Hello everyone,
Thank you for your enthusiastic participation in the Game Jam! We’ve noticed some questions regarding the community voting and the selection of the top 20 games for the jury, so here are a few key points:
How Does Community Voting Work?
As we understand it, Itch.io’s rating system tries to balance fairness by using the median number of ratings across the jam to prevent a few highly rated or widely rated games from skewing results. It also applies a Bayesian average, meaning games with very few ratings don’t automatically rank at the top, even if they have perfect scores. Instead, their score is weighted towards the jam’s overall average until they receive enough ratings to stabilize. This ensures rankings reflect both quality and rating volume fairly.
How Is the Top-20 List for the Jury Determined?
We take the Top 20 games from the community vote with the highest overall score.
- Games that are marked as ineligible (e.g., because they opted out of prize eligibility or are participating outside of the competition) will not be included in the list sent to the jury.
- The final list consists of the 20 highest-rated, prize-eligible games.
How Does the Jury Work?
The jury will evaluate the top 20 games in the following categories:
✅ Best Visual & Audio Design
✅ Best Gameplay
✅ Best Story
✅ Best Overall
✅ Best Interpretation of the Theme
The jury’s decisions are made independently of the community vote. This means that the highest-rated game in the community vote will not automatically win—each game will be judged based on the jury’s criteria.
Why Was the Randomized Rating Queue Not Used?
Some of you asked why the randomized rating queue was not enforced. In the default settings for our jam, we specified a voting queue with 8 games per participant. However, it seems that this feature did not work as expected. We are currently reaching out to Itch.io support to clarify what happened and how we can ensure that this feature functions correctly in future jams.
Encouraging Fair and Constructive Feedback
We've seen discussions about the quality of comments and feedback, and we understand that reviewing many games in a short time can be challenging. However, we encourage everyone to provide constructive and specific feedback whenever possible, as meaningful reviews help developers learn and grow. In future editions, we may introduce a best practices guide to support participants in giving helpful feedback.
At the same time, we strongly believe in the openness and honesty of our Jam community. We trust that everyone is voting fairly and not engaging in strategic voting—a kind of gentlemen’s agreement among all participants. Game Jams are about creativity, learning, and mutual support, and we appreciate the positive and collaborative spirit you bring to this event.
The Jury Shortlist for the PULS Game Jam 2025
We are excited to announce the 20 games - that have made it to the jury round. And we can say the jury list here is identical to the community list, which makes us especially happy. You can find the games here:
https://itch.io/jam/puls-game-jam/results/shortlist-jury
Award Ceremony Details
🏆 When: Friday, March 21st at 6 PM (CET)
📺 Where: Live on the ARD Twitch channel
Good luck to everyone, and thank you all for being part of this jam!
And thank you for your questions and feedback – both here and in the community! This is our first Game Jam, and we’re still learning a lot.
We truly appreciate your patience and support.
Your Organizing Team