Hey hey,

Friday’s the big day.  We decided to keep the start time the same as usual.  11 PM EST, 8 PM PST, and whatever that means elsewhere in the world.  The countdown clock is now back on the site, so keep an eye on that.  Timezone discrepancies aside, we follow the clock.

http://www.ludumdare.com

Also, theme voting has begun.  Here’s what Phil had to say:

Theme voting is going to be in 4 parts.  One part each day, so keep checking the site.

First day is Physical Objects.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ld13-voting-round-1-physical-objects/

Second day is Concepts.

Third day is Verbs.

On the forth day, the top 5 (more or less) from each round will be combined into the Final Voting.

So stop by each day this week and pick your fav’s.

That’s it for now.  Cast your votes, and either watch your e-mail or stop by for the theme announcement Friday.

See you there,
Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Hey, here we go!

Theme voting is going to be in 4 parts.  One part each day, so keep checking the site.

First day is Physical Objects.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ld13-voting-round-1-physical-objects/

Second day is Concepts.

Third day is Verbs.

On the forth day, the top 5 (more or less) from each round will be combined into the Final Voting.

Have fun!

-Phil

Hey there sports fans,

Ludum Dare #13 is coming soon.  December 5th-7th weekend.  You know the drill.

http://www.ludumdare.com

You can start suggesting themes now, with voting to start by the end of the month.

http://ludumdare.com/wiki/start

As for the start time, well, we’d like your opinion on that.  We know we have a number of regulars in various parts of Europe and the UK, so we’ve been considering pushing up the start time.  Post an opinion here.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2008/11/12/ludum-dare-13-start-time-poll/

We’ll be updating the site as usual over the next few days.  We’ll send out a note for the final start time once we have it.

See you there,
Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Hey there,

Ludum Dare #13 will be December 5th-7th Weekend.

Since we have so many regulars in the UK and all over Europe, we’re considering trying something slightly different this time.  Moving up the start time.

Our usual Ludum Dare start time is at 8 PM PST (11 PM EST).  Should we start

• 1 Hour sooner (7 PM PST/10 PM EST)
• 2 Hours sooner (6 PM PST/9 PM EST)
• 3 Hours sooner (5 PM PST/8 PM EST)
• 4 Hours sooner (4 PM PST/7 PM EST)

Leave a comment.  We’ll announce the final start time at the end of the week.

Thanks,

Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

This being a Mini-LD, you don’t get to just interpret that theme how you like. Instead, I tell you what it means!

Your job is to look through the LD archives at all previous entries to all previous LDs, and pick your favorite one that wasn’t made by you! Here is a handy link (warning, ten million screenshots, but much fun to look at!) to an archive of all that have been set up on the current LD site: Click me

Then do a cover of that game.

What is a cover? It’s not an exact remake. That would be pointless. You want to take that original concept and remake it in your own unique style, so that the end result is truly your own, just using the original game as inspiration (and cloning material). You can make the title be some minor variation of the original (”Commies+” or “PuffBomb Alpha”), a parody of it, or just a plain old sequel number.

Don’t forget all art, sound, and code must be your own creation this very weekend. Just because you’re stealing someone else’s idea doesn’t mean you can steal their content too.

So find your favorite, and get covering!

Entries must be in by 11PM GMT on Sunday, Nov 9th!

Hello, Hamumu here!  A sentence with all H-words.  Mini-LD #5 will commence on Friday, November 7th, hosted by yours truly.  Don’t make me get all up in your timezones, but basically it’s at what we’ll call 3:00PM PST (or PDT, I don’t know!  Why are you making me get all up in your timezones?!).  About 3 or 4 hours earlier than usual, because I said so.

The theme is <INSERT GREAT THEME YOU WILL LOVE>, but I can’t expound on that further at the moment.  I’ll let you know more details on Friday, November 7th at 3pm my time!  Okay, I’ll expound a bit anyway to get you hooked: it has no technical limitations, can be done in any language and on any platform, and you will have a very wide element of freedom in what you do and how you do it.  Part of the theme is that you are going to be bringing your own true inimitable style to what you create, so sharpen your you skills and get ready to rumble!  But ah, what will you be creating?  An intriguing question.  For Friday, November 7th at 3pm!

Rules are 100% normal LD rules in every way.  From scratch, 48 hours, and all that.

See you November 7th!

Before we make the decision of weekend, I figure I’d throw the question out to the community to get some feedback.  Post a comment with your thoughts.

Pick a weekend for Ludum Dare 13.

• Friday December 5th to 7th
• Friday December 12th to 14th
• Friday December 19th to 21st
• Friday December 26th to 28th

However, the last 2 weekends might be out, so we don’t steamroller over January’s Mini LD.

