I don’t think there is a single best method to do the Ludum Dare. I’m no expert and you may agree or disagree with my ideas but I’ve finished an entry for 9 different main LDs since LD #1. I’ve also failed many times and learned from those as well.

Get übermotivated

Making a game in 48 hours is hard. There will be times when you feel discouraged by your lack of progress, skills or inspiration. If you’re going to finish a game this weekend, you need to make that your #1 priority. Don’t start the LD without knowing that no matter what, you’ll make a game this weekend. Maybe a very shitty game if things don’t go your way, maybe an awesome game, but a game no matter what. Don’t have any doubt about it and it won’t be a problem.

The excitement here and on IRC before the compo is a great way to build up that motivation, but be careful that once the compo is started it can work against you when others seem to be advancing their game more quickly.

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Hello Ludum Dare friends, I am writing a book on game jams.  As part of the research I wanted to ask you if you had any anecdotes or advice you’d like to share for achieving game jam success!  In particular, funny stuff is what I’d like to hear most. =)  One liners, haiku, yoda-like wisdom… you name it. Update: I’m loving all the haiku (5-7-5 syllable poems) please submit more!

McFunkypants
blog: www.mcfunkypants.com
twitter: @McFunkypants
google+: http://gplus.to/gamedev

Instead of just saying SCREW IT, IT WON’T WORK, I decided to mess around for nearly 3 hours trying to create a specific death animation/scenario for the enemies.

What a waste. Now I’m behind schedule AND I can’t make it the way I wanted to.

PRO TIP: If it can’t be figured out in 30 minutes, simplify it and move on! NO TIME TO WASTE!

BACK TO WORK!

Alas, it turns out that I am going to miss yet another LD. A last minute invite to las vegas with free travel and a free place to stay is taking over this weekend. It was a hard decision, but I’ve stopped voting on themes because of this. I’m half tempted to help out by culling the ones people hate, but I’m also tempted to vote up the ones we always see on the list but don’t want (evolution, I’m looking at you).

Good luck to everyone who is competing. There are a lot of new names posting — special good luck to all of you. Hopefully you all get hooked and become permanent parts of the community.

Quick advice to you newcomers:

1. Pick a game design that you can completely finish with time to spare but with room for additional features if you find yourself with extra time (lol). Too many first timers fail because they bite off more than they can chew.
2. Make code that does only what it needs to do. I’m the worst about spending way too much time writing general, well commented, extendable code snippets instead of just writing what I need. It’s 48 hours – if you want a piece of your code to use later, re-write it later.
3. As mentioned in an earlier post and on the wiki, there are lots of tools created by the LD community that can quickly add a large amount of polish to your game. Dr Petter has written two amazing tools that give you sound effects and music, as well as a graphics editor. Blecki has a good looking map editor. RB has a new 3D python framework (allowed?). I wrote a tool for making timelapses, and a loader to make judging the games less of a chore. I’m sure there are more – read what people are posting about their toolsets and ask around in IRC. In fact, we had a whole mini-LD on tools, so check that out as well.
4. Have fun! If you aren’t enjoying yourself, take a 20-60 minute break. If you hate your time making your game, we will probably hate our time playing it.

A final note: I’ll be back on sunday night, so I can probably still make the torrent and shove CGL down everyone’s throat.