I've noticed some interesting changes to the site lately, and every time it's updated I want to see all the little features. Is there a changelog somewhere where we can see the updates when they roll out?

I had another game for game jam but I didn't posted it cuz I had only one account. So now I am posting it here. Check it out and give me you feedback here. Just for your info, my highscore is 247 :P

https://velocityengine7.itch.io/orbeat

The game is not really that scary but considering that I wake up at 10 am and then work on the game up until 2 am, coupled with stress from my crappy laptop. I think stress is the reason.

Anyway due to multiple occurence of it I decided to stop and i'll vow to never work on horror games anymore.

File Size

The game is now only 37 mb compared to 100 mb. Probably because I updated my unity to 2018.1 from the very outdated unity 5.

Music

I gave the music more bass to set the eerie mood. I also left the drum beat unchanged so it can set the player to perform in a racing game.

Menu

The intro terrain is now on a cliffside instead of a roadside.

There's now an introduction video and a tutorial.

Gameplay

The controls are a lot better now. Compared to the ice skating rink from the Ludum Dare version.

Hitting the zombies will now explode blood to limit your vision. Compared to the old version where they just follow you indefinitely.

AI

Car AI are also improved. They would now drift when hitting a waypoint.

New Enemy: Ghost(Probably the reason I had sleep paralysis). It wasn't really that scary because I did not put a lot of effort in making it terrifying but, Repeatetive play-testing still always gives me the creeps.

New Features

A map with real time player and enemy location

Map

The terrain now includes a lake. The game now have very varied map height because of the new better controls.

WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED.

The last thing that I want to include but was not able to, is the different ending depending on the place.

Ludum Dare Page:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/black-horizon

BTW UNITY VIDEO IN WEBGL DOESN'T WORK AND I CANT FIND A FREE ASSET SO PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE WINDOWS VERSION FOR THE POST-JAM. THE WEB VERSION IS THE LUDUM DARE VERSION

Ithc.io Page:

https://kripp.itch.io/black-horizon

https://blog.github.com/2018-05-16-ludum-dare-41-highlights/

The HTML version has received the newest update, and now shows the scores so works exactly like the windows version 😁.

Try it here: https://jiri-one.itch.io/daunting-dungeons

Dear developer, gamer, jammer…

As I assume anyone that reads this to by now have learned about the controversy surrounding the rating system, I would like to take a minute of your time to elaborate on my personal experience and opinion. Before going in depth I would like to start off by encouraging everyone to not be tempted into contentless discussion, as it is clear from many precedents that this leads to nothing but grief and arguing. Everybody who participated, even those who did not finish a game in time, deserve praise for their attempts and the throwing of mud is just inappropriate here.

That being said, over the course of the last few days I have tried to be constructive in discussing the current rating system. I think it is important to do this by entering in discussions that are provided with valuable arguments and that might contribute to a better experience for everyone, but after writing a few elaborate comments, I decided it might be better to write a proper summarizing blog post where the discussion can be kept alive and be even more transparent and accessible by everyone and it also should be clear that no single individual or group is being targeted.

But before I make my personal analysis, I would like to address some comments that are recurring very frequently. If I paraphrase: “It is not a competition, Ludum Dare is about making a game”. I respect that opinion but I would dare to nuance it. Games are being rated so a developer can get honest feedback, which for me personally was the driving force behind my development cycle. The rank is a nice bonus and seemingly flows naturally from the scores given in the various areas. So, you might be right, for some it is not a competition, for others it is, but what we all should share is the desire and right for recognition of your work, to learn and grow in the areas we excel in or lack. Another one is “It has been like this forever, it is what makes it Ludum Dare”. I am horribly sorry if I should offend anyone by saying that this is a load of crap, and is even contradictory to the earlier statement. For me personally this was my first entry, but I did follow Ludum Dare for a few years now and I have to say it is very sad to see the amount of demotivated game developers after the jam. It might be true that problems have been around for a long way, but ignoring them for the sake of having a popular opinion is not the way to go. It can be solved.

Finally, do allow me to expand on my personal experience. I decided to join the Ludum Dare event pretty late, I believe I officially committed to doing it not 24 hours before it started. I remember going through the rules the day before and having friends telling me I should worry less and it all is relatively straightforward. After that I asked my wife if it would be for me to lock myself up and make the best darn game I could. Laugh all you want, but I respect her and my toddler son enough that they should be okay with me doing it. A 48 hour jam is not a small task and I would not be able to help a lot in the household. 48 hours later I had slept for just 5 hours and I took some breaks to have some time with my kid. I also noticed I was sitting down too much as my one foot was swollen to double its normal size. So an important lesson learned…No jam is worth that, take plenty of rest, get up, walk around. Anyway, I finished the game loop and decided to not bother with too much art anymore, which also is clearly the explanation to the poor score in that area. I was proud of what I had and I was awaiting that sweet sweet sense of recognition when the voting was underway. Fast forward 3 weeks, the ratings were released and I was happy at first, I wound up where I expected to be and that was slightly above average! Not bad for a first time compo submission! But then I started seeing alarming posts. Both offensive and defensive, the blame game was underway and things got even worse when it turned out the rules might have been inadvertently not respected for one of the winners. To make matters worse, due to poor communication there were indications that the score was manipulated due to the fact a single group had voted within its own members. I have to say, at first that did raise a lot of questions to me and I have tried to be constructive about it, but I have noticed the back and forward salvos of arguments are still flying over everyone’s head, which is also the major reason I decided to make a blog post.

So here comes the juicy part… Was there cheating? Well that depends on what you consider cheating. According strictly to the rules? Yes there was cheating, as one of the games won the audio category, while none of the audio was made by the contestant. This was amended though, so if that is cheating or bad preparation (not everyone is as crazy to read the entire page of rules as deeply as I did), I leave that open for interpretation. What does concern me way more is the way the voting system works. I was not aware of it before the start and I apparently needed to see it for myself. The alarming part is that the winning game has but 20 votes, where there are other games that received over tenfold that number. I learned in statistics that these sample sizes are not comparable at all, furthermore any ranking based on averages is a nice attempt…But meaningless. Luckily (but maybe not so much for the gamedeveloper) this was clearly exposed during this LD, even more than was the case for previous editions. In the comment section there undeniably was what I call “friendly voting”, overestimating a game’s metrics, which caused its rating to skyrocket. And just to be clear, this is not bashing the unnamed group in question, the developers behind it or even the hosts of the Ludum Dare events. This is just me trying to explain what is not a “flawed system”, but what is a broken system all together. Statistically, pulling a random entry out of all entries to win would make more sense than having varying samples from varying voting pools. I received arguments that the event is too large and rating 3000 games in a way that is both qualitative and fast is impossible. That brings me back to the same arguments I received before writing my comments. If the rank is not important to anyone… then it does not matter if rating all games takes 3 weeks of 3 months. So here is my suggestion:

The days following the submission date for ludum dare were filled with enthousiastic twitch streamers (probably also a lot of activity on youtube, but I did not personally follow that). Sidenote, these people deserve utter respect, I have seen some of them play over 150 games while ranking them fairly. The way it often works now is that a streamer either selects random games or has viewers register a slot to get played. I also have noticed that the LD page features twitch streamers. These people are doing it for free and combined, they played (roughly estimated) over half of all games. I would make these channels featured referees during ludum dare, giving them more exposure while they in return rate games on stream. It is a pure win-win situation that doesn’t have to cost anything but a title and a feature status on the LD page, something that already is implemented for the largest part. The counterargument for this is that the public should not lose its voting power. That is most definitely true, but a refereeing system is not intended to eliminate votes. It rather is a layer on top of the public votes, where the effects of “buddy voting” will be reduced. Should it still be required, an even smaller panel of “experts” or “LD veterans” could rate and play the finalists, making a semi-final decision. A lot of salt would be avoided this way and it surely would be beneficial to everyone, as even games that did not make it to 20 votes (it is a popularity contest, do not even question that) would get a form of rank in one way or another, through the streamer-referees. And now, intentionally saved for last, I want to put down an official disclaimer that I am not a salty loser and I do not want to be in the victor’s place. Despite my slightly above ratings, which I am happy with, I can’t deny I felt a little bit offended by blind and wild accusations of being jealous and a sore loser (some people call me java-sore-ass already, thank you @HonestDanGames), but I only want a constructive discussion and hope that the LD team picks this up. For me it is clear, the post-jam explosion of comments and arguing has made me believe LD is “not my jam”, at least not until the rating is ameliorated.

