Felt like there were so many repetitions, some of them were exactly same verbatim. Some themes were previous Ludem Dare themes, one was "life is currency". Some themes were from other jams which just finished a couple of weeks ago. However some of them really good ideas too. Can't wait for theme voting and theme announcement. Best of luck to all.

Let's see how well life and free time treats me this year, missed a few compos due to both of those coming into effect after all.

If everything goes well, I'll have another little C++-based project done for this time as well. I was looking at a handful of frameworks, but I think I'll stick to SFML for now, don't really have the time to dig myself into a new one after all.

Here's to many more games!

I've seen others discussing how they would change the theme slaughter for the better, and while I agree with limiting it to just one suggestion per person, I also think people should be trying to make better themes. So, here's my list, in no particular order, of surefire ways to get your theme rejected:

• Symbols. We've all seen light, death, and time a dozen times. A waste of a suggestion. Even when you try to integrate it into a larger theme, it rarely works.
• Jokes. While some may find yeet or Area 51 raid amusing as a joke, nobody wants to be forced into making a game focused on it.
• Meta. A theme is meant to be the topic for the LD, not provide additional restrictions to jump around like use an unfamiliar engine or language does. Something like pick 3 themes makes it difficult to judge how well games stick to the theme; while remaster previous project breaks the whole point of the LD: to make a game within a couple of days.
• Proverbs. These are obscure, a pain to interpret, and even more of a pain to implement. How are you even meant to make a game around Bob's your uncle?
• Repeats. I just made a game around your life is currency, so why should I want to do it again? If I liked my previous game, I would just remake it, and if I didn't, I'd be able to improve upon my past experiences, neither of which constitute making a game from scratch.
• Specific. There are numerous problems with find the killer (needle in a haystack). If it were to be selected, you would have to make a game with a mystery, and with a large selection of suspects.
• Imprecise. On the other hand of too specific, it is possible to make ones that are too vague. Take Rube Goldberg's nightmare. Would this be a machine very simple and efficient, or one very complicated that achieves absolutely nothing?
• Nonsense. What on Earth is a peom? Why would I want to make a game around Shirayuki- Rotkäppchen, which Google informs me is an anime?
• Political. This may be more of a personal annoyance, but I prefer to keep my games separate from the woes of real life. I come here for escapism, not more mention of climate change.
• Restrictive. Anything that forces the creator into a particular artistic style, genre, etc. falls under this category. Examples are 16 bit, Minimalism overkill, or dating simulator. Remember that others may be less confident in drawing, coding or writing in a particular way than you are.
• Negatives. A theme should provide inspiration of what to make, not limit what can be created. No guns or platformer games would severely limit what gets made, with many LD participants simply unwilling to make something other than a platformer.

And some more from @alphish: - Feel-bad. Things that are just depressing like there's no hope are going to generally be less fun to rate too many games of in succession. Sure, these themes can be well-handled by a game, but just as themes that restrict the creator to an arts style or genre are bad, these restrict the tone of the game. - Frustration. A game with a horrible control scheme designed specifically to haunt the player could be good, but it won't be when twenty of these are played right after another. I may have reached the top in Getting Over It, but it doesn’t mean I want to have similar experience dozens of times.

While I'm sure that there are some trolls among us who enjoy posting themes they do not believe are good themselves, I feel as if the majority of people are simply unaware how bad many of their themes are.

From @jeremy-ryan: There is a distinction between a good game idea and a good theme idea. No jump platformer could result in a very good game, but I would absolutely not want to play and rate fifty of them.

In general, before submitting a theme, consider if you would like to make two thousand different games on that theme, and rate them all, without it becoming difficult or repetitive. If you can only think of a few games to make fitting your suggestion, how can you expect us to think of unique games?

Finally, good luck on the Ludum Dare.

Hi everyone, I'm back to LD for the 4th time (2nd in Compo) and I really want to do a better job than the two last times (a project than we could not finish in time and one with a buggy gameplay).

So, here are my requirements: - a good gameplay - feedback: all my games lack of sound design and animations that give enough feedback to the player - content: I would love to make a game that take more than 2 minutes to end while being fun

Here are my goals to be really happy with my game: - no missing graphics or animations - good UI - music: I only managed to make some for my first game

Bonus stage: if I can manage to have all of these in time I record a song with actual lyrics for the end of the game ;)

Good jam, have fun!

Hey guys! I'm gonna participate in ludum dare 45 and this is my first time in a ludum dare game jam! Tips would gladly be appreciated (like how to upload your game)

After entering a game into Ludum Dare 44 compo we are going to be doing a jam game this time. It was a good experience and I am happy with what I made in that time limit but I now know that I need more time to polish and test my games. Excited to see what the theme is!

What's up all? I'm back for my fourth Ludum Dare. I seem to always end up adding audio an hour or two before the deadline so the goal is better time management this time around! And of course, to finish :P

My Tools: Unity, Visual Studio, Blender, ProBuilder, Aseprite, GIMP, Affinity Designer, Audition, BFXR, and GitKraken.

Good luck to everyone! Have fun and stay hydrated!

