My #ldjam results: broke top 100 in everything, so I’m grateful <3

I ran an analysis over the stats over my 9 jams, while the dataset is tiny, there were some interesting observations:

First off, I think scores and placement isn’t the most important thing about #ldjam. Enjoy the community, making games, and getting valuable feedback! Don’t judge your jam just by numbers!

First, the raw data, scores and placements, plotted into charts. On the surface, nothing interesting other than I've seen constant improvements in my jams, yay.

BUT let's dig for some insights...

Fishing out correlations: Since what I care most of all is the overall score, I looked at the correlation between other categories and overall score.

Surprisingly, the #ldjam category most correlated to the overall scores: 1. Theme 2. Graphics 3. Innovation 4. Mood 5. Audio 6. Fun 7. Humour

The top 3 of theme, graphics and innovation were 80%+ correlation, while the rest hovered around 70%, and audio falling off the 42% cliff.

I never thought theme would be THIS important to #ldjam jammers, but I guess it makes sense since we tend to look at people who may have joined the jam with a pre-made game/idea with crooked brows.

But that FUN being among the LOWEST correlated was a surprise to me. I always thought the enjoyment of a game was the most important thing. But apparently not?

I also tried to find correlation with ratings given/received, and comments received. The data there were incomplete due to the old site not keeping those data and I didn't record them from earlier #ldjam events. But the correlation was weak at best.

So that's my analysis of my #ldjam historical data. The sample size was way small and some data was incomplete, but it was interesting nonetheless. I'd love to see other people's data to see if these were results very individual to myself!