But who knows… The itch might come back like it did for LD41 and I might join in again next time, maybe “just for fun” like the majority of you people out there 😊. Heck, I might even do it all on stream (SHAMELESS ADVERTISING)

With a giant respectful roar, cheers and Dev On,

JavaSaurus

Hello again. I thought maybe the "he rated a game a 5 that I disagree with so that must be cheating" roller coaster ride was over, but it's not. So my only recourse is to make a mega post summarizing the majority of my interactions within the LD41 rating period. This will be dense, but it will be entirely fact-based and authoritative. Unfortunately, now that the rating period is over, I can no longer see the ratings I gave all the games, nor does there appear to be any easy way to see a list of all games I've rated. I'm also not going to post every single GDU chat message or long discussion about cheating, because it would simply be too much. So think of this as the lore tabs in Destiny 2 after the removal of the Grimoire: incomplete. Below are links to all the games I remember rating, most but not all of which are from GDU members, and my initial feedback comment from each one of them. It is just as ridiculous that I feel the need to do this as it is that anyone would think I was inflating my fellow GDU members' scores with fake undeserved 5's after reading what follows. The last 3 games are the only non-GDU games I remember rating, because again, I don't have a list, whereas for the GDU ones, they were from a spreadsheet. You can see my feedback on those was completely consistent with the feedback from the dozens of other games I rated. It is simply not true that I cheated for anyone else.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/$85014

"Yet another game I’m giving 5 stars all around. That is the 5th one so far. Man, GDU members are kicking butt this jam! I absolutely love both genres you did, and the voice over work was absolutely perfect. Good selection of video game trivia too. A real treat to play. I just wish I could play in full screen."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/ready-set-dress

"I absolutely love this style of game. I used to be addicted to Pole Position as a kid. The only thing is I couldn’t really figure out what I was supposed to be doing as far as changing outfits. Was it like memory? Was I supposed to match what the other girl was wearing? Or just change as quickly as possible? I tried both but ended up dying regardless."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/zenmaku

"Hmm, I wanted to have the great experience that others are reporting, but this game was just flat out impossibly hard for me. I’m not sure why, as I’m generally a pretty competent gamer. I love the graphics, atmosphere, concept, all that. It’s actually a really smart game. But I cannot collect the very first enemy. I tried hundreds of times. Just can’t do it. Is it just me, or do you need to be pixel perfect to actually get to the enemy? Or maybe I am not pressing some button I should be pressing? I really have no idea, but I tried and tried and couldn’t get a single enemy. And also, perhaps a bit more constructive criticism, the shield rings were really ambiguous and difficult to understand at first because they are placed so close to enemies. There should be a substantial gap between enemies and the rings to make it clear that you cannot pass the rings until you collect the enemies within. I kept going for enemies outside the rings, not realizing that the rings were knocking me back."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/bunny-derps

"Mint Arcade, you have proven yourself once again! Great game. I could honestly play this for hours. You really know how to design gameplay that is engaging over a longer period of time without relying on too many assets."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/honest-dans-trout

"Yeah, I just had to keep playing this game until I got on the scoreboard. 5’s all around. Instant winner."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/stone-age-xo-inception

"This game has a ton of potential. I think what you were going for in terms of creating a relaxed puzzle game is really smart, and you did a fantastic job of achieving that goal. I would really enjoy to play this game in my spare time or on my phone. However, there is something majorly wrong with the upgrades. They’re actually downgrades. I don’t know if that’s intentional, or if it’s because of an exploit that needs to be fixed. But basically, the play gains IQ from each click. So it benefits the player to click every single grid cell as many times as possible without triggering it. Upgrading the IQ gain just reduces the granularity of the player’s control. Auto-clicking is a serious waste of resources, because you basically can’t take advantage of that extra IQ gain and still win. You could literally just make all the upgrades their opposites and it’d be more balanced. But realistically, I’m guessing you didn’t actually intend for players to be able to click on other grid cells after committing to one. Other than that, it’s actually a fun game."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/card-kart

"I love the concept. It seems like it could be a lot of fun, and would honestly make a great card or board game as well as a video game. However, I think there’s just too much going on with the cards, and it’s hard to understand how to play. I thought you could only discard at most 1 card per turn, but the game lets you do more? And there’s all this other stuff with turbo, acceleration, oil spills, etc. It’s really hard to get a good grasp of what that means when all we see is each racer’s speed and current position. Also, It’s really not obvious which racer corresponds to the player. I found myself wondering which position I was in."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/peculiar-adventures-of-dorothy-hops

"HAHAHA I love this interesting take on infinite runners. The game feels pretty darn difficult. I think I’d prefer if things didn’t take so much dang health so I could last a bit longer. But it’s a fantastic game."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/pinball-golf

"I LOOOOOOOVE THIS GAME! This is one of those rare games where as soon as I started playing, I immediately thought, “Why hasn’t anybody made this before?”. You combined both genres just perfectly. The scoring system of golf. The physics of pinball. I mean, I guess if I were being super picky, I would say pinball and golf are not actually incompatible, as they are fairly similar games in principle. But you did such a fantastic job of combining them, I’m so happy this game exists."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/$76931

"Definitely has that signature Zombie Virals feel I remember from the last game! I really like this game. The idea of combining platforming with education is a great fit for the theme, because not only is it an unexpected combination, but it actually works really well by framing knowledge as the reward for completing a challenge. You could make a pretty good children’s game with this concept (just don’t make a game for kids about, uhmm cough “bear” penis cough). My only gripe is that after Logic Gates of Hell, I was expecting a bigger finale, but instead, this game doesn’t really go any further than the core gameplay. A big boss fight against a teddy bear or something would have been fun."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/light-at-night

"Is the impossible level actually possible? I got to the impossible level and couldn’t jump back up from the yellow crystal. The game is actually really fun. Although to be honest, it just feels like a platformer. I don’t really see how it fits the theme or combines any other genres."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/skatensnipe

"LOL I absolutely love the concept and music. The game is a bit rough around the edges, but it’s a jam game after all. Some of the enemies were bugged, and it wasn’t particularly easy to get past some of the gaps. But it was fun nonetheless."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/typewriter-dungeon

"The idea is actually very interesting and could make a fun game. However, the execution is off in a way that was probably hard to predict until actually trying it. I think you were a little focused on the dungeon aspect of the game, when in reality, the method of control really is incompatible with dungeon exploration. It’s just really tedious and slow to have to retrace your steps through a dungeon by typing the same words over and over again. You also tried to trick players with the words, which added to the frustration. Instead, the game could have been way more interesting if you focused on it being some kind of write your own story book, or like that game people play where they take turns adding a word to form a sentence and make a story. Your intro was a perfect example of this. You could chose “created by” or “made by”. I thought that was very clever. Rather than having players backtrack through a series of words which may or may not have anything to do with the actual dungeon design, you could just have them chose paths through a story and play sound effects or display images based on their choices."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/prototypes-and-dust

"Another hit from Adroit Conceptions! Excellent game. Doesn’t feel as “complete” as your island delivery service game for Jim Jam, but it’s also more unique and fits the theme really well. Some of the puzzles were fairly challenging. I love having to switch views. It’s a really solid and fun game, and I think it could really benefit from more polish. I don’t mind the use of primitives for graphics, especially in an abstract puzzle game, but the fact that this is also a platformer makes the environments feel a little lifeless compared to playing something like a Super Mario game."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/dragon-pet-simulator-virtual-pet-stealth

"It’s a cute little game, but very light on actual gameplay and even story, which is a shame because I was expecting this game to be really story focused. The multiple endings, at least the ones I got, were also not substantial enough to justify playing through over and over again. They seem to just display a slightly different message at the end, but the story ends the exact same way. It’s kind of like those movies on DVD where they advertise deleted scenes and other special features, and half of them are just 10 second bits of dialog that do nothing for the movie. Overall, a fun little jam game, and a good match for the theme, but quite small in scope."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/tennis-z-a-zombie-apocalypse-tennis-game

"This is the first LD41 game I’m giving 5 stars across the board! An absolute perfect game! At first, I thought it was way too hard. It is certainly a challenging game to get used to. I think I lost my first match without winning a single point. But I was able to wrap my head around it and just barely win my second match. I had a ton of fun. I do wish it were easier to kill the zombies, because it seems that in practice, although it’s technically possible to kill them, you’re better off just focusing on the game of tennis and not trying to fight them. I think they could even just take 1 or 2 hits to die, instead of the 5 or so it takes now."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/remote-cuddles

"Texting your dragon is a pretty funny mechanic, and a good fit for the theme. The gameplay is actually quite fun. That being said, there are a lot of frustrating things about the game as well. The 1st issue is that as others have mentioned, the web build isn’t very widely compatible. That may not be your fault, but I tried multiple browsers and had problems. I downloaded the Windows build, and it worked flawlessly. However, summoning the dragon just feels really random, as it may or may not kill the beasts. I definitely think the game would be better if the dragon AI was able to seek out enemies. Finally, after the “thin corridor” where you hide your dragon for the first time, that bullet hallway is really tricky. It seems you can’t completely avoid damage by dashing, which wouldn’t be a big deal if you could just take a few points of damage before reaching the end, but you then spawn beasts from the already cleared room behind the player, which is completely unexpected and makes that hallway really hard. The funny thing is that spawning the dragon there would have killed them, but the game just got finished instructing the player to hide the dragon! Basically, the game is fun, but it definitely could have benefited from more testing and iteration to iron out some of those issues."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/soul-engines

"I have 2 words for you: Burnout Paradise. That was the first game that came to mind when I read your description, and I immediately started thinking how damn cool it would be if there was a survival mod to that game. Obviously that was a massively ambitious AAA title, and this was a game jam game. But man, not only is the idea great, but the execution is quite good. There are certain rough spots. The crash physics are really wonky. There is no way to restart after dying. But there are plenty of bright spots too. The graphics are incredible. The day/night cycle works perfectly. Honestly, although it could use some further development, I’m extremely impressed with this submission."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/arbusts-revenge

"I reread the instructions and tried everything I could, but couldn’t seem to attack. I’m not sure if I just missed something. The gameplay is actually an interesting blend of genres, and seems pretty fun. But I just had no idea how to kill things."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/runetowers

