Ugh again? God is this guy going to stream LUDUM DARE 57 GAMES LIVE every DAY?
Yes! submit games in the comments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSaTrhFTAjQ
Yes! submit games in the comments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSaTrhFTAjQ
You can play for free (or donate if you want) on itch.io: https://cafe-spectrum-studio.itch.io/briefcase
Soon on steam!!!
Listen to the credit theme of Heart-Blob, our LD57 game!
I wrote the lyrics in about 5 minutes, recorded it as fast as I could (with only the default FL-plugins because I was working on a new PC), and mixed it while deaf in one ear from an ear infection. Truly, in the spirit of Ludum Dare!
https://soundcloud.com/user-117545847/hooked-through-the-lip-from-heart-blob
We've played a quite a few wonderful incremental/idle games this jam! I'm putting out one last call, if your entry was an incremental/idle game, please post it in the comments, and we'll give it play! It's always fun to see how entries differ when tackling the same genre and same theme :smile:
And if your game isn't an incremental/idle, post it anyway :wink:
If you're interested, try out our incremental game below!

What Lurks Below is a semi-active incremental game that takes you deep into the depths below Old Gloomhollow. Can you discover what lurks below?
Try it out here! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/what-lurks-below
Only 3 days left to try and rate our game :pick:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/dig-digger

...Ahem. Hey everyone!
The jam is almost over, and tonight we'd love to check out more games! Drop your entries — we'll gladly play, rate, and leave some feedback.
And if you have a spare minute, we'd really appreciate it if you gave our game a try too... 💜
We made it to 20! But always good to get more ratings lol
If you haven't yet why not try it out!
Remember to go check the danger section to try and help others hit 20 ratings as well!

Playing now games off the stream. Just drop a comment and I'll play it unless I already did (I mean I did play a lot this jam). Helped many leave the danger zone too.
See my feedback karma / ratings given to know I'm good for it.

I really want your feedback & ratings on my game too so if you feel like returning some of that love feel free to check it out :heart:
My game - Flatline~Xp


Game - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/depth-of-deb

Thanks to everyone who has played and rated so far!! It's been fun watching people try to race down the stairs and get their laundry DONE
Excited to play some more games in the last days here! If y'all end up playing ours -- good luck, godspeed, and don't let the void snatch you up! ONE STEP AT A TIME!!!!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/i-have-no-clothes-and-i-must-clean
Streaming another round of LD57 games!
The rating period is almost over and I still got a lot more games to play! You can leave yours here, but I'm going to give priority to people who are in chat <3

For this Ludum Dare I have taken on interpreting Depths as in the photographic sense: depth of field.
Several entries explored this idea, each in their own unique way. From fixed focus to discrete levels of adjustment, continuous scroll, and even automatic focal targeting, the variety is impressive—not just in concept, but in execution.
Here are a few games I came across that approached the idea from different angles:
Compo Entry by @niterich
You play as a photographer on a mission to snap a picture of an apple from across a city. Armed with a telescopic lens and a very narrow depth of field, the challenge lies in physically positioning yourself in the exact spot where the focus lands just right. With no ability to adjust focus manually, you're at the mercy of London’s maze-like streets. It’s a clever concept—one where navigation becomes your lens control. A very grounded take on the theme.

Jam Entry by @miroreflect
A compact puzzle game where you adjust focus in discrete steps using the mouse wheel. Objects in focus can be interacted with or moved, while others effectively disappear from the game space. It’s a simple mechanic with a lot of depth (pun not intended), creating puzzles that challenge spatial awareness and sequencing. While my mouse wheel was a bit too sensitive, making one puzzle tricky, the game design made sure all levels could still be completed—a smart decision in a jam context. Short, but full of promise.

Compo Entry by @grid96
This is a narrative-driven point-and-click game where you play as a duo on an assassination mission. You use a camera lens with 10 smooth focal stops, controlled via the scroll wheel, to uncover clues and spot your target hidden among city rooftops. The smoothness of the scroll can be a double-edged sword—too responsive, especially on devices like the Magic Mouse—but it fits the cinematic vibe. A more narrative-heavy interpretation, where depth of field supports storytelling.

Compo Entry by @dhim
A look-and-find game set in an Easter-themed scene filled with hidden objects. You control the focus point by moving the mouse across the scene. The game uses a custom implementation with four pre-rendered layers: - A sharp version of the scene - A painterly, blurred version - A depth map used to blend between the two - An object index map for identifying and detecting targets
It’s a lightweight, visual-first approach that doesn’t rely on real-time depth calculations, making it performant but still expressive.

