Comments on: Ludum Dare 22 Theme Voting Begins!

By: hamster_mk_4

hamster_mk_4 — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:44:59 +0000

I really like the theme “Defeat.” So many games are about wining and dominating that defeat is almost an after taught in game design. Yet some of the most moving game experiences are about fighting a loosing battle. Missile Command, Silent Hunter, and Halo Reach are not games about winning but being defeated.

By: Codexus

Codexus — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:59:28 +0000

It’s not a question of twitter. LD48 has been the usual abbreviation long before twitter even existed, for the “Ludum Dare 48-Hour Game Programming Competition” as it was known then. Ludum Dare was just the name of the website which was originally created more as a kind of personal/community site about gamedev.

By: Jiggawatt

Jiggawatt — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:55:00 +0000

See, guys, you didn’t take my advice at all. Territory isn’t in the top 5 of round 1, and antihero isn’t in the top 5 of round 2.

You will leave a written report of these anomalies on my desk tomorrow.

By: digital_sorceress

digital_sorceress — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:14:58 +0000

When I joined here, it took me a while to remember which LD we were upto. When I saw LD48 I kept thinking we were upto the 48th contest.

I don’t use twitter either.

By: ASTERISCUS

ASTERISCUS — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:09:47 +0000

Ooo, okay. But am I the only one who thinks that’s kinda silly? #LD22 and #makeagamein48hours seem like far better options for descriptive hashtags, but then again I never did understand you Twitterers.

By: PoV

PoV — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:06:22 +0000

Top ~20 from the previous 4 rounds.

By: digital_sorceress

digital_sorceress — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:59:26 +0000

LD48 is the tag for all LD contests. The 48 is the hours we have to make a game.

By: ASTERISCUS

ASTERISCUS — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:55:18 +0000

Thank goodness. Nothing else would make sense.

Second, slightly less serious question: Why are people using the #LD48 hashtag if this is Ludum Dare 22? You’d think programmers would know how to count.

By: ASTERISCUS

ASTERISCUS — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:51:59 +0000

I understand your argument, I just disagree with your conclusion. I would be extremely interested to see a graph of participants and/or voters from all previous years, because I strongly suspect this sudden near-doubling of participation means what once looked like a linear progression is really a logarithmic one. If all the previous LDs have seen increases of 10-20% from the preceding competition, we’re very probably at a tipping point, with the quality of individual participants falling as the overall numbers swell. Personally, I have no damned business entering a contest like this as I’ve never released any kind of software and have no direct experience with game programming, but because there’s no entry fee and the only real pressure is the weight of my own expectations I figured it was a good way to turn my lackadaisical documentation reading into a week-long cram session with a clearly defined goal. I have an infinitesimal chance of figuring all this stuff out in time to release a playable game by the deadline, and if I’m here there may well be more like me. ~90% success is the mark of a contest filled with only the most dedicated and experienced, and I think Ludum Dare is attracting more and more casual newbies; that’s actually a good thing for the contest itself and for indie game development in general, but it’s a very bad thing for expectations of 90% of entrants meeting the challenge.

In other words, expect something like a 75% completion rate for this one. I’d be shocked by anything above 80%. I’d love to be wrong about it, but I don’t think I am.

By: digital_sorceress

digital_sorceress — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:32:04 +0000

I believe the final round consists of the the top five themes from rounds 1-4.

By: ASTERISCUS

ASTERISCUS — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:23:51 +0000

A serious question: Are the possible themes in the “final round” a collection of the top-rated themes from the previous four, or is the fifth round just like the previous four and the winning theme the one that receives the most upvotes overall? People seem to think that later voting rounds involve many more votes than the earlier rounds, which seems plausible seeing as how people are still showing up with “I’m in” posts despite the first round already being closed. If there’s no final showdown vote, the winning theme is almost certain to be from a later round – how would that be fair to the excellent themes present in the early rounds?

By: ericdpitts

ericdpitts — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:15:53 +0000

Sacrifice would be a magnificent theme.

By: finalsin

finalsin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:43:40 +0000

Oof, ‘Forgotten Places’ is a hot one. I like that.

By: digital_sorceress

digital_sorceress — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:06:02 +0000

Remember that voters and contestents are not the exact same set of people.

Some of those who voted will not take part, while some voters will attempt the challenge but fail to submit anything.
Some people are yet to arrive here, and will have missed out on the voting. While some who intend to take part didn’t bother voting.

So 91% isn’t a success rate, it’s just the ratio of #voters/#submitters.

For the past 2 LDs, the number of new contestants made up about 1/3 of the total, and 660 -> 1100 is in that ball park.

By: Randomasta

Randomasta — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:24:10 +0000

I can’t see myself playing even 10% of the entries, should there really be 1000+ games. I’m afraid that there will be overlooked gems

By: Randomasta

Randomasta — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:19:32 +0000

what the? That’s the exact opposite of me, I only voted two themes up o.O

By: ASTERISCUS

ASTERISCUS — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:47:18 +0000

I’m certainly no expert, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that very few participants have lava lamps plugged into their computers. The impression I get from LD is that the theme is open to wide interpretation anyway, so as long as a game makes it obvious that dice are being rolled somehow it shouldn’t matter if those dice are slightly weighted due to their being digital. My guess is we’ll ultimately wind up with a Kittens-caliber theme and your concerns will be the least of our troubles.

By: Tulrath

Tulrath — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:19:40 +0000

If the theme ends up being randomly-generated, then that raises all kinds of questions. Is pseudo-random, like the “random number generators” in our von Neumann machines OK? Or would we need a Brownian Motion generator? Does procedural generation using a deterministic hashing algorithm count if the seed is unknown?

There will be Kittens.

By: ASTERISCUS

ASTERISCUS — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:10:40 +0000

Being part of what would surely be the first 1000+ game LD would be fantastic, but I think the massive jump in entrants this year will work against the overall completion rate. I can’t be the only out-of-my-depth game development newb in the maybe 500 or so first timers, and while I’m prepared to call myself the least likely to finish something playable I’d still be shocked to see 90% of entrants finish. Maybe round one had fewer voters with all the last minute entries and we’ll see 1300+ votes on later rounds – I don’t see anything less than that cracking 1000 by the deadline.

Even so, 800+ games in a weekend will be a little staggering. Is there some kind of Iron Gamer award for playing all of them?

By: digital_sorceress

digital_sorceress — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:50:24 +0000

I would love it to win too. Procgen algorithms can be very rewarding to program.