Hey folks! The livestream of the entries will take place on Friday the 22nd, Saturday the 23rd, and Sunday the 24th. An exact schedule of what games will be played when will be posted by Wednesday! Judging is tentatively scheduled for 7PM CT on Friday, May 29, but if judges have conflicts it may be postponed. All streams will take place on https://twitch.tv/manuelaxibanya
What to expect during the livestream
Games will be divided randomly among judges. Each judge must play every game in their assigned block before the livestream. (They can play all the games in the jam, they just HAVE to play the ones in their block.) Each block will be streamed with their judge as guest, and myself going in blind and playing the games for the very first time.
What to expect after the livestream
After this, judges nominate top picks from their block. There is no minimum and no limit to the number of nominations per block. (So potentially no games or potentially all games could be nominated as a top pick.) Judges can also nominate games from other blocks as top picks. Every judge MUST play ALL the top picks. A game that wasn't nominated as a top pick is still eligible to win, but if nobody went to bat for it at this stage, it's not very likely that it will.
Judging deliberations will take place during the week and are prerecorded then edited for time. The deliberations will be streamed the soonest Friday afterward (likely to be the 29th.)
How winners of judged categories are selected
The winner of every category except Community Choice is determined by consensus; there is no voting among judges. Each judged category is considered one by one with Game of Jam as last. Every category except Game of Jam will have a winner and runner-up selected. If the winner of Game of Jam was the winner of any previous category, the runner-up is promoted to winner of that category. That means it's not possible for one game to sweep EVERY category.
How the winner of Community Choice is selected
Play and vote on the other games in the jam!! Support your fellow jammers!
Who are the judges?
You will be judged by a diverse assortment of game developers, streamers, and voice actors. Confirmed:
Lineup may change, final judge list will be posted with stream schedule on Wednesday.