Hey all! I want to start this out with saying above anything else, this jam was nothing but a positive experience! I was able to meet and converse with multiple dev's for the first time on this scale, I had an absolute blast making my game and challenging myself, I learned a lot and I got to watch people have a good time with something I put my blood and sweat into! How awesome is that?! I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

The only reason I'm even making this topic is because I feel like as the way things are currently, the voting system can really turn people away (especially first time jammers) from the game jam scene. One of the most fun aspects of this jam for me was the interaction with the community! It's something I think most of us crave and enjoy. When I was able to talk to people, get feedback and discuss my game and others, I was having a blast! The problem is I feel like the way the voting system works, it's like the more you interact with people and get ratings and feedback, the more you are punished.

I'm perfectly fine with how I did in this competition! I came into it with the goal of challenging myself, learning, and having fun above anything else! I did all of that, and I'm one happy camper! Plus I'm pretty proud of how my overall score came out! Never thought I would end up in the top 300!! Now that being said, if I were in it just for the competition and all I cared about was placing high and disregarding the core idea behind these types of events, I wouldn't interact at all. I would be too afraid too. I would stick to a few personal friends and hope that whoever else stumbled onto my game would rate nicely and by the end of it, I'd have around 15 solid ratings.

I've personally talked to a few first time jammers who are frankly really bummed out and discouraged because they have such great feedback from all of you cool people out there and very solid scores to back it up, but felt like they messed up by trying to get feedback and ratings and this breaks my heart because these type of events are suppose to promote dev's to create and share, not make them afraid of people playing and rating their games.

At the end of the day, this all really shouldn't matter. Over 2000 people came together in a community and each and every one of you made something special. I'm glad I could be a part of it :) I just wanted to share my perspective as a first time jammer myself!

I'll see you all next year!