Eck's Unofficial Judging Officially Explained

posted in WoA3 - Still Flying for project Ecks Type
Published August 15, 2015
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Damn cat woke me up at 5 am horking on the laminate floors I spent this week installing. I didn't want his digestive juices to ruin a board in the middle of my living room so I got up extra early. Now would be about the time I could have started the Game Jam, and less than 2 days would not be enough time for me to deliver something I'd be happy with. I have been reading journal entries and keeping up with posts though and this judging will let me participate peripherally at least. Good job so far everyone!

I wanted to take the time to explain how I'm planning on scoring this year's games. This is a one-week game jam, and I will be judging entries as such. As the title states, I'm not an official judge, so my scores will not be affecting the official contest, but I will give out a prize to the winner: a copy of Firefly or this week's Humble Bundle - Winner's Choice. I'll also give out keys to my Floating Combat Text asset to the top 3 Unity Teams.

Gameplay/fun: 25 points
This one is kind of subjective, but I tried to break it down similar to my other scores.
0: I can't delete this game fast enough
1-4: Bad. I had to fight the controls, and I didn't want to finish playing it, but I had to because I'm a judge. I have trouble seeing where you were trying to go with this.
5-11: Poor. I can see where you were trying to go, but you didn't quite get there in the week's time. The fun factor just wasn't quite there. A little more time and you might have been able to squeeze some fun out of your chosen direction through mechanics tweaks, or levels.
12-18: Decent. I had some fun playing your game and you should be proud. You made a game that is kind of fun in only a week's time.
19-22: Good. I had more than a little fun with your game. Other people seeing a score this high should check out this game. I might even steal an idea or two from the game.
23-24: Great. I had lots of fun in your game. Everyone should definitely check out this game.
25: Damn this game is fun! I'll probably play this some more after the competition.


Graphics: 20 points
0: You're bad, and you should feel bad! I highly doubt I'll be handing this out to anyone. :)
1-3: The graphics are bad enough that it detracts from the rest of the game.
4-9: Not great graphics, but it's a game jam. There's no need to be ashamed here, but next year you might want to look into some free assets.
10-14: Decent graphics for a jam. Here's where you should start to feel pride in your accomplishment. You managed to make a game in a week and the art is decent
15-17: Good graphics for a jam. I could see this in a real game.
18-19: Great graphics for a jam. How'd you have time for that? O.o
20: Holy crap! This could be in a high quality game.


Theme: 20 points
0: You heard the theme right? Death is useful. And you made a Sudoku game?
1-3: Death was mentioned in passing.
4-9: Death is technically useful in your game, but it's a stretch.
10-14: You've met the goal of death being useful.
15-17: Death is useful and you put an interesting twist on it.
18-19: Great concept, clever interpretation, and good execution.
20: Wow, what an amazing idea! Great execution too!


Audio: 10 points
0: There was sound, I turned it off. My ears are bleeding!
1: Lack of sound or bad sound effects/music.
2-4: You have sound but it isn't great.
5-7: You have sound in your game and it wasn't bad.
8: Good sound effects.
9: Great sound effects for a game jam.
10: These sound effects are amazing.


First Time User Experience: 10 points
0: The game crashes, it's buggy, no documentation, and counter intuitive.
1: Hard to figure out, bad experience.
2-4: Some installation issues. Game works most of the time. Could use better documentation.
5-7: Everything works.
8: Intuitive and enjoyable experience.
9: Great job. I forgot this was a game that was built in only a week.
10: Flawless. No installer. Documentation was very clear or completely unnecessary.


Participation: 10 points
Must post links to your posts in the Competition Thread
I may just use slicer4ever's points here per his suggestion. If I do use my own points, it will be something like this. Slicer4Ever says real judges have to avoid a half-point scale so I will too. I'll round up to whole numbers.

0: Didn't post anything anywhere except for the link to your game.
0.5 points for each post that is: More than a few sentences
1 points for each post that is decent, talk about your experiences, maybe a screenshot.
2 points for each post that is good and detailed.
1 point for a meaningful comment on someone else's thread


Judge's Discretion: 5 points
This one is up to individual judges and can be totally not fair. Here are a few things that will get you Eck bonus points:
Firefly references.
Your team doing almost everything itself.
Including family members on teams.
Telling me thanks for my AutoSave Asset
Telling me you're sorry I couldn't compete this year.
Telling me you like my idea: Better Living Through Necromancy.
Make a cool game.


So that's how I plan to judge all the entries. I'll try to do it in a timely manner, but it looks like there are a ton of teams this year. I'm not an official judge so I'm not beholden to official timelines... DEAL WITH IT! :D

7 likes 8 comments

Comments

Lactose

Yay for cats :)

Although mine are obviously far superior to yours!

August 15, 2015 03:51 PM
Lactose

I should probably post some proof, so here goes!

http://imgur.com/a/yUMsN#0

August 15, 2015 04:23 PM
riuthamus

I like that you posted this, I wish more of the judges would do something like this next year. Seriously it is good to know what to aim for and leave less up to "random" feelings!

August 15, 2015 07:57 PM
slicer4ever
I like this Eck, is it alright if i add this as a guide for our judges to use?

edit: also i love your cats Lact!
August 15, 2015 08:09 PM
Eck
Eck

Sure thing slicer4ever, that'd be awesome!

I think my scale looks a little on the generous side at first glance, but I think it will tend to reward the best overall game the most. The difference between really good game jam graphics (17) and something as awesome as riuthamus's game's awesome graphics (20) is a huge disparity of quality, but it's only worth 3 points in my scale. If riuthamus just records some beeps and mouth sound effects on the last day, it will really negatively affect his final score.

That's the effect I was going for at least (but not the specifics riuthamus!)

re: Lactose! - cat superiority.

My cat rating chart is much more formulaic. A cat's rating is judged by it's age. Kittens are cute and awesome, but then they grow up to be cats (all of which are evil and usually posess a negative score by age 1-2 years old). Your cat appears to be younger so I will concede the superior cat score to you.

August 15, 2015 10:26 PM
Gooey

lol itd great if everyone now puts firefly references in there games

August 15, 2015 10:56 PM
Eck
Eck

lol itd great if everyone now puts firefly references in there games

Agreed! biggrin.png

My team banner last year. Fall out themed family portrait from Vault Pi under the team name "Still Flying"
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blog-0846936001411923736.png
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August 15, 2015 11:04 PM
DKoding

There is fire and there are flies in my game, does that help?

August 16, 2015 05:37 AM
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