Despite their differences, these games highlight four distinct ways to implement depth of field in gameplay:
| Game | Focus Control | Effect on Gameplay | Notable Feature | |------|----------------|--------------------|-----------------| | The Apple of My Aperture | None (fixed focus) | Navigational puzzle | Focus as spatial challenge | | In Focus | Discrete scroll steps | Puzzle gating / interactivity | Focus as interaction toggle | | Focus | Smooth scroll (10 stops) | Reveal story-critical info | Focus as narrative lens | | Focus Hunt | Mouse-positioned autofocus | Hide and reveal elements | Pre-rendered DOF blend |
Each implementation serves a different purpose—navigation, puzzle-solving, narrative immersion, and visual clarity—showing just how versatile the idea of "depth" can be when viewed through a photographic lens.
If you've come across other games that explore this concept, feel free to share—I'd love to check them out. And if you haven’t played the first two yet, give them a look; they’re still waiting on a few more reviews!
No, not for our game — that already got its sweet 20 ratings (thank you all!). This time, I need your wisdom for my latest side-quest.
I’m cooking up a boilerplate codebase designed to make your next Ludum Dare (or any jam) a smoother ride. The plan is to have it ready before the next LD so anyone can pick it up and skip the boring grind.
We're talking: - 🏆 Plug-and-play highscore tables - 🖼️ Basic texture rendering - 🎶 Audio playback management - 📋 Easily create some basic menu screens
All of it minimalist, intuitive, and open to hacking. I’m not building a framework — this is a launchpad. The kind of thing you can pry open and rewire however you like.
I'm writing docs too, so you're not left decoding mysterious variables at 3 AM.
Let me know what you want from a dev-friendly boilerplate. I’m all ~~ears~~ eyes!
Slogan: Create your prototype in a ziffy, then start poking the code

Play my game if you want:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/a-very-deep-tunnel
Thanks so much to everyone who played Pogo Dwarf during the past two weeks. It really means a lot.
I’ll be continuing development after the jam ends! Currently working on:
If you’re interested in updates, demos, or helping with playtests, I’d love it if you could join the Discord:
https://discord.gg/6ahgZqDKAC
Or follow my socials -
https://x.com/SunsetDodoGames
https://www.youtube.com/@SunsetDodo
In case you want to check it out - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/pogo-dwarf
Thanks again :heart:
Streaming and rating games at https://www.twitch.tv/vorceshard for a couple hours. You can comment your game link here or mention the game’s name or your name in chat so I can look it up! The first games to play are from last week's comment by @nrankin13:
Can you escape! An escape room style adventure for the 8bit Game Boy Handheld.
No Gameboy? We have you covered with everything ready to role inside an emulator that is embedded in HTML.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/abyss-prison




https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/abyss-prison
![FireShot Capture 004 - Depth of Debts by Oduvan3000 - [oduvan3000.itch.io]-min.png](http:///raw/5d9/06/z/6c67d.png)
Game - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/depth-of-deb

I know we're a bit late this time around, but we made it there in the end. Appreciate everyone who took the time to play/rate/leave feedback.
If you haven't checked it out yet, you can try it here :point_right: anomalous source
As the rating period is almost over, I just wanted to say A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who played & rated my game Dyamid (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/dyamid) :heart_eyes: I am extremely grateful for all the feedback :bow: I've also played and rated over 70 games so far, and am amazed by a lot of the games I've played! :clap: (If I haven't played your game yet, let me know in the comments)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/sky-fisher
The game is missing some 5-6 ratings

For fun of hardcore puzzles, please check my game. Hope you will like it:)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/deep-in-the-folders

Hey everyone! I'm not streaming, not famous, just someone who likes Ludum Dare and plans on rating / leaving feedback for some more games before LD57 winds all the way down.
If you would like me to play and rate your game, leave a comment on this post with a link to your LD57 game page. I prefer HTML5 but I'll play anything on Linux/Windows if I can get it to run under Linux (I normally can, if I have issues I'll let you know!)
No pressure at all, but if you'd like to check out our game Fantascope Chasm as well, feel free to check it out here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/fantascope-chasm

If you're into scavenging space junk and befriending weird aliens, I'd love to know what you think about Cosmic Junker Simulator! Many thanks in advance!
Live the grind of a lone space scavenger. In Cosmic Junker Simulator, gather valuable junk, engineer fuel, generate oxygen, dodge meteors, and exploit bizarre alien life—all to keep your rig running and your lungs full.
https://youtu.be/p_yueYK6xps







Hello friends, we would love to have like 5 more ratings till the end. So if you have 5 minutes, we'd love for you to give it a try!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/depthshift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD7QK3zC-NM
I submitted to the extra format on Thursday, but was unable to receive feedback due to my account not being "trusted." It was just resolved. I've been enjoying playing and rating your games, and I'd love some feedback on the entry (top down fantasy hack-n-slash score attack) now that I can post without being censored : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/raid-the-abyss
RESOLVED Ghost Submission Issue:
If anyone else has this issue, reach out to Mike Kasprzak on bluesky. I didn't want to go to his personal account, but that worked after a week of no fix (and most of the time no reply) from:
LDjam website posts
LD discord, reddit, twitter and bluesky accounts
emails: mikekasprzak@gmail.com, support@ldjam.com
and trying to create a new account to reupload.
So I hope that helps someone avoid frustration in the future.


https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/fire-exit
A short brief description what the game is about: A game where you drive down with a wheelchair. Or..some called it celeste on wheelchair. To be fair the gameplay is not so far polished as this from celeste.

What other users said about the game:

So if you want to try out by yourself give it a shot. NOTE: This game has some hard rooms :) Sorry for that. But i just love hard platformers.

