A lot of good themes this time but there's a clear winner

all the themes are great this time around but one is a clear winner

Hello again Ludum Dare! We’re Team sLEP and we’re in for LD 49!

Our team (or at least, some permutation of its members) has worked together on a bunch of LD games already, so we’re trying something different this time—we’re going to switch up our normal roles, and each of us will focus on some aspect of the game that we don’t usually do. This is probably a terrible idea but it’s too late to stop us.

Here are quotes from each of our members from our warmup game-making session:

Miyolophone: “time to cool guy out of here”
LunacyEcho: “oh man…. i need to arrest you but you’re so cool….”
fawnblue aka CHEESUS, 6 hours into coding one (1) feature: “but Bx is a vector so isnt it B^-1 A^-1 x”
arch: “kermit”
johnfn: “amogus haha hehe hobo im not a boomer”

And here’s a list of our tools, even though they’re almost exactly the same as last time:

Godot (again)
johnfn’s gdscript compiler: ts2gd
Visual Studio Code
Logic Pro X
FireAlpaca

And finally, my attempt at a team picture (I'm usually the team musician but this time I will be the artist):

Votes, as per usual:

The next Ludum Dare event is little more than a day away. I intend on using GameMaker: Studio this time, but what a bad time to be a slacker; I'm worried that I may not possess the skill that I'd like. Of course, you all would probably say that that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things; this isn't about making the best game ever, it's about merely making something.

You're not wrong, but I still am feeling that fear I described in my post on the first round of Theme Voting; the fear of not being able to make something you're proud of. But at the same time, I still feel like a GameMaker noob, and am also afraid of not being able to clear even the first hurdle! It's annoying that a lot of cool things in games are a result of complicated maths, and I'm not exactly math-smart, unfortunately. I should still try to familiarize myself with GameMaker: Studio as much as possible beforehand.

But ~~mostly~~ enough about me! I've got a question for you all, and with this post, I decided "screw it!" and am using a topic I had though of previously, but didn't end up using; and that is Ideas!

Gotta find some excuse to draw something...

Anyways! You can find many posts on "theme suggestion etiquette" or whatever. And I don't necessarily wanna recycle that kind of post, I'll provide a few links here if you're interested:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/$233893/tips-for-good-theme-suggestions

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/soaring/my-take-on-how-to-suggest-good-themes

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/ocean-view-hotel/how-to-improve-your-theme-suggestions

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/master-key/my-thoughts-on-theme-slaughter

https://github.com/ludumdare/ludumdare/issues/346

From these sources, at least, there are bad theme types that they all mention, like Extremely specific themes, Vague themes, Hard to understand themes, Themes that are just mechanics, and Themes that subvert a common gaming trope, among other things. These are just a few threads I decided to include here; there are a lot more I probably haven't seen. In short, I don't want to recycle this, but I want to recycle this, as seen below.

Now, I don't really know if anyone can really answer this question I'm about to give, so you know what? I'll have TWO questions to make up for it! Oh my god!!

But enough foolin' around, here's Question #1:

For experienced Ludum Dare participants (3+ submissions), what is your process of generating ideas for an entry? How do you work with the theme?

Yes, I will consider that one question. But if that can't really be answered, or if you don't meet the 'experience quota', I've prepared Question #2 just in case:

In terms of Theme Suggestions, what would you consider a good theme, and a bad theme? And what change do you think would improve the process of Suggestions/Voting

You can answer both if you want, of course.

I actually just now realized that I didn't say a single thing about this Final Round. Well, I think there's REALLY good potential in 'The environment changes you', but 'One tool, many uses' and 'On/Off' are only mildly interesting. The rest I'm not too keen on, for the most part. Which naturally means one of them will win. Naturally.

