I ended up quitting last year at the very tail end of the compo, it taught me a lot about my limits. This year I'm going to go for the regular jam, and I'm excited! When I look at the project last year I accomplished so much more than I realized, I can't wait to see what happens this year!! Let's just hope the theme is good- HA!

In for the ninth time in a row which is kinda crazy, super excited and ready to get our best results ever! :smirk_cat:

Of course joining me will still be the same legends as in the previous eight LD's: @JustMars, @jokku and @happytomato

3 TIPS FOR FIRST TIMERS - rest + sleep - shower - eat properly

Nah just kidding just grind your brains out its a 72h work weekend not a holiday.. :smirk:

For years now I have only made any game development during Ludum Dare, so it's a special weekend for me. I missed it last time, I remembered when it had finished =/

But this time I'm prepared since the beginning, and for the first time I finished the Theme Slaughter round!

What I’ll be using:

• Engine: RPG Maker (maybe, for the first time I'll use it to actually make an RPG, I normally use it just for its top-down movement).
• Code editor: Atom.
• Art & Animation: Pixelorama
• Maybe art too: Pencil/scaner/Krita (if I have time)
• Music: Abundant Music
• Sound FX: sfxr

Exactly the same as the last time, but with rustier skills, lol.

As always, I’m aiming for the Compo.

• My favorite theme: Summoning
• My least favorite: Unstable
• But all are terrible :smiley: (I didn't know I could use smileys here)

But regardless of the theme...

My game will have

• Robots. Because I like them.
• Pixel art. Because that's what I can do with the time.
• An ending screen. That will be your reward for finishing it.
• I'm planning to use the theme to create the story, instead of the game mechanics.

Tips for newcomers

A few things I have learned from before, that might be of some help, specially if you are new at this type of jams.

• First make your scope really small, try the minimum that could make a game fun to play.
• Test it with minimum graphics, if you run out of time, those graphics would be enough, really.
• After you made sure its fun, if you still have time, then try to polish it with nice simple graphics, sound effects and music.
• After you have a short little game that is fun and looks good, if you still have time, then make it longer.
• If you are doing the compo and for some reason run out of time, join the Jam. You can use stock graphics and music, so it will end up looking better and you have 24 extra hours to finish it.

Yes, all of this is very basic, but I didn't think about it when I joined Ludum Dare for the first time.

Good luck to everybody and have fun!

https://discord.gg/S6MCUHDE

It's been so long since I joined Ludum dare. I have not worked in teams for a while so want to do a team jam. But I wanna do the compo too, I can't decide! hmpf

Hey folks! Over the last couple weeks, I've been making a little 3D cityscape in Godot, very loosely inspired by Japanese architecture.

It will be my stream background for LD49, and it can be your wallpaper too! If you download the Linux, Windows or macOS zip, you'll also see a cool animation :smile:

Of course, it's not going to become a level for our LD49 game. We want to be rated in the Graphics category, so we will let the talented 3D artists on our team create the visuals during the jam :smile:

I created the scene entirely in Godot Engine, with no external assets, using built-in primitives, constructive solid geometry, PBR materials, lights, 23 lines of GDScript, and 10 lines of shader code. You can see the whole project at github.com/outfrost/composition02, and it's CC BY, so feel free to mess with it if you wish!

Download the HD and UHD wallpapers, executables, and a video here:
https://github.com/outfrost/composition02/releases

[F11] for fullscreen. Enjoy!

As for the streams, you can check me out at twitch.tv/Outfrost :)

I just published my game, now I can concentrate on Ludum Dare.

Shameless Plug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TviJZazU2cw

I don't know how to delete a Post

Good luck everyone!

play in-browser

We're excited for LD49 but it's been so long since we've made a game together. We wanted to make sure we had our tools ready so we did a 6-hour warm-up jam! It's small (REALLY small), but we feel as ready as we can be to take on LD49. Happy jamming, everybody!

My third go at LD. Using Unity again.

I'll be using Godot!

Good luck everyone!

11th time in a row, can't break the streak now! Jamming with the usual suspects (@raffe, @happytomato, @jokku & @eleeve). Wish you'll gl, hf!

My second Ludum Dare.. Good luck ok?

My weapons of choice are:

• Godot for the engine part
• Kakoune for taming text
• Krita and GIMP for programmer art
• maybe Blender for cubes and cones
• LMMS, Bfxr, maybe Ardour for the ear-candy

All that on my trusted Manjaro.

Good luck everyone!

Good luck everyone! Have a good weekend!

Look guys, I know we have a tri-yearly tradition of picking the worst theme possible, but if we could very kindly not do that this year, I would be greatly appreciative.

