I'll have my usual 4h to spend on it this WE... Let's see what's possible, because 48h is too long :wink:

1. Get your itch.io page ready. Create the page, set up all the parameters, build some LD58 graphics. Setup your html to make it look nice. You can do a lot before you have a theme.

2. Decide on a game genre, platformer, top down scroller, side scroller, 2D or 3D. You can make those decisions now and then just plug in the theme.

3. Setup your project. Whatever engine, or framework you are using set the project up in the genre you are going to use. Get your screens set up and working. Block out the game and then substitute the graphics, sound effects, and music when the theme is announced.

4. Setup your game title screen. Use a generic screen and place your buttons for 'Start', 'Exit', 'Rules', and 'Play'.

5. Setup you Credits page that can be accessed from the game through a hot key and then you can return.

6. Set up your End Screen page buttons with 'Exit' and 'Play Again'

7. Setup your Rules Page, how the game is played. Make it simple

8. Optional, a 'High Score' page that can be accessed from the 'End Screen' page

9. If you are not making your own Music and SoundFX then make sure all the links for you assets are working for your SoundFX and Music. Freesound is a great place for sound FX

10. If you are not going to do your own graphics then find a place that has a ton of free assets, Kenney for 2D and Kay Kit for 3D are very good examples.

Finally. When the theme comes out keep your project small. REALLY SMALL!. For example, if the theme is 'Doors' then have maybe three levels of a rogue like game with doors that open only when all the treasure is found. Maybe have some enemies.

Stay away from inventory systems, RPGs, ARPG, games where you have to build up a reputation that takes time. Most of the developers on here are not going to spend more than 10 - 15 minutes playing a game because there are so many games to play, and your 'karma'\page rank depends upon the number of games you play. So make your game so that it can be played to completion or at least the first level in less that 15 minutes.

This is a game jam, a 48 hour game jam, and not standard game development. You goal is not to write your dream game, your goal is to finish something with a little polish that gives a few moments enjoyment to your player.

Hope this helps...

Hi everyone! 👋 We’re a young indie team N_LAST diving into Ludum Dare for the first time. Our crew includes a programmer, two game designers, an artist, and a marketing specialist — small but mighty! 💪

We’ve created lots of mobile games, especially simulators and games for girls, detective adventures, and escape-room styled quests. 🎨🔍📱

Excited to join this amazing community, learn, and share our journey with you all. Looking forward to the jam! 🚀!!!

I have nothing against any single one of these themes. This will be one strange Ludum Dare.

Hi- Waiting for approval of unverified account :>

I accidentally created a new game but am working on a group game with other people. Any idea on how to delete the new game draft?

im new here,,, kinda nervous

Like the title says, this is my second Ludum Dare Jam, but also my second game jam in general, so i hope i can make something better this time (unlike last time where i used Construct 2 as a game engine, bad idea). I got a bit more experience this time around, and i'll be using Godot so let's see how it goes

i will be doing solo jam cuz there is little time for making a team the submissions will be closed until march

Haven't dont a LDJ in years, hopefully i can make something good this time

I will make my game with react js and animated gifs if I have no other choice !

So many creatures, tiny creatures

Since the rules allow to start with any base code, I prepared a small template which sets up a bunch of useful libraries for unity (such as DOTween and UniTask) and adds a little bit of utility functions.

However the biggest advantage I see is the CI pipeline based on github actions. Whenever I commit my code it will do a build and if the build fails I'll be notified. Very easy to know about any issues with the build at the moment the issue happens, rather than at the moment I need to upload this on itch :)

If I create a release on github it will build and upload it on itch.io. It is possible to upload build from every commit (I did it last LD), however I prefer to submit selected ones.

If you are interested to setup the same feel free to fork my github repo here. There are also instructions on how to setup same pipeline with continuous build and continuous upload on itch. Only web is supported for now, but you know the power of open source, feel free to contribute if you wish!

Cthulhu might be in again, depending on the theme.

I've been lurking around Ludum Dare, playing all the winners (and a bunch of others) for, oh...the past decade and a half, and I figured it's time I finally toss my keyboard in the ring. I'll run this coding marathon, training be damned! Planning to try my hand at Love2D via Fennel. I really wanted to find a way to do this all in Julia, but I couldn't get the Raysan bindings working, the Godot module is still lacking a bunch of features, and the native libraries (mostly derivatives of Pygame Zero) are still rough around the edges.

So, after spending the better part of this past year letting AI increasingly do much of the typing for me, I figured it might be nice to sit down with a bucket full of parentheses, a couple bags of ASCII chars, and more instant coffee than any human should reasonably consume in a month and see what I can't do! Oh, and Sunday is my 45th birthday :wink:

My only goal is to submit a working game - even if it's tiny 😅

not much to say, this is just my first ludum dare. i know im super late... i have done a couple of game jams on itch.io before so im not rly used to using a whole website for a single jam so it's kinda hard navigating this site. also if anyone is wondering: why tf would someone say this nobody cares. this is the exact thing i thought but since this is my first jam i have to make a post to get my acc verified so...