Hi everyone! My name's R.C! I'm the mascot for Duppy Games! I love playing games and I really love this Game Jam series! The time limit for dev time really encourages people to think outside the box!
I'm just going to post how I do my ratings systems so people know how I plan to rate their systems! I try my best to keep my scores consistent for every kind of game in the game jam! I also try my best to review every game I play to give encouragement to most of the people joining in!
So anyway! Here are how I rate the five major categories!
1. Gameplay (I try to be objective in this category and incorporate all kinds of games that'll show up)
1 Star- (The gameplay was not existent or extremely glitchy)
2 Stars- (There was some sense of gameplay)
3 Stars- (The gameplay worked for the most part but was wonky at some points.)
4 Stars- (The gameplay was consistently good!)
5 Stars- (Almost professional quality!)
2. Visuals (In the most objective way I can describe it! Even though it gets a little subjective near the end)
1 Star- (The visuals were basic and bland. Simple shapes and no background usually.)
2 Stars- (There was an attempt to make a sprite or background)
3 Stars- (There were unique sprites (Unique as in you can tell what's Mario and what's a Goomba) and a competent background.)
4 Stars- (The visuals were clean and crisp!)
5 Stars- (Almost professional quality!)
3. Audio (Mostly objective, very rare exceptions)
1 Star- (The game is silent. Only exception sound that gets this rating is if it's an obnoxious sounds made by the creator's voice.)
2 Star- (There's ANY sound in the game. A song or a sound effect will do)
3 Stars- (There's either multiple sound effects or sound effects AND a song playing)
4 Stars- (There are multiple sound effects, and songs playing)
5 Stars- (The programmer accounted for sounds in every instance of the game)
4. Theme (This is fairly subjective, especially since it changes every week)
1 Star- (No presence of theme in the game)
2 Stars- (I can see where the theme is in the game, but I think you skirted it)
3 Stars- (The theme is present)
4 Stars- (You worked with the theme in a clever/creative way)
5 Stars- (You went above and beyond with the theme)
5. Enjoyment (This is the most subjective one by far, I can enjoy bad games and dislike good games based on almost random influences)
1 Star- (I want a refund for the amount of time I spent playing your game)
2 Stars- (I cared about the game enough to try and complete it, even if I didn't like it overall)
3 Stars- (I enjoyed the experience)
4 Stars- (I liked this game a lot and would recommend it to my pals)
5 Stars- (I could very well see this game as a part of a professional game)
Finally one last little tidbit to be clear. I like to see these Trijams as exercises in creativity and working with limitations. So if I look at the game page and see a game has been submitted to multiple game jams before it, I'm not going to be nearly as kind to it as I would games made specifically for the Trijam.
Can't wait to start playing games everyone! Good luck to everyone! :D