Firstly, a game jam is for fun and to learn. Secondly, I love to get feedback on the stuff I've created thats constructive around how I can improve the thing I've made, because my ambitions are always bigger than what I've managed to achieve in a short space of game jam time. I try to make my own ratings about more than just a 'feeling'. So this is how I tend to rate the games I play:
- 5 stars is for if its in that category that blew me away - incredible graphics, story, bespoke music that sounds amazing etc.
- 4 stars: I pretty much award 4 stars to any category where I feel its above the average that I've experienced in the game.
- 3 stars: This is the average score. You have some random music? 3 stars. You have some free art assets? Generally, 3 stars.
- 2 stars: It's below the average in the game jam. Like a lot of games might only have 1 sound effect and be missing lots.
- 1 star: The thing is not present - there is no music, no sound effect, no story nada zip zilch in the given category.
With all the games I play, I try hard to offer constructive feedback. There is a lot of feedback that's liike "woa I love the game, so cool!" but when the scores come out you see that that was really a 3 star overall rating. So rather than do that I try to be positve while still highlighting where the opportunities are to take the game to the next level (or star!). This year there are some subjective categories (more so than others) like 'Ambiance'. Here I think you can take stock sounds and assets and throw them together to create an amazing ambiance. I think this is probably one of the trickier categories to score.
So do you follow a similair process? Or do you do something different? I think we should all aim to provide honest constructive feedback and fair scores. If you want some, drop a link to your game and I will try to check it out.