The fifteenth annual Ludum Dare competition, in which indie designers have 48 hours to create a game based around a particular theme, came to a close on August 30th. This year’s theme was “caverns,” and the entries — all 144 of them — have been posted atthe official site, in order of assumed awesomeness.
ChevyRay’sBeacontook top honors, with Matt Thorson’sBroken Cave Robotcoming in second.Beacon‘s not bad (albeitreallyslow going at the start), butBroken Cave Robottakes the cake, as far as I’m concerned.
It’s a pretty typical Metroidvania, except the game world is much, much smaller, you only have five minutes to complete it, and you have to draw your own map to navigate it. You’ll die or run out of time with alarming frequency, but since the map you’ve drawn stays around no matter what, you still get a sense of definite progress. That said, I’m too lousy at cartography to actuallybeatthe damn thing.
Still. Nearly a hundred and fifty neato indie games fueled by a hectic deadline and a vague theme.Worth checking out, in my opinion.
