{"author_link":"\/users\/debone","author_name":"Debone","author_uid":"debone","comments":[],"epoch":1633550720,"event":"LD49","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":273332,"likes":7,"metadata":{"p_key":"161340","p_author":"Debone","p_authorkey":"1269304","p_urlkey":"384330","p_title":"Ludum dare makes the hard, easy. Thanks for being part of the community :)","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD49","p_time":"1633550720","p_likes":"7","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1269304","us_name":"Debone","us_username":"debone","event_start":"1633046400","event_key":"119","event_name":"Ludum Dare 49"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD49","removed_author":false},"_superparent":258323,"_trust":2,"author":269304,"body":"```\nI lurk around Ludum Dare for years, getting the itch every time the jam\nis running \"huh, maybe I should join this time\" and never actually making\nanything. I had no idea what I was missing. This community is the best \ngift for game developers and I'm really happy I finally joined it!\n\n---\n\nIt is hard to get enough people to use\/play\/try your creation. You can\nmake family and friends play your test builds, but you run out of options\nfast, even more when they realize why you are calling them for the 5th\ntime last hour. Also, they love us, they will say anything to make us\nhappy (even when sometimes what we really need is a \"this game is bad!\")\n\nAs creators, we are infinitely biased. We have all the context in our\nminds. We have all the answers to every trick, quest, shortcut, dialogue,\npuzzle ... And we played our games thousands of times. It's a classic\nthing, you want to make your game look smart and decide to paint a button\nblue and put a blue pill into a level, thinking \"Heck! This is great!\nLook how these two things are connected and how people will figure out\nwhen they see it!\". And as long you keep going on doing your game,\nwithout putting it out to other people to see, you will keep digging\nyourself more and more. \n\nTwo years later, you get out of the basement with your perfect creation,\nand nobody can even understand the title you wrote now in your own dialect.\nConfusing interfaces, details that went missing, too hard, frustrating to\nunderstand, complicated mechanics, and the worse of all, your game is\nnot fun at all. You can find this kind of story in every game dev community.\n\n---\n\nI thought I was done on Sunday night, I went through a lot and I was the \nhappiest to have finally joined Ludum Dare. I could brag about that now! \nLittle I knew that I was just starting.\n\nI was expecting that on the sea of thousands of games submitted, I would \nnever have anybody caring, or at best some plays on itch.io. When I noticed\nthat Ludum Dare reviewing system had a built-in positive loop, I was curious\n\"Will this really work?\". It was after I have done the third review that \nthe first comments for my game started coming in. I was so happy :) And \nit was when I started submitting my game to streamers to play that I was \nsure this was an amazing community I should have joined years ago! You can\ndevelop some idea, try something new, read reviews of what people think and\neven watch somebody play your game!!\n\nWhen you have somebody playing your game, they will not have your context, \nyour answers, and you can't really help them. Whatever you managed to put \ninto the game out of your head is now trying to stand for itself.\n\nWatching a play from a game that didn't exist last Friday, reading the \ndetailed feedback that some good souls leave and checking how *that* one \nspecial thing you spent three hours working on didn't quite work the way \nyou thought it would work. That's where you get to learn.\n\nMaybe for all of you it is obvious, but for me it clicked just after joining,\nso I wanted to share these thoughts. Nobody learns how to make games in a\nweekend, or learn anything by doing a game that nobody wants to play. We\nall learn when we keep reviewing the incredible stuff we all put into test\nin the last days :)\n\nThank you for playing our games! Keep doing it!\n```\n","comments":0,"created":"2021-10-06T19:08:42Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":273332,"love":7,"love-timestamp":"2021-10-06T20:53:22Z","meta":[],"modified":"2021-10-06T20:53:22Z","name":"Ludum dare makes the hard, easy. Thanks for being part of the community :)","node-timestamp":"2021-10-06T20:05:20Z","parent":269305,"parents":[1,5,9,258323,269305],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/49\/the-worm\/ludum-dare-makes-the-hard-easy-thanks-for-being-part-of-the-community","published":"2021-10-06T20:05:20Z","scope":"public","slug":"ludum-dare-makes-the-hard-easy-thanks-for-being-part-of-the-community","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":843704},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"273332","n_urlkey":"384330","n_parent":"269305","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/49\/the-worm\/ludum-dare-makes-the-hard-easy-thanks-for-being-part-of-the-community","n_slug":"ludum-dare-makes-the-hard-easy-t","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"269304","n_created":"1633547322","n_modified":"1633553602","n_version":"843704","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/49\/the-worm\/ludum-dare-makes-the-hard-easy-thanks-for-being-part-of-the-community","text":"```\nI lurk around Ludum Dare for years, getting the itch every time the jam\nis running \"huh, maybe I should join this time\" and never actually making\nanything. I had no idea what I was missing. This community is the best \ngift for game developers and I'm really happy I finally joined it!\n\n---\n\nIt is hard to get enough people to use\/play\/try your creation. You can\nmake family and friends play your test builds, but you run out of options\nfast, even more when they realize why you are calling them for the 5th\ntime last hour. Also, they love us, they will say anything to make us\nhappy (even when sometimes what we really need is a \"this game is bad!\")\n\nAs creators, we are infinitely biased. We have all the context in our\nminds. We have all the answers to every trick, quest, shortcut, dialogue,\npuzzle ... And we played our games thousands of times. It's a classic\nthing, you want to make your game look smart and decide to paint a button\nblue and put a blue pill into a level, thinking \"Heck! This is great!\nLook how these two things are connected and how people will figure out\nwhen they see it!\". And as long you keep going on doing your game,\nwithout putting it out to other people to see, you will keep digging\nyourself more and more. \n\nTwo years later, you get out of the basement with your perfect creation,\nand nobody can even understand the title you wrote now in your own dialect.\nConfusing interfaces, details that went missing, too hard, frustrating to\nunderstand, complicated mechanics, and the worse of all, your game is\nnot fun at all. You can find this kind of story in every game dev community.\n\n---\n\nI thought I was done on Sunday night, I went through a lot and I was the \nhappiest to have finally joined Ludum Dare. I could brag about that now! \nLittle I knew that I was just starting.\n\nI was expecting that on the sea of thousands of games submitted, I would \nnever have anybody caring, or at best some plays on itch.io. When I noticed\nthat Ludum Dare reviewing system had a built-in positive loop, I was curious\n\"Will this really work?\". It was after I have done the third review that \nthe first comments for my game started coming in. I was so happy :) And \nit was when I started submitting my game to streamers to play that I was \nsure this was an amazing community I should have joined years ago! You can\ndevelop some idea, try something new, read reviews of what people think and\neven watch somebody play your game!!\n\nWhen you have somebody playing your game, they will not have your context, \nyour answers, and you can't really help them. Whatever you managed to put \ninto the game out of your head is now trying to stand for itself.\n\nWatching a play from a game that didn't exist last Friday, reading the \ndetailed feedback that some good souls leave and checking how *that* one \nspecial thing you spent three hours working on didn't quite work the way \nyou thought it would work. That's where you get to learn.\n\nMaybe for all of you it is obvious, but for me it clicked just after joining,\nso I wanted to share these thoughts. Nobody learns how to make games in a\nweekend, or learn anything by doing a game that nobody wants to play. We\nall learn when we keep reviewing the incredible stuff we all put into test\nin the last days :)\n\nThank you for playing our games! Keep doing it!\n```\n","title":"Ludum dare makes the hard, easy. Thanks for being part of the community :)","wayback_source":[]}