I'm excited for this ludum dare and hopeful on the theme being good!

Quite glad that Mike is able to get LD57 started, and it's exciting to see that theme suggestions are open. My theme suggestions are, •Liminal (occupying a position at or on both sides of a boundary)• •Non-Newtonian (resistance to force changes with force applied)• No idea how good or bad they are, I just thought it would be fun if the theme were some fancy science word and I can think of some interesting ideas from it.

I've noticed lately Ludum Dare themes have been pretty bad in my opinion, so I decided to compile what I think are "good" and "bad" themes. A general basis for good themes is: how many properly unique and totally different games can you think of with this theme, if you can't think of at least 5 different games possible to make within the time limit, it's not a good theme. A general basis for bad themes is: does this theme restrict creativity, or is the theme too broad? When making a theme suggestion, you always want a Goldilocks' zone, not too broad, not too specific. I think that last year's theme, "Tiny Creatures," was a bad theme, as every game was destined to be about tiny creatures, and you couldn't make a twist to it, it was just tiny creatures, it was a noun rather than an adjective. I also think the theme before that was bad, "Summoning," was quite literally just summoning, a verb. Limited space, LD54 presented many ideas, you had possibility, every game felt different, not like, "this game is a roguelike about rushing across town to deliver packages," "and this game is a beat 'em up where you beat up people trying to stop you from doing your job," everything felt unique. Not the same idea executed differently, different ideas, executed their own way. I've been rambling for a while, but please can we get a good theme this year, the theme can't just be: "Snowman," it has to be something with different definitions, something that brings up creativity in unique ways! I've been rambling for too long now, have a good day, and make good themes.