The Connected Worlds Of Ludum Dare: Superdimensional

The latest Ludum Dare passed me by but the helpful tweets of a little bird in the guise of Tom Francis directed me toward the highest rated submission, Superdimensional. He described Superdimensional as being "like the most stylish possible Flappy Bird", specifying that the tweet was meant as a compliment. I expected some delicious visual contortions or a thematic twist on the pipe-dodging one button game, but found something else entirely. The comparison holds but Superdimensional is far from a clone - for one thing, there isn't even a single button to click. Hold onto your mouse and prepare for a challenging journey through overlapping worlds.

I often finish jam games with the desire to see more of the same. Superdimensional is the rare example that feels fairly complete though. It flexes its design muscles, looks the part and doesn't overstay its welcome.

A shout out to the cleverly connected dual game experience HopSlide as well, which is an altogether different but equally smart interpretation of the theme.

Gamasutra have an article about the future of the Ludum Dare jam following a statement from organiser Mike Kasprzak.

"We're never going to charge for Ludum Dare," he noted, "but we have real manpower costs: mine. I’ve been here, running the show for 6 years now, supporting it for all 12, and I still want to do it!"

"How we make money is a discussion for another day," he added. "Crowdfunding, Kickstarters, Patreons, Sponsors, heck even the wild idea of making it a proper charitable organization."

The full article is here.