Post by Neonfire Studio in How Are We Feeling About the Results?

Brackeys Game Jam 2026.2 » Community

Viewing post in How Are We Feeling About the Results?

Well actually, personally I never really liked the way itch.io calculates jam results, I mean the overall formula. Higher rating counts usually mean a higher risk of your score being dragged down, while lower rating counts have a greater chance of doing well. If you look at the winning games, most of them were around 30 ratings.

So, I'm not looking too much at the results. Instead, I'm really happy that we finished a unique game for the jam, the collab went successfully, and we received a lot of positive feedback, with potential to continue the development for a bigger release :D

amethyscent6 days ago(+2)

Yeah, I noticed that as well. I focus more on the comments left, but it’s still fun to look at the rankings! Though even with your points, your game still ranked pretty high! Good job!

Ganktronics6 days ago(+1)

Ain't that the truth. Highest ratings and dragged down by stuff like random 6% of my ratings being 1 stars for... I assume being mad "just a clicker" was popular? If itch rankings took number of ratings into account, it'd be better. Still, happy overall. I've got a game that got the most ratings, which is a FAR better reception than I expected off of just wanting to test out shaders and the idea of filling in an upgrade menu instead of just using nodes. Really happy with it, even if rankings are busted, lol.

amethyscent6 days ago

I remember seeing your game up there for basically the whole thing! I've always wondered how entries get to the most rated and stay up there. Mind telling me your secret, or was it just luck?

Ganktronics6 days ago

Well, I posted EARLY, which means anyone just checking out games while the jam was still in development phase saw mine, even if it was still getting updates. Basically as soon as I had a minimum viable product for all game, sound, and theme, I put it up there and modified it each day. Second, I think incrementals just get a lot of views on itch. In that first week, most of my traffic was from the incremental tag or the cozy tag and not from the gamejam links. So... if you didn't put tags on your games, put tags on them. Non-game jam traffic definitely has an effect on popularity!

Besides that? Luck, I'd say.

amethyscent6 days ago

We put tags on our game, but I do think I heard somewhere incremental games were popular on itch. I had a theory posting early was a factor, but I wasn't sure until you confirmed! Thanks for telling me! :D

gg_banana_man5 days ago

damn honestly i really enjoyed your game haha - thought it was defs gonna feature in the top 10. It was really fun popping all those slimes haha - and your visuals was really cool.

MelonJoose6 days ago

Yeahh I agree with that sentiment a lot. When the results came out, I was kinda shocked since I wasn't expecting the results at all, I found out that the ratings is mostly based on the medium, meaning having higher rating counts will actually have higher chances of lowering your rank. If the rating counts is added as a factor to having a higher rank, I think it would have been a good add since that would foster a stronger community where people are more willing to put time to try everyone's work.

I'm very happy with our game's result for this game jam since I really think my friends put serious amount of effort into this project!!! As we speak, they are still updating and adding stuff to the game! HAHA. I'm just annoyed some deserved works don't get the appropriate ranks that they should based on the calculations done on Itch. I still had a blast playing everyone's hard work and creativity!!!! The community is super positive and full of vibes!

amethyscent5 days ago(+1)

Those results are amazing, congratulations! I remember playing your game and having a lot of fun with it! And your point makes sense! I stopped caring too much about the ranking results after my first jam.Also, I don’t think you’re supposed to update the jam entry after the first 48 hours after the submission period is over. I think the rule states that if you want to make any other updates, you should make a new project and keep the original as the “jam version”.

MelonJoose5 days ago

Oh darn, I thought we can update the game after the game jam rating is over. I think we missed the part where they say first 48 hours after submission part. It's quite funny to have 2 projects with the same name on our page though hahaha

amethyscent5 days ago

Yeah, a lot of people miss that rule. But I don’t think it’s weird to have two versions of the same game on your page! One of my teammates did something similar with his game from the last Brackey’s game jam. He renamed the old one as the “jam version” and the new one as the expanded version. I think the rule is in place so that future players aren’t misled about what was done during the jam period. Or maybe if Brackey’s makes a video on some of the games, he wants them to be shown as they were when submitted. Or something like that. A lot of people don’t follow or listen to the rule though.