"This game is sooooo good! I absolutely love this game. Fell in love with it immediately. It’s a massive success when it comes to fitting the theme, because the genres really are incompatible in the sense that playing one diverts your attention from the other, yet you’ve made it so it enhances the challenge, rather than breaking it. This game could’ve easily been terrible if you had spawned enemies right away, but giving players the chance to build up resources before the waves of enemies arrived was a smart decision. My only complaint would be that the enemy movement is too fast. The reason I say this is that you could essentially keep the balance of the game the same by adjust enemy health proportionally to their speed. For example, if you reduce their speed by half, they’ll take twice as much damage, so they need double the health. Normally in a TD game, the exact timing doesn’t matter so much as the proportions. But because you’re asking players to divert focus to the match-3 portion of the game, it’s extremely brutal when they’re paying attention to the grid, and they suddenly look up to find hordes of gargoyles half way to the base. There’s already a lot going on with the 2 halves of the game. It doesn’t need to be so quick that the player can barely react. At least not at first. That could be an additional challenge in later stages. Over all, I’m extremely impressed by the quality of this submission."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/gnome-mans-land

"Great job, Tim! The game is fantastic. It feels way more intense actually playing the game in full screen with the screen shake than it does watching the development stream. I only really had 2 issues with it; 1st is that I don’t think the game really fits the theme all that well, or did anything that original. I know you voiced your opinion about the theme being self-contradictory, but at the same time, many developers were going for really unexpected combinations, and reverse tower defense has been mainstream since the very successful Anomaly series back in 2010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomaly:WarzoneEarth). Had this game come out 10 years ago, absolutely, this would match the theme. But again, this isn’t much different from playing Anomaly, and that’s not some obscure game reference nobody would have heard of. 2nd is that reaching the end of the level just feels really unsatisfying and under-developed. I got my gnomes to the end, then a bunch of waves just kept spawning, and occasionally I’d kill an enemy that would appear. Then I randomly died at one point without seeing anything that would have caused damage. At that point, it looked just like I had lost, even though I had been delivering several waves of gnomes uninterrupted. And when I restarted the game, the music wasn’t playing anymore, so it felt really quiet. Normally, I wouldn’t make such a big deal of this, but for having a single challenging level that isn’t very long in scope, rewarding players who persevere and get through is super important. That being said, this gets high marks for just pure fun."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/$75021

"This concept definitely has potential. It’s certainly a great fit for the theme. I was really looking forward to trying it when I saw the screenshots because my dad’s a big golfer and he likes to mess around too and play lawn golf and do trick shots while drinking beer. So this game is right up my alley. But the execution falls short in a few ways. Not having audio really hurts the immersion. And the controls are quite difficult. It’d be one thing if the game was challenging due to obstacles, like mini golf. But there were several times when I was lined up perfectly and missed the hole by a mile at point blank range. Not a bad entry overall, but could use some work."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/check-please

"The game is absolutely hilarious and fun! The menus and credits were also a really nice touch. The only downside is that the game was extremely short, and I would’ve loved more. To be fair, it’s a jam game, and it looks like a lot of time was spent on creating the environment, which looks fantastic."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/stealth-trucking

"What a great game! I absolutely love this concept and think it could make for a great twist on the stealth and survival genres. Having to be a trucker in a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with bandits? Can anybody say Mad Max? Really well done."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/cant-remember-you

"Okay, let’s get the good out of the way first. The artwork is incredible. The mood setting is fantastic. It’s immediately obvious a lot of passion went behind this game. So it gets good scores on those fronts. I also got lucky and didn’t encounter any of the bugs other people mentioned, so for me, it worked flawlessly. That being said, when it comes to the theme, I think the objective wasn’t necessarily to keep things incompatible, but just to try to make unexpected combinations. This game kind of breaks the visual novel side of things with the point and click portions, and doesn’t do anything to really improve their compatibility. I ended up finishing the game in about 2 minutes accidentally, because I got tired of clicking through messages that didn’t really continue the story, and I didn’t expect the game to let me get to the final location so quickly. Basically, in order for players to truly get the full experience of this game, you’re asking them to ignore the clues and read through side story for 30 minutes. For an example of how to do this kind of gameplay right, check out Life is Strange, LA Noire, Heavy Rain, etc. Notice how they have tons of optional side content to allow the player freedom of choice and different endings, but you can’t just magically skip to the end. The overall story is still structured. So this game is very impressive for a jam game, but lacks that kind of structure that ensures players have a consistently good experience."

This isn't a nebulous philosophical post like "How does one rate humor? Does not humor, itself being a subjective criteria, defy our attempts to quantify it? Can one 'win' at humor?" I'm not looking to define how to rate it or change anyone's mind. I'm just really curious. How did you choose a rating for humor? If an entry isn't trying to be funny but doesn't opt out of the humor category did you give it a 3 or a 0? Maybe just leave it blank? Some games are obviously trying to be funny, but fall flat. Did you rate any games that tried to be funny and fell flat higher than ones that didn't even try to be funny?

I'm trying to be more consistent with how I rate things, so I've been thinking about this. Here's some of the games that I rated for humor that jumped out at me.

BEASTS

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/b-e-a-s-t-s-break-everything-and-stack-towering-structures

I scored this one quite high for humor. The theme mashup is absurd and the fact that the winner of the battle becomes the mayor at the end made me laugh.

Love Machine

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/love-machine

This isn't even a game. At least, not a finshed game. You can fly around and enjoy the dialog, which I find hilarious. I mean, I found the dialog hilarious. Not the flying around. That is fun, but not funny.

Legend of Zoom

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/legend-of-zoom

I don't even know that there were any jokes in this one. Maybe the old man makes a joke or two? But the entire concept makes me laugh. Driving around, sideswiping enemies with my sword sticking off the car was a joy. I rated it high on humor, although now that I'm looking back maybe I really wanted to rate it high on mood? It came in 80th for humor, so apparently others felt the same way.

Flower Hero

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/flower-hero

I rated this one high for humor, but again, it isn't really 'funny', per se. More just the character design and the happy large flower in the background make me laugh.

Dancing Bandit and Dance Duel Cowboy

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/dancing-bandit https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/dance-duel-cowboy

Apparently I find dancing cowboys intrinsically funny.

So how do you rate humor? Any other games that tickled you that I should play?

Have you ever wondered whether the top Ludum Dare competitors tend to win again and again, or show up once and then disappear?

Have you ever wondered who the absolute TOP compo developer is when you look over the last several years of Ludum Dare?

I got answers.

What we want is a list of all the LD compo contestants for the last several years who placed in the top-100 overall. We can then count up how many times they placed, and maybe even compare how well they tend to place over time.

The table below shows exactly that.

This table shows all the compo contestants from LD26 through LD41 who have placed in the top 100 at least twice. In this table, NAME is the disambiguated name of the competitor. "Disambiguated" means that two usernames are considered identical if they are the same when converted to lowercase and having all spaces removed. WINS is the number of times that competitor has appeared in the top-100 overall between LD26 and LD41.

SCORE gives each contestant an overall score, calculated in the following way. Your score for a given contest is (101 - your placement); so the top finisher for a given Ludum Dare event gets 100 points and the person in 100th place gets 1 point. Your total score across the contests, then, is the sum of these single-contest scores. Higher is better.

In order from most wins to least, here are the top-100 winners with at least two top-100 Overall wins.

