Ludum Dare (LD; , meaning 'to give a game', also referenced as LDJAM) is a game jam competition. It was founded by Geoff Howland and was first held in April 2002. It is currently run by Mike Kasprzak, who has been part of the team since the beginning. Participants are required to create a video game that fits within a given theme in two or three days. Participants often release a time-lapse video of the development of their game.
History Ludum Dare was originally only an Internet forum. The first competition—often referred to as "Ludum Dare Zero"—was held in April 2002, with 18 participants. Its popularity turned the focus towards the competitions rather than the forum. The time limit was subsequently increased to 48 hours, because 24 hours were decided to be too few. Since 2011 the competition has seen significant annual increases in numbers of game submissions, partly owing to the public awareness of Minecraft designer Markus Persson, who has participated seven times.
Until 2014, the event was very informal, as the Ludum Dare team worked on it in their spare time. Due to the increasing number of contestants, long-time organizer Mike Kasprzak announced in September 2014 that he would attempt at setting up a business model allowing him to work full-time on the project. Charging for Ludum Dare is, however, "out of question", and money is currently exclusively raised through donations.
During Ludum Dare 35 in April 2016, an announcement acknowledged various issues regarding the game jam's rating system. In particular, it explained that some users had attempted to artificially boost their game ratings with alternative accounts. As a consequence of this problem, future Ludum Dare events were indefinitely cancelled pending a replacement website being constructed for hosting the game jam. This led to a community backlash, and Ludum Dare 36 in August 2016 went ahead regardless, organized by website administrator and long-time community member Sorceress. Due to the complaints previously raised, the community decided by referendum to forego the game rating phase after the game jam, so no winners were named.
Starting in Ludum Dare 44, the schedule was changed to run twice per year in April and October due to organizer Mike Kasprzak struggling to keep up.
In April 2026, ahead of Ludum Dare 59, Kasprzak announced that Ludum Dare 64, in October 2028, would be the last scheduled Ludum Dare event.
Structure , Ludum Dare is held twice annually. In the week preceding each competition suggested themes are subject to votes by prospective participants. A theme is subsequently announced before participants are given 48 hours to create a video game (although board games or similar are accepted) that fits within it. All game code and content must be created during the competition and by a single person, and source code is encouraged to be included. During the event many participants record multiple screenshots of the development of their game to later produce a time-lapse video. In addition, many broadcast a live video stream, particularly since April 2013, when a widget showing Ludum Dare video streams hosted on Twitch was added to the Ludum Dare website. After the end of the competition participants are given three weeks to play and rate other submitted games to determine the winners. There are no physical or cash prizes, but each participant retains full ownership of their game—some have achieved financial success after developing their initial submission.
As of the 18th edition of the competition, which was held in August 2010, a more relaxed version called the "Jam" was introduced. The Jam, which allows development teams, private source code and extended development time of 72 hours, takes place concurrently with the solo competition ("Compo").
From early in the game jam's history until 2016, a smaller competition called "Mini Ludum Dare" or "MiniLD" was held during months without a main Ludum Dare competition. These were organised and run by community members with assistance from the website's various administrators and moderators. The host would choose the theme of the MiniLD, set the rules and duration, as well as prepare announcement posts throughout the event. Meanwhile, a staff member would create and manage the game submissions page, make various bookkeeping changes to the website, and generally oversee the event from behind the scenes. These MiniLDs were much more informal, and following the rules was usually optional. The themes were often more specific or technical, such as a jam focused on making games with reusable assets "Swap Shop", or making game-development tools "Tool Jam", or making a real-time-strategy games "7dRTS". Due to the popularity of hosting these smaller community-led events, a booking system was introduced, where interested persons would choose which MiniLD they wanted to host, which ended up with a two year backlog at its peak. After 70 MiniLDs, the event was retired after October 2016, much to the dismay of the community.
For several years during the 2010s, October was home to the October Challenge, which challenged people to "Finish a game, take it to market, and earn $1". Participants had 31 days to upload a link to their game to the website. The event was not competitive and was meant to encourage commercial game development from people who hadn't attempted to make money from their games previously.
