When Round 2 voting started, I was jokin to a friend we'll see Echoes in round 3 as well. Now she joked "I bet it will win, someone is flooding the voting system with bot votes"

I think she might be right. Started plotting my Echoes ideas, what are yours?

Personally I would be the most excited for "Infestation" or "A single resource", but those other two are also pretty interesting. I like my 0 picks too, I just had to sort them into a different tier.

Almost every -1 vote from me was because it made me think more of "places" than "actions", except for "Combine"; which I wanted to be a smidge more limiting than it was.

I always love making a little StrawPoll to get a sense of what people are voting for, just for fun. Rarely do the results of these polls reflect the actual theme that is chosen, but I have fun doing it anyway. Click the link, select the themes you voted +1 for, and see how your votes compared to everyone else!

TAKE THE POLL!

You will wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. You somehow already know you are going to hate the chosen theme and even though it doesn't make sense, you know in your heart of hearts it's my fault. If it wasn't for me, a good theme would have been picked and you would have made the best game that won first place and everyone would finally know how awesome you really are. If only...

Sweet dreams my jammers.

Personally, I think I'd like to see 'A single resource' win. There could be a LOT of variation with such a theme; what resource you have, what you do WITH that resource, and what your ultimate goal involving that resource is.

Despite me saying this, I know I'll be grumpy in the beginning, if that theme wins. If a different one wins, well, hopefully it's not one of the bad ones ;)

on the other hand, is anyone else an absolutely inconsistent voter

slaughter round I vote yes to basically anything that makes me laugh or has vibe of "I can work with that"

first 3 rounds I use a lot of neutrals or yeses to again, "I could work with that"

final round I'll be like "no I hate it" even if I upvoted it in the first 3 rounds lol

closer I get to finals more choosy I get lmao

Welcome to Ludum Dare 50, and the 20th anniversary of Ludum Dare!

Yes, we ran the very first Ludum Dare 20 years ago, back in April of 2002. That's a lot of caffeine ago. :sweat_smile:

Without further ado, lets get to it.

Final Round Theme Voting has begun

Cast your vote here: :ballot_box: /events/ludum-dare/50/theme

For rules and other info, visit the event page here: :trophy: /events/ludum-dare/50

If you don't want to figure out timezones, the theme announcement is when the clock (top-right) reaches zero.

TIP: The ldjam.com website gets really busy before the Theme Announcement. We recommend you follow the official Twitter account, and sign-up for the E-mail Newsletter.

NEW: Extra, the new casual Ludum Dare

I'm thrilled to announce that Ludum Dare has a brand new format!

When submitting your game, you can now choose between the Jam, Compo, or the new Extra format. Extra is Ludum Dare's casual format. There are no winners in the Extra format, but you get to choose your own schedule. Create and submit your Extra games anytime between Friday April 1st and Thursday April 21st--that's nearly 3 weeks! Submit early, and you still get to be a part of Ludum Dare's feedback process: Give feedback, and get feedback.

Learn more about Extra here: /events/extra-the-new-casual-ludum-dare

Rules updates: Extra format, optional Theme, Unfinished games

We'll be publishing a brand new version of Ludum Dare's rules soon. The main difference is the inclusion of the new Extra format detailed above, but there are few other changes I'd like to highlight:

• You can now optionally opt-out of the Theme category. This is not required.
• Please only submit finished games using the Jam, Compo, and Extra formats.
• If your game isn't finished, choose Unfinished instead.

That's everything new this time.

We will continue to evolve the Extra format over the next few events. See the future section for a sneak peek of what's to come. We'll have more to share in September/October for Ludum Dare 51.

On chat communities, and future plans

I shared a short Twitter thread the other day. The TL;DR is that I've been told several times that some folks don't feel welcome on the chat servers that represent Ludum Dare. We don't run any, but that may have to change. This unease is in part due to the "male skew" of gaming and technology, but also because nobody is really trying hard enough. If you'd like to share your experience, my inbox is open. Sometime after LD50, I'd like to engage and chat privately with folks about it.

