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[Photon]

<insert traditional complaint about how this year's final themes are the worst ever before ending up doing something neat with whatever wins in the end anyway>

Among the first three rounds, I only upvoted 5 of them (3, 1 and 1 respectively.) So...

[quantumpotato]

<insert traditional complaint about how this year's final themes are the worst ever before ending up doing something neat with whatever wins in the end anyway>

<considering implementing one of several gameplay concepts and twisting it to match the theme no matter what>


I wish the themes were more abstract eg. "a painting in a friend's house" or "the third album you listened to". Or less pointers and more concrete: "The theme is this photograph I took. Make a game"

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1641943@N22/ is very cool for this. Fake album cover challenge, we should do Jams like this

//GlobalGameJam's theme of "What do we do now" seemed to me like "uh, we don't know what to suggest so... yeah"

[oahda]

I don't even try to think up ideas for the final's themes anymore even tho I know it'll be one of those. I enjoy just making it up on the spot once the winning one is announced. c: Easier to be disappointed if you liked one of your ideas for a theme that didn't win more than the one you had for the one that did win.

[JWK5]

The potential themes aren't too exciting but aren't too bad this year, I am kind of hoping for "Light/Dark" or "A World in the Skies".

Dark / Light
You control the game, not the player
Parallel Dimensions
Pausing has Consequences
Keep it Alive
Two Colors
Island
A World in the Skies
You are Alone
Inconvenient Superpowers
On / Off
Death is only the Beginning
Start with Nothing
One Tool, Many Uses
Everything has a Cost
A Small World

For shits and giggles I was trying to come up with a game concept that uses all the themes by first grouping and connecting the themes into general ideas:



I wasn't intending on using it as my LD entry but it is good practice before LD starts.



I think the following video has some good thoughts that might apply to LD fairly well. Where it talks about starting with an emotion and then building mechanics around it you could just as easily reinterpret that as theme.

[oahda]

Fun idea, but I'm wondering if it won't just make focus difficult and turn the game into a mess (unless all of the themes happen to magically fit well together).

[Jordgubben]

I wish the themes were more abstract eg. "a painting in a friend's house" or "the third album you listened to". Or less pointers and more concrete: "The theme is this photograph I took. Make a game"

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1641943@N22/ is very cool for this. Fake album cover challenge, we should do Jams like this

Yarrrrr, lad. It's seems "A game by it's cover" would be just your tankard of grog. Keep ye eye out and board that ship next time she sails by.

[JWK5]

Fun idea, but I'm wondering if it won't just make focus difficult and turn the game into a mess (unless all of the themes happen to magically fit well together).

Probably, but it is a mess that is good to learn from since once the contest begins I will only be using one theme. It's basically just an exercise to stretch my thinking and creating muscles. Also, it gets me contemplating different ways I could use the themes (since having to merge them into various ideas means I have to get creative with their interpretations) which will be very useful when I start.

[SamSerious]

well, luckily the theme is not mandatory for the game, but just a fun, optional challenge.

[oahda]

Seems really weird to me to do LD and not use the theme tho. At least for me, that's the whole point.

[quantumpotato]

I wish the themes were more abstract eg. "a painting in a friend's house" or "the third album you listened to". Or less pointers and more concrete: "The theme is this photograph I took. Make a game"

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1641943@N22/ is very cool for this. Fake album cover challenge, we should do Jams like this

Yarrrrr, lad. It's seems "A game by it's cover" would be just your tankard of grog. Keep ye eye out and board that ship next time she sails by.

Hey thanks! I re-implemented the 100 pong game (the original implementation didn't work for me). If you want to mess around with it : open http://162.243.65.72:3000/ then http://combo.zone on your phone (http://162.243.65.72:3000/controller.html) .

I'm following them on twitter now, thanks!

well, luckily the theme is not mandatory for the game, but just a fun, optional challenge.

The theme is there to give constraints encouraging creativity in design, otherwise it'd just be another weekend gamejam. Also, scoring is done on the Theme so.. do the theme!

[SamSerious]

Seems really weird to me to do LD and not use the theme tho. At least for me, that's the whole point.

IMHO it's not weird, I like the very liberal defintion of ludum dare

Officially no, you are not required to use the Theme. We will not disqualify you for disregarding it. To us, the Theme is just a single voting category. Ludum Dare is about encouraging you to make something. The theme is something we do to help everyone with the “blank sheet of paper” problem that artists and creators deal with. It’s easier to make something with some direction than none.

It's the same with jam vs compo, with using existing engine vs writing something from scratch, with using existing (open) assets vs creating all by yourself etc.

It's sure a nice challenge to go for it, but if you'd totally not find ideas that align with the winning theme, it's better to do something, than nothing.

[SamSerious]

The Theme for Ludum Dare 38 is: A Small World


source: https://twitter.com/ludumdare/status/855586969740619776

[Photon]

My initial thought is to use physical space as an interesting constraint on the game mechanics. That might be too obvious tho. WE SHALL SEE.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Going to enter again and this will be my 10th one in a row. Also might make it my final one for awhile since it takes me away from my major project that I should actually be working on.

Not sure what to do with the theme but will spend the next few hours coming up with an idea and see what I can come up with.

Good luck everyone.

[JWK5]

Alright, I've got my energy drinks and I've got my music, I'm doing this shit!
I have started a devlog for my entry so if you want to see my progress it will be here.

I wish you all the best of luck and I can't wait to see the cool games (or as far as you get towards one) that you create!

[Jordgubben]

My usual approach to LD is to just build the first thing that comes to mind. This time however I've spent an hour mind-mapping and writing loglines for 8 possible games. That said, I'm probably going with the first idea I that came to mind.



OK, LETS DO THIS! Battlecry! 

[oahda]

Good morning! Me and Marte woke up about two hours ago and have our idea. Now we're getting going!

[Alec S.]

Came up with an idea last night, then retooled it, and got started this morning.

[Photon]

Rawr, I feel like I get stuck on some of the stupidest problems. I think part of it has to do with how I've wired my programming brain towards modularity over the last several months. To quote another post:

you can't so much as print "Hello, World!" without setting up a coroutine and passing in 17 parameters.

I feel like I'm doing better about not letting modularity shackle me, but I still freeze up at times trying to reconcile problems. Anyway, here's what I have so far:



Taking a more "meta" approach to the theme, methinks.

[JWK5]

Slowly but surely I chisel my way through this Ludum Dare. At this point I am mostly working with half doodles and half passable art, but I am getting a lot of the basic gameplay foundation down so though I am almost a day in I am still feeling good about my odds of actually completing a game for LD for once. It's a nice feeling.

Anyways, hang in there everybody, and keep up the good work! We got this!







P.S. if anyone needs someone to bounce ideas off of feel free to PM me (I know sometimes it helps).