Downvote on/off, save LDJ49.

This weekend got unexpectedly busy but I’m gonna try my best to come up with something!

Going to have fun with LittleJS, a library my friend told me about: https://github.com/KilledByAPixel/LittleJS. Never used it before but looks simple enough!

As I'm getting ready here for Ludum Dare I thought of a note on Godot games that might be worth sharing.

So, if you don't know already, Godot's GLES2 backend is much more performant for web export than its GLES3 backend. It's definitely worth at least trying to get your game working with GLES2 if you're going to make a web export.

But! There's one little bug in GLES2 that bit me real hard last time. On the web export in particular, the repeating textures in GLES2 do not work with nearest-neighbor filtering. So if you have a pixel art game and try to use repeating textures, the GLES2 backend will make them all fuzzy and anti-aliased. (A workaround might be to build a custom shader for repeating the texture)

In any case, be aware of this if you're trying to make anything with a repeating texture in a pixel art game in Godot that you're planning to make a web export of. Quite a niche PSA, I suppose. :sweat_smile:

It feels like the stars have alligned. I recently started uni so i moved away from home. I have nothing to do the entire weekend, and i check the ld website to find out that LD 49 is starting in 3 hours. OMG! Im so excited, i have participated like once or twice before. But this time im actually gonna go all out. How long can i stay awake without sleep? Time will tell.

Mostly for the memes, but I also actually really like the Roblox Studio engine. Would this turn people off of playing? It would 100% be delisted so random kiddos don't join.

Always down for a jam

Our development environment is setup and have a demo scene with a rat in place.

We (Foxdog Studios) will be using * babylonjs - 3D web game engine * blender * waveform - an audio DAW * typescript * webpack

Have fun and get some sleep.

Never made a game by myself and now I sit here waiting for the Theme to drop.

Good luck everyone!

This is my 19th LDJam!

Let's have fun everyone! Here's some of my older entries:

First time entering, let's hope I'll be able to finish something :)

Also first time using MonoGame + C# ever (i just started looking into the documentation..), but i used xna 6 years ago for making games but haven't touched game making since back then, so lets hope I can remember some stuff. Also first time using asperite for textures.

Many first times. I'm exited, but also a bit scared.

I know we have a tradition of preferring terrible imposed mechanics instead of real and open to interpretation themes.

But can we have a good theme this time around please? Help us save Ludum Dare 49.

the ludem dare jammers community is a server where you can chat easly with other fellow jammers https://discord.gg/CgyYhcDc

My days off from work line up with at least 1.5 of the days so I'll give this one a go.

Doing a few quick tutorials on some simple unity scripts I use in nearly every game jam!

Here's what we're trying to cover:

Come hang out! http://www.twitch.tv/snowdrama

First time.. good luck everyone!

First time to join this game jam. I can't wait!

I need an artist in the team, please. The older artist left and I'm desperate. We have a sound designer already Edit: I won't be able to check replies till the next 30 mins

Preparing for my fifth Ludum Dare.

Looking forwards to seeing what all you can make, and seeing if I can make it solo this year! Gonna try to draw for this one, and apply the new skills from my game design class.

My programs:

• Unity (w/ VS2019)
• Blender
• Ableton
• Krita/GIMP

Good luck and happy hacking.

If you would like to quickly add accessibility or to stop coding the same basic features over and over again in Unity I have something for you.

https://youtu.be/J-b-uGYumO0

Download | Website | Documentation | Demo

Main benefits:

• Save time
• Add accessibility

How it does in practice

I already used my tool in a game jam. Keep in mind that I used a very old version of it, but I still managed to create impressive results. I have never worked as fast as that Ludum Dare.

The game of my team was also praised for it's settings, remappable inputs (although they were broken at the time) and so much additional fun screwing with the game even after it's completion.

Faster debugging

qASIC comes with an in Game Console and what I call: an Info Displayer. With these both you can easily test out your game and debug it even outside of the editor. You can even use qDebug.ShowValue to display something on screen quickly (something I've added just for this game jam, as I kept doing that in all of my projects).

Trust me when I say: most of the bugs in that game were caused by not using the console.

Better settings

Settings is something we don't often see in jam entries as they just take too much time. I've managed to solve it with qASIC. By attaching one script you can convert your sliders and dropdowns into usable settings. You just need to specify the name of the setting you want to change and you're done.

