Hey folks!

My apologies for the radio silence. I'll get into why and what's going on a bit, but yes, we will run an event as originally scheduled, though I will have limited availability so fingers crossed we don't run into issues. :fingers_crossed:

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What to expect

Due to my previous unavailability, seeing how the event is less than 2 weeks away, we'll be accepting Theme suggestions until about Tuesday before kicking off the Theme Slaughter. After that, things will run as usual: multiple rounds of voting, theme announcement, jam + compo + extra. I will be skipping the posting of results to social media, as that's a large time commitment for me.

What's up?

My failure to find work after LD57 left me miffed and jarred. I went from multiple interviews in May/June, confident I'd shown extensive experience and enthusiasm for the roles, to rejection followed by months of silence over the summer. Understandably folks take summer vacations, but as September hit I was expecting to hear something...anything, but :shrug:.

Before and after a Silksong break earlier in the month, I continued seeking and sending more resumes and cover letters, but aside from some next-day rejections it's been crickets. To add insult to injury, earlier this week my laptop started refusing to charge. I've since found a way to prop up the computer using a very specific charger and cable that does work, but this Thinkpad's days are numbered.

Sooo yeah, not knowing how I was going to pay my bills, I've been at a loss for what to do about Ludum Dare 58. I shared some of the above on my socials, which lead to some extremely generous donations this past week (:purple_heart:). My job hunt situation isn't solved, but your contributions did help alleviate my panic, so as I wait to hear something I'm going to do my best to ensure the event runs.

(PROGRESS: I did *finally* get a non-automated response on Thursday, but I know from several late rejections to not to get my hopes up. Still, :fingers_crossed:).

What's next?

Uh, well, I sincerely expected I'd find work doing something web or browser related, or Linux/embedded/graphics/performance related by now. Between some work with Wayland/Mir, WebKit/Chromium/Firefox, tracking down a bug in AMD's RADV/libdrm Linux graphics driver code, to adding native support for ActivityPub (Mastodon) to Bluesky's PDS server (also ESM support and several other improvements), I thought I'd get someone to acknowledge my applications, but alas. :shrug:

While I can't currently afford to spin-up any new servers, due to the many stupid human rights and free speech violations going on in the world, its extremely important to me that we move our data and services outside of the US. The attacks against Steam, Itch, and others have also raise many concerns, and I want to be sure we ourselves can't be taken offline if one of our creators has "anatomy" in their game.

I haven't talked much about this, but I've been looking to rework/rewrite Ludum Dare's backend services in Go, and finish my TypeScript port/upgrade of the frontend. My work with the AtProto and ActivityPub protocols were extremely enlightening. There are many little interoperability things I'd like to toy with, just they're not exactly practical with our LAMP-like stack. I started building the current software nearly a decade ago, and soooo much has changed in how web applications are built since then (for the better).

Well, that was the plan; Find work so I can stop worrying about bills/debt, then find a rhythm where I can fix stuff.

Alas. :shrug:

So currently I'm at the mercy of potential employers. Not to mention, the game industry itself is in an extremely bizarre place. While I'm extremely grateful of everyone for their support (:purple_heart:), but even if I was better at running a business, I have doubts about the sustainability of game jams... unless we were to "sell out" to the latest trends (crypto, AI, etc), but nah.

I'm happy to keep things like Ludum Dare running, but for my livelihood, it's vitally important I find something to sustain myself. So until that's sorted, my sincerest apologies for my lack of focus here.