The latest in the continuing legacy is Seth “mrfun” Robinson’s Mind Wall from Ludum Dare 14. Mind Wall is on it’s way to China for the inaugural Independent Games Festival China competition.

IGF China Info: http://www.gdcchina.com/events/igf.html
Finalists List: http://www.gdcchina.com/events/igffinalists.html

Download Mind Wall: http://www.codedojo.com/?p=104

Mind Wall was created for the 14th Ludum Dare’s theme Advancing Wall of Doom, and took place in April of this year. Seth has since improved on his Ludum Dare entry, and even ported the game iPhone!

One of our favorite Mind Wall moments has to be this youtube video recorded by a player. His girlfriend captured this tense and tender moment as he conquered the unforgiving beast that is the Mind Wall.

So hey, Ludum Dare. Not bad ‘eh? First it was Phil and I at the IGF Mobile in March, Lexaloffle at the TGS Sense of Wonder Night last week, and now mrfun at IGF China. Not to mention our record breaking 123 and 144 entries the past 2 compos. A fantastic year for us all.

Lets keep that going!

The Independent Games Festival and Independent Games Festival Mobile are now accepting entries for 2010. We’d love to see more of you keeping this little streak of ours going. Both competitions require an entry fee, and for you to provide your own travel if you make it. But if you ask any finalist, they’ll tell you that attending is totally worth it.

Independent Games Festival (Due November 1st, $100): http://www.igf.com/
Independent Games Festival Mobile (Due December 1st, $50): http://www.igfmobile.com/

I’ll be there at GDC next year (perhaps with Phil). Not that meeting me in person is all that monumental an event, but hey. If we get enough of an LD crew out there, we’ll totally have to do something.

Keep up the great work everyone!

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

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.

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.

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.

Ludum Dare veteran Joseph White (aka Lexaloffle, aka Lex… when I’m lazy)’s latest game Swarm Racer 3000 will be on display at this upcoming Tokyo Game Show. It’s one of several titles being featured at the indie friendly Sense of Wonder Night. You can read more about it here.

Lets look at some gameplay footage.

Pretty sweet looking ‘eh.

The Ludum Dare connection? For those of you that missed it, back in 2006 we had the very awesome theme Swarms. And back then, Lex produced this really great entry named Swarm Racer.

http://indygamer.blogspot.com/2006/05/swarm-racer.html

Since then he’s made it far more awesome.

http://www.lexaloffle.com/swarm.php

And today, the all new Swarm Racer 3000 is looking pretty freaking great.

So a great big congratulations to Lex, from all of us at Ludum Dare!

- Mike Kasprzak (aka: PoV)

Under the bookmarks to your right, you’ll find a new link.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/logo-and-press-pack/

There you’ll find high resolution transparent PNG versions of the logo you now see at the top of the page.  Also a source PSP file for those few still living Paint Shop Pro users.

If there’s anything else like that you guys (and gals) want, let us know.  We’ll do what we can.

To start, Phil Hassey’s Ludum Dare favorite Galcon (now on iPhone) was nominated for the “Innovation in Mobile Design” award at this year’s IGF Mobile.  Go Phil!

Next, Ludum Dare regular tonic‘s companies game (Secret Exit) Zen Bound was nominated for two awards.  “Audio Achievement” and “Best iPhone Game“.  Contratz!

Finally… well… it seems I’m in the running for “Best Game” with Smiles.

Here’s the complete list.

	IGF Mobile Best Game: Cubic Republic (IKS Mobile) – Flash Lite Smiles (Sykhronics Entertainment) – iPhone/iPod touch Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
	Innovation in Mobile Game Design: Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS Galcon (Hassey Enterprises) – iPhone/iPod touch Eliss (Steph Thirion) – iPhone/iPod touch
	Achievement in Art: Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch Ruben & Lullaby (Song New Creative) – iPhone/iPod touch
	Technical Achievement: Football Tycoon (Dynamo Games) – Java Real Racing (Firemint) – iPhone/iPod touch Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
	Audio Achievement: Radio Flare (Studio Radiolaris) – iPhone/iPod touch Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
	Best iPhone Game — Presented by ngmoco: Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch Frenzic (The Iconfactory) – iPhone/iPod touch

http://www.igfmobile.com/02finalists.html

Congratulations to all the finalists (which is a little strange to say being one of them).  We’ll keep you posted.

Stay tuned for MiniLD next week.

- Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

- GBGames