So, here’s my LD27 game, EBDS : http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=9406. This topic isn’t about my particular game tho : it’s just used as an exemple.

Lots of assets come from the Internet.

I made it in less in 48h. I was alone, I designed it myself and I coded it from scratch with Game Maker : Studio, so I logically put it in “Compo”.

However, I made my graphics assets by taking some CC0 pictures from Google Images (mostly redirecting to Wikimedia), and my sounds – except the music – come from the website freesound.org.

I reworked both so they could fit in the game (color mask and filters for graphics, various cuts and mix effects for sounds), but after some comments, I asked my self two things :

* As I didn’t actually CREATE (meaning : taking the original basis) most assets, is my game still eligible for Compo ?

* Which criteria could be used to rate graphics & audio ?

Maybe one of the issues here is the border between “from scratch” and “not creating anything”. Is the use of internet-assets in another category than the use of a game engine which you didn’t wholly create ? In the other hand, isn’t it the only way to “reward” people creating their own material over people barely copying ? Is this objective something to consider in the frame of the Ludum Dare ?

Discuss !

EDIT : Just a small note to clarify my intentions I don’t want to complain, to justify myself or to say why-I-should-be-in-compo. Maybe I shouldn’t at all, and I’m perfectly okey with Jam, plus I had a lot of fun to make the game, and this counts the most.

The idea is rather to discuss about the rules, which I’m not really sure to completly understand despite reading them, mostly this one :

“Photos and recordings you make of people or things are acceptable content, just you must acquire them during the competition.”

-> Does “acquire” imply “taking pictures by yourself”, or is “searching CC0 pictures in Google” acceptable ? This may sound like a rhetorical question to justify oneself’s mistakes, but I assure you this is not my intention.