Hello there! For my LD41 compo game, I chose to mix two genres I love, that aren't necessarily incompatible, and end up with something really challenging but rewarding.

Here's the LD page: Danmakoid Any feedback is welcome!

A shoot'em up with upgrades, exploration and a bit of backtracking!

Difficult, puzzling patterns!

Power creep! Blaze your way through lategame, and defeat the alien queen!

It is very hard and might require you multiple tries. Be methodical, clear rooms and plan your upgrade route to make it the safest until the last boss.

I hope you will like it!

As requested in the feedback I have received, here are the multiplatform builds of my LD41 compo game. If you haven't tried it out, now is easier than ever! ->Danmakoïd LD Page<- Have fun!

On a side note, I am currently working on a post-jam v2 with music, better balancing and more content!

Balancing, bugfixes and more sound effects added in this inbetween update to my 48h solo game for LD41 compo, Danmakoid! I am currently working on a V2 with music, UI and more visual polish! I have also used this opportunity to update my page with sexy gifs. Come check it out: Danmakoid - Bullet hell metroidvania If you are going to rate it, the original v1.0 is and will still be available for windows/osx/linux and web.

Hey! So the results are in and I've somehow managed to score top 10% in the fun category by reaching 86th place out of 1031!

This is my first LD (however not my first jam) and my second solo jam. I am really happy with how this one went overall, received great feedback and had a lot of fun! I wish I could've reached top100 overall but the lack of music made it that much harder. I'll be sure to make an awesome soundtrack next time! ;D

Hope you've had a blast as much as I did during this jam! You can play my compo game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/danmakoid-bullet-hell-metroidvania

Still a wip but you can now wipe out one fourth of the arena with this baby!

Wormhole Wars v1.0.6 has been released, fixing all of our game-breaking bugs!

Now 2-gamepads multiplayer isn't broken anymore, t'would be a good time to give it a go if you have a friend around (and one or two gamepads, since the game is also playable with keyboard and mouse!). Lonely? Worry not, there's still a singleplayer mode that matches you against the AI!

Here's the game's page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/wormhole-arena

Have fun!

I did a quick brainstorming and ended up with a huge number of theme ideas, choosing the 3 best ones was really difficult but here's my selection! These are the ones I found the most interesting to design a game around while being vague enough to allow for truly anything to come out of them.

It will be my second compo so far, can't wait to see which themes will come out on top in a week! I'll be using either Unity or Godot, depending on the theme (if it is more interesting I shall focus on making a good game and sticking to what I'm used to which is Unity, otherwise I will use this opportunity to try out new stuff, that would be Godot + Blender).

These are some pretty bad themes :anguished: Most themes I saw during the slaughter were either trying too hard to be subversive/edgy, or were one-liner game/main mechanic ideas.

Themes should generate possibilities and ideas not restrict them.

A good thing too keep in mind when coming up with theme propositions is to stay short and as low-level as possible, often a single word is enough! Let me show you how efficient that is, try to come up with a game idea while reading each of these and see how quickly a cool idea can appear: Gargoyle! Purgatory! Angle! Pulsar! Icons! Slowdown! Trip! See? :smile: The English language is a godsend for this, because of the high amount of meanings behind each word (which is also its weakness, time flies like an arrow fruit flies like a banana :upside_down: )

Anyway, here are my votes, hope the next round will be better.

I'm in.

I'm going to be doing the compo.

I'm going to be holding a gamedev booth at a local convention.

I'm going to be doing the compo while holding a gamedev booth at a local convention.

I'm going to be alone. On the jam AND on the booth.

I'm going to have to find a place to sleep over there and haven't planned jack #@!$.

I'm so going to die.

~~Don't worry though I got this~~

Hello!

LD46 is just a month away, and with the ongoing pandemic, it might see a sizeable influx of participants. This might be a good opportunity to try and have as many great themes to vote on as possible!