I don't use public chat rooms, so I don't have ambitions to create some "ultimate" chat server or anything, but it has become clear this isn't something we can ignore. I've always intended for Ludum Dare to be a welcoming and inclusive community, a place for creators new and old to come together. Chat rooms play a vital role for many.

I'll work out the details in the coming months, but my intention is to hire someone to run and moderate an official Ludum Dare chat and help channel, someone that isn't a cis-white-dude like me. I do my best to be conscious to the issues, but I could do one better, and bring on someone with life experience. Their job will be to run and moderate the chat (a potentially quiet chat between events), and they'll have a direct line to me for anything that needs escalating. I'd like to find other ways they can help out, if nothing else, steering me in the right direction when it comes to issues a cis-white-dude might be blind to. I don't have a huge budget for this, and I don't expect them to be glued to the chat, but I'd like it to be worth their while.

Again, I have no interest in dethroning or replacing any of the chat servers out there. I just want is ensure there is a place everyone feels welcome and safe talking about Ludum Dare.

NEW: the Ludum Dare & Game Jams Twitter community

Twitter recently launched "communities", a new way for groups to tweet about a shared topic. Naturally we created one for ourselves. Community feeds are public, but interactions within the community (tweets, comments, likes) are limited to members only. To start, it's wide open and anyone can join. If we need to restrict or moderate it, we will.

I also decided to cast a wider net with it. Right now, Ludum Dare events only happen twice a year, over a couple 5-8 week periods. That's a lot of inactivity. So because "why not", I decided to try and make it the community for Ludum Dare and other Game Jams on Twitter. They key is that we (Ludum Dare/Mike/Interactive Snacks) are taking responsibility for it. If it becomes something, we'll give it the attention it deserves.

Join the Ludum Dare & Game Jams Twitter community at the link below.

twitter.com/i/communities/1509183497361104896

NOTE: Be sure you're logged in to Twitter, else this link will fail.

Keynote: Keynoter's Reunion, 20 years in the making

At long last, it's time for your featured presentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC2KGu__2Ws

Thank you everyone that contributed to this. :wink:

Wrap-up

That's it for me. See you Friday for the main event.

Teleportation - Teleportation is just cool. Its kind of hard to mess this up unless it is just taken for granted as a passive mechanic. Folklore - Tell or retell a story, with an implication that the story is kind of epic. Road trip - Lots of ways you could go with this, as long as there is a road. Garden - There are lots of kinds of gardens, and lots of ways you can think of a garden. I have more than one idea I like for this one.

I think of these teleportation is the only one that got me somewhat excited consistently, and most of my favorites didn't make it. Still the fun part of themes isn't necessarily whether you like the theme but whether you can make something you like out of it.

Still, no Sky Pirates or hot t-rex. :slight_frown:

It disappear...
disappear...
...

Fragile: Out of all of the themes here, this is the one I want to win the most. It seems like it's pretty much the ideal theme for a game jam, in the way that there's no one obvious way to use the theme and it has near-limitless possibilities.

Make connections: This one is a pretty good theme too, I think there could be a lot of unique ways to use this theme, from obvious things like visual novels about friendship or romance to action games with amazingly unique mechanics.

Folklore: I gave this theme a -1 when it appeared in Round 1, I get the feeling there would be a repeat of "Deeper and deeper" and a lot of games would be pretty much the same thing.

Shelter: This could be good for story-based games and games where you have to avoid taking damage from something (thinking of a level in New Super Mario Bros 2 for the Nintendo 3DS where giant rocks are falling from the sky), but I do question how this could be used creatively.

Road trip & Tunnels: Both received -1's without a second thought, not only are they so similar I'm criticizing them at the same time but I expect a lot of games would practically be clones of each other, especially with "Road trip"!

