The Ludum Dare 38 was a massive two part Jam and Compo. This time, the theme was “Small World”. This is one of the biggest online jams, so there were many, many entries. I covered as many as I could in my video compilation series. Below are some of my favorites, in no specific order.

Expand Your World is a short but really nice little puzzle platformer where you are trying to bring light back into your world. You are a small creature in a world full of darkness. To vanquish the darkness, you must figure out how to use items from your environment to make things happen. If you figure out how to interact with the environment, more of the world will light up and be revealed to you. Once you have the whole not-so-tiny world discovered, you can take the time to explore. Expand Your World is a pretty clever little game to sink some time into.

Purr Evil is a charming game where you are trying to survive on a tiny world that is being overlooked by a large cat. This cat thinks you are a toy and is looking to crush you - along with anything else on the world that moves. You must use these giant, somewhat frightening paws to your advantage by using the paws to destroy any structures that are in your way. By doing this, you will be able to go to new areas of this world and explore them - but it’s tricky to deftly dash away in time from under the looming paw. You must time things well and make sure you have a gameplan before waiting for that huge creature to crush you!

Bunny on a Plane is an adorable arcade game where you play a cute little bunny rabbit who flies in a tiny plane. You can shoot at the colorful balloons or fly through rings to gain points. As you make your way through this game, music that you can sing along to plays. It highlights the words at the bottom of the screen as they are being sung, similar to karaoke. Singing along will not give you extra points, but it will put a smile on your face as you play (or distract you, depending on your ability to multitask). Bunny on a Plane is a fairly simple game, but it is to cute and well made to not mention!

Marbleverse is a strange, slightly idle game where you are managing a small world as it comes crashing into another small world. You are an alien who has control of a very small world. Your friend, another alien, also has dominion over a world. You both have decided to smash your worlds against each other. Now that your world is slowly drifting towards the other world, you must build and populate it with as many people as you can. Houses will produce small amounts of people and are easy to build as your world gives you wood. You can progress to constructing sawmills for additional wood, mines to gain gold, and cities to produce more people. You must click on the buildings as they flash to obtain whatever they produce, but be watchful, as you can see how close the other planet is to yours. In the end, everything will be destroyed, but if you were able to produce the biggest population, surely you will impress your friend!

It Shakes The World is a meaningful, short, story based game where you play a young boy looking for friends. It feels as if his world is crumbling apart around him - but his imaginary friend says that making some real friends might help! So each day, you are looking to go out and find a new friend. Finding friends in this town isn’t a hard task, though sometimes you need to impress them and agree with what they are saying. Making friends might fix everything, but each day you feel like this may not be helping as much as you thought. Will becoming friends with all these people make your world better? Or will you need something more?

Electric Space Jelly is a charming little planet defence game where you play as a young jellyfish trying to save his home planet. Your planet was doing just fine, until the world around it started to go horribly wrong. Now rocks fly towards it, and there are even stars jetting across the screen that will hurt things they come into contact with. However, you are lucky enough to have a laser that you can fire! Although this laser does have a cool down, it will definitely help you protect your planet. You can also bump your planet out of harm’s way with your head, keeping it away from anything you may not be able to destroy in time. As you last through the waves, Electric Space Jelly adds new elements and things to watch out for; rocks that split into two,and stars that light up the screen and follow a direct path. You can keep your world from cracking, but you will have to be fast and careful.

For I, The Moon is a beautiful narrative about someone trying to talk to the moon. The moon has been sad lately, so you, on behalf of all of the people who love the moon, have come to talk to it. The moon isn’t happy about you being there - asking about it’s life, but you care about the moon and want to help it. You must decide the best approach to talking to the moon, and how to get the moon to open up. The moon may not want to hear what you have to say, and you may have to be tactful, so make sure you think before you speak. The moon is a lovely bit of the cosmos and it would be very sad if it never sang again. For I, The Moon is very well written and worth a playthrough.