Adding settings is easy too. You just add an attribute to a function and that's it

Download

You can download it now for free on the Unity Asset Store (hopefully tomorrow the new 0.1.3 version should be processed by unity)

I would love if you would also leave a review :)

The Tools

• Godot
• Aseprite
• Audacity
• Chiptone
• Bosca Ceoil
• Inkscape

The Services

• My Itch.Io Page
• My Public Trello Page

Working with people is great. The last few times I've worked in a pair to help newcomers to the industry complete their first jam. However, this comes with the downsides of teaching and discussion that can take up a lot of time.

The final round themes are alright, I'm glad that spending the few hours to slaughter over 3000 themes was helpful in weeding out the trash.

Look forward to seeing what everyone does. Going to try using Unity URP this jam because in my day job we still use the legacy renderer.

Looking to try going outside my comfort zone this time. But we'll see...

Let's do this.

Hey all, it is that time of year again! I hope we all come up with ideas that we can get excited about - and that we manage to bring those ideas to life over the 48-72 hours!

It's rare it goes to plan... it's rare to avoid feature creep... but whatever happens: don't lose sight of why you take part! Be proud of yourselves and flex those creative muscles 💪🧠

If you're streaming your jam development over the weekend, feel free to drop a link to your twitch channel in the comments; I'll need LD peeps to raid over the weekend when I head to bed 😄

As per tradition, I'll be doing some "play your game" sessions the week following the jam - it'll be great to see some familiar names and awesome games then! Enjoy the game jam!

the ludem dare jammers community is a server where you can chat easly with other fellow jammers https://discord.gg/CgyYhcDc

Here's hoping this Ludum Dare goes by slowly, with a minimum of illness and problems!

Tools: - Godot as my base engine - A small pile of base code mostly in the form of various Godot addons, definitely including the Godot Project Starter and Godot Helper Pack by Jason Lothamer! - Paint.NET and Clip Studio Paint for art - Audacity, BFXR, and Bosca Ceoil (probably) for audio - Possibly other things!

Aiming for the Compo this time, programmer art and all.

This will be our 4th Ludum Dare. My wife and I have a dream to be game developers, and LD is a great opportunity to focus 100% on gamedev instead of our day jobs :)

We've published two LD games and are hoping to add a third to our catalogue!

Here's our stack if you're interested:

• Language: Haskell
• Engine: Custom 2D engine that's been evolving since our first LD. Built on SDL2, sdl-gpu, and some cute_headers.
• Art: Clip Studio Paint
• Sound and Music: LMMS, Audacity + recording sounds and music from real life

FryeUE bonus challenge! I'm going to add a challenge to my game, and recommend you do as well. Include at least one reference to a well known sketch comedy. Don't care if we don't know who it is as this jam is international. This post is the result of the Lumberjack song creeping into my head. No idea why it just did that!

I’m so exited for this next LD! This year I plan try to stream at the same time as creating a game.

I really would like to try and create a game with twitch integration if the theme is fitting, but how knows? I will decide in 2h and 8 minutes :smile_cat:

As always, I try to learn new skills during LD, this time I will be testing sprite art with Aseprite. I'm not a designer but I can do pretty ok programmer art sometimes.

If you feel like cheering me up and check on me during the weekend, come say hi at https://www.twitch.tv/tobugis

I leave you with my practice artwork ^^

Also, as per tradition, here is a wallpaper free to use :D I focused on an eye relaxing color this time.

Link to Explory Story Steam Page :smile:

Pretty sure this will be my 13th LD. That is insane.

Gonna be taking it kind of easy this time. Also gonna be using Godot for the first time, so that is cool!

but now it seems kinda controversial. no you can't change my mind. :'3

Hey, time to predict what the theme will be and ask "What would Managore do?"

Come hang out and predict with me

http://twitch.tv/alexrosegames

Super excited to be back at it with Ludum Dare!

Honestly just about all of these theme choices are really good. Even the ones I 0'd are good. I'll explain my -1's because I feel like it idk - My issue with on/off is that I'm struggling with coming up with a unique spin on it; I'm worried that that theme will result in games that are very similar to one another - I don't tend to like themes that seem to put restrictions on the player, because it's really hard to make losing something a fun aspect of a game, which is why Leave Something Behind is -1 - Honestly I just don't want to have to code 2 separate games for Everything Changes at Night that's just like a personal skill thing, the theme in concept isn't bad - Summoning, like on/off, leaves me with only 1 good idea (which is a card game), and I don't want this jam to become "who can make the best card game; the game jam" - It follows you is I think a little too vague; I can't get a grasp at why something following me would matter, or how to make it interesting because I have so little to go off of.

PSA: Don't be toxic, these are all decent themes and I have definitely seen worse

It is going to be another weekend of sweat and tears and this time we have an even bigger team to make it happen. Half a year ago it was just the three of us and this year we'll be with five! We will even have a member dedicated to sound design.

