Theme Voting has begun! Tune in every day this week for a new round of themes. *
* Links above in Bold are still open. If you haven’t cast a vote yet, click the link to do it. End times for each round vary, and many cross over.
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Special thanks to PoV and Ratking for helping me with the theme list.
I reckon something with evolution should be the winner. I have always fancied trying to play around with a God algorithm. It would be very interesting.
+ 1
LD #24 had Evolution as the theme. It’s really not as interesting as you might think.
I really struggled with the Evolution theme in LD24. Definitely not keen on seeing a similar one again 😐 Most of the interesting ideas seem to require game mechanics that take too long to develop.
Aw man, I liked The Island. Was hoping to see a bunch of [legally distinct from] LOST games and such…
I’m pretty sure the games like Stranded Deep, Subnautica and all those “survive in the sea” games really affected the vote. It’s getting overused as a theme, just like FNaF’s “can’t move + electricitymust preserve energy + crappy jumpscares” gameplay.
Note: I like all the games I just talked about, but seriously, theres an infinity of FNaF fangames right now.
Ugh, I would hate if we got a theme that inspired FNaFesque games. It’s a nightmare putting up with fans of the series as is.
Could not down vote Blue and Black or White and Gold hard enough… On the flip side, a couple of interesting ones this round.
Round 4 have the best themes IMHO.
I agree. Grow and Playing Both Sides could both be great themes.
I’d love to see Grow or Harvest. One of my pet ideas for a game involves farming systems, so it would be a great exercise.
Oh yeah, I would LOVE to see grow as a theme. I think it would be pretty neat. Harvest too.
This is how I feel too.
I’m always astonished by how most themes end up in the negatives, is it because many do one +1 and everything else -1?
On top of that I think nearly all proposed themes were great so far…
I agree with you here, Gaspard. What’s up with all the negativity? I think the themes are great as well
Yeah, people get picky. I usually upvote over half the themes until the final round, when I get serious.
I’m just glad Roast the Bieber didn’t make it in.
I think this is more of a problem than people make it out to be. It really hurts the themes in rounds 3 and 4. I am just not sure what to suggest to fix it.
I tend to vote everything 0 until I find themes I think are overused/bad and themes I like.
That’s also why most of my votes are, on average, 5+, 5- and the rest all 0s.
Everyone vote down Blue and Black/White and Gold. Please. Please. Please. How did that even get past the slaughter?
It didn’t. It’s a joke 😀
Oh. Never mind then.
I usually hate stale memes for themes, but it could be fun to design a game around optical illusions
Then, hope that Illusion makes it to the final round and vote for it instead of that!
I know it was a joke but, you could have use white and gold/blue and black as a metaphor, something between the lines of:
white and gold: utopia everyone is happy
black and blue: fear and population media brainwashing them into believing they are happy or something like that
All best themes are here, in 4 round
“Four Elements” sounds very inspiring… Absolutely no need to interpret it the usual (most obvious) way 😀
Yes, it could be interpreted as oil, population, technology and police control.
I liked theese ones.
Abandoned and rapid expantion sounds cool.
Your comment reminded me of this game. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/riot–4
Seems nice, I didnt know. I would like to play it but it seems that we have to wait for a while.
Right. I mean what else IS there to elements but a game based around O, Fe, N, and Kr?
It leaves a lot of room open for creativity and cool game concepts, but if I’m being honest here I did down vote it. Mainly because some of the other themes I would much prefer to see happen, because I think they would be even more interesting. But hey, just one man’s opinion.
F12 in chrome opens the devtoools.
A lot of things popped into my mind about “Out of Control”. 😛
Remembered my days working with advertising, creating slogans for clients that couldn’t be published. 😀
Isn’t “Adapt[ing] to Survive” something you need to do in any game that you can die in? I find that very uninspiring
This was actually one of the themes I suggested, Maybe adaptation would’ve been a better theme since it has more possibilities
Looking pretty good for companion so far..
Could be fun… I need to start thinking about specific ideas for it.
