Are nominations the right way to handle Game Jam III...?

Just curious what everyone else thinks? 

The player / voter count is quite low.

It's not, it lends itself to a myriad of issues relating to corruption. I've literally had people play for 0 seconds and give me a bad review.

1. Everyone's friends upvoting eachother, downvoting anyone outside of the clique.
2. People using alt accounts to stack positive reviews on themselves (somewhat a branch of problem 1).

There are more but those two are big enough that it matters. The only people who really don't have any skin in the game are FacePunch staff. But it is what it is. 

 I'm grateful to Facepunch for the Game Jam III anyway. I really enjoyed making CATLINES, and I’m definitely going to release it on Steam. I’m absolutely sure I’m not going to make it to the finals, for different reasons, and one of those reasons is inertia.

The first, I actually thought that a nomination was just a single vote, and I was surprised when, literally a week after the jam started, a game made with one prompt got around 15 nominations. It’s not a bad game, but still, it’s not really the same thing. Thank God I was wrong, and you can nominate as many games as you want. But this effect is called  inertia. Games that were released earlier can push ahead simply because they were nominated earlier and seen by slightly more people. I don’t think Garry sees this as a problem, and as he has said multiple times on discord, he wants people to release their games early. Even if they’re buggy, even if they’re extremely raw. The important thing is that people keep updating them, making devlogs, and so on. But Garry didn't take one very important thing into account. Right now, the platform itself is just complete chaos. People come in and leave negative reviews for completely empty reasons, or for things that are actually s&box fault, like crashes and stuff like that. Or even worse, they just do it for fun because they think it’s funny.

I think Facepunch'll learn from this, and in the Game Jam IV, which will probably happen around Christmas or in January, there will be more judges or some additional nominations: best devlog, best looking game, maybe something like a $1000 prize, and so on.

I don't think I’m going to make it to the Finals anymore, but I like making games. That's exactly why I won the Game Jam, simply because I just enjoyed developing CATLINES. That's my mindset.

I also got downvoted by someone who didn't even play my game. The funny thing is, I can only tell that they didn't play because there are so few playing to begin with. I know that it's too late to change anything but I'd be happier if it was just a panel of judges at this point. Then everyone at least has an even playing field. 

I waited until yesterday to publish my game, once it was in a state worth publishing. I had the thought about publishing early, I could have done it but hated the idea of throwing an empty or broken experience out there. Not to mention being too busy actually building the thing to care about devlogs and social crap. I guess I'm the fool for prioritizing quality... That being said, the vast majority of the games just aren't getting any attention at all. There are nearly as many games in the jam as there are daily active players who aren't devs in the engine, if not more.

"Games that were released earlier can push ahead simply because they were nominated earlier and seen by slightly more people. I don’t think Garry sees this as a problem, and as he has said multiple times on discord, he wants people to release their games early. Even if they’re buggy, even if they’re extremely raw. The important thing is that people keep updating them, making devlogs, and so on. But Garry didn't take one very important thing into account. Right now, the platform itself is just complete chaos. People come in and leave negative reviews for completely empty reasons, or for things that are actually s&box fault, like crashes and stuff like that. Or even worse, they just do it for fun because they think it’s funny."

^Yes this was a huge mistake from me as well. I released it earlier... I wish they would have structured it so that people can play a game, favorite it, but not do Thumbs or Nominations until the period of 1-2 weeks after the deadline of 9/21. That would seem more fair, just my opinon, instead of playing this game of: "Do I release it early and risk getting dumped on or do I release it late and risk critically low exposure".


"I like making games. That's exactly why I won the Game Jam, simply because I just enjoyed developing CATLINES. That's my mindset. " -I love this and I need to remind myself that that's the whole reason I got in to this in the first place, thanks.


" I also got downvoted by someone who didn't even play my game. The funny thing is, I can only tell that they didn't play because there are so few playing to begin with. I know that it's too late to change anything but I'd be happier if it was just a panel of judges at this point. Then everyone at least has an even playing field.  "

Agreed. I read their Terms of Service which is a couple years old but it definitely cited in there that the Staff would decide the winner so I thought that's the way it was going to be.

" Not to mention being too busy actually building the thing to care about devlogs and social crap. "
-being a Solo dev(especially new) is hard. Socials are a waste of energy IMO. I just want to have fun and get better at making games. But in situations like this unfortunately politics plays a huge role. I've seen a game release (basic Beat-em-up) with 16 stacked 100% reviews within like 5 hours. I played it... Nothing wrong with it, but it wasn't exactly groundbreaking and I could see a number of flaws, but I wouldn't dump on it. It's just surprising to see that much unanimous love for something like that. It is what it is man, I can't let myself get dragged down by the things I don't like with this, or else I'll be out of here by year's end. Gotta hang in there. I'm trying.

It's at least nice to know we're not alone in feeling this way, if nothing else.

@ChronicWishlister which game is yours? I'd be happy to give it a try. 

I'll also try @Titanovsky's game