So, let us know your preference.  Potential conflicts, game industry, school related (exams), or whatever.  We’ll come to a final date decision soon.

Thanks,

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Alright! Mini-LD 4 has start and the main theme is

MSpaint: Best Level Editor Ever

Ok, that may sound a bit silly but here’s the idea: A while back I was talking with some people about how it’d be cool if we had a bunch of games that all had the same save format so you could play one game, save, open up a different game and it would affect your status in that game. It seemed impractical but then I had a simpler idea. What if every game used the same file as the level data? It’d be so cool to see how everyone could interpret the same data in different and crazy ways.

So here are the requirements:

1. Your game must use included files as level data.
2. You must make a compatible level of your own.
3. Optional theme: robots and kittens

So, I’ll explain each of these in detail. The first is that I’m going to upload 3 24-bit bmp files that your game has to be able to run as levels. Now the requirements on this are pretty lax. The file is just an abstract representation, a yellow pixel could be a randomly generated badguy, or a lift or a forest or whatever. For example if you wanted to make a simcity clone and use the file as the base for some terrain generation that’d be fine. The biggest requirement is given two levels, A person can tell which one is being used given your derived “level”. So you can’t just feed in the bits as the seed of a random number generator and use the generator to make your “level”

Now making the level was taking quite a bit longer than i had hoped so I’m going to post the drafts right now and when I get a chance, before I go to bed, I will post the final versions. So here are the drafts:

I’m going to have at least one more level when I’m done that might be slightly different. All of them should support a platformer type game. If you decide to make something that ISN’T a platformer then you aren’t required to support more than one of the levels.

Now, as the theme implies, one can make a level in MSpaint. The allowed color pallet is the defaults in MSpaint. And everyone has to make at least one level like the one provided. That level has to be a 64 by 64 bmp like the examples. For that level please try to make it platformer friendly so we can play it on other peoples games. Now, you are encouraged to make levels other than the one required. These levels will hopefully suit your game better and can be any size. Same filetype and pallet are strongly encouraged as the whole idea is to try different games on the same level. Here is a file for all of you non windows users that should have the correct colors.

Finally, for those who still want more of a theme than just the technical restriction, the optional theme is Robots and Kittens.

I have something of importance to take care of for the next few hours but hopefully, I’ve provided enough specific information for everyone to get started. Before I go to sleep I’ll have the final version of the files and answer all the questions anyone has so feel free to post a bunch.

EDIT: General LD rules apply unless otherwise contradicted or they don’t fit in. Let me know if any rules should be changed.

Hey there Sports Fans,

Our special “Tool” making Mini LD weekend has now begun.

I’ve received a few requests from people asking when the start time is. Well, if you haven’t started yet, now is a good time. And if you have, keep going!

There’s no fixed end time, but I will be making a news post on Monday collecting a summary of the various entries and efforts. Again, you’re not required to share your tool, but do share your progress with us.

If you didn’t catch it, the theme for Mini LD #3 is “Tool”. In summary, build something to help you (or everyone) make games quicker/better, and talk about it.

To learn more, see the announcement.

http://www.ludumdare.com/…/mini-ld-3-theme/

Good luck, and see you Monday.

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Here it is.  Bright and early Monday morning, the theme for Mini LD 3 is:

Tool

You’re welcome to take our regular open interpretive approach to themes, but I’d like you to hear me out first.

There are a ridiculous number of possibilities for this theme, but I’d like to focus on one.

Think back to Ludum Dare 12, or any compo prior that you’ve entered.  In making or planning your game, what “something” would have saved you hours of work, or allowed you to do that wilder game idea of yours?

That’s what you’re making this weekend.

Now because this is a Mini LD, you’re not required to share your source.  You’re welcome to collaborate with someone, and are encouraged discuss with others in IRC.  And to shake things up, I’ll throw in the added note that you’re not even required to share your tool.  You’re encouraged to, but if you’ve got some proprietary tool that you’ve been meaning to make, this weekend is looking pretty good.

What I want from you though, is to talk about it on the blog.  Your file format thought process; User interface considerations; What problem you’re solving; How much you hate mappy; And so on.

Tool development is a secret art of game development.  Not that it’s particularly difficult, just we don’t really talk about it.  That’s my goal with this Mini LD.  To get some genuine discussion out there for arguably one of the most important secrets of game development.

And hey, if we get ourselves another sfxr in the process, that’d rock too.

So take the week.  As much or as little time as you need, and think about what you’d like to make.  What problems you’ll need to solve, any preparations you’ll need to make, and so on.  Then join us this weekend and make it happen.

