Dock’s game Tumbledrop is a finalist in the IGF Mobile, but he needs some help getting to GDC. For a small donation, he’s offering a nod in his current and next game’s credits. Visit his blog for more details.

http://starfruitgames.com/blog/?p=103

I get these in the mail every so often. Seeing how this one relates to the community, I thought I’d share. My apologies, it seems my scanner is dead, so I had to photograph instead.

A suspicious letter showed up in the mail today.

Wow, "THE" Domain registry of Canada... I didn't realize we had a domain registry

It seems very professional.

How considerate! A return envelope!

I guess it’s time to renew our website…

Wow! We can save $40 by renewing for 5 years!

In case you didn’t know, we also own ludumdare.org as a backup site, in case something crazy happens and we lose the dot com to domain thieves.

If lawsuits are threatened...

Alternatively, you could use a registrar like Godaddy, then google for coupons. I usually spend less than $10 a year myself. Get hosting elsewhere though.

Have a nice day.

Hi everybody,

I’d like a quick show of hands who will be at the Game Developers Conference in March. I realize the IGF Mobile, IGF Student, and Gamma results aren’t available yet, but we’d just like to get a rough idea how many Ludum Dare folk will be attending (or *might be* attending). Post a comment.

Also, let us know if you’re a San Fransisco resident (or familiar with the city). We could use some expertise, as Phil and I are just tourists. We’d like to arrange some sort of Ludum Dare meetup one of the evenings, and could use some help picking an establishment.

Thanks!

Bonjour!

Play these, they need more votes.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/1447 (I uploaded a working version of this)
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/728
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/43 (requires browser plugin)
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/507 (python source) ***

Courtesy of Critical Distance, Gamasutra presents the best 99 free games of 2009.

http://www.gamasutra.com/…/The_99_Best_Free_Games_Of_2009

Numerous Ludum Dare entries and regulars make up a respectable share of the list, which is something we’re always proud to see. Check it out.

And that was Ludum Dare 16. Get your entries in right now! We’ll be disabling submissions and enabling voting in within the hour.

Hey! I thought I’d sneak this in to the feed. What I’ve been crunching on the past 3 weeks.

It's like iPhone, but slower and Windows Mobile

I should be back in the channel Friday, assuming I don’t decide to take a day off from computers.

PS: Phil Rocks! K-THX-BYE!

Well we’re always looking to try something new, so here’s a voting round for the participants of MiniLD #14, the team competition.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-14/

I plan to leave it up for about a week, so act now. If you entered MiniLD #14, please give your fellow entries a spin. We need a majority of you to vote on everything to get some decent statistics.

Good luck!

EDIT: Aaaaand switched off. See link above for results.

Hi everybody,

I just wanted to let you guys know I’m going to be a little busy over the next few weeks. I’ll be around to make sure the compo starts and all that great stuff, but you may or may not see me much in IRC. Crunch time about sums up what’s going on.

You’ll be able to follow along on my blog, as I’m keeping semi-regular updates going there (though expect a delay on the next one), but it’s nose to the grindstone time for me. My schedule for Smiles PC puts me shooting for a release candidate by the middle of December. Distribution plans to follow.

Following that, there’s something else I want to sneak in between now and GDC (March 9th-13th). That’s a little more than 3 months from now. And no, it’s not Towlr for iPhone (though that’d be awesome). So, time is tight.

As always, if there’s a site maintenance emergency, and if Phil’s not around, fire me an e-mail. mike at sykhronics dot com. Alternatively, you can message me on twitter, mikekasprzak. Both will get my attention relatively quickly.

Thanks, and I look forward to showing you what’s up.

Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Well the results are in. We polled 150 people, and well… I think “wow” about sums up the results. Lets have a look!

Availability wise, we're split down the middle.

Well, you can’t really ask for much more of an even split here. No matter which weekend we choose, 72% of those surveyed are available to enter. Yikes!

On to the next chart.

