Version 1.3 · Effective October 16, 2026 · Operated by jordantanner
Ludum Dare Stats ("the Tool"), at ldstats.jordansmithdigital.com, is an independent community project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Ludum Dare or ldjam.com. "Ludum Dare" is used only to identify the event the Tool describes.
1. Sources
The Tool uses only publicly available information: the ldjam.com public API (events, themes, games, ratings, results, user profiles, posts and comments); Wikipedia, for events before LD38; public itch.io game pages linked from ldjam.com entries; public Bluesky posts that mention linked game pages; and public GitHub repositories linked from entries. It does not use private data, scrape content that requires logging in, or buy data from third parties.
2. Categories of information
- Public record: information as published at the source, such as titles, authors, ratings, placings, themes and posts. It may be shown per game and per person.
- Derived statistics: figures calculated from the public record, such as percentiles and comparisons with an event's median. They may be shown per game and per person.
- Model classifications: labels produced by an AI language model that reads public pages. They are estimates, may be wrong, and are limited by section 3.
3. Limits on model classifications
- Descriptive labels (genre, art style, perspective, engine and similar) may be shown for individual games. They are identified as model-made estimates on each page where they appear.
- Generative-AI use is published only as aggregate figures. The Tool never shows a model's estimate of AI use for a named game or person.
- The only exception is an AI-use declaration that a creator made through a platform's own disclosure feature. It may be shown as made, attributed to its source.
- Analysis of source repositories is published only in aggregate. It is never tied to an individual repository, game or person.
- The Tool does not publish inferences about any individual's conduct, intent or compliance with event rules.
4. Visitors
- No account is required. The Tool sets no cookies and does not identify or track individual visitors.
- The Tool keeps its own aggregate counts of page views by page, referring site and device type. These store no IP addresses or identifiers and cannot be linked to any visitor.
- Display preferences, such as filters and theme, are kept in your browser's local storage and stay on your device.
- Username lookups are sent from your browser directly to the ldjam.com API, under ldjam.com's own terms.
- Game covers and developer avatars are loaded by your browser directly from ldjam.com's image server, without a referrer, under ldjam.com's own terms.
- The hosting provider (Amazon Web Services) may keep standard server logs.
5. Use of the ldjam.com API
The Tool accesses the ldjam.com API at a limited rate and caches what it receives. It will reduce or stop that access immediately at the request of the ldjam.com operators.
6. Opting out
Any ldjam.com user may opt out at any time on the opt-out page: enter your username, add the phrase shown to your ldjam.com profile, and select Verify. The Tool confirms the phrase on your public profile, which proves the account is yours. You can then remove the phrase. You can opt back in the same way, using the opt-in phrase. This is the only way to opt out.
The Tool keeps only your ldjam.com user ID, your username and the date. Within a minute of verification, your name is hidden on every page of the Tool, including your developer page, search, results, winner lists and rankings. At the next data update it is also removed from the Tool's published data files, along with any game credited only to you, and your account is excluded from every update after that. Games and ratings stay in anonymous aggregate totals. On a team entry, the game may still appear for your teammates, but your name is left off it.
7. Corrections and removal
To have inaccurate information about your work corrected or removed, write to mrjordantanner@gmail.com. Content deleted at its source is removed at the next data refresh, or sooner on request.
8. Disclaimer
The Tool is provided "as is", for informational purposes only, without warranty of any kind. Its statistics describe correlations, not causes, and are not a judgment of any game or person.
9. Changes
This policy may be updated. Changes are posted here with a new version number and effective date. Changes that broaden how individual data is displayed will not apply to people who have already opted out.
10. Contact
mrjordantanner@gmail.com