Hey there! It's Ellen here:) You guys rock! It's our first LD as a team, and we cannot believe, that we did it!

Thank you guys for rating our game and commenting on it! It's been a challenge for us, and we're so grateful reading your feedback! It really keeps us going!

If you haven't checked it out yet, here's the link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/things-i-keep

Post your game to the stream or answer this post, and I will be playing your game on stream. Starting in 2 minutes.

https://www.twitch.tv/schmonutz

The timer can’t be bargained with.
It can’t be reasoned with.
It doesn’t feel pity, or mercy, or fear.
It absolutely will not stop… ever…
until you pick them all. 🍄‍🟫🍄

Play Mr. Fungi. There is no fate but the shrooms we pick

The ColorCollecotr a game with very potential mechanism for a platformer game! The game is quite creative!Have a try.!https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/colorcollector Enjoy this unique game. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/colorcollector

The World Core is failing, its geometric elements scattered into chaos.
As the last "Form Collector",

Collect the geometric fragments and save the world!

SAVE THE WORLD

(Welcome everyone to play our game and leave your comments and suggestions! Thank you so much!)

Prove your ear and summon all the birds in your town :bird: :eagle: :hatched_chick:

Start whistling here

The status quo

Yesterday we shared a video from one of our players attempting to speedrun our Ludum Dare entry "Raccoon Rumpus!" by using insane techs we did not even consider were possible. The dog luring and "doggo riding tech" shaved off crucial minutes from a 5 minute run bringing it down to an insane 2:58

8 seconds is an eternity

Not wanting to give up, this player messaged us today that he was able to optimise the run even further, setting the new record at 2:51 while also stating he thinks a sub 2:50 run is possible and close to being achieved.

Do you like speedrunning? Are you up for the challenge? No? Maybe you just like raccoons and would like to rummage through trash cans!

We'd love to hear from you! Let us know if you crack the sub infamous sub 2:50 or if you just enjoyed our game for what it is: a goofy raccoon, hiding from dogs, enjoying emptying trash cans.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/raccoon-rumpus

Think you can master "Space Cleaner"? My best score is 4905. Can you beat it?

Drop a screenshot of your score in the replies. Let's see who's the ultimate space janitor!

Play here!

Do you like minesweeper? This is a game based on minesweeper, but changed the mine to mineral! So that they can be collected.

Start Playing

Horror?

Mushrooms?

Grannies?

Try Shroombound! * https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/shroombound *

https://youtu.be/CBKSewTbD0o?si=-ZDl4Zob29rw_a9N

Little easter egg in laboratory, we will be happy to hear your feedback and if you play! Faceless

(https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/bug-driver-3d)

Claim thy Land

• added animation speed control button
• added tooltips on stats
• slight HP nerf for both player and enemies
• enemies are now a bit spicier :)
• simple meta-progression (persists between runs)

Play now

Also, check out our new cover image :)

Become Bug Driver

Become a Bug Driver!

The little beehive in our game made me think of it being set in a Winnie the Pooh world, so naturally I had to change opa's appearance...

What do you think, should he stay yellow and pantsless?

Come play Opa is de Koning! "You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

Hey everyone, Pacelin, the programmer of Butterfly Gathering, here!

I've been amazed by the competition for world records in the game, and I see one question popping up a lot: "Is it even possible to catch the biggest butterfly?" Today, I want to pull back the curtain and explain exactly how our randomness works and why beating the current record is not just possible, but expected.

🎯 The Building Blocks: Average Size & Flowers

Every butterfly species in the game has a base "average size". Think of this as the center point on a dartboard.

But here's the first secret: you can move that center point. The number of flowers in an area directly influences this average. Find a field blooming with 20 flowers, and the "average size" for butterflies there gets a 1.2x multiplier. You're not just increasing your chances; you're shifting the entire scale of possible sizes in your favor.

📊 The Engine of Chance: Normal Distribution

To create a realistic variety of butterflies, we use a statistical model called "normal distribution". This means most butterflies you catch will be clustered around the average size, while truly giant or tiny ones are much rarer.

During development, we tweaked this curve until we got a result we liked: - 65% chance for a butterfly around the average size. - 2% chance to find a real whopper (specifically, around 45mm).

