Jake Wallace
Ludum Dare 57: The Inspiration Behind Pipe World & Comfy Game Dev’s Submission for the 72-Hour Game Jam
April 8th, 2025
Thumbnail for our LD57 game jam submission 🤓
Preface
If you haven’t heard me talk about Ludum Dare before, well, it’s probably because I was trying to save you from an ear-beating that is my fascination with and passion for video game development, and more specifically, game jam hackathon competitions.
Introduction to Hackathons
For background, a hackathon is a coding / programming event where technologists gather together, form teams, and attempt to achieve the impossible in a short amount of time.
Competitions like this are typically kicked off by announcing a theme or a mission and competitors are recommended a set of tools to build a project that would closely resemble that theme or fulfill that mission.
The Ludum Dare Online Game Jam Competition
Ludum Dare game jam event organization’s logo 🕹️
In the case of Ludum Dare, and other game jam competitions like it—the mission is to build a video game that is as enjoyable as possible.
Participants of the competition attempt to get high ratings in categories including: fun, innovation, theme, graphics, audio, humor, mood, and the overall rating of the game.
Outside of being just a “competitor,” in order for a team or solo developer to be considered a successful entrant to the competition, competitors must submit their game before the 72-hour clock strikes 0:00.
Successful entrants get judged on the above categories by other successful entrants within the Ludum Dare community for the given competition. Participants compete online against other teams or solo entrants in the echelons of ~6000 total competitors.
While there’s no “prize” for winning best overall or rating high in any of the categories—Ludum Dare is considered a prestigious game jam competition among grassroots and indie game developers alike.
Notch, the creator behind MineCraft, among other infamous game developers are notorious for competing and performing well throughout a history of Ludum Dare game jam competitions.
While tangible treasures are not the prize, notary and a claim-to-fame are the true rewards. Game jammers who have rated high in any of the LD submission categories should be proud about their achievements.
The best rating we’ve achieved thus far was 39th in the “Fun” category for our LD56 entry “Tiny Turf Tussle” 🏆
The in-game How To Play guide that teaches players how to navigate Pipe World’s esoterica of unique glyphs & sigils 📜
The Legend of Alchemic “Apples” Appelli
When Apples’s first introduced me to the concept of game jams back in 2017, my mind was blown. Sure, I had been developing games for about sixteen years at that point in my life—but never in my wildest dreams was I thinking I could build an entire game in 72 hours! That was absolutely unimaginable to me.
Well, Alchemic “Apples” Appelli showed me the way to this potential reality. He recruited me along with one other to compete in LD40 as my first ever game jam experience and together we created “Drunkest Dungeon.”
In my first ever competition, we successfully submitted a game fashioned with art, music, level design, visual & sound effects, as well as actual gameplay and system mechanics. While our placement wasn’t stellar, I could’ve cared less.
It was safe to say I was hooked.
I have Apples to thank for mentoring me in many arenas of both game development and high technology over the last eight years of our growing friendship 👨🏫
The Comfy Game Dev Collective
The Comfy Game Dev collective as pioneered by our fearless leader, Apples, game jamming in Bentonville, AK for LD55. From left to right that’s me (Gizmolo), Apples, VetaWulf (on the tablet), Monjuleant, Chume & his dog, Karkadan, A-Train, and WiredOverload. A mötley crüe indeed 🙌
Fast forward to today and I’ve participated in dozens of game jam competitions over the years including events like Global Game Jam and Game Maker’s Toolkit.
While I have particpated a few times solo, most times I find myself teaming up with members of the Comfy Game Dev collective.
Ludum Dare in particular has always had a special place in my heart. For one, it’s the competition my cherished game development collective Comfy Game Dev takes the most seriously!
As of LD55, we’ve started to all meet up in the world for every Ludum Dare competition held in the spring so we can participate as a team in person.
Last year, we stayed at Chume’s house in Bentonville, Arkansas. This year, the man, the myth, and the legend himself, Apples, graciously invited us to compete at his new house in Kansas City, Kansas.
I call this house Castle de Appelli, “The Labyrinth Dungeon” and you’ll soon find out why 🧙♂️
Castle de Appelli, The Labyrith Dungeon
A beautifully massive elm tree in one of the front yards attempting to hide the entrance to Castle de Appelli 🏰🌳
This is a beautiful home in a neat neighborhood on the Kansas side of Kansas City. There are plenty of great restaurants and activities to do nearby.
