@makas people shouldnât be angry really, but I get that some will be emotional after putting a lot of effort into their projects for this jam. Itâs an emotional roller coaster, and we are all pretty tired from all the work we put in, and at the same time excited at what we could achieve should are games do well. Itâs always nice to place somewhere in a jam, itâs even nice to finish winning a jam, but when we donât it can be a bit demoralising and in some cases make people angry unfortunately. When we donât do well, or not as good as we think we should itâs only natural to seek the reasons why, so we can improve and learn from it, which is really what a game jam is all about. I think in this case because there were cash prizes, and a significant reward, it moved the goal posts from jam expectations, to a competition. With that brings a whole new set of emotions and expectations.
The âfavourite 100â that was posted I believe was something meant in good faith, and to keep the excitement around the jam. We need to remember itâs âfavouriteâ not âcontendersâ. The top 4 may or may not be this 100. So just because a project may not be in this, doesnât mean that the judges have made their mind up yet, they could have another top 10 or some other short list, we just donât know. However, what this âfavourite 100â did was give recognition to those in it, and left 800 participants out, and I think for some this left a bad taste in the mouth and disappointed. Like any competition, or anything that involves some sort of ranking/judging there are going to be winners and losers, and when there is a lot of hard work involved we are are always going to be seeking the reasons why we may of failed, so we can improve and learn and do better next time. Itâs natural. But with so many projects, and time constraints it would be an impossible job to get those answers, so we will go looking for them to justify what we are feeling. In this case, the rules are going to be at the forefront of this and are going to be picked apart.
There is a lot of, âthis game doesnât have this, or thatâ so it shouldnât be here/there, âit doesnât follow the rulesâ and because our project does, we will automatically feel âcheatedâ and feel that this is unfair. Thereâs seems to be some sort of misunderstanding, or misinterpretation of the rules, but if we look at the rules there is only ONE hard rule.
âThe game MUST incorporate the mystery themeâ
The other rules are âShouldâ.
So ideally every project would be working towards all the âshouldâ goals. However some/most might not get all of them in for whatever reasons, bug fixing, polishing etc. Some may get them all in, which is great, but some may only get 3/7 or so on. What this demonstrates is that judges are willing to consider ALL projects and not dismiss all those that didnât. Itâs a very flexible and leanient approach to the projects, and gives EVERYONE a chance from different learning curves and development experiences, from novice, hobbies to professional. Otherwise the pros would win or have a higher probability for a winning because their experience would set them apart from the rest.Itâs not so much about who can hit every target on the button, but at what POTENTIAL can come from the projects. Letâs not forget that the YoYo staff would be hands on to the winning project too if needed, so anything can be worked on then too, this is going to play apart towards the winning project. And in the end, if they like something about a project, and itâs missing some elements, then they will work to add it to fufill what Opera want for their browser. Because remember this is about Opera, not so much YoYo, so letâs not bash each otherâs projects, anyone at YoYo, or anyone for that matter because we feel hard done by. We all worked very hard on our projects,and I mirror what
@Micah_DS says.
Also I would like to add, that we made some tremendous efforts on our projects, but we should spare a thought for those that are judging and that are playing our games. as someone who rates games a lot, to go through 900+ is a massive under taking, and to judge them and to pick a short list of 4 is an even tougher job.