Well I have now. Most of my little tribes ignored me trying to send them across a desert to fertile lands, and I wasn’t quite clear on how best to use the terrain editing, but it did inspire thought of designing a Populous-like-sim.

Procedural generation in game jams is always a tricky decision. On the one hand it potentially allows you to create much more content than you would otherwise have been able to. On the other hand, it’s hard to test and guarantee results in that short amount of time, especially if you don’t have a lot of practice with the techniques you’re using.

If you, or anyone else, do have stories of successfully using procedural generation in your game jam games, do write and let me know. While I’ve played hundreds of Ludum Dare games, there are thousands more every jam that I don’t have time to try out!