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Anyone else participate in Ludum Dare 42? If not, I recommend trying it out for Ludum Dare 43!

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If you didn't know this already, Ludum Dare is one of the biggest game jams in the world. It's a great way to get some practice in without burning yourself out, and it often can leave you with a prototype for your next official release, or at least with some small features that you'll use in the future. We just got over with the rating for Ludum Dare 42. The theme for the games was, "Running out of Space." I do suggest checking out some of the winning games for each section, because these devs have got some talent! Our game wasn't nearly as good as those games are, but I am happy with the results nonetheless. But of course, there's always something else to learn from these things. Here's some stuff we learned:

Your rating doesn't matter. Seriously. Even the best games in the jam had mixed reviews, often with just above-average ratings in some categories rather than outstanding. And I know that from participating in these competitions that the highest rating games aren't the ones that are made into steam releases. It's usually just the ones with devs that want to just take it forwards. For example, one of the steam releases got only 168th in the competition, not even close to top placing!

Get a team. Even if you have to grab someone random off the internet or have your half-baked artist/musician/modeler/whatever buddy do it, you need someone to back you up. I personally did all of the art, programming, design, and SFX for my entire game, which had me almost entirely packed the full 3 days. I did have 2 musicians between the fellow Koalas (hence our somewhat high audio rating), but they were more or less sitting on their hands for most of the competition. In the jam competition (sorry compo, you're on your own!), having a team divide the work is crucial to your success. I am positive that my game would not have succeeded nearly as much without the music, and I'm imagining what it would be like if I had a designer and an artist on my side. Another thing to note is that all of the most impressive jam games that make top ratings are always team works!

Go for 2D. My very first game jam, Ludum Dare 40, I attempted to make a 3D game. Not surprisingly, it did not do so well. I made little of the audio, absolutely zero art, and the game still performed rather terribly. Why? It's because 3D is so much harder to develop for! Just the modelling itself is the worst part, but then after that you have to worry about physics, level design in 3D, navmesh more often than not, animation, and performance! This is the stuff that gives game devs nightmares. While this is not to say that 3D cannot be done, I am saying that you should default to using 2D if at all possible. If you don't have a 3D modeler separate from your programmer, or if this is your first of second game jam, go for 2D for the time being.

Don't rate every single game. I learned this the hard way. You only need 20 ratings, and yet many games go for many more, some even reaching 150 ratings! However, there is a price for all that. Firstly, your sanity is going to go down the tube if you're giving legitimate feedback for every single game (you are being legitimate about this, right?). Second, it may lower your score if you have more ratings. I discovered several entries that got a lower rating simply because they were rated by more people. I know it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but bear with me. When you ask for a lot of ratings, you're also having to rate some of the people that have games that aren't so great. Now, many of the people making those games will be leaving bad feedback on other people's games because they didn't perform well and because it theoretically bumps their game up relative to other games. Which means that rating their game may make yourself a target to those developers. Now, I'm not saying that you won't get these people anyway, nor am I saying that any or all games are run by cranky devs. However, I am saying that it may be a good idea to be selective about the games you rate, and keep an eye on the comments that these games have. If the game has given out an inhuman number of ratings or has been noted to be giving out generic feedback, it may be best to stay away, even if that game is in the danger zone.

Release the darn thing! This time around, there were a whopping total of around 6500 developers signed up to enter the competition! The sad thing is, there were only 3000 entries. Why? A very small part of it is due to people backing out, but the most major portion of it is people not releasing their unfinished games! There were 3000 entries that remained unpublished! Which means that I'm guessing at least 2000 people out of that 3000 actually participated and decided not to release for one reason or another. Don't do this! There are games that were made using only 8 hours of the competition, and they placed incredibly well! There are also games that use the entire jam and make really bad games, but they still enter, and they still get the feedback! That's the whole purpose of this thing: to receive feedback for your game that will allow you to improve your game, and often the sooner you receive this, the better. There's no better time to change a major mechanic of your game because it doesn't work that well than at the very earliest stage of development, and with Ludum Dare, the unfinished games are your prototypes. So release your games, and don't worry about people calling it terrible. You made a game, and you did it in only 3 days or less! That alone is an accomplishment enough for you to be proud of your game!

Finally, have fun. Seriously, that's the entire point of this thing. There's no prize, and the ratings don't matter, so don't turn this into an obligation, drag people who are busy or uninterested into it, or do something else that kills the fun of it. If you don't want to enter, then don't worry, it's not the end of the world. Even if you can't think of an idea that goes with the theme, it doesn't matter: you can make a game that doesn't fit. The theme just exists to help break the feeling of a blank canvas when you start working, and if you have an idea (and are willing to just ignore the low theme score), then go ahead and make it!

That's all! I learned a lot this Ludum Dare, and I hope you did too. If you haven't entered in a game jam before, try it this December for Ludum Dare 43. It's a great experience all around, and is a really good way to try out new things and learn new tools/languages/engines/etc. I hope to see you guys next time!


PS: We've got our own game coming soon: Terror for Two! Check out our Twitter page for more details and updates.

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