Smalltrek is a space themed puzzle game that allows you to bring peace to tiny planets all over the galaxy! You are the captain of a spaceship with the sole job of going to distressed planets and solving their problems. These planets are tiny, but inhabited by different types of beings that all have needs. You need to shift them around in a way that everyone will be happy with the space they take up on the planet.

Each species has some information that you can read to tell you about their needs. Plant-looking species like to be touching planets while other species like just being near each other. These differences need to be put at ease in order for the planet to survive - and for you to move onto the next. Smalltrek has a ton of levels, with many different species living on them, so there is plenty of peace to bring!

Glass Houses is a short, moving, story-driven game where you play out your last days in your glass world. You live in a snowglobe and have the responsibility of turning on the snow machine each day. Everything is pretty normal in your life, until the glass that surrounds your world begins to crack. The people around you react in strange ways as the crack gets bigger, some running and others falling to religion to cope. You must continue to do your job each day, but as things worsen, your options change. Glass Houses has two different endings depending on how you play out your final day. This is a brilliant game that you can play through and enjoy.

Space Hummus is a super funny game where you play a space-god called Potto who is going to be serving the best space-houmous to his other space-god friends! After making the space-houmous, Potto has realized that he is out of pita bread to serve with it! Now you must travel from planet to planet looking for pita breads to bring to dinner.

As you jump from planet to planet, you will find that you’re unable to reach far away planets you need to get to. So you must use the strange physics and unusual orbits that the planets in this galaxy have. Strange as it sounds, you sometimes have to position yourself to land on a planet far away but jumping away from the planet you are currently on and flying backwards into the planet next to it. This may sound complicated, but after seeing it in the game, you get the hang of unusual jumps. There are also dangers like falling off the screen or hitting spiked balls to stop you on your journey. Potto must provide the best vegan friendly food, and you must take on the challenge of helping!

Caturday is Today is an adorable game that has you balancing your cat’s needs before doing photoshoots for catstagram! You aspire to someday be a famous cat with many followers on instagram, so each day you must do a photoshoot in an attempt to get the best photos on the internet. Before the shoot, you must lounge around the room filling up your needs up by eating, sleeping, and playing. When the time comes, you can walk into the photo room and take a picture depending on your mood.

If you are not in the mood to take pictures at all, you can press the keys to fill up the red bar. If you are in a good mood to take one of the many types of pictures a cat can take; cute, sleepy, or strong for example, then you must type the keys to fill up your green bar. When it is full, your picture will be taken and posted online. You will be given your catstagram account stats (likes and followers) before moving back into your room to rest. You do have some goals on types of pictures to take and things to do which will help you gain followers. This game is super cute - especially with all of the poses this chubby cat can do!

Floraison is a beautiful, relaxing game where you bring flowers and color to dead planets! As you fly your little ship around planets, vegetation will start to grow beneath you. Before your eyes,the world will fill with color and life. You can also fly through red rings that are dotted around the planet, to add some guidance to your journey. Once the planet is sufficiently full of life, you can fly to a blue beacon and be beamed to the next planet.

Alternatively, you can continue on the planet you are on until it is completely covered with plants, as shown by a bar at the top. In this case, you will get a gem before moving on. In the background you can see the planets you have visited before or ones you are going to next. Floraison provides a really lovely experience where you can sit back, listen to the music, and breathe life into an old world.

Every World Has a Pizzeria is a 3D pizza delivery game that has you driving a monster truck through a small town inside a snowglobe! Your tiny world does love pizza, and being the driver of a monster truck allows you to plow through the snow and deliver pizzas efficiently to everyone in the town. You must honk your horn outside the pizzeria to get some pizzas to deliver. Then, you need to drive your truck skillfully to the houses that have arrows over it. Once in front of the house, you must throw your pizza into it and move onto the next.

A timer ticks down, forcing your deliveries to be done swiftly. You do have to be careful, as crashing into houses can damage your truck and force it to explode if you aren’t careful enough! Every World Has a Pizzeria is slightly difficult, especially if you try to deliver pizzas hastily without thinking about the small roads between the houses. However, it’s a fun game to play!

