Ludum Dare - A unique competition of independent games production

Ludum Dare is a unique competition that encourages independent games production on a very limited timescale and with all levels of experience welcome. The theme is chosen by the community and entrants have only one weekend - yes, you read me correctly - to create their entire game. If you think you have what it takes, read on!

Ludum Dare August 2011: 599 Games

Now in its twelfth year, the competition has attracted literally hundreds of participants from all quadrants of the industry, be they students, hobbiests or or successful industry professionals using many different types of software to make their creations.

You will be happy to know that the website is run by a dedicated team of people who actually know about this stuff, because - as they put it themselves on their website:

"Keeping things extra indie, Ludum Dare is run and organized by a group of full-time independent game developers in their spare time (and not-so-spare time, oops)."

This year's theme - as chosen by the community - is "Connected Worlds" and features a grand total of two-thousand five-hundred and thirty-nine entries! All of which you can try!

To jazz things up a little and encourage more relaxed and social games creation, they have also now introduced The Jam, a competition similar to the standard Competition, but with slightly different rules and an extra hour of work time.

Evoland - a very successful game - started on Ludum Dare

Ludum Dare has many success stories where competition winners have gone on to greater things, or even re-made and expanded on their entry to create something bigger and better for the mass-market.

One such success story is actually a personal favourite of mine: Evoland. As the name and tagline suggests this is a game that attempts to recreate the complete history of video games, right through from text adventure to the 3D modern worlds we explore on our computers.

"HUGE thanks to the whole LD crew for their hard work, I really enjoyed all the LD I made so far, and while I will not be able to participate in the April one, you can definitely count me in for the next!" - winner of LD #24

One of my fellow writers at Indie Retro News did a piece on this game back when it was originally given the Steam Greenlight, which you can read here. You can also play the original game as it was when it won First Prize at Ludum Dare #24 and read about the creator's success story in his own words on the Ludum Dare Blog.

 

(Above) A video compilation of some of the

highlights from the last competition

The competition for August 2014 is now over, although there is still plenty of time to vote for your favourites and help choose the winner(s) for this years heat out of the thousands of entrants (only if you partook in the Competition yourself). Voting includes winners in both categories; standard 48 Hour Challenge and the new The Jam heat.

Plus, voting is in this is a great opportunity to test drive an amazing amount of brand new and one-hundred percent FREE games created by others!

So, what are you waiting for? Head-on-over to their website where you can vote if you are able and Register your interest in participating in the next event!

Article credit: Illisia Adams @Illisia