{"author_link":"\/users\/dan-violet-sagmiller","author_name":"Dan Violet Sagmiller","author_uid":"dan-violet-sagmiller","comments":[{"id":428521,"author_name":"LDJam user 15034","author_uid":"15034","epoch":1585159874,"text":"Similar problems with the previous GGJ theme. \"What home means to you\" is much narrower and less immediately inspiring, especially compared to their history of great themes like \"transmission\" and \"repair.\"\n\nI'm personally fond of one-word themes with multiple interpretations, that can at minimum be used as inspiration for a mechanic or for a narrative.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":428522,"author_name":"LDJam user 49706","author_uid":"49706","epoch":1585164251,"text":"@jeremy-ryan Does these themes work for you even tho they are not one word?\n\nRockets are the future\n\nA practical superhero\n\nEverything is around the sun","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":428523,"author_name":"LDJam user 15034","author_uid":"15034","epoch":1585167861,"text":"I'll clarify that I don't only like one-word themes, but I think a lot of themes tend to be too restrictive.\n\nI'll use your third one as an example (\"Everything is around the sun\"). I would argue that \"Around the sun\" is a better theme, since it still provides similar thematic inspiration but omits the \"everything\" that might shut down an otherwise good game idea.\n\nI had a similar qualm with \"Sacrifices must be made\" as a theme. \"Sacrifice\" as a theme would have been great in my opinion, and it makes you think of anything from personal sacrifice to ritual sacrifice to sacrifice as an emergent gameplay element, as in chess. The remaining three words don't invoke any actual inspiration, they just restrict how you can interpret the theme. A jammer may have a game idea where you choose between sacrificing a piece or getting a permanent debuff --- they might discard this idea because the \"must be made\" suggests a mandatory sacrifice, and they may lose points in Theme for players with this stricter interpretation in mind.\n\nOften, this means themes can be broken down into a single word, but not always. My personal theme suggestions this time (although I may change them before theme suggestion closes) are Connections, Cycle, and Pressure.\n\nI guess that doesn't directly answer your question, but I hope it helps. Theme preference is also entirely personal and some themes I would think are inspirational may fall flat on other developers.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"}],"epoch":1585152425,"event":"LD46","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":180024,"likes":7,"metadata":{"p_key":"85356","p_author":"Dan Violet Sagmiller","p_authorkey":"1019215","p_urlkey":"296140","p_title":"Theme Rule Recommendation ","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD46","p_time":"1585152425","p_likes":"7","p_comments":"3","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1019215","us_name":"Dan Violet Sagmiller","us_username":"dan-violet-sagmiller","event_start":"1587081600","event_key":"77","event_name":"Ludum Dare 46"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD46","removed_author":false},"author":19215,"body":"I'm a little worried that the majority of the themes haven't really called to me. I felt that for a lot of game jams. And so I took a look at my favorites and compared them. It didn't take long to come up with a general rule that seemed to apply to all the themes pretty well. \n\nDan's theme rule: \n\n> Any word in the theme should inspire how each team member sees the game. I.e. A theme word should pull up visuals and game mechanics and sound and story...  \n\nFor instance, Global Game Jam's previous theme, \"No Place Like Home\" didn't really thrill me. \"Home\" brought up images, but none of the other words did. Home did not really lend itself to game mechanics, or sounds. It sort of lent itself to story, but not in any way that felt strong. Now don't get me wrong. Most teams came up with games. Mine did. (a snail trying to makes its way through different parts of the house, where you played in VR, and could run up walls. - it was a fast snail) But it was more the comradery that made it worth while to do so. I'm sure that theme may have worked great for a few. But I think over all it was harder to connect to.  \n\nSome words that do work for this rule: (for me anyway)\n- Apocalypse \n  - Adding a some concepts to this first one as an example.