This weekend, a new round of the
Ludum Dare competition begins.
What is Ludum Dare?"Ludum Dare is a regular accelerated game development Event. Participants develop games from scratch in a weekend, based on a theme suggested by community.
Ludum Dare was founded by Geoff Howland, and held it’s first competition in April of 2002. Since then the community has run more than 22 regular Events, several dozens of practice competitions, collectively creating many thousands of games in just a weekend each.
The event attracts developers from all sides of the industry. Students, hobbyists, industry professionals from many well respected game studios, as well as many independent game developers.
For many people, it can be difficult to find or make the time create a game or prototype for yourself. We’re here to be your excuse."
I encourage anyone with any experience with anything that can produce games, be it Game Maker or Assembly to participate. You stay up late and stress about things because you suck at time management and then you blow your brains out over all the built up stress. It's loads of fun.
Participation is easy. There's a clock/timer on the previously linked web page, you wait until everything counts down and the contest begins. You begin from scratch (whatever that entails for your setup personally) and make a game based on a theme for 48 hours. Alternatively, there's a looser rule set for the overlapping 72 hour competition known as the Ludum Dare Game Jam. The jam (as it's called) allows you to work in teams along with other easier bits. Read more about this / the rules in general
here.
Also I'll probably be streaming the development of my entry.
