I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 overall rated Ludum Dare games of all time!

View it here: Top Ten Ludum Dare Games

Is this a handy “what to do” guide, or a way to waste time before Ludum Dare starts on Friday? You decide!

Static Void Games just started doing monthly themes, where any games made with the month’s theme will get a place on the front page. December’s theme is HOLIDAYS!

So if you’re making a Java or Processing game for this Warmup weekend, it’s a perfect excuse to make a holiday game and get on the front page of Static Void Games! Then if you like how the site works, you can use it for your hosting during Ludum Dare next weekend!

For more info, check out the explanation. Either way, happy jamming!

For every Charity Game Jam game uploaded to Static Void Games this weekend, I’ll donate 10 (US) dollars to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. So even if you don’t have any money to spare, just uploading a game will help out! Have a friend who might want to participate? Get them to make a game too!

I’m doing this partly because I might not be able to enter myself (schoolwork calls), partly to raise some awareness about the site, but mostly because it seems like a cool thing to do.

Static Void Games does only support Java and Processing games, so if you aren’t a Java developer yourself, maybe you know somebody who is?

The small print: I don’t anticipate any problems, but I think it’s important to be honest up front- I reserve the right to not count games that seem to be taking advantage of this system- the same game multiple times, for example, or a game that doesn’t actually load anything. I’m just a regular guy, not a company with a big budget, so be cool! Also, I’ll probably put a cap of $100 or so on my total donation, but I’d love to reach that cap!

Hey all,

I’m currently working on a project for school involving content generation in game jams. It would be quite helpful if I could start off my presentation with examples of Ludum Dare games that use content generators. So if any of your games (past or present) use a content generator, let me know!

The games don’t have to be popular or successful, and the content generation can be as simple as a random level creator. Basically I’m just trying to show that hand-coding levels is too time consuming for game jams and that people use content generators to prototype a game instead.

Did you want to participate in Ludum Dare’s October Challenge, but couldn’t find the time or couldn’t figure out a good way to handle payments with your current development approach? Or maybe you’ve never written a “real” game before and thought it was more than you could handle? It’s not too late!

As some of you might be sick of hearing about by now, I’m developing a website specifically for indie Java (and Processing) developers who want an easy way to showcase their games- and make money! I spent my October updating the site’s look and feel and making things more obvious, so check it out at StaticVoidGames.com.

Developers can specify an ad code for their games, and they get 100% of any revenue they generate. Getting an ad code is as easy as signing up for a google adsense account!
So if you still want to try out the October Challenge, maybe think about using Static Void Games! You could upload some old games, or spend this weekend doing your own mini-challenge.

Think about what you could do by October 31st with a theme of Halloween!

I only had about 4 hours to start and finish a game, but I did it. I’m glad, because I was pretty bummed about missing out on such an awesome theme.

It’s pong between Darwin and Jesus- the winner finally decides the debate between science and religion!

Yes, it’s ridiculous, but maybe it says a little something about the conversation, I don’t know.

Play it if you feel like it! Link: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=rate&uid=5364

WHOO

I’m finishing up my jam game, and I just need some quotes on religion and spirituality, especially in regard to science and evolution. Anybody have any favorites?

I’m more in need of quotes in support of religion and spirituality, so those are especially welcome!

Hello fellow Ludum Darers,

I just added support for LWJGL to the Java hosting site I run, Static Void Games.

It seems to work for me, and I have a tiny example “game” to prove it: http://staticvoidgames.com/play/?game=LwjglTest

But I don’t actually know anything about LWJGL, so I’d love if somebody could test it out by uploading a real game that uses LWJGL and making sure it works as both an applet and a webstart. If you don’t want to actually host the game there, you can always delete it afterwards. For more info, I posted a short blog entry here.

Thanks!

PS- FIVE HOURS LEFT!

Hello fellow Ludum Dare-ers! Warning: blatant self-advertising ahead!

As some of you may know, I run a website devoted to indie game programming in Java and Processing at StaticVoidGames.com. I’ve designed the site with programming contests like Ludum Dare in mind. You no longer have to worry about time-consuming deployment or web development, so you can spend more time focusing on the fun part- actually making your game!

Just follow the step-by-step uploader, and you have a decent-looking website showcasing your game as an applet, a webstart, and a downloadable jar. At the very least, it’s better than putting your game on dropbox or mediafire. Not only is it free, but developers can actually specify their own ad codes to make money off their games!