Thank you everybody for the very positive feedbacks in our entry for this jam!!! If anyone want to play, here is the game page https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/depths-of-hell-3

:penguin:
I can't remember if I posted the fixed version, but I figured out how to update the game with the 'Post-Jam' fixes so it works on mobile and reset the position of the Penguin next to the nest so it's clearer what to do. :smile:
In the fixed version, I also added the right sound to the Orca, it's supposed to go "dun dun dun dun" when it's near to warn you, but I added the wrong sound in the Jam version. :stuckouttongue:


If you need a bit more reviews before the end results, drop a message and I'll try to review your game if I haven't done it yet!
Feel free to review ours too :gem:

HTML adventure game
controls:
arrows or WASD: move
space: search/take/interact
play it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/party-crasher

Descend from on high with your Knight in tow and escape your service as a Squire in this authentic Game Boy Color game.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/a-squire-acquires
A lighter entry from Arcane Rituals this time, we almost missed it!
This time I want to write about things I learned about level design and communication while doing my game for this jam - Water Cat. I will spoil some levels and solutions for my game!
So I welcome you to PLAY IT and beat my game if you haven’t yet for better understanding of this post, it’s a short puzzle-platformer, takes 5-10 minutes it seems, according to comments. Thanks everybody who left comments and ratings! Well without further delay here we go:
Important mechanic and basis for puzzles of my game is buoyancy and changing water level in the rooms. And while I explained controls and basic mechanics in text, buoyancy is actually never expertly explained in text! * It’s only demonstrated to player through level/puzzle design.* The fact that keys float is the key (pun intended) to solving puzzles and is firstly demonstrated to the player early in game on this level:

And the knowledge that key float is not exactly needed to solve this puzzle, but to beat this level player need to rise the water level and this makes key float and this information is once again demonstrated shortly after even more explicitly.

And the player gains understanding of this mechanics almost on an automatic level.
So the lesson is it’s possible to communicate gameplay ideas/rules (that have some complexity) through level design alone without pointing to it with text or interface. And people have a very good ability to pick on it in almost subconscious way. I think I underestimated this in this project and slightly overdone repetition of information in level design, so some people felt (rightly so) that the puzzle design is slightly repetitive as the result. So don’t underestimate the ability of player to pick up on rules through puzzle design, I will try not to next time!
Us a counter example the information that boxes sink is also important, but I actually failed to communicate it properly on a first try. The level where this information was important was design this way:

And it’s frustrating if you don’t know difference between boxes and keys.
So I added a pillar below the switches rising part of level, it solved some other problems, but most importantly now player is observed that box doesn’t float when water level rises as one of the first actions. And this gives this needed knowledge to the player! The level in the final game:

So I guess lesson is don't forget to show player the information you try to communicate. And also small changes in level design can have a huge consequences!
Maybe this information is quite obvious, but for me it was something that I learned during this jam and I am sharing it. Firstly I wanted to explain all mechanics through text, but it was unnecessary and explaining through level design is more effective and more fun at lest this is what is my conclusion.
That is it. Thank you for reading!
PART ONE is here if you are interested.
I didn’t have much time to share this right after the jam, so here’s a little write-up of the experience — better late than never!
To recap: I gave myself a personal challenge — make the entire game directly from my Meta Quest 3, without touching my computer (except for exporting the builds). I wanted to see if this kind of setup was actually viable.
And... honestly? It worked out surprisingly well! Especially when you take into account a few fun details:
I had zero prep time.
Until Friday evening, I hadn’t set up anything: no version control, no proper DAW, no 2D drawing tools for textures… Not even my keyboard layout was ready.
Just getting that configured took me half a day 😂
It was also my first time using Godot.
I’d planned to do a little warm-up project before the jam, but I didn’t get the chance.
Despite that, I was amazed at how easy Godot was to pick up — especially coming from Unity.
And it was my first VR game too!
I started using XR Tools, but I ended up switching to native OpenXR nodes, and that made everything cleaner and more efficient.
The only time I touched my computer was to export the game builds.
Everything else was done directly from the Quest 3 — headset on, tools running, hands flying.
Just recently, I also made a quick non-VR version so people can try it out more easily, even without a headset.
It's not perfect (the console is barely readable), but it's playable.
This was honestly a really fun experience.
It proved to me that yes, you can build a whole game just from inside the headset — even with a bunch of limitations.
There’s still a lot of room for improvement. If I can figure out a way to run a lightweight Linux VM inside the Quest… well, I might never leave VR development again 😄
Now it's time for me to start rating games and digging through my notes 🫠
👉 Play the game here
There are some hidden gems I've enjoyed, and I think you should too, and vote on them, they deserve that! And it's only 2 days left.

