Ludum Dare

History

Ludum Dare was originally only an Internet forum. The first competition—often referred to as "Ludum Dare Zero"—was held in April 2002, with 18 participants. Its popularity turned the focus towards the competitions rather than the forum. The time limit was subsequently increased to 48 hours, because 24 hours were decided to be too few. Since 2011 the competition has seen significant annual increases in numbers of game submissions, partly owing to the public awareness of Minecraft designer Markus Persson, who has participated seven times.

Until 2014, the event was very informal, as the Ludum Dare team worked on it in their spare time. Due to the increasing number of contestants, long-time organizer Mike Kasprzak announced in September 2014 that he would attempt at setting up a business model allowing him to work full-time on the project. Charging for Ludum Dare is, however, "out of question", and money is currently exclusively raised through donations.

During Ludum Dare 35 in April 2016, an announcement acknowledged various issues regarding the game jam's rating system. In particular, it explained that some users had attempted to artificially boost their game ratings with alternative accounts. As a consequence of this problem, future Ludum Dare events were indefinitely cancelled pending a replacement website being constructed for hosting the game jam. This led to a community backlash, and Ludum Dare 36 in August 2016 went ahead regardless, organized by website administrator and long-time community member Sorceress. Due to the complaints previously raised, the community decided by referendum to forego the game rating phase after the game jam, so no winners were named.

Starting in Ludum Dare 44, the schedule was changed to run twice per year in April and October due to organizer Mike Kasprzak struggling to keep up.

Structure

, Ludum Dare is held twice annually. In the week preceding each competition suggested themes are subject to votes by prospective participants. A theme is subsequently announced before participants are given 48 hours to create a video game (although board games or similar are accepted) that fits within it. All game code and content must be created during the competition and by a single person, and source code is encouraged to be included. During the event many participants record multiple screenshots of the development of their game to later produce a time-lapse video. particularly since April 2013, when a widget showing Ludum Dare video streams hosted on Twitch was added to the Ludum Dare website. After the end of the competition participants are given three weeks to play and rate other submitted games to determine the winners. There are no physical or cash prizes, but each participant retains full ownership of their game—some have achieved financial success after developing their initial submission.

As of the 18th edition of the competition, which was held in August 2010, a more relaxed version called the "Jam" was introduced. The Jam, which allows development teams, private source code and extended development time of 72 hours, takes place concurrently with the solo competition ("Compo").

From early in the game jam's history until 2016, a smaller competition called "Mini Ludum Dare" or "MiniLD" was held during months without a main Ludum Dare competition. These were organised and run by community members with assistance from the website's various administrators and moderators. The host would choose the theme of the MiniLD, set the rules and duration, as well as prepare announcement posts throughout the event. Meanwhile, a staff member would create and manage the game submissions page, make various bookkeeping changes to the website, and generally oversee the event from behind the scenes. These MiniLDs were much more informal, and following the rules was usually optional. The themes were often more specific or technical, such as a jam focused on making games with reusable assets "Swap Shop", or making game-development tools "Tool Jam", or making a real-time-strategy games "7dRTS". Due to the popularity of hosting these smaller community-led events, a booking system was introduced, where interested persons would choose which MiniLD they wanted to host, which ended up with a two year backlog at its peak. After 70 MiniLDs, the event was retired after October 2016, much to the dismay of the community.

For several years during the 2010s, October was home to the October Challenge, which challenged people to "Finish a game, take it to market, and earn $1". Participants had 31 days to upload a link to their game to the website. The event was not competitive and was meant to encourage commercial game development from people who hadn't attempted to make money from their games previously.

Competitions

Notes:

• † — Competitions were held for only 24 hours.
• ‡ — Competition was run without ratings.

Notable games

The following games originated from submissions to Ludum Dare:

• Broforce
• DMCA's Sky
• Dome Keeper
• Evoland
• Friday Night Funkin'
• Galcon
• Gods Will Be Watching
• Hollow Knight
• Inscryption
• Inside My Radio
• Loop Hero
• McPixel
• Mini Metro
• Minicraft
• Pony Island
• Pretentious Game
• The Republia Times
• Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate
• Snakebird
• Sneaky Sasquatch
• Snowden Run 3D
• Titan Souls
• Vox