NAME WINS SCORE TijmenTio 12 394 dalbinblue 10 415 quill18 10 385 Benjamin 10 209 rxi 9 314 Managore 9 148 deepnight 9 141 DragonXVI 8 220 Split82 8 138 Sheepolution 7 480 TerraCottaFrog 7 361 aeveis 7 346 HolyBlackCat 7 269 ShaunJS 7 256 Nanolotl 7 256 01010111 7 167 ncannasse 7 150 timtipgames 6 461 pkenney 6 367 zillix 6 332 JaJ 6 288 nicotuason 6 287 Jezzamon 6 227 DDRKirby(ISQ) 6 168 dvdking 5 283 GeorgeBroussard 5 253 steve 5 243 Miltage 5 235 Zanzlanz 5 228 rubna 5 210 SaintHeiser 5 195 Jonathan Whiting 5 185 madjackmcmad 5 182 flyingbear 5 169 Danman9914 5 161 Multiplexor 5 128 Ditto 5 126 reheated 5 121 AdventureIslands 5 90 rnlf 4 284 Phil Strahl 4 275 Ozeotropo 4 264 TomBoogaart 4 254 Josh Riley 4 246 uheartbeast 4 240 Sanguine 4 224 bitslap 4 218 juxipolo 4 212 JokerDen 4 204 OldPeculier 4 198 ripatti 4 187 RHY3756547 4 186 NuSan 4 183 thomz12 4 180 sputnik 4 178 HacksawUnit 4 176 Tuism 4 166 dietzribi 4 150 mtrc 4 142 Evgiz 4 140 Andrew Shouldice 4 133 Xaychru04 4 122 Lancelot Gao 4 109 zatyka 4 108 handCraftedRadio 3 247 vicious_br 3 238 ruthiepee 3 236 bradur 3 234 Erkberg 3 219 jahlgren 3 210 jsmars 3 209 Antti Haavikko 3 204 tayl1r 3 203 headchant 3 202 TomboFry 3 201 Aaants 3 200 WhoaConstrictor 3 200 xel 3 196 sorceress 3 189 DrPrettyPatty 3 189 guoboism 3 189 hexagore 3 186 blobo 3 185 Knighty 3 181 JOrbits 3 180 Broxxar 3 177 FrozenCow 3 174 greysphere 3 169 Volute 3 167 EpaceGames 3 165 Frozen Fractal 3 153 arkeus 3 150 el-pepi 3 145 zorfmorf 3 144 cinnamonmelonpig 3 143 stevenjmiller 3 141 BlackBulletIV 3 140 boddiul 3 136 lectvs 3 134 Ysty 3 132 impbox 3 131 tripleVisionGames 3 126 candlesan 3 125 francoisvn 3 125 rujo 3 123 Crumpet 3 119 mahalis 3 117 Xaychru 3 108 harusame 3 108 kepons 3 107 BuffaloPhil 3 106 rezoner 3 105 nicso 3 104 bigbadwofl 3 104 ekun 3 102 Quaternius 3 102 Gao Ming 3 100 Lukbebalduke 3 80 mortus 3 77 Hypnohustla 3 73 Hempuli 3 70 SteveSalmond 3 65 gwinnell 2 190 Jod 2 179 ApoorvaJ 2 175 Peredom 2 173 Mental Atrophy 2 173 Farfin 2 166 Rulrite 2 164 NekuSoul 2 163 pixelgriffin 2 159 PapaCheech 2 157 thebrickanator 2 155 NicMagnier 2 152 Chaoclypse 2 152 BluShine 2 149 Myko 2 149 PeculiarCarrot 2 147 ehtd 2 147 ryguydavis 2 146 Fonserbc 2 146 Rahazan 2 145 patrickgh3 2 145 Simple Ghost 2 141 Marc Grabow 2 141 Jimbly 2 140 Erhune 2 138 Nick Weihs 2 137 snapman_GT 2 134 Carduus 2 132 Chaseplays 2 131 jeroenwimmers 2 131 flatgub 2 130 Andrio 2 130 karlipoppins 2 129 javicepa 2 129 Bernhard 2 129 Graf_Grun 2 129 nesis 2 127 Robotic 2 127 Devark 2 127 slovnoslomo 2 125 BinarySpark 2 125 pjchardt 2 124 TobiasNL 2 122 Sink 2 122 Rscar 2 120 navot 2 120 DrHahn 2 118 aamatniekss 2 117 designernap 2 116 adamgryu 2 116 CustomPhase 2 115 Spierek 2 113 JeffChen 2 113 Sophie Houlden 2 112 feiss 2 110 WeaselZone 2 110 Noisette 2 109 jwin 2 109 kbjwes77 2 109 Zener 2 108 glimaleite 2 108 Insality 2 108 gelisam 2 108 drilltail 2 107 Bogden 2 107 Ethan Allwood 2 107 farmergnome 2 107 krzymsky 2 106 GhostBomb 2 106 0x0961h 2 106 KilledByAPixel 2 106 pinkmonkeyhead 2 105 Conk 2 105 adcrusher 2 105 ShellfishGames 2 105 leafo 2 104 martincohen 2 104 egordorichev 2 104 NMcCoy 2 103 pirate-rob 2 102 dvdfu 2 101 manabreak 2 99 vrld 2 98 Ian Morrison 2 98 MrLeePerry 2 95 LancesCaterpie 2 95 little-burrito 2 95 Zarkonnen 2 94 FrankieSmileShow 2 94 qbicfeet 2 94 primaerfunktion 2 94 Hayden McCraw 2 93 myachin 2 93 mikelovesrobots3 2 93 ianburnette 2 93 cesisco 2 93 Suese 2 90 morphine 2 89 NickZangus 2 89 silkworm_sweatshop 2 89 Angela He 2 88 Jools64 2 88 adnzzzzZ 2 87 torcado194 2 87 Lynx 2 87 Romixal 2 87 btwj 2 86 Madsj 2 85 DiscoFish 2 85 pereubu 2 84 Trasevol_Dog 2 82 ZYXer 2 82 JohnnySix 2 82 dukope 2 82 Leon Möhring 2 81 vegapomme27 2 77 Fervir 2 77 AgentParsec 2 76 Cell 2 75 Alexandre Szybiak 2 75 invi 2 74 Steven Miller 2 72 Aomeas 2 72 Christian S. 2 71 andrewkennedy 2 71 Eshford 2 71 saint11 2 70 rjhelms 2 69 SeanNoonan 2 68 andrewjoy 2 68 Domantas 2 68 MicroMacro 2 68 Tom 7 2 66 ghostonline 2 64 Max Amaden 2 63 Jeremias 2 63 Ludipe 2 63 StaNov 2 61 kebabskal 2 60 Matthew Roelle 2 57 Remicy 2 57 Ellian 2 55 torcado 2 55 jebouin 2 54 Skoggy 2 54 Benn 2 53 mhsco 2 53 merrak 2 52 NickMakesGames 2 51 ForeignGuyMike 2 51 ENDESGA 2 51 ProjectX593 2 49 bushmango 2 49 Cosmologicon 2 49 OddballDave 2 48 Zelos 2 48 savethejets1 2 48 UltimateWalrus 2 47 euske 2 45 Wheffle 2 43 MrSun 2 41 Gurbx 2 38 lokijki 2 33 Brackeys 2 33 cjke.7777 2 30 ladybenko 2 24 TyrusPeace 2 22

--- UPDATED: Disambiguated names. ---

Originally posted on my site at https://levidsmith.com/games/blocks-of-nibiru/

After five years and sixteen consecutive Ludum Dare entries, I don't know if there's much for me to say in a post mortem anymore. Honestly, I don't feel like my game development skills have gotten that much better. However, I feel like what I have previously done can be done in a much shorter period of time. What used to take me the full 48 hours to accomplish, can now be done in the first day. That leaves me a lot more time to test and tweak gameplay difficulty.

The idea for this game came from the story about a hidden planet called Nibiru, which is supposed to cause the end of the Earth. I had originally envisioned a fully functional falling blocks game like Tetris with AI, but I settled for just getting the block stacking working. The objective is to prevent the blocks from getting to the top like in Tetris, but you have to shoot them instead like in a space shoot em up.

In most of my previous Ludum Dare entries, I only had one or maybe two gameplay mechanics. I believe Blocks of Nibiru had the most of any of my previous entries. Below are most of the mechanics I was able to implement for this game.

• Multiple ships
• Upgradable cannons
• Gun heat / Overheat cooldown
• Speed upgrade
• Orbital movement
• Block stacking
• Bombs to clear blocks
• Collectible powerups

I really started learning how to place objects in polar coordinates when I made my Easter Egg Hunt game last month. In that game I laid out the eggs in a circular fashion, using the angle as the interval and the radius as the random value. Using the angle and radius mapped really well to the horizontal and vertical Input Axes in Unity. I was amazed at how well it controlled in my game. Then I remember this had been done before. It was a game called Gyruss that I played on the Nintendo Entertainment system as a kid. However, Gyruss did not have the ability to pull in and out like my game. It may not seem like a big difference at first, but moving along the radius does really help when you're trying to track down a powerup or trying to spread out a multi-cannon shot.

Since my ship object was a prefab, it was not difficult to make multiple instances of the ship. Placing the second ship was easy, because I just added 180 degrees to its angle. The third ship was a little more difficult. I could not keep the ships evenly spaced (120 degrees apart) without moving them around, which would be awkward. Therefore, I just added the third ship to be 90 degrees between the first two ships. Then the fourth ship would just be 270 degrees away from the first ship.

For the cannons, I just modeled three red cylinders and placed them at angles at the front of the ship. I tried not to make the spread two wide, but not to narrow as well. The first cannon shoots directly forward. To keep symmetry, I decided that when the first upgrade is applied, the two angled cannons would be enabled. Then on the second upgrade, all three cannons would be enabled. Again, since the ships were instanced, it made it so that the cannon upgrades would be unique for each ship.

As I was playtesting the game, I noticed that an overheat / cooldown system was needed. I didn't want players to keep mashing the shoot button forever with no penalty. I wanted players to feel like there was importance for when they take a shot. Therefore, I added the heat percentage to the ship instance. When it reaches 100% (it's actually stored as a float value), then the player is locked out from shooting with that ship for a period of time. I used my harmonica to make the beeping sound when the ship overheats, so that there is audio feedback. I probably should have added a smoke effect or something when the ship is overheated. The heat reduction powerups were made to allow more shots before the ship overheats. Looking back, I would have made fewer levels of heat reduction, like just two so that when the powerup is collected it feels like it makes more of a difference.

The speed upgrade was not difficult to implement. I just increased the speed instance variable for the ship. However, it was not possible for each ship to have a unique speed, because that would eventually result in ships overlapping and give it just general janky feeling. So I decided to have the speed upgrade applied to all ships, which kept the symmetric spacing between all of the ships.

The bomb upgrade was fairly simple to implement. If the bomb counter is greater than one, then decrease it and delete all block instances currently in the game. I used a pizza pan and lid of a pot to make the sound effect, sort of like clashing two cymbals together.

The powerups were made with a six sided circle in blender extruded out to make a 3D shape. Then I duplicated and made a longer and smaller one to cut out the center using the Boolean modifier (I always forget if it's difference or intersect). The voice that plays when a powerup is collected is just my voice with Audacity's vocoder applied.

I guess the one thing I did learn from this game was how to rotate a skybox in Unity. I took a walk at the local park early Sunday morning, and took a picture of the sky. Unity now has an option to make a skybox out of a panorama picture, instead of having to put together six sides of a cube. The important thing is to make sure that the picture is seamless. I was able to do that in Unity using the Make Seamless Advanced plugin. I also took pictures of some rocks around the house that I used for the block texture, and the side of a tree that I used for the background board plane. The ship was textured with a picture I took of the metal on the side of my air conditioner.