Since this is a Mini LD, and the theme is known early, I doubt I can control the start time, or random bursts of inspiration.  You’re encouraged to schedule your work for a convenient start time the weekend.  However, if preparations go too well, tell us all about it

I’ll be collecting and posting a summary of this week and weekends events on the Monday.  Please let me know in your posts what you’re actually making, and that you did (or didn’t) finish.

Not sure what to do?  Here are some suggestions:

• Map Editor (Tiles, Elements, Polygons)
• Data Editor (Numeric Data, Points and Polygons)
• Menu Editor
• Animation/Particle Effect Editor
• Font Editor/Builder
• Sound Effect Maker, VST Instrument (if sfxr isn’t enough)
• A File Format (with loader and saver)
• A wrapper library, or generalized interface for several libraries (compression, image files, etc)
• A process for managing content (graphics, audio, maps, dialog/text/localization, etc)
• Write an article
• Crash course yourself in a topic (physics, trees, sound synthesis, a programming language, etc)
• Ask the chat room (#ludumdare on irc.afternet.org)

Bottom line, pick something to either benefit you, or benefit the community.  Good luck.

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

If you can’t get enough of Ludum Dare, then get ready for Mini LD #3 coming up next Friday (September 5th).

This one is hosted by myself.  Hosts get the privilege to do some pretty wacky changes to the norm, which I’ll be  abusing on several fronts.  The first, you’ll be getting your theme extra early.

Theme announcement, Monday September 1st.

In IRC, I’ve been hyping this one as a “very different” theme.  One that I think really suits a few extra days to think about.  Then we convene as usual on the Friday, and make it happen.

Stay tuned.

I’d also like to encourage any LD veterans to consider signing up to host a Mini LD Compo.  It’s pretty straight forward.  Sign up, show up, announce a theme, and write a few posts to round out the whole thing.  Your usual #ludumdare administration will be glad to help.  To learn more, see the Wiki.

http://www.ludumdare.com/wiki/mini-rules

And to sign up, see the Wiki.

http://www.ludumdare.com/wiki/mini-host

We’re still looking for someone to step up and take October.  Got a great theme that hasn’t done well in theme voting?  Here’s your chance.

See ya next week.

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

The voting for Ludum Dare 12 has finally ended.  You can view the final results here:

http://…/ld12/?compo_limit=57

Congratulations to all our winners, and to everyone that entered.  We look forward to seeing you next time.

The next main competition will be in December.  Date to be announced soon.

Don’t want to wait that long?

Stay tuned for Mini LD #3 in September.  Details to follow.

Hey everybody,

The 48 hours of Ludum Dare 12 have come and gone.  I’m pretty sure we’ve collected all the entries by now.

The final count: 57+1 entries

I say “+1″ because we did have a team that decided to join us and make a game this weekend.  You can check out their game here:

super-tower-smashup

As for the other 57, you can check out the final posts and a lovely arrangement of screenshots here:

Image Grid and Voting

For the next 2 weeks it’s voting time (until August 24th, see clock).  All entrants that submitted a game can rate the other entries.  If you didn’t submit a game, feel free to leave a comment in the respected final posts.

Also, trophies.  If you feel a game deserves a special mention, something silly, something tasteful, feel free to award them a trophy.  Anyone can give trophies, so if you didn’t get your game in but feel an entry deserves a special mention, go ahead and give it a trophy.

- - - - - - -

As for everyone else, our next major compo will be in December.  Date TBD.

Coming up sooner than that, we’ve started doing monthly Mini LD compos.  A Ludum Dare veteran can choose to host a month.  They host can pick a theme, and choose to change/try out some new rules.  Like our previous “unofficial compos”, they are not judged.  You can learn more about it, or sign up to be a host on the Wiki.

http://www.ludumdare.com/wiki/

Of course, I’d like to take this opportunity (and a few more) to shamelessly promote Mini LD #3 hosted by me (PoV).  It’ll start Friday September 5th, but I’ll really be abusing the rule change privilege.  The first big change, I’ll be announcing the theme on Monday September 1st.

The theme is different than our usual Ludum Dare fare, and could certainly benefit from a couple days to think about and plan what you’ll be doing.  Then on the weekend, you do it.  The nature of the compo is a little more forgiving than usual, but a weekend for most is the perfect time to do it.

If you’re up for a very different Ludum Dare, stay tuned.

The theme for Ludum Dare 12 is The Tower.

Remember, Ludum Dare themes are open to interpretation. You could make a game about building a tower. A game that takes place in a tower. Perhaps even a game about being a tower. Whatever you like.

