This was my first game jam so wasn't sure what to expect but I got positive feedback only yet my ratings showed mostly on the lower range. I'm not upset because I did better then I expected and that's awesome but feels very odd having only positive feedback but mostly negative ratings? Can someone explain this to me?
Short answer: People tend to be nice in jams so you vote for their game.
Long answer: Besides that, if you're "too honest" with someone they might get mad and give you negative votes just because they put too much effort and got offended (it happened to me, LOL).
Also the voting system is... odd (borderline bad and easy to rig), if you and your friends just open accounts and vote for your game (and upload a tech demo so they don't get disqualified) you win. I've seen INSANELY looking games, super creative ideas, original mechanics and yet... the #1 is a die/respawn basic unoriginal platformer.
My advice? don't look at the ratings of big jams, a lot of people cheat with alt accounts, or vote you 1 star just to lower your rating. Small jams have more consistent ratings and have more awesome communities because they're not as competitive and people genuinely help each other and give more honest and constructive feedback.
100% correct. Itch's voting system seems like it could be improved for sure.. I was a bit worried about this stuff myself during the voting period. Also, I do entirely respect your opinion on my game! The general idea was not super creative, there were a few other games with quite similar mechanics.. but I tried to make up for that with my characters and level design and such, which clearly some people agreed with! I do believe some of my winning was up to pure luck, since I clearly never had any review bombers, which I know bc there were actually no 1 star reviews at all (which is insane to me too).
First of all, congratulations. I don't want to sound like a sore loser. It's just odd for several reasons.
You seem to be a chill dude and I don't think you rigged or cheated, because of how you reacted, cheaters tend to be aggresive and defensive when you call them out, and you seem to be surprised and accepting of other people's opinions so I'd attribute the high ranking to what you said, a bit of deserved ratings (I mean your game is not BAD it's just average for me) some luck, and the fact that there's a weird guy going around super obsessed with your game and writing essays and defending it even more than their own game that they even admit they called their friends and told them to play/vote for yours... so I guess thank him?
I've played like 80 games and at least 30 were the same as yours with a twist. So many people went for the "die/respawn/repeat" mechanic that after a while I was genuinely fed up with them, like people didn't bother to think beyond the obvious first idea they came up with. Even I came up with that and said "no, I can't do it, it's too obvious" so I'm really surprised that the #1 spot goes to a game with that idea. Again, no hate intended, I'm not mad, I'm more like disappointed because under your game there were so many original ideas and great executions that I think deserved the #1... so I don't know anymore.
If your game ranked like 50-40 I'd be like "yeah, ok, makes sense, decent puzzle platformer" and that's it but even you were surprised of the results (so I must be a bit right about something if even you admit you weren't expecting this). This just highlights how weird (bad?) the itch's voting system is, if you get 1-star bombed by one person you fall like 80 places, so without a proper jury the voting it's mostly rolling dices and seeing who got the double sixes.
In any case, seize the moment, I mean probably Jack will play your game, so maybe take the time to polish it a bit, add music, polish the transitions (I found it to be unpolished when one character dies the other just starts walking without warning because I'm holding the A/D key and that made me lose a few times) probably add some glow, some particle effects...
Again, sorry for the rant, congratulations, I genuinely hope you seize the spotlight. Good luck!
Looking at the comments, it seems people were also talking positively about a select area that they enjoyed e.g the cute characters which allowed them to leave a nice comment but also gloss over if they didn't like the art style or gameplay or something so they don't feel bad and so that you are more likely to give them a review.
Ran into a similar situation. Glowing reviews and then like a 3.5/5 overall. Certainly not complaining about that score, but would have been nice if the comments were like, "Hey pretty good" and not, "OMG this is amazing!" Just seems like a slight mismatch. But now seeing accounts were going around 1-starring games to try and boost their own score... yeah I'm really not surprised at all. It is what it is.
I played quite a few games in this jam and personally I only left comments with constructive criticism and feedback for two reasons, 1. There was a major flaw with the game that interfered with my experience, 2. The creator specifically asked for feedback. Everyone’s different, but I didn’t want to go through tearing everyone’s game apart because some people might be more sensitive than others, and the ones who really want the feedback usually ask. So in future jams if you want more honest criticism, you should say something about it in your description and/or the posts that you make! Congrats on your first jam!
Hey, from someone who wrote mostly positive comments, in my eyes, a GameJam is not a proper playtest of a game.
when I'm rating a game I prefer to comment on the positives and things I really enjoyed about the game.
We came here to have fun, and celebrate the making of games.
I'm always happy to give feedback when asked and I gave some when it was very needed, but for the GameJam i preferred to keep everything as positive as possible, and to commend people's amazing and hard work over the course of only 4 days, and not a full development cycle.
Getting too much constructive criticism in a GameJam where you can't update and fix things can leave some people to focus on what they could have done rather than the amazing accomplishment of what they did.
I appreciate the perspective, in my eyes it feels like this creates a fake hype train where the comments don't match the ratings and that's the disconnect that I'm concerned about personally. But then looking at how some people just rate it 1 star just to push someone else down to give them a slightly higher chance I can see that may be the actual disconnect and not necessarily those who are commenting.
Yeah, it was rough giving honest comments considering devs could get their vengeance by giving you a 1 star review bomb. This could have easily been fixed with private comments, I think.
I hope you aren't discouraged from pursuing your dreams due to this, there is so much more time to create what you love! If you ever need someone to talk to, you can message me here, or dm me under the same name on discord, youtube, or bluesky! I'd love to see what you make in the future! Good luck, dreamer! <3