I used the Blender cell fracture plugin again, for making the blocks explode into multiple pieces. I had to turn the fragment number down. I think the default was something like 100, so I turned it down to 20. The one issue was that I had to remember to set the animation to legacy for the explosion effect to apply. As usual, I put the explosion into a separate prefab that gets instantiated when the block is destroyed, so that the block is immediately removed from the game logic. It also allows me to put the destroy sound effect (which was just me clapping my hands in front of the microphone) in the explosion prefab, so that continues to play after the original block is destroyed.

The music was composed in GarageBand again. This time I used my new MacBook laptop, which is much more speedy than the one I previously used which was about six years old. I really didn't do anything out of the ordinary for the music this time. I just made a couple of melodies and switched them between instruments, and used one of the standard generated beats. I did increase the pitch of the music as the block stack gets higher, which makes it feel like a greater sense of urgency, similar to how the old Tetris for GameBoy did the music.

Looking back, I think there were a few things that could have made this game better. I wish I had put tail renders on the bullets. The explosions could have also had lighting effects. However, having too many point lights on at the same time can cause problems. I think after eight or so point lights, they just start getting ignored. I could have at least put a point light on the ships, or a flash of light when the cannon is fired.

I also wanted to have the skybox change color as the player progressed through the game. I couldn't figure out how to get a handle on the color of the skybox. Overall the game just like it has too much orange. I probably should have made the score text, level text, and bomb display be larger and a different color. The 3D text model on the title screen could have been a different color as well, because it's really hard to read especially in thumbnails.

I guess that's it. I used to say that the day when I didn't learn anything new, I would stop making games. There are some new things that I do want to learn in Unity, like the new shader interface. I just feel like I've moved out of the learning phase and into the making things more efficiently phase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgXQ_lXdP7w

As Ludum Dare 41 winds down for good and we begin the gap months between jams, it's worth seeing what kind of community forums / discords / twitter groups (I'm @OccultGameDev on Twitter) are going on. This thread, as all LD Threads, is likely to be disappeared tomorrow, but I'd love to see what folks are working on right now outside of LD.

Polishing the jam game? Working on your opus magnus? Doing some prototyping?

I'd love to see what the community is working on! So go ahead and post them here!

“After the accident I had trouble grasping for words. But a few dedicated doctors helped me remember."

RETROGRADE explores amnesia, trauma and recovery in a story-centered and music-driven LD41 entry.

We've made some improvements since voting closed, and we'd like to invite you one last time to explore this story with us.

http://chubanai.com/arcade/RetrogradeArcade/index.html

Thank you to everyone who gave us substantive feedback. We'll see you at No. 42!

In my last post I showed all the Ludum Dare compo winners who've placed in the top 100 more than once since Ludum Dare 26. I didn't have space to show all of the winners who'd ever placed in the top-100 since LD26. I had to cut out everyone who has placed exactly once. But these "One Hit Wonders" absolutely deserve credit too. So here they are: all the Ludum Dare compo winners who placed in the top 100 exactly once since Ludum Dare 26.

SCORE in this table is calculated as (101 - placement), so if you placed 1st, you get 100 points and if you placed 100th you get 1 point.

Note that @PixelMind at the top of the list has the amazing distinction of not only having won first place the Ludum Dare overall competition, but having done so as his or her only top-100 placement! That's actually kinda cool.

