I've participated in the IGU Summer Jam 2023, last Sunday.

It was my team: Me, Sgt. Bombie, Patricola and Tricky, against 3 tiny teams.

With a lot of heart and effort, we have made Perception: To Conquer Evil, after two weeks.

Effort was put into the music, SFX, art, gameplay and polish - All of it!
 Not to mention the large narrative we've weaved together (led by Sgt. Bombie), and the voice acting of all of us. (Mine was minor)
Even easter eggs!

 But... we've come at last place. In fact, we haven't scored #1 at any of the ranking categories.
Our Concept and Fun categories ranks were downright bad, landing at 1.919/5 and 2.772/5 respectively.
 The Graphics and Sound categories ranks were good enough, #2 place at both, landing at 3.411/5 and 3.838/5. (Shout out to Patricola! You have vision.)

 We lost. Some sour feeling lingered in the air, as we've expressed our gratitude and excitement.
Some of us felt somewhat disappointed.
 ... what went wrong?

 I find it immensly important for me to improve. This unexpected defeat, has become a repeating theme in my jam submissions.
I'll pinpoint the culprits I blame:
Faulty gameplay, and subjectiveness.

All of the submissions were hard games, but it seems our submission (coded entirely by me) had elements of... rage.
Fights that you will probably die in several times, not to mention the final fight.
After each loss, you had to wait 3 seconds for a "YOU DIED" screen to fade away,
only to be greeted by the same cheery hero music - A complaint I've heard at least once.

 And on top of all of that, it was unfair.
No proper tutoring, no easing into the fights, and even buggy attacks (the shield didn't always block.)

 Other than that, is the topic of subjectiveness.
I am not meaning to say that "we thought it was good, others didn't think the same".
 Rather... it's about the definition of good.

I can tell that I've been very supportive in the jam and as a voter, and if I were to feel content, and if I deemed no issues with a certain category, I'd vote 5 stars.
And I find it hard to vote 1 star. There's no game in the jam which I'd say did "terribly" at something.

 ... and this is the "flaw".

 What does 1 star mean for others? The answer is not simply "terrible". It may mean bad. It may mean "I didn't enjoy it".  Maybe even "There's many things I would have changed".
 I know for certain I would have found similar ways to comment on my game - "Without a tutorial, this game is cruel to get into". "The art is too static, I wish it moved a bit more, and was more alive." "I really wish the music didn't take over the voice acting."

 I also know for certain that a certain teammate of mine has also voted quite highly in some occassions.

That being said... I think this is the case. I feel confident.
 And then... I decided to ask the participants if they agree.

As it turns out... the faulty gameplay was indeed a large issue, but there was no mention of rage.
As I've assumed, bad tutoring and tough intro with the first boss were mentioned.

 And as of subjectiveness, of course, they haven't mentioned it.

 But, it appears I was right.

The sounds were generally well liked, as well as the graphics - Only a small issue here and there, like the mixing and a non-fitting Reset Save button.

 Yet, considering the rankings, it appears there were several votees (at least one) who has voted 3 stars for the graphics, as well as for the sounds.
The two are considered good, but this is the vote given - This is the subjectiveness I meant.

 I think there's an important takeaway here.
Other's "3 stars" may be different from your "3 stars".
We had gotten, for example, 3.411/5 for the graphics.
This meant, in the end, that even though we got last place? We did not do as bad as we perceived.
 In fact, we did great!

 And what we must do, is to let it be. If the game is worthy of "5 stars", then it was nothing short of a miracle!
Hoping for ranks above 4 stars appears to be a big request, after everything.

That being said, it's my turn, to keep on fighting.
    Blawnode.