Criteria rankings and expert top picks
We’ve announced the winners of the js13kGames 2023 competition some time ago already, but it’s worth to expand on the results a bit more - with criteria based rankings and some favourite games from the experts.
There are six different criteria a game is judged on: Innovation, Theme, Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, and Controls. You have to balance all of them to be able to strike the perfect Overall score and win the competition, but there are plenty of examples where some entries are standing out in a single criterion even though they ended up quite low in general.
Criteria rankings
Here are the lists of best five games in each criterion:
Top5 Innovation
1. Runekeeper
2. K1n3kt Archery
3. Merlin vs Alfonso
4. Mongol March
5. Young Magi, Awaken
Top5 Theme
1. The Terror of Mongolia
2. UPYRI
3. When Your Neighbors Are Mongols
4. Path to Glory
5. Journey to the East; Silk Road Adventure
Top5 Gameplay
1. Super Castle Game
2. Path to Glory
3. CannonBolf
4. Tiny Yurts
5. Knight Dreams
Top5 Graphics
1. Knight Dreams
2. UPYRI
3. Merlin vs Alfonso
4. Tiny Yurts
5. Slowed Dao Run
Top5 Audio
1. Casual Crusade
2. Path to Glory
3. Fort Knight
4. Super Castle Game
5. Harold is Heavy
Top5 Controls
1. Super Castle Game
2. Path to Glory
3. Knight Dreams
4. Merlin vs Alfonso
5. Casual Crusade
As you can see, there are some brilliant games here, even if they didn’t end up in the top of the Overall results.
If you’re not on the list, but still curious how well your game ended up, you can check this results viewer made by one of our community members, Cliff Earl, which is based on the raw output from our voting app.
Expert top picks
Below is the list of top3 picks (or 4 if the decision was too difficult) manually selected by some of the experts, based on the 20–30 entries each expert was randomly given - make sure to check their feedback in the comments section on the voting app under each entry.
Richard Davey
1. Tiny Yurts
2. Robin Hood
3. Musa’s Quest
Ania Kubów
1. The Treasure of the Nibelungs
2. Market Street Tycoon
3. K1n3kt Archery
Noël Meudec
1. Casual Crusade
2. Exit the Castle
3. Castle Wars
4. FEAST NIGHT
Jupiter Hadley
1. The Mystery at Glamis Castle
2. Barbenheim 13
Jeremy Burns
1. Battle commander - Middle ages
2. The Knighting of Sr Isaac
3. Slowed Dao Run
Clément Pasteau
1. Young Magi, Awaken
2. Kukulkan
3. Dynasty
Matt Hackett
1. Merlin vs Alfonso
2. Feast and Courtesans
3. Castle Wars
Frahaan Hussain
1. It’s Merlin
2. Jurassic Nursery
3. Crusaders and their Journeys
Raf Mertens
1. Harold is Heavy
2. Castle Attack
3. Overforged
Joep Van Duinen
1. Robin of Thirteensley
2. Meandering Medieval Merchant
3. Harold is Heavy
Victor Debone
1. Tiny Yurts
2. Market Street Tycoon
3. Cathedral Master Builder
Taufik Sani
1. 13th Century City Builder
2. 13th Century Siege
3. FREEEDOOOM!!!!!!!
4. WitchCup1276
Of course that’s not all - other experts (and judges from extra Categories) enjoyed playing the games too and left some valuable feedback as well. Plus there’s a whole lot of comments from fellow particpants, which makes this competition even more exciting for everyone!
