In April 2002 a programmer called Geoff Howland put a challenge to the people on his game-development forum: “Lets try making games from scratch in 24 hours.” Around twenty of them tried. They found that a day was not long enough, so the next event, in July 2002, gave them 48 hours, and the dare became a habit. The name is Latin, meaning “to give a game”. By 2013 Edge called Ludum Dare “perhaps the bestknown game jam in the world”, and at its peak, in April 2020, 10,330 people signed up and 4,959 games were entered.
It was not the first game jam. Wireframe dates the modern game jam to March 2002, when Chris Hecker and Sean Barrett held Indie Game Jam 0 in Oakland, California, for 14 participants in one office. Ludum Dare followed a few weeks later. It worked differently: it happened online, so anyone anywhere could take part, and the entrants voted on each other’s games.
Fast facts
- First event: April 2002, 24 hours. The second, in July 2002, ran for 48.
- Founder: Geoff Howland. Mike Kasprzak, who took part in the first event, has organised it for most of its life.
- How often: two or three main events a year; April and October only since 2019.
- Compo: one person, 48 hours, all art and sound made during the event, source code shared.
- Jam: solo or in a team, 72 hours, any tools and assets.
- Prizes: none. The rules say: “Your prize is your product.”
- Last scheduled event: Ludum Dare 64, October 2028.
From a dare to an institution
Accounts of the first event differ in the details. Wireframe counted 18 entrants. Edge spoke of “the 30-odd developers who took part”, and Ludum Dare’s own history says “about 20 of us”, naming Mike Kasprzak, Mike Hommel and Seth Robinson among them.
Howland could not keep it going himself. “Geoff didn’t really have the time to keep running the event,” Kasprzak told Edge in 2013. “But all of us who participated craved this… so we literally took it over for him.” It “floundered for a while”, he said, until Phil Hassey’s entry for Ludum Dare 8, a space strategy game called Galcon, became a critical success. Hassey then pushed to give the competition a proper home on the web. “Phil was like, ‘Dude, I want to do this. I want this to keep going, because this is important.’” Hassey told Edge separately that Galcon had been “prototyped about five years ago in a 48-hour Ludum Dare game jam” before he developed it into a commercial game.
Some tools came out of the events too. The rules still note that sfxr, a widely used generator of retro sound effects, “was originally created for Ludum Dare”.
How an event works
The community suggests themes in the weeks before an event and then votes on them. The winning theme is announced when the clock starts. Themes have included “Alone” (December 2011), “Entire Game on One Screen” (December 2014), “You are the Monster” (August 2015) and “Deeper and Deeper” (April 2021). Using the theme is not compulsory, but the rules warn that “the community as a whole prefers games that do use the Theme”.
The original contest is now the Compo, which the rules call “Ludum Dare ‘Hard Mode’”: one person, 48 hours, every piece of art, music and sound made during the event, and the source code published at the end. Code written before the event and any tools are allowed. The Jam was added in 2010 for everyone else. It gives 72 hours, allows teams, and lets entrants use existing art and music, as long as they drop out of the Graphics or Audio vote.
When the time is up, everyone who submitted a game can rate the others, from one to five stars, in eight categories: Overall, Fun, Innovation, Theme, Graphics, Audio, Humor and Mood. A “Coolness” score rewards entrants for playing and rating other people’s games. Many entrants stream their work as they go or post time-lapse videos of it afterwards.
Games that began at Ludum Dare
A weekend entry has often become the prototype for a commercial game:
| Game | Began as | Became |
|---|---|---|
| Galcon | Phil Hassey’s entry for Ludum Dare 8 | a commercial space strategy game |
| Evoland | Nicolas Cannasse’s winning Compo entry for Ludum Dare 24 (August 2012, theme “Evolution”) | a commercial game from Shiro Games, April 2013 |
| Mini Metro | a prototype for Ludum Dare 26 (April 2013) | a commercial game |
| Titan Souls | a Jam entry for Ludum Dare 28 (December 2013) that placed first overall | a commercial game |
| Inscryption | Daniel Mullins’s Sacrifices Must Be Made, for Ludum Dare 43 (December 2018, theme “Sacrifices must be made”) | a commercial game in 2021 |
| Friday Night Funkin’ | a Jam entry for Ludum Dare 47 (October 2020) | an expanded rhythm game |
Smaller games found fans without going further. Edge picked out Midas, Harry Lee and Jarrel Seah’s entry for Ludum Dare 22 in 2011, which won four medals. Its player takes on the curse of King Midas, “turning everything they touch to gold”.
