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Welcome to Ludum Dare 24!
Hello and welcome everyone to Ludum Dare 24.
Final round theme voting is on. This is your last chance to help decide what theme we will all be creating our games based on. If you haven’t already, go vote for your favorite themes now! Prior round results can be found here.
We will be announcing the theme FIRST on both IRC and Twitter. irc.afternet.org in the #ludumdare channel, or twitter.com/ludumdare.
We have a huge list of real-world jams going on alongside Ludum Dare 24. You can check out the list here. In addition, many people are live streaming the development of their games. Check those out over here.
Kongregate Contest
Just a few days ago we saw probably the most controversial issue in Ludum Dare history. A Ludum Dare veteran who previously had some big success in the event, as well as beyond the event, got hired by Kongregate. Wanting to give back, he championed inside Kongregate to do something special for others in the community. An act of goodwill has been met with a harsh damning response.
Details about the Kongregate Contest can be found here. You can read a good summary of what transpired in this IndieGames.com article.
Folks, your cries have been heard loud and clear. Our stance has always been that Ludum Dare itself will never offer prizes. For us it’s about the community, and the amazing part is we’ve reached such a critical mass now that this is a thing. We’ve tried to make it clear to everyone that has contacted us that any prize givings should be external, unrelated of our own results and voting, and that’s what Kongregate has done. I can’t vouch for what Kongregate is thinking now, but I can guarantee they’ve heard you.
The thing is, Kongregate has been running monthly contests like this for years, and for years Ludum Dare participants have taken advantage of those contests. This is just one more pot of cash, specially set aside for all of you. And the irony is we ourselves run an event every October about encouraging members of the community to take the first step of earning money ($1) from making games. It is a shame to see such a harsh reaction to this, as that very well could have ended 1 or more opportunities from happening. Anyone that makes independent games for a living should know that opportunities can be few and far between.
But again, your cries have been heard loud and clear.
If you’d like to comment further on the issue, I encourage you to take the discussion over here.
Keynote!
Ahem, now that we’ve dealt with the elephant in the room, it’s time to get on to the festivities!
On deck for Keynote Duty this time is Seth Robinson, a fellow Ludum Dare administrator, and for you gaming history buffs, creator of Dink Smallwood and the BBS classic Legend of the Red Dragon.
That’s all for now. Good luck, and may the best theme win. Long live Ludum Dare!
Tags: keynote
Is it just me or is the keynote broken?
Working fine here.
yes, I can watch until 3:30
Maybe it has to propagate still
10.000 kittens in the air~!
Here are the themes sorted on popularity. Absolutely has no meaning whatsoever on the final vote:
1. Abandoned
2. Survive
3. Parallel Worlds
4. Creation and Destruction
5. Evolution
6. Castles
7. Curiosity
8. Colony
9. Afterlife
10. Tunnels
11. Chain Reaction
12. Trapped in Another World
13. End of the World
14. Companion
15. Don’t Go Outside
16. Break the Rules
17. Beginning of Time
18. Night
19. Deep Space
20. Ruins
21. Secret World
22. Destruction
23. Self Destruction
You know if that list weighted those votes by the overall votes in a given round, it might be interesting…
Here you go!
1. Abandoned 24.02135231
2. Survive 17.55725191
3. Parallel Worlds 15.52147239
4. Creation and Destruction 14.45409429
5. Evolution 13.5101789
6. Castles 10.33415842
7. Curiosity 9.858323495
8. Colony 9.723076923
9. Afterlife 9.360189573
10. Chain Reaction 9.130706692
11. Tunnels 8.978145304
12. Trapped in Another World 6.552538371
13. End of the World 5.541718555
14. Companion 4.174454829
15. Don’t Go Outside 3.598014888
16. Break the Rules 2.998126171
17. Beginning of Time 2.186133666
18. Night 1.965455628
19. Deep Space 1.663585952
20. Ruins 1.549907006
21. Secret World 1.175015461
22. Destruction 0.627352572
23. Self Destruction 0.062266501
The number is the percentage of round participants who upvoted it minus the percentage of people who downvoted it. Note that each theme suggestion received a different number of votes (I guess some people abstained instead of clicking 0), so there’s no definitive number of how many people participated in a round… so techinically, I didn’t work with the number of “round participants” but the number of people who voted on that theme.
Also, there wasn’t really all that much difference in the number of voters between rounds. Round 1 (the highest) had about 1700 votes per theme, and Round 4 (the lowest) had about 1600 votes per theme. However, it DOES matter, both for relative values and ranking. Even so, only one ranking-change occured: Chain Reaction and Tunnels switched places.
1000 kittens, vote for it! Notch agreed with me about it, on IRC.
DO IT!
999 kittens maybe, but 1000 is just 1 too many.
1000 too many*
You are absolutely NO FUN, you know that, right?
I can’t vote. It says I must log in, but I’m logged in :/
Oh, it just worked afterward.
Press Ctrl+f5 after logging in
Great keynote. Is it pathetic if I admit that it gave me chills?
Same here
The music sets a pretty chill tone. + LD excite!
The music is by Jim Guthrie and was made for Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, an amazing game!
Dink Smallwood dude! OMFG Nostalgic feelings levels over nine thousand!!!