\n  - Story: Stopping an Apocalypse, building up from the ruins, restarting civilization, even trying to grow a farm to get enough to eat.\n  - Visuals: world in ruins or could be going that way.\n  - Mechanics: escaping zombies, finding supplies, running game even\n  - Sound: Could be horror\/zombie, could be intense\/fast paced, could be slow\/environmental\n- Escape\n- Dark\n- Fire\n- Transmission\n- Social\n- Survive\n- Destroy\n- Faster\n- Distraction\n\nOn ideas that don't lend them selves to helping shape every role's perspective, I typically think it is far more biased.  I.e. I like \"Surviving on less\" but worry I'm biased, because it encompasses a particular game concept or two that I was interested in, not because the theme words really help shape all parts of the game. I.e. \"Surviving\" works for the rule, but \"Less\" does not. However, \"less\" in this case provides direction and shaping for surviving. I'm not sold on a rule that allows for this. For that matter, I'm not 100% sold on my rule as is, but for now it seems pretty sound. \n\nI'd love to hear opinions on this.","created":"2020-03-25T11:26:57Z","id":180024,"love":7,"love-timestamp":"2020-03-26T09:00:03Z","meta":[],"modified":"2020-03-26T13:23:15Z","name":"Theme Rule Recommendation ","notes":3,"notes-timestamp":"2020-03-25T20:24:21Z","parent":180023,"parents":[1,5,9,176557,180023],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/$180023\/theme-rule-recommendation","published":"2020-03-25T16:07:05Z","slug":"theme-rule-recommendation","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","superparent":176557,"type":"post","version":538315},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"180024","n_urlkey":"296140","n_parent":"180023","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/$180023\/theme-rule-recommendation","n_slug":"theme-rule-recommendation","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"19215","n_created":"1585135617","n_modified":"1585228995","n_version":"538315","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/46\/$180023\/theme-rule-recommendation","text":"I'm a little worried that the majority of the themes haven't really called to me. I felt that for a lot of game jams. And so I took a look at my favorites and compared them. It didn't take long to come up with a general rule that seemed to apply to all the themes pretty well. \n\nDan's theme rule: \n\n> Any word in the theme should inspire how each team member sees the game. I.e. A theme word should pull up visuals and game mechanics and sound and story...  \n\nFor instance, Global Game Jam's previous theme, \"No Place Like Home\" didn't really thrill me. \"Home\" brought up images, but none of the other words did. Home did not really lend itself to game mechanics, or sounds. It sort of lent itself to story, but not in any way that felt strong. Now don't get me wrong. Most teams came up with games. Mine did. (a snail trying to makes its way through different parts of the house, where you played in VR, and could run up walls. - it was a fast snail) But it was more the comradery that made it worth while to do so. I'm sure that theme may have worked great for a few. But I think over all it was harder to connect to.  \n\nSome words that do work for this rule: (for me anyway)\n- Apocalypse \n  - Adding a some concepts to this first one as an example.\n  - Story: Stopping an Apocalypse, building up from the ruins, restarting civilization, even trying to grow a farm to get enough to eat.\n  - Visuals: world in ruins or could be going that way.\n  - Mechanics: escaping zombies, finding supplies, running game even\n  - Sound: Could be horror\/zombie, could be intense\/fast paced, could be slow\/environmental\n- Escape\n- Dark\n- Fire\n- Transmission\n- Social\n- Survive\n- Destroy\n- Faster\n- Distraction\n\nOn ideas that don't lend them selves to helping shape every role's perspective, I typically think it is far more biased.  I.e. I like \"Surviving on less\" but worry I'm biased, because it encompasses a particular game concept or two that I was interested in, not because the theme words really help shape all parts of the game. I.e. \"Surviving\" works for the rule, but \"Less\" does not. However, \"less\" in this case provides direction and shaping for surviving. I'm not sold on a rule that allows for this. For that matter, I'm not 100% sold on my rule as is, but for now it seems pretty sound. \n\nI'd love to hear opinions on this.","title":"Theme Rule Recommendation ","wayback_source":[]}