Ludum Dare #28 starts today | Hacker News Reader

Ludum Dare #28 starts today

ludumdare.com

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I'm going to participate in it. It's gonna be my 4th time. I participated in the jam twice and the compo once (didn't work that well).

If you want to try the games, here they are:

Theme - Tiny World: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview...

Theme - Evolution: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/08/28/tower-of-nugs/

Theme - Minimalism: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview... (this one was for the Compo, and didn't go as well as I hoped. Still, I believe I achieved the experience and message I wanted)

EDIT: Github for the last game https://github.com/Vaskivo/LudumDare26_MOAI

A Giant Step was fun :) I remember playing it during the compo ratings.

Did you finish it? I think we have a great ending, but the game ended up too difficult.

If you're having trouble just press 'left' during the whole game for an unintended cheat/bug.

Apologies I don't think I did, as I don't recall the ending. In penance, I'll try and finish it before the new LD starts...

One of these things parents typically don't get to do :(

I'm pretty sure I'd join a "48 hours in 30 days" style LD, that could actually work for me. Is anyone aware of anything like that?

edit: Just remembered that there's 1GAM (One Game A Month), which is almost that. Still, I'd prefer a yearly or bi-yearly thing with a lot of traction like LD, and some kind of total time limit.

edit2: What'd be interesting about such a jam is that people would have much more time to think. I don't consider myself less productive when it comes to side projects than before I had kids, I get to think things really through and solve most hard issues while I'm out and about with the little ones.

There's October challenge each year - to produce a game in one month and earn at least $1. Being a parent of two myself, I found this as a good excuse to finally make an Android game. You can read about it here:

http://bigosaur.com/blog/23days

Too bad it's only once a year... Maybe we could start a "month" challenge for parents, say 2-3 times a year? Rules could be like this:

  1. all participants must have at least one child (living with them)
  2. you need to complete a working game within a month
  3. theme? Well, I'm not sure about this one. Maybe a theme should be free, 
     because it's easy to throw away 48hrs at something you might not like very much, 
     but it's hard to dedicate a whole month to some theme you don't like
  4. money? I liked the "get to the market and earn $1" approach from LD.

What do you think?

> all participants must have at least one child (living with them)

I wouldn't want to restrict it to parents actually, I believe there are many other people that can't get 48 hours in a row off because of work/family obligations, and I don't see why they shouldn't compete with less busy people. 48 (or 30?) hours in 30 days seems quite doable without much sacrifice.

The one thing that bothers me is that it shouldn't be _too_ easy to cheat and put more hours in. Maybe the whole thing could be coupled with some script you need to use for accessing your project and that times it.

Of course you could still cheat if you wanted to, you can just as easily cheat in LD48. But it should be easier to not cheat than to cheat, which wouldn't be the case if people keep track of their time themselves.

> money? I liked the "get to the market and earn $1" approach from LD.

Not sure about the $1 thing. I'd rather build a fun game than trying to bring something unpolished to market at all costs. But it sets a higher bar for sure.

> Maybe the whole thing could be coupled with some script

Maybe require that code is posted to GitHub... but then there's open/close source problem.

The whole idea behing LD is to improve and motivate yourself. There are no rewards. If you're cheating, you are not cheating anyone else but yourself.

> The whole idea behing LD is to improve and motivate yourself. There are no rewards. If you're cheating, you are not cheating anyone else but yourself.

Yeah, maybe some nasty setup like that is not necessary at all. Just a big timer on some web site. I think I'll contact the LD folks about this whole idea, maybe they're up for it. I doubt a game jam I start would gain traction TBH, I've never even released a game (despite having made about 13 in 10 years).

Well, if they do start it, I'm in :)

7DFPS is one, but for a more complete overview I usually check http://compohub.net/, but at the moment it isn't listing any compos in the coming months :(. You can check the issue tracker, where people have posted what should be added: https://bitbucket.org/randati/compohub/issues?status=new&sta...

Based on what I've read, 7DFPS allows you to use the full 7 days for development, I could get about 12 hours of development in in that time span... The same goes for 1GAM, you have 30 full days for it in theory. I don't think people do that in practice though.

A jam where you're only supposed to do 48 hours (or better, 30) of work within 30 days would give all games roughly the same scopes and make them comparable for a competition.

But I realise that the audience for this kind of game jam consist of me and probably nobody else, so no real point in trying to start something like that. I have a non-jam game to finish anyway.

Being the weekend before finals, most college students don't have time to take part either.

I really didn't mean to say this only affects parents. Busy people (which definitely includes working college students) generally seem to have to make too many sacrifices to get 48 hours in a row off.

Outside of being a single parent†, you can still do these things. It just takes an understanding partner.

† I'm sure there are ways as a single parent, but that's beside the point.

I'd rather be an understanding partner myself and not ask for this. We have two small kids though, I imagine it's manageable with just one.