Fast & The Faeries is a quickpaced racing game where you play as your choice of the many whimsical faeries trying to make it through a flower-filled forest! You are able to choose between four faeries with different styles before starting the race. There is a small track of yellow stones throughout the forest to follow - the end is marked with a checkered flag.

Faeries are able to jump high and glide through the air, before returning back to the ground. In the air, you can bash through dandelions, knocking off their seeds and gaining speed. The more you hit, the faster you zip through the forest! Soon, you will find it difficult to dodge the trees you are flying towards. If you hit them, you will be slowed down a lot, so make sure you think fast. What better way to race through the forest than as faeries hitting little flowers!

Skylets is a 3D planet exploring game where you have a limited amount of time to collect trinkets from a planet about to explode! Your rocket has crashed into the core of a planet - which will destroy the whole world and everyone on it. There is one piece of land - “an escape pod” - that you can use to survive the destruction, if you are fast enough. Before the planet completely shatters, you must run around and collect as many things as you can.

Each planet has a different collectable resource; gems, oil, plants, etc. You can gather them up quickly, watching the timer tick down. Once it hits zero, you have 10 seconds to find the yellow launch platformer so you may exit the explosion safely. This task can be fairly challenging - huge cracks in the planet are easy to fall through and sometimes objects are falling out of space! See if you would be any good at collecting things in the middle of the destruction.

Tiny Tony is a 3D maze-esque game where you must twist and turn a snow globe to cause a small ball inside of the globe to collect coins. The snowglobe is split into 4 different quarters; each one designed differently and full of coins! You must travel through the snow lands, survive the maze of snakes, make it over the water (while staying on the bridge) and find your way inside your home to win the game.

As you collect coins, they will appear in the ashtray on the table the snow globe is on. Each area has a checkpoint at the start, so if you don’t make it, you will respawn there. Moving the ball around takes some practice before you can start to gracefully glide it where you want, creating somewhat of a challenge as you figure out how to get through each area. Tiny Tony felt like those metal ball, plastic mazes I had as a kid, but this time with more challenge and fun.

Six Degrees of Separation Between Me and the Party is a narrative driven game that has you on a mission to get into a massive party. You are a big fan of Rockin Dave, who just happens to be throwing a party in your town today. You do not know Rockin Dave directly, but you have heard about the theory that there are only 6 people in between knowing everyone - so someone in your social circle must be able to point you towards someone who can pass you to someone who will eventually get you into the party and in front of Rockin Dave.

This is not an easy process however, and will take a lot of socialising with other people. You will need to make some phone calls, use a chat website on your computer, and ask a bunch of strangers about a party. There are multiple endings to ‘Six Degrees of Separation Between Me and the Party’, depending on who you talk to and how helpful they are, so you will need to make sure you follow leads that seem like they might lead somewhere, instead of wasting your time!

Flurpies is a wonderful yet wacky Tamagotchi-esque game where you are raising some new types of creatures called Flurpies! Flurpies have been created by a mad scientist, though she isn’t quite sure what will become of them beyond the egg they are in, so she has enlisted you to help! You must pick an egg and help your creature survive and grow in the world it is in.

Your little creature will have various needs; hygiene, food, fun, sleep. Most of these needs can be filled inside the house, however, there is a whole world full of fun outside the door of your building. You can go on a platforming adventure there, generating some experience to evolve, and enjoy some fresh air. You must be very careful outside your house, as there is a chance you will run out of health and die. Once your Flurpie has died, there is no way to bring it back.

iii is a metroidvania that sees you controlling a cat that is going out of its comfort zone and exploring new areas of a cavern. This world around you is not huge, but as you explore around, you will find new ways to look at it. Specifically through new eyes - each eye you receive is a different color and gives you a look into a different colored version of the world. These different versions contain new people, monsters, and blocks that are specific to that world.