Preferences are... also the same

As far as preferences go, the 18th slips by the 11th by a mere single vote. Double yikes!

So what do these charts tell us? Well, they say we can pretty much choose either weekend for Ludum Dare #16.

As for the for the voting.

A majority want 3 weeks

Well if we do the 11th, 59% want more voting time (3 weeks+). If we do the 18th, only 47% do. Personally I’m still leaning towards 3 weeks myself, but it’s good to know.

So when will Ludum Dare #16 happen? We’ll get back to you. The charts are split down the middle, so us moderators will have to debate OTHER reasons to pick one weekend over the other.

We’ll let you know our decision in the next couple days.

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Hey everybody,

I just thought I’d pass on a little note.

MiniLD #14 takes place next weekend (November 13th-15th weekend). Terry, the host of MiniLD #14 has let us know than it’s going to be a team competition. So find a friend or two and join in.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2009/11/02/mini-ludum-dare-14-find-a-partner/

Now, normally we don’t do voting during MiniLD’s, but it’s been suggested that maybe we should this time. Phil and I are both OK with the idea, but I’m going to add a little stipulation. The voting system currently only allows people that enter to vote, so if we get 20 some team entries in this MiniLD, we’ll enable voting. That’s why I’m sending this e-mail, to drum up more support. It’s still a MiniLD, so start and end times will be slightly more lax (from when Terry announces the theme until we think the weekend is over).

So grab a friend or stop by IRC and form a team for next weekend.

Regards,

Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

There’s a new featured article on Gamasutra and Game Career Guide about game making festivals and competitions. You can find the article here:

http://gamecareerguide.com/features/784/features/784/winning_a_guide_to_finding_game_.php

On page 2 there’s a small plug for Ludum Dare and RetroRemakes, which is pretty cool if I do say so.

Public/private/whatever. I figure there’s no reason to hide this away in emails.

We’d like to try out the compo system again but for the MiniLD this weekend. Phil added a special mode for the end that will let us showcase the entries, and not require user voting.

I’ve set up a page specifically for this weekend here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-12/

Submitters should go there to add their finished entries. I’ll update it to mention the theme… eventually.

Good luck everyone.

I’m going to do a last call post some time tomorrow.

If your game previously didn’t work on Windows, but you made fixes after several “it doesn’t work” comments, leave a comment here. I’ll collect up a list and try to make them nice and visible to everyone. Hopefully that will give all the neglected people more proper/updated votes.

Also, we’re short 1 Windows port from the port request posting. Details and a link to the source can be found in the comments here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2009/09/08/defenestration/

Thanks!

We’re entering uncharted territory here.

Thanks to everyone that contributed to our little demographics survey. We surveyed 100 people, and now have some actual data about your fellow LD folk.

Lets look at some charts.

Students, hobbiests, game jobs, ex mainsteam, full-time indies

This is one we’ve been wondering about for a while. Students covering about 25%, with nearly 30% being those with game jobs or enough entrepreneurial spirit to make their own.

I’m not sure what to take away from the “spare time” stat, other than to think more about my choice of words. For example, does a self employed game maker make games in their spare time anymore? Also, some people do contract game work, so wordings again could be problematic.

Games you've made (and own all right to), the cool things they've done

This data was crammed in to the 1st question. A set of questions on about how stuff you’ve made has done. This makes me realize a good question may have been weather you’ve released a game before (freeware, web, shareware, retail, etc). None the less, we can see nearly 20% of those surveyed have have had some notable successes with things they’ve created.

You and the game making community

This is what was left in the first question. I wasn’t expecting “the book one” to be on top, and only get a single vote (cough…). I know for a fact we’ve had other authors enter before, and I have a book on my shelf with an article written by Geoff (who obviously now didn’t do the survey). None the less, the subject of writing can certainly be expanded on. Articles for Gamasutra, the Escapist, gamedev.net, or other publications are certainly worth wording a question around. Whitepapers and tutorials too.

