Kongregate and Ludum Dare
So I just heard that Kongregate are holding a Ludum Dare Contest, completely separate from Ludum Dare’s voting, with cash prizes for the top 3. It is NOT a sponsorship, as LD don’t get paid for it, but they nonetheless are advertising it.
This gets to me for two main reasons.
1) The impact on entrant’s games.
It is not hard to see how the Kong contest will impact games this LD. With the promise of prizes at the end of the tunnel, anyone swayed by the thought of money will inevitably design their game with this in mind.
Even if the amount turns out to be small, this is still something that goes against everything I assumed Ludum Dare to be about: Just Making Games. If you start to worry that your game won’t do so well in the Kong Contest, the intentions behind your game are irreversibly sullied, and anything that can give that kind of impact should be avoided at all costs.
2) The sponsorship stealing.
It’s pretty damn hard to articulate this argument in 140 characters, so I’ll give it a good paragraph.
Submitting your game to the Kongregate Contest decreases your chance of getting a sponsorship by a huge amount. The whole point of a sponsorship is exclusivity, and you are giving that up for free, if you enter the contest. If your game is good enough to place in the contest, (and considering last LD had over 1400 entries, being in the top three wont be easy) getting $1250 for your game is downright robbery.
Kongregate are basically stealing sponsorships from (probably) most of the Ludum Dare entries made in flash, and they only have to pay 3 of them, and only a measly amount. This is exploitation, and worse, it is made under a guise of goodwill.
Prelude of the Chambered
s3.amazonaws.comNotch’s new game! compiled minutes ago for the LD competition.
Ludum Dare #21
What is Ludum Dare (aka LD48)? It’s a games development competition in which participants create a videogame from scratch over a weekend, fitting a theme suggested by the community.
Why is it exciting? Hundreds of developers, professional and amateur, work solo nonstop to generate original content in only 48 hours (challenging, isn’t it?).
There is no cash prize: your game is your prize. After all, is there anything more rewarding than being able to code a videogame in no time, proving your skills and showing them off in front of a huge community?
Once the competition is over, participants have 2 weeks to play and rate each others’ games, so we still have to wait to know the results.
I’m not sure if I am good enough, but what I know for sure is that I will give it a try next time. And you, do you dare?
I made the most minimalistic game ever
dl.dropboxusercontent.comIn response to Ludum Dare’s theme: Minimalism.
I’m not sorry.
Ludum Dare 21!
OK, so it’s half an hour (ish) before LD48 #21, and I’ve just finished setting up Eclipse and various other crap. I’m raring to go and excited to get my game on.
I’m holding out for Self-Replication as the theme, but I am ready for anything…maybe.
I’d just like to note that I’m not in this to win. I’ve been teaching myself Java for three months and only recently wrote my very first accelerated game in the language; there is no way I will win or even match the likes of the proffessionals in the competition.
What I am here for is to take part for the fun, the community and the practice/feedback for my work.
If I get a project out in time, great! But if not, I don’t consider this a failure.
Just waiting now…expect updates.
In other news, my U key has stopped working properly -.-
- Jonno
The Other Side [vrld]
In The Other Side, you play 3 classic games, except are the enemies (and the aim is to lose). Interesting concept, slick execution. Of the 3 levels, the Pac-Man is the most interesting in terms of challenge, since you can switch between ghosts.
Ludum Dare 26
minimalismI took part in this past weekends Ludum Dare 26, and the theme was “Minimalism”. So I spent a minimum amount of effort (Sunday only) to throw something together. It runs in the Unity Web Player so it is multiplatform.
Click below to play!
My entry page is here, if you participated in the event please leave me a rating! If not, comments on the entry page are welcome :)
It was a good experience, I may toss up a post-mortem soon, but it was put together pretty quickly and it doesn’t seem too necessary.
This is also my April OneGameAMonth entry, two birds in one stone!
