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Play all of the 'Connected World' Ludum Dare 30 games
But be warned: There are a lot of entries to play. Ludum Dare 30 is in the bag, and so are a bunch of cool new games and prototypes from developers worldwide. Ludum Dare 30 includes the 48-hour Compo and the 72-hour Jam, both with the theme "Connected Worlds." This all went down over the weekend, from August 22 - 25. With a theme like that, a lot of entries involve space, planets, shadow play, puzzles and death, oddly enough. A few (of the many) eye-catching Jam and Compo entries so far include Line Crossing, Star LORD, Collect Worlds, Starpiercer, Racer Death Derby, Ice Box, Nature Trial, Zanlings Match, Present & Future, Godshunter, Shrodinghost, Dominions'n'dominoes, Cablage and The Salt Pleeease.
Ludum Dare 30 theme connects worlds
Ludum Dare, the 48-hour game jam series that's resulted in games like Gods Will Be Watching and McPixel, has begun its 30th iteration, and already there are more than a dozen entries being worked on. The theme this year: connected worlds. It's hard to get a sense for what any of these may ever turn into, but so far there's quite a variety on display. One game positions players as an octopus who discovers life outside the water, while another calls itself a "radial platformer." Yet another game challenges players to manage a worldwide social network, connecting virtual populations to each other. The screenshot you see above is from an in-development civilization-building game from Benjamin Soule. Ludum Dare 30 concludes August 25. [Image: Ludum Dare/Benjamin Soule]
Boombox beats and a winning smile in rhythm platformer Inside my Radio
Mixing a kind of digital grafitti style with synaesthetic visual effects, Inside my Radio is a rhythm platformer with a modern, colorful look. Also, we can't take our eyes off its cubic hero and his look-at-me smirk, the cheeky devil. The Ludum Dare 23 game jam winner is all signed up for a fully-fledged release, courtesy of original creator TurboDindon and Ethan: Meteor Hunter dev Seaven Studio. Seaven says paying attention to the rhythm is critical to negotiating Inside My Radio, and it chastises anyone who dares to play the game muted. It's obviously disappointing when a rhythm platformer doesn't lose much with the music turned off, so hopefully that's a good sign. While the trailer lays down electro beats, each of Inside My Radio's worlds revolves around a particular musical style, including - jump on it - disco! There's isn't a release date yet, but Seaven says the game's coming to PC and consoles "when it's done." [Image: Seaven Studio]
Minecraft creator's game jam entry is Drowning in Problems
The latest online game jam in the popular Ludum Dare series carries the theme "beneath the surface," and recently ended with a total of 2,497 entries, 1,493 of which were created in 48 hours for the two-day competition. One entry comes from Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson, and is called Drowning in Problems. The browser game is two parts Cookie Clicker and one part The Sims, as players click basic text links to progress through life and "solve" issues like stress, love and money. As players grow, their attention divides among the myriad of problems to solve in their lives, spending their knowledge, money, friends, loyalty and more to receive increasingly-advanced concepts like crushed dreams and broken hearts. Completing Drowning in Problems shouldn't take more than roughly 15 minutes, though it's a thoughtful little excursion. Another attention-grabbing entry in the Ludum Dare 29 competition is The Valley Rule by Ryan Carag with music and sound provided by Bill Kiley, seen above. Created in 72 hours, the platformer gives off strong Fez and Cave Story vibes, challenging players to unlock a large door to get to the surface of the game's world, searching for keys in the area to do so. Along the way, players find abilities such as the "will to climb" that grant them access to new areas. The post-jam version of The Valley Rule is available to play at Newgrounds. Ludum Dare 29 is currently in the judging phase, which ends on Monday, May 19. [Image: Ryan Carag]
Ludum Dare 28 winner turning one-shot movie making into full PC game
Daniel Haazen won the Ludum Dare 28 compo challenge – the 48-hour, solo competition – with his game, One Take. It turns players into camera operators on a series of movie sets, with the director's cues on one side and a limited amount of time to zoom in, move the camera and get the perfect shot. A player's performance is reviewed in the paper once filming is complete. Ludum Dare 28's theme was "You Only Get One." "I repeatedly told myself 'One ... one ...' and scrolled through the possibilities in my mind," Haazen told Nico Saraintaris, an indie developer from Faif studio, Beavl. "'One enemy, one bullet, one life, one ... one ....' Then suddenly One Take appeared. I don't know where it came from, it just happens like that. I must say that I had been thinking for three hours until I came up with One Take, so it took a while. I wasn't sure if I was going to use it, as at first it looked at too much work for 48 hours. But after another 15 minutes I decided to go with it. And I'm glad I did." Haazen said he's now working to make One Take a full PC game, and possibly iOS and Android versions down the line. Other top games in the compo challenge were blomster, Protogun, Super Sneaky Sample Stealer and A Precious Arrow. The Jam competition – the "relaxed," 72-hour challenge – gave top nods to Titan Souls, Match Girl, Javel-ein, Only One Chance and Yogo Rocketfist. All games are available to browse and play here. Congrats to the winners, but also to anyone who can make a game in just a few days. That's still impressive.