Growth, trouble and the end
Ludum Dare grew fast in the 2010s. Edge reported in 2013 that it had run 26 events in 11 years and now drew “thousands of games per event”. “It’s madness,” Kasprzak said. “The idea of Ludum Dare, to just make a game in such a short period of time, just resonated with people.” Wireframe put it at “upwards of 2500 submissions per event” by 2018.
The organisers rebuilt the website as ldjam.com, which has hosted every event since Ludum Dare 38 in April 2017. From Ludum Dare 44 in April 2019 the main events moved to a twice-yearly pattern, every April and October. Ludum Dare 46, held in April 2020 with the theme “Keep it alive”, became the largest. With much of the world at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, 10,330 people signed up and 4,959 games were entered: 1,383 in the Compo and 3,576 in the Jam. Numbers then fell back. Ludum Dare 59, in April 2026, drew about 1,600 games.
On 7 April 2026 Kasprzak, who calls himself Ludum Dare’s “co-founder and caretaker”, announced that “Ludum Dare 64 in October 2028 will be the last scheduled Ludum Dare event”, followed by one unscheduled encore in April 2029. He did not want anyone else to carry on under the name: “Who could I actually pass the event on to anyway? A vague notion of ‘the community’ isn’t a leader.” He asked the community to build something better in the three years left.
Sources
- Ludum Dare, “The History of Ludum Dare” (ldjam.com, April 2017) (web, secondary): founding by Geoff Howland in April 2002; the 24-hour challenge; “about 20 of us”; the first 48-hour event in July 2002. https://ldjam.com/history
- Ludum Dare, “Ludum Dare Rules” (ldjam.com, last revised April 2021) (web, secondary): the Compo and Jam rules, rating categories, Coolness, theme voting, no prizes, sfxr. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/rules
- Wireframe issue 15, May 2019, pp. 44–46, “Time Crisis: The creative benefits of game jams” by Andrew Fisher: Indie Game Jam 0 in March 2002; Ludum Dare Zero in April 2002 and its 24-hour limit; the meaning of the name; 18 entrants at the first event and more than 2,500 submissions per event by 2018.
- Edge issue 254, June 2013, pp. 89–92, game jams feature: “the 30-odd developers” at the first event; Kasprzak on taking the event over, its early struggles, Phil Hassey and Galcon; “after 11 years and 26 events”; Midas at Ludum Dare 22.
- Edge issue 229, July 2011, pp. 198–201, “Get Into Games: Mobile Development”: Phil Hassey on prototyping Galcon in a 48-hour Ludum Dare.
- Ludum Dare event pages and statistics for Ludum Dare 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 and 59, and the Friday Night Funkin’ entry page (ldjam.com, accessed September 2026) (web, secondary): dates, themes, sign-ups and entry counts. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46
- Wikipedia, “Ludum Dare” (accessed September 2026) (web, secondary): the Jam’s introduction at Ludum Dare 18 in August 2010; streaming and time-lapse videos; themes and results of events before 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludum_Dare
- Wikipedia, “Evoland”, “Mini Metro (video game)”, “Titan Souls” and “Inscryption” (accessed September 2026) (web, secondary): the Ludum Dare origins of those games.
- Mike Kasprzak, “Ludum Dare 59 lives (me too); Countdown to 64!” (ldjam.com, 7 April 2026) (web, secondary): the final scheduled event, the April 2029 encore, and his reasons. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/$424396/ludum-dare-59-lives-me-too-countdown-to-64
- Chris Kerr, “Ludum Dare will officially end in October 2028”, Game Developer, 16 April 2026 (web, secondary). https://www.gamedeveloper.com/production/ludum-dare-will-officially-end-in-october-2028