I have 2 small children as well. Both with autism. My wife and I have no problem leaving the children with one or the other. We don't do it frequently, but we do still enjoy our own hobbies. I love knowing that she can go spend a day out photographing with her friends, doing what she wants. And I love the day I get to spend with my kids, just me and them.

Being understanding doesn't mean you have to share in everything, together every moment.

I also have a child with autism and I think that factors into it. Both in that it can be much easier for an auteur to handle one on one situations, and because it can be really draining dealing with the negative aspects of autism and I think it's healthy to have some respite from it (maybe somewhat true with all kids but much more so with social/developmental disorders)

I guess it depends on the children and possibly on how well you can handle them. It's certainly pretty hard for our parent/child combination, I couldn't imagine spending even a full day alone with them, and my wife is always exhausted when I have to go on a business trip. I'm optimistic that it'll get better when they stop being toddlers though :)

Ludum Dare has been so much fun over the years. We've been doing it for 2 years now, and have had mixed success :-)

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/12/13/playcanvas-is-in/

But we've created some awesome little games (and some less awesome ones) but always learned and pushed our platform forward that bit.

2yrs ago, http://apps.playcanvas.com/dave/alone/latest

1.5yr ago, http://apps.playcanvas.com/dave/tiny_world/latest

6m ago, http://apps.playcanvas.com/will/mondrian/ld48

6m ago, http://apps.playcanvas.com/dave/minimal/ld48

I'm going to do my first solo entry this weekend. I'm not very fond of the theme, so I'm going to try and slant things towards a Doom tribute, it being 20 years and all.

My super-proud previous team entries are:

Mini31: Afraid of the Dark http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-31/?action=preview&uid... (2D platformer using 3D art)

LD23: The Small World of Professor Strange http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview... (a graphical text adventure with Eclipse IDE mode)

LD24: Cage Flight http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview... (multiplayer space sim)

LD25: The Crown Jewels Job http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview... (2D platformer, kid safe)

Mini40: Mutually Assured Destruction http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-40/?action=preview&uid... (nice globe map)

LD27: NSA's Where's Snowden? http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview... (SQL hacking game)

How can you not be very fond of the theme when the theme is not yet known? As far as i see on http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/12/08/ludum-dare-28-them... voting is still open?

Yes, but I'm not fond of any of the popular themes in the final round. Same thing happened last time, which is why I did a Snowden game. We shouldn't let the theme get in the way :)

I find the theme the best part. What I really enjoy in LD's is the first 3/4 hours where the theme discusses the theme and the games gradually emerges.

I can make any game I what anytime, but the theme give you focus and forces you to think in something you otherwise wouldn't.

Why not just do your own independent hackathon not associated with this then? As far as I'm concerned, the theme is one of the most important parts to this. It means that you can't just sit down and think through a program or an idea before the hackathon starts.

There's two parts to a jam, the theme and the time limit. If you throw either one out, you're not really doing it.

I know in the past Notch has live streamed his development of things like this - is there anyone else doing things like that?

Check the streams here on the right http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/

Obviously there's almost no one streaming atm, but many people stream during the compo.

Notch will participate and stream. Other people might as well, but I don't know for sure.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/12/12/im-in-and-ill-be-b...

And he'll be using Dart/Webgl. Should be interesting.

I'll probably be streaming again like last time, so more people can appreciate my atrocious accent!

I'm really looking forward to this, it's my 3rd time around.

This is interesting, might take part, I have no solid plans this weekend. I'm in London, England.

I'm curious, are there any real-world gatherings in my city that people here know about? Does anybody know of a place/group of people who might like to organise one?

EDITED: For clarity.

Don't be curious, just do it! 48 hours, and you have a finished game. No excuses. Might not be awesome, but feels great to finish.

There's a list of real-world meet-ups if you're feeling social! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/11/19/real-world-ludum-d...

FYI, winners of Ludum Dare 27, the theme of which was "10 Seconds"

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/09/16/ludum-dare-27-resu...

It's fun to see the creativity behind the interpretations of the theme as much as the actual games themselves

I love Ludum Dare, although I always have bad luck and worst timing when they are scheduled. I was able to participate in 3 of them so far and I always take the occasion to try and learn a new language/try a new development process just for the hell of it. As an added challenge.

First I started with C++, as a C programmer, it was a pretty big jump for me http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview... Then a year later, while I had just started playing around with Clojure, I went all the way and wrote a game in ClojureScript http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview... which turned out for some parts to be easier than I thought. Last time I went with some plain Javascript instead http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview...

Honestly, this time around I wanted to try out my new Clojure game engine but it's still in development and not quite ready, plus I have finals next week and I'm studying like crazy. Unfortunately I'll have to skip this time but I suggest anybody who's interested in game development (or just wants to have fun) to go try a Ludum Dare, it's really a self-rewarding and enriching experience!

Oakland and East Bay folks interested in participating can come to the MADE http://www.themade.org this afternoon, around 4 or 5, when the Ludum Dare will be starting. We'll be hosting open hours for game jammers all weekend, all for free. Come make some games!