But these percentages are a bit misleading, and that's the key to our record system.

💥 "Unbreakable" Record

You might think a 2% chance is rare. But in a game played by hundreds of people, that 2% happens all the time! The current record of 37.9mm is impressive, but it's nowhere near the theoretical limit.

So, what is the limit?

Let me introduce you to the "White Whale" of Butterfly Gathering: a 60mm butterfly. The chance of it appearing is so astronomically small that we had to express it in "E" notation: 1E-11%.

🎱 If you ever catch this one, don't just screenshot it — go buy a lottery ticket. Immediately.

This means that no single player is expected to ever find it. Instead, the world record will be broken again and again as our community collectively "rolls the dice," getting closer and closer to that mythical 60mm. The record isn't a wall; it's a horizon we're all moving towards together.

🦋 Best Shot at a New Record: The Malachite Woolmoth

Now for the practical part. Remember how flowers affect the average size? To have any shot at the biggest butterflies, you need to target the species with the highest base average.

And that champion is the Malachite Woolmoth.

Theory is good, but practice is better. Instead of just telling you, let me show you the most effective field configurations we've found for hunting the Malachite Woolmoth. These layouts are designed to maximize your chances of a giant spawn:

The current record of 40.07mm, held by Dragon, is waiting to be broken. Your name could be next on the leaderboard! 🏆

Go to these spots, be patient, and happy hunting! I can't wait to see what you catch.

Happy gathering here!

Now I need to contact a gastroenterologist

You can try my game if you haven't already

-- "All we have to decide is what to do with the shrooms that are given to us."

🍄‍🟫 There and back again… with mushrooms!

Patch Notes

• Updated the Help page entries and descriptions.

• Optimized terrain details on the map.

• Fixed an issue where Chinese text did not display properly in the Help interface.

• Fixed a display issue on the death screen after the player’s death.

• Added missing animations and sound effects.

• Added new sound effects for item collection.

• Added more visual feedback cues.

• Increased the conversion speed of backup energy.

If you take some time to try out the game and share your thoughts, I’d be truly grateful! * ^_^ *

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/deepsea

更新说明

• 更新了 Help 页面的词条说明；

• 优化了地图地形与细节；

• 修复了 Help 界面中文字体显示异常的问题；

• 修复了角色死亡后死亡界面显示异常的问题；

• 补充了缺失的动画与音效；

• 新增了采集物品时的音效；

• 新增了更多的视觉反馈提示；

• 提升了备用能源的转化速度。

如果您能花些时间来试玩这款游戏并分享您的看法，我将不胜感激！ * ^_^ *

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/deepsea

Space Cleaners!

To prepare for the role of game designer in the next Ludum Dare, @uniowl hand-painted all 6569 frames of Bad Apple!! with the help of flowers.

So prepare yourself for the role of a player.

PLAY HERE: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/ld-58-1

Thanks to @nondev for the feedback to our game and a post idea!

So. Back to topic. What these gnomes up to? Only wrong answers!

For my game, I drew a bit of UI over the past three days, and it included an ornament. I sketched it out in literally ten minutes and fell in love with the idea. The drawings turned out to be very simple to make and yet visually intricate — I didn’t have to perfect every little curl like I would if I were using a Gothic or Baroque style.

Anyway, what I’m getting at is — if anyone finds it useful, feel free to borrow the idea. You can replace the skulls and bones with flower buds and stems, or even with plates of food and sausage links — basically, it can be adapted to any theme. Peace to everyone!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/sword-collector

1. The Collected (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/ldgame-58).

I like mood in this deckbuilder. It remember me Hoffmann's tale "The Golden Pot" and Mullins games.

1. BoolkUp (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/bulkup).

This game give me madness vibe. 0 brain, lighweight game with cats and antropomorphic cats.

1. Claim thy lands (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/claim-thy-land).

This is an autobattler game with mechanics like in board games. I don't know, how to make full steam version from this, but I like solve this game in this demo.

Share you top games in comments!

Hey Jammers! 👋 This is our entry for Ludum Dare 58, inspired by the theme Collector. The Collection of Me is a short 2D visual novel about identity, memory, and the quiet horror of collecting things that were never yours.