So without further ado, here are 5 guidelines I think would greatly help when coming up with theme ideas: - The shorter, the better. Complex, specific themes restrict creative freedom. Games under such themes tend to be very same-y! Keep it vague! - It's a theme, not a game mechanic! Descriptions of a core mechanic are, in my opinion, the worst kind of theme. Same problem as the above point but worse. Here not only will most games be extremely similar in ideas and gameplay, but even the games that think outside of the box, while they can be very original and fun, will also be restricted in their possibilities. - Don't try to be subversive. Themes like "you are the princess/villain" overpopulate theme votes and tend to be eradicated very fast. Something classic and straightforward works well, after all it's up to the participants to be subversive and surprising! - Avoid memes and politically charged themes, these too, tend to not survive for long. - While the best themes inspire and open up for all sorts of ideas rather than restrict, limitations also bring creativity! Restrictive themes can actually work as long as they are explicit (Only 4 colors, One room, etc).

I sincerely hope this will help you find amazing themes to suggest, and I also hope this semester's theme roster will be good! Take care, don't fall sick, and see you in a month!

You people gave us a lot of feedback regarding Soaring's difficulty, mainly due to the time limit, so here's a new, post-jam version of the game with new difficulty settings included!

Practice: No time limit, if you want to dive around, get more familiar with the movement or try and locate that one last crystal you couldn't find.

Easy: Time Watches give twice more time (20 seconds) and Wind Gusts don't disappear when you take them.

The original, Hard difficulty setting is the default and stays untouched. You have to figure out an optimal path around the islands and dive at the right times!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/soaring

Going a bit slower than I wanted but hey, here's a mockup! It's going to be a methodical, claustrophobic shoot'em up on a platform sent down an endless chasm filled with hellish creatures. Your exoskeleton is heavy and clunky so every decision counts!

I am going with a top-down methodology since I am pretty confident about how my concept will play and feel. I just hope I will have enough time to make music for it.

Now, time to work on player animations and enemies!

After a few days of tinkering around in Reaper and polishing things up, I am happy to release what I hope will be the final build for my LD51 Compo game ETERNARC - ETERNALLY NARCOLEPTIC!

I would be very thankful for more reviews, as I currently stand at only 2!

Here is the game's page, now also available in WebGL format. Have fun!

ETERNARC is a strategic survival-adventure game in which you fall asleep and the (procedurally generated) map changes every 10 seconds.

Version 1.3 includes a Compo Mode toggle along with many polish and quality of life changes, as well as a new soundtrack! The latter is made entirely on Reaper with Plogue's Chipsynth PortaFM VST, emulating the OPLL chip and its variants. Yes, it is entirely FM!

With that being done, time for me to play your games :smirk: See you in the comments sections!

I was pretty happy with ETERNARC, but certainly wasn't expecting it to hit Compo top16 overall and top8 fun. Man, what a shock!

This is by far my best jam. From my games dwelling around top 10% in these categories, to removing that modulo altogether... The dopamine rush isn't calming down anytime soon!

And not just dopamine; motivation, too! Like putting a whole can of gasoline in my gamedev flame! An irresistible urge!

So before I go and drown in Unity again, here is my game:

-> ETERNARC <-

Oh by the way, do you think I should write a post-mortem?

Congratulations to you all and see you in 6 months! I promise I'll make music in time for a change :stuckouttonguewinkingeye:

This will be my 7th LD and... I think my 18th jam overall?

ETERNARC(LD51)'s unexpected success, hitting compo top16 overall and top8 fun, has motivated me to start 2023 with a bang by going for another round! Or two, with the upcoming GGJ :slight_smile:

Experience has taught me the importance of a good theme, and that I was wrong in my previous, similar post regarding restrictive themes. So for the sake of making LD52's slaughter survivors better, here are my...