--Dave
Dave Brake Creations

Wassup! This is my first Ludum Dare Jam and after voting, I'm really excited for the potential themes. My goal for this is quite simply to have something playable and enjoyable. Under that: I consider consistent graphics along with some care to audio an essential part of the experience. I can't wait to see all of your contributions.

I code in Unity and straight Java, and can't quite decide which one to use for the Jam.

Have Fun!

And I'm actually really excited at the lineup! Hopefully the rest of the rounds are as exciting as this one.

In for the Jam as usual, this time I will be working with a team of myself and one other (@ArcticK9). Tools: - Unity, Visual Studio - 3DS Max / Blender - Photoshop - Bfxr / Garageband In the meantime, I'm getting hype by coding random things like a rhythm game, an environmental tile-based resource management game for my environmental studies course (no, I wasn't one of the people who submitted climate change related themes), and some other stuff. Here's hoping for a decent final theme! Most of them that got through into voting (at least round 1) don't seem too bad, except for the specific ones like "take care of the egg."

Hey, just checking in, I made an account a while back and don't recall ever seeing a way to join the event. Is simply having an account enough to participate? If not, how can I join, or is it too late?

Thanks people! :)

Edit: All good now, thanks for your help!

Not sure if it's like last year where you're supposed to say I'm in but I'm in with my team and good luck to everyone!!!

The jam is so close and I’m ready do my best. Good luck to everybody doing the jam and I hope it goes well :D!

After finishing 2/4 of the Ludum dares I've entered, I'm starting to realize my strengths and shortcomings. If anyone would like to team with me, I'd be happy to hear from you.

My strengths: - Unity scripting in C# - Finding sound effects on Freesound, editing them with audacity. - Modeling in blender, though I havent really figured out how to paint textures yet.

My weaknesses: - Level design - No musical talent - I tend to ignore art or content in favor of a core loop

I am in Pacific daylight time, and will respond quickest if contacted via discord @BadRAM#6838

It's been 4 years since I've last entered a game jam! Ludum Dare 29 through to 34 had game after game from me.
Then school took away my time.... :thumbsdowntone4:
*Until now! Highschool's finally over!* :thumbsuptone4:

I've spent the July/August holidays :computer: learning, and have made my own website. A great improvement from the click and drag website I made back when I was 14.
Thus, I finally have somewhere to host all the multiplayer games I hope and dream of making. :open_mouth:
But, there's only one problem... flash is dying! :scream: flash is dying!

Inevitably, I soon learned and adopted Javascript and HTML5 canvas, as it was very similar to ActionScript2.0; so I began working on my own game engine, which includes: - my fully functioning and resizable/scaleable canvas panel - my own audio system **(more on this later) - my own Highscore API (for users with accounts on my website) - my own achievements system [Coming soon: planned to work on it this week]

So....Ludum Dare?

Yes! I'm excited and ready to finally participate in Ludum Dare once again! I'm in!

tools tools TOOLS:

• Software/Engine: Pure Javascript + HTML5 Canvas (I want to learn another engine but haven't gotten there yet. Maybe Unity? Haxe?) :thinking:

• Sprites/Art: Paint.net **(I kinda suck at pixel art) :stuckouttongue:

• Sound effects: SFXR/BFXR/JFXR: **(Very, very, basic sound effects) :laughing:

• Game Music: ~~LMMS/FL Studio/Bosca Ceiol/PixiTrack:~~
  I'm probably going to download free music and sound effects **(if I use music at all) :joy:

Streaming?

I plan to stream the development on Twitch, so during this week, I'm setting that up as well. Be sure to follow me and turn on notifications so you get alerted when I go live.

Team Inquiry:

Part of me highlighting the audio and art is in the brackets. I'm mostly a game programmer: I do coding.
I know this is also last minute, but if there's anyone confident in their art skills/music making and would like to join me for this Jam, do comment below, along with any links to your work. Or, join my Discord Server and connect with me there.

P.S: As this is my first actual game I'm attempting in JS, I'm not even 80% confident in my skills, so don't feel shy to collab...I've got a long history of bad games that I've made from 2014-2016 so...I'm bad too :sweat_smile:
If not, that's alright too, I've survived this 6 times in the past! :relieved:

Important Note If Interested:

As tradition, Saturdays are off for me. As a result, while I will be available when the theme is chosen, I will be officially entering the Jam (not Compo) on Saturday 6:00PM EDT. :sunglasses:

I'm seeing some really weird themes, some repeats, some amazing ideas...I’m sure it will be lots of fun! :grimacing:
But for now, good luck everyone, and have fun! :wave_tone4:

Nice themes for this first round ! I look forward to know the themes in the second round 😉

Hi! I'm Nikita.

This is my first ever game jam... I don't expect to even be in the top 100 but I at least want to finish a game because event this is better than not participating at all! I'm planning to take part in compo and am really looking forward to get feedback from other people!

When the 48 hours are over: Make sure to try out my game, ok? xD

I wanted to tell the runners of the jam, that next time they should give you more time with the theme slaughter round. But where can i reach them?