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Speedrun: A Ludum Dare Postmortem

December 19, 2012

Last weekend, I took part in the 25th Ludum Dare, an online game jam that challenges participants to create a game – from scratch – in just 48 hours. This was my first time doing a game jam, but it definitely won’t be my last. It was a lot of fun!

Each Ludum Dare has a theme, chosen by popular vote. This time, the theme was an interesting twist: “You are the villain”.

My entry is Speedrun, a simple game about evading the highway patrol through heavy traffic for as long as possible.

Here’s a video of the game in action:

It’s not perfect, but I’m very happy with the way it turned out. In keeping with Ludum Dare tradition, I’ve written a postmortem to reflect on the experience.

What Went Well

What To Improve

Results

I was stunned to see how well my game scored out of all 902 games (wow). It was rated 7th best overall, 9th best in fun, and 17th best in graphics!

Of course, positive feedback is always nice, but the real reward is finally participating in Ludum Dare after procrastinating for so long. Up to the last minute, I couldn’t decide whether I was going to join in or not – but I’m so glad that I did.

In Ludum Dare tradition, here’s a timelapse recording of my desktop during the development of the game: