During the Slaughter, even though I didn't have time to finish it, I encountered (and kept) many really solid theme suggestions. I also voted a few solid ones out simply because I didn't feel like they were solid enough. Now only 6 of those that remain seem like they're even worthy of consideration. Let me explain.

At game jams, I feed off the theme for inspiration. I'm not good at generating ideas on the spot, especially ones that I feel are worth doing. I've participated in 11 jams, and I've never had a random game idea just pop into my head and happen to work with the theme. With that in mind, here's my opinion on each theme suggestion in the final voting round for LD47.

Decay is very close to the LD46 theme, "Keep it alive". I think 90% of LD46 games would work with "Decay", some perhaps even better than with "Keep it alive". It also heavily suggests a specific game mechanic, which is a limitation, instead of inspiration.

Layers is just... a word to me. I can't link it to an environment, a character, a topic (unless I'm making an image editor?), a trope, a story... there's just a big dark void in here. How does one have a take on 'layers'? Please let me know in the comments.

Control the world, not the player is literally impossible. When you play a game, you are the player. You cannot not control yourself. The player might control the world, but what is the point here?

Nomad is very good! There are character archetypes, environments, stories, tropes, and references you can probably think of fairly easily, but there's also a lot of room for imagination. Coming up with game mechanics for this one shouldn't be hard, and it will be very interesting to see where everyone goes with their games!

I'm not sure how to feel about Connections or Day and night. They make me think of cool concepts, but I'm not seeing a lot of 'game' in them, at least not yet. Anyone?

Stuck in a loop sounds like recycling a mechanic from some popular games, like Outer Wilds, Minit, The Sexy Brutale, 12 Minutes, etc., and I'd have to find inspiration elsewhere to think of a game idea that I could shoehorn it into. I don't want to make a Minit clone.

Feeding the monster is straight up a game idea, while also being somewhat close to LD46. Pick your genre, pick your monster, make the player feed it. Boring.

Delay the inevitable - see, if it was just about 'inevitability', it would be great. The 'delay' part sadly brings it back around to strongly suggesting either a mechanic or a specific story line. All inspiration I get from this one is about death and gloomy stuff. I have a feeling there would be a lot of gloomy games about delaying death or some evil, and it would be boring. And a little cliché.

Contain it is a game objective, much like "Keep it alive", which I disliked the same exact way. Pick your monster, disease (inb4 a thousand COVID-19 games) or other evil, make the player do stuff to keep it contained. Like, please, let me write my GDD.

Shipwrecked could work, because there is both a literal and a metaphorical sense to be explored here. Not as well as "Nomad", I think, because "Shipwrecked" bears a stronger story suggestion, but it might turn out quite workable.

Clockwork is decent. I can see multiple paths of interpretation here. The spark of inspiration is kind of there, although it hasn't led me to a very open place yet. What do you think? I think I may have a vague idea for a game here, but it could be difficult to pull off.

You can't save them all sounds like either a mechanic or a narrative, and while I appreciate that the narrative is somewhat vague, it's also fairly close-ended. You gotta think of a story or gameplay, and then make it go a particular way, without letting the player prove themself. Or do you? Either way, it kinda forces your hand in how to make your game.

Death is not the end, on the other hand, is quite open-ended (pun and rhyme not intended), and I like it. Haven't come up with game ideas yet, but I did suggest a mildly similar theme myself ("Death is never what it seems"), and they both have the nice property that 'death' is only an anchor point, not a predefined objective or narrative. I would be interested to see how people interpret this one!

Summoning feels rather empty and cliché. How many games about demons, witchcraft, sorcery, and summoning are there out there? Because I think we've all stopped counting.

The world changes when you are not looking is a game mechanic, and honestly, someone's game idea. Nothing to have a take on, just a thing that you gotta shoehorn into whatever idea you come up with. And it's hard to come up with something original for this one.

I think we had a better theme pool in April. Then again, we still picked "Keep it alive" :stuckouttongue:

As always, this is just my take, and I'm up for debating it! I know that the suggestions I praised might not work super well for those who are doing their 1st, 2nd, 3rd game jam, or those who do actually look to the jam theme for a limitation, not inspiration. I hope I was able to explain my opinion well. Let me know how you feel, and if I missed anything.

Also, who here got the "Death is never what it seems" reference? :)