Ludum Dare
For the sake of this repository, we’ll just keep the Ludum Dare dates & themes in a table here.
I (Bigfoot/Alex) haven’t personally participated in these so I don’t know if I’m missing additional info (eg. for comparison: Global Game Jam has a huge variety of modifiers per event, LD doesn’t seem to do that?) but it looks like there’s not really much info to archive per event when it comes to the event theme itself.
Rules
If this info exists, it is not available as of 13th April 2024; https://ludumdare.com/resources/rules
Per-Event Theme Information
This information is lifted from Wikipedia and trimmed down for focus;
| Event Number | Month | Theme (bonus) |
|---|---|---|
| 0† | April 2002 | Indirect interaction |
| 1 | July 2002 | Guardian |
| 1.5‡ | September 2002 | N/A |
| 2 | November 2002 | Construction/destruction (sheep) |
| 3 | April 2003 | Preparation – Set it up, let it go |
| 4 | April 2004 | Infection |
| 5 | October 2004 | Random |
| 6 | April 2005 | Light and darkness |
| 7 | December 2005 | Growth |
| 8 | April 2006 | Swarms |
| 8.5†‡ | January 2007 | Moon/anti-text |
| 9 | April 2007 | Build the level you play |
| 10 | December 2007 | Chain reaction |
| 10.5‡ | February 2008 | Weird/unexpected/surprise |
| 11 | April 2008 | Minimalist |
| 12 | August 2008 | The tower (owls) |
| 13 | December 2008 | Roads |
| 14 | April 2009 | Advancing wall of doom |
| 15 | August 2009 | Caverns |
| 16 | December 2009 | Exploration |
| 17 | April 2010 | Islands |
| 18 | August 2010 | Enemies as weapons |
| 19 | December 2010 | Discovery |
| 20 | April 2011 | It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this! |
| 21 | August 2011 | Escape |
| 22 | December 2011 | Alone (kitten challenge) |
| 23 | April 2012 | Tiny world |
| 24 | August 2012 | Evolution |
| 25 | December 2012 | You are the villain (goat) |
| 26 | April 2013 | Minimalism (potato) |
| 27 | August 2013 | 10 seconds |
| 28 | December 2013 | You only get one |
| 29 | April 2014 | Beneath the surface |
| 30 | August 2014 | Connected Worlds |
| 31 | December 2014 | Entire Game on One Screen |
| 32 | April 2015 | An Unconventional Weapon |
| 33 | August 2015 | You are the Monster |
| 34 | December 2015 | Growing/two button controls |
| 35 | April 2016 | Shapeshift |
| 36‡ | August 2016 | Ancient Technology |
| 37 | December 2016 | One Room |
| 38 | April 2017 | A Small World |
| 39 | July 2017 | Running out of Power |
| 40 | December 2017 | The more you have, the worse it is |
| 41 | April 2018 | Combine two incompatible genres |
| 42 | August 2018 | Running out of space |
| 43 | December 2018 | Sacrifices must be made |
| 44 | April 2019 | Your life is currency |
| 45 | October 2019 | Start with nothing |
| 46 | April 2020 | Keep it alive |
| 47 | October 2020 | Stuck in a loop |
| 48 | April 2021 | Deeper and Deeper |
| 49 | October 2021 | Unstable |
| 50 | April 2022 | Delay the inevitable |
| 51 | October 2022 | Every 10 seconds |
| 52 | January 2023 | Harvest |
| 53 | April 28, 2023 | Delivery |
| 54 | September 29, 2023 | Limited space |
| 55 | April 13, 2024 | Summoning |
Notes:
- † — Competitions were held for only 24 hours.
- ‡ — Competition was run without ratings.