That's a bunch of stuff that I've made that I wouldn't have without the Ludum Dare. It let me explore ideas and learn a lot. I haven't Won a Ludum Dare, nor do I expect to (I got 1st for graphics once) The standard is extremely high.
Here's a sampling of some of mine that play online.
Some Games came out a bit mad http://screamingduck.com/Lerc/LD13.html
Some were insanely hard http://screamingduck.com/Lerc/LD14.html
Some were pretty but otherwise fairly crappy http://fingswotidun.com/Ludum20
This one just about gave every web-browser a hernia http://www.fingswotidun.com/ld21/
And some were, well I don't know what the hell this is, but it was pretty neat. http://www.fingswotidun.com/ld24
A theme should inspire. It shouldn't just sit there as a framework for you to shove your existing ideas into. I'd love to be prodded into exploring new game mechanics, and LD just doesn't do that for me.
On the other hand, I agree that things like "You only get one" are not very inspiring.
Did you use Box2D in your games?
Personally, I enjoy watching Ananace, Notch and TheCherno. Oh, and don't forget deepnight (Sebastian Bénard). He has won 3 or more Ludums and I love watching him making them.
If you try to keep up with what he/the streamer is writing in your own editor you can get a better feeling of how certain things work.
It's like a nice interactive workshop where you get no help and it's hard to keep up.
This is going to be my 8th time participating, and I'll be livestreaming the whole thing -- which to me is at least 80% of the fun. It helps that I have a large audience to keep me motivated (I'm not Notch, but I am a YouTuber).
The idea behind the theme revelation is to prevent cheating, but then again there is no cheating protection beyond a code of honor anyway. I've seen tons of games in LD that only barely fulfilled the theme.
This is a semantic shift that leaves me uncomfortable.
edited: the word "video" next to the first games
