Ludum Dare 18 judging has finally ended, and here are your results.

Top 20 Competition Games

You can check out the top 20 competition games here (including ties):

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-18/?action=top

Winners are decided by the Overall category. To see the complete list, hit the “Show All Entries” link at the bottom.

Categorical Top 5′s

Here at Ludum Dare, being the best game isn’t the only way to win. Games are rated in 7 additional categories, with a special “Coolness” category highlighting people that went above and beyond to be sure you got a vote.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-18/

*NOTE*: You can click on the titles of the categories for Top 20 style lists per category.

Ludum Dare 18 Jam Games, Compo Games, oh my!

Ludum Dare 18 was our first trial run of the new combined Competition and Jam event. So in addition to the 172 entries created by individuals for competition, there are 41 more games created teams or individuals that decided to take an extra day to polish their game. Be sure to check those out here:

ALL JAM GAMES (41) <--

[ ALL COMPO GAMES (172) | ALL GAMES (213) ]

Overall, the response to the Competition and Jam has been extremely positive. But now that the Ludum Dare 18 has come to a close, we’d like to hear your thoughts.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/08/25/did-you-like-the-jam/

* * *

And THAT was Ludum Dare 18

What an incredible event! Thanks everyone for making Ludum Dare 18 such a big deal.

When the smoke cleared, we had a total 213 games across both the Competition and Jam! This is our current “high score”, 10 entries ahead of Ludum Dare 17 in April (203).

During the final theme voting round, we collected nearly 500 votes in a single day! If we’re to take that as the number of participants, that means Ludum Dare 18 had an over 40% completed game rate! Wow!

Theme voting results can be found here.

Press Coverage (Viral Timelapse Videos)

As for other happenings, Ludum Dare made an impressive showing in the gaming press, especially the timelapse video from one Notch. Kotaku, Engadget, Digg; You name it, they covered it. 200,000 Youtube views later…

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/08/25/ludum-dare-18-press-coverage/

In addition, IndieGames.com and Bytejacker are back with a quick look at many games from the competition. Go see if you were one of them.

Ludum Dare 18 Meetups

Even though the Ludum Dare competition is a solo event, that doesn’t mean you have to work alone. Here’s a look at some of the gatherings that took place Ludum Dare 18 weekend.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/08/17/ludum-dare-jam-live-at-cb2-bistro/
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/08/21/ludumzilla-at-cb2-indies/
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/08/22/new-england-meetup-video/

If I missed any posts, let me know and I’ll update this list.

Other Ludum Dare 18 related links

- Number of competition entries in the final minutes
- Watch the Keynote, hosted by Mike Kasprzak (PoV)
- View the Theme Voting Results
- The “ALL GAMES” wallpaper by ExciteMike

Interesting Tags: montage, motivation, foodphoto, deskphoto, timelapse

* * *

Ludum Dare 19 coming December 2010

Our Winter event, Ludum Dare 19 will be in December. Date to be finalized as it gets closer.

If you haven’t already, you can sign up for the mailing list, and we’ll keep you informed. Also, you can follow Ludum Dare on Twitter.

Mini-LD #21 “Greatest Fear” this month!

Can’t get enough Ludum Dare? Later this month, tune in for another MiniLD hosted by SophieH (GirlFlash). Details about the upcoming mini can be found here.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/09/04/announcing-mini-ludum-dare-21/

Unfamiliar with the Mini-LD? Mini-LD’s are smaller competitions hosted by Ludum Dare veterans. They’re held monthly in the off months between our major competitions. Tune in to the website every month for details on the latest Mini-LD competition. Curious who’s up next? You can check out the host list on the wiki.

Ludum Dare Games at Toronto Exhibit

I was asked by a friend for a list of “art games” from Ludum Dare events (current and past). I gave him a few off the top of my head, but LD is so big now, I could use everyone’s help making a list of Ludum Dare “art games”. For details and to give me your suggestions, see this post.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/09/06/ld-art-games-at-exhibit/

Feel free to nominate games you made.

Suggestions

If you have any suggestions for us (website, observations, etc), we continue to collect them in the comments here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2009/08/30/suggestion-post/

Thanks everyone for coming out and making Ludum Dare 18 such an incredible success. We’ll see you again in December!

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Judging is on!

On the voting page, all participants are assigned 20 random games. If you can make an effort to play and rate these games, then we’ll get a good distribution of votes for all games. The more games you play, the higher your placement on the “Coolness” charts. The list will grow as you play more.

If a competition participant forgot to include source, please don’t down-vote them, but politely remind them to include it. All verified, thanks sfernald.

Interesting Links

- ** MEETUP ATTENDEES! CLICK HERE!! **
- Number of competition entries in the final minutes
- Watch the Keynote, hosted by Mike Kasprzak (PoV)
- View the Theme Voting Results
- The “ALL GAMES” wallpaper by ExciteMike *NEW*
- Question: Did you like the Jam? *NEW*

Interesting Tags: montage, motivation, foodphoto, deskphoto, timelapse

The competition is winding down! There’s only a few hours left to finish your game and submit. Feel free to work up until the deadline. It is now submission hour! You get an hour to fill out the submission form. Once the hour mark passes, we’ll be setting a flag that groups all further submissions in to the Jam instead of the Competition. To submit, click the links at the top or right here:

If you need to fix any stability/crash bugs after the deadline, that’s alright. Also, if you initial version is available for one platform, you’re welcome to include ports after the deadline. Use the edit link to make changes.

