I am writing this to let others know what my Unity Web Player experience has been like on my Mac.  Every time I start a game, it’s a gamble as to whether or not my system will crash. What happens is that the game loads, gets to the title screen and then the plugin crashes. This causes my entire system to become completely unresponsive to the point that it must be rebooted. A plugin crash should not render your entire OS unresponsive! I’ve tried the game with Safari and Firefox just to see if it was a browser issue and it is of course not. The WebGL versions are bit better in that they don’t completely kill my system, but some of the games load, others don’t. I would hate to have to start using a virtual machine to play web games!

If you are only targeting the web, consider using pure HTML5/JS Libraries. I’ve seen some really nice results with Construct 2 and Phaser. I personally used three.js for scene rendering, though bare in mind it is not a game engine. Plain HTML5 2D Canvas has a very intuitive rendering system as well. It’s worth it to give it a shot!

Here is my opinion and suggestions for opening up the Ludum Dare to outside voting:

I love the idea of opening up voting to people who didn’t make an entry. However, they should be clearly delineated from those who did contribute an entry. The votes of the entrants and non-entrants should be tallied and displayed separately. It will be very interesting to see if there is any overlap between the two final results.

The reason I think voting should be opened up is that it will give people who are not game authors but who are gamers a chance to see and rate our games. The more eyes on the games the better. I don’t know how many non-entrants play the games, but I doubt there are many. If they do, they probably wait until the results are in and sample the top games. Opening up voting to non-entrants would allow authors to get additional feedback on our games from the much larger pool of gamers. Non-entrants would feel more compelled to play the game if they knew they could rate them.

As far as the comment section goes, non-entrants should be allowed to comment, but once again there needs to be a clear delineation between entrants and non-entrants. My idea would be alter their avatars and their screen names in the comment sections so it can quickly be seen if they contributed or not. Whatever is chosen or technically feasible, it should be clear on first glance that the person making a comment did not contribute anything to that Ludum Dare. As an alternative, perhaps a mirror site could be made that was like Ludum Dare, but was just for outside voting.

I think allowing outside voting would encourage more active participation in Ludum Dare because there may be times when I wasn’t able to make a game but I could still participate. It would keep Ludum Dare in my mindshare and encourage me to participate next time. Outside voting would be a nice feature for previous entrants as well.

So I am well on my way of my goal to play and rate at least 10% of the entrants (282 Games). In no particular order, here are some of my favorite games I’ve played so far. Click on the pictures to go directly to the games.

Braids

Fun little game with great graphics. Throw everything you’ve got at the little princes to keep them from taking you away!

GLOV3.1

Normally a gun wouldn’t be considered an unconventional weapon, but in Sokoban it is! Use your gun to create targets for the blocks.

Glatto Boy

Use your sidearm to suck up enemies and blast them out. Can also be used to float. Very well-done graphics create a world with perfect mood.

A Good Tunnel is Hard To Dig

A good tunnel IS hard to dig as you will find out when you play this unique puzzler.

Lucid

Another interesting platformer where your weapon is a shockwave.

Teed Off

The most unique “golf” game I’ve ever played.

X-11 Gust Gunner

Mega Man meets Super Meat Boy. ’nuff said.

Wok Quest

Heat up your Wok and make some bacon!

Ninja Swapper

The best of the “swap gun” games I’ve played this LD.

This Fart of Mine

This is the best of the “Fart Games” I’ve played this LD. Pretty hilarious title, the game is filled with fart humor and seems like a parody of Indie games in general.

Banana Nana

I saw a few “Banarang” games as well, this one is by far the best. Even if it wasn’t, you have to have “mad respect” for a game made in 6502 assembler code that runs on NES hardware written in 72 hours!

The Wand of FloatingSoaps

The music fits well with this game to create a very relaxing mood.

As an avid gamer, I enjoy playing games as much as making them. I finally reached my goal of playing and rating 10% of all entrants today. Here is some more of the cream that rose to the top.

Bears and Bees

I was very lucky to have played this game first. It’s a freakin’ hilarious HTML5 game that you can play in your browser without the hassle of Unity!

Limb by Limb

Rip your limbs from your body, use them as utilities, and reclaim them later. Enjoyable game. 5/5 in WTF.

The Murderers of Originality

This game will have you screaming “STFU kid!” Well done example of a short but sweet compo entry.

slappy the frog goes to town

Cute game, another perfectly short LD entry that is somewhere between adventurer and puzzler.

Udom Nebdon

Very well done game using shaders to give it that retro CGA/EGA style of graphics. I just wish it had a run button!

Nuclear Autumn

Fun platformer that reminds me of Metroid.

The Song of Aria

Best use of “sound as a weapon” that I played. BTW, I have no idea why this game is marked as possibly offensive.

Killer Moves

Perform the key combinations before the red bar fills up. A bit buggy in that you and your opponent can never truly be defeated (as to be expected for a LD entrant), but a perfect example of a 5/5 mood in a game. In case you were wondering, the soundtrack is Virtual Riot’s Prove Them Wrong.

Soulstealer

I was fortunate to have played this game as my 282nd game… the very last of the 10% of games I played. Very interesting play on the theme and another fun platformer. Stuck? Just try going to the farthest corners of the map and pressing Z. The mandrakes are sometimes hard to spot; all you can see is their top leafy stem.