Lots of people complain about the theme suggestions every time Ludum Dare rolls around, here's my two cents about this. First off a lot of people will complain about the theme's being too narrow, I think the cause of this is the suggestion is a mechanic/gameplay aspect and not actually a theme. Examples of this would be "two buttons", "platformer", "you're the bad guy", "10 seconds", etc...These are way too narrow to be a good theme and restrict the game maker to very defined goals. This would be good if the game maker was working on a project, but for Ludum Dare it just doesn't work with so many people working off the same theme. Another thing people complain about is the theme being too broad. Personally, I think the theme being pretty broad is a fantastic idea! A more broad theme would make for more difference in game mechanics and (hopefully) more creativity in the games designed.

When voting for a theme I like to think of all the types of games that could possibly be created using that theme. I know there's a lot of 2d platformers that get made every Jam, but there's so many more types of games that are made. People make puzzle games, tabletop games, vr games, visual novels, and everything in between! I've even seen some posts about these niche types of games being made, like there's a guy who wants to make a game for a launchpad that's usually used for making music! And another person who wants to base their game off their Inktober drawings! We need to be able to choose a theme that will be able to include all of these types of amazing games being made.

With all my talk on what a good theme would include, I guess I'm obligated to include my suggestions in this post. Feel free to take my ideas with a grain of salt and destroy my suggestions in the slaughter round because that's what they are after all. Suggestions!

-Bridges

-Global

-Down to the wire