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Community Links: Ludum Dare 21, Pricing and Focus of GameMaker, GameJolt indie(Function) Contest

Ludum Dare 21 is currently under way, the indie game creation contest and jam runs until the end of this weekend with the theme “Escape”.  Entrants using GameMaker include FolisDev and NaturallyMade, a longer list can be found here.  The site, featuring development blog post from those taking part, is currently experiencing some difficulties due to high levels of traffic.

Anna Anthropy and Rob Fearon have blogged about their disappointment regarding the pricing and focus of GameMaker.
“Unfortunately, in 2007 Mark Overmars sold Game Maker to a Scottish corporation called YoYo Games that has steadily mismanaged one of the most liberating creative tools of our time.” –Anna
“The past 12 months have shown me that there are people working at YoYoGames who get it, who understand the strength Gamemaker has. It’s also shown me that ultimately, it doesn’t matter.” –Rob

Game Jolt and indie(Function) are running a “Music Interpretation” contest which starts today and runs until 24th September. Full rules and details of the prizes (game features) are available at the GameJolt forum.

What do you think?

4 Comments

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  1. I haven’t seen what Notch is up to yet, but I did see the contest posted on the FlashPunk forums. I haven’t been to GameJolt in awhile, I should stop by the chat and see how it’s doing.

  2. I was going to enter Ludum Dare 21 but then said “naaaaaaah” and continued to be lazy.

    I’m not really sure what to say about those two blog posts. I agree with their stances in certain ways. In a way I dislike the price hike, and the less accessibility it provides, as well as the seemingly shifted focuses, but I also sympathize with YYG and the ridiculous costs they pay to maintain Game Maker and their site, which is accessible to newbies, experts, Lite and Standard alike. I personally find GM HTML to be priced higher than I expected, but I also treasure the ability to export to HTML5 and the opportunities it will provide. I’ll most likely purchase it during the Beta period.

    That contest by Game Jolt and indie(Function) sounds fun but I don’t think I’ll be entering. I’m not really good when it comes to ideas like those >_<

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