You wake up in a strange, empty space with no memories. By touching different objects, you enter fragments of someone else’s life—each leading to a different ending. Every choice you make rebuilds who you are.

🌀 13 unique endings 💡 Each item reveals part of a hidden connection 🎧 Handcrafted soundscape & minimalist visuals

If you like weird fiction, surreal atmosphere, or psychological stories with meaning hidden beneath the surface—this one’s for you.

👉 https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/the-collection-of-me We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Ratings and comments mean a lot to us!

from MR. Dung Beetle

Come play our Dutch voice-acted (with English subtitles) adventure game!

Hi everyone, these past few days I have gone through and played a number of games some of which were absolutely amazing. We would really appriciate, if you could take a look at our game and leave your thoughts in our comments. Thank you!!

Play Blood and Bounty: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/blood-and-bounty

1 - No I cant :(

2 - Fuck yeah I can!! >:D

I spent the whole day serving for school club activities, and I'm exhausted.

But the good news is that our little alien cat got a lot of new ideas. This proves that our repair works.

I'm looking for different stylized games, so stay tuned below and let's learn from each other.

I decided to end today with a little puppy.

I wish everyone good luck!

Hey!

Did you already call Hector? He needs your help to collect all the cards in the collection (like this fine fellow below).

He need the help of everyone, because you will not be able to get them all, you will have to share card with others to COMPLETE THE BINDER, YES! And if you complete it, you will have COMPLETED THE BINDER. Which is nice.

Go there https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/call-hector-1

As a welcome gift, here a code for a free booster (don't thanks me, really) _wADOQ7XH09d6lIE1g to use as soon as you unlock the printer.

(Psst don't tell the others but I also share the code of one of my favourite card) RwEDRiHLhqGlC9HW4w

https://www.twitch.tv/oddlyspecificgames

I figured I'd have to evaluate 100 games a day to evaluate them all. Can anyone handle that?

A lot of people told me i just have to wait and it'll update, just play enough games and it will go up, yeah so that's not happening, i've rated and even commented a bunch already and it remains at -10 smart balance, so please, do me a favor and try CollectAnts

I’ve added something like an out-of-game tutorial presented as circus tickets, each with a collectible character on its stub, right on the game page.

Your ticket to understanding the game! Don’t miss out, seats are limited!

Circus Puppet Theater

We all live in anticipation of the future. We make plans, we fear being late...

What if you just stopped? Even for just a couple of minutes.

My game is a time capsule for your perception. The mechanic is simple: you take photos. Not for your phone's gallery, but for yourself. To finally stop and notice what we usually overlook.

That gaze—that's the main character. And what it will reveal depends only on you.

I won't spoil the ending. I'll just say that it's not a conclusion, but the beginning of a very important conversation with yourself.

Hello !

I did a postmortem (in french) of my game Manually counted Ref GC here.

Here is the timelapse

You can play the game here

You read the title right!

I'd love to hear your feedback and highscore!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/shape-collector

During the brainstorm, I had a funny idea — to add Mike Wazowski as a secret easter egg. But in the end, I decided it might ruin the eerie mood I was going for.

What do you think — should I bring him back in a future update?

EYE DEALER 👁️

Saturday night I found myself writing up thoughts on how things were going before realizing that was a terrible way to spend compo time. Finished notes in the hope that someone might find them helpful or at least interesting:

Ways to think up ideas that worked

• Read Wikipedia's list of game genres.
• Look up the one-word theme in a dictionary that lists idioms.
• Step away from the computer and fill up the whiteboard on the living room wall.

Ways that didn't work

• Look over past winners to get into the "Innovative" and "Fun" mindset. Now I know what someone else did, but it doesn't generalize in a way that helps me think of new ideas.
• Mash Wikipedia's random page button twenty times in the hope that it'll be a way to bring random nouns to mind. It doesn't work well for that.
  • I briefly wondered, what if somebody built a way to redirect to a random page weighted by the number of views that page has received to steer it away from overly niche topics? But after looking at Wikipedia's page view data, I think that would trend depressingly current-eventsy :P