I really hope people dont choose black, blue, golden and white. Lets just keep it out of the way!
Absolutely, voted that down, hard. Almost broke my mouse :p
*click-spasms on the -1 button for Blue/Black, White/Gold*
NO.
Can’t believe “Adapt to survive”, “Among the stars” and “It spreads” came out on top from round 2. In my mind those three are survival games, sci-fi games and virus games respectively.
I like “Edge of the world” though. I had this idea of a game where you’re sailing your ship along the vert edge of a flat earth or something. :p Perhaps not the most original take on it, but it looked like a fun little game in my head. 😀
Those are your take on these themes…
For example “It Spreads” – could be about rumors, news, or a pool of blood, an alien goo – lots of other things that can spread. I find it to be a very interesting theme indeed, and believe there could be a lot of different type of games to come from it.
The other two, I wouldn’t +1… but they’re not terrible either.
Well yeah, but I generally dislike themes that lend themselves to one particular interpretation. Sure someone can create some really unique games with it, but I doubt the majority will. Especially with all the recent virus games on Steam etc.
In my opinion a lot of the top voted themes are “easy” themes with one default interpretation. Sure you do something cool with them, but the majority won’t so the majority of the games will be very similar.
I feel the same way about companion and unconventional weapon.
Deeper and deeper will probably lead to a lot of “ception” games.
wow, most of round 3 got hit HARD
I’m pleasantly surprised that one of my suggested themes managed to slaughter all the others in Round 3. (An Unconventional Weapon)
An Unconventional Weapon seems to shine through cause it’s instantly accessible. I’m not really into that one, sounds more like a pitch than a theme, but I guess it was to be expected… Themes with a “default” interpretation are usually well-liked, which might disappoint people who want something more freeform.
Yeah, I think An Unconventional Weapon implies a game involving weapon(s)… Maybe just my impression, tough.
I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be referring to something like this? http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/04/wmd-unconventional-weapons-language-war
When I suggested that particular theme, I wanted to leave it as much to interpretation as possibly. It could be as simple as a person using a bar stool in a fighting game, as ridiculous as a player using a leaf blower to fight garden gnomes, or as abstract as using words as weapons in a debate simulator.
*possible not possibly
Interesting! I like how varied you make is sound already. Good choice, I’d be happy to dev for this theme.
This is why I don’t understand what all the theme-hate is about. Seems to me it doesn’t *matter* what the theme is — it’s up to the individual to get creative and use it in surprising and unexpected ways. Use yer imagination, people!
I totally get what you were going for and I love the openness the theme presents. We could get anything from a game about bringing a knife to a gunfight, to a game about the “unconventional weapon” of nonviolence. I’m sure some people will downvote because they assume it will all be fighting games, but really it’s open to any genre. I’m praying for “an unconventional weapon” to deliver us from the round 4 meme-theme and bless us with a prosperous LD32!
Whats with the gimmick options? Last it was snowman and this time it’s a changing option.
It’s a joke based on the famous dress colour confusion that the internet experienced recently.
Oh, no, Adapt to Survive, everyone wants tons of survival games!
As someone who suggested that theme originally, I now think that simply “adapt” would have been a much better theme
Voted for 1000 years 😛
No matter what theme we get, people will be disappointed. The themes that are easiest to work with are the most boring, general ones though. So theme voting is where we trade away simplicity for a more interesting theme!
Does anyone know when round 5 is starting ?
Over the two years that I’ve been doing Ludum Dare, I think this is the first time that “Death is Useful” was not a theme option.
It, and variations of it, showed up in the slaughter though. A lot.
I kind of like grow as a theme. I can imagine some pretty interesting usage mechanically, as well as some meaningful interpretations of what it means to grow, or to help something else grow. I tend to favor the themes that can be taken both literally and symbolically in a variety of ways. Suits different people and creative processes.
Some very nice looking themes here though. Any of them would be suitable really.
You are a power source.
I can only think of playing as zoltan 😀
I’m in! Compo if I work miracles and finish in a day, Jam if not… lol.