Ludum Dare is a 48 hour and 72 hour game jam. The jamtakes place this weekend (April 21st to 24th). The “compo” portion takes 48hours and is for solo participants. The “jam” portion starts at the same time,extends for 72 hours, and people work in teams. At the time of this post it’s LudumDare’s 15th anniversary, and they're using entirely new software to host theevent.
I've previously doneLudum Dare 10 times, and aftertaking a 2 year break I'm going to give it another shot. I'veput togther this post to share some of the things I've learned over the years.
Before I jump in, I just wanted to remind you that we make some tweaks toitch.io during Ludum Dare to make it easier to submit and tag your games.
We love featuring games from Ludum Dare after the jam is over. Make your gameeasy for us to find so we can share it. Check outsome games from Ludum Dare37.
ludum-dareOn the game page you'll find a button to quickly tag your game and provide yoursubmission URL.
You can embed any HTML game you've uploaded to itch.io on Ludum Dare by goingtoEdit Game > Distribute > Embed game. Just copy the embed link into theLudum Dare submission page:
Although I might not be the best game designer, I've done Ludum Dare quite afew times. Each time I've learned new things. Here are some tips that have beenvaluable to me:
48 (or 72) hours is not a long time. Get ready to abandon many of your ideasfor the sake of getting the game out.I think it’s more important to try tofinish a project than to start something you plan to finish later. Why? Youhave plenty of time outside of Ludum Dare to start the next big thing. LudumDare is your time to get experience finishing something. You'll get a lot moreenjoyment out of the experience if you have something you can submit, andyou'll be able to rate and comment on other people’s submission.
Regardless of whether it’s your first time using a set of tools, or you'rereusing what you already know, you should spend some time preparing.
Know the basics about drawing things on the screen, importing assets, playingsounds, and responding to user input. Code a test project before the jam so thefundamentals are fresh in your memory. You'll be grateful for not wastingprecious time trying to debug something that you could have figured out aheadof time.
Make sure you have a streamlined way to access documentation. If you thinkyour internet connection might be spotty then download a local copy of anydocumentation you might need. If you're in a coworking space the internet mightbe slow, so you'll be happy to have a quick way to access reference APIs. (Inthe past I've downloaded the entireLove2d wiki forquick access). It’s frustrating to know you want to code something but youdon’t know the function call because the docs aren’t loading.
Ludum Dare is about battling the clock to build a functional game. It’s easyto get caught up putting together a certain feature or component. For example,in one of my previous entries I wanted to build a handful of differentenemy types with respective AIs. I ended up spending so much time on them thatI didn’t have time to put graphics together for them. I had to scrap theadditional enemy types and merge the code I wrote into existing ones.
I like to encourage what I callbreadth first development. Don’t go deep inany one path. If you spend all 48 hours making an enemy, but never codedthe player then all you'll have is a tech demo, and not a game.
Generally, you'll have a better end product if you dedicate a chunk oftime to each core component.Make a list of the things that should be worked on. If you know you've beenignoring one during the jam then switch over to it for a bit. Here’s an examplelist of things I might block out time for:
Note: I would only come up with this list after I've already decided on my game design & mechanics.
The time you spend working is the most important time you have during the jam.Do not make any other plans, you will only put yourself at a disadvantage.I know in the past I've thought it would be cool to hang out with some friendsmidway through, but it always ends up taking time I could have spent polishingthe game. If someone wants to hang out, just tell them another day.Additionally, avoid drinking, it just slows you down. If you do need somerelaxation time consider taking a break anddoing nothing. You'll be mentallyprepared to get back to work after the break, instead of being distracted bysomething or someone else.
For many participants, sound is generally an afterthought, something that iseither left out or is mostly missing. I think this is a huge mistake. Usingtools likesfxr it’s really easy tomake simple 8-bit sound effects.
I've remember many “Ah ha!” moments when I've added sound effects to a game,and it went from something that felt like a tech demo to something that feltlike a game. Having a noise when your player attacks, bumps into something,blows up, or gets damaged can make the world come alive.
Adding music is also a huge plus, but it’s a bit harder to do if you don’t havethe experience to create it. There are many procedural music generation toolsonline that can help you out though.
A big advantage of having the compo and jam start at the same time is if youdecide you won’t finish your game in time you can still submit 1 day later aspart of the jam. Don’t be ashamed, you'll be more proud of finishing something.As a solo participant, I always aim to finish for the compo, and only decide togo to jam on the last day. Don’t make the decision before the last day ifpossible because it might affect your motivation to work.
Make it easy for someone playing your game to figure out how to actually playit. The Ludum Dare submission page lets you write info about your game, butit’s common for people to download many games up front and close the page.They're probably not going to be reading your instructions when they start yourgame. If they can’t figure out how play it then they might skip rating it, orgive it a bad score.
The easiest way to avoid this is to add a title screen that has clearinstructions. If you have time, consider implementing a tutorial directly intoyour game. (Some games use this as a primary mechanic) A game’s onboarding canhave a huge impact on how people perceive it, and may encourage them to play abit more instead of moving onto the next one.
Atimelapse is a recording thathas a very slow framerate, commonly 1 frame every 10 to 20 seconds. This letsyou compress an entire weekend into a 10 minute video. Set up software to takea screenshot of your desktop every 10 seconds and save it to a folder. If youhave a webcam you can composite a snapshot from it on top.
After the jam is over you can convert all the frames into a video. I reallyenjoy going back and watching the timelapses I've created since they caninstantly remind me of the experience I was having while making thegame. They're also just fun to share. Even years later, I really value them.
You can use existing software to help you make the timelapse. On Linux I useamodified version of gLapse. If you haverecommendations for other platforms leave a comment and I'll put them here.
Streaming development live is a fun way to engage with people as you'rebuilding your game. Personally, though, I tend to avoid streaming.
My biggest problem with is that it takes up your attention. Most streamers willwant to interact with their audience, and that means they aren’t working ontheir game. I try to value my time and focus on development. I prefercreating a timelapse over streaming. A timelapse doesn't distract you and doesn’tlose relevance after the jam is over. It’s very unlikely you're going to wantto go through 48 hours of video afterwards to pull out good parts, so steamsare generally for the people who happen to be online that weekend.
Try not to stress out. As a game developer, doing Ludum Dare is a greatway to grow your skills. It’s fine if life happens and you can’t finish yourgame, or your idea is too big scope for a weekend. You're still going to getsome valuable experience regardless of what the end result is.
Thanks for reading
💕 Leaf
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I'm doing the ludum dare 46, and I can't figure out how to link the game I uploaded on itch from the ludum dare site, or vica versa. How do I do this? In your example here, you just click on the add-tag button, and you get a link, but when I do that, there's no link.
Edit: nevermind, apparently its fine to just link to the page
Woot good to see you're jumping back into the jam!
Also here's something I wrote up a while ago for making a high-quality timelapse on Windows, which is way harder than it needs to be:
http://foolmoron.io/timelapses
I cringe every time I see a Ludum Dare Tips page that even mention streaming (and they all seem to these days). Unless you are very experienced at both LD AND performing on stream, you're causing yourself extra stress and won't have a show anyone is going to want to watch for very long anyway.
Other than that, its a good list. Thanks for sharing and here's wishing you the best of luck in LD!