Hey folks!
Some of you may well be sitting there thinking “What the Sam Heck’s going on with the Jam, eh? It’s all gone quiet!” but worry not, fair forum denizen, as I am able to share a progress update with you all!
Judging Progress
After weeks of judging all 44 entries, the first round of judging recently came to a close with just five finalists going on to the second round, from which the Top Three winners will be declared! In alphabetical order, I can reveal to you our Five Finalists!
Congratulations to these lucky, greedy few for making it through, with commiserations to the rest of the participants! Some of the decisions presented, thanks to the overall high quality on offer, were genuinely tough to decide upon.
So is that it then for the contest? Not quite! Along with Deciding the Top Three, there is also the shortlist of games put forward for the “Best in” prizes - Best in Art, Writing and Sound Design - that will be decided. We also can’t forget the Community Choice Award that you, (yes, you, reading this now!) can decide the winner for by Liking 
your favourite entries, with the most popular entry winning!
So take heart, competitors, that there is still a chance that you might still be a winner yet!
We’re in the home stretch, folks, so please bear with us and we’ll be celebrating the winners soon! In the meantime, please take the time to revisit the finalist entries along with the rest of the Jam for a refresher - and don’t forget to cast your Likes!
Very shortly we will also be posting the judge’s breakdown of scores for each Jam entry, so please feel free to check those out as well!
Developer Feedback Survey and Post-Mortem
This year’s Gain Jam has been an interesting one with our big new feature of the Wildcards being introduced. Like it or not, they have made a splash onto the scene and we want to hear how the community felt about them within the Jam. Starting with the Gain Jam competitors, we will soon be issuing a feedback survey to complete. We want to hear from those that make the Gain Jam truly happen about what worked and what didn’t in the aim of improving the experience for all going forward. Expect a message from @grotlover2 over the next coming days.
This doesn’t meant that the rest of the community doesn’t have a voice! Just like last year, once the dust has settled on the Jam we will be running a post-mortem thread in which we invite all to share their views on all aspects of the Jam, from theme to Wildcards to scoring. If you have something to share, we will be glad to hear it!
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for the impending conclusion of this year’s Gain Jam!