NAME WINS SCORE PixelMind 1 100 Nate954 1 99 GertJohnny 1 99 thomas-olsson 1 99 electr1ca 1 98 ildfuglen 1 98 vfqd 1 98 Solluxx 1 98 zulubo 1 98 Nik Sudan 1 97 vandriver 1 97 shillingburg 1 97 Sebastian 1 95 Pedro Medeiros 1 94 zoglu 1 94 Vertigon 1 94 aarkipel 1 93 Wan 1 93 thecodermonkey 1 93 charliecarlo 1 93 lulublululu 1 92 caeonosphere 1 92 icefallgames 1 92 Madgvox 1 92 FGM 1 92 Hammers 1 92 Chronodrax 1 90 azurenimbus 1 90 ataxkt 1 90 Huitre 1 90 StudioWolfox 1 90 pa3kc 1 89 cappelnord 1 89 vallde 1 89 Raindrinker 1 89 jack-lance 1 89 PixelFormedStudios 1 89 porousnapkin 1 88 MateCziner 1 88 Ourson 1 88 JoeDev_net 1 87 Draknek 1 87 timgarbos 1 87 AlanZucconi 1 87 MaggardJosh 1 87 RobinbyZhou 1 87 Sintel 1 87 Tamfoolery 1 86 fluidvolt 1 86 Attrition 1 86 monkeybit29 1 86 hypersnow 1 86 FiSilva 1 85 AkirAssasin 1 85 Lawrence 1 85 Koba0100 1 85 pLaw 1 85 Armanky 1 85 justinooncx 1 84 furriKira 1 84 benbusby 1 84 Jons games 1 84 rylgh 1 84 RhysD 1 84 eShredder 1 83 JoeProgram 1 83 baknik 1 83 adamprack 1 82 ashtheevil 1 82 Horsed 1 82 Zemmi 1 82 nonetheless 1 82 Ted Brown 1 81 Ovidios 1 81 TRAB 1 81 caranha 1 81 SmallDeadGuy 1 80 Lustdante 1 80 Wolve 1 80 Mysterarts 1 80 PaperBlurt 1 80 Jiyambi 1 80 onnofal 1 79 onzephyr 1 79 Atmospherium 1 79 Robinerd 1 79 quickfingers 1 79 wolderado 1 79 hippy-dave 1 79 yodamaster 1 79 yves 1 79 maloki 1 78 bentog 1 78 Greg Power 1 78 GogglesKitty 1 78 BoltKey 1 78 mrspeaker 1 78 superjoebob 1 78 avaki 1 78 Grenac 1 78 ReboundGames 1 77 topbraj 1 77 s-ol 1 77 looPing 1 77 Arnage 1 76 LMT 1 76 GreenyUk 1 76 TheWzzard 1 76 ghodan 1 75 rhythmlynx 1 75 patvanmackelberg 1 75 geekdrums 1 75 Spotlightor Gao 1 74 zzq 1 74 Lachhh 1 74 chicknstu 1 74 q_dork 1 73 Cambrian_Man 1 73 Kortuga 1 73 Aircraft Terrier 1 73 Justin Mullin 1 73 voxel 1 73 minism 1 73 CoderCameron 1 73 hypp 1 72 internetpaulicy 1 72 Gus the Shark 1 71 jackrugile 1 71 DeusOpus 1 71 Charles Cox 1 71 SiM2SiM 1 70 SalamiChild 1 70 frenchie 1 70 Modoc73 1 70 dkilford 1 70 thristhart 1 70 sgehlich 1 69 ashen 1 69 StabAlarash 1 69 Lex 1 69 Jonochrome 1 69 PaidGEEK 1 69 Remi Gourrierec 1 68 Yaroslav Kravtsov 1 68 tobia88 1 68 MSiddeek 1 68 Nucleose 1 68 abductedPlatypus 1 67 dimaswift 1 67 Kitch 1 67 karlin 1 67 r8berto 1 66 greg-anims 1 66 Robber 1 66 Tijn 1 66 notajetski 1 66 Remco 1 66 j_peeba 1 66 madlee 1 66 Aurel Bílÿ 1 66 renatopp 1 66 Solifuge 1 66 Misfit 1 65 Akurn 1 65 voidqk 1 65 Eniko 1 65 sydan 1 65 dingotime 1 65 Temmy 1 65 Lovro Kalinovčić 1 65 aevek 1 65 JoshBurleson 1 65 increpare 1 65 Shaun Lebron 1 64 TwinGhosts 1 64 Martin Vilcans 1 64 SuperDisk 1 64 Jon Reid 1 64 lessmilk 1 63 rahulparihar 1 63 treegemmer 1 63 CptDustmite 1 63 Pix3m 1 63 jorjordandan 1 63 Porcus_Pie 1 63 Veralos 1 63 Connor McGrory 1 63 Aggrathon 1 63 VDZ 1 62 Colorvade 1 62 MarkoPoloDev 1 62 Drachlen 1 62 Pierrec 1 62 Lancey 1 62 Dir3kt 1 62 atraxgames 1 62 dickpoelen 1 62 ix 1 62 frogcheese 1 62 Isogash 1 61 purenickery 1 61 Pinpickle 1 61 Mirroar 1 60 TheMadPangolin 1 60 joqlepecheur 1 60 piotrszoka 1 60 duncankeller 1 60 Ishisoft 1 60 Tim Ruswick 1 59 Gins 1 59 Crowno 1 59 gilmore606 1 59 MagnesiumNinja 1 59 SaFrMo 1 59 Fnkee 1 59 unprompted 1 58 Mikhail Lyubimov 1 58 seano 1 58 nka 1 58 unpronounceable 1 58 Orange 1 57 jirrev 1 57 Ervin 1 56 KappaIX 1 56 SecondDimension 1 56 HeyChinaski 1 56 DaanVanYperen 1 56 CornflowerBlue 1 55 Niphram 1 55 SMILEY_4_ 1 55 NeverAutomatic 1 55 kalibrated 1 55 quadtree 1 55 Peping 1 54 Brodenino 1 54 lucienpro 1 54 RNGSilvercraft 1 54 Polyganz 1 54 Pastry 1 54 Kevlanche 1 54 jay griffin 1 54 tomdeal 1 54 hairaz 1 53 flummox3d 1 53 gilead 1 53 Neonlare 1 52 PBG 1 52 dunin 1 52 tinytouchtales 1 52 Casino Jack 1 52 bluescrn 1 52 magicdidac 1 52 xand 1 51 reuno 1 51 Aru Nyan 1 51 Sos 1 51 dmcfarline 1 50 whalebot 1 50 khahem 1 49 Brandon Diaz 1 49 Hunter Loftis 1 49 derdragon 1 49 fserb 1 49 Maroovan 1 49 Thein 1 49 JMickle 1 48 terrivellmann 1 48 Kiyaku 1 48 Toki Anholmes 1 48 Radical Dog 1 48 Rogue Studios 1 48 Miziziziz 1 48 SonnyBone 1 48 atomic_swerve 1 48 yyam 1 47 misterstripey 1 47 IanGraven 1 47 Azure_Kyte 1 46 2dgamedev 1 46 fermenter 1 46 mitkus 1 46 sftrabbit 1 46 QuexD 1 46 Lyje 1 46 FiloGC 1 46 souperstrawer 1 46 4xisblack 1 46 Apace 1 46 Headmade 1 46 Hexadecima1 1 46 atuun 1 46 jahndis 1 46 Dreauw 1 45 jimmynoshoes 1 45 orangepascal 1 45 IAmSpencer 1 45 George 1 44 AdamHarte 1 44 nodoxi 1 44 SimonTheCase 1 44 Fenmar 1 44 vidarn 1 44 soy_yuma 1 44 Noa Calice 1 44 Tommislav 1 43 DavidErosa 1 43 Majko 1 43 Hi_ImTemmy 1 43 PTSnoop 1 43 bvanschooten 1 43 Jhelle 1 43 tacohej 1 43 adamwoolridge 1 43 Resonious 1 43 azlen 1 43 roxflame 1 42 Raiyumi 1 42 Lesbroufe 1 42 frittatenbank 1 42 omaha 1 42 GenericToast 1 42 randomnine 1 42 Mopz 1 42 theOnlyGoodDrcz 1 42 Jilt 1 41 LeafThief 1 41 GoldRanger 1 41 tsjost 1 41 crazya02 1 41 lanza 1 41 JigxorAndy 1 41 ecbambrick 1 41 CogentInvalid 1 41 Chman 1 41 conormn 1 41 rwos 1 41 MrTedders 1 41 mrnyarlathotep 1 40 Ludorverr 1 40 gdcvdqpl 1 40 tommie96 1 40 Zccc 1 39 Ixeno 1 39 Sakuyan 1 39 Valden 1 39 TiRSO! 1 39 alottabit 1 39 Chris Mondok 1 39 jorgemoag 1 39 plancien 1 38 yokcos700 1 38 LuckyFeathers 1 38 AndrewJAdams 1 38 Florian van Strien 1 38 swrni 1 38 Terry 1 37 NAL 1 37 Praron 1 37 celeron55 1 37 maxr00 1 37 cppchriscpp 1 37 Mark Smith 1 36 TobiasW 1 36 xk_the_name 1 36 Zednaut 1 36 Riley Adams 1 36 KeyMaster 1 36 Zekronz 1 36 Healthire 1 36 Weaver 1 36 Detective Pixel 1 36 somnolentPumpkin 1 36 maysick 1 35 Julian Creutz 1 35 PapyGaragos 1 35 dstozek 1 35 iceburg7 1 35 JoeManaco 1 35 ytaha 1 35 jjjjason 1 35 Poroh 1 35 Somfunambulist 1 34 Moocowsgomoo 1 34 CatOnMars 1 34 FisherGoodwin 1 34 Sh1rogane 1 34 Jiri Hysek 1 34 Nils -Gecko- Munch 1 34 LPeter1997 1 34 Crabman 1 33 maartene 1 33 jolle 1 33 allinlabs 1 33 FuzzyWuzzie 1 33 KCreanor 1 33 Calciumtrice 1 33 dv49 1 33 IcyLava 1 32 katie 1 32 Fouralex 1 32 josefalanga 1 31 mystakin 1 31 Homletmoo 1 31 Porpentine 1 31 flrn 1 31 L 1 31 Syrapt0r 1 31 TheBigShot 1 30 NOFUEL 1 30 Rudenko 1 30 PowerSpark 1 30 husky 1 29 mrnannings 1 29 Nisshoku 1 29 Rombus 1 29 CarlsonAndPeeters 1 29 Anikki 1 29 Tom Gardiner 1 28 4KbShort 1 28 hgcummings 1 28 Romko Pidstryhach 1 28 fisholith 1 28 jackyjjc 1 28 Kurakurt 1 28 gre 1 28 divillysausages 1 28 maxyan 1 28 Dwel 1 27 folmerkelly 1 27 printhello 1 27 orange08 1 27 smealum 1 27 SketchyGalore 1 27 oab 1 27 CKlidify 1 27 Steve [tacospice] 1 27 Flipsy 1 27 Daniel Moreno 1 26 Imphenzia 1 26 Breno_M 1 25 rectangular Tim 1 25 Omiya Games 1 25 wumpus 1 25 Ghostik 1 25 cwkx 1 25 methamphetabear 1 25 NAMKCOR 1 24 Cawrtz 1 24 oldmanbiles 1 24 Moritz 1 24 ditzel 1 24 rogueNoodle 1 24 semi 1 24 kratorspore 1 24 Jani Nykanen 1 23 spazzarama 1 23 AutumnGuy 1 23 kalugny 1 23 mcccclean 1 23 TLansdale 1 23 CastEclipse 1 23 palemachine 1 23 Logan 1 23 mar3k 1 22 Logun 1 22 Jima 1 22 simonhutchinson 1 22 FireSlash 1 21 Sytech 1 21 ker0chan 1 21 4sap 1 21 Madbeagle 1 21 echa 1 21 datacr4sh 1 21 Sebastian Lague 1 21 Teejay5 1 21 raver 1 21 CJ K 1 21 Capro 1 21 misson20000 1 20 bwalter 1 20 erebus 1 20 meg 1 20 crazyrems 1 19 chobrah 1 19 nurabsal 1 19 oatsbarley 1 19 geckojsc 1 19 Maple 1 19 Overv 1 19 MrDave 1 18 Mazzletov 1 18 JulianMH 1 18 JeromWaarom 1 18 btwj_ 1 18 jomacel 1 18 onilink_ 1 18 HernanZh 1 18 Harry Alissavakis 1 18 wademcgillis 1 18 StrideWide 1 18 stray 1 18 Kingethaniel 1 18 Zathalos 1 18 Lerg 1 17 Yvanor 1 17 binary_coder 1 17 turnip 1 17 KRP 1 17 wwwhizz 1 17 HighQuality 1 16 madameberry 1 16 toboggan 1 16 egor-idiot 1 16 simonnaus 1 16 AzimuthGames 1 16 stevenlr 1 16 Jegus9 1 16 nihilocrat 1 16 Twinters 1 16 Asturk 1 16 ziege 1 16 PUARSLIBURF 1 16 AmyDee 1 16 stjahns 1 16 squirrel 1 16 Windmill Games 1 16 cardboard 1 14 niksg 1 14 nathanhoffer 1 14 Yword 1 14 rpmoura 1 14 stormforce02 1 14 amras0000 1 14 Steve | tacospice 1 14 GastricSparrow 1 14 murraya2 1 14 rynti 1 14 pixzleone 1 14 Mark Overmars 1 14 lupusinsanus 1 14 ViliX 1 14 jayhC 1 14 infernet89 1 14 Chyme 1 13 superpokeunicorn 1 13 cerno-b 1 13 RevoluGame 1 12 TheFudster 1 12 kyyrma 1 12 vilix64 1 12 alect 1 12 Stevie Bushman 1 12 st33d 1 12 Nition 1 12 gmfk07 1 12 Herman Chau 1 12 walaber 1 12 sergicollado 1 12 Joe Williamson 1 12 amy742 1 12 John Drury 1 12 DJWizardCop 1 12 vinipc 1 11 tybantarnusa 1 11 VascoF 1 11 Edd Morgan 1 11 vikingpotato 1 11 Perry 1 11 jharler 1 11 conradte3 1 11 Alexbrainbox 1 11 Thibaut Blanca 1 10 Wizcas 1 10 cudabear 1 10 craighasdysentery 1 9 someoneman 1 9 Steven Colling 1 9 Wizard.Exe 1 9 Yasho 1 8 eXr 1 8 kikito 1 8 ViKing Games 1 8 fizzd 1 8 Agecaf 1 8 Vandash 1 8 Evilion 1 8 Saf 1 8 Matthew Rayfield 1 8 recursor 1 8 Waynetron 1 8 Sean S. LeBlanc 1 8 Vaughn 1 8 galman 1 8 GhostID 1 7 AlmightyTuna 1 7 Simon Stalhandske 1 7 foolmoron 1 7 RobotHoboDanceParty 1 7 drludos 1 7 peterkirk 1 7 Cake_Catastrophe 1 7 danhett 1 7 Krisjet 1 7 IndieLucky 1 6 lazybraingames 1 6 tjmolinski 1 6 dobnarr 1 6 Simon 1 6 invaderJim 1 6 Lecalat 1 6 Idovoodoo 1 6 someone 1 6 phi 1 6 Bemmu 1 5 hbocao 1 5 cbear_wallis 1 5 udo 1 5 Ayush Singla 1 5 shrekshao 1 4 alvarop 1 4 jcvsmc 1 4 madflame991 1 4 Arkthalohs 1 4 ulydev 1 4 koe415 1 4 dylanwolf 1 4 MoltenMustafa 1 4 skeeto 1 4 Brassawiking 1 3 Snail_Man 1 3 wupto 1 3 Kryptarchy 1 3 TheMonsterFromTheDeep 1 3 abezuska 1 3 toestee 1 3 Clavus 1 3 capsizedmoose 1 3 KittyMac 1 3 Eelfroth 1 3 boorik 1 2 Criggles 1 2 Pilly 1 2 cadaeibfe 1 2 brinkhousegames 1 2 TheCodeFactory 1 1 Pixelaborate 1 1 nihilaleph 1 1 TreePunchers 1 1 Vinterskog 1 1 marccspro 1 1 FormalCloud 1 1 Frigolit 1 1 Holofire 1 1 iamteekay 1 1 Mixer 1 1

