Bah – it’s basically Friday, isn’t it?

Like the last TIGSource contest, this contest has a dual theme. You and you teammates can choose to use either theme, or both.

The themes are Comedy and Tragedy.

Unlike other Ludum Dares, this time you are required to collaborate! (If you haven’t found a partner yet, see the post below this one.) If your team decides to use both themes, each member should take creative responsibility of one theme each and ensure it finds a place in the game.

You can make the game at any stage this weekend that suits you. And don’t worry if you can’t start for a few days or if the project goes a little beyond the usual 48 hours – I have a very loose definition of weekends that includes Wednesdays.

Whenever you’re ready, you can submit your game here!

This month’s Mini LD is this weekend and the theme will announced this Friday. If you haven’t seen the post yet, it’s a team competition – to take part, you’ll need to find someone to collaborate with.

If you want to participate and haven’t found a partner yet, leave a personal ad in the comments! Let people know what you can do, and how much time you’ve got free this weekend

Well the results are in. We polled 150 people, and well… I think “wow” about sums up the results. Lets have a look!

Availability wise, we're split down the middle.

Well, you can’t really ask for much more of an even split here. No matter which weekend we choose, 72% of those surveyed are available to enter. Yikes!

On to the next chart.

Preferences are... also the same

As far as preferences go, the 18th slips by the 11th by a mere single vote. Double yikes!

So what do these charts tell us? Well, they say we can pretty much choose either weekend for Ludum Dare #16.

As for the for the voting.

A majority want 3 weeks

Well if we do the 11th, 59% want more voting time (3 weeks+). If we do the 18th, only 47% do. Personally I’m still leaning towards 3 weeks myself, but it’s good to know.

So when will Ludum Dare #16 happen? We’ll get back to you. The charts are split down the middle, so us moderators will have to debate OTHER reasons to pick one weekend over the other.

We’ll let you know our decision in the next couple days.

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Hey,

So the calendar pictures are DUE!  Here’s the deal, we need 12 people to make the calendar, so I want everyone going to join to post here.  You should probably get your initial pictures taken ASAP.  Once we have 12 people committed, we’ll work out the final details of photo editing so we can wrap this up!

Cheers!
-Phil

Hey everybody,

I did an low-key comment polling on the Ludum Dare site about a date, but it sounds like I should ask the Ludum Dare community en mass.

So, I’ve created the following survey to see what weekend in December is best for people.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=c2lBOxrf862U7BA5r5qm8Q_3d_3d

It’s short, 3 questions and an optional comment field. Please take a minute and fill it out. The responses will help us pick a final date.

Note: Survey Monkey limits me to 100 responses, so if we hit that, check back in a couple hours or day and I’ll have made more room.

EDIT: Results recorded and cleared. We have 97 more than the link above suggests. Keep them coming! It’s still too close for my liking.

Thanks!

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Hey everybody,

I just thought I’d pass on a little note.

MiniLD #14 takes place next weekend (November 13th-15th weekend). Terry, the host of MiniLD #14 has let us know than it’s going to be a team competition. So find a friend or two and join in.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2009/11/02/mini-ludum-dare-14-find-a-partner/

Now, normally we don’t do voting during MiniLD’s, but it’s been suggested that maybe we should this time. Phil and I are both OK with the idea, but I’m going to add a little stipulation. The voting system currently only allows people that enter to vote, so if we get 20 some team entries in this MiniLD, we’ll enable voting. That’s why I’m sending this e-mail, to drum up more support. It’s still a MiniLD, so start and end times will be slightly more lax (from when Terry announces the theme until we think the weekend is over).

So grab a friend or stop by IRC and form a team for next weekend.

Regards,

Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Hey everybody,

For Ludum Dare 16, we’re looking at December 11th-13th weekend. I’ll be sending out a proper announcement e-mail this weekend, but I wanted to get some initial feedback.

December has always been a tricky month to schedule. Some people have exams to deal with, others have work, and many have family holidays and gatherings to consider. Nearly any weekend we choose is going to have problems. For myself even, the first weekend is a little too tight for my tastes.

So, I’m looking to hear some thoughts.

As far as I know there’s no game industry or notable demoscene events conflicting with that date… not that I’ve checked.

With that date, Christmas falls on Friday before the usual 2 week voting ends. That’s a hard date to avoid entirely, unless we were to start on the first weekend. So, an idea of mine is to do 3 weeks of voting this time. That way there’s room to do your family thing, then come back and play a few games. Not to mention, we’ve been averaging well over 100 games these past 2 competitions, so a little more time may be appreciated.

That’s what is on my mind. Do share any comments if you have them.

Thanks,

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Hi everybody,

Apparently we have even more big middleware news. Epic’s Unreal Development Kit (i.e. Unreal Engine 3) is now available for free to game developers, much like Unity. Details can be found here.

http://www.udk.com

Licensing terms are FREE for non commercial, and 0% royalties up to $5000 (25% after). To compare, Unity’s FREE license allows you up to $100k profits before having to buy.

Historically speaking, Unreal Engine 3 was our go-to example of an unallowed piece of middleware. However, the terms above are reasonable enough that we really should consider it an acceptable development tool. To put things in perspective, we do allow several pay-to-use library/engines such as PTK and Torque. It’d be unfair of us to disallow something with FREE terms.

With that in mind, we’re looking for some information.

** If anyone is up for some experimenting, we’re curious how large a bare-bones redistributable (i.e. a binary) is, or if it’s even possible to make one. Thanks! **

Like any middleware, development with UDK for a competition would be subject to the same content restrictions as any other engine or middleware (i.e. content from scratch). It’s just you’re getting the renderer, stock shaders and tools they used to make Gears of War. This also means you run the risk of less people in the competition being able to run your game, as the hardware requirements are certainly higher than Unity or alternative shaderless middleware. XNA developers have had this problem in the past.

Even though the rules don’t fully reflect it yet, one of the goals moving forward with Ludum Dare is to better define where we fit in. We don’t compete with the IGF and other indie game exhibits, but compliment them. We aim to be a place where game ideas start, and encourage you to take them to the next level. Be it exhibits like the IGF or Indiecade, shareware and casual markets, online services like Steam, to mobiles like iPhone, consoles and beyond. That means embracing middleware and all practical ways of shortening development time, despite us from scratch purists.

Stay tuned, LD 16 info is coming.

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Heya Ludum Dare!

So it looks like I’m hosting this month’s Mini Ludum Dare. I’m going to suggest the weekend of the 13th-15th as the date, though if you’d like to participate and that doesn’t suit, speak up and we’ll find something that works for everyone.

[edit: ok, since there's been no major objections, let's make it final - November the 13th-15th it is!]

I’ll post the theme that Friday. For now, I’d like to announce a rule change – Ludum Dare and Mini Ludum Dares are normally solo challenges; for this one though, you are required to collaborate! Get on the IRC channel, find someone else who wants to take part and agree to work together! Any number of people can contribute to a project in any capacity – the only restriction is that you cannot work alone.

The October MiniLD is now over (as is October). Thanks to all who participated!

I’ll post mini reviews of all the entries soon.