I’m working on adding new features (I just added a notification system) and tutorials all the time. I’m very open to suggestions and I love hearing your feedback! But even as-is, the site is useful to both pros who don’t feel like dealing with deployment and web development (especially during the crunch time of Ludum Dare) and complete novices who want to take a look at the tutorials and source of real games for help.

So, check it out! StaticVoidGames.com

Good luck during Ludum Dare!

I spent the weekend programming a puzzle game called Black Sheep. The goal is to fight the herd’s mob mentality and escape the pasture!

Edit: Although the submission period had expired (it was only 9PM, I swear!), I emailed Folis and he gave me a link to the submit page and I was able to upload my game!

Check it out here: Black Sheep

I’ve got the basic engine behind my game done- you control a black sheep, and each level is a pasture you’re trying to escape. But the pasture also contains other sheep (and shrubs) that can get in your way. The other sheep move when you do, and different sheep can move differently (some with you, some opposite you, some always left, etc)- so you have to use the herd’s mentality against itself to get to the goal.

The pre-art version of the game looks something like this:

The trouble is, designing puzzles is REALLY HARD. I don’t know where to go from here. I have a few puzzles that explain the basic principles of the game, but I’m hitting a dead end when I try to come up with meaningful, not-too-hard, not-too-easy puzzles. I thought this would be the easy part!

Any suggestions on how to design puzzles? Any ideas come to mind that I might expand upon?

I just uploaded my entry to this weekend’s mini-LD, check it out if you feel like it: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-34/?action=preview&uid=5364

Defend the radar station! Detect incoming enemies, click to launch a missile, and last as long as you can!

Since the front page seems to be full of posts complaining about something or other, I’d just like to extend a thank you to the organizers of Ludum Dare. You took a small event and grew it into a worldwide community, and that’s awesome. I want to buy every single one of you a beer.

As far as I can tell, Ludum Dare doesn’t make any money, so it’s still just a few people doing this for free (or at expense) in their spare time. So if you want to complain and suggest changes, remember that nobody forced you to participate, and maybe donating a few dollars would make it a little easier for somebody to take time out of his/her busy schedule to try to meet your demands.

The point is not to win or to meticulously figure out what ratings you got and whether or not any of this is “fair”. You made a game in 2 days. You played a bunch of games that other people created in 2 days. Maybe you became twitter friends with some like-minded people in the community. Isn’t that awesome enough? Celebrate, move on, make more games, improve your craft, and reconvene in 3 months (or in 4 days).

“But we’re just trying to improve ourselves and offer suggestions!” Okay. That’s cool, I get it, and I’m not really criticizing that. I just wanted to offer a positive “great job!” post between the “ugh this would be so much better if…” posts.

So, great job! Thank you.

I’ve played several games with awesome soundtracks, and I’ve been downloading them when they’re available. I want to share the songs I’ve found as a sort of LD23 Soundtrack, but I need more songs to make a full album!

So, were there any games that you thought included great songs? Did your game use an awesome soundtrack? If so, let me know and I’ll give the game a play and try to include the song (along with credits to the developer and song writer, of course) in a forthcoming post with a link to download the soundtrack.

Here are some of my favorite soundtracks:

Tiny Tim’s World by tacograveyard

Prince of Leaves by evilseanbot

Hamster Bowling by tfendall

ACTION SCIENCE DOG by bburbank

And of course the obligatory link to my game, A Pale Blue Dot, with phat beatz by MC Carl Sagan:

tl;dr: Embedded video ads are really annoying, even if you can skip them. You might want to compare your ad revenue to how much traffic you’re actually driving away when people just close your game when they see the ad, especially since most of the people playing your game are offering you helpful feedback, for free, in their spare time.

I’ve played over 100 games, mostly web versions, and I’m starting to get really sick of watching loud embedded videos (especially since it’s the same video for Max Payne 3 over and over again) every time I want to try out a Ludum Dare entry for a couple minutes. Even if the movie is skippable (not all of them are), you’re still adding a loud (usually unmutable), obnoxious barrier that makes it harder for people to play your game. And since the people playing it are doing so in order to give it a rating and offer you some helpful feedback, for free, in their spare time, you’re basically trying to make a profit from them helping you. It seems a little rude/selfish/whatever, which definitely seems to go against the spirit of Ludum Dare.

It’s getting to the point where I’m probably going to start skipping over games that force me to watch an embedded ad. I don’t want to do that because most of the games here are really awesome and the people who made them are rock stars so I want to give them some feedback, but if I’m annoyed, then chances are other people are annoyed too. Also, some people have older/slower computers that might play your game just fine, but lag because of the video. So you might want to compare your ad revenue to how many potential players are just closing out your game as soon as the ad starts.

