I already know that a lot of you will not like me for what I am going to be saying in this post. So before you keep reading this, you should know that this is written by a mad old man that should have learned to smile more and complain less. But I am just so much better at complaining then smiling.

Before I start complaining, I will say that the Ludum Dare community is, at least in my opinion, the absolute best game jam community. People here are great at sharing what they have learned, showing us how they made there games, and they are pretty good at giving feedback. Mike Kasprzak have done a lot to make this spot on the internet into an amazing place for passionate game jammers. And I am as always really happy to be here because of this.

BUT because something is really good, does not mean that it can't be better. So now comes the part of this post you will probably not going to like, and I am sorry if you will feel offended by what I have to say, but I think it is important to say it anyway. The issues is that we are perhaps not so great at jamming as we might think we are. And yes, we are sharing our work and giving feedback. But there is also a lot of self promotion, half assed feedback and in general there is a very short living dialog. Before any you of getting too mad at me, I do know that I am guilty of some the things myself.

Let me start with the self promotion issue. I do understand that you want a lot of people to play your game, and you have probably made an amazing game that everybody should play. And I guess most of us want to have a lot of people playing our games. But the main issue is that when you write a self promoting post on the front page, it is often on a game that already have got a lot of feedback and ratings. I also see a lot of self promoting from people that is too lazy to play, rate and give feedback to other peoples games. Sadly is this self promoting working way too well, and it gives a lot of players trying their games. The worst part of this issue is that it removes the attention from all the games that still needs to be played, rated and given feedback.

Then there is the half assed feedback. This is feedback I guess that most of us is guilty of writing. We are in this kind of feedback writing things, that we are not really thinking. We do this to be kind, or we don't like to hurt those people that have made the game. Maybe we are just afraid how they will judge our game, if we are too hard in our judgement of their game. I think we should be a bit less afraid of being critical. I know after every Ludum Dare ends and the ratings get revealed their will be a lot of people that is confused that their rating is not that great, and they have only got positive feedback. And I am not asking for people to write long super detailed and super critical feedback. I just want you to be a bit more honest, and tell them/us the issues and not only the good things. And remember also do this to games you think is really bad, but do remember, it always a good idea also to find a least a few good things to say about those games.

Now to my critic of the missing or at least the very short living dialog. This is not a hard criticism, but more of a hope that we will be a bit better at having a dialog. If you for example gets some interesting or good feedback, then maybe try to go into dialog with this person. When you go into dialog you have the opportunity to learn and understand the feedback better. In my experience, I got most out of game jams when I have been in an longer dialog with somebody that could help me or could help them to do something better.

Then I have a last small complain, and I write this complain as the last thing, because them I will give this critic to, will most likely not read this post. But anyway PLEASE remember that game jams is not just about making games, it is also about rating and giving feedback on other peoples games. Even if you feel like your game is bad, you are still part of the jam, and I am also interested in your feedback. Do not be afraid of the feedback we will give to your game. We all understand that game development is difficult, and some times we fail to make the things we really want to. And even if you are inexperienced your feedback is still important to us.

This was all. I hope you did not get too offended. And please do remember to support the games that still need rating and feedback, The easiest way to find them is here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/games/danger/all or here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/games/zero/all.

Good luck and have fun