This time around we will also be using a new game engine, Godot. None of us have really worked with it before, so this time will again start with a learning curve. But that is also part of the fun of game jams like these. And because we're using a different program for art design our artist will also have to take some time to get into the groove.

I'm sure though that this weekend will be lots of fun and I wish you guys the best of luck!

it's just 30 minutes left, this is it it's gonna start soon, all sorts of people with different skills, knowledge, place, goals.. we're all here to do this as the clock is ticking more and more, good luck everyone Give It The Best You Could!

I recently got back into game dev after a very long hiatus. I have a couple of old released games under my belt from around 10 years ago, and a number of mods, maps, and unfinished games, but I've never actually participated in a game jam. Really looking forward to my first attempt, and my only real ambition for my first time is to actually post something people can pick up and play and understand.

I'm excited about this year's themes and I have a handful of ideas that fit with most of them.

I'll be using Godot, which is awesome but is pretty new to me (my past games were made in Microsoft's XNA framework), and I'm also looking forward to finishing my first pixel art game, since my previous titles were based on Photoshopping over prerendered 3D images or stock photos. I've gained some beginner/intermediate art skills during my hiatus and I'm rubbing my hands in anticipation to be able to put them to use.

Good luck to everyone and I'm thrilled to play as many of your games as I can!

Hey! If you haven't seen, I made a little cityscape scene as a wallpaper and animation. Check it out in my previous post :sparkles: Hope you like the vibe!

Updated from last I posted this because thinking of ideas really changed my opinions of them.

Not long now until the theme reveal so it's time to wrap up my Playstation 1 framework prep. I didn't get all the features I wanted ready for the start of the jam but I got more than enough to cut out a lot of wasted time over the weekend. Even dealt with one showstopper bug already that I'm glad to have resolved ahead of the start time.

Last thing was to make sure it all runs on real Playstation hardware and as you can see from the GIF it's looking good. Shame I don't have a CRT in the house for a more authentic look.

Now to wait for the theme reveal to completely throw all my prep work to the wind but hey that's part of the fun.

"May the theme be ever in your favour!"

Had a blast last time in LD48, and I'm back again to make something that is hopefully good! I'm solo again, so I'll be going for the compo again. Here's hoping for a good theme! I'll be streaming the whole thing once it gets started: https://www.twitch.tv/dauntlessdevelopment

Ludumdare

Years ago I created the Godot Project Starter. It's a pre-created Godot Engine project that comes with what I think of as the essentials for any game. I've recently updated it to improve scene layouts, configurability and performance and added pause and game over dialogs.

And so I offer it again to all Godoters to use for any game jam or other project they want to get off the ground quickly!

You can download it from the github repo page: https://github.com/jhlothamer/godotprojectstarter

The github repo page lists what comes with the starter project and instruction on how to use it.

But if your more in the mood for a video about it, I've got ya' covered!

Godot Project Starter

I also made a helper pack with even more useful utilities and components. You can checkout the github page for that here: https://github.com/jhlothamer/godothelperpack

Happy jamming, everyone!

p.s. I'm in.

We will be using Godot :)

Just joined for my first LD Jam after missing the past 3-4 events. Been doing smaller jams, so this is super exciting!

video games

For once I am on time for this! Let's go! #Unity #LD

Hey. um. This is my first game jam. I don't usually interact much with people online or offline. Please don't hurt me. I'm not worth your time and energy.

I'll be using the following technologies to build my game, solo of course.

Javascript for the code.

Aseprite for the art.

notepad for planning.

I'm also thinking of using this new software I bought on steam Rytmik Studio for the music. I wonder how that'll go?

Anyways, I think I'm supposed to say it somewhere so. . . I'M IN!

Haha. That was fun actually. I hope all the games we make are wonderful and interesting. Thank you very much for reading this. Good luck and good hunting to all.

What do they mean in the compo rules where they mention that all source code has to be publically available? I am using Unity and am unsure how much i have to share and also how to.

Thanks.

First time doing a game jam for all four of us on our team. We're using love2d :heart: , aseprite :art: , and ardour :musical_note:!

1 Hour left... well, I'll sleep a little bit and then start workin'

I've already create a GitHub with a Empty Unity Project: https://github.com/StroeAndreX/ludum-dare-49 Also, I'll stream everything here: https://www.twitch.tv/stroeandre

Finally have a weekend free to do this for the first time since LD35 (5 years ago!?!) Good luck everyone, don't forget to eat and sleep ;)

I'm IN! This is my first Ludum Dare and my first time doing a game. I'll Be going solo. I'm using core! GL everyone!