Jammer's 6 tips to have a sexy and swole theme:

• A game concept or gimmick is not a theme. e.g.: You only have one, delay the inevitable, [...] is key. I consider this kind of theme to be the biggest "noob killer". They are imposing, do not inspire fantasy and visuals, and are extremely prone to overscope, especially for beginners (= most participants!). These are OK, sometimes great, for game designers, and absolutely terrible for artists.
• Similarly to the previous point, do not try to be subversive; leave that to the participants :wink: By trying too hard to be original, a lot of naïve themes actually appear multiple times every slaughter/jam. I'm looking at you, You are the villain!
• Situations as themes are not so good due to being too specific. e.g.: You are [...]. Lone verbs are better, things are best.
• Keep it simple. A theme is a creative spark, a seed. Both are tiny things, and depend on your fuel and nourishment. Jam games are small; short, primitive themes are easier to scope! I've found single-word themes to be especially powerful.
• Restrictions aren't themes. e.g.: Only 2 buttons. Don't be fooled by the saying! Restriction does not bring creativity, it makes it bloom! And blooming can only happen if there is a seed in the first place, which people are terrible at finding by themselves! Give them the initial kick, let them then find their own crazy boundaries to play with!
• And obviously, avoid current topics and ideological/partisan themes. Memes too, but these can actually, rarely, work out and produce extremely funny and surprising results when they do!

These tips are the result of a lot of brainstorming using different creative methods across multiple jams and seeing what did and didn't explode.

A lot of our peers are so good they will produce something great regardless of how bad the theme is. Rather, it is for the sake of everybody else, who does depend on a powerful spark to shine (or even to not drop the jam altogether!), that a good theme is important!

And to finish with some inspiration, here are a few example themes I consider to be good: Home, Mist, Unstable, Transmission, Regret, Audience, Fool, Horde, Traveler, Debt. Home and Transmission were excellent previous GGJ themes. Hope these will be a good starting point for you :smiley:. You can also outright steal them if you're drawing a big blank I guess but coming up with your own is a good exercise!

As for finding success with the jam itself: Be prepared and organized, sleep properly and think small!

Happy holidays! :christmas_tree:

I see so many theme suggestions that are, again, more akin to a rule, situation or game idea than an actual theme!

Keep it simple!

The more complicated, the more restrictive; a theme needs to be a seed, don't rob participants of the "creative genius" part of the jam, that's what makes ideation so fun! A common argument is that restriction breeds creativity, however it does not help giving you a direction to get rid of that blank page syndrome, and also fails to realize that the jam itself, with all these rules in place and its tight deadline forcing you to think small, already plays that role!

Don't be verbose, avoid using things like "You are..." that force a context, and qualifiers make things too specific.

Think about potential and abuse the many homonyms and ambiguities the English language is so rich with! For example, "Right": it can mean a direction, the concept of justice, an upright position, someone's moral or legal entitlement to something. On the surface it looks like a boring theme but when you give it some thought... It is really rich with interpretations that can send you in a completely unique and interesting direction!

Over years of jams, I found simple concepts (things that do things) to make for the most efficient themes.

Following these guidelines, here are some examples I came up with:

As for the jam itself, don't forget that preparation is everything! In a way, we could say the jam has already started :muscle:

Take care :heart:

It's time for my usual refresher on Theme Suggestion & voting tips! People often complain about LD themes being bad, so this post is a drop in the bucket to help you choose better themes, especially if you are less experienced!

3 guidelines to come up with a good theme:

• Keep it simple: The more descriptive or specific your theme is, the more restrictive it will be (in a bad way) and the more difficult to scope. You can do more things with "Season" than "4 Seasons"!
• It's a theme, not an idea/restriction: Don't rob the creative genius away from your fellow jammers. Instead, send them in a direction with a genre-agnostic spark that can fuel both game design and aesthetics/fantasy! "Only 2 Buttons" does not help you know what kind of game you want to make, while "Mist" gives you a cool mental image and still has potential for fun mechanics! While it's not always possible, try to avoid pigeonholing people into certain genres (I'm looking at you, puzzle platformers! :smile:).
• Don't try to be subversive: A gimmick theme for the sake of being a gimmick often falls flat and gets slaughtered. Generally "You are XYZ" (ie: You are the Villain) and "XYZ is key" don't work well. Memes and partisan/political themes are also the quickest to get buried.

