How to grade the games, an example.

Here is my personal example of how I graded each game:

Getting Started

Read the contest guidelines and understand them.
Open the inbox for the jam:
Check the dates:
Disqualify overdue games.
Using the inbox data from team leaders make a list of all the teams and the people on those teams:
Remove the filter.
Check the date on all submissions.
List all people who submitted passed the deadline:
- Disqualify their whole team.
Search a team name:
- Check if all their team members did submit:
- If anyone is missing...
  - do a search for their name:
- Look up their name on Discord and search the handle (small name) in case:
  - Try searching using a filter only:
- Also tag them and ask for their email or try to find their submission in detail before disqualifying their team.
- You may have noticed that screenshot from last time has 2x ✅ next to each name. This has to do with the next verification we do.
  - When people submit to the competition, the team leaders must list all of their members, including the different roles those members perform. So, you want to look at people who are listed as sound or art people and see if they actually submitted their assets to the asset Discord. You don't have to check all of them, but just a sample of them to see if, generally speaking, the correct policy was pursued.
    
    One way to do this is to find the project post under the Project's section of the Discord to see if they linked to the different assets in the project. If you see only 10 assets, then something may be suspicious, but if you see many assets, that's a common sign that they have submitted all the assets necessary for their game. If in doubt, you can play their game to compare the number of assets that would be reasonable for the game with the game itself. I don't see less than 10 assets ever being appropriate, so you have to start asking questions: where are the assets, and make sure they're actually submitting them so that other people can benefit.
- I am using the second ✅ to note that they actually submitted the assets.

Template

Removing disqualified games:

Did the game finish submission on time?
If the lead is the late the whole team is out.
Did they claim people as on their team who did not submit?
Did the artists and sound people among those who they claimed actually upload their assets to [P1] Assets?
Did the projects posts include a github link that is public?
Did they break our rules like no violence?

Remember to update this to match the current criteria:

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 20/20
Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it. 20/20
Judge: Quality of related video/trailer showing off the work! 10/10 (see criteria)

Go through each one of these for each team:

How many members on the team?
Did they win first play test? +5
Did they win the first pitch competition? +5
Did they win the community vote? + 30

Process

My process was first to go through each game to see if they submitted on time, to disqualify them if not, to save me extra work. And if they did submit on time, then I went and checked on their team page on the Discord under the team list who their artists and some people were, and I checked if they submitted to the asset Discord to see if I could disqualify them that way. If they were not disqualified in both of those ways, then I spent my time judging them. This is to save as much work as possible. That said, you should try to give really relevant feedback, so judging all the games might not be that bad an idea. To balance, you have to strike at your own discretion.

Afterward, I went through and addressed every single concern that people had. I did this by going to the people that were the cause of concern or red flags and addressing the issues with them in direct voice messages, using private threads rather than direct messages.

===========================================================

# Math Dash +201 (Winner)

Notes: It was very clear when judging this game that Z read and followed the guidelines to a T. Clearly assessing his goal, he then motivated his team and brought them to victory. It was a high-strategy high-teamwork play that helped push this team over-the-top and toward victory!

They focused on impact, which was very important to this jam, and also the theme -- "Not Enough Space." When it came to every bit of the criteria, they had a bespoke answer, which really meant that they understood and acted on the criteria.

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 20/20 Scope? Skills?

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it? 13/20

How well did they fit the theme?

5/5

No bad stuff?
2/5

Did they win the pitch? Did they win the test?

Did the community vote?

+30

Did the lead submit on time?

Yes!

Who did they claim as members? ✅ Did they submit their assets to [P1] assets? 📥= Yes.

safarii.ebrennan_kersey✅

lfraize ✅

sty1e. ✅

zyros✅

gregoryvickers ✅

yuvrajdarwani ✅ 📥

ziqiou ✅

chain000 ✅

raiunn ✅

vinisonhobbs ✅ 📥

sensiia ✅

profprons ✅ 📥

nareskumar ✅

# Keito +155

Notes: Keito continues to be a game that stands out because of its amazing, wholesome environment, amazing sound and fun gameplay. They should be especially proud of the fact that they brought together such a diverse group of people with different skills and harmonized that into a game that is deeply in touch with a singular vision and theme. Definitely my favorite game to play for fun.

