As the title explains, this is my 3rd time entering Ludum Dare.

# Change in mindset

So for this event, I have changed my mindset of how I will be creating these games within a limited time, but first, I have to give credit where credit is due. HonestDanGames had inspired me to start coming up with ideas with the themes that are being shown in during the Theme Votings BEFORE the event starts. My last 2 entry ideas were both made up on the spot as soon as the event started.

Thinking of themes before the jam starts seems obvious to do to probably a majority of the participants and I am confused to why I didn't do this in the first place.

This can be seen in Solar Engulfment, my first submission. Solar Engulfment was an LD42 submission, with the theme being "Running out of space". When the theme dropped, I did have the obvious idea of having to delete data from a computer; An idea which I had seen multiple times after I had published my game. The original idea for Solar Engulfment was the player needing to escape from a room that was being flooded with water; This idea was not achievable to me as I wanted to have Fluid Dynamics implemented but I couldn't find a good solution and so I went back to the drawing board and came up with what you see now.

Now for Caprae Mortem, Caprae Mortem was a LD43 submission with the theme being "Sacrifices must be made" or something similar to that. I could not come up with an idea when the theme dropped. I distinctly remember staying up late until the theme dropped and going to bed; When I woke up, I had a look at what people were doing with the theme, until I saw a post which mentioned something about Satan or whatever, and then I thought of how you would sacrifice a goat to Satan as a form of worship [I don't study religion or care about religion so I'm unsure if I'm right on that], then low and behold, you see Caprae Mortem's result.

# Ludum Dare 44 Themes...

I won't lie, the themes this time round are terrible. Original opinion, I know.

I haven't been able to come up with ideas for a majority of the themes, so far, I have 19 (out of a total of 48) themes that have ideas. These themes, I may add, only have 1 idea to them, no theme on my current list has more than 1 idea. Some may wonder why you'd want more than 1 idea; I think it's important to have more than 1 in case you are incapable of doing that idea and need something to fall back on, something like I did with Solar Engulfment.

I've also had a look back at Ludum Dare 42 and Ludum Dare 43 themes and noticed that there are duplicates. Let's list them shall we?

All themes are with respective listing, meaning that number 1 for LD42, will be number 1 for LD44.

• Ludum Dare 42

  1. One minute
  2. It's spreading
  3. Colour as a gameplay feature
  4. One enemy only
  5. Four elements
  6. Decay
  7. Safe in the dark
  8. You can't control the player
  9. Alchemy & Magic
  10. You can't save them all
  11. You are the final boss
  12. Light is dangerous
  13. Floating islands
  14. You control the environment, not the player
  15. You are not the main character
  16. Shelter

• Ludum Dare 44

  1. 30 seconds - It consists of a limited time to complete or perform a task
  2. Contagious
  3. Colour changes everything
  4. Only one enemy
  5. Four elements
  6. Decay
  7. Stay in the dark
  8. You control the enemies
  9. Alchemy
  10. You can't save them all
  11. You are the final boss
  12. Stay in the dark
  13. Floating worlds
  14. Control the environment, not the player
  15. You are a side character.
  16. Shelter

I do understand that people want to do these themes and possibly see what other people would do if the theme was chosen and I am completely fine with that, but I think I speak for some people where some of us are getting annoyed that these themes keep being suggested and chosen for theme voting. I personally think that those 16 themes that are duplicates of Ludum Dare 42, possibly Ludum Dare 43 as well, could have been entirely different unique themes and as I am still new to Ludum Dare, when themes come up like, Alchemy, I find it hard at how I would implement that into Unity, and needing to research of how Alchemy was theorised to have worked.

Or possibly a better example, 30 seconds or 1 minute; I'd need to think of an idea that would get the user to do something in a limited time. Sure, you have the possibility of testing reaction skills such as "Click the left mouse button when you think it's been x amount of time" but it's a very repetitive gameplay idea and can be very boring to play after a couple of minutes.

Anyway, enough ranting!

I plan on using the following: - Programming: - Unity3D 2019 - JetBrains Rider 2018 - Art: - Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 - Sound: - Audacity - Modelling: - Blender - Planning: - Trello

I hope that everyone enjoys this jam and can come up with a game idea that is really fun and exciting to play! Good luck to all of you, can't wait to play some of the games that you create with the best abilities you have, whether it's art, sound, gameplay, etc!