But as I said in my First Round post, "Hopefully the least worst theme wins! Whichever that one is"

One more thing: I have a YouTube channel! Now, you certainly don't remember me, @Predominant, but you commented this, on my post from years ago announcing my departure from this site:

Well, now I have a channel and will (probably) use it. I don't intend on becoming popular, that opportunity passed a long time ago. I might upload a post-mortem, if this jam goes well enough. But for the time being, here's a video of me making that ideas drawing:

https://youtu.be/EK1ub_babtI

so far every theme seems to fit my ideal game!

Now that we have a list of our final choices, I always think it's fun to spend a few minutes coming up with ridiculous (and almost certainly idiotic) game ideas for them. Here's my ideas for this LD.

Unstable - A game about horses masterminding a jailbreak from their stables.

Making connections - An awkward physics based game about soldering audio connectors to wires.

One tool, many uses - A game where you only have one tool and it needs to fulfil many uses. But it doesn't fulfil any of them and you just score people on how long they attempt to play the game before they quit.

Decay - A donkey kong clone (D.K/Decay... get it? hur hur hur) <-- this is truly awful and I'm sorry

On / Off - A rogue-like where, when you die, you actually have to turn your computer off and on again IRL.

Delay the inevitable - A tedious, obsessive game where a slider slowly moves from across the screen and you have to periodically drag it back to the start before it reaches the end or you lose.

Keep your distance - A text-based chat game where everyone has to name a distance and if your distance is unique, it gets added to your score.

Delivery - A medieval stealth game where knights sneak into the opposing army's camp before a battle and steal their livery.

The environment changes you - A fashion-centred casual game where you have to select cute outfits that are offered to you by various trees in a local forest.

Leave something behind - A hangman style game where a leaf obscures your view and you have to guess what's behind it.

Everything changes at night - A fashion-centred casual game where you have to find cute outfits to dress every item in your house each evening.

3 rules - A measurement-based puzzle platformer where the main characters are a long, medium and short ruler.

Replication - A cooking sim but you play as a replicator on Star Trek.

Strength in numbers - A survival-crafting game where you have to research and craft numbing agents (numbers) to inject into yourself so you can survive increasingly brutal MMA fights.

Summoning - A mathematics-based combat game where you have to sum numbers of ever increasing difficulty to execute fight moves.

It follows you - A walking simulator where Pennywise the Clown is always one step behind you.

So, there you go. A whole bunch of ideas to completely avoid.

Except the horse one... that's great!

I really want to make a game were you actually move objects and have think and looks good since all my other games are crude at best im planning on makeing a golf game phyics thing not golf but just that type of game and physics so its more of challenge to program

Hello! I am going to make a game, probably a web game from scratch with TypeScript but who knows where the theme will take me.

My last game came 2nd for theme, which is going to be hard to beat! This time, I'm going to try to make something as fleshed out as possible, which is a little hard without a game engine, but we'll see. Likely I'll come up with a theme idea that is too ambitious for the time and have to rush things as usual :stuckouttongueclosedeyes:

Rather than just post a screenshot of my votes or painstakingly commenting on every single one, I thought it would be more interesting to pick out a few themes that stand out to me - both for positive and negative reasons - and give a little commentary on them. These are just my opinions, of course - I'd be curious to know what other people think of these themes too.

DON'T Like: Delivery

This seems a bit too restrictive and specific to me. I imagine that a large number of games would fall into one of two categories:

• Games about delivering mail, packages, etc (only so many different ways to do this)

• Games where the theme is slapped on, i.e. the game is in whatever genre and whatever setting but the story for the game is "you have to deliver X to Y" and when you beat the game it says "congratulations you delivered X to Y"

I think the trouble is, at the end of the day "Delivery" is just going from point A to point B while taking something with you... it's tough to make a game about that without the theme feeling tacked on without outright making a game about a mailman.