The people that you run into all have needs to be met, and you are interested in helping them. For instance, a little boy has a present to deliver to a friend, a girl is searching for a flower for her mother, and a rich man is looking for his lost jewel. You will receive new items and sometimes upgrades for helping the people of this world, and you will also get to explore the world beyond your comfort zone. I really love the cyclical feeling of the caverns and the general look and feel of the game. It’s very fun to explore the world surrounding this cat and see all of the different ways it can be viewed.

The Cashbags Man is a hotel management game that has you playing the concierge of this mysterious space hotel. There is an unlimited number of people that can check in, and you are the first person they will meet at this hotel; Mr. Michael Cashbags. You will need to check people in, deal with phone calls, command your staff, and read letters written by guests in your hotel. You can do this in either a rude manner or a pleasant manner, which will then affect how the hotel runs around you.

There is a lot going on in this hotel, more than meets the eye. Your desk around you shows some clues about how the hotel works behind the scenes, but it is really through the people checking in that you will learn more about the place that you work at. You may be able to keep the hotel happy, if you want to run it that way, and figure out the mysteries behind this massive enterprise.

Brainstorm 38 is a constantly improving platformer that takes place inside the developers mind. The developer struggled to figure out what they wanted to do for the jam, so they created a game about their thinking process and struggle. It starts off with a bit of dialogue, almost thoughts in fact, of what the developer wants to achieve - including searching for inspiration on twitter.

From there, the game starts to be created inside the mind of the developer. You must play around in this game, getting to the blue star on the platform, for the conversation and thoughts to continue. The platformer that is being created does get very challenging and polished, but reading the development process as the game is being created is just as lovely as playing the game. Brainstome 38 gives a needed look into one developers process of tackling the Ludum Dare.

Petty Puny Planet 38 gives you the role of playing God when it comes to influencing a strange planet! There is a planet full of tiny people for you to play with. Each time you interact with your planet, you get tired and take a 100 year break to see what happens and how it affects the people living there. You cannot stop whatever happens as a consequence of your choice, but you can try to deal with the effect afterwards.

The actions you can take come in the form of 3 or 4 options. Out of these options, you must figure out what is best for the planet. Some options don’t really affect the planet, however others, perhaps combined with previous choices that you have made, or perhaps just on their own, can make a huge impact on the world. Each of these choices also affects the aesthetic of your planet; fire adds a cook’s hat to the planet, evolution adds giant ears, and teaching them to read adds a big quill to the planet, just to start. There are tons of endings to Petty Puny Planet 38, each one very fun to discover!

Until Tomorrow has you going on an unexpected adventure, exploring the world outside the wall. You and your family live in a small village surrounded by a wall. Only strong adventurers can leave the wall to explore. You are not one of those adventurers. You are able though, to explore inside of this wall, visiting people in your village, talking to your wife, and learning about the people in this village.

There is also a wise man in this town - some people call him crazy, but the things he says are full of interesting snippets of information. With all of his knowledge of the world around you, you may be able to venture beyond the wall, much like your father did. Beyond the wall is loaded with mystery and puzzles to solve - there are even some other adventurers who were let through the wall - they may be stronger than you, but they do need help to get further. Until Tomorrow has a short story that is full of twists. You will see a lot of your past beyond the walls of your town.

It’s a Small World is a very interesting story based game about a world where rabbits and carrots live together and even marry each other. These two very different species live in peace together, happy with their relationship. Their peace has been following a war that happened many, many years ago. You play Johnny - you don’t remember the war but love your wife and work hard each day to provide for her.

The world around you does start to change as you go about your life. It is a few days after the anniversary of the war - after seeing so much of the peace and happiness these species have together, something very bad happens. Will carrots and rabbits live together happily ever after? Or is their species just too different?

