Professional developer jumping IN for my 28th or 29th consecutive Ludum Dare. I usually build and use my own engine (C++, OpenGL) but this I'm using Godot. I've been learning live all week if you'd like to stop by and ask or answer "What is your favorite thing about Godot?"

Will be using Godot 4.2.1 and GDScript for LudumDare 55, also playing in Blender, Audacity, VSCode, Git and of course all my streaming tools.

What I've Learned So Far

• Combining Area3D and Shapes to create Trigger Areas.
• Got a little Mechanic (CharacterBody3D) running around.
• The vehicleBody3D was... a little... lacking in clarity / difficult to play with
• Also a handful of things tried that did not work as a solution for problems I had (misc stuff)

What I'm Exploring Today

• Going to fiddle with networking and see if I can add two mechanics (local only) roaming about.

Join the stream and learn/prepare for LD with me.

Rooting for Decay!

I'm doodling some art ideas for each theme to practice. Come and say hi!

https://www.twitch.tv/iluvatargreat

(GIF from my previous LD attempts)

Excited to be joining my game design students (upon whom I've inflicted this activity) for my first Ludum Dare in a couple years! My loadout: -Unity/Visual Studio -Piskel and paint.net -Audacity and some online MIDI creator

A big goal for me this time around is original sound design. I ignored it completely for Cadet Set Go and even though I loved how it came out conceptually and didn't hate the gameplay execution, it was badly incomplete without that dimension. I also had trouble with my web builds last time, so getting something that works properly in Chrome is a major goal for me. I have a new home PC this year (I don't know the specs offhand, so I'll just categorize it as "can run Alan Wake 2") and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to iterate more with a WebGL build instead waiting 15 minutes each time. Fingers crossed! Should be a very memorable 48 hours.

Testing who posts work!

I'm in! As usual I will use Construct 3, Gimp and OpenMPT. But this time I will work more on the concept and less on the aesthetic.

Wish you us all the best. I'm looking forward for the theme.

Oh, by the way, I just published my first mobile game on the Google Play Store one week ago. :-) The name is "Ping on ice" If you are curious, here is the link :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.matotitou.pingu&hl=en_US

Hey LD community, I've missed you all! :D

I think my first Ludum Dare was back in 2012 or 2013, and since then I've done over a dozen game jams, but my schedule hasn't lined up with Ludum Dare since LD46, about 4 years ago!

Best of luck to everyone, I can't wait to see what you all create!

Hey, it's Ludum Dare again! I'm obviously in.

Just leaving an open message here, I'm a game developer from France, and I'm looking for contract/internship opportunities. If you are a recruiter and looking for a programmer, I might be your person! Contact me here below or on my LinkedIn.

anyone want to join me if you join then join the irc chat too im doing the chat on irc because its more anonymous

For example https://ldj.am/$337539 this account now spams into comments and there's no way to do with it at the moment.

Hope @pov will do something

This polling style is not perfect and is just for fun, so take it with a grain of salt. If you like, go ahead and cast your votes if you haven't already!

For those curious, here is how the poll has performed over the last 5 events. Shoutout to @gamecreatorc for digging these up!

• LD54: #4 (Limited Space)
• LD53: #4 (Delivery)
• LD52: #3 (Harvest)
• LD51: #1 (Every 10 seconds)
• LD50: #1 (Delay the inevitable)

As you can see, the theme was accurately predicted twice, and in all 5 cases, the actual selected theme was in the top 4 themes in the poll.

There was a little conversation happening yesterday about the poll and reasons why they are flawed, why people like/dislike them, etc, if you're interested.

VOTE HERE

As the name suggests, GameMaker is a tool for making video games. It's free for non-commercial use, such as taking part in game jams like Ludum Dare :smile:. Games built in GameMaker can be exported for PC and mobile devices, the web (HTML5), and to game consoles (if you're licensed to do so).

GameMaker supports both drag-and-drop visual programming with GML Visual and traditional programming using GML Code. The GML Code language is an original language with a dialect similar to JavaScript.

