Judging a Competition

Thanks for judging! This guide covers the judging workspace from start to finish.

When judging starts

You get an email when you are added as a judge to a published competition (or, if you were added while it was a draft, when it is published), and another when judging opens at the end of community playtesting. Until then, you can play the entries from the competition page to get to know them.

Open the competition and click Judging workspace.

Two rounds

Finalist selection. Score every eligible entry. The results settle which entries become finalists.
Final placements. Once the finalists are published, score each finalist again. This round settles the places.

Scoring an entry

In the workspace, each entry shows its community rating and a Play and a Score button. On the scoring page:

Play the entry first if you can.
Read the Community feedback, if you find it useful.
Pick a score from 1 to 5 for every criterion. The weighted score updates as you go.
Write Feedback for the designer if you like. It is shared with the entrant and the organizer after results are published, without your name.
Use Private notes for your own reference. They are never shown to the entrant or the public.
Click Save draft to come back later, or Submit evaluation (or Submit and go to next) when you are done.

Drafts are private to you and never count. You can revise a submitted evaluation until the round is published; saving it as a draft takes it out of the count until you submit again.

You cannot judge your own entry.

Community ratings and feedback

The workspace shows each entry's community average and number of ratings, and the scoring page lists what players wrote. Weigh it however you like. It is never added to your scores automatically.

How the result is decided

Each evaluation gives a weighted score from 1 to 5.
An entry's score is the average of the submitted evaluations it received.
The top entries are suggested as finalists, or for the places, in order. If fewer entries are eligible than there are slots, all of them go through.
If entries tie where it matters, the chair judge decides their order with Confirm this order.
The judges have the final say. The chair judge can swap two entries under Adjust the shortlist (or Adjust the placements), giving a reason. Every judge and the organizer see the reason, and it goes in the competition's activity log. A swap can be undone.
The organizer publishes the result the judges confirmed.

The combined ranking appears in your workspace once you have submitted all of your own evaluations for the round, so nobody's scoring is shaped by seeing the others first.

Entries changed after entries closed

If a designer edited their game after entries closed, the entry shows a changed after close note. The entry page lists what changed and when, and whether the organizer has reviewed it yet.

Adding a late entry

If a game missed the deadline and you decide it belongs in the competition, you can add it. This works from the moment entries close until the finalist round is closed or the finalists are published. Open the Judging workspace and click Add a late entry in the Late entries panel. There are two ways:

Add a game by its share link: Paste the share link of the designer's saved setup, say why it is being added late, and click Add late entry. The game is entered right away for the person who saved that setup, and we email them. Publisher contact starts off for the entry, and only the designer can turn it on.
Give a designer a late-entry pass: Enter their full email address or @handle, say why, and click Give pass. We email them a link, and they enter one game themselves from the Enter page. You can Take back a pass they have not used yet.

A late entry follows the same rules as any other: each game is entered once, the per-person limit applies, and a game an organizer or judge owns cannot be entered. Its copy is final from the moment it is entered, and changes to the game after that are recorded like any other entry's. Your reason is shown in the panel to the other judges and the organizer, and goes in the competition's activity log. Late entries carry a late entry note in the workspace and a Late entry label on the competition page.

If you cannot finish

Tell the organizer. They can extend the due date, excuse you (your submitted scores still count), or close the round and decide from the evaluations already in. Once a round is closed, evaluations for it can no longer change.