They say it’s rude to talk with your mouth full!
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This is labeled the “quiet play” period on the official schedule, where judges switch their focus to the job of evaluating the dishes to assign their numeric scores, and prepare for their written evaluations.
They have a pretty tight deadline for this, to make sure that their verdict can be posted at the start of the official audience voting period. While the judges are allowed to post additional commentary during this period, it is optional.
Of course, as you note, many in the audience are probably playing the games, too. As mentioned on the episode thread, everyone should feel free to post comments about the games here – and this was even encouraged by the Iron Chef! – but please be sure to use spoiler tags when doing so.
Anyone who wants to try to scrutinize the games in the same way that the judges are can refer to the official scoring rubric. It’s listed in the FAQ, but for convenience:
Q: How are dishes judged?
Judges provide a numeric score for each of the two dishes produced in an episode. There are five (5) categories for numeric scoring, with a range of 1-10 per category for a total of 5-50 points per dish.
Categories are defined via a list of questions to be considered when determining the score. Scoring is explicitly based on each judge’s interpretation of the relevant questions, and is specifically to be given in terms of relative score between the two dishes as opposed to an absolute score according to some externally-defined ideal. This means that scores between dishes that are prepared in different episodes (with different judging panels) are only loosely comparable.
The five categories and their questions are:
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Writing
- How effective and engaging is the prose?
- Does the dish have a distinctive narrative voice?
- How well does the output prose flow in response to the player’s commands?
- How well are mood and atmosphere conveyed?
- Do stylistic choices cohere into an overall style?
- Is the story compelling?
- Does the story have satisfying dynamics?
- Is the story thematically coherent?
- Are any narrative tropes used well?
- Are any twists effective?
- Are characters distinct and/or well-drawn?
- Do the characters change over time (in personality or behaviour) if the dish demands it?
- If the PC is a specific character, are default responses in-character?
- Do any NPCs feel like people and not obstacles?
- Does the world convince on its own terms? Examples: Does an inhabited world feel inhabited? An abandoned world feel abandoned? Can the player imagine the world beyond the map?
- Is the PC appropriately integrated into the setting?
- Is there any backstory or lore that is revealed naturally?
- Does the setting change or develop over time?
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Playability
- Is the central play experience interesting and satisfying?
- Do gameplay mechanics work properly? Are they easy to understand? Are they engaging?
- Is the implementation solid? Are any bugs or oversights negatively affecting the dish?
- Is the player’s relationship to the PC clear to the player?
- How novel are any puzzles? Are they appropriately clued? Are they unified with the gameworld?
- Are the map and any navigation coherent?
- Did the first taste of interaction make me crave more?
- When I interact with this piece, am I playing, i.e. engaging in a fun and curious manner with the work, no matter if it’s easy or difficult or scary or comedic?
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Design
- Do the design choices add up to a coherent and effective overall design?
- Is there a harmony between whole and parts or does the dish feel lopsided?
- Do the writing and programming work together to cause the fiction’s ideas and feelings to be sustained in the player’s mind?
- Has the chef worked with their chosen platform to best effect?
- Is the player’s relationship to the PC presented consistently?
- Are any mechanical tropes used well?
- Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?
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Inventiveness
- To what extent has the chef responded to the overall challenge in a fresh, surprising or original way?
- Were game mechanics inventive?
- Was the use of the platform clever, inventive or novel?
- Has the author shown originality within the scope given to them?
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Challenge Ingredient
- How has the challenge ingredient been used? Well? Harmoniously? Sufficiently? Or just incidentally?
- Is the whole dish suffused with the challenge ingredient concept?
Note that many questions are recognized to be applicable to only some dishes, i.e. several questions under “Writing” about characters would be less applicable in a dish that has no NPCs (though the PC also counts as a character). Whether or not this results in a lower score is highly judge-dependent; in general, the judges are prepared to judge each dish on its own merits, so a well-executed dish without NPCs but with a well-constructed PC should do fine for those questions. Likewise, a “puzzleless” story-oriented game would not necessarily suffer under “Playability” due to a lack of puzzles. However, chefs are advised that, all other things being equal, a better-balanced and coherent smaller dish is likely to do better than a more ambitious but unevenly-developed dish.
Also note, and importantly: Judges are allowed to choose a winner in contradiction to their numeric scoring. The main purpose of the numeric scoring is to provide feedback about the chefs’ relative accomplishments across the five dimensions that the working group decided were most important for this contest; the working group intentionally left room for “X factor” elements not covered by the category rubric to be decisive.
The games now have pages on IFDB, and everyone is also encouraged to post ratings of the games, add tags, etc.
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Anyone able to provide a hint for Course Correction? I’m stuck after having found something black:
I’ve gotten the black capsa with the scroll of igram, figured out what it does, and nabbed a handy-dandy cloak of invisibility on demand, which feels like solid progress! Horatio’s dialogue indicated that I now should be ready to sneak into the Royal Quarters, but when I try to open the door I still get the notice that there are too many guards for that to work, and I’m not sure what else I can do – I can use the gold/down capsa to get guards to come out and chase me, but that doesn’t seem to accomplish much, and I’m not coming up with other obvious things to do to make it easier to sneak past!
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The confusion might be that Constance does not automatically wear the purple cloak! If you do it yourself, I think you should be able to progress as expected?
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Thanks! But I manually WORE the CLOAK, and it shows as being worn, so I don’t think that’s the issue unfortunately.
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Hmm, I wonder what’s going on! What command are you using to try to enter the Quarters? (IIRC just going inside worked for me)
Edit: Oh, also, is your black capsa currently open?
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Mike, your problem is solved below. (SPOILER IN SUMMARY)
Summary
I had this problem, too. It’s just a little verb bug. You have to get to that location, wear the cloak, then ENTER DOOR.
-Wade
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Ha, that was it! I was trying OPEN DOORS since the description seemed to indicate they were closed, but just IN does in fact work. Thanks much!
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I don’t want to share any game thoughts yet. Just thought I’d post the time it took me to complete Course Correction, for data purposes. That time was 47 minutes.
-Wade
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I’ve enjoyed following along with both authors’ progress, and after playing (most of) both games, I’m in awe of what they managed to create in just a few days.
Before the challenge ingredient was revealed, I took a moment to think about how there would be two sparkling new games in a week’s time, games that weren’t even a hint of an idea at that point. And now they’re here! It’s amazing to witness, and it’s an inspiring reminder of the magic power of writing. What else will exist next week that hasn’t even begun being created yet?
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My time stamp on Van Der Nagel (VNP) so far is in this summary. There are no actual spoilers on the game due to my lack of progress, only a spoiler in the sense that - if you don’t want to read any reaction yet, don’t read this 
Summary
I’ve tried VNP as I’m calling it, and I think it’s safe to say I’ll not be able to complete it. It’s just that it’s the kind of IF game I am worst at. I’ve spent 44 minutes on it, been to a ton rooms and looked at a ton of things, and feel I have maybe a sliver of understanding of one thing. I have no idea about what to try because I feel I could try anything, but nothing I’ve tried has paid off, which kind of blunts my enthusiasm to keep typing. I’m amazed he’s made a game of this kind in the time, but it’s not my cup of tea. I’ll enjoy seeing others pool tips on it (because surely they will!) but I need to have that one shard of motivation, or knowing what I want to try to achieve, to feel involved in a game. Unfortunately I couldn’t get it with this one.
-Wade
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