F.A.Q.Contribute to this page

Do I keep ownership of the games I make for a jam?

Yes. Submitting a game to Alakajam! has absolutely no implication other than letting people play your game for free. You are free to license your game and its sources as you want ; while we tend to encourage people to make their games Open Source (if only for educational purposes) it is not mandatory.

You are also free to expand your games after the jam, and why not release them commercially!

Allowing anonymous comments

Enabling this option allows all users to post anonymous comments on your entry. Doing so gives them a free hand for posting direct, unfiltered feedback about your game, pleasant or not. If you don't feel comfortable with strong criticism, please keep this option disabled.

If you enable the option, you may change your mind later, but comments posted anonymously will of course remain anonymous.

Commenting anonymously

If the owner of an entry allowed it, you can choose to post a comment anonymously. This allows you to provide honest, even unpleasant feedback while making sure the user won't give you bad ratings in exchange (this rarely happens, but we understand some people prefer to be 100% safe). Note that anonymous comments can still be identified by administrators, to moderate any form of hateful, offensive or insulting comments.

Anonymous comments do not count towards your karma.

Opt-outs

When entering the Solo or Team division, you can opt-out of certain rating categories. This is completely optional and depends on each game and your personal preference.

• Graphics: Opting out can be useful if the game is text-based, or sound only, or if you feel the art is so terrible that it's not worth rating it.
• Audio: Opting out is recommended if the game has no sound. You can also do so if the audio is so terrible you think it's not worth rating it.

People who opt out of a category still have to follow the same rules regarding third-party assets.

What is Karma?

The karma is a score attached to your game, calculated to decide what appears first in the search results. The more ratings & comments you give, the higher your score! The more ratings & comments you receive, the lower it gets. The goal is simply to help reward the people who are active during the ratings phase.

If you are entering a competitive division, make sure to rate & comment enough games, or your entry might stay hidden in the results and you might not get enough ratings for an official ranking.

How is karma calculated?

Alakajam's karma uses a secret recipe transmitted from father to son since 50 generations! Its details are kept vague on purpose, but you might want to know that:

• Both ratings & comments make you gain points
• Unranked entries are worth as many points as Solo/Team ones, despite the lack of ratings.
• Each team member gains points independently. That means two team members can rate the same game, and both of them will make their game's karma increase.
• Very short, effortless comments gain fewer points.

The general rule being: don't overthink it, just spend a nice time playing & reviewing games!