Order matching screenshots:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/crypt
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/cast-iron-hammer-golf
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/deep
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/nested
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/starfish-to-the-stars
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/deep-protocol
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/sinking-ship
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/revenge-of-the-slimomancer
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/a-bat-and-a-mouse-and-a-cheese-in-a-cave
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/fill-the-coffers
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/dungeon-crawler
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/darkwater
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/the-matching-deep
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/deep-in-memory
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/mind-the-depth
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/song-of-the-depths-feat-shian
(Last two may be already got voted, but I loved their art and included anyway.)
Of course there are many games I could've missed too! You can go into Games and change sorting Smart->Danger and help someone else.
I missed 5 LDJAMs since LD52.
I used to be very active and excited to participate but even with my wife, family and friends support; I lost creativity and confidence. I was not able to produce ideas, my scope was messed up and I did not believed I could make something in 2 or 3 days.
I found out about LD57 two hours into the Jam. I woke up and challenge myself to make something simple with a small scope. I setup a quick mechanic and level, modeled the assets in blender, look for sounds and polished them and proceded. My wife bravely tested my game multiple times. I accepted I had to cut things out and reduce it. I only had 24 hours to make it. I had plans for the weekend already scheduled.
I took a leap of faith and posted my silly game.
Thanks for playing it! You never know how much a simple comment helps people. Appreciate your time and objective feedback.

Sunken Secrets: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/sunken-secrets
I always enjoy taking screenshots of the game during development to see how much it changes through development. From mockup, to programmer placeholder art, and eventually to polished art from our lovely artist (@quack-doctor)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/aerofish-project

You can try it here:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/aerofish-project
EDIT: We got it now! Thank you for playing!
We are a few ratings away, try our game. The gameplay is at most 5 minutes and it is a web build :)
Rate us here - ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/mafushi
You have to fish ingredients for your restaurant and then feed the clients.

a BIG thank you for every feedback and rating i got <3 it was a wild couple of weeks playing tons of amazing games- please dont hasitate to comment below your game !
for anyone looking for a last chance to rate: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/descend

Before LD47 wraps up for good, I just wanted to do a quick post-mortem of our (@baldurs and my) game, Into the Mousehole (which you can play in a browser here -> https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/into-the-mousehole).


(Also oooh rats without the colour filter)

And in the future, I'd love to come back to this game to perhaps add more content, flesh it out, fix the bugs and sprites, and whatever else comes to mind. Though for now, I'm still super happy with how this turned out! Huge thank you to Baldurs for organising this, and being the main developer in terms of the code and content, and getting us across the finish line. This wouldn't have been possible without him! I cannot understate how much of a leader he was during this, and how much of a role he had in development!
Anyway, you've read this far, why not go play the game too? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/into-the-mousehole
Edit: Also forgot to mention that we took a inspiration from Downwell (at least, Baldurs did, I mostly looked at the Steam screenshots after Baldurs told me about it). So similarities, like the 1-bit art style, falling down a pit, etc, are to be expected, though some of them more came up in hindsight, rather than by trying to pull from Downwell.
I will be doing one last marathon playing games in the Danger category. I figured I should prioritize games by people who are active so if your game is yet to reach the required 20 votes to get a rating I can help.
If you want to help back you could play games of other people in the comments or visit the Danger category.

Just uploaded a postjam version of my game with some improvements suggested by users' feedback:
Almost at 50 ratings!
So close! Thanks to everyone who's checked out my game so far.
Link to my submission: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/into-the-deep


Link to my submission: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/into-the-deep
:heart: :heart:
Hey, Just wanted to let you know I'm doing my last LD play and rate stream of this LD!
Hop in the chat if you want your game played. I'll check this post during the stream, but I'll give priority to those on stream <3

Thanks to everyone who came and gave my game a spin!
Had plans for an in-depth postmortem as well as a post-JAM version with fixes and additional goodies, but having a little too much other stuff on my plate right now. Hopefully I'll find the time and energy for that later though...
Didn't have much time to play other entries either, but I've stashed some that I came across which I'll definitely will be trying out later and dropping some feedback!
At the end of the evaluation stage, we would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to the Ludum Dare community! 57 LD was our first experience participating in such events and It was hecka fun❤!
We share the development diary and impressions of our sound designer :)
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyPosHUUM-k
Game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/deeper-into-the-black-hole
Hi everyone!
I just wanted to write a short thing here. This jam was the first time I ever participated in Ludum Dare, so the idea of people I've never met giving me feedback for my work was intimidating. The response I have gotten have blown me away. Thank you to anyone who left any sort of feedback for the game I worked on, Cinderseed!
If anyone who played the game, and specifically listened to the sound, wanted to know the thought process I went through, be sure to check out my full write up on my personal site:
alexnstudios.com/2025/04/09/cinderseed-a-ludum-dare-57-game-jam-game/
Again, thank you everyone! Looking forward to seeing you all again in a future jam :smile:
We made a small upside-down cat platformer, available here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/slipping-away
Sadly we've been busy so we haven't had much time to rate other people's games, which also means that our game is still away from the minimum requirements! We'll try to play more games tomorrow, but we'd really appreciate it if you could check out our game.
As a fun fact, here's the inspiration for our game's protagonist—one of our artists' cat Theo: 
Hi there
I need just one more person to rate my game to get a score in every field.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/the-cloud-cities
I would also love to get feedback on the “story” part of the game (accessible from the main menu).
If you have a moment, please would you consider taking a look at my game 🙏🏼
Hello, friends! If your mobile friendly game (looking at you, Pico-8 crowd!) is compatible with mobile, drop me a link and I'll play it. I wanna help as many people get ranked as possible!