Ludum Dare 28 ends with 2,000 free games: Fountain, Monocraft, more
The massive, two-pronged game jam Ludum Dare 28 started and ended this weekend, and the completed games are up for judging now, for 19 more days. The theme this year was "You only get one." Ludum Dare comprises two, simultaneous game-making marathons: one solo, 48-hour jam with prizes, and one team-optional, 72-hour jam with more relaxed rules. Games up for judging include Terry Cavanagh's introspective Fountain, Mattia Traverso's one-brick Minecraft spin Monocraft, vallde's planetary annihilation game Bounty Hunting, Claw's minimized colossus title Titan Souls, and 5elephants' artistic archery shooter One Arrow (shown above). Also spawned in the jam is Hypnotic Owl's powerful story, The Day the Laughter Stopped – it's an intense, narrative-driven game heavy with trigger warnings, but well worth a play-through. Ludum Dare 28 received 2,064 entries and all of them are playable for free right here. You only get one 2,064.
Gods will be watching you play Gods Will Be Watching
Gods Will Be Watching was a Ludum Dare game jam project that had players survive 40 days in a virus-prone, wintry forest with crew members teetering on the edge of insanity and no contact to the outside world – unless you fixed the radio. Maybe. Developer Deconstructeam took this original idea and expanded it into a full game of moral choices, torture and "just following orders," and asked for 8,000€ on Indiegogo. So far the team has raised 14,981€ and has 12 days to go. The full version of Gods Will Be Watching will feature six levels, new cinematics and a fresh empathy system that improves the game's AI. The levels will include running a hostage situation, where players must maintain a balance of calm and terror in the hostages, and possibly kill one (or two, or three) as an example to the other victims. Another level gives the protagonist 48 hours to live as a virus works its way through his body and he tests experimental vaccines on his colleagues to find the cure. And, of course, there's the "survive 20 days of torture" level. Play the original Gods Will Be Watching here for a taste of the moral and scientific conundrums facing players in the full game. Gods Will Be Watching should launch on PC, Mac, Linux and mobile with this funding, and the next stretch goal of 25,000€ will add online leaderboards.
Dream Fishing will make your day better
Dream Fishing is a first-person fishing game built in Unity. It runs in browser or as a client on PCs, Macs and Linux machines, and was built by Sophie Houlden over the course of 48 hours for the most recent Ludum Dare. In unspecific terms, Dream Fishing is the gaming equivalent of a warm mug of chai tea, or a blanket fresh from the dryer. Players navigate a glowing, peaceful pond in first person, catching helpful fish that dispense homespun wisdom and non sequiturs as quaint piano sounds punctuate their footsteps. Just, don't listen to the grey-and-black fish. He isn't as helpful or as uplifting as the rest of them. A time lapse video of Houlden's 48-hour creative process, including crucial Azumanga Daioh breaks, has been tucked away after the jump.
George Broussard goes minimalist in Ludum Dare entry 'The Road'
Industry veteran and outspoken Duke Nukem co-creator George Broussard sets his sights on the indie-focused Ludum Dare competition with The Road, a side-scrolling browser game that reflects on the futility of existence. Ludum Dare is an online game jam held every four months in which indie creators are given 48 hours to create a game based on an assigned prompt. Designed around the theme "minimalism," The Road challenges players to survive endless waves of falling objects and ground hazards in the hopes of living a long, fulfilling life. In an interesting twist, the player's squarish avatar grows into a tall rectangle as it ages, making it more difficult to survive as the game progresses. After each death, players are given a brief (and often morbid) summary of how they made their fate. Broussard challenges players to survive past the age of 20; be warned that you'll likely suffer many deaths before you reach your teenage years. Personally, I made it to age 19 before I died of explosive diarrhea. Harsh.
Team Meat grants Mew-Genics Steam support, details project history
As one of Team Meat's "Caturday" teasers, the team announced Steam support for Mew-Genics. The game was previously announced for iOS.Team Meat also took a moment to discuss the history of Mew-Genics, noting that the project has been in development for 18 weeks. It started as a Ludum Dare 24 challenge under the "Evolution" theme, though Team Meat went with the "1,000 kittens" joke theme that the community attempted to vote in. After three days of development in Flash, the development duo realized it had a "monster mashup of many different game genres with an underlying theme [it] hadn't seen done in games before" on its hands. Mew-Genics then became the developer's full-time project.The team also recognizes how obscure the "Caturday" teasers have become, saying it "will only do two more Caturday teasers after this then pull back and focus on getting the game done as well as officially announcing what the game actually is and how it plays."
