Well well well, it seems that the dogs have come back to roost (I know it’s a chicken thing, but just accept the analogy, it’ll make sense in a second)! And now, we can finally rest knowing we’ve got the ratings of Woofice Chair! (told you it’d work)

It’s always good to look back at and compare these, since they’re easy-to-understand metrics to show if we’ve improved or changed in certain aspects of development.

Before we go into ratings, we wanted to say that we’re humbled by the reception we’ve got! We also got to play a ton of fun games, making it an all around fantastic period!

For those not so satisfied with your results, remember that a lot of elements can factor on the ratings and rankings! That includes having few ratings (which reduces the accuracy of the rating your project would actually have), more participants on this jam, and the quality of older participants getting better and better at each jam, between other factors. Were you to submit a game with the same quality on each Ludum Dare, odds are that you’d get different rankings and ratings each time.

Don’t let that discourage you, though! There’s no wrong or right way to enjoy Ludum Dare! Some people here strive for self-improvement in game development, while others are even getting their first taste of it. Some could casually participate in many events or even try to submit the best rated games! Maybe even use the opportunity to meet new people and teammates! Just follow your gut and stay positive! :muscle:

Now that it’s all said and done, let’s see how we performed with Woofice Chair!, shall we?

Ranking-wise, this is the highest we’ve been at Humour, which is fantastic! But here’s some fun statistical data, complete with our over-analysis of the situation. At some point during a previous Ludum Dare, we made a Google Sheet to write down the results we’ve got in the past entries. It even got conditional formatting to give us better visual clues of important numbers! Gold cells represent our best at a jam yet, while red represents our worst:

Rating-wise, this is our best Overall game with 4.15 (up from Wizsnooks’ 4.071). It’s also our best game in Graphics, Humour and Mood. Yet, ranking wise, we’ve got past games that did far better in rankings.

Our “best game” in ratings is scoring lower in rankings likely for things mentioned before. The quality of good, fun games seem to be on the rise, likely as a result of people participating constantly. And that’s great! That only means that jams are getting better and better! There were also way more participants this time around that there were in any of our previous participants, most likely the result of a certain ongoing worldwide unavoidable phenomenon.

Finally, ratings-wise, we wanted to be more calm on this jam for a while, which is why we didn’t rate as much as when we made Jazzy Beats. However, because of the good words we got, we felt like we needed to give back the good vibes and ended up playing a lot more games! A bit too late to catch up, but we still had a blast with your submissions!

For those that are participating for the first time, don’t get discouraged! Keep on participating, whatever your goals are! Participate, get experience, and keep creating the wild ideas that come to your mind!

For the time being, we’re rearranging some stuff as we get back on the commercial game development track, but if you’d like to stay in contact with us, consider following us on Twitter! You’re even invited to join us for a chat at our Discord server! We’re preparing some Halloween goodies, so you should really stop by! :jackolantern:

Thanks again for all the good will this time around! Wish you all the best of luck on the next Ludum Dare! :whale:

PD: We're still preparing a post about adding juice to our games, so look forward to that too!