{"author_link":"\/users\/phobos001","author_name":"Phobos001","author_uid":"phobos001","comments":[],"epoch":1648670011,"event":"LD50","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":281509,"likes":33,"metadata":{"p_key":"162747","p_author":"Phobos001","p_authorkey":"1001838","p_urlkey":"386726","p_title":"Ludum Dare 50 Advice from 18-time Veteran","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD50","p_time":"1648670011","p_likes":"33","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1001838","us_name":"Phobos001","us_username":"phobos001","event_start":"1648857600","event_key":"110","event_name":"Ludum Dare 50"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD50","removed_author":false},"_superparent":276397,"_trust":2,"author":1838,"body":"Here's some info I shared on a forum during the last event about coming up with ideas. I hope it's useful!\n\n__\n \n \nThe creative process is one of the hardest parts of the entire compo\/jam, because it dictates everything you're going to be doing for the next few days. I usually don't make **_ANYTHING_** until I have a full plan laid out of what I'm gonna make, but deciding what you're gonna make can be **_ultra-paralyzing_** if the theme is too vague, or focuses too narrowly on some mechanics.\n \nSo here is some things I do to handle the planning side of Ludum Dare:\n \n__\n \n**Situation: Theme was just announced**\nDon't program anything yet. Don't make any art or anything. First you need to brainstorm really hard for a while, until you feel *comfortable* with an idea. Nothing sucks more than tying yourself to an idea you've changed your mind on halfway through the jam. What usually happens in my experience is that you either don't finish or you don't end up liking what you've made.\n \nWhat I usually do is open notepad\/xed and vomit out anything I can think of. I try to focus on mechanics and gameplay first and foremost, but sometimes you can get good ideas for mechanics from interesting situations and funny shit. Generally try to think of ideas you can make ***in 12 hours or less***. Then you can spend the rest of the time polishing things up or adding more levels\/music\/etc. And if something goes wrong or you need to change something, you have enough headroom to do some refactoring.\n \nThen once you have an idea, you need to make a list of all the things you want in your game, and what you will need for it to function. If you get some new ideas later you can always add on to it, or change it. But don't get carried away with *feature-creep* because \n \n**Situation: Theme is good, exciting even!**\nSometimes the theme gives you an idea right away, or the theme is fun enough that you don't really stress a whole lot on what you want to do. Sometimes you don't *need* to spin anything, and can make a very fun and engaging game without any wild alterations or interpretations on the theme. This obviously doesn't happen all the time, but basically *try not to overthink too much. Keep things simple unless you can't.*\n \n**Situation: Theme is vague or uninteresting.**\nThese are the WOOOORST. But it happens. So what I usually do is start thinking ***Why does this theme suck? What would make it more fun? Can I reword it without changing it too much?***\n \nFeel free to mess around with the theme as much as you'd like, while *trying* to stay faithful to it. Something dumb like **tWo BuTtOnS** can be deconstructed or made a small part of your game; like instead of it being a controls restriction, it could mean \"these two buttons are the most important of these eight buttons\" or \"helping grandma find her two buttons she lost\" or \"you are against another guy in the game to see who can spam your button the hardest\".\n \n**Situation: Theme is too specific and narrow.**\nThese can be harder to deal with sometimes. Tips from more vague themes work here too, but the goal is the broaden the theme out a bit to find some new angles to work with. A theme like \"You Are The Monster\" could be broken down by changing the context of what 'Monster' means, or maybe change what it means in the context of your game.\n \n**Situation: You're REALLY struggling with the theme.**\nIgnore the theme.\n \nSeriously, you can do this! The theme - technically - is completely optional; Theme is tied to a single rating that defines how close your game fits in it. You don't *have* to do the theme, but it helps to have it to give you a direction. If that direction is directly into a brick wall, then you can ignore it completely and figure something else out.