A platformer or such where you need to summon the right player character to pass the current obstacle; gathering resources in order to perform a summoning or series of summonings; turn based battles where you summon elements such as wind or lighting/monsters to attack your opponent (rip off Pokemon); a narrative about performing a summoning or the consequence of one; a villain trying to summon the demons of the underworld; summon courage; summon ghosts. That's all I can think of for now. Hope it might help someone who is stuck.

Share your game in the comments if it's under 20 votes.

If you made a text-based game, share it and I'll see if I can play it.

(ᗒᗨᗕ)

Hi. This theme reminded me of one of my favorite games from Ludum Dare 27: "10 seconds to save the day," a story-rich game about people in the afterlife trying to give 10 seconds to the person who can stop the apocalypse. It was really well done. If you have some time and want to see a creative take on the 10 second theme, you can check it out below. (Note, to play Flash games on Kongregate, you need to have SuperNova installed.)

https://www.kongregate.com/games/StormAlligator/10-seconds-to-save-the-day?acomplete=10+se

Looking for a short simple webgame? "The 10 Second Chicken-Plant Curse" is a short platformer about a chicken who got cursed to become a plant every ten seconds. The only cure is to use his plant form to absorb the magic glow of gems and activate the Crystal of Curse Curing, quite conveniently located in the same cave...

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/the-10-second-chicken-plant-curse

Of the top themes, my personal favorite that I feel is most versatile to many types of games is Companion. Basically, all you need to do to fit the theme is have the player/player character have a friend, AI or new acquaintance they are working with. For example, a platformer where you're trying to reach your friend on the other side of the screen. A top down rpg where you found a lost child and are escorting them home. A story game about two friends who are drifting apart. A first person shooter with a drone companion that explains how to play, gives you stats on the current area when you click it and perhaps holds onto your inventory for you.

Versatility is what I consider to be the most important aspect of a theme and Companion definitely has it, though as past jams have shown, many themes can be more versatile than they might first appear. Can't wait to find out what it will be tomorrow.

I was not as big a fan of harvest because it felt kind of limited. It's not as broad as gathering, which could incorporate concepts such as a hidden object game gathering all the items you need for a trip. Or a story game about gathering your friends together for a party. So what's the difference between harvesting and gathering? In the most general sense, I think harvesting is gathering items for consumption directly from the source. Picking apples at an orchard would be harvesting, but buying them from the grocery store would not because they've already been harvested. There might be some exceptions to this, but it's the best rule of thumb I could think of.

In that vein, some possible things to harvest beyond crops could be minerals, souls or magic energy. Much as Harvest is more limited than some other themes, I think there are still a lot of unique possibilities.

Good luck to everyone in the jam!

I was curious what all the past Ludum dare themes were and thought I would share what was on Wikipedia. (I tried copying and pasting, the table, but it all came out as one giant paragraph when I posted)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludum_Dare#Results

I know this will likely get lost in the spam posts, but here are my three themes. I have a lot going on right now so I might end up doing a text based game so I do not have to scrabble to design scenes and find the right music.

Is it just me, or did the countdown clock disappear?

I skimmed back through the feed and noticed almost no one has any complaints about the theme this time. I personally had delivery as one of my top picks since it was a simple versatile theme that could fit many premises and genres. Hoping we'll get a lot of fun unique games.

Good luck on on developing everyone!

Here's this year's theme suggestions.

First I want to say I feel for all the devs choosing to set aside Unity due to the recent events. If you are still looking for an alternative, I would highly recommend GDevelop. It's similar to Unity in that it allows you to make many types of games, but I always found it much easier to use. We'll you can use JavaScript, its default programming system is a series of "code free" events (basically if-then statements) and they have an asset store with a variety of free assets that are not exclusive to GDevelop (i.e. could still be used if you decided to change engines). If you're not sure how to start, there's a template for just about every game type and an active Discord and YouTube channel with tutorials.

Finally, it allows you to export to web, PC, Mac, Linux and mobile. Pasting a link and good luck to everyone no matter what engine you are using :)

https://gdevelop.io/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTmAcCxnEv4

Glad I came on and checked. Had not realized theme suggestions were already in progress this soon. Now I just gotta think of some good themes...

Am I the only one who has this song go off in my head every time Shelter is a possible theme? :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzQ6gRAEoy0

I like this theme. Tiny creatures is not one I've seen used before. I think it will give us a fun range of games and some cute art. I want to make a text based game about a small creature having a random adventure. If I have time, maybe I'll add some character pictures if feasible.

Just randomly checked in on the LD site and found that Mike apparently needed a lot of financial help to keep him and Ludum Dare going. Just want to say I'm glad to see the community has pulled through and I hope things get better for him.

Long live Ludum Dare!