Ideas from the living room whiteboard

• Stamp collector simulator with some sort of econ sim going on in the background. Use simulated ebay to buy low, sell high, buy more, collect them all. Very on-theme but I couldn't think of a way to make it fun. (Wouldn't be shocked if someone else figured out how to turn something in this neighborhood into an actual game.)
• Puzzle metroidvania platformer. Start as an emotionless robot (think Lt. Cmdr. Data), collect chips to enable you to have all the emotions. Each new emotion changes your moveset or acts as a status effect somehow; by the end of the game you're involuntarily jumping for joy and also smashing everything in anger and also crying so much that the ground is too wet and slippery for your wheels to get traction. We'll call it "Calm XOR Collected". I think there's potential here but "puzzle", "metroidvania", and "platformer" are three distinct things that aren't my skillset.
• Asteroids, but the flotsam is spaceship parts and your ship is made out of whatever parts you collect. Run into something and it sticks. You have another laser cannon and a second reactor now, yay! You got a new engine, but it's pointing just about exactly opposite the direction that your other engine is facing, and there's only one key that fires all the engines at the same time, not yay! Very definitely inspired by playing Galaxy Trucker at the last tabletop gaming night. I came so close to going with this one.
• The one I went with: Bullet hell inspired by the phrase "collecting dust". The bullets are roombas, the couches are gathering dust and must be defended from the roombas, you play not as the thing dodging the bullets but as the thing that moves the things that need to dodge the bullets.
  • The initial idea I wrote down included "Goal is not to move" and "MOVING BLOWS DUST AWAY" (think "a rolling stone gathers no moss"). In the final game, furniture can't gather dust while you're carrying it, but I would have liked if the mechanics reflected this idea more.
  • I spent a lot of time on Friday writing code to simulate dust levels in different parts of the room's atmosphere. Moving objects would generate dust, dust would flow from dirtier patches of air to cleaner patches of air over time, furniture would suck up dust from the air. It was hard to balance the amount of dust entering vs leaving the room at a given time. It was a bunch of game state that the player couldn't see directly and so it didn't add much fun. I scrapped it Saturday morning and just had the furniture run dustiness += 1 on each tick.

On marketing

• I think I finally figured out how to format title cards. You need a 5:4 image for the games list page, but if your game page has an embedded playable copy, the embed area will cut off the top and the bottom to get something 16:9. This time I tried to keep everything important inside a 16:9 safe zone, but it turns out that, on the game list page, the safe zone after accounting for overlays is juuuust a little smaller than the area that gets shown on the game page.
• Last time I saw some people change their avatars to assets from their games. That's genius and I'm going to start doing it too. I love coming across someone in a comments section and immediately being like "wait I played your game".

Notes to self

• Stock up the kitchen ahead of time. I can live happily on Huel and coffee for two meals a day but not three. If I were better at planning ahead, I would have foreseen the run to Fred Meyer to pick up frozen pizza and taken care of it before time started.
• Do not, repeat, do NOT get bogged down learning a new tech stack. Every time I write a game I feel sad about not having a vec2 library with nice operator-overloaded syntax and that doesn't make a bunch of extra heap objects at runtime, then I re-survey the ecosystem of languages that compile to JS and find out that there still aren't any options that don't add more overhead than I'm okay with. I was hoping that having WASM GC available in browsers would bring new contenders, but no such luck.
  • I'm very happy about the tiny file sizes and practically instant load times that come from working directly in JS!
  • My first thoughts Saturday morning were about Haxe's inline constructors. I spent maybe an hour experimenting before making a note to look at it again after the compo and very deliberately setting it down.
• Having base code that you can copy-paste from old jam projects is way more helpful than I realized! I had the source code for my previous three entries open in background tabs the whole time. When I needed a system to show level intro messages this time around, it was an immediate case of "oh here's one I made earlier".
  • This would be less of a big deal if I bothered to learn a game engine.
• My main takeaway from last time was to spend more time on balance. That was correct. Main takeaway this time: Spend even more time than that on balance.

I will start from the games under this post and will continue looking at the games here.

Join on https://www.twitch.tv/io_vo

Decided to record the whole process of creating my first Ludum Dare game — from blank project to final build. It was a crazy 72 hours full of bugs, energy drinks, and last-minute fixes. Learned a lot about GameMaker and time management along the way.