If the thumbnail above catched your eyes and you want to play a First Person Submarine Horror game, check this out:
The game just recently reached 20 reviews so my thanks goes to everyone that tried it and left feedback!
Initially, Darkest Depths did not reach the development level I really wanted in the first 72 hours - as it always happens. So post-jam, I focused on trying to materialise and manifest the vision I had in my mind for what I wanted the game to feel and play like. I included this as a separate V2 to the original jam version. This felt like the true satisfying completion capstone!
Also a highlight for me is that I'm pleasantly surprised people enjoyed the music at all, since it was my first time getting into music theory and making tracks! Definitely want to do more of this in the future :)
If you still want to give the game a shot, I'm always happy to hear more feedback and thoughts. I'll also be going through some more games today that I saved from this timeline (there were some really amazing posts right after the jam finished).
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/darkest-depths

Hello everyone! I want to thank everyone who checked out and followed our project. We found time to fix all the bugs!
Also, based on your comments, we noticed that many struggled with understanding whether a tooth was clean or still dirty. So, we tweaked the mechanics a bit, and now there’s visual and audio confirmation when a tooth is clean! 😊 The game is now a bit more player-friendly and looks great on 4K and 5K monitors.
The Cleaner of the Depth
The Game Jam is over, and we’re really happy we managed to carve out time to focus on something we truly enjoy. But everyday life caught up with us quickly — even though the biggest task is still ahead: Rating games.
We really want to give thoughtful, quality feedback. The Ludum Dare community stands out for being especially kind and supportive, and we love how everyone lifts each other up. After a kid-free weekend (shout out to Grandma and Grandpa!), it’s been tough to find time to dive into other entries. However we somehow archieved more then the required 20 ratings and we are very curious about how it turned out.
A big thank you to everyone who gave us feedback — and special thanks to @alvaron for even showcasing our game on his Twitch channel


Thank you for playing Deep Fry! I had a lot of fun this Ludum Dare!
This was by far our best jam, I had by far the most fun working on this one with my team and it's the most complete and polished game we created so far. I feel like I have grown a developer and artist ever since our first game back in Ludum Dare 54
We got a lot of awesome feedback and nice words and we are very thankful that you tried our game. it makes me happy to see that the artstyle clicked with people because it is something that that I had a lot of fun working on.
We wanted to have a post jam update ready on time but it didn't quite come together, but this is definitely a project we wanna continue and turn into a small release
Here's the game if you wanna give it one last try



Try it out, hope you have fun :pick:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/dig-digger


https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/into-the-forest-depths

Once again, we underestimated the amount of time the game jam would take - the main work comes after the jam weekend. Not just all the games from the people who rated us - thank you so much! We owe many of you feedback.
We also noticed some interesting games whose feeds we have been watching and which are on our list.
Here's a (very very short) extract of our to-to list:
Here's our game: Angler
And I don't have the necessary ratings to get a score, if you have one minute please play my game, it's a short arcade game about falling into a planet

You can play it here
Thanks :pray:
I made the last video where I play 25 more random games so you could see more games and save your time. Thanks to all participants, sorry to those whose games I couldn't play, there are a lot of you) Enjoy watching. Good luck next jam!
🎥 Video: https://youtu.be/TpnM_SUjHS8
P.S. If you like any game and wanna try them yourself, I have add links all of them in the video description.
Only one day left to rate games! And one day left to check out my AdventureGen, my AI-based adventure generator. After the rating period is over, I will take the AI agent offline, because it incurs cost and is not quite production ready. I will move the generated games to another server, so they can still be played.
Thanks to everyone who generated and played games, and gave feedback!
Play the game here:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/adventuregen

Also check out my write-up on how it works:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/adventuregen/adventuregen-an-experiment-in-ai-generated-games
I am now working on my next project, which is a IDE for creating shooters with AI-generated enemy behaviour. Which is going to look something like this...


Hello everyone we have finally solved most of the annoying issues with our game, thats what we got:
added new rope render.
underwater scrap tweaks.
various sound management system tweaks.
fixed scrap respawn.
And thank you so much for your support! :heart:
Go play it here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/scavenger-deep
I'm not asking for ratings, theirs only 8 hours left, but man, did I mess up, i thought i would have all week to get into the groove and play some games and review them and make videos and junk, ended up stupid busy with house work and course work I haven't even touched my computer since the compo ended.
I hope everyone had a good time and made some good games, see you all next jam
Looking back, I actually voted against the theme! I did overscope it a bit, starting from the old movie look, to mixing and mashing multiple genres., but somehow, it all came together.
Really thankful to everyone who played the game and gave me some amazing ideas. I'm working on a massive update with all those implemented and then some more... maybe a v2 considering steam release in mind, well, a lot of things left to do. Hoping for the best!
P.S. - If you haven’t played it yet... clock’s ticking ;)

