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Annual Ludum Dare Independent Game Competition

Posted by michael on from the sore-fingers dept.

pyman writes "The 4th Ludum Dare game competition is being held over the April 16-18 weekend. A forum discussion can be found here, and you may register your details here. Previous compos have spawned some interesting games, as well as provided a unique insight into the creative process of the programmer mind."

15 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Why?? Why?? by Apreche · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why is everything cool the same weekend? I'm missing triple points weekend at media play and now this. All because I'm going to Penguicon Oh well.

    --
    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
  2. the closest i ever got... by trmj · · Score: 5, Funny

    to making a game was writing a RPG in basic on my TI-89 calculator.

    Now that I look back on it, I don't have to wonder why I failed that math class...

    --
    Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
    1. Re:the closest i ever got... by OldSchoolNapster · · Score: 2, Funny

      I wrote a fully functional 2 player Pong game on a TI-89. I failed alot more than my math class in the process but it was totally worth it.

      Computer Science rules!

      --
      bit trollent
    2. Re:the closest i ever got... by trmj · · Score: 2, Informative

      If it was in basic, it would have been on a single calc, otherwise basic would have gone way too slow communicating over that link cable.

      Depending on whether he had two HW2 editions or not, it could have been done on 68K assembly, if he wrote a custom link program that didn't have all the system slowdowns, but it would have to have been the HW2 for the 12Mhz processor instead of the HW1 that used the 8Mhz.

      Or at least that was the common thinking when I was programming for it.

      --
      Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
  3. What about mod competitions? by Nomihn0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Despite the stifling of creativity that some feel when they work on the structure of a preexisting game, why aren't mods taken more seriously in the indie game world? Many budding game designers and production houses lack the capital to create a stand-alone game to enter into a such a competition as this. Cheap engines like the Torque engine (of Tribes fame) have spawned excellent indie games such as Marble Madness. Why can't people accept mods like this -

    1. Re:What about mod competitions? by Nomihn0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Edit to my original post: I'm sorry, I slipped up. I meant Marble Blast - published by Garage Games.

    2. Re:What about mod competitions? by Nomihn0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Many people do use the Quake engine for indie gaming. One of the most popular games using the open source Quake engine is D-Day: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~dday/site Many of these so called "source-port-mods" are left as free. This is for various reasons, including but not limited to the restrictive license under which the code is released. Graphics aren't everything, but they do attract people to the stores. This is what indie developers cannot reach with their resources - the graphical intensity of modern commercial games.

    3. Re:What about mod competitions? by sjbrown · · Score: 5, Informative
      lack the capital to create a stand-alone game to enter into a such a competition as this

      Umm.. maybe you should check out what the Ludum Dare competition actually is.
      • one person (programming AND graphics)
      • you get 48 hours, starting from scratch
      • you can use most any game library you want

      Lack of capital is not a consideration. Free time on the chosen weekend is the only real limiting factor.

      I entered last year using PyGame and Gimp. I spent $0. I got 2nd place in the Cosmetic category.
    4. Re:What about mod competitions? by Nomihn0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      well, my source of Quake mod goodness is the Quake Wiki. It can be found at http://wiki.quakesrc.org/ They have an excellent list of source port mods

  4. Ludum Dare by Michael.Forman · · Score: 4, Informative


    ludum dare - to give free play to

    Michael.

    --
    Linux : Mac :: VW : Mercedes
  5. Great, just great.. by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had planned on washing my car today. Now, I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon playing "Sheep Wars."

    --
    "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
  6. Fun, but exams do interfere by PktLoss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds like a lot of fun, too bad its scheduled so close to finals.

    48hrs for a game isn't much, but I really think it would be a fun contest to enter with friends.

    "Yeah, well in my game you get to run around the house trying to find the clock radio before it goes off"... "Yeah well, in my game you are the clock radio, and you have to find the kid before school starts"

    (the theme for that imaginary contest being timing, clocks and running :)

    --
    paul reinheimer
    1. Re:Fun, but exams do interfere by arbitrary+nickname · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's a solo competition - no teams allowed, and all art/audio must be made during the compo..

      Most freely-available libraries are allowed, including D3D, OpenGL, Allegro, ODE (physics engine), and various audio libs.

      I entered the last two, and it is very good fun. Entrants range from game programming newbies to people with games industry experience.... But IMHO it's more about seeing what you yourself can achieve in 48hrs (with little sleep and loads of caffiene) than simply trying to beat the competition. Well worth a go, if you can spare a weekend :)

  7. New for this conference... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...I predict methane will be found, in large quantities.

  8. this is what's wrong with developing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    the contest is to code somthing in 48 hours? That alone isn't very impressive and judging from the lack of creativity with sheepwars, niether are the submissions. Sheepwars is a bad rip off of 10+ year old games, the controls are counter intuitive to boot.

    I don't want to replay (and in many cases repay) games I've been playing forever, I want to see somthing new, maybe I'm foolish but that seems like a far more interesting contest to me.