Ketos trailer was also excellent!

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 15/20 Scope? Skills?

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it? 15/20

How well did they fit the theme?

0/5
No bad stuff?
5/5

Did they win the pitch? Did they win the test?

Did the lead submit on time?

Yes!

Who did they claim as members?

- Light with Blocks: lightwithblocks ✅

- Jyama: .jyama ✅

- Zelmore: zelmore✅ 📥

- lorenatroya ✅

- Jasmina: jaca9587 ✅ 📥

- Alina K: alinak48598 ✅ 📥

- Choleee✿: chloekwok ✅ 📥

- Arier: shimpee ✅

- Jai: valianteagle_66949 ✅

- Samuel Ayeni: sam78910 ✅

- MrJBRPG: mrjbrpg ✅

- BJeon: BJeon#7463 ✅

# Amnesiac +106

Notes: What's very clear when reading through the notes for Amnesiac is that you've built an incredibly passionate and excited team that's ready to take on big challenges.

Despite getting third place, Amnesiac actually really checked the boxes for what they were trying to accomplish. They were trying to make a great game in a very short time whereas in this competition what we're looking for is a prototype of a project that you can extend further.

They didn't win because their criteria for success was different from the judging criteria but they won at their own criteria -- to make a well-scoped game they could be proud of in a very short time.

Overall, I thought this game was a winner but not one to be continued further because it seems to have been made to be finished within a game jam's time rather than be a larger project.

Did I mention that their trailer blew my socks off?

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 5/20

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it? 7/20

How well did they fit the theme?

0/5
No bad stuff?
4/5
Did they win the pitch? Did they win the test?

+10 = Test

+10 = Trailer

Did the lead submit on time?

Yes!

Who did they claim as members?

KD (dahpoopey) ✅📥

Mark (mccgeehan) ✅
Josh (Stralve) ✅

F A I Q😎(faiq4628) ✅📥

Johnyssnapkin (johnjoes) ✅

Hibba Qureshi (hibbaqureshi) ✅ 📥

Sunya Aslam (sunyaaslam13488) ✅

# Blue Rust +78

Notes: It's really confusing to me that this game was made by multiple people. That's a great thing because it means that the whole team was so much on the same page that it looked like one person's vision throughout, and that's really powerful. I think Eric must have instilled the vision very clearly with his team in order to really get them on the same page, and I have a feeling that the team itself has a lot of potential, as does the game itself. I'm actually surprised it didn't win the competition outright, but there were things like not winning the initial pitch or the gameplay test that counted against it.

Whatever you're doing, keep doing it because it's working. Even if you were to choose to go with a new project in this next round, your formula is a good one and it's going to lead you to success.

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 17/20

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it? 17/20

How well did they fit the theme?

0/5
No bad stuff?
4/5
Did they win the pitch? Did they win the test?

Did the lead submit on time?

Yes!

Who did they claim as members?

Kur0ma ✅

Billy N ✅📥

Mookie_Fan ✅ 📥

Eric Siddiqui ✅ 📥

# Petspection +65

Notes: Petspection has an inspired story and the best art we've ever seen! It also has a great impact, which is so important. Where I think this project could take things to the next level is to focus more on building their teams because they need more programmers and designers.

I also think that taking a fresh look at the gameplay and moving away from the current gameplay loop to a more open-ended, less linear game could create more of a sense of joy in those who play.

Overall, I think that it's a good portfolio piece because it looks so good. However, if you dove into more game-focused gameplay and less story-focused gameplay it could help you take things to the next level.

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 15/20

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it? 15/20

How well did they fit the theme?

0/5

No bad stuff?
5/5
Did they win the pitch? Did they win the test?

Did the lead submit on time?

Yes!

Who did they claim as members?

@OutsideTrooper ✅ 📥

@ShiwenLuo ✅ 📥

@Abysmic ✅📥

==============================

Stand Out People

Here, I calculate how often people mentioned a person as embodying [P1] values.

