Judging begins for the second Video Game Critics Festival

The second Video Game Critics Festival, VIGMA 2021, began some time ago, and Iranian game developers had a set period (from 15 Ordibehesht to 20 Khordad 1400, 5 May to 10 June 2021) to send their games to the festival secretariat. Now that the call has closed and the plans for the VIGMA jury are in place, judging has officially begun and its details have been published.

According to Mohsen Vafanejad, head of judging, judging for the second VIGMA began on 31 Khordad (21 June) and runs until 25 Tir 1400 (16 July 2021). Judging takes place in two rounds, so that across these two periods the jurors have enough time to play and review a set number of games. As Vafanejad explained, the process does not suddenly confront the jurors with a flood of games.

The first round runs from 31 Khordad to 11 Tir (21 June to 2 July) and the second from 12 to 23 Tir (3 to 14 July). On 24 and 25 Tir (15 and 16 July), the jurors give their final results to the head of judging, which settles the nominees and winners in each category. Once the scores are compiled, the final list goes to the VIGMA festival council so it can plan and prepare the ceremony and the awards.

After explaining the process, Vafanejad added some notes on judging and the jurors. According to VIGMA's head of judging, 33 jurors are taking part in this edition, each of whom reviews and judges a set number of games. The second VIGMA will judge 88 games, but not every juror will review all of them. Since no juror can review and judge 88 games carefully and properly in one month, each juror will review 12 to 16 games, and each game will probably be examined by at least 5 jurors.

Vafanejad says that, based on what he knows of the jurors, he tries to divide the games among the 5 jurors so that they not only have different tastes but also come from different media and teams. It is worth stressing again that, for honest and proper judging, jurors involved in the development of a game in the festival, or close friends of its developers, do not judge that game.

Finally, we should add that, as developers have asked, we will try to collect and publish the critics' feedback on a reasonable number of games, so that their developers can use it to improve their games more easily.