DO Like: Everything Changes at Night

In one sense this is somewhat specific, but I think in practical terms there is a ton that could be done with it. Just about ANY genre of game could incorporate the passage of time and a cycle between day and night. Plus, it doesn't necessarily have to be a gameplay mechanic - it could be a story beat, too. And while the theme says everything changes at night, obviously what exactly it is that does change at night is highly variable - the environment? Your character's abilities? Maybe day and night are actually completely different types of gameplay? I think there is a ton of variety with what you could do with this theme. To give a few examples:

• A survival game where the player has to collect resources during the day and fend off monsters at night

• A metroidvania game where the environments change somewhat between day and night which impacts how you explore the game world

• A horror game where the environment seems harmless during the day but turns creepy at night

• A puzzle game where the player can freely switch between day and night which changes the behavior of some of the elements of the game which is needed to solve the puzzles

• A dating sim featuring werewolves

• A strategy RPG where the time of day changes every few turns and your characters have magical abilities that are powered up by sunlight or moonlight, so you must adapt your strategy to the day/night cycle

DON'T Like: The Environment Changes You

I have trouble coming up with a diverse array of concepts for this one. To me, it seems like it lends itself very well to one particular sort of puzzle solving mechanic - a mechanic where stepping on certain types of tiles changes your properties or abilities which you then need to take advantage of to progress. This could be quite interesting, but leading to one good idea does not a good theme make. I have a tough time brainstorming much else...

Sure, I suppose there are some cheeky ways of interpreting the theme. E.g. "the environment" as in "environmentalism" therefore "climate change" and your game could be about, I dunno, a game about a radicalized eco-fascist featuring thinly-veiled commentary on the politics of climate policy?

I feel like there are some scope-related issues here too - some of the ideas I have don't really seem practical. A game where the players abilities dynamically change depending on what sort of environment they're in is interesting, but requires much more work than simply giving the player a fixed set of abilities. A psychological, narrative driven game tackling big issues like how the social environment a person is in can influence the way that they think in all sorts of ways could be a gripping piece of art, but could a story like that be put together in a game jam timeframe?

DO Like: Strength in Numbers

This probably isn't my number one pick, but I think it has a lot of potential. It's general enough that it could be applied in a lot of ways - i.e., WHAT is numerous? - but also specific enough that it wouldn't feel like it was haphazardly slapped-on to games using it.

I think a strength of this theme is that it's open to interpretation in several dimensions. For instance, "strength in numbers" could refer to a massive army winning through sheer size, or could simply refer to a small group of people with complementary abilities. For instance, you could make:

• A puzzle game with multiple playable characters - they each have their own unique abilities, and many puzzles must be solved by cooperation; solving each puzzle requires combining their abilities smartly and sometimes rescuing trapped partners so you can add their strength to your numbers

• An idle game in a high-fantasy setting with a theme of raising bigger and bigger armies in order to conquer villages, cities, empires, continents, and then eventually the whole world as your army becomes unstoppably massive

"Numbers" can also be interpreted in a more literal way - as in, not "large quantities" but rather numbers as in numerals. I think this provides a huge opportunity for creativity - how could you make a game in which numbers are powerful? Maybe some sort of puzzle game where mathematical relationships between numbers are important somehow?

One year since my first jam. And it feels like it was that amount of time ago since i last opened unity.. and don't have nearly as much time as last time. But will try!

Well met!

Haven't found an answer for this anywhere online, so I'll ask here. Would using Asset Forge disqualify a game from the compo category? Would the game perhaps have to opt out of the graphics voting category?

Asset Forge is a tool for making models by combining premade blocks. Made by Kenney_nl, aka. Asset Jesus. I find it's really nice for making quick prototypes and since my modelling skills are lousy it's a great backup.

See link: https://assetforge.io/

Compo rules state that:

Your game, all your content (i.e. Art, Music, Sound, etc) must be created in 48 hours.

You’re free to use any tools or libraries to create your game.

Technically Asset Forge doesn't break the rules, though I do wonder if it's in the spirit of the rules. The way the tool works, means you can create models that look unique and have different colors / shaders and whatnot. However, the art style is the same no matter your modifications.

This would mean that if a majority of devs in the jam used Asset Forge for models, all those games would have the same visual feel.

Thoughts?