TLDR: 2 rounds of rating - the 1st round would be the same it's now. The output wouldn't be the final rankings however, but tiers (so e.g. top 20, 21-40 etc).
The 2nd round would be similar, but the community would rate just the 1st tier of games (for each category).
This would result in tiers of games with the top 20 of each category (for compo and jam).

Why?

As most of us are aware, the rating system is far from perfect. Would the proposed solution solve all its flaws? Not really, but it would address one of the main sticking points - unrepresentative sample sizes of ratings of winning games.

Rating by its nature is very subjective. We all understand the categories differently and our ratings wildly differ. Your Fun 3* is probably different from my 3* and the same goes for all the other categories. There are people who are happy to give away all-around and there are others who rarely rate something a 5* in a single category. (Keep in mind I'm not pointing at anyone in particular, so avoid posting defensive comments, please). This just might lead to a winner with the minimal number of votes needed. The dev could have got lucky or they published an amazing game, but has gone mostly unnoticed. Either way, it's bound to raise some eyebrows.

How?

Add a second round of rating.
The first could be pretty much the same as it's now, except the results wouldn't be precise rankings, but rather tiers based on the the actual hidden rank. The number per rank is upto debate. I'd start with 10 or 20, but it doesn't need to be fixed necessarily (there could be 100 games in rank 10 let's say etc).
After said 1st round, a second round would take place, but only the top games (Tier 1) would be rated. The ratings could be pretty much the same, except the greatly reduced pool. The devs of those games shouldn't advertise their games at that point, but the landing page should lead all users into the 2nd round. The second round should probably last untill all the games get a given threshold of (round 2) ratings (200?).
After that, the ranking of Tier 1 would be published. (And possibly other tiers as well).

Benefits

• Everyone would actually have a chance to look at the creme de la creme and vote on the winner
• If someone gets into Tier 1 by having an unrepresentative sample, this should somewhat remedy the situation
• If someone places in the top 3, but they should have opted from the winning category, there should still be time to do right by the runners-up
• There would be further motivation to playtest more games (which I do for the winners anyway)
• Quite likely extra feedback for Tier 1

Drawbacks

• The voting would take more time (hey, more to do 'till the next LD... :laughing: )
• You tell me

What do you think, guys? Would this work? Am I completely nuts?
Please, do share your thoughts.

So I've been trying to find a job as a game developer in recent days but couldn't. I don't understand why they won't ask me anything about games, rather they ask me some boring stuff about software development and those questions which they would never ever implement in their games at all.

I am so frustrated and thinking of quitting my passion for games. Maybe I should learn making websites or apps or something? My friends and family says that Game Industry in Pakistan is no more and you can't get a job in it. What should I do? Shall I still pursue my passion and maybe work on making a great game and publish it. Or I should just quit it? What's the better option?

Look at those scores!!

30's in 3 catagories?? Thats pretty cool. Thanks yall. We're still working on a more polished version to upload on itch. Its pretty sweet. Also this LD has been supprisingly fun with the contrasting genres. I hope the next theme is just is wild.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/timestaar-turn-based-bullet-hell

Disclaimer: a friend has respectfully asked me to no longer comment on a set of related issues, and so out of respect for him, this is purely a technical discussion on how to improve the ranking system.

Here's the problem I see: despite people going into the competition fully understanding that varying sample sizes are not good for the objectivity of the relative rankings, despite the fact that these people are fully aware in their logical minds that the current rankings are an imperfect science which says little to nothing about one game versus another, despite the fact that people recognize that by setting the rating threshold required for ranking too high, it would exclude many busy people who simply don't have enough time to generate that much buzz around their game, there's something deeply unsatisfying about seeing a game with very few ratings beat a game with very many ratings. And this is for good reason. It's not only an emotional reaction, but there is a logical justification: because the system is very easy to abuse, and nobody wants to feel cheated after dedicating an entire weekend developing free entertainment for others. So here's my take on a solution.

I think in order to create a more objective ranking system, you absolutely must create an objective target goal. The most trivial example would be having a single authoritative user be responsible for all ratings. Obviously, that's impractical with 3k+ submissions, but it illustrates the point. The objective target goal is now to GET THE HIGHEST RATING WITH THIS PERSON. It is directly measurable by the ratings that person gives. And believe it or not, despite shifting the focus from some nebulous concept like being the best game overall to something tangential like BEING THE GAME THIS PERSON RATES THE HIGHEST, the fact that it is DIRECTLY MEASURABLE actually allows you to draw MORE INFORMATIVE CONCLUSIONS over time. If your submissions win multiple events in a row, you can actually now make a solid argument in favor of your games being the best AT ACHIEVING THE STATED GOAL. You now have something that is directly comparable between submissions and across events.

Unfortunately, solutions like that all have one major flaw in the context of LD, which is that they directly contradict some of the stated purposes of LD. Namely, that it's a community event, developers want a randomized sample of feedback from the general population, and nobody should be mandated to participate in any capacity. We'll call these kinds of solutions CLASS A solutions. CLASS A solutions compromise on those stated goals in some way or another. Most of the solutions I've seen proposed following this event so far are CLASS A solutions, because they involve some sort of authoritative voter round, where trusted voters, streamers, etc. can, to varying degrees, OVERRIDE ratings given by the general community in the initial voting round. I get it, they're not just completely throwing away the early results. But they are being granted more power to some degree.

On the other hand, we have what we will call the CLASS B solutions. Class B solutions are more desirable because they do not compromise on the goals of LD whatsoever (or at least do so very minimally, but that's up to you guys to decide). CLASS B solutions cannot weight votes, and they cannot mandate participation in any capacity. They can SUGGEST or ENCOURAGE participation in order to generate more ratings and hopefully reduce controversy or feelings of suspicion. An example of a CLASS B solution I've seen proposed is one that was brought up a few events back, where there would be something like a homework queue that rewards participants with extra Coolness in exchange for rating a suggested subset of submissions. This is certainly a cool idea, and does encourage participants to rate more games in general, but it DOES NOT DIRECTLY ADDRESS THE CORE COMPLAINT, which is that CATEGORY WINNERS SHOULD HAVE RELATIVELY HIGH COUNTS OF RATINGS.

So to summarize what I've said up until this point, what we really want is a CLASS B solution which stands a chance to address the core issue of winners with few ratings, without going as far as a CLASS A solution would to reduce community voting power or mandate participation. This is what I've come up with:

You can think of it as 2 voting rounds, similar to the CLASS A proposals so far, but technically, there is only 1 voting round. They're more like 2 voting phases. Participants only get 1 vote, as they do now, and votes are not weighted, so everyone's vote is equal, as it is now. Voter power is never once reduced in the slightest. The only difference is that the intermediate results are made public prior to the 2nd phase. Then, the final results are tallied after both phases are complete. Again, I want to make very clear, this is almost exactly the same as the way it is now. Each participant gets to vote on each entry exactly once, and that 1 vote is equal. The ONLY difference is that for the 2nd portion of the voting period, the intermediate results are made public. By doing this, you allow people who haven't voted on a game near the top of the rankings to vote on it, thereby increasing the sample size of the winners.

Think of it like getting dressed in the morning. Sometimes, you're in a rush, and you quickly slip into your pants, but your underwear doesn't feel quite right, so you adjust. The 2nd phase is the adjustment. If the intermediate results are released and people feel there is a game which doesn't belong at the top, they can add their vote, thereby increasing the confidence in the overall ranking. If they choose not to vote, and the game stays where it's at, that's okay too. The game isn't automatically disqualified, its fans don't have their votes questioned, and the game wins, because people had every chance to vote against it but decided not to. If you wanted, you could even have a confidence threshold, where you bump a game up or down a slot for having a massive gap in number of ratings compared to those around it, but honestly, at that point, we're just splitting split ends of hair. You could also prohibit the top 100 in a category from voting on each other's games as well, just to eliminate spiteful voting between them, but it's not really worth doing considering they each get only 1 vote and could just as easily make a bunch of fake accounts.

So far, this is the only CLASS B system I've been able to come up with in my head that comes anywhere close to protecting the values of LD while potentially addressing this recurring issue. Unfortunately, it is not without its flaws. It does absolutely nothing to prevent intentional abuse, just like the current system. Short of implementing a strictly managed CLASS A solution, I don't think there's any reasonable way to prevent intentional cheating. We're better off trying to find ways to utilize the resources we have, namely thousands of participants, to generate more honest ratings to combat the cheaters. It's also kind of sad to think that a submission could be a category leader going into phase 2, and then be edged out by a competitor generating late buzz. I mean, sure, the results are not locked in until after phase 2, but still, that's a bummer.

