Ludum Dare 30 (August 22nd - 25th)
Ludum Dare is an accelerated game development event held every 4 months. Thousands of developers create games for two concurrent competitions taking place over 1 weekend. Full competition rules can be viewed on Ludum Dare's webstite, but here's a summary:
Compo
- 48 hours long
- You must work alone
- You must use the competition theme
- All game content must be created within the 48 hours, with a few exceptions (see full rules)
- Publicly available libraries and middleware (e.g. Construct 2) are allowed
- Source Code must be included when submitting
Jam
- 72 hours long
- Work alone or in teams
- All creation tools are allowed
At the end of the weekend, entrants rate each other's games for 3 weeks. Winners are announced at the end of the rating period. Here are a few things you may find useful/interesting:
Previous Ludum Dare (LD29) info:
- Theme: Beneath the Surface
- 1492 Compo Entries
- 1004 Jam Entries
- Results
- Overall top 10 highest scoring games created in C2
Ludum Dare Survival Guide
- Great tips, especially if this is your first Ludum Dare.
Tools
- A nice collection of popular tools used by many Ludum Dare participants.
Ludum Deals
- Software discounts and offers specifically for Ludum Dare 30.
Rules and Guide Re-written for Maximum Clarity
- The official rules can be ambiguous at times. This post does a great job clarifying things.
On a personal note, I've found these competitions to be a great experience. Testing my game creation abilities, under tight conditions, with a strict deadline, is a wild ride. Making it to the end, and submitting a game provides a great sense of accomplishment. Also, the LD community is one of the friendliest I've seen. I hope to see many of you participate.