PLAY MY GAME

PLAY MY GAME

PLAY MY GAME

Drive your buggy & save your species

With 204 voice lines & a cinematic intro, we tried hard & will be grateful for feedback 🫶

like twice for both

Collect every prize from claw machines in our game CLAWFUL

It has cool physics, just like in real life, I promise!

> THIS COULD BE YOU <

~~Our game isn't really gambling because every try is free and nobody throws you out if you lash out at the machines... Anyway, my "marketing team" swears that it's cool. You can play it and tell everybody you're gambling, I won't tell a soul~~

Intractable Physics objects for one, I see you over there Mr. floating book.

And additional hat unlocks.

We managed to squeeze 2 hats into the game, but due to the implementation they conflicted. So if you unlock flight after you find the cat you wont see the propeller hat and vice-versa. We prioritized the cat, did we make the right choice there?

Additionally, we built out a lot more faces to animate in different play states but we only wound up using 2 in the final game.

What would you expect to see in a post-jam update? What do you want to add to your own games?

Let us know and Find the cat hat!

Come marble HERE

Also looking for cool underrated games out there, if you got suggestions for unseen gems, post them in the comments of this post !

After 4 days in indexing limbo, Sword Collector is finally visible. Come contribute to my next 5 views: Click to play Sword Collector on itch.io

Please share your web/linux games, preferrably small ones because AuDHD is not AuDHDing right now :(

also got my name changed yay thank Mike

Try to explore the shards of collapsed universe and save the survived history https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/fluxbeam

Isn’t it against the rules to spam comments? Those two words reviews are suspicious to me 🧐

https://www.twitch.tv/gingybeardyguy

The Keyboard Cowboys are currently playing your games at https://www.twitch.tv/coleslawski

Come join in the festivities and chaos!

Please note that we will be prioritizing games from people who are active in chat, so if we reach your game on the submission list and you’re not there, you will be skipped!

Let’s have some fun! pointright cowboy pointright

(Quality content not guaranteed)

Hi all! I made the third video where I play 15 more random games. Hope i will be on time and create the last video of this jam. Enjoy watching.

🎥 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJxt3f5RM

P.S. If you like any game and wanna try them yourself, I have add links all of them in the video description.

Hi !
We need votes !
Only 10 votes left and we are in !!!
Thanks in advance !
Game

about my game

I need at least 6 more votes, so be free to rate my game and post feedback about it, pwetty pwlease 👉👈 😢 thnx ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

LINK

The music for my game, The Skitter Kit, was made by @Izzyience, a very talented and skilled musician! Show her some love over at Bandcamp and on Youtube:

https://izzyience.bandcamp.com/album/the-skitter-kit-ost

https://youtu.be/HYi7j0o-W3M

P.S.: if you haven't played it yet, you can check it out here! It's a game where you play as a chaotic cat collecting balls of yarn, while avoiding being collected yourself:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/ld58-2

This game is criminally under-rated, I just found it, it's great and should receive ratings:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/lone-alien

![https://static.jam.host/raw/f79/31/z/6d2a3.gif]

A friend wanted a crow collecting trinket game inside a ship with 6 axis of freedom and I went with it.

Yes, I’m planning to make a version 2 of my game that I published here in the game jam. It won’t really be a sequel, but rather a version with more features and obstacles. I want to do this because there are many things I want to improve.

We fixed everything we could fix overnight, we hadn't slept for a day at that time, but overall it turned out much better than it was and everything is working, and this is the most important thing.

A good use of time? Yeah.

https://youtu.be/ObY64UyPbw?si=Bzm-a7PEQ6Tbyww

Play Fartnite

The Great Wall of China or ONE MILLION mages? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/claim-thy-land

option 1: notepad adventure option 2: unity capsule simulator

i didnt include Turbo-powered Cow Milker cuz it will get better every jam

Are you a collector or are you being collected by other creatures?

As a 3D action-adventure game, you take on the dual role of hunter and prey — you must follow your instinct to collect essential items, and more importantly, escape the tentacles’ relentless pursuit to survive and complete your collection goal. All the art assets and background music in the game were created by our team members within the competition time without using any external assets. We hope you will enjoy our game.

link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/shell-hunter

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/ashveil

I tried to add some vitality in my game:

JAM character:

JAM-character with eyes:

I think, it will be character improvement, for mini-games, when I need in eyes. For example, shooter with A character in this panel

Throw your games into the chat or post games in the comments below this post

Be the Tooth Fae.

