Oh, yeah, getting rated is one big thing about it. I only entered my first Velox because I completely forgot that it's a ranked jam because I absolutely dreaded the idea of being judged. But in the end, it's all between fellow devs who know exactly how the craft goes. I know that I took a lot from my Turbo and Formido scores - they reinforced what I already (more or less consciously) knew about myself and my games and allowed me to know what I do best, and what I still need to work on. Hope that this jam gives you the same opportunity to reflect once the scores come!
Rating things IS a strange thing. I try my best to not let my taste dictate my ratings too much, but I guess there'll still be something personal slipping through the cracks. It's normal that you're trying games you wouldn't normally try here - I'm the same. I guess we're all here to broaden our horizons a little? We're gathered here to work with a theme we've never heard before, after all, so, it's all about trying new things out.
When it comes to how I judged Theme Incorporation, I had a couple of different questions in mind. Who's "you" and where's "here"? Is it easily identifiable, or at least easy to infer from context? Why the "you" shouldn't be here? Additionally, and I think this is just my quirk, I kept thinking about a certain degree of "unnatural feel", "hostility" or "destructiveness" that comes with someone being where they're not meant to be. Does it really feel like someone's out of place, like they don't belong? Maybe they're here by unnatural means, maybe they've come uninvited, maybe the world around them wants them gone. I don't know. Either way, there was still a lot of criteria that I won't be mentioning because this isn't my essay. Also, I'm pretty much sure that I broke so, so many of my own standards... which pains me lol