Submissions are judged using a two-round judging system. The first round will use a simplfied scoring system to filter the number of submissions down to the Top 5. The Top 5 submissions will then be scored anew using the full scoring sheet in the second round to determine the Overall Winners of the jam.
1st Round judging will be done by a panel of three judges with one designated as the panel's Lead Judge. These three judges will assign points to all entries using a simplified scoring system.
- General Scoring
- Game Runs - Does the game run with minimal crashes and can be played through.
- Use of Theme - How the theme was used within the design and/or mechanics of the game.
- Art - General use and quality of the art assets.
- Writing - General use and quality of writing within the submission.
- Music & Sound - General use and quality of music as well as sound effects.
- Mechanics - How interesting and/or well-implemented a game's mechanics are.
- Use Of Fetish - General use of fetish-based content and mechanics.
- Judge's Preference - Points that can be awarded based on a judge's discretion.
- Wild Card Scoring
- Wild Cards Attempted - Points given for attempting to implement a Wild Card. 1 point per card for a total of 3. There must be clear evidence in the game that the card was attempted and the judges will make the call on if they feel the attempt was an honest attempt
- Admin Wild Card - Was the card used in an interesting, novel, or mechanically significant way. These points are not factored into the maximum total score.
- Patreon Wild Card - Was the card used in an interesting, novel, or mechanically significant way. These points are not factored into the maximum total score.
- Community Wild Card - Was the card used in an interesting, novel, or mechanically significant way. These points are not factored into the maximum total score.
Each of the 1st Round judges will nominate a submission for Best Art, Best Writing, and Best Sound Design. These nominations are independent from their scoring and is completely up to the judge's preference. These nominations will move onto 2nd Round Judging and be judged only in the category which they were nominated for. The winner will not be judged until after general scoring has finished.
There are a few edge cases when it comes best in nominations that should be noted:
- Unanimous Win - If all three 1st Round judges nominate the same submission for a category and it is eligible to win the category (see rules), they win the "Best Of" category by default.
- Winning by Default - If a submission is the last remaining nomination that is eligible for a "Best Of" category (see rules) they win by default.
- No Eligible Winner - If no nomination is eligible to win a "Best Of" category (see rules) the 1st Round judges will be asked to re-nominate for that category.
2nd Round Judging is handled by a panel of two judges using the standard scoring method as described in the Scoring section. This round will score the Top 5 submissions. Scoring from the 1st Round does not carry over to the second around allowing all final submissions to be judged with a blank slate.
In the event of the tie, the Lead Judge of the 1st Round panel will act as tiebreaker.
"Best Of" nominations will also be scored but only in relation for the category they where nominated for (for example "Best Art" nominations will only be judged on their art and use of art assets according to the full scoring sheet).
The scoring system used is a simple "Total Points" system. Each judge will score each submission using a scoring sheet (a rough example can be found attached to this topic). Once a submission has been scored, the scores from each judge will be totaled together for that submission's final score. The submission will then be ranked by final score. In the event of a tie, the Lead Judge of the 1st Round panel will act as tiebreaker.
Scoring is broken down into seven categories:
- Basics - These are basic submission requirements. Will be all-or-nothing scores under most circumstances.
- Art - Used to judge the quality and use of visual art assets.
- Writing - Used to judge the quality and use of narrative, story, and dialog.
- Music/Sfx - Used to judge the quality and use of music and sound effects.
- Concept & Design - Used to judge the submission concepts, game design, and mechanics.
- Misc - Random scores that do not fit into any category.
- Wild Cards - Points awarded for attempting and implementing wild cards.
These scores are explained in greater detail below.
- Game Runs - Does the game run with minimal crashes and can be played through.
- Game uses the Specified Theme - Does the game use the theme specified by the Gain Jam.
- General Art Assets - Quality and use of general/non-fetish related visual art assets.
- Fetish Art Assets - Quality and use of fetish specific visual art assets.
- Animation Quality - Quality and use of animations.
- Story - Quality of the general narrative of the game if it contains one.
- General Dialog - Quality of dialog between the player and NPCs.
- Use of Fetish - The use of a fetish or fetishes in the narrative and/or dialog.
- Music - The use of music within the game.
- Sfx - The general use of sound effects.
- Fetish Sfx - The user of sound effects to emphasize or augment the fetish portions of the game.
- Game Concept - The novelty of the concept used by the game.
- Use of Theme - How the theme was used within the design and/or mechanics of the game.
- Mechanics - How interesting or well-implemented a games mechanics are.
- Use of Fetish - How well any fetish/es were integrated into a game's design or mechanics, or if they where used in novel or interesting ways.
- Innovation - How innovative or original the game was.
- Judge Preference - Points that can be awarded based on a judge's discretion.
- Admin Attempted - All-or-nothing score. Based on if the judge feels there was an honest attempt at the wild card.
- Admin - Was the Admin card used in a mechancial or in an exceptionally interesting or novel way. These points are not factored into the maximum total score.
- Patreon Attempted - All-or-nothing score. Based on if the judge feels there was an honest attempt at the wild card.
- Patreon - Was the Patreon card used in a mechancial or in an exceptionally interesting or novel way. These points are not factored into the maximum total score.
- Community Attempted - All-or-nothing score. Based on if the judge feels there was an honest attempt at the wild card.
- Community - Was the Community card used in a mechancial or in an exceptionally interesting or novel way. These points are not factored into the maximum total score.
In general the majority of the wild card points are not factored into the maximum total of the score. The reason for this is wild cards are seen as optional challenges that can be used to help devs cover areas they may be weak in. A score cannot go above the maximum total set in the score sheet.
The only exception to this are the "[Wild Card] Attempted" points which are factored into the maximum total. The primary reason for this is to act as a natural tiebreaker in the event that two submissions tie on the "general" categories. This is why we tried to keep the points for these relatively small compared to the other categories.
As long as a judge feels a dev made an honest attempt and is not just trying to game the system, they will be awarded full points.
wg_gain_jam_score_sheet_2022_template.xlsx