I spent some time playing the game from my previous blog and gave corresponding reviews, some of which were a bit harsh.

So far, I have collected three computer simulation games and would like to share them with everyone.

The Internet Collector https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/title-here

This is something I made with my friends. I've posted it a few times before—the little guy invading Earth, so here skip Introduce it. (:D

Overemployed Empire https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/overemployed-empire

This is the second computer simulation game I've discovered. Its window management is very well-developed and it's also fun to play. When you unlock a large number of points later in the game, it feels more like constantly receiving spam emails. (XD

@jorbits & @zeitfroggy made it

What's Left to Keep? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/whats-left-to-keep

A relatively complete visual novel game, with very simple page interactions, and the music is equally great (I listened to it at least three times).

@foursay made it

That's all for now! I'm glad we're not the only creators with these kinds of ideas. I'm also continuing to review games, so plz!

Water, weightless and still, carries your presence into the deep unknown.

* DIVE *

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jRwQQ-L8I4

An update was made to https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/booster-buster!

It includes many small bug fixes, a rebalance of some key elements of the game, and an online leaderboard!

It is anonymous (so if you want to prove your achievement you can still post a screenshot), and previous scores shared with us through comments were retroactively added to it, so great feats of skill don't go forgotten!

How much can you get? Test runs on our side have exceeded 1000, can you do it?

Will you venture into the forest until you expire? Meeting lovely souls?

and others?

Check it out :D https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/nightfall

№ PLAY & RATE

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/wizard-of-toilets

Silent eye NPC (secret NPC)

2000s CD reflections

Shadow theater

Red and blue duking it out

Dots unionizing

FIND NEW THINGS NOW HERE

Tried to create for you guys an Youtube video with music and ambient sounds from our game Where’s my money, Gnomski?!?

Came up with this "attempt". Will try to do it better later...

Hey guys, I've noticed my game in "Danger" zone, because of 1-2 votes needed to score 20 and wanted to ask you to help me get out of this category but I thought it would be a great idea to just try and give votes on every game in this category, at least as many as I can

sooo

LETS VOTE EVERY GAME IN "DANGER" CATEGORY

Hello, cosmic janitors! Your favorite trash collector just got a fresh batch of "improvements". Now crashing into asteroids is even more fun and expensive!

1. Storage Bug Fixed
Trash no longer collects when storage is full. Your ship isn't a bottomless dumpster! No more "I can squeeze in one more soda can!"

2. Ship Interface Overhaul
Major fixes to the space station interface - buttons now do what they're supposed to do (most of the time)!

3. Low Fuel Warning System
Get alerted when fuel drops below 20%. Your ship now politely hints: "Hey, idiot, we're about to be stranded forever!"

4. Asteroids Now Steal Your Fuel!
Collisions cost -10 fuel units. Crashing was embarrassing before - now it's expensive! Every cosmic fender-bender brings you 10% closer to walking home.

5. Trash Counter Added
Track your progress in UI and Game Over screen. Now you can precisely measure your incompetence!

6. Reduced Ship Friction
Enjoy longer slides when cutting thrust. Your ship now glides like it's on ice!

7. Game Over Only After Full Stop
Out of fuel? Enjoy minutes of helpless drifting! Watch the station slowly fade away and contemplate your life choices.

8. Increased Space Junk
We've littered space so much that neighboring civilizations are complaining! Plenty to clean up now!

9. Basic Flight Tutorial
Since many struggled with controls, we added a clear flight tutorial. (Still doesn't explain HOW to collect trash though - that's intuitive, right? 😉)

Try it here:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/space-cleaner

I always underestimate how exhausting it is to spend 2 days jamming.

Could you wishlist my main project? :D That game started out as LD prototype MANY months ago

I am willing to do the same in return (post the link in the comments)

Opa is de Koning

Just don't use a calculator, seriously.

And other challenging puzzles in my game

Hey everyone, Pacelin, the programmer of Butterfly Gathering, here!

I've been amazed by the competition for world records in the game, and I see one question popping up a lot: "Is it even possible to catch the biggest butterfly?" Today, I want to pull back the curtain and explain exactly how our randomness works and why beating the current record is not just possible, but expected.