If I end up participating this will be my first full LD. I've taken part in a miniLD before and did well, though the big names involved in the main one is a little intimidating.

Do it for yourself. Don't worry about comparing your work to others. If you make something you yourself are proud of, then what does it matter if Notch or Terry Cavanagh are participating?

I suppose you're right. I was surprised at how few people took part in the mini I did (#40 http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/?p=221661). I wonder whether the main LD entries get more or less feedback than the minis. It seems like it could go either way. The larger volume of submissions could make it less likely that people find yours.

There's a pretty decent discovery mechanism. The more you rate, the closer you are to the front page. It's not perfect, but I don't think I've gotten less than, say, 50 people rating my games (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/author/mscottmcbee/ If you're interested).

Rate others, leave comments, and people will play your game.

I'm Jewish and all these "weekend hackathons" leave me half as much time as those who participate the whole time. Because I don't work from friday night to say night, I basically have less time to complete the project. I view that as an additional challenge.

At TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon, which I attended every year, the first time I built a real-time, quora-like Q&A app with questions of the type "What is the Adj Noun in Noun", which invited people via chat requests. The second time I built "spreadourmessage.com" which generated a widget organizations could place on their page to let people "donate their fb profiles to syndicate some organizationms posts. Neither one won anything. The third year I realized many people were cheating and using existing sites, so I updated our existing app, YouMixer.com (which doesn't work well with fb connect anymore) and presented a real time social jukebox backed by youtube like a free itunes. Didn't win either.

This year I'm going to build something from scratch using a sponsor's API and our Q framework (http://qbixstaging.com/QP) if it does its job, this should beat the pants off the other entries.

At the danger of sounding insensitive, you can't schedule these things to make everybody happy. Shift workers, doctors and nurses, there are lots of people who don't have "free" weekends. Like you, I also have a weekend hobby that conflicts with LD. This year, I'm going to miss out on most of Saturday again, but I came to the conclusion that in the end it can be a good thing - it forces you to work in a more economical manner. I'd take the Jam, however, not the Compo (with more time being the only deciding factor).

Yeah, I don't expect the time of the "weekend hackathon" to change. I am fine with this. Although it would be nice to have an option for diff people to take different days since it's all in good fun. What kind of irks me is that many hackathons seem to have winners decided by other criteria than the ones they state...

I know what you mean. LD is probably a lot fairer and more transparent than most though, because of the way voting is conducted. I also think it's one where "winning" doesn't matter as much. If you compare that to some sponsored events where the winners seem to be determined beforehand... I take LD over them anytime.

Of course, LD is susceptible to populistic/marketing style attacks, but not as much as it would seem (otherwise the guys who did Impetus would have won last time).

I did the compo once (solo entry), and I failed miserably :)

I've finished a couple of PyWeeks* , and having only 48 hours changes everything: it's about being focused and effective, and definitely more about game design than actually programming/art.

* Python game programming challenge that happens during one week, that to me translates into ~36 hours of development (because of job, real life, etc).

I did way better than I expected last time for my first entry in the contest, with my Legend of Epikouros (http://tenseconds.npng.org/ for the curious). Now I feel that I cannot top that >_<'

But I encourage everyone to participate, that was a lot of creative juices flowing!

If you're participating and live in or around Seattle join us for a "Show & Tell" on Monday evening to share what you've created:

http://www.meetup.com/SeattleGames/events/153593212/

I'm going to attempt this, but not sure how far I'll get. I pretty much only have Saturday evening to do a game, rest of the weekend is booked. I did find some pretty neat tools though which should enable me to get something playable in 5 or 6 hours...

What's the theme? I don't understand the page.

The theme is only revealed at the start of the competition.

The theme is revealed and BAM! 48 hours to make a game. The theme reveal is when the clock starts ticking.

That's a good explanation, the page was really confusing when you're not familiar with how it's done. Also, there's a clock ticking now, counting time to when the theme is revealed.

It's currently at around 10 hours 40 minutes, which makes me feel some pain for Notch since I'm in his timezone (Stockholm, Sweden).

It's 16:18 in the afternoon here now, so the reveal is at 03:00 in the night. Not my peak hour for programming. :)

The theme will be announced once voting is completed.

Can you see the themes that went to final without logging in?

There are blog posts with the tallies of previous voting rounds, you could search for them if you really don't want to log in. If plan on participating, however, you're going to need an account anyway so I don't see a reason why you wouldn't. If you just want to see what the theme is going to be, just watch the front page and you'll find out together with the rest of us.

They're listed here: http://www.reddit.com/r/ludumdare/comments/1spdfp/ludum_dare...

Its a neat way to think about game themes; a useful list to have.

I hate that these jams always happen one week before my exams. This is so frustrating.

Well, there are three LD's in the year. one in April, one in August and one in December. They also have miniLD's monthly.

Should try the miniLDs perhaps. But I have exams exactly in those months you specified. I should just go and focus on finishing my master's! logs off HN

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