This past weekend, I took part in the Ludum Dare 48-hour Compo. For those unfamiliar, The Ludum Dare Compo is a competition where you try to make the best game possible given a theme within 48 hours.
How is it possible to make a game in 2 days? With very careful planning and very deliberate execution. Your game idea has to be very limited in scope, yet fun to play. It is an experience that I would recommend to any journeyman game developer. You will quickly learn what is important in making a game if you are to succeed.
The theme for this Ludum Dare was Minimalism, which confounded me at first, because Ludum Dare is already all about minimalism. I wanted my game to stand out as actually using the theme in an interesting way. So in my research, I stumbled upon many articles about minimal lifestyles, and from there, my brain ideated that into a game about minimalizing your character’s lifestyle by reducing a hoard of clutter.
The gameplay somewhat resembles Katamari, where you must pick up lesser items before moving on to bigger items. The game actually turned out quite well and has been well received by the Ludum Dare community. I even managed to finish it early on Sunday, well before the 10pm deadline.
If you’d like, you can check out this new game, Dehoarder, on Kongregate as usual.
While I did not blog here while I was participating in the Compo, I did make several blog entries on the Ludum Dare site for posterity. For more details on how the project went, you can see my Ludum Dare Journal, and also check out my entry page.
Also, Look for an announcement in the coming days about the release of Vintage Pachinko. It is finally about to see the light of day.
More screenshots from Dehoarder:
