Hey there :-) wanted to understand how the grading system works? I thought only the judges would rate our games... so does this mean that only the most popular game will win?
Yeah, I saw that. It seems out of place. People like me who barely have time for social media would certainly be at a disadvantage because I won't get anybody to rate my game(I actually feel that getting my friends to sign on itch just to give me ratings is quite manipulative, because they would always support me, so I prefer being rated by strangers).
Well, it was fun building the game.
We are quite away that it is a flawed system to give rewards based on ratings from friends and families, as this would be a disadvantage to those who don't have social power, but still, we wanted you to showcase your game to the world.
So our plan is/was 80% of vote comes from our judges, remaining 20% from public (As we also shared the links to our friends, asking them to vote games that were submitted)
We hope this sits well with you.
We are currently collating results. :)