The 48-hour, rapid game development event known as Ludum Dare is wrapping up its twenty-second event this weekend. Ludum Dare, from the latin phrase “to give a game,” is a video game development competition started by Geoff Howland in 2002. Participants must produce a game from scratch in just two days time. Each entry must come from a single person and tie into the event’s theme. The theme of the most recent competition which ends on Sunday is “Alone.”
Entries can be found on Ludum Dare’s website. There are over 700 submissions in the main competition. You can also follow along with the #LD48 hash tag on Twitter. Contestants come from all walks, from students to professionals. While all entries in the 48-hour event are open source, there’s also a 72-hour “Jam” competition where contestants can keep their source code private. The Jam competition isn’t as strict and even allows team creations.
Minecraft founder Markus Persson, a.k.a. Notch, made a game called Minicraft. It looks like a NES or Gameboy Advance version of his wildly successful world-building game. Like many of the submissions, you can play his Java-based game online. Others have to be downloaded to be enjoyed.
Another notable entry comes from Shaun Inman who made Sinkhole, a HTML5 game. Inman previously developed the popular iOS game The Last Rocket. Rusty Moyher of Box Cat game fame, made an interesting little game called Audire. It’s a Flash-based game so don’t try playing this one on your iPhone or iPad.
While this is my first brush with Ludum Dare, I’m excited to experience the other submissions and see who will be championed winner. The 48-hour competitions happen three times a year. The next event will be held in April.
