time to rate other games than I usually do. I'll be using: Eclipse (Java), BFXR for sound, Paint.NET for graphics.

I saw on youtube this game contest and i want to try and do my best. I don't know if i will do something good or bad but i want to try my best. In Theme Slaughter Round i keep about 500 theme because i feel like i know want game do i can make with that theme. I will use Unity and Photoshop for my game, but i want to ask a question "Can i use Textmesh Pro for my menu?"

Hi everyone, I'm in for my third Ludum Dare ! And I'm looking for a team :D I usually work on team as a Game Designer, Level Designer and musician (I really like working with other people, you can check my games) but this time I would like to only make Game & Level Design. I made several game jam, including LD#40 & LD#41, and I'm searching for a few guys for this LD. I'm French but I want to challenge myself and meet new people outside of boundaries ! If you are looking for someone to work with, feel free to contact me on Discord (@Azathothep#6656). I'm looking forward to talk with you guys !

Doing Ludum Dare has been on my bucket list for sometime, so this time I'm in.

• Engine: Game Maker
• "Art": Inkscape
• Audio: Not sure, would love some suggestions

I recently rebooted development of a project I tried to develop for the Ludum Dare 20 contest held in April 2011, the theme of which was “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this!”

As the project will require a controller with an analogue stick to play I’ve begun to develop a utility to interrogate the capabilities of various controllers; and, as I feel that the SDL2 documentation is lacking with regards to the joystick support offered by that library, I’ve posted – in addition to an executable of that utility for Mac OS X (and I want to release executables for additional platforms – the Raspberry Pi in particular – in the future) – the source code to that utility to GitHub for the benefit both of myself and of others.

Note that to use the utility you will need to have SDL2_image – in addition to SDL2 – installed.

Amongst the changes in version 2.0 of the utility are that:

• the utility now features support for multiple controllers;
• the utility now features detection of POV hats (and, contrary to what I wrote in the past, the D-pad of the Sony PlayStation 2 DualShock 2 controller is not disabled in analogue mode – rather, it is in that mode detected as being a POV hat (at least using my PlayStation-to-USB adapter));
• the utility now features preliminary detection of trackballs – “preliminary” as neither of my controllers (the other being a Sony PlayStation 3 DualShock 3) features a trackball;
• the utility now features preliminary detection of whether or not a controller has haptic capabilities – “preliminary” as neither of my controllers has been detected as having haptic capabilities in spite of both of my controllers having haptic capabilities (although my adapter or my OS (Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard) might be to blame).

So another Ludum Dare is here. I'm still thinking about participation - but I'm not sure whether to go solo or try to search for a team here (most of my friends are unavailable due to holidays, etc.).

Tools I'd use in case of team - Unity, Blender, Substance Stack, etc. ... heavily preferring 3D only. I mostly do programming, physics and partially graphics.

So what do you think, anyone up to something?

pygame 1.9.4 has been released into the wilds!

TLDR; Some highlights.

• python 3.7 support.
• beta pypy support. See Are we pypy yet?.
• pygame.draw fixes
• pygame.math is not experimental anymore. Speedups and bugfixes.
• Debian, Mac homebrew, mac virtualenv, manylinux and other platform fixes.
• documentation fixes, jedi support for type ahead in editors like VSCode and VIM.
• Surface.blits for blitting many surfaces at once more quickly.

Thanks

A very special thanks to the people who have volunteered commits to pygame since the last release. In alphabetical order...

Adam Di Carlo | Christian Bender | Don Kirkby | endolith | hjpotter92 | Ian Mallett | Lenard Lindstrom | Mathias Weber | Matti Picus | Nicholas Tollervey | orangudan | Raymon Skjørten Hansen | René Dudfield | Stefan Bethge | Stuart Axon | Thomas Kluyver | Tobias Persson

I'm probably missing some people, and also missing some people who contributed in other ways. For example, in discussions, issue reports, helping out on the wiki, the website, and for helping others in the community, and providing good vibes. So whilst the commits are easy to use to make a list of people to thank, it's not inclusive of everyone who deserves thanks.

A few more details...