Lessgo!! Okay so this time around I will be kind of busy in the jam days, between birthdays and university and travelling a bit. So I probably won't have time to make a really complex game but it's okay im super PUMPED about doing this for the second time!!! The themes are very promising, I'll have to keep in mind that it's a small project and all will go well.

Hi! I'm in for LD49 in compo, I hope I'll manage to do something fun for this one ^^ I'll be streaming the process, do not hesitate to come say hi!

(FR) Aujourd'hui, à 14h, petit stream préparation à la #LDJAM, je répondrai à toutes vos questions sur les game jams ! J'ai même préparé des slides avec mes maigres connaissances pour aider les gens à participer à une jam ^^

(EN) Today I'll stream at 14:00 GMT (8:00 EDT) my preparation for #LDJAM, I'll answer any question about game jams! I even prepared slides with my knowledge to help people participate a jam ^^

twitch.tv/lamisolah

I'll make a game with a friend of mine

It's my 1st time participating of a game jam, I'm really excited for this!

Sorta kinda becoming a tradition for my LD's :smiley: and for once I have an idea for for all - although some of them very basic.

And maybe some "hints" to preferences... oh well - just ignore it.

I know it is kind of taboo but actually loving the themes this LD... Wondering if there has been modifications to the qualification of themes.... :question:

:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:

This will be my first game jam. So I did a short research and found, that it is recommended to make a web based game hosted on itch.io to have more players.

What I did not found, is which WebGL version should be the target? I will use the godot engine, and there are saying that WebGL 2.0 is not recommended because of support (in german documentation only). If I can trust Can I Use - WebGL 2.0, in the most recent Safari update WebGL 2.0 it is now supported.

In the upcomming version of godot, they will focus Vulkan and GLES3, which means they only support WebGL 2.0(?), based on this blog.

So which version of WebGL should I use?
Thanks a lot!

So it is this time again - Ludum Dare 49.

If you feel not in the right mood and want some warmup i would suggest you watch some "Ludum Dare Post Mortem" from Pixel Phrophecy (See : https://www.youtube.com/c/PixelProphecy/videos). This is a task that i do everytime now in the week before.

It gives you the right mood to cry when the theme is announced ;).

Besides this i thought about this time "How to prepare right?". How do you prepare your code base or tools for Ludum Dare specially for the Compo ?

My setup: - Unity 2020.3 (Probably using Cinemachine, Tiles, Pixel Perfect and UWRP). - Aseprite - Photoshop maybe for some high res art - Bfxr for Sfx - Beebbox or Boscaceil for Music (also have some other tools here too)

This is my 11th time in a row i participate in Ludum Dare.

So here are some small advices (and to myself - i should REALLY follow some of them...this time).

• As Jupiter Hadley said in the keynote: "work on the fun mechanic first and then polish". Yeah i should really do this this time really. The reason is: if the game mechanic is not fun or sucks you will notice that too late when you first polish. Some of my Ludum Dare games (many of them) suffer that.
• Start with the minimalistic feature set that your game needs. Strip features or write them on the "nice2have" list
• Have a tasklist could be important. A txt or just trello is enough for it.
• Jam Tip: if you are not good in music, just use some Public Domain music in your game and opt-out the category. The reason is: when your music matches it has influence of the gameplay complete. It feels much better.
• Don't stress totally out. Take some pause sometimes.
• If you want to hit the compo but feel at sunday that your game needs more time - just don't submit it anyway. Take the extra time and submit to Jam. I made the mistake some times :)
• If the game is bad on monday evening but playable - why not submitting it? The feedback you get is really helpful.
• If you have things on the list you don't know how to make, just try to figure out first. Because you don't know how long this could take.
• Don't learn a new engine on the jam. Mostly this wouldnt work (ok sometimes it does but its extra stress).
• Build your project sometimes (even if you target WebGL - this has often problems).

These are my advices....hope it helps a bit. And i hope i really take care of gameplay first.

Have a nice time and i am so excited to see what games you all made.

Ignore the two translators kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! (I'm Brazilian)