Competitions No. Month Theme (bonus) Participants Compo winner Jam winner Sign-ups Submissions Developer Game Developer(s) Game 0† April 2002 Indirect interaction 18 Endurion Magnetic Fields 1 July 2002 Guardian 136 46 Hamumu Scarecrow: Heart of Straw 1.5‡ September 2002 N/A 12 2 November 2002 Construction/destruction (sheep) 116 49 ShredWheat Sheep Town 3 April 2003 Preparation – Set it up, let it go 84 4 April 2004 Infection 341 66 randomnine Commies! 5 October 2004 Random 93 Jolle Random Dungeon Exploration 6 April 2005 Light and darkness 143 52 Jolle Uplighter 7 December 2005 Growth 27 Jolle The People 8 April 2006 Swarms 150 66 8.5†‡ January 2007 Moon/anti-text 9 April 2007 Build the level you play DrPetter Spatzap aka N/A 10 December 2007 Chain reaction 158 51 Hamumu Short Fuse 10.5‡ February 2008 Weird/unexpected/surprise 11 April 2008 Minimalist 71 mrfun/SethR Strong AI 12 August 2008 The tower (owls) 57 Hamumu Rise Of The Owls 13 December 2008 Roads 59 increpare Rara Racer 14 April 2009 Advancing wall of doom 123 mrfun/SethR Mind Wall 15 August 2009 Caverns 144 ChevyRay Beacon 16 December 2009 Exploration 121 sylvie Cat Planet 17 April 2010 Islands 204 xerus Gaiadi 18 August 2010 Enemies as weapons 172 invicticide Fail-Deadly 19 December 2010 Discovery 242 deepnight (Sébastien Bénard) Time Pygmy 20 April 2011 It's dangerous to go alone! Take this! 288 deepnight (Sébastien Bénard) Appy 1000mg 21 August 2011 Escape 599 Chevy Ray Johnston Flee Buster Ian BrockJosh SchonstalGuerin McMurry Escape 22 December 2011 Alone (kitten challenge) 891 Pedro Medeiros Frostbite Harry LeeJarrel Seah Midas 23 April 2012 Tiny world 1402 Tyler Glaiel Fracuum TurboDindon Inside My Radio 24 August 2012 Evolution 1406 Nicolas Cannasse Evoland X-0ut LD24 X0ut 25 December 2012 You are the villain (goat) 1327 deepnight (Sébastien Bénard) Atomic Creep Spawner Free Lives Ore Chasm 26 April 2013 Minimalism (potato) 2346 TimTipGames MONO Mark FosterDavid Fenn Leaf Me Alone 27 August 2013 10 seconds 2213 Andrew Shouldice Probe Team Graeme Borland NXTWPN10 28 December 2013 You only get one 2064 Daniël Haazen One Take Mark FosterDavid FennAndrew Gleeson Titan Souls 29 April 2014 Beneath the surface 2497 Daniel Linssen The Sun and Moon Shannon MasonRichard LemsDiane de Wilde ScubaBear 30 August 2014 Connected Worlds 2538 PixelMind SuperDimensional Kevin ZuhnKevin GeislerChris StallmanDevon Scott-Tunkin Antbassador 31 December 2014 Entire Game on One Screen 2637 Daniel Linssen birdsong Simon LarsenLukas HansenFrederik Storm 90 Second Portraits 32 April 2015 An Unconventional Weapon 2821 01010111 BED✰HOGG Bogdan RybakIgor PuzhevichZi YeMegan Alcock The Rock the Paper and the Scissors 33 August 2015 You are the Monster 2725 DragonXVI Writhe: The Thing from the Omega Sector Pietro FerrantelliTheophile LoaecAugustin GrassienOrikMcFly Mobs, Inc. 34 December 2015 Growing/two button controls 2870 vegapomme27 Frank & Stein Big Green Pillow ft Mgaia Slash Quest 35 April 2016 Shapeshift 2718 Daniel Linssenwindowframe Barney CummingDave LloydJon MurphyPaul Dal PozzoLouis MeyerAdrian Vaughan The Maitre D 36‡ August 2016 