Richard Jones' Log: Another 48-hour game programming comp done
Well, that's another Ludum Dare 48-hour game programming competition finished. Well, except for the judging.
It's the second I've hosted, and the third I've competed in. By all accounts the competitors (52 finalists of 140+ signups) had a good time.
I wasn't inspired by the theme, "light & darkness" until the day after the competition finished. My game ended up being complete, playable, technically quite good and had sound effects (my first entry to do so). It's just not that good, as a game.
Some of the other entries are really quite stunning.
I'm considering hosting a pygame challenge in about 3 months (the next LD48 will be in October). It'll have some variations on the LD48 recipe (longer, teams, less restrictions on artwork used), but will only accept entries using Python (optionally using PyGame, PyOpenGL, OGRE, etc).
length: IMHO 24 hours would be way to short to get anything done. The longer time allows people to spend about the same time as a 48 hour comp, but spread over a number of days. This is simply more realistic for some people. I think it's worth a try.
teams: I'm not convinced a team will do any better than an individual. So I'm allowing both :)
artwork: includes music and sound, yes.
> longer
Hmm I'm not sure that is a good idea, the problem being is that you'll discourage ppl from competing if they don't think they will be able to devote a reasonable percentage of time to the compo. Personally I'd rather a shorter comp, perhaps 24 hours, since it's a bit more easier to fit in.
>teams
The 72 hour compo does this, but there does seem to be a high proportion of individuals as a 'team'. It turns out to more of a less restrictive one man compo, than a true team compo. I'm not too sure why there are so few teams. I suspect that not enough ppl know each other well enough to form teams.
>less restrictions on artwork used
Hmm, and sound.