Since people seem to post fancy statistics recently, I decided to make some of my own, too. However, I don’t really have an easy access to LD data nor a friendly bot to retrieve these for me, so instead I came back to some idea I had some time ago, but eventually forgot.

So here it is: a complete list of all themes proposed across 4 rounds, with the themes from final round being italicised. Maybe someone will find it interesting. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if you decided to play the game in question first. 😉

Planned and executed (4/81; 2/20):
(themes that I wanted to allude to in one way or another, and succeeded in doing so)

• Choose A Path (you’re making your own paths)
• Connected Worlds (guess you have seen this one already); I even managed to integrate it into gameplay, i.e. make it so that without the theme one of core game mechanics wouldn’t have much sense
• Manipulate The Environment (yay, topology~!)
• Potato Salad (that’s what Iri’s dad would make, as mentioned in initial dialogue)

Spotted and executed (11/81; 4/20):
(i.e. themes that I was aware would be present in my game, but didn’t really tried to include)

• Another World (well, duh)
• Chaos (to be fixed)
• Do No Harm (quite a feat, considering someone else couldn’t resist making a shooter in relation to CONNECTING PLANETS WITH OPTICAL FIBER)
• Experimentation (them students…)
• For Science! (them students again…)
• Human Stupidity (…and again…)
• Labyrinth
• Lost In Space (depending on definition of “space” – it’s very interdimensional)
• Unexpected Side Effect (…and again…)
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (…and again…)
• Wonderful Apocalypse (…and again…)

Planned, but not included (11/81; 4/20):
(i.e. uses of themes that I wanted to allude to, but eventually didn’t have time)

• Artificial Intelligence (overlords in cyan levels)
• Brainwashed (the people welcoming robot overlords, obviously)
• Break The Rules (possibly to be personified with some rebel in cyan levels)
• Destroy The System (similar to Break The Rules)
• I For One Welcome Our New Robot Overlords (to be repeated word by word by one of people in cyan levels)
• No One Can See You (kinda planned as one of abilities)
• The Power Of Machines (sort of; didn’t plan that theme specifically, but wanted machines to have power)
• Shadows (the No One Can See You ability)
• Things Are Not What They Seem (cyan levels… kinda sorta)
• Transformation (one of abilities)Maps
• You’re Not Supposed To Be Here (wanted to include a character somewhere that would have different colour than surroundings, remarking how it’s probably not the place they should be at)

Unintended, but somehow included (5/81; 0/20):

• Don’t Save The Princess (clearly, you don’t)
• Maps (in Theory; though they would be useful in field, too…)
• Speed (tuuurboooo~!)
• Strange Physics (very interdimensional)
• You Can’t Fight Back (you must have something to fight against in the first place)

Ignored and not included (50/81; 10/20):

• Alchemy
• Break It, Fix It (only fix it – breaking was in backstory)
• Day and Night
• Dreams And Nightmares
• Don’t Stop Moving
• End Of The Road
• Everyone Is A Monster
• Flow
• Forgotten
• Forces Of Nature (unless infinite supply of shruberries counts)
• Fortress
• From The Ashes
• Glimpse Of The Future (pfft, too deterministic!)
• Growing
• Illusion
• Infectious
• Isolation
• I Think It’s Alive
• It’s A Trap!
• Knowledge Is Power (knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass…)
• Limited Capacity
• Limited Control
• Loot (unless topology circuits count)
• Love (definitely not as leading plot – it’s pretty overused at that point…)
• Losing Control
• No Return
• Nothing Is Real
• No Way In, No Way Out
• Off The Grid
• On The Edge
• The Other Side
• Points Of View
• Randomly Generated (initially considered, but it would have been way too much mess)
• Rise And Fall
• The Space Is Getting Smaller
• Something’s Out There
• Strength In Numbers
• Supply And Demand
• Survive (several orders of magnitude more overused than Love)
• This Happens To Me Every Day (no switching light, sorry)
• Time Travel (too wibbly-wobbly, space is already enough)
• Trust No One (meh)
• Under Pressure
• Unlimited (I’d like to see someone combining this theme with Limited Capacity and Limited Control)
• What Is That In The Distance?
• Where No One Has Gone Before
• You Are Already Dead (no, you aren’t)
• You Are The Weapon (no, you aren’t)
• You Can Never Have Too Many (no, you can)
• You Must Leave It Behind (just got reminded of someone ranting about “You [something]” themes)