Hey, everybody! First time I participated solo with a Unity project.
It took years for me to feel prepared enough to break the threshold of the first step, but finally, I am making some progress.
In this post, I am planning to tell about my learning process.
I am a Game Designer, and the first challenge that I prepared for myself (to procrastinate the code part a little, of course) - is to create 10 concepts for the theme which will satisfy me and be kind of more or less doable on the jam.
The task was completed successfully and quite quickly.
Most of my concepts were inspired by Made in Abyss vibes. Here is a short recap of them:
1st person 3D - Explore the underwater depth - try to get treasure and bring it to the surface, manage Oxygen.
1st person 3D - Live underwater and try to get to the deepest point, manage the light to see how far you can get. Find stuff >> sell >> buy light sources.
1st person 3D - Try climb from the city on the bottom of the giant crater. Explore caves in the crater walls and bring stuff from them to sell and enhance clinbing and getting back.
1st person 3D - Explore the hole, bring stuff from there. Kinda direct reference to the Made in Abyss concept.
1st person 3D - Underwater shooter where you are constantly falling deeper in a swimming suit, and you need to get to the end.
Side-view 2D - Same shooter, but 2d.
Side-view 2D - A game about digging, but without a tile system.
Side-view 2D - Puzzle/Metroidvania - uncovering theme through depth of game mechanics. Character has one ability, which is the key to all things around. I think my mind is looking forward to seeing Silksong so much that I decided to use the mechanic of throwing a needle.
1st person 3D - "Fishing for treasures" in a hole with a rod with a magnet instead of a hook.
1st person 3D - Eternal Tower - a horror about starting on top of the tower and a quest to get to the bottom, exploring rooms on the way. Some of which are useful to explore, and others should be avoided. Read the environment and make decisions.
After some time thinking, I decided to work under the first concept. It was something that I hardly imagined to be able to perform, as I needed a controller to switch between normal state and swimming, and I never even made a normal FPS controller before, so it was a challenging idea, but still sounded like something I would love to do.
I spent some time wondering should I create a URP or HDRP project.
Decided to try to proceed with HDRP one, as it is a pipeline I would love to try to use for a pet project in the future.
I am not a coder, but I wanted to learn. So, as a part of the learning process, I decided to use someone's code, understand it, and adjust it to my needs.
I was precisely watching this tutorial. Thanks a lot to the author. I made almost everything as it was said in this video, but for sure trying my best to understand what each line of code and each action does.
Also, I spent some time wondering should I use ProBuilder or UModeller to create level design for the game.
As I felt confident about my level design skills, I wanted to quickly create a lot of content based on one of these tools, and I had used both of them before for work. Which is quite fun because at the end of the jam, I would not have enough time to even do this.
I tried ProBuilder first and was negatively surprised by a lot of changes since the last time I used it last time. It was very hard to do something I planned with a tool updated like this. Now, bool operations become super uncomfortable to use.

Then I made the same basic location with UModeller and found out that it was heavily updated since my last interaction with it as well. At least I was able to adapt quickly to these changes and understood that I will be able to proceed with this one.
It was very attractive to dive into location building at that moment, but this would procrastinate learning, and it was not something that I wanted to do.
Unfortunately remaining time of Day 1, I felt bad and was not able to do more.
I got that HDRP is not something that I am understanding quickly, and maybe I need to switch to URP when it is not too late. And I even created a duplicate of the project in URP, but I noticed that the light is not as beautiful as in HDRP, and accepted my fate :D
Look at that beauty! How can I even delete it with my bare hands? :D

So I decided to learn a little about materials. I wanted to understand how people make them, as I believed that even basic lightning in HDRP with proper materials in combination may make something interesting.
And that was a disastrous, time-consuming process. I was not able to get it at all :D
I also thought that I would be able to paint on models with a new UModeller tool, but this plan also failed as I still did not get how to apply paintings on the model, I mean bake this on the model.

After switching from the painting tab, all the work is vanishing. I tried to find some info from tutors, and no luck. I hypnotized the UModeller window enough to surrender on this quest for now. By the way, if you have an answer on how to do it, I would be happy to hear it!
At least, with tips on where to click, I was able to build a very basic gold material for a coin with the native Unity option Create >> Material. Surprisingly, it was very easy.


Finally, making game mechanics!
I believed that switching from walking to swimming would be a challenge for me, and it was. I found a tutorial for swimming mechanic and got the idea, but was unable to perform it yet, because it was not something that matched smoothly with the controller I already had. I tried to adapt the code, but when I encountered some errors, and stuck.
But I finally found my savior and the biggest further help - Chat GPT (4o version).
From that very moment, it helped me A LOT and explained everything I needed help with. Frequently, it was not proposed to me stuff I needed from the first try, or missing the idea slightly, but thoroughly reading the code and making adjustments helped me to get results effectively.
Here are some of my messages:

I was very happy with the pipeline I got to because now I was able to get things done and learn in the process with a very patient teacher who answers all my questions.
I polished swimming a little, adjusted speed, drag, added swimming up on space, and added sinking on entering water because the player was standing on the surface, and it felt strange.