References

References

1. (August 18, 2010). "A shocking question!". Ludum Dare.
2. "About Ludum Dare". Ludum Dare.
3. Senior, Tom. (January 12, 2011). "Ludum Dare 19 results announced". Future.
4. Brown, Mark. (January 15, 2011). "Time Pygmy Wins Ludum Dare 19 Indie Game Challenge". Condé Nast.
5. W., Tim. (August 25, 2010). "Ludum Dare 18 Timelapse Videos". UBM Tech.
6. Boswell, Wendy. (September 30, 2013). "Get Your Game On with Ludum Dare: Interview with Mike Kasprzak (Part 1)". Intel.
7. Cooper, Peter. (December 13, 2011). "Ludum Dare for Rubyists: An Online 48 Hour Game Coding Competition". Ruby Inside.
8. "Notch". Ludum Dare.
9. (September 16, 2014). "Ludum Dare organizer ponders the game jam's future". Gamasutra.
10. (September 26, 2014). "The Future of Ludum Dare (Part 3) – The Beginning". Ludum Dare.
11. "Well, this is awkward {{pipe".
12. "August LD – You Decide! {{pipe".
13. "Results for Ludum Dare 42".
14. "Ludum Dare 43". Ludum Dare.
15. Boswell, Wendy. (October 4, 2013). "Get Your Game On with Ludum Dare: Interview with Mike Kasprzak (Part 3)". Intel.
16. "Rules and Guide". Ludum Dare.
17. Boswell, Wendy. (October 2, 2013). "Get Your Game On with Ludum Dare: Interview with Mike Kasprzak (Part 2)". Intel.
18. Kasprzak, Mike. (April 13, 2013). "Streaming Widget Alpha 2". Ludum Dare.
19. "MiniLD Competitions {{pipe".
20. "Mini LD Signup".
21. "October Challenge 2014".
22. "Ludum Dare - Independent Game Development News and Information".
23. "Ludum Dare - Independent Game Development News and Information".
24. McDaniel, Walter. (September 12, 2011). "Ludum Dare 21 results- compo". Nerd Age.
25. (September 13, 2011). "Ludum Dare 21 Results- Jam Edition". Nerd Age.
26. "Ludum Dare 21". Ludum Dare.
27. Kaitila, Christer. (December 16, 2011). "KITTEN CHALLENGE". Ludum Dare.
28. Priestman, Chris. (January 10, 2012). "Ludum Dare 22 Winners Announced, Next Compo Dated". CV Newton Publishing.
29. "Ludum Dare 22". Ludum Dare.
30. "Midas by Wanderlands". Ludum Dare.
31. Polson, John. (May 13, 2012). "Ludum Dare 23: A Winner is You". UBM Tech.
32. "Ludum Dare 23". Ludum Dare.
33. (September 18, 2012). "Ludum Dare 24: The Winners". TechConnect.
34. "Ludum Dare 24". Ludum Dare.
35. Savage, Phil. (January 8, 2013). "Ludum Dare 25 winners announced - four games that let you revel in villainy". Future.
36. "Atomic Creep Spawner!". deepnight.net.
37. "Ludum Dare #25! Ore Chasm". Free Lives Games.
38. Polson, John. (May 21, 2013). "Ludum Dare 26 crowns minimalistic MONO, Leaf Me Alone as winners". UBM Tech.
39. "Ludum Dare 26". Ludum Dare.
40. Polson, John. (September 18, 2013). "2,213 free games ranked for your pleasure: Ludum Dare 27 results". UBM Tech.
41. "NXTWPN10". Graeme Borland.
42. LeRay, Lena. (January 8, 2014). "Free Games: Ludum Dare 28 results posted". UBM Tech.
43. "Ludum Dare 28". Ludum Dare.
44. "Ludum Dare 29 Results". Ludum Dare.
45. Polson, John. (May 19, 2014). "2,500 games lead to two platformer winners for Ludum Dare 29". UBM Tech.
46. "Ludum Dare 30 Results". Ludum Dare.
47. "Ludum Dare 30 Results". Ludum Dare.
48. "Ludum Dare 31 Results". Ludum Dare.
49. "Ludum Dare 32 Results". Ludum Dare.
50. "Ludum Dare 33 Results". Ludum Dare.
51. "Ludum Dare 34 Results". Ludum Dare.
52. "Ludum Dare 35 Results". Ludum Dare.
53. "Welcome to Ludum Dare 36! {{!}} Ludum Dare".
54. "Ludum Dare 37 {{!}} Ludum Dare".
55. "Results for Ludum Dare 38".
56. "Ludum Dare 38".
57. "Ludum Dare 39".
58. "Ludum Dare 40".
59. "Ludum Dare 41 {{!}} ldjam.com".
60. "Ludum Dare 42 {{!}} ldjam.com".
61. "Ludum Dare 43 {{!}} ldjam.com".
62. "Ludum Dare 44 {{!}} ldjam.com".
63. "Ludum Dare 45 {{!}} ldjam.com".
64. "Ludum Dare 46 {{!}} ldjam.com".
65. "Ludum Dare 47 {{!}} ldjam.com".
66. "Ludum Dare 48 {{!}} ldjam.com".
67. "Ludum Dare 49 {{!}} ldjam.com".
68. "Ludum Dare 50 {{!}} ldjam.com".
69. "Ludum Dare 51 {{!}} ldjam.com".
70. "Ludum Dare 52 {{!}} ldjam.com".
71. "Ludum Dare 53 {{!}} ldjam.com".
72. "Ludum Dare 54 {{!}} ldjam.com".
73. "Ludum Dare 55 {{!}} ldjam.com".
74. "Ludum Dare 56 {{!}} ldjam.com".
75. "Ludum Dare 57 {{!}} ldjam.com".
76. "Ludum Dare 58 {{!}} ldjam.com".