But of course, we didn’t come for any of that. We came for the friendships, the house, and for the Ludum Dare 57 game jam competition!
And what a competition it was 😤
Gaps in the Collective
Of the Comfy Game Dev collective, those who were able to make it were myself (Gizmolo), Apples, Nicole (Minku), WiredOverload, Karkadan, Montjuleant, and newcomer, HappyTrollAngus, who has been a wonderful addition to the collective.
We were anticipating Chume joining us, but with last minute work obligations, he was unfortunately unable to attend.
Rest in peace our dearest friend, Chume 😌
We were also missing Comfy Game Dev regulars in BigTexington (BigTex), an artist and QA engineer extraordinaire, xxAtrain223 (A-Train), an impressive programmer, sysadmin, and well-rounded full stack engineer, and VetaWulf (Veta), our extremely talented musician friend.
Nicole was able to fill the QA engineering gaps of BigTex beautifully well and—with Veta out—I volunteered to take over the music.
I had yet to do a game jam where my sole focus was music so I figured this would be an exciting opportunity for me! 🎹
Designing the World of Pipes
Some chicken scratch we put together during the design cycle on the first day of the competition 📝
With the theme of LD57 announced to be “Depths” to kick off the game jam—the team decided to create a whole universe called Pipe World for our game which we ended up titling, “Is it Wrong to Try to Lay Pipe in a Sewer Dungeon?”
Why pipes? Well that’s a great question—one that I think can only be answered with a few interior snapshots of the Labyrinth Dungeon that is the Castle de Appelli.
The Dungeon Kitchem and Dungeon Utility Room in the basement of Castle de Appelli. Please note the pipes! 👨🔧
With the unique architecture of this beautiful home—we had access to a plethora of sources for inspiration.
I was quite adamant during our design phase on Friday that if we didn’t feature pipes in our game—I was going to riot 🤬
The Music Behind Pipe World
To make matters more interesting, newcomer HappyTrollAngus is quite the renaissance man—who as one of his many hobbies—fashioned the pipes of a handmade bagpipe and encouraged me to use the soul-turning vibration of these divine harmonic devices in the music I was creating.
HappyTrollAngus’ handmade bagpipe pipes. The bag we used for these pipes were our own lungs. Consider it a done deal, HappyTrollAngus 🤝
The sound of these bagpipe pipes can be heard in our “Pipe World” adventure theme music during the navigation phase of the game which can also be heard on SoundCloud here: Pipe World (Adventure Theme).
The adventure screen used to navigate the World of Pipes 🗺️
For the mythology behind this World of Pipes, I wrote a Mythopoeia—an origin myth poem of Pipe World titled, “Respect to Ye Old God, Father Time” which you can read in full on my personal site here: Respect to Ye Old God, Father Time.
The Music Behind Pipe World Continued…
An AKAI MPK mini that I bought at Guitar Center a few hours before the competition started. I have an AKAI MPK 49 at home but decided not to mess with the hassle of bringing it on the plane with me ✈️
As the musician of the team, I decided to combine these mythological and poetic gifts the Lord God has bestowed on me and infuse them in the music for the game.
For the main menu theme, you can hear me give an oral rendition of “Respect to Ye Old God, Father Time” in the game’s song I composed and produced called, “Dead Flowers.” You can listen to the song on SoundCloud here: Dead Flowers (Main Theme).
I wrote one other poem for the game that came to me during the third day of the competition titled, “I am the Wayshower,” which is both a strange and mystical poem about the paradox of truth. You can also read that poem on my site here: I am the Wayshower.
I used part of this poem as the lyrics for another piece of music I composed and produced for the game titled, “Underworld,” which plays during battle sequences.
The battle sequence screen you will see when fighting the diverse set of sewer monsters found in Pipe World ⚔️
You can listen to Underworld on SoundCloud here: Underworld (Battle Theme).
So… Is it Wrong to Try to Lay Pipe in a Sewer Dungeon?
If you would like to try out “Is it Wrong to Try to Lay Pipe in a Sewer Dungeon?” you can play the web version of the game on Itch here and you can view the game’s Ludum Dare 57 submission page here to learn more.
To conclude—this hero pulled the winning spade. Indeed, it is fully acceptable—nay, completely natural—for an adventurer to try to lay pipe in a sewer dungeon.
🪐🪈🕰️