See 1.9.4 Release notes for all the details.

```

451 #460 #467 #468 #469 #470

444 link to help pages when compile fails.

443 In seterror geterror tests ignore first error. Could be anything.

442 Freetype requires pkg-config instead of freetype-config now.

439 Surface.blits

435 Adding pypy builds for Mac on travis.

432 Appveyor pypy and pypy3 windows 32bit.

431 Implement object alloc caching for rect.c to improve on pypy.

427 PixelArray.close(), with PixelArray(surf) as px, context manager.

426 Skip tests that rely on arrinter and pythonapi on pypy.

420 pypy didn't like tp_dictoffset hack in events. Make our own setter, getter.

418 draw.aaline should work with ARGB surfaces (like on mac).

416 Vector cleanup

415 So virtualenv gets a focused window on Mac too.

414 Mac Travis homebrew fix

413 Jedi confused by pygame imports. Make it happy.

408 pygame.transform.threshold tests, keyword arguments, docs.

403 pygame.math.Vector2/3 not experimental

398 Clean up cameravidcapture.py unused code, and document a bit.

394 Add pitch bend to MIDI library

392 Add pypy builder to travis ci, and allow it to fail.

391 ppc64le and other Debian fixes

389 pygame.draw.circle with a thickness had a weird moiré pattern.

387 test python 3.7 on travis CI.

386 python 3.7 fixes.

384 pygame.display doc fixes.

381 import rect.inflate docs.

363 Fix several typos, and improve grammar in the introduction.

361 Add unit test for some key functions.

360 update math.c for pypy.

357 add UYVY support for better linux camera support.

356 Fix aaellipse artifacts

703350f68182641fe72ef1f41d81998fb6d4b385 Update Rect slicing for Python 3 6d0e97a38b5d2d549f1fee8b912a072731ea33bb bug fix for freetype.Font.render_to()

78 Add environment PYGAMEEXTRABASE to add an extra base directory to the start of the search path.

77 Build alsa libs ourselves for manylinux builds.

76 Docs fixup.

```

Very excited to participate. Hope I can deliver a game in time! Below the tools I will be using:

Engine: Godot Engine 3.0.5

Art: Aseprite (I will aim for a pixel art style)

Music: LMMS (not sure if I will make it, in case not, find some free music and join on jam

Sound: I dont know yet, suggestions are welcome!! (really, please) lol

...is the beginning <3 When everyone is excited, ambitious, friendly and happy! Let's hope those feelings run ALL the way through to post-results this time!

Happy game-jamming from Honest Dan! Stay classy.

Hii! I'm a 2D artist and I'm looking for a team for this LD :D If you are interested, please contact me for more info/example of work.

I know everyone said this but still. Time just goes so fast, now it's time to slaughter themes and before you know it, you'll be making a game in 72/48 hours! "Y........ N........ Y.......... emmmmm...... N......."

Hi everyone! I'm excited to participate in my first LD Jam! :) Software I'll be using: Gamemaker Studio, Aseprite, SFXR

I look forward to seeing everyone's creativity! Good luck!

Excited for my first time joining Ludum Dare. I'm going to be developing using Unity. Have zero experience developing games. Good luck everyone! :)

Hello everyone, I am glad to announce that the game we built during the ludum 41 is now finished and released on the Google play store !

If you own an android and wanna play our short game, feel free to give it a try ! We will appreciate any feedback and hope you will have some fun and not so-frustrating time !

I just found MagicaVoxel (gratis), it could be usefull to make games. I did these two 3D-models, but you can see that the people can do very nice models (https://www.google.cl/search?q=magicavoxel&source=lnms&tbm=isch) Did you know it?

I actually ended up buying all the parts I was planning on getting for my PC early because of Prime Day. Now I have a good computer for the Ludum Dare! :D

Specs: 3.6GHz 6-core CPU, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 6GB

I'm hoping to get into Unity (since this PC can actually run it) a bit, but I'll still use Pygame for this Ludum Dare.

We currently have 2 coders and 1 artist and could use some extra help :P [se for br melhor ainda]

Keen to join in the 42nd Ludum Dare.

Will be using: Unity Blender Krita Audacity

There seem to be some really interesting possible themes excited to see what will be chosen.

Wishing you all a great time! Looking forward to an excellent jam!

if i like the theme and depending what it is i'll be using either Godot or my own game engine, ASE, and Tiled, and for music and sound, Reason and Audacity.

would very much love to have Windows testers.

Figured I should get around to making one of these posts because it's time for another LD ladies and gentlemen!

As always here's the tools I'll be using

Dev Tools

Language: C++ (with SFML)

Text Editor: Visual Studio Code

Art: Aseprite and Photoshop CS6

Sound: Ableton Live 9 and Audacity

Fairly close to the stack I used in my previous entries however there are some notable changes.

My previous entries were made using Java + LibGDX which are definitely solid however I want to change things up this time so that's why I'll be using C++ with SFML. Obviously my editor of choice changed from IntelliJ to VS Code to reflect this. I also moved from Piskel to using Aseprite solely because of personal preference.

