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Mini LD 16 Teaser: Constraints
Posted by HybridMind
February 16th, 2010 1:43 pm
Mini LD 16 is fast approaching!
It will kick off this Friday, February 19th at 9pm EST (GMT – 5)
The theme of this competition is Constraints.
Major goal:
- To explore what game designs we are able to create given a certain set of arbitrary constraints
Minor goals:
- To have the games share a common control scheme
- To have the games share aspects of look and feel
- To have total designer freedom of genre and topic
I won’t be announcing the final constraints until this Friday at 9pm EST but I’d like to provide a teaser of some of the things you may encounter.
Possible constraints:
- Must work with a specific color palette
- Limited to specific control inputs/keys
- Music length limits (looping allowed)
- Numbers of sound effects
- Specific screen dimensions
- Sprite or game object size requirements
- Background graphics
- Text limits
- Levels / Waves / Rounds requirements
As I mentioned in my minor goals above–I have no intention of specifically limiting the topic or genre of the game you create. I want there to be at least that one axis of complete freedom for the designer as they work within the constraints. I’m looking forward to this weekend–see you all soon!
Tags: constraints, limits, MiniLD, teaser
I am FECKING PSYCHED!
sounds like it’s gonna be fun
You just cannot disappoint, can you? It must be some sort of compulsion.
This looks to be positively rocking. Sweet.
haha.. I’m just trying to keep up with all the other awesome mini LDs everyone has run before me!
Looks like it’s gonna be interesting
What is that photo of?
It is from a series of architecture photos about channels of water
This looks fun. I’d like to participate. I’m wondering, would it be possible for me to enter using the same time limit but a different pair of days? I’m not going to be available Sunday.
This is a good theme. I’m curious, what’s the intent behind the idea that the games might share esthetic qualities? It sounds like you might be considering some kind of package like an ‘album’ of games. I think that could be really appealing.
Yes, feel free to pick any 48hr block. The mini LD weekend exists as a focus for people who want more of the momentum from having others working at the same time but like other mini LDs before this one I am cool with the casual approach to which block you pick.
The theme is great but I won’t be able to participate this weekend too.
If we can choose our blocks freely inbetween the weekdays I’ll pick Tuesday to Thursday most likely.
I remember the 8-bit home computers, SEGA Master System and Nintendo something, all games would have the same colors, the same fonts, the same controller, and mostly similar sound effects. It all looked familiar when you played a new game, yet there were also quite different and innovative games too. Looks like we may have a Mini-LD 16 retro genre a few years later from now…
re: your question about my aesthetic intent… yes as a minor side effect I’m hoping we’ll end up with a series of game entries that will share far more in common then a lot of the compos that are linked by theme only. I feel it would be interesting to play a series of games with a common control, palette, dimension, and other constraints but where each designer implemented a completely different genre/topic within that. We’ll see what happens…
Neat, thanks for the clarification.
This sounds like fun, but PLEASE ON PLEASE no more ‘One Button Only’ … Please!?! It’s been done to death, and isn’t really that innovative anymore.
Thanks.
hmmmm I don’t recall saying one button…
I was planning on making an ASCII game anyway.
This sounds really interesting. I might have to participate. I like the color palette idea. It’d also be cool if there where three or so pieces of art to use.
Agreed. A color palette would be neat to work with, and it would be interesting to see what other people do with it too.
I’m wondering what the “text limits” possibility means, though. Limited number of characters, limited use of certain letters, limited to the use of certain sentences?
I also like the control constraint idea, as long as it doesn’t go too far. Using the same controls over a bunch of games would be neat.
But how will that be possible if he doesn’t intend to limit us to a specific topic or genre? The only solution I can think of is to limit us to certain characters: say, the four arrow keys and the spacebar.
If you get déjà vu when reading that post, you’ve probably heard of the YoYo Games Competition05. Some of the constraints are almost the same. I admit that I am vaguely disappointed by this theme.
Not that I won’t make a game for it…
That solution (arrow keys + space bar sort of thing) was what I was thinking when I posted that. Didn’t even think about a more extensive control limit; I agree that “press A for Jump” would be too much.
Actually arrow keys + space is a problematic combination on standard/cheap keyboards so that should be avoided.
Very neat. Not sure if I’ll be participating, but I hope to.
I’m liking the idea behind this mini-LD. This sounds like it could be awesome.
[...] in the next two weeks that I want to do instead – Klik of the Month is tomorrow night, Mini Ludum Dare 16 is this weekend, the 371-Pirate Kart is next weekend, and at some point before the end of the month [...]
I think I will participate in this mini LD. It is my first LD but I hope I will make it. I hope that there is a color pallet restriction… that would be cool.
Pretty sure I’ll join in the fun. The more arbitrary restrictions, the better.
I’m pretty sure I’m down for this! I really enjoyed it last time, and hopefully, I’ll make a real game, instead of a neat sandbox.
Drumroll please… if someone can find a drumroll that lasts 15 minutes
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/02/19/mini-ld-16-constraints/
[...] the competition side of things I managed to host my first Mini Ludum Dare event around the theme of Constraints which I felt had a great turnout of submitted games and was [...]