Mike Kasprzak, AKA "PoV" is your fearless leader. He plays this role so the others don't have to. He didn't start Ludum Dare, but has been around since the beginning. Even though it's wrong, he speaks the word "Dare" as it would be spoken in English. He does that with "Euler" too, which should make that guy pretty mad.
Mike is a game industry veteran with more than a decade of experience, and multiple console and mobile games to his name. Currently he owns and operates Sykhronics Entertainment, an Independent Game Developer based out of London, Ontario, Canada. Sykhronics is best known for the iPhone game Smiles, which was a finalist in the 2009 Independent Games Festival Mobile, was the winner of the Intel Atom Developer Challenge's "Most Elegant Design" award in 2010, and won the 2011 Developers Choice Award in Transgaming's GameTree.tv Developer Competition. Also PuffBOMB, a classic Ludum Dare entry of his that went on to be a finalist in the Slamdance Guerrilla Game Making Competition and be named a "Top Dog" on legendary gaming archive Home of the Underdogs.
Mike is currently working on Alone, The.
Mike was a contributing author to the book "iPhone Games Projects" and used to write for independent games website GameTunnel.
Mike's funny story is that he "won a car" in a compo. He's been a full time independent game developer for more than 5 years.
Company: Sykhronics Entertainment
Twitter: mikekasprzak
Blog: TooNormal
Mike's Notable Compo Entries
LD12 - towlr [towlr.com]
72H2 - Zooble [Link]
LD03 - PuffBOMB [puffbomb.com]
LD02 - Sheep Strike
LD01 - Trout!
LD00 - Fun Game (not actually fun)
Friday, May 17th, 2013 9:20 am

The folks behind
IndieCade got in touch with me to tell me they love what we’re doing here at Ludum Dare. So much, that they want to offer you a discount off the usual submission fee. To take advantage of the deal, do the following:
1. Visit indiecade.com/submissions/ and fill out the entry form.
2. Mention Ludum Dare in your description.
3. Use coupon code “dare13” in the payment section to receive 40% off.
Early submission deadline ends May 31st ($80), and the late deadline is June 30th ($110).
Monday, April 29th, 2013 8:12 pm

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=19
@laufman and I are so, so very tired.
Regrettably we did have to cut a lot of stuff during the final crunch (the ominous character I’ve been teasing all weekend). Still, we finished something, and we’re both quite pleased with that. We might come back to this, after a we get some time (days) to sleep.
I hope you too had a great Ludum Dare weekend. Be sure you come back to play and rate some games.
And be sure you’re back for Ludum Dare 27 in August. Stay tuned!
Sunday, April 28th, 2013 2:34 pm

Mmm… Meat Space… Space Meat. Mmm… back in action w/ @laufman.
I’ll be around to help people with submission issues in a few hours. I’m trying to make this game above do more cool stuff. Tweet me with your Ludum Dare username if you’re having troubles logging in.
Saturday, April 27th, 2013 11:08 pm

Phew! There. Got all the objects in so far. I’m tired. Zzz.
Saturday, April 27th, 2013 7:32 pm

Now with @laufman‘s character animations in and working. I think we’re starting to figure out where this is going.
Could use some Music.
Saturday, April 27th, 2013 4:50 pm

Looking the same, but feeling way better. What @laufman and I are up to.
Saturday, April 27th, 2013 1:43 pm

Some hours of work later, I have @laufman‘s backgrounds in. Next up character movement, a little bit of scrolling, and populating the room with things.
PS: We’re still looking for music!
Saturday, April 27th, 2013 9:17 am

Curious that room, isn’t it? A mockup by @laufman… that I have to now make work.
Hey Musicians! We’re looking for someone to write a good backing track for our little #Sworcery inspired jam game. We’re still working, figuring everything out (too early for SFX), but would love someone to help set the mood. Yes, the game takes place in this one room (part of the room I’ve kept hidden to avoid spoilers).
What do you think? What sort of soundscape do you think suits the lonely room?
Saturday, April 27th, 2013 8:14 am

