I have always been fascinated by contests such as Ludum Dare, it’s inspiring to be a part of something that is driven by fun, and the enjoyment of being productive. Really, contestants have nothing more to gain than fame and recognition - there are no fancy prizes.
I try to participate in events like this as often as possible, and I encourage anyone with an interest in game development to try and participate at least once. Simply because it’s a lot of fun, hard work and because I feel that you gain a big personal achievement every time. Also, you get to make programmer art without being frowned upon!
The rule set of the Ludum Dare contest is in essence very simple: Given 48 hours, write a game about, or involving, [insert theme]. This might not seem like much of a start, but it’s always amazing to see how much creativity is generated from something as simple as a one-worded theme description.
When being faced with such a short amount of time until the deadline there are a couple of golden rules that are good to keep in mind, but like all rules, they aren’t always easy to obey. They are:
- Get an idea and stick to it
- Spend your time wisely
Hopefully the chosen theme is enough to inspire you and help you establish an idea. However, while your inspiration is less likely to shift, your motivation is bound to face some large obstacles throughout the process.
You might find that your idea, which was fun on paper, is not so much fun in reality. Or, you might find that your lack of knowledge/lack of experience is keeping you from progressing, as you may have been too ambitious with your goal. When encountering a motivational obstacle, you have to make a choice, you might:
- End the project
- End the project by starting over with a fresh idea
- Keep going by trying another path to the goal
Either choice you make will affect motivation negatively, but most notable is the 2nd which is a potentially dangerous choice to make. Depending on the time left until the deadline, you are making your goal much, much harder to reach and simultaneously lowering motivation. On the other hand, you might actually make it just because of this decision. Life is hard.
Successful or not, by participating you are sure to make yourself some good experiences and possibly discovering something worth building on in the future.
Join the fun on December 14-16th 2007!