I understand the need for indie developers to get some return on their games. I pay for hosting and offer it for free to Java and Processing developers, so I get it. And I do run ads on my site, but I try to make them as unobtrusive as possible- right now, just banner ads at the bottom of the screen. I will probably never play embedded video ads.

I’ve been giving developers the benefit of the doubt since most of this complaint is about games hosted on kongregate, and I’m not sure if there’s even a way for you guys to disable that ad. But I’ve also seen embedded ads in games hosted on sites like dropbox. So I figured I’d issue a friendly “hey, that’s kind of obnoxious and might not actually be good for you” gripe to give fellow developers some feedback.

Anyway, does anybody else feel this way? Or am I just getting tired and grouchy after playing so many games?

Many of our games (including my own) took the theme in one of a couple directions: you’re in space, you’re in a game with space restrictions (a platformer with small levels, a game on an island, etc), or you’re a bug/microbe of some kind. That’s inevitable given we all used the same theme, and there’s nothing wrong with that, and many of those games are awesome, fun, and creative despite sharing similarities.

But I just played spectrumTrap by sugarlollipop (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=12988), and she took the theme in an entirely different direction. It’s not exactly a game, but I love the creative twist on the theme. It was really refreshing after playing different versions of similar games for the past few days.

So, has anybody else come across a game they thought did something creative with the theme? I’d love to play more of them, but I don’t know how to search for them amongst the masses. Weird games, non-games, whatever. I’m not looking for games that ignored the theme, but took the theme and did something different with it.

Dear Significant Others,

We’re sorry. We’re sorry we’re going to be ignoring you for the next 48 hours while we program our games for Ludum Dare. We’re sorry for continuing to ignore you for the next week or so while we play the games other people created for Ludum Dare. We’re sorry if we come up with a good idea and continue working on our games even after Ludum Dare is over.

We’re sorry for missing happy hour on Friday, and we’re sorry for cancelling date night on Saturday, and we’re sorry that it looks like we’d rather be staring at a computer screen, typing away furiously instead of cuddling and watching a movie with you on Sunday.

We’re sorry for neglecting mundane chores like doing the dishes, taking out the trash, cleaning, and doing laundry in favor of programming. There’s work to be done! So we’re sorry if our apartments turn into rooms from katamari or if our personal hygiene suffers as a result.

We’re sorry that our heads will be full of code, game logic, colors, pixels, and sounds, and we’re sorry that it might take a while to get that out of our systems. We’re sorry if you ask us “what are you thinking?” and our response is some nonsense about finding the right balance between mood and theme and dividing time between underlying basics and aesthetic polish. We’re sorry if you catch us staring off dreamily into space.

We’re sorry, but if you didn’t know that our brains worked this way before now, it’s an important lesson to learn. And if after this week you still want to be with us, you could use the next Ludum Dare as an opportunity to enter this world together! A few months is plenty of time for us to teach you the basics, and nothing could be cooler than writing a game with (or against!) your significant other.

So, again, we apologize in advance for paying more attention to Ludum Dare than we will to you, but keep in mind that you could be using Ludum Dare to spend some quality time with us! We really do love you and – oh sorry, I have to go refresh the frontpage again now.

Sincerely,

Every boyfriend or girlfriend doing Ludum Dare this weekend

<3

LD: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23-warmup/?action=preview&uid=5364
Game page: http://staticvoidgames.com/play/?game=LetsBounce

I just submitted my game for warm up weekend. Now I’m even more ready for LD23!

Let’s Bounce!

Hey all,

I’ve been putting together a website devoted to helping out indie Java and Processing game developers, and one of my motivations is to make it easy to deploy a game for competitions like Ludum Dare. Just upload a jar and a thumbnail image, and you’ll have a decent-looking website to showcase your game as an applet, webstart, or downloadable jar without ever worrying about web development. This will especially come in handy for competitions, when you might not have time to create a website as well as a game.

I’m also working on adding tutorials and ad revenue sharing so that people can hopefully make some money off their games, but for now the basic functionality is there and might prove useful to somebody. I’m still working everything out, so I’d love to hear any feedback you have!

So, check it out if you feel like it: Static Void Games

See you all during the competition!

…er, it would be good for business if I had a business (or ads), that is.

My entry is bringing in quite a bit of traffic (quite a bit for me, anyway). Thanks again to everybody who checked it out.