Just like last year, here's my post covering my thoughts about the execution of the jam, results, mistakes, and more. This is also a helpful record for me to review if/when Haroldjam gets planned for next year.
Participants: 51
(Last year: 43)
Entries at end of submission period: 35
(Last year - 35)
Entries by end of judgment: 35
(Last year - 32)
Votes: 683
(Last year - 557)
Average ratings per game: 19.5
(Last year - 17.4)
Distribution: Max 24, Min 15
(Last year - Max 21, Min 1)
Return participants: 20
(Last year: 8)
New participants: 11
(Last year: 20)
Dual Submissions: 4
Ratings by submitters: 588
(Last year - 501)
Outside ratings: 95
(Last year - 56)
Extra special thanks to super raters! Almost everyone dropped a comment on all the games as well, which is doubly impressive.
Berry B
Nowis-337
Zyphli
mooglerampage
Denkai Cube
Charlottezxz
Aesica
Gensun
Slimmmeiske
Sawyer Friend
HawkZombie
Successes:
We learned from last year and avoided double booking during the biggest event of the year (IGMC).
There were many repeat entries which I’m grateful for. I will absolutely be reaching out to previous jammers next year and asking everyone to return and showcase their dev progress.
This year I didn’t frantically and desperately push for as many entries as possible, so we had fewer jokey last minute submissions. This was by design, as it felt like people inflated our jam numbers last year in support. Still, we managed to get 35 entries, only a handful of which were Harold punch lines. This is really impressive in my book.
We did have fewer new participants than last year, but looking over the old lists, that is mostly because almost all jam-friendly server members had already participated in Harold jam. Most of the hype and promo is within our server, so we’re running out of server members who haven’t participated in a Haroldjam before.
Nowis’ artwork contributions were S+ tier, and like last year, probably contributed a great deal to the hype. I hope everyone acknowledges how great a person Nowis is to support the server and the jam so generously, asking nothing in return.
Mistakes:
Promotions leading up to the jam were a bit inconsistent. Had trouble finding the time to post in all the places I wanted, and the variety of art that I was teasing took a lot of time to set up. Next year I’ll consider simplifying promos, posting some jam announcements and regular reminders, but not having to reinvent the wheel with every post.
TBA! I got distracted and neglected to update the required elements in time, so they were left as “TBA” ! It was only 30 or so minutes late but it nonetheless made its way into some jam games (how dare!). Will need to have a backup plan next year!
Harold Award for Excellence: There were some mistakes I made in listing the judgment criteria, which arguably changed how people evaluated some games. Looking at the results, I feel like it worked out alright, but gotta quadruple check next year.
EDIT: Also as KV mentioned, I didn't turn off uploads when the jam began! That meant hotfixes were allowed for a bit even when it wasn't the intent. Will seek to make it clear that no changes can be done after submission period, including hotfixes of game breaking bugs.
Jam time promos: I did very little during the jam judgment period to promote the jam. Would be great to get a few more outside judgers in. Begging stream watchers to do a little rating might be a step in the right direction.
Not necessarily a mistake, but if giant July jams are a pattern, I’d like to give jammers more recovery time, so I’ll consider an even earlier jam. I don’t want Harold jam to get in the way of people participating in big events, and it’s possible we could have gotten a few more big name participants in if they hadn’t been tied up prepping for IGMC.
Those are the things I thought of, but its the blind spots that are always most instructive. Drop some feedback on what was good, what wasn’t, and more, and help us improve for next year!
Haroldjam 2022 Survey: