Votes, as per usual:

The next Ludum Dare event is little more than a day away. I intend on using GameMaker: Studio this time, but what a bad time to be a slacker; I'm worried that I may not possess the skill that I'd like. Of course, you all would probably say that that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things; this isn't about making the best game ever, it's about merely making something.

You're not wrong, but I still am feeling that fear I described in my post on the first round of Theme Voting; the fear of not being able to make something you're proud of. But at the same time, I still feel like a GameMaker noob, and am also afraid of not being able to clear even the first hurdle! It's annoying that a lot of cool things in games are a result of complicated maths, and I'm not exactly math-smart, unfortunately. I should still try to familiarize myself with GameMaker: Studio as much as possible beforehand.

But ~~mostly~~ enough about me! I've got a question for you all, and with this post, I decided "screw it!" and am using a topic I had though of previously, but didn't end up using; and that is Ideas!

Gotta find some excuse to draw something...

Anyways! You can find many posts on "theme suggestion etiquette" or whatever. And I don't necessarily wanna recycle that kind of post, I'll provide a few links here if you're interested:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/$233893/tips-for-good-theme-suggestions

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/soaring/my-take-on-how-to-suggest-good-themes

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/ocean-view-hotel/how-to-improve-your-theme-suggestions

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/master-key/my-thoughts-on-theme-slaughter

https://github.com/ludumdare/ludumdare/issues/346

From these sources, at least, there are bad theme types that they all mention, like Extremely specific themes, Vague themes, Hard to understand themes, Themes that are just mechanics, and Themes that subvert a common gaming trope, among other things. These are just a few threads I decided to include here; there are a lot more I probably haven't seen. In short, I don't want to recycle this, but I want to recycle this, as seen below.

Now, I don't really know if anyone can really answer this question I'm about to give, so you know what? I'll have TWO questions to make up for it! Oh my god!!

But enough foolin' around, here's Question #1:

For experienced Ludum Dare participants (3+ submissions), what is your process of generating ideas for an entry? How do you work with the theme?

Yes, I will consider that one question. But if that can't really be answered, or if you don't meet the 'experience quota', I've prepared Question #2 just in case:

In terms of Theme Suggestions, what would you consider a good theme, and a bad theme? And what change do you think would improve the process of Suggestions/Voting

You can answer both if you want, of course.

I actually just now realized that I didn't say a single thing about this Final Round. Well, I think there's REALLY good potential in 'The environment changes you', but 'One tool, many uses' and 'On/Off' are only mildly interesting. The rest I'm not too keen on, for the most part. Which naturally means one of them will win. Naturally.

But as I said in my First Round post, "Hopefully the least worst theme wins! Whichever that one is"

One more thing: I have a YouTube channel! Now, you certainly don't remember me, @Predominant, but you commented this, on my post from years ago announcing my departure from this site:

Well, now I have a channel and will (probably) use it. I don't intend on becoming popular, that opportunity passed a long time ago. I might upload a post-mortem, if this jam goes well enough. But for the time being, here's a video of me making that ideas drawing:

https://youtu.be/EK1ub_babtI