(hmm, I really could use some spoiler tag here…)

To sum it up in fancy images, because we all know everyone likes fancy images:

I wonder, how about others’ theme coverage; in particular, what sort of other themes appeared the most in LD games in one way or another (Another World, perhaps?), and whether every theme has related game (I know for sure “This Happens To Me Every Day” has at least one). Perhaps we should play some sort of Ludum Dare theme bingo? ^^”

So you think one theme just isn’t enough, huh?
Well then, how about a nice game of Theme Bingo?

The rules are simple: when making your game for Ludum Dare, you not only execute whatever theme wins in the final round; you also somehow include the other themes from the card presented above, so that themes used overall form a row, column or diagonal from the big, 9-fields wide square. The side themes don’t need to be followed strongly; as long as they’re alluded to somewhere (and aren’t all listed in one place without any relevance to the game), it counts. If you aren’t feeling *that* confident, you might want to use only the green, 5-fields wide square instead.
(if you plan to play the theme bingo, please let me know; I’ll prioritise your game when playing)

It can also work the other (and likely easier) way – when playing other games, you can try to spot alternate themes usages and check if they collectively form a row, column or diagonal (or a few of these).

Let the randomness commence~!

What title says. Sometimes I'd like to go back to the entry I rated and/or commented on, but I don't see any feature like that here?

(there definitely was something like this back in the days of old Ludum Dare website)

--- Edit ---

@Remco pointed me to the right page, it's here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/my/grades (thanks a lot!)

Then I've got the game just for you - Something from Nothing! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/something-from-nothing

It features: - over 99 words to build from various nullities - saving system so that you don't have to find all these words in a single go - incremental particles - a misplaced alien - last but not least, the most essential feature in video games: toilet flushing

On a side note, if you leave a review on my entry, I'll do my best to reciprocate... which might or might not end up well for you. ^^'

While we're at the shameless promotion, check out "There was something here", it's awesome: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/there-was-something-here

Just a friendly reminder that: - there are 2 days left till the end of Ludum Dare - according to the latest stats, over 40% of games haven't yet reached the 20 ratings mark - there is this lifesaving search feature called "Danger" in the games browser, which shows the games below 20 ratings, starting from these that are the least votes away from crossing the threshold

So if you aren't yet jammed out, please save these souls and play and rate these. I'm sure they'd appreciate it. (there are some enjoyable games below the 20 ratings mark, too)

And of course, the first thing I checked was my own game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/something-from-nothing

I'm pretty pleased with the result. I almost scored in top 10% in Theme category, got pretty high in Innovation, and my entry was in top 1/3rd of all games Overall. Not bad, especially since I started actually developing the game past halfway through the Jam, and the third day was a work day for me. ^^

I also checked out the rankings of the games I reviewed, and most of the time the games I particularly liked scored high in at least some category, while other games not so much. A notable exception is "Nothing left for Jim!" - while I found it pretty fun and hilarious, it didn't really score well at all... u_u' (the game is here, if anyone is interested: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/nothing-left-for-jim )

Well, I guess it's time I learn HaxeFlixel and try to mostly replicate my entry - then make a full version eventually. I wonder where it'll lead me...

Since people mention their tools and engines, I guess I'll present the GameMaker package I've been using every jam for a while.

It's GameMaker Community Toolbox! A set of utility functions maintained by me, with contributions from various members of the broad GameMaker Community! You can check out the repository here: https://github.com/Alphish/gm-community-toolbox

Alternatively, if you want to first browse the functions and see if there's anything useful at all, you can check the reference: https://github.com/Alphish/gm-community-toolbox/blob/main/Docs/Reference/Reference.md

Also also, I uploaded the demo showcasing most of the functions to itch.io, along with the GameMaker local package: https://alphish-creature.itch.io/gmct-ea

However, the demo doesn't include the file_read_all_text, file_write_all_text, json_load and json_save functions because it's tricky to showcase file management in a browser demo. I mention these, because of various Community Toolbox functions I use these basically every time.

Hopefully some of you GameMaker jammers out there will find the package useful!