There are some interesting comments about the themes being voted on this time. Some people are suggesting certain themes will lead to the same game being produced over and over by different people. However, even though a theme might be obvious it doesn’t follow that everyone is going to produce the same game – in the Ludum Dare’s I’ve joined in in the past there’s always been a wide variety of games made whether the theme has been obvious or not. Some people are also commenting on the randomness of some themes and how they relate to gaming – is any theme too random for a game? Random themes will probably lead to new and original games. For example, imagine a game jam years ago with a theme of “Pizza face”… I’m sure it would have spawned Pac-Man! Pac-man, how’s that for a random game? Or a theme of ” Camels in space” might have inspired a Jeff Minter game. To me an obvious theme eg “shoot everything” is less of a challenge, but with an obvious theme I find it fun to try to be original.

One thing I have noticed with the voting so far is that the majority of themes have got minus scores, with only 14 out of 60 in plus figures and only one with a huge plus score! I wonder if the final round will change all that?