Might be in this time again. Depends on the theme. I got more experience under my belt as well as some handy bug-solving solutions. I wish everyone some good luck. Almost got the remainder of my LD 41 game (got stuck on a bug and just picked it up again recently) done, which'll be done before this one starts.

This is my very first Ludum Dare. I'm participating in the jam with some friends, and I hope I'm doing everything right. 😅

After following this event since LD34, I am finally going to participate in Ludum Dare with my friend. Hope things will turn out well.

I've been using this little animated Ludum Dare logo in my Unity games for a few years.

I think it's keen and I wanted to give others a chance to use it too, if they want!

The scene is real simple: It consists of a simple shader (which gives the logo its gemlike look) and the logo itself, plus all necessary animation information. It even includes the audio clip of me saying "Ludum Dare."

To use, download the .unitypackage file from here: Chainedlupine-LudumDareIntro-v1.unitypackage

The Github link to the source: Chainedlupine's Ludum Dare Intro (Source)

To use it, just include the files in your project, and make sure the LudumDareIntro scene is at the #0 slot in your Build scene list. It will automatically transition to the next scene once it has finished displaying the logo.

Note: I only say this works in 2017 because that's the editor version I used to export it. It will easily work in older versions, but you will need to import it via the unitypackage or make a new project (and copy over the files) if you try to load up the source project in an older editor.

Hi I'm first timer solo dev. I'm going to try the compo oh yeah! See you there!

When I signed in for LD40, I never thought I would make a game trilogy, similar to what I've done during the 2015-17 Global Game Jam. But now, I'm already set in capping off another trilogy, this time in LD.

As expected, I will still use QBASIC. Later on, I will compile the three games into one as a standalone release that will be planned for the end of 2018.

Hey LD jammers!

I'm hosting the 2nd annual Music Game Jam from Sep 1-15, where you make a music-related game in two weeks!

Last year's games included music-based tower defense, pitch-controlling platforming, and guitar shop management, and you could make anything from an FPS musical to a music horror game!

There'll also be ~$200 in game prizes! :video_game:

PLUS we've organised YouTubers and streamers to play your entries and give you great feedback!

🔊🎶 Join Music Game Jam ->

You can also join our Game Jammer Discord community and follow MusicGameJam!

PS: if you are a YouTuber / streamer interested in playing the entries from the jam, I can add you to a list on the jam page! (comment below or message me on Twitter / Discord)

First timer, solo dev, hopefully I'll manage to put something interesting together for the event. Not even decided on what language I'm gonna go for, but hey - I have a week for that, right?

It took a while, but I managed to go through all of the themes!

One thing I didn't understand though is why I saw some of the themes multiple times? Like 5 or 10 times. Write down if you know the reason, I'm very curious.

Oh, and the other day I posted the following pole on twitter:

So I want to ask you guys as well. Let me know!

If you don't mind sharing like a little list of tools/programs that you're going to use for this up and coming Ludum Dare, then feel free to do so in the comments of this post! I'm curious to see how jammers make their games and whatnot, so, if it's no trouble; you could send the little list! Enjoy Ludum Dare, see you in about a week! =D

Hello everyone!

As another newcomer to the LD contest I will take on the challenge and try my best to create something, that will at least ship after the 48h, even if I am fearing the worst :)

I will use C++ with allegro5 and imgui and most probably some smaller utility libraries with them. For the non-programming part I will either use Inkscape or Aseperite (depending on theme and choosing graphics style at the start) for graphics, and if time permits, renoise for sfx and msx.

Maybe I am going to use nodejs with javascript to automate the tool chain throughout the compo, when I feel comfortable enough to juggle all these moving parts throughout the ordeal.

I wish we all having a great time during the next weekend \o/

I just downloaded MagicaVoxel yesterday, cuz i've seen some really nice renders with it. Tried making a render myself, and it looked pretty gud. I probably will use this for LD42, if I decide to do a "blocky" type game

I've been programming games for a while now, and I figure I may as well try my skills with a game jam. I'll be doing the jam with my friend. He'll be doing art and sound, and I'll be doing the actual programming. We will be using either paint.NET or Blender for art depending on whether we want to use 3D or 2D graphics when the theme is announced. Music will be made in Bosca Ceoil and sounds in Audacity. We'll be using Unity to put the game together. We might be streaming too on Twitch ;) . And so, our first Ludum Dare begins!

