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Ludum Dare: checklist a week before the start

Ludum Dare is an international computer game accelerated competition in which you create a game from scratch on a weekend based on a theme. The topic is revealed at the beginning of the event.

The competition takes place several times a year, and the next Ludum Dare 46 starts in less than a week, or rather, on Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 am Moscow time.

Here I want to share tips that will help those who are considering participating in this event for the first time. This is a checklist for beginners.

The official website contains the rules for participation, as well as a guide to hosting the game and sending it to other members of the community for evaluation. I will not dwell on the rules . But about hosting and sending to the site is written below in this article.

Before you begin, a few words about Jam and Compo.

Jam and Compo


There are two categories of participation in Ludum Dare: Jam - easy option and Compo - “high difficulty mode”.

Jam (72 hours to create a game) is the Ludum Dare category for teams and singles. You can use any tools and libraries to create the game. It is allowed to start with any available base code.

Compo (48 hours to create the game) is the classic Ludum Dare. Games for Compo are created completely from scratch by one person. The game and all its content must be created within 48 hours, and in the end you must provide all the source code. 

In order to better understand the details and limitations of these modes, as well as decide which discipline to participate in, it is better to read the official guide .

How to prepare


Creating a game is a complex creative process that takes time to work out the mechanics of the game, the visual part and sounds.

It is important to remember that your game will be rated by other participants on the following points:

  1. Innovation (novelty); 
  2. Fun (pleasure);
  3. Theme
  4. Graphics;
  5. Audio (sound);
  6. Humor (humor);
  7. Mood (mood);
  8. Overall (overall rating).

In my opinion, Ludum Dare is an event where it is better to use technologies and tools that you know well to devote more time to developing game mechanics and graphics.

Tools and Technology


It is better to download, install, find, choose what you will work with in advance. 

  • Used technology:
    Unity, HTML5, Flash, WebGL or game designers;
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  • ( ):
    : Krita, Photoshop, Clip studio paint, Paint tool sai
    : Inkscape, Illustrator, Affinity designer
    .
  • :

    3D : Blender;
    2D : Pencil2D, OpenToonz;
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    : freesound.org;
    — : bfxr.net;
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  • For inspiration:

    Steam , Itch , Behance , Dribbble ;
    You can draw inspiration not only from games. Areas such as design, illustration, animation can also lead to thoughts about a suitable visual style.

Before jam


A few more steps that are better to follow or think through to jam:

  • Register an account on the Ludum Dare website ;
  • Decide on the mode in which you participate (Jam / Compo);
  • Think about hosting a finished game;
  • Consider using a version control system and a project hosting system;
  • Decide on the team and responsibilities;
  • Think in advance the means of communication between team members;
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It seems important to me to think ahead of time what to do if there is no idea, there is no idea how the game will look if it is not clear what style to use, or when there is a feeling that everything is not right.

It was often said at the design school that if you don’t have your own ideas, you need to watch what others are doing. This is advice for all time. See what inspires, but try to make a new variation. Experiment.

It is also important to remember that the impression of the game develops in the first few seconds . If the game does not catch immediately, then most likely it will not be appreciated by a large number of people.

I want to recall a quote:
Start by imagining the ultimate goal.
This is also important. You can escape to the little things and never do the main thing. 

During jam


From experience, during jam it is very difficult to correctly evaluate the time. It seems like a lot of time, but this is a trap. Therefore, I advise you to build on already proven solutions and combine them. It is better to make a small finished project with 1-2 interesting features. Otherwise, you can wallow in the details and do nothing.

As for the topic, you do not need to follow it literally. Better come up with your own interpretation. A description of your interpretation idea can be added after the name of the game at Submit on the site. 

The main idea from the rules:
Officially no, you are not required to use the Theme. We will not disqualify you for disregarding it. To us, the Theme is just a single voting category. So as a general suggestion, if you want to score well in Ludum Dare, make sure you do use the theme in some way.
You will not be disqualified if you do not stick to the topic. But Theme is one of the categories for voting. Therefore, if you want to get good grades in Ludum Dare, we recommend that you stick to the topic in some way.

After you got the topic:

  • Try to come up with the basic mechanics, without which the game will not be a game.
    The mechanics should hook the player and hold in the game. All other details that are not related to the basic mechanics, but improve the game - write out separately;
  • Define internal deadlines;
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    (splash screen);
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  • Submit Ludum Dare.
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    credits — ( , — art/game design/programming).




The following is the basic information from the game hosting guide posted on the official website.

You can submit your game at any time from the launch of Jam / Compo until the end of the application hour. Compo ends 48 hours after the topic has been announced, and Jam ends 72 hours after the topic has been announced. Watch the countdown clock on the sidebar of the Ludum Dare website.

Both Compo and Jam have an extra hour to send after completion. It is highly recommended that you send documents earlier, because there are all kinds of technical problems that you may encounter. 

Before uploading to the site you must have:

  1. Account on the Ludum Dare website;
  2. A few screenshots from the game;
  3. The name of your game;
  4. Link to your game, which is located somewhere *;
  5. Link to your source code, which is located somewhere (only for Compo) **.

* The type of hosting that you need depends on whether you made a network or desktop game. 

The guide from the official site lists several popular platforms. This is not an exhaustive list and there are many other ways to host your game.

Game sites:

  • Itch.io
    Allows free hosting of HTML5, Flash, Java and Unity, as well as desktop games.
  • GameJolt
    Allows you to host web and desktop games for free.
  • Newgrounds
    Allows free hosting of games on Flash (swf) and HTML5 (zip).
  • Kongregate
    Allows you to host games for free on Unity, Flash, HTML5 and WebGL.

Project hosting systems:

  • Github
  • Gitlab
  • BitBucket

Cloud storage (more suitable for hosting desktop games):

  • Dropbox
  • Google Drive

There are many sites that offer free web hosting, as well as many paid sites that offer free trial versions. If you decide to use free web hosting, it is recommended that you download a test game before launching Ludum Dare.

If you have your own website or server, you can host the game there.

** The source code of your game (with participation in the Compo category) can be placed in the project hosting system or in the cloud storage, which were listed above. When using the cloud service, place the .zip file with all the source codes.

After jam


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Participating in Ludum Dare is a great way to get out of your comfort zone, test yourself, and gain a new experience. 

In my opinion, the problem of priorities and time is still the stumbling block and the reason for the failure of many projects, in the competition you can go through most of the development stages in 2-3 days and learn a lot of things, which on a real project can take several months or years . 

In addition, the essence of all Ludum Dare consists not only in sports interest and the desire to make a game project, which is often the prototype of something more in the future, but also in the opportunity to work with new people. It is not necessary to have a well-coordinated team to participate - often people are revealed in the process of work.  

If you still have doubts about participation, then I can say that Ludum Dare is an experiment that goes beyond the scope of the possible. 

Do not be too hard on yourself. Have fun!

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