I remember playing it quite a lot, didn’t know the developer was involved with Ludum Dare. Might have to reinstall.
Thank you so much for this, Seth. Is it wrong to openly say that this is beautiful? Thank you for reminding everyone what it’s all about.
+1
abandoned+survive+parallel world+curiosity+colony+tunnels+end of the world+companion+don’t go outside+break the rules+ruins+destruction=Zombie game!
Nice keynote
#voted!
Can’t wait to see the theme…loved the keynote, great job!
I love Seth’s inimitable style!
Great keynote!
Please don’t vote for “abandoned”. We already had “alone” in LD22, they’re basically the same thing.
I actually see them as very different. I mean, you can be “Abandoned” in a group. You can be “Alone” by choice.
you can also be alone in a group
they’re the exact same thing
I’m taking the minority position and agreeing with Puzzlemoon. Not only can you be abandoned as part of a group, you can be abandoned in a densely populated area. You can abandon *other people*, while you are not necessarily alone. You can abandon inanimate objects, like your survival supplies. You can discover someone or something that was abandoned.
Also, I think considering how aware everyone is of the “alone” theme, people would be alone-averse in making their games.
On the other hand, I don’t really care.
In practice they will result in exactly the same games.
Perhaps. We’ll just have to see. I’ll vote it down, though, just for you guys.
Your request is futile…
Sorry, couln’t help it
Holy shit. Seth Able? I didn’t know he was involved with LD at all. I spent so much time playing LORD (super competitively at some BBS’s).
This reminded me why we’re all here. Let’s have fun, people!
The short list reads like some sort of Janes Joyce short-form SF story
I’ve been seeing quite a correlation between LD24 and the London 2012 Olympics.. The outrage at the controversy of the Kongregate compo, the scandals of Evolution and Kittens, but as the event is about to start I can tell people are getting excited on the IRC channel. Once it starts people will be giving it their all and after it finnishes we’ll all have a warm sense of pride in our medals! (or haggard attempt at a 1000 Kittens game)
Go TeamLD!
Gonna let it all out. Gonna do it. FUEKC YERS
Ah man, I just switched to using the “Dah-ray” pronunciation for “Dare” and now the keynoter just says “Dare”. Can I flip back?
Yes! Return to the light side!
Ive got such an amazing idea for Dont Go Outside! I thought of it while brushing my teeth… Winning!
Hmm…kinda underwhelming keynote if you ask me, especially after the brilliant keynote last LD. (In case anyone’s memory needs to be jogged, it was the interactive one with all the minigames.)
I thought it was nice. This one had a lot more meaning behind it.
I found that keynote incredibly inspiring. Thanks!
+1 to that
Okay, I’m in. Voted. I really hope that people don’t vote for 1,000 kittens…
1000 kittens, that’s an awful lot of blood.
Almost enough to float the Titanic.
Voted. I like those themes
1000 kittens? I don’t think so…
Also, it will be my first LD entry
If I make my game with Multimedia Fusion, I won’t be able to submit the source code, but I could submit the project file and everything else. If I don’t have my own engine/builder, can I still enter the “compo” or do I have to enter the “Jam”?
I think the source in these case *is* the project file. Like how in flash the source is the .fla which contains the art and the ode. So I think you can enter the compo.
Great Keynote!
My son really liked the Shinkansen cut.
Just to be clear, stalking -> bad? This is non-negotiable?
guys, about that kongrate thing:
1.congrate was simply trying to advertise their contest for you contest lovers
2.remember when i tried to get my minecraft server up on there? did you see how many haters it got?
3.i dont think ludum dare hates prizes,i think it hates ads
*sigh* People weren’t hating on you, they were telling you the truth. LD isn’t the place for talking about playing games (unless they’re made here), it’s for making them. Although I get the point you’re trying to make.
Less than 9h oh my god! I’m nervous!
I… didn’t see a joke theme in round 5…
I… forgot… but then… a reminder… the Ludum… I… must… I must… I must… partake.
My favorite theme is actually Companion. Any other companion supporters in the house?
I would make a prototype for a game I’ve wanted to make for a very long time.
I like that theme.
I agree; “Companion” seems like it would result in by far the most interesting games. It was one of only three themes I upvoted in the first rounds (the others being Colony and Curiosity) that actually made it to the final round… unless you count Kittens as “having made it”. >_>
I really want this. I have some ideas.
(I could be a bit of a sourpuss here and point out that ‘Companion’ and ‘Abandoned’ are kind of the same theme, but…*)
*(I jest.**)
**(Sort of.)
First Ludum Dare for me, joining in with Unity.
Can’t wait to get started (even though it’ll be 2AM over here when we start).
If I can twist the theme into a retro style game; I intend to work on a SNES game using pvsneslib (http://www.portabledev.com/wiki/doku.php?id=start).
quote:
“when the theme is announced,the website usually crashes and goes to hell…sorry about that.”
LAMFO but seriously, that happens!?!
Yes, it usually happens.
Anyone else think it would be a waste if abandoned won?
Definitely, yes.
well im f***, becuase as of now, my game will NEVER win the ludum thanks to eveloutin.
because i cant make music,i cant use music,and i wont have music.
D:
screw it!