Ludum Dare 25 closes out today with some banging indie games
The relaxed version of Ludum Dare 25 ends today, while the 48-hour game jam closed out yesterday, and all this means that there are some brand spankin' new indie games you can play right now. Most developers are now posting links to their jam games, both in download and browser form, on the Ludum Dare blog.A few that take clever advantage of the jam's theme, "You are the villain," are Deadland, You Are The Goatman, Train Splat, The World is Mine!, Super Witch Hunter Pro (pictured above) and of course Mike Schramm's (of the Schramm Joystiqs) Space Liberators. There are tons of diamonds in the Ludum Dare rough, so browse the blog to find your favorite.
Ludum Dare 25 ends today or tomorrow, relative to devs' daring
Ludum Dare, a massive online game jam currently on its 25th iteration, is going on right now, but won't be for much longer. Ludum Dare 25 began on December 14 with the theme, "You are the villain" (We didn't want to tell you, but you totally are. Pity, that).Ludum Dare 25 consists of the strict, 48-hour solo competition, which ends today, and the more "relaxed" jam, which ends tomorrow, December 17. Anyone interested in taking a peek behind the lacy, gently wafting curtain of indie game development can do so on the Ludum Dare website, where developers post updates, photos and thoughts for all to see. But be quick – the developers certainly are.
Fracuum, the game within a game from Closure's Tyler Glaiel
Tyler Glaiel, creator of Closure, likes to stay busy, apparently. The developer banged out a game in 48 hours for the 23rd Ludum Dare 48 competition, which went down from April 20-23. Entitled Fracuum, the game tasks players with navigating a cube through a maze of traps and hazards. Graphically, it's not terribly different from early efforts on the Atari 2600, though it comes packing a twist.Taking on the Ludum Dare 23 theme of "Tiny World," each level of Fracuum has another level embedded inside of it, creating a loop of levels within levels and a mild case of tunnel vision. It's easier to play than it is to explain, so just head over to Glaiel's website and try it out. Ludum Dare 48 voting closes in just under a week.[Thanks, Cal.]
Ludum Dare hosting anti-SOPA game jam, Notch is in
Wikipedia and a few other sites around the Internet will be going under a blackout on Wednesday to protest SOPA, PIPA, and any other legislation that threatens to shut down parts of the Internet for the interests of a few in power. But shutting down for the day is a less creative way to go about it, so Ludum Dare has a better idea: Why not make some indie games instead? The famous indie game competition is hosting a virtual game jam throughout the day, asking indie game developers (or anyone off from usual work) to make games inspired by the fight against SOPA. There are already a few submitted, and you can make and add your own, or see what other developers have done throughout the day. It's just a freeform jam, so there aren't any real prizes to be had, except that we all get some fun (or crazy, or hastily designed) indie games to play afterwards. The #sopajam hashtag is being used to follow the conversation on Twitter, and at least one major indie developer has taken up the cause himself. Last time Notch jammed on a game it turned into a real Mojang release, so who knows what we'll get this time?
Notch creates 'Minicraft' in less than 48 hours, you can play it now
Lest you missed the live stream, Notch has finished his creation for the Ludum Dare 22 competition. Created in less than 48 hours, Minicraft strikes a familiar, albeit pixelated chord. Kill monsters, collect resources, build stuff. You can check out the browser game for yourself right here.
Notch live-streams making a game in 48 hours, listens to dubstep*
Notch is participating in Ludum Dare 22, a 48-hour programming competition that challenges developers to create an entire game from scratch based on community suggestions, and he's live-streaming all of it -- including the dubstep blasting from his desktop. There are more than eight hours left in this weekend's competition, so if you have the time, settle in and watch an indie master at work. If you mute the video (or if you enjoy aural torment of the womp womp variety), you can still marvel at the speed and obvious practice this man has put into game programming, though you may miss the cute things Notch says every now and then in response to the streaming comments. In a previous 48-hour challenge, Notch made Left 4k Dead, a terrifying zombie romp inspired by Zynga's Farmville -- er, Valve's Left 4 Dead series. Also, he uses MS Paint to create his objects. How adorable. * Depending on when you begin watching Notch's live-stream, he may not in fact be listening to dubstep, but to jazzy songstresses or Disney music instead. But he was listening to dubstep at one point, trust us. We can't forget it.
Play the game Notch made in 48 hours
This weekend's iteration of the occasional Ludum Dare game-making marathon, in which entrants have 48 hours to create a game from scratch, had a celebrity participant: Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson, who spent the weekend developing a first-person dungeon crawler called Prelude of the Chambered. If you'd like to see what happens when Notch rushes (in contrast to the still unfinished Minecraft) you can play the game in a browser window. Like, right now. Here's the link. "It takes about 20-30 minutes to beat the game," said Notch, suggesting you might be able to get back to work today. Of course, he immediately followed with "if you die, you need to start over from the beginning," throwing your workday back into question.