If you haven’t already, do join us in #ludumdare on “irc.afternet.org”. We’ll be chatting up a storm, debating how great, or not great the theme is.

Joining in on the compo is as easy as clicking the Sign In link above. And clicking the Write your Journal to add posts.

See you in 48.

Hey, check it out here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ld12-theme-voting/

I think this might be a single round voting this time. So choose wisely. You’ve got until Friday!

-Phil

Hey folks! It’s time for another 48-hour game development extravaganza!

Ludum Dare is a regular community driven game development competition. The goal is, given a theme and 48 hours, to develop a game from scratch. Ludum Dare aims to encourage game design experimentation, and provide a platform to develop and practice rapid game prototyping.

Here’s the time-horizon:

- July 19 - July 25: You may submit themes to the wiki
- July 26 - Aug 2: Themes will be edited for awesomeness by the #ludumdare regulars
- Aug 3 - Aug 8: Various rounds of voting. Check back daily so you don’t miss any!
- Aug 8 - Aug 10: Ludum Dare #12 !!! (Starting at 8pm PST)

Links of honor:

www.ludumdare.com - the super awesome website, refresh hourly
irc.afternet.org #ludumdare - the compo IRC channel, waste your time here
www.ludumdare.com/compo/ - the compo blog, be sure to sign up here
www.ludumdare.com/wiki/ - the compo wiki, submit themes & read rules here
www.ludumdare.com/planet/ - the compo planet, read about our exciting lives here

See you in the races!
- The Faceless LD Management Team

thats it guys, 48 hours have gone bye-bye, and they arent coming back. out of them however, we have five games!

Movie Preview Generator by Hamumu

Pulp Fiction Overdose by rwip

bees by keeyai

Die Hurr by destroysound

Pink Elephants are Go by Kester

And seeing as there seem to be a few games to miss the deadline, they will no doubt be appearing in the MiniLD #2 category soon, so check back for them (or I will be sending my turnip and unicorn army upon you!).

anyhoo, I think most people had fun, and IRC was rarely anything short of hilarious, so props to all who took part

Remember, no Mini LD next month, but dont frown, because its going to be a fully grown LD! and if your desperate for more mini godness, PoV is lined up to be hosting in september. so nobody has to wait too long for some awesome!

- GirlFlash

and the theme is THE GAME OF THE MOVIE!

you have to pick a movie, and make a game from it.

now if you want to stick to tradition, the game should have as little to do with the movie as possible, the plot should be abused, characters poorly represented and bits added and removed as though the whole thing went through a blender with a totally different movie.

and as promised, there is a bonus optional theme Unicorn! madder props are awarded for having a unicorn in the game somewhere, especially if it doesnt fit the movie

Remember, its not a competition, but that doesent mean you cant all be competetive

From the mailing list:

Hey there sports fans,

Ludum Dare 12 is coming up in about a month and a half. August 8th-10th weekend.

http://www.ludumdare.com

We’ll let you know the theme suggestion and voting details in the coming weeks.

Don’t want to wait that long?

Next Friday (July 4th weekend) is Mini LD #2, hosted by GirlFlash. You can read the announcement here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2008/06/20/mini-ld48h-2/

Keep an eye on the site for the latest updates for Mini LD #2.

That’s it for now. See ya there.

—
Mike, Phil, and the #LudumDare crew

Its coming people, and it will commence at 11pm GMT Friday 4th July, to find out where that is in your timezone, check here. end time is of course 48 hours later

As for additional rules, I’m going to repeat last weeks only extra rule (you can re-use any old code, audio or art. but try and put some effort in. recycling wont get you mad props =p). there will also be an additional ‘bonus’ rule announced when the theme is at the start of the compo

also, sorry if I am interrupting anybodies Independence day plans, but I’m English and this is how I get even =p

- GirlFlash

I know this post is very belated, but I didn’t realize such a post was needed until I saw the list of headlines, and it looked like the contest was still going on for all eternity.

Click to see all the entries!

We only had what appears to be 7 entries, and a very high incidence of unfinishedness among those. But whatever, we had fun! I know I had fun naming Vs. possibilities. Anyway, congratulations to the 7 joint winners which all tie for 1st place in every category! HOORAY! See you next month for GirlFlash’s Mini-LD #2.

HOORAY! You all have until 6PM PDT on Sunday (0100 UTC on Monday) to turn in your entries! To submit your entry, just post a blog post here on LD, in the category “Mini LD #1″. In the Tags section, put “final” (along with whatever tags are appropriate) to indicate it’s your final entry. Your post should include a screenshot, and a download link for your game. Please use ZIPs, not installers! There’s no hosting for your game here, but if you don’t have a place, you can use http://ludumtoybox.sophiehoulden.com/ graciously provided by GirlFlash.