I'll try to make it to the end !

Soooo, the time's coming! I'm ready to watch the theme and... go to sleep actually, because it's quite late here. But I hope, the great game idea will come to me in a dream, and I'll be very productive tomorrow. Good luck, everyone!

First time doing a game jam for all four of us on our team. We’re using love2d heart , aseprite art , and ardour musical_note!

Look familiar? :)

We're in for game number 6, and maintaining an unbroken streak of LD games since we started 3 years ago. For programs, we're sticking with Unity, aseprite, Paint.NET, and a music program, and if we feel real bold, Magica Voxel. Last time was fun but still average, though, as a trial by fire, there's few better places to learn new techniques than the Dare.

Time to begin.

WE DOIN THIS OR WHAT Ill be using game maker studio 2, aseprite and audacity, and I'll be streaming all of it on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/frankiepixelshow

lets gooooo!

I participated in a Ludum Dare game jam many years ago. This time i'm working in 3D which I am not nearly as fast at. Hopefully I have something to show by the end.

Using: Blender Panda3D Gimp SFXR LMMS

GLHF

Half an hour until it all begins! The theme will be announced, we'll all complain about it for 5 minutes straight and overload the site, then the gamedev/idea generation begins and we magically no longer hate the theme as much. Then after 2 or 3 days of being sleep deprived we spend a couple weeks playing other people's games and by the time it's all over everyone's already forgotten about how much they hated the theme. Looking forward to every minute of it!

Not sure how much time I'll have to make a game this weekend compared to last Ludum Dare's ~20 hours of game development, but at least since I'm going for Compo if need be I can give myself an extra day and switch to the Jam.

I'm back, ready with my pal to rock in it!! Idk why but I feel SUPER HYPED!!

Here's what I'll be using:

Engine: Unity

Sound: FL Studio 20, Audacity

Graphics: Paint.net

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs

I always have bad timing with LD and fully booked Saturdays, but last time I was at least able to put together something barely resembling a game, so here's hoping I can go further this time!

I'm full of hope, fear, and grape NOS

Lets go hacking - boom!

I probably do a mindmap with Mindmeister, very roughly writing everything down coming to mind and then selecting from there. But the app is a bit clunky and it allows to only have 3 maps saved at a time. So what are you using?

Weeeeeee game jam

Same as usual :)

• Haxe + Heaps engine (http://haxe.org)
• GameBase for the base code (https://github.com/deepnight/gameBase/ @ "advanced" branch)
• LDtk for level editing (https://ldtk.io)
• Aseprite for art

And side tools:

• LabChirp for the sounds,
• No idea for the music, maybe Bosca Ceoil?

its starting...

I've barely touched Unity since the last ldjam (diff account), but let's go!

I'll be live around theme release! https://twitch.tv/craftgineer

LUDUM DARE! LUDUM DARE!! LUDUM DARE!!!

First time completing the Jam as a team after competing in the compo since 2014. Good luck everyone. Making Connections, fingers crossed.

Got my Ipad, opened any program I'll need, I keep scrolling through the posts, can't stop shaking!!

It's been so long since my last Game Jam, please help!!

It's been a very long while since I participated in the jam. I remember the old site! Found out about it and thought I would do it again...

Unity 2020.3 with standard pipeline or URP

Visual Studio Community 2019

Affinity Photo / Aseprite / Blender

Sound? I never have time for sound! But if I do, SFXR.

Let's get this show on the road, I'm more stoked than ever!

By the power of...

Unity fiddling !

Graphic Design passion !

Random Sound-design !

We are Papoumouth, a team of three ready to rock socks and somehow make a game !

Have fun y'all !

Hi everyone! This will be my... woah... 20th time participating in Ludum Dare! Is that right?

My goal this time is simply to finish something, anything. I had a good track record but the last 2 events I've thrown in the towel. The first time I just wasn't in a good place (mentally). The most epic 48th I was in a good place but simply ran out of time before getting my idea to fruition. I think my age is catching up with me! :older_man:

So this time I just want to finish and submit something. May just be the simplest game ever. That's okay!

Also, cool stuff, I'm running a 10k tomorrow so I'll miss a couple hours of the event. Keep it simple!!!!

Sticking with my classic tools: Visual Studio 2022, MonoGame, C#, Paint.NET, GIMP, Asesprite (maybe), Paint, SFXR/BFXR, Bosca Ceoil, etc… Starter code is here: https://github.com/srakowski/LD49; no content but dummy content I'll chuck.

Good luck y'all!!!

Time to make some coffee