Who on your team best embodies the [P1] mindset of sacrificially serving others with a positive attitude?

Safari 10

Light 9
Rakshaan 8

Jyama 5

Twisting Fate 58+

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 6/20

I feel like this game would be best completed solo as the idea is very unique. I kind of feel like Significantly more people working together might spoil the beauty of what you're trying to create.

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it. 7/20

I don't think the game is a good portfolio piece just because you have to really play it to understand and enjoy it, and that's not something a lot of people looking at a portfolio do. One advantage is that it plays on the web, which does give it some points.

Did they have the most faithfulness? Not listed. Likely?

Members: 45+

Catpocalypse 57

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 7/20

I feel like it's a complex project which would require a lot of capable programmers. Even though the theme was incredibly unique I fear that the game itself will not stand out enough.

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it. 10/20

It would be particularly good for the programmers as this game is going to be incredibly programming heavy. However, it's going to be a very hard project to finish. I think in a way that it could be published and balanced because all the art assets need to hit at a very high level for it to be polished enough as a 3D game. There's a lot of design necessary to finish this one.

Judge: Quality of related video/trailer showing off the work! 10/10

I rated these relative to each other. Cats 10/10. Okay, okay, I have to be less biased than that. I'm glad that you got a chance to show off your models. I don't think you framed them all that well on the screen, but I think the randomness, along with the music, was somehow funny. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but the incredibly serious music and then switching to the cat thing was interesting. However, I'm worried that the cat picture might not be open source, so let me know if that's the case. I love the logo, by the way, you guys nailed it on that. I think I didn't get to see the game play as well as I could have.

Did they have the most faithfulness? 32,976

Members: 30+

Sugar Rush! 61

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 6/20

There's a lot of work needed to take this to the next level and the gameplay wasn't clear enough that it's worth doing.

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it. 15/20

I definitely think it's a good exercise for the whole team and I think you guys have learned a ton.

Did they win the first pitch competition? +5
Did they have the most faithfulness? 36,579

Members: 35 +

Plane Control 83

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 20/20

The game is an excellent proof of concept. The game is incredibly fun and everybody enjoys it. I think this would be a great one to take to the next level and polish until it's publishable.

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it. 15/20

I worry that marketing such a game might be difficult due to its well-known sort of theme. I think getting some reviews on Steam would be necessary to make it feel like a game that wasn't just made and thrown out and I don't want to discourage you by saying that I feel like we need a handful of reviews and I think you'll be able to get them if you polish it really hard.

The project is just such a good prototype of the future whole that I have to leave some good points here even though I do have concerns about the marketing.

Judge: Quality of related video/trailer showing off the work! 8/10

I rated these relative to each other. The sound design of the game is immaculate which really makes the trailer stand out. Diving into gameplay is important but it got a little bit boring without some more switching scenes.

Did they win the first play test? +5
Did they have the most faithfulness? Not listed.

Your thumbnail needs to be shared properly!

Members: 35+

Nocturne Manor 122

Judge: Is it a good candidate for further work by the community? 17/20

The gameplay was incredibly unique and an excellent proof of concept. The art was incredible. Totally worth finishing this game. However it lacks in that it's not the perfect seed of a much bigger project because you would need at least one or two other mechanics to make it really fun.

Judge: Will the project further the personal goals of those participating in it. 15/20

I think if you maintain the level of quality you have, it will, but you're going to need to find a mechanic that doesn't have to do with darkness because such a dark game is going to be very hard to use as a showpiece for your work. You want to show off your team's assets.

Judge: Quality of related video/trailer showing off the work! 5/10

I rated these relative to each other. It's basically just gameplay footage without the person who is playing talking about their experience, and there's a lot of blur due to performance issues. Moreover, the size of the video didn't fit within the boundaries, leaving an unprofessional outline. Some of the UI seen in the video needs work.

Did they win the community vote? 30+
Did they have the most faithfulness? Not listed.

Members: + 55

Crane Escape

Did not finish in time!

DNF