Hey folks!

As Ludum Dare 49 comes to a close, here's a summary of what to expect.

LIVE: Counting down the Top 15 Compo and Jam games

We're trying a new thing!

It has come up time and time again "Hey Ludum Dare, you should do a live results show". I'm somewhat limited in what I can produce by myself, but instead of doing nothing, I thought I'd try live-tweeting the results... well, some of them.

https://twitter.com/ludumdare

Starting at 7:30 PM ET, 4:30 PM PT, and 23:30 UTC, the main Ludum Dare twitter account will countdown the top 15 games. Every 10 minutes, two games will be tweeted out: one from the Jam and one from the Compo. This will last for about two and a half hours. We'll be using hashtags #LDJAM and #LDLIVE.

My hope is that we get some live streamers to try the games. Anybody that wants to see the top-15 games played can jump between various live streams in the sidebar widget or on Twitch.

https://www.twitch.tv/directory/all/tags/c8d6d6ee-3b02-4ae7-81e9-4c0f434941cc

If you're streaming, be sure to use the Ludum Dare tag on Twitch. FYI: Due to a Twitch API omission, the sidebar widget currently only monitors streams with their game set to Software and Game Development. The link above to the Ludum Dare tag will find everything.

I wasn't sure what the right amount of time is, but I decided to try 10 minutes per pair of games. Yes this does mean not everybody will get a chance to play both games, but my hope is this encourages viewers to jump between multiple streams. As a streamer you might decide to play whatever you want, play just the Jam or Compo games, or multi-stream with a friend. What you do is up to you.

Finally, at the end of the countdown, I'll flip the switch letting everyone view their personalized results.

Cool?

Anyway, I'm off to grab a few Zzz's before the kickoff. See you in a few hours!

Mini FAQ

What is this "Compo" vs "Jam" thing?

We have 2 categories that people submit games to when doing Ludum Dare. The Compo is our "hardcore solo" category, and the Jam our regular category. People making games for the Compo have to work alone, and they only have 48 hours to make their games. Everyone else gets 72 hours, and they can optionally work in a team, but not everyone does.

How often do you do Ludum Dare events?

Currently we do them every 6 months: Every April and October. Follow us on Twitter, or our email newsletter for announcements.