Setting up

First create an account, then download GameMaker here: https://gamemaker.io/en/download

NOTE: The Linux (Ubuntu) version can be found in the BETA section at the link above. ChromeBook/ChromeOS users can find installation instructions here.

Making your first game, in 15 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwlvT-L9vFg

More resources

• GameMaker Tutorials
• GameMaker Blog
• GameMaker Manual

Embedding GameMaker web games on ldjam.com

(details coming soon)

(At the time of this writing, the embedded canvas is limited to 948x533 pixels, or approximately 16:9)

Acknowledgements

A big thank-you to GameMaker for sponsoring Ludum Dare. :slight_smile:

I can't believe it's April already! It's time again to JAM!

Final Round Theme Voting

Final Round Theme Voting has kicked off! Cast your vote here:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/theme

Invitation Code

Use the following code if you need to create an account: Welcome2LD55

Ludum Dare 55, sponsored by GameMaker

GameMaker is back! In case you hadn't heard, GameMaker is now free for non-commercial use! No more jam-specific codes to manage, just download it and start using it. :thumbsup:

I've put together a short resource page to quickly get started: Getting started with GameMaker (2024)

A big thanks to GameMaker for sponsoring Ludum Dare 55. :smile:

Wrap-up

Leave a comment below or send me an email if you have issues signing up or activating your account. I’ll do my best to get to you.

I'm also aware of the comment spammer. I'll be dealing with them as well. :fire:

Hello all,

Looking forward to participating in my first game jam. We'll see how my <= 11 yr old kids can help out. 9 yr old says he's in (but never programmed). My mileage may vary. Was originally planning to do GODOT, but been messing about with Pico8 which I'm pretty excited about. "Hey kids, this is like my glory days of game programming." All we're missing is the paged Mode X video. I digress.

--

I was hoping to give some feedback to make the website easier to navigate/understand. Or get feedback for myself to clear up things. I think the current - as I understand in development - situation may be a bit difficult for new people to get going with.

https://ludumdare.com/

Learn more takes you to: https://ludumdare.com/#schedule

Which says next event is LD51. Schedule has been updated, latest news is stale.

If you picked help

• Rules link is broke: https://ludumdare.com/resources/rules
• Guides work --> and migration to ldjam.com is discussed.
• Questions link works and is helpful.
• Topics is bare, has same link to rules, link for derivative works.

Given the migration plan, perhaps ludumdare should be updated to better point to ldjam page resources?

As for ldjam.com: Since event details for ld55 aren't posted, I presume I can reference: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/

Perhaps on the top bar a link to left of "My Game / New Post / Notifications / Personal" can be added. * Either "Getting Started" or "Sticky posts" with helpful info from ludumdare.com / ldjam posts? * Hmm, maybe the Explore --> Events --> Ludum Dare Rules is what I'm looking for? * For now, perhaps the Explore button should be changed to Events button until the Explore landing page is done.

It would be nice for the different Ludum Dare compos to be links in the coming up section of page. As it is, I typically edit the URL.

73

Finishing up the work to clear time for Ludum Dare. I am so excited to do this again!!

Last few times I used RPG Maker MV and Twine 2. As I don't have a lot of programming knowledge, and unfortunately didn't have time to learn more coding in recent months, I will probably use a similar engine again ^^''

What engine will you be using? :)

*As this jam is sponsored by GameMaker, sharing a screenshot from my game The Last Light of Ursavus (https://kanity.itch.io/the-last-light-of-ursavus) made in GameMaker. However, it requires a lot more coding so not sure if I'll be able to use it for 3-day-jam with my current coding skills :)

Final prep is in progress. Just to make sure that there are no last minute surprices! Enjoy the jam people and see you on the other side!

Seriously - as much fun as I would have making a fishing game, I'm certainly not going to have fun playing any more than like 2 of the 3000 fishing games that will be made. Why do people who come up with these themes and then vote on them not understand that they are not the only people who will be making a game for this event and a huge part of what makes Ludum Dare different and the game jam event is how many people actually take the time to play and rate the games. Themes that are too restrictive and result in too many similar games (like fishing) ruin that part of the experience because no one wants to play crappy made in a weekend prototype fishing mini game #2465.

/rant