\n \n__\n \nI hope these ramblings help give you an idea on some problem solving techniques you can use. This is easily one of the hardest parts of the competition because of choice paralysis and mechanics design, so don't feel too bad if you're struggling; Everyone is!","comments":4,"comments-timestamp":"2022-03-31T16:13:50Z","created":"2022-03-30T19:51:48Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":281509,"love":33,"love-timestamp":"2022-04-01T16:23:50Z","meta":[],"modified":"2022-04-01T16:23:50Z","name":"Ludum Dare 50 Advice from 18-time Veteran","node-timestamp":"2022-03-30T19:53:31Z","parent":276748,"parents":[1,5,9,276397,276748],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/50\/mage-with-an-8-gauge\/ludum-dare-50-advice-from-18-time-veteran","published":"2022-03-30T19:53:31Z","scope":"public","slug":"ludum-dare-50-advice-from-18-time-veteran","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":861725},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"281509","n_urlkey":"386726","n_parent":"276748","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/50\/mage-with-an-8-gauge\/ludum-dare-50-advice-from-18-time-veteran","n_slug":"ludum-dare-50-advice-from-18-tim","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"1838","n_created":"1648669908","n_modified":"1648830230","n_version":"861725","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/50\/mage-with-an-8-gauge\/ludum-dare-50-advice-from-18-time-veteran","text":"Here's some info I shared on a forum during the last event about coming up with ideas. I hope it's useful!\n\n__\n \n \nThe creative process is one of the hardest parts of the entire compo\/jam, because it dictates everything you're going to be doing for the next few days. I usually don't make **_ANYTHING_** until I have a full plan laid out of what I'm gonna make, but deciding what you're gonna make can be **_ultra-paralyzing_** if the theme is too vague, or focuses too narrowly on some mechanics.\n \nSo here is some things I do to handle the planning side of Ludum Dare:\n \n__\n \n**Situation: Theme was just announced**\nDon't program anything yet. Don't make any art or anything. First you need to brainstorm really hard for a while, until you feel *comfortable* with an idea. Nothing sucks more than tying yourself to an idea you've changed your mind on halfway through the jam. What usually happens in my experience is that you either don't finish or you don't end up liking what you've made.\n \nWhat I usually do is open notepad\/xed and vomit out anything I can think of. I try to focus on mechanics and gameplay first and foremost, but sometimes you can get good ideas for mechanics from interesting situations and funny shit. Generally try to think of ideas you can make ***in 12 hours or less***. Then you can spend the rest of the time polishing things up or adding more levels\/music\/etc. And if something goes wrong or you need to change something, you have enough headroom to do some refactoring.\n \nThen once you have an idea, you need to make a list of all the things you want in your game, and what you will need for it to function. If you get some new ideas later you can always add on to it, or change it. But don't get carried away with *feature-creep* because \n \n**Situation: Theme is good, exciting even!**\nSometimes the theme gives you an idea right away, or the theme is fun enough that you don't really stress a whole lot on what you want to do. Sometimes you don't *need* to spin anything, and can make a very fun and engaging game without any wild alterations or interpretations on the theme. This obviously doesn't happen all the time, but basically *try not to overthink too much. Keep things simple unless you can't.*\n \n**Situation: Theme is vague or uninteresting.**\nThese are the WOOOORST. But it happens. So what I usually do is start thinking ***Why does this theme suck? What would make it more fun? Can I reword it without changing it too much?***\n \nFeel free to mess around with the theme as much as you'd like, while *trying* to stay faithful to it. Something dumb like **tWo BuTtOnS** can be deconstructed or made a small part of your game; like instead of it being a controls restriction, it could mean \"these two buttons are the most important of these eight buttons\" or \"helping grandma find her two buttons she lost\" or \"you are against another guy in the game to see who can spam your button the hardest\".\n \n**Situation: Theme is too specific and narrow.**\nThese can be harder to deal with sometimes. Tips from more vague themes work here too, but the goal is the broaden the theme out a bit to find some new angles to work with. A theme like \"You Are The Monster\" could be broken down by changing the context of what 'Monster' means, or maybe change what it means in the context of your game.\n \n**Situation: You're REALLY struggling with the theme.**\nIgnore the theme.\n \nSeriously, you can do this! The theme - technically - is completely optional; Theme is tied to a single rating that defines how close your game fits in it. You don't *have* to do the theme, but it helps to have it to give you a direction. If that direction is directly into a brick wall, then you can ignore it completely and figure something else out.\n \n__\n \nI hope these ramblings help give you an idea on some problem solving techniques you can use. This is easily one of the hardest parts of the competition because of choice paralysis and mechanics design, so don't feel too bad if you're struggling; Everyone is!","title":"Ludum Dare 50 Advice from 18-time Veteran","wayback_source":[]}