Ludum Dare was the weekend before last and the team over here has done basically nothing but play entries from the jam since then. This year we’ve had more than 1800 games uploaded to the Ludum dare 42 tag (more than any Ludum Dare yet). If you want more recommendations beyond what we have here today you can check out our collection of games from Ludum Dare 42 or dive into the tag of all LD42 games uploaded. Now let’s dig into the games:

Sofamino

As a San Franciscan I’m very aware of how hard it is to get all of your necessary furniture into a small space. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve measured and re-measured my apartment before Ikea trips only to come back with an end table that is slightly too large for the space. While this is obviously frustrating, there is a certain feeling of accomplishment as you tetris your furniture into place. Sofamino understands the duality of this joy and pain.

Like the rest of the games we’re talking about this week, Sofamino was developed last week for Ludum Dare 42 and really nails its theme of running out of space. Sofamino has a simple concept --you’re given a tiny apartment and a stack of furniture that needs to go into said apartment-- but it’s a perfect depiction of this very millennial problem.

Loot Keeper

If you like the idea of fitting cumbersome things into a small area but hate homemaking, Loot Keeper will be right up your alley. Technically this is a dungeon crawler, but Loot Keeper doesn’t keep you roaming around a dungeon but managing the hero’s inventory as they pick up more and more loot. These sweet drops come in a variety of sizes and shapes but none of them fit conveniently into your adventurer’s backpack. Of course this means you’re left to navigate a Diablo-style block inventory that keeps filling up faster than you can sort it.

The premise here isn’t wildly unique but the presentation is great and if you’ve never had to choose between a badly shaped sword and a lumpy shield then you’re missing out.

The Not Very Golden Age of Piracy

Pirates are cool but pirates also sucked. Sure the idea of rolling around on the ocean and murdering/robbing wealthy merchants with your friends is great but pirate ships were smelly, dirty, and full of basically every disease known at the time. Fortunately for all of us The Not Very Golden Age of Piracy is here to give us pirate based action with a 0% chance of scurvy.

The Not Very Golden Age of Piracy takes aim at inter-ship combat where you’re in charge of moving your crew around a deck that is continually made smaller by cannon fire and reducing the opposing boat by similar means. NVGAP isn’t a difficult game, but what sets it apart from the pack is its presentation. As I was scrolling through the tag for Ludum Dare 42 I was grabbed by the game’s chunky pixels and was shocked that a team could build out a game with this level of detail and production value over a weekend. Want to see what I mean about the quality of this game? It’s free and playable in your browser so you have no excuse not to check it out.

Did we miss your favorite Ludum Dare 42 game? Let us know in the comments below.