I’m working with @laufman, whom I’m also trying to creep out.
Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 10:45 am
Deals! Here is this LD’s list of offers, bargains and other things.
Development
- CraftStudio – Cooperative Game Making Platform – CraftStudio is now Beta (changes)! Help celebrate by participating in the free weekend, starting 24 hours before Ludum Dare.
- Construct 2 – Make Games, No Programming Required – 40% off until April 29th.
- PlayCanvas – Collaborative 3D HTML5 dev suite – 30 spots for access to the private beta. Anyone that submits a game gets a 1 year Indie license after the beta ends. Contact info@playcanvas.com, and be sure to mention LD48 and your Ludum Dare username.
- Goo Engine – Modern HTML5+WebGL 3D Engine – Goo Technologies is offering early access to Goo Engine free for Ludum Dare participants. Sign up here.
- Atanua – Circuit logic simulator – Seriously. Sol_HSA, one of our long time Ludum Dare veterans and part of the moderation team is offering a free license to anyone that makes a Ludum Dare game with his logic simulator. And you thought you were hardcore making your LD games in C or assembly. Think again! Use this temp license to try it. Let Sol_HSA know: 109A21DCEE8841D3F1B63738300162A429226A09A8024885C729F8306D2AE46B734812
- Unity Pro – Unity Pro Trial (Unity Pro, iOS Pro, Android Pro, Team License), good until May 28th. Use the code T3-NGDY-EPTV-VJUK-6Z4D-PQNF, good for 500 activations.
- Unity Pro Discount – 10% off all Pro purchases/upgrades. This offer is available for individual developers and their personal purchases, not for studios. Sign up here. Offer good until May 31st.
- Loom Game Engine – Game Engine with Realtime Editing – 50% off all subscription plans, and the price is grandfathered for the lifetime of the subscription. Use code: GO_LD26
Content Creation
- Pixexix Pro – Draw on (texture) your 3D models using any image editor – Use coupon code LUDUMDARE26 during checkout for 75% off. Read more here.
- Sprite Something – iOS Sprite, Animation and Map editor – On sale Friday, April 26th for $1.99 (Regular $4.99). ONE DAY ONLY!
- Voxatron – a Voxel game with integrated editor and exporter – Did you know: Voxatron can export things you make in voxels as .obj format files? Now you know! Don’t have Voxatron? Look here.
If you’d like to submit your own deal, you can post details and a link in the comments below, or send me an e-mail. Keep in mind I don’t have a lot of time, but if you need a confirmation or just to ping me once it’s posted, go ahead and mail me. When I have a chance I’ll add it to the list.
Also it MUST be relevant to what we do here (i.e. make games).
Wednesday, April 17th, 2013 2:28 pm

IT BEGINS! Help us reduce the thousands of suggestions down to a more manageable size.
Saturday, April 13th, 2013 11:53 pm
Hey folks. I’ve updated the streaming widget with a number of new features, and an improved look. Like before, if you have any comments or feedback, please let me know.
The Ludum Dare stream list is now live. I’ll be leaving my own stream streaming while I can, just to have something there (no video streams is so boring). Feel free to try it out yourself by starting a Twitch stream, and setting your game to Ludum Dare (you do this from the twitch.tv website).

Version: Alpha 2
TODO: Optimize page loading
- Move scripts in to a PHP wordpress plugin that loads the scrips at the page end, so it doesn’t slow down sidebar loading.
- Minify.
- Combine SVG files in to HTML/JS? Maybe
TODO: Write FAQ! If somebody wants to write a “how to stream” guide for Windows, Mac, Linux, etc, please do! Post a link in the comments and I’ll use it.
Alpha 1 post is here.
Saturday, April 6th, 2013 10:55 pm
Hey folks. I’ve been working on a sidebar widget that automatically fetches live streaming video from Twitch TV. It’s still in development, but it is usable. Use this post to share feedback with me.
Version: Alpha 1
Currently using Diablo 3 livestreams, since there are no Ludum Dare streams.
Usage (soon): Create a stream on Twitch.tv and set your game to “Ludum Dare“.
Thursday, March 21st, 2013 12:34 pm


Join us on GDC Wednesday (March 27th), 8:00PM at Tad’s Steaks, just after the IGF awards. 10 minutes from Moscone.
Thank you everyone! We all had a fantastic time. We hope to see you again next year.
Tad’s Steaks – 120 Powell St, San Francisco, CA
Tad’s is an inexpensive cafeteria-like steakhouse. The menu is simple but not very vegetarian friendly, so if meat is not your thing then you may want to eat before you come. We’ve reserved the upstairs area, which is a nice quiet place to hang out, chat, eat, and demo games.
Everyone is welcome. The venue is all ages. See you there!
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 6:53 pm
Hey folks,
Just a heads up that Phil and I might be especially busy this month (I know I am). I’m out of town as of the 14th, not returning until the 30th (dead tired). After I change back from my gelatinous form to my human form (+/- a day or two), I’ll be able to start responding to your LD requests for our upcoming April event. If you want to get in touch with me (LD related, a deal or opportunity, other) you can find an e-mail here. My apologies, I might be a bit late getting back to you (see gelatinous Mike). If you want to chat with me at GDC, I’ll be around all week, but *hint hint* my Friday is especially empty.
We are planning to have another Ludum Dare get together at GDC. Tentative date is March 27th, i.e. GDC Wednesday, at Tad’s Steaks (the food court’y steakhouse we gathered at last year). It’ll be after the IGF Awards ceremony, maybe slightly overlapping the GD Choice Awards, but you can always come a little late. I’ll come back with final details once we’re booked. Oh, and since some people have asked, it will be all ages (Food Court’y).
Ta!
Saturday, March 2nd, 2013 2:58 pm
Hey guys. You probably see why we don’t do rating during MiniLD’s now (just not enough turn-out). Looking at the logs, the most ratings any one game has is 8, then 5, 4, down to 0. Should I go ahead and close the MiniLD without rating? There’s really not enough data to give any fair comparison.