Ludumdare 48 hour #7. Stop work on your clones for a weekend.

[illume]

Ludumdare.com has risen from the dead with a ghetto wiki in order to host the 7th 48 hour from scratch game making competition. Your task is to finish something and have lots of fun whilst doing it.

This is the original and best game dev competition where the theme is voted for and announced 0 minutes before the competition starts.

See http://www.ludumdare.com/ for details and to put your theme suggestion forward. Get inspired by making with up to 100 other people getting something interesting finished within 48 hours.

Theme suggestions are wanted now! So put down your clones for the weekend and join in to make something interesting.

[Gnatinator]

I'll probably put things on hold for a weekend to compete. ;)

Perfect opportunity to test out some new toys. Should be good times.

[impossible]

Oh yes, I was wondering when it was coming back. This is kind of short notice though, I doubt I'll be able to compete :(.

[Gnatinator]

We need more competitors! Anyone who uses digg, do us a favour and digg it. (http://www.digg.com/programming/48_Hours_Of_Game_Programming_Mayhem)

[lexaloffle]

This goose is charged and ready to fly.

[MrPhil]

Woo Hoo! Forget Chirstmas shopping!!! Off to the story to stock up on programming food!

[KNau]

It sounds interesting but it's looking more and more like we'll be putting down our clones just to make more clones. The most popular themes are "lemmings type game", "city simulation" and "farming" - a surefire clone factory if I've ever seen one.

Off-Topic - I'm beginning to see where the problem of unoriginality in our industry is coming from. Young designers/developers seem to think only in terms of games that have previously been released. For the record "Lemming type game" is neither genre nor play mechanic. It's almost as frustrating as people who say "I'm making an RPG", which says absolutely nothing about their game. Or worse, "I'm making an RPG kinda like (insert name of a game)".

[Hamumu]

Please drop by the voting and declonify it! I voted for all abstract themes myself (Love, Time, and Fear), but since that's basically been Naderific, I'll be sure to snipe at the end since we can change votes. Maybe you can come back me up and we can get more abstract themes into the running. The voting has been quite a game in itself today, check it out in IRC, we're having fun.

Personally, while I agree that Lemmings is a very bad theme because it says "make a game like this", I also know from experience that the results will be anything but an army of clones. There'll be a couple clones, and the rest will all be innovative, coming from Lemmings as a base on which to do something new. Isn't that how innovation is supposed to be done anyway? And Growth is actually vying for the top spot right now, not City Sim, so less clone there even (and Farming has what to do with clones!?).

If you are given 48 hours to make a game, and you just do a clone... well, you just wasted a weekend! I don't know any oldschool LD48ers who would go for that.

[KNau]

Cool. This is my first time participating and since I couldn't find an archive of projects from the previous contests I had no way of seeing how the community interprets these themes. I guess no matter what it will always be up to the individual developer to come up with something original even if the proposed theme itself isn't.

Yeah, I was going to go the Nader route too but in the end I just chose 3 of the leading contenders that suited my tastes. Damned strategic voting, it's going to bite me in the ass I just know it!

[illume]

Only a few hours left before the comp starts.

So vote now!

[illume]

it begins.

The theme is 'growth'.

[Hamumu]

And then the site got hacked. Yay!

You can access the latest LD48 info here for now: http://tinyurl.com/9obu3/ld48

And we're still all hanging out in #ludumdare on irc.afternet.org for those interested in the FUN part of the contest.