Quite quickly, I added oxygen, which was depleting underwater. I got my hands on Canvas and finally understood much better how UI in Unity is working.
As my priority was learning, I polished all UI elements a little to be correctly shown on various resolutions.
Loose condition was a big addition to the code - I made even more UI and spent some time to make everything respawn and reset correctly.
To add at least some art made by myself, I quickly drew a skull with a stylus on my phone, which I added on the death screen.

Also made it shake a little to get to know how simple animations work.
Somehow, on this stage, I encountered a complex problem that required reimport of the library. To be honest, I don't believe that without GPT, I would have been able to troubleshoot it. Some of my previous tries at doing things were abandoned when I encountered something that a newbie can not understand at all.
I originally planned that the player would collect stuff in an underwater location. But as it was already less than 6 hours to the end of COMPO, I decided to feature-cut it to coins only with a counter in UI.
I was able to do it and spent most of the time on proper respawns of coins on the scene and resets of the counter on the player. I think when I uploaded the project, I completed it, or was one step behind in completing this task.
As too much time during the COMPO was lost, I decided to make a slightly more updated version to at least show all the mechanics I planned to make.
It was hard to understand where the center of the camera which raycasting interactions with coins, so I decided to quickly add a crosshair.
Now, picking up coins has become easier.
I know that there are a few better, commonly used decisions such as separate interaction colliders, which gives the player an opportunity to grab items when they even not actually in the center of the screen, but I wanted to do this quickly.
It is a place where you can spend coins to increase the oxygen limit. It was something that I wanted to finish very much, as it makes my core loop almost finished. Still no win condition and no level design, but after completion of this one, the project becomes very easy to scale.
I spent some time making the oxygen bar gradually grow with a bit of animation, and polished the oxygen depletion trigger, now oxygen depletes only when the "head" of the player is underwater. With these few additions, I decided that it is something that is fair enough to upload.
Despite not delivering the complete loop game, I am still very happy with the result because I found an effective way to prototype my ideas by myself.
It was a very interesting journey, and now I believe I will have some pet projects where I will no longer have to search for developers to bring my ideas to the prototype stage.
Thank you for reading my post. :3
If you're interested in checking the result, here it is.
:exclamation: Please do not get me wrong, I am not looking for ratings (why should I? It is an unfinished game :D). If you still have some time to rate games with not enough ratings, better do it. I am here just to share the process. :3
I know that it is already almost the end of rating time, but I really wanted to ask for this.
There is one game I encountered on the jam that has an unfairly small number of reviews, and I believe its author will be happy to see a little bit more support. If you check it, you will get what I am talking about.
:exclamation: Please, rate it if you have some time.

Well, if you're seeing this post, there's a good chance I'm still in need of ratings 😭
I know — my game isn’t playable in the browser, so it gets an automatic debuff.
And yes, it was originally made for VR.
Oh, and… it's not really a game — more of a cinematic experience.
BUT if you have a little time, a quick rating would mean a lot and help me reach the minimum 20! 🙏
Thanks in advance — and happy diving to you!
We created an RTS where the core of your base is slowly sinking so you have to expand and protect it as it falls. It has some really cute art!
~~Unfortunately I have been behind on rating games and we are not quite at 20 ratings.~~
Edit: made it to 20 ratings, thanks everyone!
I'm rating more games now, but we would love it if you took the time to try our game and give us a rating as well.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/aerofish-project


https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/aerofish-project
Please help my slightly broken platformer get to 20 ratings before the deadline!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/the-deepest-diamond
Hi! I haven't had access to my computer for the last few weeks, and so my ability to play games has been limited. I finally got my laptop back today, so I've been playing and rating like a madman.
I need 4 more ratings to get to 20. If anyone would be willing to check the game out, it would be a blessing. Thank you!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/wyatt-i

Play our game and give feedback, we're gonna do the same with your game please help 🙁🙁
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/depths-of-the-sleep
Tried a new visual style this time, which was really fun, especially in this AI-heavy era.
Thanks for the support, you all rock! 💛

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/nomisoul
My buddy Garywiss is still 4 notes short of being ranked, so if you guys could check out his small arcade game it would be neat! It takes only a couple of minutes to try it out on your browser!
In it, you are falling deeper and deeper into a planet and it has a lovely early-2000's/Dreamcast vibe!

Play it here => Deep Point
Thanks!
Hey, Deep Exorcizing: A Poltergeist Cleaning Company needs just a few ratings to beat the 20 minimum, if you would be so kind to play and rate it ^^

Check Deep Exorcizing: A Poltergeist Cleaning Company here:
It's not a masterpiece, I'm gonna say that, but I gave my best and I really like the concept of it. The last few weeks I didn't have much time to fix the remaining bugs on it, I actually got caught in another jam, but it's done now, and I'm planning on keep developing it in the future
But while I'm at it, here are some of the art of the game, the thing I'm most proud of is the "furniture" you need to battle against, I really liked doing them and thinking of the design, I can't wait to do more of them

Did you found all of them in game?
Last minute game marathon to try and get games out of the danger zone :) Will prioritize developers who are active here so comment if you want me to play your game (only if under 20 reviews)! (Unfortunately I only plan on reviewing web games since I'm a bit scared of running untrusted executables on my machine :( )
20 Ratings achieved! Thanks everyone!
~~I hate to beg for reviews, but since the jam happened I've had to prioritize school work and didn't make time to play enough games. I've been trying to fix that but it looks like I might not get rated in time unless a few of you wonderful feed browsing people help out.~~
Belly Flop is a short, simple, and silly physics based game about diving into increasingly shallow and ill-advised pools of water. I wanted to offer a very different take on the theme, and you can complete the whole thing in just a few minutes.
Post-jam version is in the works and not much to show yet.
But I have found captured process of making main sprite during compo (partial, just path of undo-redo, without bad outtakes).