🎯 The Building Blocks: Average Size & Flowers

Every butterfly species in the game has a base "average size". Think of this as the center point on a dartboard.

But here's the first secret: you can move that center point. The number of flowers in an area directly influences this average. Find a field blooming with 20 flowers, and the "average size" for butterflies there gets a 1.2x multiplier. You're not just increasing your chances; you're shifting the entire scale of possible sizes in your favor.

📊 The Engine of Chance: Normal Distribution

To create a realistic variety of butterflies, we use a statistical model called "normal distribution". This means most butterflies you catch will be clustered around the average size, while truly giant or tiny ones are much rarer.

During development, we tweaked this curve until we got a result we liked: - 65% chance for a butterfly around the average size. - 2% chance to find a real whopper (specifically, around 45mm).

But these percentages are a bit misleading, and that's the key to our record system.

💥 "Unbreakable" Record

You might think a 2% chance is rare. But in a game played by hundreds of people, that 2% happens all the time! The current record of 37.9mm is impressive, but it's nowhere near the theoretical limit.

So, what is the limit?

Let me introduce you to the "White Whale" of Butterfly Gathering: a 60mm butterfly. The chance of it appearing is so astronomically small that we had to express it in "E" notation: 1E-11%.

🎱 If you ever catch this one, don't just screenshot it — go buy a lottery ticket. Immediately.

This means that no single player is expected to ever find it. Instead, the world record will be broken again and again as our community collectively "rolls the dice," getting closer and closer to that mythical 60mm. The record isn't a wall; it's a horizon we're all moving towards together.

🦋 Best Shot at a New Record: The Malachite Woolmoth

Now for the practical part. Remember how flowers affect the average size? To have any shot at the biggest butterflies, you need to target the species with the highest base average.

And that champion is the Malachite Woolmoth.

Theory is good, but practice is better. Instead of just telling you, let me show you the most effective field configurations we've found for hunting the Malachite Woolmoth. These layouts are designed to maximize your chances of a giant spawn:

The current record of 40.07mm, held by Dragon, is waiting to be broken. Your name could be next on the leaderboard! 🏆

Go to these spots, be patient, and happy hunting! I can't wait to see what you catch.

Happy gathering here!

Promotional video

I uploaded the promotional video along with the entire process to YouTube.

You can watch me finish my own game here. Hmm, it's indeed very difficult, I can totally relate!

• Full-process video

https://youtu.be/AB_mWpSwy-M?si=X80zfOfvEgEiakrr

Forgive my clumsy English; I hardly know any of it (TAT)

This is my first time making a video on YouTube, please be understanding!

I’m a total newbie competing in a game dev contest for the first time, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts, introduce our team’s game, and tell you a bit about us. First off, our game: Starbearer!!! We went with the classic platformer as our core gameplay, but spiced it up with two fresh twists—vision limitations and unlockable skills—plus a compelling story about saving your homeland. Our artists designed the cutest little characters, our audio team crafted super interactive music that ties into the gameplay, and our programmers poured their hearts into nailing the controls and level flow. (They even spent a whole day optimizing and pulled an all-nighter to get things just right!) Please give our game a try—we’d really appreciate your support!!! Starbearer | ldjam.com | Ludum Dare game jam Next, our team. Every single one of us is a newbie, and just three weeks ago, we didn’t even know each other. We fumbled through game development step by step, and honestly? Finishing a game like this is way beyond what I ever expected. Everyone brought so much heart to it: we talked nonstop, tweaked things over and over, and in the end, we didn’t just make a fun little game—we created an unforgettable experience. It’s all about chasing what we love and working together as a team. Lastly, a little reflection. I only found out later that the organizers actually considered canceling this contest at one point—and that stuck with me, along with a thought that’s been on my mind: We need to grab every chance to try, to take risks, because you never know if that opportunity will come again. Some misses last a lifetime. Will the teammates by your side today be there next time? Will this contest even happen again? And can we ever get back the youth and passion we have right now? I feel so lucky to have seized this chance—to meet my amazing teammates, and to take part in a Ludum Dare contest.

The feed after the competition ends is usually full of the same posts: promotional posts asking for reviews, streamers asking for games to be reviewed, or people offering to exchange reviews, post mortem (but that are also in the end promotional posts.

