“Ludum Dare is a microcosm of the entire indie gaming industry, and participating is a game in and of itself.”

Obsessionen sind es, die Charlotte Gore und mich verbinden. Unabhängig davon, welches Resultat am Ende zu erwarten ist, stürzen wir uns beide auf alles, was uns in irgendeiner Form berührt und bewegt. Kein Wunder also, dass mich die 38-jährige Engländerin, wohnhaft in der Nähe von Manchester, fasziniert.

Schon ihr Pseudonym hexagore ist ein Beleg für eine ihrer tief greifenden Leidenschaften, Terry Cavanaghs Instant-Sucht-Generator Super Hexagon: “I was so determined to beat Terry’s own scores. 500 hours of playing later I topped the global leaderboards – for a day – and hexagore was born.”

Charlotte arbeitet zwar als Javascript-Programmiererin, eigene Spiele entwickelt sie allerdings erst seit wenigen Jahren. Nur durch enormes Umdenken gelang sie an diesen Punkt: “When I was a teenager my dream was to do game graphics, but it was around this time that the industry was switching to the crude 3D we had with Play Station 1 era stuff which I wasn’t interested in. I thought pixel art was ‘over’, so I gave the dream up and became a coder instead. I’ve always wanted to make games but I felt that it was impossible for a single developer to really make anything worthwhile. Then I was inspired by my friends doing Ludum Dare and making tiny games just for fun. I realised I was wrong – that with the right idea a single developer could make a great game, and that was it. That’s what unlocked the whole thing.”

Does the Ludum Dare have any special meaning to you?

“Part of the reason Ludum Dare compo has become such an obsession for me is because it uses art, design, music, sound, writing and coding… It’s everything I love doing in one hobby, and the result is incredibly personal in a way.”

Sieht man sich Charlottes “Ludum Dare”-Historie einmal genauer an, so bemerkt man schnell, dass ihre Spiele oft von einer Herausforderung leben, manchmal sogar etwas zu frustrierend sein können. Dieses Mal hat sie sich jedoch mit Mass-X gezielt auf die Wurzeln eines guten, althergebrachten Plattformers zurückbesonnen: “A pixel art platformer, made with tile-maps and sprites… This is the classic format, and the best game designers can work within these constraints to produce breathtakingly brilliant games. For me tackling this format is about challenging myself to concentrate on pure game design, to see if I can make a game that’s fun. If I make a game that more people enjoy then that’s a nice bonus!”

Für Charlotte stellen ihre Arbeiten – oder besser: der Weg zu ihnen – nicht einfach nur ein Akt der programmiertechnischen Bildung dar: “I feel like I’m taking this tour through video game history, learning about how everything worked, connecting the dots and figuring out how many video game tropes actually come from hardware limitations. We keep the tropes even though the limitations have long since gone.” Auf autodidaktische Weise hangelt sie sich so von einer Epoche zur nächsten, verfolgt die schon beinahe vergessenen Spuren im Sand der Spielegeschichte und wirbelt ihren Staub wieder auf, um sich daran zu erquicken – quasi eine erfüllende Selbstlehre auf allen Ebenen.

Als ich sie nach ihren Inspirationen und Idolen frage, nennt sie umgehend Éric Chahi: “What he did for the Amiga with Another World was nothing short of mindblowing back in the day, and that game still looks great today. He’s nothing short of an absolute legend to me. To make Another World he needed to put in 18 hour days for over two years, and it was painstaking gruelling work. Whenever I’m feeling down about my own work, or feeling lazy, I just remember Éric and try just that little bit harder.”

Have you observed any positive or negative developments since your first participation?

“Mike Kasprzak, who runs the site, is an unbelievably hard worker and the effort he goes to is extraordinary. I don’t know how Ludum Dare manages to retain its awesome atmosphere despite growing so much, but somehow it does, and I think a lot of that is down to him.”

Könnte Charlotte sich aussuchen, mit welchen anderen “Ludum Dare”-Teilnehmern sie gemeinsam ein Spiel entwickeln würde, so fallen ihr auf Anhieb zwei Namen ein: “I’d love to make a game with Joe Williamson doing the art. He’s got a gorgeous style, a sort of modern take on 16-bit era pixel art with a limited palette. Very inspiring. I’d also love to work with Daniel Linssen – or Managore, the more popular and successful gore – but honestly: He’d leave me nothing to do but make him cups of coffee. That guy is first class at everything.” Viel wichtiger ist ihr allerdings ein ganz anderes Anliegen, dem ich selbst abschließend nur beipflichten kann:

“If I had one wish it would be to see more women and girls having a crack at Ludum Dare. This is a fantastic and incredibly rewarding hobby to have and I just want to share it with as many people as possible!”