The Deep is an intriguingly interesting game that has you trapped inside a submarine, trying to earn enough money to buy your freedom! You accepted a contracted job to go underground, mining and delivering resources to various habitats. Your submarine has everything you’ll need to do the job - various consoles that you can use to control aspects of the submarine. One allows you to move your vessel and use sonar to see the world around you, while another lets you dock and unload your cargo, and one even gives you food options so you can survive.

Your map works on a grid based system, so you can see what square you need to go to using the numbers and letters shown. Each day, you receive a message telling you what you need to do. Sometimes its mining, other times it’s transporting materials from one area to another. Once you complete your job, you receive credits that you can spend on food or save up to purchase your freedom. You do need to be careful though, as there are pirates roaming around looking to steal some easy cargo. See if you can earn enough to escape this small place!

Ant Detective has you playing a crappy detective who stumbled upon a big case! You have recently been put on paid vacation, due to being not so great at your job, but now you are back in the game and investigating a death. The late-ant fell into a vat of jelly and drowned. This seems like an open and shut case to your boss, but you soon begin to suspect there is much more to this murder!

Ant Detective is a super funny, polished game that even has voice acting and tons of movie-esque cutscenes. These little scenes are really wonderful, giving life to the characters and adding a new layer to the story. Your character seems to really be struggling with work, so maybe this case will snap him out of it. Its up to you to keep your boss happy and figure out what is going on!

Miniverse is a super interesting combat game where you must float around the universe collecting junk to fight other people with! You have your own little planet that you can drive around the universe. There are various other people with their own planets as well. Junk such as glass shards and pennies travel around that you can acquire and place them into your planet, as long as there is room.

These bits of junk will act as your weapons, allowing you to battle other people in the galaxy. There is also a crafting planet where you can use the junk you have found and turn it into new junk to fight with! Fighting happens on a ‘battle grid’ between you and your enemy. You are able to place a weapon in each of the columns. The enemy will then place a weapon in their columns. These weapons will then attack - sometimes canceling each other out, sometimes defeating the opposing weapon and attacking the person they are aimed at, and other times just straight on attacking. It takes a bit of battling before you really know the power of each weapon, but battling and exploring is quite fun!

Honey Home is an adorable, relaxing game that has you guiding some honey bees to their hive! As you fly across the screen, you will find large flowers to pollinate. If you do pollinate them, more bees will join your swarm - which you will guide to your hive. Along the route to the hive, there are a lot of dangers to watch out for as well…

Rain drops, flies, and frogs are working in close proximity - if you bump into any of them (or get licked by the frog’s tongue) you will lose some of your swarm. At least one of you needs to make it to the hive to finish this game, however the more you have with you the better. Honey Home is a very pleasant game complete with cute graphics and wonderful music - a perfect game to play on a rainy day!

Eiland is a curious little game where you play a character who was washed up on a small island. This island has a few things to tinker around with; a banana, a few large logs, some rocks, and a giant stone head. These different objects can be interacted with, along with trees on the island, but there isn’t much direction as to what to do.

Seagulls swoop by the island, stealing some of your items, although one of them is carrying a key. This key seems like something you’d want, but it’s quite high in the sky, so you need to figure out a way to get it down! You also can wait around on the island until the tide goes out, to see more of the sand under the ocean - there may even be some objects to collect and interact with there. Eiland is a really lovely game to play around in, full of mystery and discovery.

RSV Resourcer is a super interesting human management game where you have the control of several humans in a state of stasis. A condescending computer monitors the people in stasis, as well as your ability to keep them alive. You must use the processing unit to create different items in the mind of the people in stasis. There are several objects that you can place in the world around the person in stasis; giant snails, another human, trees, bikes, for example. Each of these items will increase at least one of the three states a human needs, as well as decrease other stats.

They will also take up some of your RAM to place, and if you run out of RAM, you are unable to place anything in the minds of anyone until something expires. The computer will also inform your boss about any failures in keeping your RAM usage down. With 5 people to look after, you will have to figure out what’s best for each of them and keep them all from having brain damage. RSV Resourcer has a really interesting concept - it’s fun and slightly stressful trying to keep these humans alive!

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