If you've made it this far, I apologize for the long description. The system itself is actually quite simple, but understanding the reasons behind it was quite the brain exercise. Please leave your comments below.

ADDENDUM: And for what it's worth, the reason I put "improved" in quotes in the post's subject line is that I personally do not believe this system will improve the objectivity of the rankings overall. I believe the system will be just as flawed, maybe even more so, because of the fundamental principle that I mentioned earlier about not having an objective target goal.

Think of it this way. Imagine attending an NBA Finals match to determine the winning team of the basketball season. There is a very objective goal. Whichever team scores the most points in the allotted time wins. That may not determine the best team overall, but it does determine the winner of that particular contest according to a strict set of rules. Now, imagine if instead of tracking points scored, the winner was determined by the volume of cheers from the stands. At the end of the game, the referee asks the fans of each team to take turns cheering as loudly as possible for who they thought won (I know there are instruments to objectively measure noise volume, but for the purposes of this example, pretend the ref is doing it by ear, and he's deaf on one side and spinning in a circle). Whichever one he thinks sounds the loudest wins. This system I've proposed is a little bit like fitting more people in the stadium to improve the confidence in this win-by-sound system. I'm just not convinced it's actually better in such a noisy (no pun intended) system.

You have to consider the very real possibility that someone in the middle tiers has a strong entry and wants honest feedback, but they can't generate buzz because everyone is too busy rating top tier games in phase 2 which don't even necessarily appeal to them. You've actually shifted the balance of exposure negatively, all for the sake of reducing suspicion, and the value of the change in objectivity is questionable at best. This "fix" is nothing more than a placebo to ease the suspicions of people who don't actually understand why community votes are not objective. In fact, that person who can't generate buzz may then be encouraged to seek out friendly votes from people they've curried favor with, introducing even more bias and muddying the middle tiers. Butterfly effect. Everything affects everything else.

If my suggestion were implemented and I was offered to participate in it, I'd have to politely decline. Because again, I recognize a CLASS B system will never have anywhere near the level of objectivity that a proper CLASS A system will. You need a CLASS A system for this to be a true competition. A CLASS B system is something you use to judge a silly informal game of hop-scotch on a kindergarten playground. A CLASS A system is needed if you really care about the competitive aspect of something. It's up to you, the LD community, to decide where your priorities are.

Hank the Drunken Dwarf

...Not this one.

When we’re rating an entry, we’re giving other people a sense of how it fares—is it visually, sonically, or mechanically better than some other game?

But flawed methods can lead to skewed results. Take this example from the American Association for Public Opinion Research:

People Magazine asked visitors to its website to vote in an online poll for the Most Beautiful Person of 1998. The ballot included Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Madonna and the other usual suspects. It also allowed write-in nominations. The temptation proved too great for radio bad boy Howard Stern, who advised his listeners to email votes for Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf, a Stern sidekick who died in 2001. A small army of online pranksters quickly took up the campaign. Hank swamped the competition, finishing with 230,169 votes, or about 16 times the number who supported DiCaprio, the pretty face whom People declared the fairest of the fair and put on its cover.

For a variety of reasons, these comparisons can fail us—even with when hundreds of thousands of people join in. And the problems may get worse when you’re drawing from a small population.

Polls that gauge the feelings of ten million people can do so confidently with a random sample of around ten thousand people—less than 1%. But, if we’re talking about a small, finite population—say, a few thousand developers participating in a game jam—you’ll need a larger percentage of a small group to gauge those feelings with the same accuracy.

A much larger percentage, in fact. That 1% can become 10% or even 50%. Is Horror Date Simulator 6 really a five-star game, according to the 1,000 developers participating in Lucky’s Dreamjam 42?

Ask a few hundred people.

So what? What’s at stake?

So, yeah, that’s too rigorous. Just a year ago, Ludum Dare’s ratings period was extended because fewer than half of all games met the minimum threshold for scoring—about 20 votes.

I’m going to hazard a guess and say that it’s unlikely we’d see the kind of participation needed to make a higher minimum threshold or a two-tier ranking system viable (if we’re trying to provide as many participants as possible with a rating, anyway).

It’s worth thinking about why we’d want a rating system in the first place. Ludum Dare’s smart balance filter encourages people to play, praise, critique, and promote each other’s games—and pretty successfully, I’d say. If that’s all we’re here for, reforms to the ratings system are really solutions in search of a problem.

What’s at stake? Besides a bit of prestige (a nice salve when mom asks why you don’t just put those skills to use for Big Company), a really high score encourages people to try your game after the jam ends. And that’s a big deal for those of us who’d like to see games we’re passionate about reach an audience beyond our basement.

Random samples -> reliable(ish) results

If we’re looking to improve the accuracy of a small sample, it helps if that sample is randomly-selected. Here’s another example of a failed poll from the American Association for Public Opinion Research:

In March of 2006, the American Medical Association reported disturbing rates of binge drinking and unprotected sex among college women during spring break. The report was based on what the researchers claimed was a survey of “a random sample” of 644 women.The survey results were breathlessly reported on the Today Show, the CBS Early Show, and hundreds of reports followed on local television and radio newscasts… One problem: The sample was not random. The results were based on only women who volunteered to answer the question as part of an online survey panel. Only about a quarter of these women had ever gone on a spring break trip.

Anyone who’s participated in these game jams can probably identify a few reasons why these samples aren’t quite random.

1. Self-Promotion/Self-Selection

Developers post on ldjam.com’s front page in search of more ratings. Besides side-stepping the smart balance filter, posts like this are a problem for ratings in that they’re most likely to recruit from a group of people who are excited about or interested in that kind of game.

2. Tit-For-Tat/Quid-Pro-Quo

“I’ve played your game, now play mine”—or “I’ve rated your game highly! Here’s mine”—might give that game a slight bump.

3. Voting Blocs

If you’re on friendly terms with other, competing participants, you’re likely to give their game a look. Even if this results in only five or ten additional ratings, the ratings for a game that’s just over the minimum threshold can experience substantial skewing.

Restricted Ratings: A Modest Proposal

I’m wondering how everyone would feel about something like this: everything—or almost everything—stays as it is. Anyone can play, share, comment on, and promote any game they’d like.

But, you can’t rate just any game—you’ll have a page with 50-100 randomly-selected games, ordered by their smart balance score. That list won’t change until you rate a game from that list. At that point, another randomly-chosen game will be available to rate… and so on.

There's a discussion in progress on randomness and group voting at GitHub, where Ludum Dare's source code is contained, and another on a "homework" feature, which rewards users for playing "less desirable" (less trendy, not web-based) games (thank you, @samusoidal).

I like this solution because it makes the most of these small samples and still allows developers to look for feedback from the kinds of players they’d like to make games for.

I’ve had fun thinking about this—and I hope you’ve had fun reading it!

https://erkberg.bandcamp.com
These are all the songs I wrote for the games I created in the last 5 years, mostly during game jams (and mostly during Ludum Dare).

Yes, it's more of a collection than an actual album.
Yes, it's barely 30 minutes long.
Yes, it's poorly mixed and mastered (and sometimes written...).

Still, it feels incredible!
I hope I can find more time for music in the future and get better at it, because I just love it!

I like the discussion that has been going around about the rating system and incentivising feedback and all that. I don't have anything real meaningful to add to those conversations. I love the Ludum Dare community and think it is a great, friendly and open place on the web that is often not great, open or friendly. Here's what I believe about Ludum Dare.

Ludum Dare is primarily about community

We have an awesome community. It is great interacting with you folks on here and I've met people I now consider friends here. There are no prizes. Just a large group of passionate people. I love that.

Ludum Dare is all about contributing to the community

The entire site and jam is based around it. Want people to play your game? Play other peoples! Give them good feedback! You can easily follow other people and keep up to date on their work. Joining teams is easy and the site supports it. I love reading people's post mortems and hearing about their journey. I like to see updates on what people are working on and how they are solving problems. I like to see all the eye candy where people create cool things and we get to respond with hearts. All that contributes to the community and makes it a great place. Which leads me to my next point...

Self promotion hurts the community

Note that I'm not saying self promotion is * bad *. It isn't. If you want to make it in the game industry you have to do it. But you don't have to do it * here *. It seemed that this jam the entire front page was always filled with "Play My Game!" advertisements. They don't add to the community. There are lots of other places where self promotion is accepted and welcome. I don't think that the Ludum Dare main feed is one of those places.

Here's my plan

1. I'm going to make sure that every post I make contributes to the community in some way. A way I solved a problem. A decision that I made. Sure I'll link to my game, but I'm going to make sure that I'm at least contributing to everyone when I do.
2. I'm going to respond honestly to everyone who rates my game.
3. If I see someone self promoting on the main page, I'm not going to play or rate unless I see they are at positive coolness. I may also politely and respectfully explain how the system works (maybe they just don't know!). Advertising only works because we keep buying the stuff. So I'll just spend my money (votes) elsewhere. Maybe if enough of us do it the behavior will change?
4. As I play and rate games, I am going to post about the cool things I find so that others can find them too. This might even help towards getting the entries that are in the running for the top spots extra votes, which may make others happy about the low rating count for winning entries.

See you all in Ludum Dare 42!