You can enjoy Dorfslinger game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/dorfslinger
Or go play+vote some games who lacks 20 votes: go to Games, select filter "Smart"->"Danger".
Hello everyone! Just to let you know that I've published a more polished version of my game on itch. I'd like to thank my reviewers for pointing out a few design issues, as I'm ready for more feedback.
The game is no more endless as I plan to do different layers of difficulty and an endgame. So for now the world limit is set to 1024 meters and make sure you don't fall into any pits :P
You can play it now by clicking on the link below and downloading the Windows x64 build:
https://vegasword.itch.io/minersweeper

Hey everyone! We’ve got a few small but important updates to share:
We added an interface!
Now you can see how many tasks are left to complete a level, along with a few small quality-of-life tweaks. We tried to keep the atmosphere intact while making the experience a little clearer and more comfortable.

Sounds are finally in!
All the sounds were recorded back in the early days of the jam, but it took us a while to actually bring them into the game. Now the forest rustles, the campfire crackles... and yes, the dog finally barks!

Mini-game improvements.
Especially the backpack — it's now a bit fairer and easier to complete. More fun, less random frustration!

The ending scene!
No more black screens at the end. Now there’s a small, cozy, minimalist ending to wrap up the story nicely.

You can play the more complete version of the game here: https://depth-of-moments.vercel.app
And we'd be really happy if you could rate the game too: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/depth-of-moments

Thank you so much for playing, for all your feedback, and for supporting us! It means the world. ❤️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsQFQ7v-z10
last call!!!!
It's very cool to see everyone's different interpretations and implementations of the theme "depths" -- fittingly, there's a lot of depth to it ;)
Focal depth, depth perception, uncovering the mysteries that lurk in the depths of the ocean, an underground cavern network, or my desktop file system. Invoking the mental state of "that's deep, bro". There's the depths of sleep, depression, or simply just digging a hole.
Don't get me wrong, I think "depths" is a fantastic theme. But some of us were moved by a controversial contender. Once the inspiration hit, we walked through that door and it closed behind us. Decision made. No turning back. And you know, I think that's one of the awesome facets about LD and the various theme ideas, that it inspires you to make something you wouldn't have thought to make otherwise. Cause, I'll be honest, when I first saw "doors" in the theme voting rounds, I didn't think much of it and was initially somewhat unpleasantly surprised that my dev buddy actually had a vision for it.
So in light of my initial disbelief of "doors" as a viable point of inspiration, and my contrasting joy in making a door-inspired game, here's my door-appreciation post with all the door-related games I've stumbled upon. If I've missed any (and I'm sure I have), please link 'em!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/d-e-p-t-h-door-evaluation-protocols-testing-hub by @kabbi, @evoenn, and @sylf
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/doors by @oddballdave
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/lock-smith by @flying-butter-studio
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/were-at-the-bottom by @chifu
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/going-down-protocol by @erlioniel, @momotiktik, @smvynt, @whiteseason, and @ein
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/lockpicks-11 (<-- shameless self-promo)

We finally got around to fix some bugs and improve the performance a little.
Grab the Android .apk or desktop build now!
The update consists out of bug fixes and QoL improvements.
Main goals for a v1.2 are - reworked levels with more diversity - fix some visual glitches - maybe find a solution for the lag-spikes that occur when spawning new stairs on mobile
⟱ Thanks for playing ⟱


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaVM0hgKvS8
You can play the game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/lifted
No computer? Don't worry, just enable touchscreen controls from the main menu. (if you play on ldjam.com embeded version, there is a fullscreen option there too). https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/raid-the-abyss

My first jam and a really great experience!
We could hardly keep our hands off the project and will continue to work on it in the future and maybe it will become more than just a vertical slice!
The mission currently takes about 20 minutes, there is an intro, a mission log and an end screen.
Discover relics, mine materials, collect scrap, take care of your ship and fight aliens.
But above all: Have fun! :D https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/astervoid

Please help my slightly broken platformer get to 20 ratings before the deadline!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/the-deepest-diamond
Lets gooo! :smile: :thumbsup:
Link to my submission: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/into-the-deep

This game needs another two ratings and only takes a couple minutes to play. It's worth checking out: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/2d-infinite-mine
Thank you so much to everyone who helped me or played our game, Loon Lagoon! Link in case you missed it: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/loon-lagoon
Without all of the wonderful & helpful feedback, I wouldn't have been able to finish the game & it wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable as it is now. Thank you.