My game was just disqualified. I think it's rather unfair to disqualify right at the end of the 2 week voting period, with no explanation or any way to see the results. I believed I met all the criteria (although open to interpretation) and assumed my entry was 'safe' given how long it was in the competition for.
Your game did not follow this rule:
I did announce the disqualifications on the Discord server.
You say it's not fair. I believe it's very fair to wait until end of rating period before disqualifying entries that breaks the rules. This way they will get valuable feedback from the community.
What really would not be fair is if games that break the rules would be officially ranked higher than those that follow the rules.
What really would not be fair is if games that break the rules would be officially ranked higher than those that follow the rules.
I don’t know, I feel like if the judges/community ranked the games that highly, that should take precedent over a wall of text that doesn’t have thoughts or feelings. If the community really only cares about games that follow the rules perfectly, then that would be reflected in the rankings and it wouldn’t be a concern anyway.
I don’t see how these disqualifications are anything but disrespectful to people who worked hard on their games and demoralizing when they don’t even get to see their contributions alongside their peers, even if they are at the bottom of the list. Waiting until the end of the voting period seems especially cruel, because they were able to see those ratings come in. Maybe you should comment on their entry on day 1 and at least give a heads up that the numbers won’t matter.
It’s also worth pointing out that there’s no messaging on the jam page about the potential for disqualifications, so for a lot of folks it seems totally unexpected and confusing, especially when there’s no direct reasoning delivered on a case-by-case basis. Posting a blanket statement on the Discord isn’t enough - it can’t be expected that everyone has joined (or even if they have, that they’re actively reading it). If someone’s work is being taken off the list, the least you could do is speak to them directly about why you feel it’s necessary.
I know I personally joined simply because I like dungeon crawlers and thought it would be fun to make one. If my contribution isn’t valued, then maybe you’d be better off making future jams unlisted and advertising exclusively to your Discord community. Or changing the name of the jam to something that feels more exclusive and exacting, so other folks don’t similarly read “Dungeon Crawler Jam” and find themselves shocked when their interpretation of the genre doesn’t meet expectations.
My advice to you is that you don't join jams that have rules if you don't plan on following them or don't understand the importance of rules in a ranked competition with prizes.
I could have disqualified your entry even before rating started. Would you have prefered that? I thought that allowing you to get some valuable feedback first was a rather nice gesture...
In addition to the elaborate list of very specific rules found on the jam page all participants were reminded of the rules in several ways.
From the jam page: "Be sure to read the rules carefully before you start outlining your game idea."
From the submit game window: "Please make sure that the game you are about to submit follow the rules for this jam."
From the email that went out before the jam started: "You also need to make sure that all the rules and requirements are met."
Additionally we have a Discord server and a forum where you could've asked questions if you were unsure about any of the rules. Don't put this on me. The rules were clear but you chose to ignore them.