Ancient Technology 1912 No ratingsN/ANo ratingsN/A 37December 2016One Room2390Daniel LinssenWalkie Talkiethree-way tie: SinclairStrange dustyroom Pietro Ferrantellithree-way tie: Cancelled Refuge Empty Xenopunch38April 2017A Small World50652980impbox SmalltrekDavid Fu Hamdan Javeed Seikun KambashiHoney Home39July 2017Running out of Power54232355JezzamonVUELLinverIce KingApocalyptic Gamer40December 2017The more you have, the worse it is61752889stevenjmillerPermanenceDDRKirbyISQ XellayaSamurai Shaver41April 2018Combine two incompatible genres68273049lukbebaldukeDUNK EM UP!Pietro Ferrantelli Sylvain Guerrero Robin Chafouin Joachim Leclerc Boris WarembourgDark Soil42August 2018Running out of space64053065GoutyeReverseJonathan Murphy Louis Meyer Adrian Vaughan Kyle Olson Angelo Di Rosa Ben Weatherall Dave LloydThe Not Very Golden Age of Piracy43December 2018Sacrifices must be made56112515adventureislandsTotal Party KillHydezekeF R I E N D G U N44April 2019Your life is currency 78552536SkoggyOink RoyaleCosmicAdventureSquad rosypenguin Strega tenlkiCoin-Op Kid45October 2019Start with nothing58382612Joe WilliamsonWorld CollectorSheepolutionLost in Translation46April 2020Keep it alive103304959Daniel MullinsKeep It AliveIsmael RodriguezKeep It Alive47October 2020Stuck in a loop66623206ZakAmanaGLITCH LOOPPedro MedeirosChamber48April 2021Deeper and Deeper78813866thegreenwormROOTSloganFallumns49October 2021Unstable58052939thetatautauQuantum SplittersinclairstrangeBurning Ravager50April 2022Delay the inevitable59942900Antti HaavikkoClaustrowordiaTRASEVOL_DOG Pentadrangle benjaminShotgun King: the Final Checkmate51October 2022Every 10 seconds48872414Antti HaavikkoThe SandwicheranstaboDark Points52January 2023Harvest43421632danman9914BobaXellaya DDRKirbyISQ A Day in the Life of Death53 April 2023 Delivery 5993 2309Seb_gamedevRhino ExpressPedro Medeiros Isadora Rodopoulos Davey Wreden Ryan RothNeo City Express54 September 2023 Limited space 4004 2165 Jeremy Ryan Hope Falters Ollie Powell Tom Carrell Adam Butcher Ezgi Hazal Aygan Stretchmancer55 April 2024 Summoning 4522 2194 danman9914 Voir Dire GuyUnger Joe Bustamante TheWizardToucan Daisy Games LucyLavend samsface Would you still love me if I was a worm56 October 2024 Tiny Creatures 4182 1929 Jeremy Ryan My Keyboard is Full of Ants! superjai Jake G Doraemon Kidabra Bento Bugs57 April 2025 Depths 3262 1600 Yorsh An Angler's Light sinclairstrange Abyss Vaulter58 October 2025 Collector 2929 1387 Hayden McCraw Idle Badger shores invisionMusic Sheepolution Cut to Pieces59 April 2026 Signal 2947 1592 Notes: † — Competitions were held for only 24 hours. ‡ — Competition was run without ratings.
Notable games The following games originated from submissions to Ludum Dare: Broforce DMCA's Sky Dome Keeper Evoland Friday Night Funkin' Galcon Gods Will Be Watching Hollow Knight Inscryption Inside My Radio Loop Hero McPixel Mini Metro Minicraft Octogeddon Pony Island Pretentious Game The Republia Times Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate Snakebird Sneaky Sasquatch Snowden Run 3D Titan Souls Vox
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