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Ludum Dare #30 Results

Results for the past weeks' Ludum Dare judging are in! While we knew we had made a game that was ill-suited to the judging style of the Ludum Dare, in which people have to play and judge a lot of games in a short time period, there were definitely some who really enjoyed the complexity and took time to learn the game.

I played some other really cool games while I was judging. Here are a few that I stumbled across:

• Tough Love Machine - A remarkable innovation on the classic sliding-block puzzle.
• This little piggy - It has bacon in it.
• Bidimensional Landscaping - A quick game with a unique new mechanic.
• Fluid Perspectives - A very nice little platformer
• Ferryman - It's a humorous and witty take on the theme.
• Toward Toward Heaven - Shares our plight of being pretty complicated, but I kept coming back for more of it. A unique take on "multiplayer" games.

Space Transport Tycoon

And the game is done as of last night. I think this one went well, considering Justin didn't stop playing it for 4 hours after we finished.

It's a space economy simulation game. You the player must build a network of trading routes to move materials to factories and consumers.

Play in your browser!

Space Transport Tycoon

Ludum Dare 30 Go Time

Just starting the first real day of coding for the 30th Ludum Dare. I started off this jam thinking of making some kind of simulation game - something where you, in a relatively low-pressure environment, could build up a system or a network and watch it do its work, like SimCity.

Justin and I had a short brainstorming session when the theme - Connected Worlds - was announced. They say to never go with your first idea - however, after considering two-screen tower-defense games, games where dinosaurs are attacking the modern world, games with constellations (I really liked that one and I hope some other people do it), and meeting Kevin Bacon, we eventually went with just that. This will be a game where you build up an interstellar shipping empire, moving goods between planets.

I also wanted to try to make use of multiple windows or views, and that goes well with theme. We're pretty sure we know what we are going to do with them. Early screenshot:

Some Pixel Art

Indiana Jones-themed pixel art. Maybe a game, some day?

Ludum Dare #29 Results

The results are in from Ludum Dare #29. Fun being probably the most important category to me, I am quite happy with my rankings. I'm definitely improving over my scores from the last two jams, and I was happier with the game as well. The Dare had a record-breaking 2497 submissions this year.

During the judging period, I played 60-something games. You can find lots of "best-of" lists around - here are the best games I happened to play.

• Infection - A pretty tower defense game in Unity.
• Kinetectonic - A very fun-to-figure-out puzzle-type game.
• Ben Eath the Surf Ace - A surfing game that's totally rad, dude.
• Shark, Shark, Shark - Shark, shark, shark, I'm a shark. It has claymation!
• A Glorious Escape for a Lich King - A really solid all-around tower defense game.
• Jumpland Underground - This game is art.
• Damned Scouts - A fun puzzle game about camping safety.