With all that said, what’s the theme?!?! Well, keep in mind this isn’t LD. You don’t just take one word and interpret it as you like. Instead, you need to follow the recipe given below! And here it is:

VERSUS

Select two extremely famous and iconic characters (real or fictional, human or non-human). They must be well-known to a reasonable number of people. They should be as utterly unrelated as possible. Make a game entitled “A vs. B” (where A and B are the names of the two characters, duh). The actual type of game and content then should be inspired by what kind of gameplay you need for those two to be in conflict! It does not need to be a 2-player game, or any kind of head-to-head thing (like a fighting game). For example, one character might have a base, and the other has an airplane, so it’s a vertical shooter. Whatever fits for the characters! Existing example: Bambi Vs. Godzilla (not a game, but to give you an idea of the concept). Made-up Example: Frankenstein vs. Ghandi.

Go to it, minions! Make me a VERSUS GAME!

From the mailing list:

Hey everybody,

Big news about Ludum Dare.

First off, ludumdare.com is back. After years of floating around the internets, we’re finally back home where it all started.

We’ve been extremely happy with how Ludum Dare 10 and 11 with Wordpress have worked out, so we made it official. A bunch of us got together, threw some money in a pot, and set up a dedicated host. Phil Hassey has already migrated the combined LD10 and LD11 site over to our new host. If you’ve tried accessing anything off Phil’s Imitation Pickles site, you’ve already being redirected.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/

The syndicated community feeds of user blogs have been isolated from the compo site, and now reside on a separate section called Planet Ludum.

http://www.ludumdare.com/planet/

If you have a development blog that mostly covers your game making and related efforts, let Phil or myself know, and we’ll syndicate you. Be sure to have an RSS feed url handy.

Finally, we now have a work-in-progress hub website at the root, plus a news feed for those RSS inclined individuals.

http://www.ludumdare.com

We still have much work ahead of us. Several unfinished pages (about), streamlining the site navigation, plus an endless wishlist of ways to expand and improve the community. Think of us as now in perpetual Web 2.0 Beta.

Next, a new non compo coming up in under 2 weeks. Friday June 6th, Hamumu will be hosting the first Mini LD48 Compo.

http://www.ludumdare.com/…/hamumu-style/

We’re trying something new here. If things go according to plan, Mini LD Compos will be monthly. If you’ve participated in our “non competitions” in the past, it’s very much like one of those. They’re not judged competitions, but unlike the previous “non competitions”, somebody volunteers to be the host. The host chooses the date, can choose to change/tweak any previously established rules, and the theme. Ultimately, a host can choose to run their compo the classic way (theme voting), but one of the goals of the Mini LD Compos is to try some new things. Be it to bring back some of the more experimental themes, or to ‘beta test’ new ideas for the compo process.

Mini LD’s are new and evolving addition to the community. If you have any thoughts or feedback, get in contact with us on IRC or respond to the discussions on the compo blog. Or if you’re a Ludum Dare veteran and want to try your hand at orchestrating a compo, visit the Wiki to claim a spot, and join us on IRC to discuss it.

http://www.ludumdare.com/wiki/

And one final note about the next event compo (Ludum Dare 12). We don’t have a date set yet, but we’re (I’m) strongly considering (pushing) for some time in August 2008. Stay tuned.

Thanks,
- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Suffer, my minions! Friday, June 6th at 6:00PM Pacific Time (Someone else figure out the GMT there), we are hereby commencing the world of Mini LD with a grand explosion of Hamumu-time Fun-brand Entertainment-ness!

The theme will be announced at compo start, and the rules are standard Mini-LD rules. The only host change I am making is:

1 - You may use any preexisting code, art, sound or anything else. No limits on this one! Okay, one limit: What you use has to be legal. If you didn’t make it, you need to have the rights to use it. Yes, you can totally take something you’ve made before and modify it. No, you can’t take something you’ve made before and just shrug your shoulders and turn it in as is.

That’s it! As far as I know, this is an unjudged contest, just a chance for 48 hours of game developing madness. As the first ever official Mini LD, it’s probably going to go off with a lot of hitches, so bear with us and tell Phil to make it all better.

There’s no official signing up, but it’d be cool if you’d post a comment here announcing your intent. I hope we get lots of folks. Anyone can enter, and like regular LD, in the end, you’ll post a blog entry with a link to your game and a screenshot. Then we’ll bug Phil to make an image grid out of it.

Mike Hommel (Hamumu)