Hi everyone, and welcome to Ludum Dare 41!

Final Round Theme Voting has started. Go over here and cast your vote:

:ballot_box: /events/ludum-dare/41/theme

For rules and other info, visit the event page:

:trophy: /events/ludum-dare/41

For those new to Ludum Dare, the website will become slow/unusable during the minutes leading up to the Theme Announcement, so we highly recommend you follow our Twitter account for the reveal:

https://twitter.com/ludumdare

The theme will be announced when the clock at the top this page reaches zero.

Discussions

Due to many requests, I'm strongly considering running a test: move-up the start time of August's Ludum Dare event by 3 hours. Again, this is August event (Ludum Dare 42), not the event taking place this weekend.

See this thread for more details, and to share your thoughts:

/.../feedback-start-time-change-for-augusts-ldjam-event

Again, this is about August's event, not the event this weekend.

Promos

YoYo Games has provided free GameMaker Studio 2 licenses for the event.

What's new for LD41?

Unfortunately not much from me. Other than promos and several bug fixes, I spent the majority of my time the past few months looking for work. It's been nearly 20 years since I last had to find a job. It could have gone smoother, but it worked out in the end.

That said, @local-minimum was very-busy during December and January, so busy I couldn't keep up. :wink:

• Emoji and user auto-completion in comments
• Improved Theme Slaughter

There's a lot more I and the other contributors are working on. Once I'm settled in to my new gig, I look forward to picking up where we left off.

You can report bugs with the website here:

https://github.com/ludumdare/ludumdare/issues

Keynote, hosted by Phil Strahl (@PhilStrahl)

Oh yeah! If you've been paying attention to Ludum Dare YouTubers, you know Phil (AKA Pixel Prophecy on Twitter and YouTube). He's been filming these amazing documentaries of his Ludum Dare games for quite a while now. Rumour has it Phil's dayjob might be a video colourist at an extreme media company, but nobody knows for sure. :wink:

Enough chatter, it's time to get your Phil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjuZvDYqcRs

Speaking of keynotes, I'm looking for some new blood! :bat:

I'm down to the last name on my list, so I'm looking for volunteers to host future keynotes. I don't have specific requirements, but what jumps out at me are people that have been doing Ludum Dare for a long time, and people with an interesting story or perspective.

Ludum Dare's size and reach is so vast, I can't keep up with all the communities within the community. So if you yourself want to volunteer, or if you want to recommend someone whose not on my radar, please contact me.

PS: Don't forget to include username(s) so I can look up your/their work. :wink:

That's it for now. It's time for the final vote!