If you need a place to upload, try DropBox. Sign up for a free account, place the file in your “Public” folder, then you can use More Actions->Copy Public Link to get a URL to it.

The theme: Enemies as Weapons

Check out the results of the voting here. Check out the keynote here.

And if you haven’t already, check out the new Rules and Guide page for what’s new in this, our first Ludum Dare Competition and Jam Dual Event!

Interesting Tags: montage, motivation, foodphoto, deskphoto

The final round theme voting for Ludum Dare 18 has begun! It’s comprised of all themes with a 10 or greater score, giving us a total of 18 themes (plus one joke theme, as per usual). To cast your vote, go here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ld-18-voting-round-5-of-5/

To view prior round results, go here (Round 4):

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/08/15/ludum-dare-18-theme-voting/

And if you haven’t already, check out the new Rules and Guide page for what’s new in this, our first Ludum Dare Competition and Jam Dual Event!

Interesting Tags: montage, motivation, foodphoto, deskphoto

Theme Voting has begun! Tune in every day this week for a new list of themes.

Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Final Round

Special thanks to SophieH, Devlin, and the rest of the Ludum Dare IRC channel for their help pruning the theme list to a manageable size.

Also, be sure to check out the *NEW* Rules and Guide page. This Ludum Dare is new and totally different than usual.

This is just a heads up. If you subscribe to any Ludum Dare updates via RSS feed, the URL of the feed may be changing soon as part of a site overhaul. The most reliable way to stay informed is still the Mailing List, but once the RSS feed changes, it should be good for a few years.

Yep, the real deal is coming up August 20th-22nd weekend. Suggest themes here. There will be some big changes as discussed here. We’ll be working on these changes and drafting up the new rules and specifics starting late July, so stay tuned. See you then!

Towlr and friends were last seen on Destructoid.

http://www.destructoid.com/monday-mind-teasers-towlr-170815.phtml

Several minds were destroyed that day.

More Ludum Dare game sightings, this time in Retro Gamer.

One of the reasons why the UK rocks. A gaming rag dedicated to retro/classic gaming.

Ludum Dare 16‘s Humor winner, “Fuck Oregon, lets go find El Dorado” by Crackerblocks.

I'd recognize that green triangle anywhere

Thanks go out to doohan for the photos.

PC Gamer (US) recently did a feature titled “50 games to play at work”.

Because you should be playing games, not working

And on that list, #32 is Notch‘s “Breaking the Tower” from Ludum Dare 12.

Pixels in print

Congratz Notch!

Also, thanks to MrPhil for sending me the photos.

If you see a Ludum Dare entry on a major news site or gaming magazine, let me (PoV) know! Thanks!

Ludum Dare 17 voting has finally ended, so lets get you some results!

Top 20

You can check out the top 20 games here (including ties):

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-17/?action=top

Winners are decided by the Overall category. To see the complete list, hit the “Show All Entries” link at the bottom.

Categorical Top 5′s

Here at Ludum Dare, being the best game isn’t the only way to win. Games are rated in 7 additional categories, with a special “Coolness” category highlighting people that went above and beyond to be sure you got a vote.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-17/

*NOTE*: You can click on the titles of the categories for Top 20 style lists per category.

Ludum Dare 17 as Screen Shots

And since it looks cool, you can see screenshots for the full list of 204 entries here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-17/?action=preview

And that was Ludum Dare 17

What an incredible turn-out for our first competition of 2010! When the smoke cleared, we had 205 entries, but I received a request by the author to remove one. There was also a brief blackout (?) with one of the entries, bringing us down to a total of 203, but that mystery entry came back (somehow). Hooray!

Numerical nuances aside, HOLY COW! We did over 200 games! Congratz, and thank you everyone for making Ludum Dare 17 such an incredible success!

Ludum Dare 18 coming August 2010

Our previous record was 144 entries in August of 2009, and the way things are looking, Ludum Dare 18 should eclipse that. Continuing our regular 4 month schedule, Ludum Dare 18 will be in August, date to finalized as it gets closer.

If you haven’t already, you can sign up for the mailing list, and we’ll keep you informed. Also, you can follow Ludum Dare on Twitter, or subscribe to the NEWS RSS Feed.

Big news for Ludum Dare 18 (Compo and Jam)

We have some big changes planned for Ludum Dare 18. You can check out my introduction to the new Ludum Dare here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/04/28/future-dare/

Mini-LD #18 “Blind Date” this weekend

Can’t get enough Ludum Dare? This upcoming weekend, tune in for MiniLD hosted by SpaceManiac. Details about the upcoming mini can be found here.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/05/07/mini-ld-18-blind-date/

Unfamiliar with the Mini-LD? Mini-LD’s are smaller competitions hosted by Ludum Dare veterans. They’re held monthly in the off months between our major competitions. Tune in to the website every month for details on the latest Mini-LD competition. Curious who’s up next? You can check out the host list on the wiki.