The last 3 refer to various compo styles, edited on the graph text so not to eat up all the space. The first being your Ludum Dare’s, PyWeek’s, and TIGSourc’esc compos. Glad to see a good turn out for that. The second being attended events like Game Jam’s (TIGJam, TOJam, …). The final being your Independent Games Festivals, Sense of Wonder Nights, GAMMA’s, PAX 10’s, Indiecade’s, and similar exhibitions. In other words, a real venue demoing your game.

Platforms: PC's, Mobile, Consoles

Next the platforms question. Windows rating, we expected something nice and high. It’s also good to have some Mac and Linux numbers too. And whomever it was that added the single vote for non big-3 PC OS, pat yourself on the back for being the only one. Keeping the dream alive.

Web made a good showing. Flash, Unity, and those crazy PHP game makers. Nice.

I did neglect PDA’s, but I’d imagine (hope) most people wanting to mention that put a note down for Mobile. iPhone could probably be given it’s own section next time, since I suspect it’s pushing up most of that mobile score.

Consoles, that’s always good to see. With a pair of 13’s though, I do wonder how many are distinctly A or B, or both. Also there’s the question of homebrew. Being an “indie” event, I’d expect a decent split here.

Classic computers, also keeping the dream alive. From that stat we know we have at least 6 really old people here.

Physical games, I’m glad someone suggested this. I imagine the majority don’t do a lot of board/card game development these days, but physical stuff is great for prototyping ideas.

The survey'ish question

Yes, finally the more traditional survey’esc question. I’m proud to report we have a 10% scandal ratio going on here at Ludum Dare. I’d expect no less.

Thanks again everyone for taking survey. I hope you enjoy these colorful charts.

Yesterday I set up a survey to collect some demographic information, for our own curiosity. We’re currently sitting at 72 of 100 allowed polled people, so I’d like to reach 100 before posting the results. If you haven’t yet taken our survey, go here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0XGGBruHxeEbdl24Y5zi0Q_3d_3d

It’s a simple one page, 3 questions multiple choice. Pick all that apply.

Thanks!

I scribbled together a compo postmortem late last night (as I seem to do now). Woke up this morning, edited it a bunch, then decided to submit it to Gamasutra blogs… in the off chance that it might get featured.

Hooray for off chances.

http://www.gamasutra.com/

If you don’t see me watching you from the Featured Blogs section of the site, then hit this link for the article.

http://www.gamasutra.com/…/Ludum_Dare_15_Was_Hugeer.php

Pretty cool.

Hey everyone,

We got talking in IRC about demographics, and decided we should try collecting some. So hit this link for our shiny Ludum Dare poll.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0XGGBruHxeEbdl24Y5zi0Q_3d_3d

It’s a single page with 3 questions. Click all checkboxes that apply and then click done.

I’ll post some results later in the week(s?).

Thanks!

I went out for a walk and hit the grocery store not to long ago.  It was around 8:30 PM when I got got there, and I was pleased to discover they had reduced the price of the stuff in the hot food section.  Sooooo… Blam!

Delicious 50% off pack of fried chicken.

Yummay!

This should get me through the super busy end of compo submission phase, and provide some delicious leftovers for tomorrow.

Hi everybody!

I’m getting a lot of comments in IRC about things, so I figure I’d start a post to collect them all.

So if you have any thoughts about how thing ran this weekend, or the voting, post a reply here.  This way, they’re all in one place, and we can see them when we get a chance.

Thanks!

Yeah, naw.  I’m completely lacking in motivation today.  I think I’ll just enjoy a weekend for a change.  I’ve been so busy as of late, it’ll be nice to just relax and watch the compo happen magically before my eyes.

I suppose there’s always the chance I could “Towlr”, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Toodles.

I’m not sure.

Delicious Rocks

I haven’t decided yet if I’m in the mood to just make something genuinely insane, like a puppet show.  The theme used purely as a topic of conversation.

Hmm.