Garden: This was actually one of my Theme Suggestions, despite having said yes to it in the Slaughter and voting for it in Round 1 I'm only going to give it a 0 in the Final Round. Seeing how much better some other themes are than "Garden" (I'm hinting at "Fragile" and "Make connections") I think it's better to only give it a 0.

I think it's my favorite theme because there is just so much ideas arround it. I feel like if folklore end up being the theme we will see quite a lot of variety

this is a bit of a silly post but i just felt like sharing this, This is actually my first game jam, as I've always been running away i have decided to step out of my comfort zone and just make something for once, I'm actually pretty nervous and excited at same time all in all, Let's have fun

Hello we are a team of three 2D artist and one Dev, we are looking for a sound designer to participate with us on this adventure, so if you are interested you can contact us :)

Bonjour nous sommes une équipe de trois artistes et un dev, nous recherchons un sound designer , si vous intéressé pour rejoindre notre aventure vous pouvez nous contacter :)

I am pretty happy with some of the themes in the final round! Both of my favorite themes managed to get through :)

What I usually look for in a theme is something that isn't too restricting and can be used for every genre.

Folklore

This is the theme I am looking forward to the most, we already checked out some of our local folklore and found some interesting ones that could be used for a fun game! It isn't too restricting either, you can make a puzzle game or even a shooter depending on which folklore you use (you can even combine multiple folklores to create your own story!)

Roadtrip

This theme could be interpreted in a couple of ways; A game about traveling (what conflicts are on your way?), A management game where you manage your friend group from ruining things (Maybe similar to the business minigame from Yakuza 0?).

A single resource & Space is limited

These two can be used in a lot of ways too! Maybe a game about a shrinking room; win or be squashed. One battery; where to use it and when?

Not my favorite themes as I am not sure if every genre could be applied to these themes (Single resource shooting game?).

Conclusion

Looking forward to this weekend!

If you'd like, tell us about your favorite themes, or maybe some concepts you are thinking about!

Since quite a few people having posting tips and advice I thought I'd share my main advice from over 10 years of game jamming, and it's fairly simple:

Make a really small game, and finish it!

I know I'm not the only person peddling this classic which should prove how important it is. I would say this especially true for new jammers, but trurthfully as a more experienced jammer that's often led to ambition and hubris that has left me without a finished game at the end of a weekend.

If you target a game you can make in half a day, then I think realistically you're going to find it's going to take a lot longer. Then if you do finish in a day you'll have a whole extra of day to polish and make it really special.

Finding a way to get yourself to the finish line is much more important than the "learning experience" you get from another failed project. I've already got the learnings from countless unfinished good intentions. Every time I finish a small project these days there's a lot more satisfaction sharing that with everyone than there would be from a bigger game I couldn't finish.

Ideally by the end of day 1 you're playing your whole game through in some rough form. So if you find yourself at the end of day 1 with something that's a long way to go still, I would strongly encourage you to start cutting like crazy. Get the scope down as much as you can.

Now that's all said, as a disclaimer most advice is autobiographical. I'm preaching to myself and my own past mistakes more than your unique circumstances. If this doesn't fit you, do what you want, as long as you have fun then the whole weekend should be worthwhile no matter how it turns out.

Ok, let's say the truth... im not an super dooper game dev, but im inside this world, and I always wanted to participate in this LDJam's... so... let's go!

It's been ages since I joined a LD! Planets have aligned and this weekend I might be able to join, so I'm quite excited. Tools I will be using:

• Pico8

That's it, it has everything one needs for a game jam. I've made four games and a few prototypes already with Pico8 and I love it!

Hey everybody! This LD will be the second time I'm participating in an LD, but the first time I'll be doing so by myself.

With that said, I feel like I have an important announcement to make:

Whatever this LD's theme will be, I will somehow incorporate giraffes into my product.

Thank you for reading this very important announcement.

Given the themes, it will not be this time yet that i will be able to make a stealth game...