I found out about this last year sometime and finally participated in Ludum Dare #20 in April. I wish that someone had pointed me to it earlier.
The basic concept is: Make a game in 48 hours. EVERYTHING is made by you and you alone in those 48 hours. The theme is voted on leading up to the competition and released as the competition starts.
A more relaxed version that allows looser rules and teams runs along-side as a game jam.
They are roughly scheduled 3 times a year with some other fun and frolic interspersed throughout the year.
Follow the link, take a peek, read the rules, sign up, participate, have fun!
I find it’s really great practice. You really have to make it lean and mean. If you think of the thread about making it with Unity as an indie, and think “I need to dev x number of games in n time” learning what you can do in 20 or 30 hours of hard core work is important. Seeing where you fall off target is also good.
Sounds very cool! I’m supposed to spend the Dec 16th-19th with my new girlfriend though Maybe next time! I like working solo. Game jams are so stressful when working on a team.
I suggested a theme for “One Minute” and “Randomness GamePlay”
but the top 2 themes are Zombies and Kittens…now that’s a new one! I really hope those don’t get through -_- I might do the Jam, it should be pretty fun, but a shame they don’t have prizes considering the size of the competition. (well, it’s more like a dare I suppose)
IIRC, the “suggestions” are at this point in the order they were suggested, not in order of choice. One week out, the suggestions will be closed and voting will start. The way it will work, afaik, is the suggestions will be divided in 5 or 6 sections and then they will be voted up or down. The top 5 go into the “final” and on the last day there will be 25 final choices to vote on, and the winner will be announced at the start of the competition (usually resulting the server crashing when everyone pings it at the same time…).