I sometimes get irritated by people asking for reviews. While they're on their game pages, they haven't done any of that, and I may have left comments in previous editions encouraging them to get involved in the reviewing process. I would prefer that people focus on going through with the karma system for reviews rather than using the feed for getting reviews or finding games to play. But all in all, that is fine and is part of that vibrant community. I like to read the feed to know about technical details, other like their own stuff.

But to get to the point of this post; Yesterday, while looking at some of the posts asking for reviews, all of them had done more reviews than they were receiving... their post were thus quite legitimate, doing their part but not getting anything in return.And in the meantime, I had gotten 30 reviews while only reviewing about 20 (busy week, I'll get some more done during the weekend) and posting nothing in the main feed.

Has something changed in the reviewing process? Does anyone get the same feeling?

What may be the other factors : - Platform availability? For ex, I only play HTML5 (I am on a Mac, there are rarely any options for us, and anyway, I am wary of installing anything on my setup. - Better cover image? I spent some time during the Compo to make it catchy, and it features the HTML5 logo.

A good use of time? Yeah.

https://youtu.be/ObY64UyPbw?si=Bzm-a7PEQ6Tbyww

Play Fartnite

I updated the game so it can be played with a keyboard and adjusted the sensitivity of the axis to have more fluid flight!

The Keyboard Cowboys are playing your games at https://www.twitch.tv/coleslawski FOR ONE MORE DAY!

Come join in the festivities and chaos!

Please note that we will be prioritizing games from people who are active in chat, so if we reach your game on the submission list and you’re not there, you will be skipped!

Let’s have some fun! :pointright: :cowboy: :pointright:

(Quality content not guaranteed)

I realized we didn't get a lot of feedback on whether or not people are even able to finish the game! The people around us are big puzzle platforming fans so they got through the level somewhat well. Others like myself find it haaaard! What is it for you?

Making a game jam game in your own engine is a lot of work! Made a lot of typos and silly bugs while programming tired. After getting some reviews and a chance to play more casually I've found and fixed many bugs. Didn't change any mechanics or goofy physics of course, but stuff like black textures and broken rendering should all be fixed now! If you're interested in a 3d dungeon crawler, check out Relica now! Just uploaded version 1.0.4! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/relica

Also always looking for more games to review + rate! Drop a comment with your game and I'll check it out!

We've updated our post-jam version with 2 new buildings you can try to play with! Unlockable after level 4

Claim thy Land

I managed to break as much as possible in the final 2 hours before submission, including the Dwarf chasing mechanic, the level selection and most of the traps :cry:

Here's mostly what it would have looked like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K01U4jn_2jM

Play the somewhat broken version here

Hey everyone! Thanks to everyone who played Monsters in Jars and left feedback — it really means a lot! ❤️

The game was made in 48 hours for the compo. I want to know what you think: should I turn Monsters in Jars into a demo?

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Edited ui

Fixed collisions, location borders

Mages become more intelligent

Added buffs to artifacts

Added attack sound to enemies

Damage now fixed to animation of enemies

Fixed color in second location

Play now: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/bloodpact

Hey everyone ! Our game has been getting some feedback and it's been very useful ! Unfortunately, we’re still a little short of the 20 ratings, so don’t hesitate to try it out :) Also, been working on a better fuller version of the game, including some things that we didn't get time to add before, and some fixes. Should I post it here ?

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/molly-n-d-o-g-s-records

I just made a web build of my game with emscripten!

Are you a good allocator?

Check it out at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/garbage-collectors-minion! (it can be played on itch.io at https://mibi88.itch.io/garbage-collectors-minion)

find an ultra rare sound of our friend burping in game

Hey, all! The Tech Valley Game Space community will be live-streaming ourselves playing Ludum Dare games tonight, October 11th, from 6:00 - 9:00 PM EDT on twitch.tv/techvalleygamespace and youtube.com/c/techvalleygamespace

To have your game in consideration for playing and judging, you can sign up on this form: forms.gle/kbUdacxVfnVaGrq17

As the form states, we do enforce a Code of Conduct in our live-streams. As such, we do reserve the right to cancel streaming and rating a game for any reason.

Hope to check out your games soon!