An easy "gorilla" way to come up with a decent theme, is to focus on an action, and object, or a "thing that does a thing", and to try and abuse the many synonyms/homonyms in the English language. Mirror, Fall, Glass, Land, Horn, Spray, Hair, Superposition, Treat... Try it yourself it's pretty fun!

As for the jam itself, preparation is key! Make sure your tools are all ready, get the machine oiled up with some practice and, if you're gunning for Compo, prepare some boilerplate code to speed things up on the architecture & non-game side such as UI! A game with a nice title screen and working basic settings (volume!) feels already super polished!

I may be participating this time hehe. Good luck to you all and don't neglect your sleep!

...Aaaand done!

There were more good themes than usual, and less political/current events/ideological stuff to flag too! I can definitely see some very tough choices coming up in the finals.

Anyway, time to get prepared. Good luck everyone!

If my schedule allows, I might participate this time around!

Because there are a lot more newcomers than veterans among participants, it is common for theme suggestions to fall into the same traps. This is why the theme slaughter round exists! But how do we make them better, and more importantly, how do we increase the quality of themes that make it to the final rounds?

Well, I got you covered! Over a decade of jamming, I've somewhat identified the patterns that make a theme sterile and difficult to work with, and came up with 3 rules to follow:

Keep it simple and vague

This opens things up to more varied interpretations. "Stuck in a loop" can be trimmed down to "Loop", which is less restrictive.

Many words have a wide array of meanings when decontextualized, such as "Fall" which can be an action, or a season. Also, the simpler the theme, the easier it is to scope, as it tricks the mind into not thinking too much.

Avoid tunnel vision

A theme is a seed that grows through the personality and experience of the people making the game. Thus, a seed that has potential not only in terms of game design, but also art direction, is much more powerful.

From my experience, "things that do things" make for pretty great themes, because they give you a foundation for both function (game design) and context (dressing). "Consequences" is functional but will not give you an immediate visual interpretation, whereas "Tide" serves both purposes.

Try to also be as genre-agnostic as possible: You might love puzzly strategy games and will come up with themes that are skewed towards these, but they can sabotage jammers who specialize more in fast-paced action games! Try to imagine an interpretation of your theme from both of those extremes, and see if they work and seem fun.

Let jammers be the creative geniuses

This is the most important one! I've seen many people struggle (and have struggled myself!) to make games on poisonous themes that are actually game ideas in disguise.

A theme is not and should not be a rule or mechanic, and it should not try to be subversive, nor descriptive! Avoid things like "XYZ is key!", "You are/have XYZ", "Only XYZ", or "X but Y", like the plague! These are very heavy handed, pointlessly complexify things, and are more difficult and unfun to work with.

"Restriction breeds creativity" is only true when you know how to creatively navigate around it. Experienced and/or talented jammers will always find a way to make a great game with a really cool interpretation of just about any theme. But a good theme can and will make the difference between a beginner dropping out at the starting blocks, and them releasing their first game and being very proud of it!

Some examples (that you can steal if you're really out of ideas :stuckouttonguewinkingeye:): Mist, Mirror, Glass, Land, Horn, Spray, Vision, Ammunition, Mask, Scream, Gift, Dispenser, Train, Advertisement, Book, Clean, Accident, Cactus, Tower, Giant.

One-word, straight to the point, "things that do things". All creative seeds that "push" instead of "pull"!

As for jam advice: Preparation has the biggest impact! Tidy up your gamer cave, make a basic framework with utilities (singletons, scene loading, save system, audio manager, event bus, etc.) functional menus and settings that can be used for any game (this is huge, and does not break Compo rules!), get comfortable with your tools, buy food in advance, rest well, go outside and stay hydrated!

Happy jamming and see you on the 4th!