Suggestions

If you have any suggestions for the compo, we continue to collect them in the comments here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2009/08/30/suggestion-post/

Thanks everyone for coming out and making Ludum Dare 17 such an incredible success. See you in August!

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Now that was Ludum Dare 17! Everybody exhausted? There’s no time to be exhausted! It’s voting time!

As usual voting will last for 2 weeks. And with more than 200 entries, we can’t expect everyone to play everything. Still, everyone has been randomly assigned 20 games, so we ask that you at least play those. More would definitely be appreciated, and the the more games you rate, the higher your score in the “Coolness” category. For an example of final ratings, take a look at Ludum Dare 16′s results.

From the Wiki, the categories you’ll be rating games based on, and what they mean:

1. Innovation – The unexpected. Things in a unique combination, or something so different it’s notable.
2. Fun – How much you enjoyed playing a game. Did you look up at the clock, and found it was 5 hours later?
3. Theme – How well an entry suits the theme. Do they perhaps do something creative or unexpected with the theme?
4. Graphics – How good the game looks. Nice artwork, excellent generated or geometric graphics, charming programmer art, etc.
5. Audio – How good the game sounds. A catchy soundtrack, suitable sound effects, voice overs, etc.
6. Humor – How amusing a game is. Humorous dialog, funny sounds, or is it so bad it’s good?
7. Overall – Your overall opinion of the game, in every aspect important to you.
8. Community – Journals, photos, timelapse video. Everything you do above and beyond just making the game.
9. Coolness – How many games you rated? Score a Bronze, Silver, and Gold by rating LOTS of games.

That’s all for now. Go vote!

Interesting Links: [ Torrent containing most of the entries ]
[ LD17 Keynote | Theme Voting Results | Leave us Feedback or Suggestions ]

We’re just about done here with Ludum Dare 17. This is a reminder that once you finish your entry, you must submit it via the submission system, otherwise we might miss you.

[ Submit Here ]

Feel free to continue working on your entry up until the deadline, then get it together for submission. Submit for whatever platform you can, then get to porting at your leisure. We’d like to open voting about an hour after the deadline, which means people will want to start playing your game. If they can’t run it, they can’t vote for you, so be sure to get your ports in ASAP!

If you have problems submitting, feel free to leave a comment here, or join us in IRC (#ludumdare on irc.afternet.org). Ask for PoV.

That’s it for now. We’ll let you know once voting has begun.

TIP: If you need last minute hosting, TenjouUtena posted a guide how to upload ZIP files to Google Sites.

Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Ludum Dare 17! Our first major compo of the futuristic year 2010! It’s been a big year for us so far, so lets keep that momentum going!

The theme will be announced shortly, see above. If this is your first Ludum Dare, I’ve prepared a handy little guide you can read. More details can be found on the wiki.

Keynote Address

Now to get you fired up for 48 hours of game making greatness, here’s Phil Hassey.

From all of us at Ludum Dare, good luck!

Final Round Theme voting has begun! You have roughly 48 hours to pick, change, and convince others to also vote for your favorite theme. The final theme will be announced when the clock on ludumdare.com/compo hits zero. Prior results here. Go Vote!!

Final Round Voting [Click Here]

New to Ludum Dare? [Click Here for Tips]

Theme voting has begun! Tune in every day this week for a new round of theme voting. Then on Thursday, we’ll tally the votes and begin a final round of voting for the best theme, to be revealed at the start time Friday night (see clock on ludumdare.com/compo/).

Theme Voting: Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Final Round

I’ve received a few requests now, so here’s the announcement nice and early.

Ludum Dare 17 is scheduled for April 23rd-25th weekend. Themes can be suggested on the wiki. Specifics will be announced as the date gets closer.

Hey,

So this year at GDC we’re having an official Ludum Dare get together!

Where: Metreon food court
When: Wednesday, March 10, at 5:30

I should be pretty easy to spot.

So, show up, get some food, and we’ll have a good time!

See you there!
-Phil

P.S. If you are speaking or presenting or showing your game off in IGF, or whatever, be sure to leave a comment with times and locations so the rest of us LDers don’t miss the awesomeness of whatever you are doing

PoV P.S. If you’re working on something cool, bring it along. It might make a good conversation starter. Also, if I remember correctly, the Metreon has a pretty nice sized Arcade too. And if you can’t make it to San Fran, check out the comments for something you might be able to catch that I’m up to.

Here’s this years list of IGF finalists from the community.

Independent Games Festival

Sparky – Star Guard – Excellence in Design
crackerblocks – Enviro-Bear 2000 – Nuovo

Independent Games Festival Mobile

tonic – Stair Dismount – Technical Achievement
dock – Tumbledrop – Technical Achievement

Honorable Mentions
mrfun – Mind Wall (Ludum Dare 14) – Best Mobile Game Design

Congratulations everyone!

If I missed anyone (especially student competition finalists), let me know.

The mobile winners will be announced in a couple weeks (ahead of GDC).

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)