Oh, boy. It feels like it was only yesterday when I was doing my first Compo. Sure, my first time was garbage, which is why I'll be working on planning my game out much more with the time that I have available.

My Tools: Unity 5, Blender, MagicaVoxel, Audacity, XMind 8

I'll also be streaming the entire process if you're interested in a live-stream.

So yeah. During last LD I did very badly, placing at 954th place with my Remote Cuddles. One of the things I did wrong is that I gave up on the project few hours before deadline. Purpose of this update is to see if I could have done better with a little more work. This update includes:

-Checkpoint system

-Camera shake

-Menu tips

-Audio level sliders

-Infinite monster spawners

If anyone who already played it would be willing to perhaps give it another go and give some feedback, I would be most grateful. If anyone else also would be willing to play it, I won't complain either.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/remote-cuddles

Have a blast during LD42 everyone :)

Very excited to participate in what will be my 10th Ludum Dare where I'll hopefully make something pretty cool, and of course have lots of fun.

Like usual, I'll be using LibGDX (Java) to write my game and IntelliJ as my editor. I should be able to get a working web build this time too.

For anyone who wants to hang out with us in Discord, feel free to join in and say hi! We'd love to have you :D

Link

I am building a game engine in Pygame. How do you go about building levels and setting up the game if you don't have a game engine with GUI such as Unity?

I'm Done With My First Ever Game Jam's Theme Slaughter Round. I Feel I was Slightly Choosy But There Were Some Really Repetitive Themes In There. Anyways, I Hope I'm At Least Able To Complete My Game By The End Of The Jam. I'll Be Going For Jam, Not Compo. So, Hopefully That Makes it Easier On Me. Anyways, This Is My First Game Jam, So I Better Make The Best Outta It!

Hello!

Last time, I made Line 'Em Up with Scratch (yes, Scratch), and it did fairly well! I'm thinking I'll create something in pure Javascript this time. Most of my Scratch games end up with a tick/draw loop, so hopefully it won't be too far outside my comfort zone. I'll have to divide my time between this and preparing for school, but hopefully I should be able to make something small in 48 hours.

Game developers in Knoxville will be getting together at Token Game Tavern at 6pm on Friday August 10 for the Ludum Dare 42 kickoff. Usually our gathering wraps up with the theme announcement, but this time we will be getting together at the start of the theme announcement due to the earlier start time.

For more details see http://www.knoxgamedesign.org/967/ludum-dare-42-kickoff-at-token-game-tavern/

Ludum Dare 42 will be my first jam. I've been making games for a couple years now, so I think I'm ready! Tools I will use are:

• GIMP
• MuseScore 2
• GXSCC
• Aseprite
• Unity
• Pen & Paper
• Brain

I've been also working on a bit of animation as practice. Done by hand, then cleaned up on the computer:

Good luck everybody!

TLDR: I'm looking to join a team as the music composer and producer. Discord: Martin#2351

Long story

After much consideration, I realize I can't possibly make an entire game for the upcoming LD42. I do the jam solo but since I have some non-negotiable appointments on saturday and monday, I just won't have the time.

But I will have enough time to just focus in one aspect, my favorite, the music. So if you or your team is ready to tackle LD42 and you think a music composer and producer could be some help, let me introduce myself.

So, What kind of music do you do?

I've been playing and studying music for around 10 yerars. I've pick up a lot of different styles and genres I know and I enjoy doing. I tend to stir towards Synthwave, Rock, Funk and Jazz, but if the game calls for it I could try any genre we think of.

Other important aspect when I do music for games is to try to do a Dynamic Soundtrack, meaning that the music changes or evolves depending on what's happening in the game. My previous LD entries are perfect examples. For LD39, I did a game where you had to fuel an empty spaceship tank. The music starts in an all acoustic arrangement and it evolves into an electronic version of it as you put fuel in the tank. For LD40, you had to pick up passengers as a bus driver, and the music added instruments as the bus got full. If this sounds interesting to you I'd be happy to try something out.

But are you any good?

If you want to listen the music I made, as I mention earlier, you could play my past Ludum dare entries. Optionally you could check out my stuff on Soundcloud, or the few videos I have posted on Youtube.

Interested. Reach out!

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to comment. If you are interested, contact me on discord: Martin#2351

A friend of mine was talking to me about the #LDJAM. He's curious but already had plans for the weekend. So I'm unsure if he is participating, and/or if we'll be working together.

Also, my 7-year-old son is jumping at the bit to join in. The little fella has 2 hours of Scratch under his belt and feels like he can take on the world, so we'll work side-by-side this time.