I entered the jam a year ago with some friends, and created Blockade Runner. This year, it’s just me, so I’m going for the compo, if I can make it in time! My toolset:

• Eclipse IDE, Java, with Processing 2.2.1 library for graphics and Minim for sound
• FL Studio for music/sound
• Pixelshop and/or Paint.NET for any spriting
• ChronoLapse and OBS for screen capture

I’ll be streaming at twitch.tv/stuntddude and will post a time-lapse when I’m done. Happy jamming, all!

Ironically enough, the power's been out all day at my house during some rewiring for a solar panel installation, so I really am running out of power IRL! Nevertheless, I'll be participating in the event and hanging out on various Discord servers.

Tools: Eclipse, libGDX, Java, Pyxel Edit, box2D, and maybe sfxr/bfxr... but maybe not.

As for the theme, I was honestly rooting for "running out of power", so I'm glad to see it win. Some questions to ask yourself if you're struggling for ideas:

• What kind of power? Electricity, willpower, steam power, a superpower?
• What's the consequence if the power runs out? Death? Being stranded? Game over? Or is it even a problem?
• Who is running out of power? Is it you? Someone else? A whole civilization? A space ship?
• How are you dealing with it? Are you trying to wait it out and conserve power? Are you trying to find a way to generate more power? Are you trying to make the most of the power that you have?
• Is it inevitable that you run out of power? Can you generate more, or do you only have a fixed amount? If you can generate more, then how? Can you keep the power on indefinitely, or are you only prolonging the inevitable?
• Where is the power coming from? Is it a draining battery? Are you running out of fuel for a generator, fire, motor, etc.? Is it person-powered?
• Why are you running out of power? What's the cause? Is it a great calamity, a malfunction of some kind, or just an ordinary circumstance?
• What can you do with the power? Do you need it to move? Do you have weapons that rely on it? Can you power an electromagnet? Is it being used to power an energy shield? Can you use it to build things? etc.

There is always some contention surrounding theme selection, and I figured I would chip in my two cents as someone who's been through this a few times.

• Vote "yes" generously. I saw a lot of people last time around proudly submitting screenshots with all but 50 or so themes slaughtered. Don't do that! The theme slaughter is basically an approval vote with multiple winners. If too many people vote for only their favorite candidates, instead of voting for every candidate they would be okay with, it reduces the usefulness of the vote. If you want to be picky, that's what the final voting stage is for.
• Don't reject a theme just because it's a duplicate of one you already voted on. If you voted yes on a theme before, and you see it again, then vote yes again. Once the theme slaughter is over, someone will go through the top themes and discard similar ones before putting them up for a vote. So, don’t worry about duplicates, just try to vote consistently.
• Regarding interpretation of themes: This one is more subjective, but in my opinion, the best themes are ones that people will naturally interpret differently without trying, because of their unique personality and cultural perspective. Words and phrases with multiple meanings, or objects and concepts with many different applications, are good building blocks for such a theme. Descriptions of specific game mechanics or art styles, cultural references that not everyone will be familiar with, and ideas that only apply to a specific game genre (like platformer or FPS), generally don't work well as themes.