I’m a teacher in my professional life, so I use a grading system to manage my reviews! Here are the rubrics I use for each category, and how I calculate things out to give games a final grade. Yes, this is a silly little way to calculate something that is entirely subjective. No, I don’t care to change my methodology.
Each of the following sections gets a total grade out of twelve, which means each criterion in each section can get up to four points. Here’s what that scale looks like:
| SCORES | What does it mean? |
| 4 | The game does this extremely well |
| 3 | The game does this acceptably well |
| 2 | The game doesn’t do this well, but it tries |
| 1 | The game doesn’t do this at all |
Let’s start with story. I assess a video game story the same way I would assess a movie or a book or a tv show. I like stories that are interesting or complex (sometimes those are the same thing, sometimes they aren’t), fun to experience, emotionally impactful, and comforting. This doesn’t mean all of the games with good scores will have happy-go-lucky plots where everyone lives happily ever after. I am often comforted by sad stories, and sometimes, a good tragedy is a good time.
| STORY | Score |
| Complex/Interesting | |
| Fun | |
| Emotional | |
| Comfort | |
| TOTAL SCORE | __/16 |
Next, let’s talk vibes. Do I like the art style and aesthetic of the game? Would I listen to the music outside of playing the game? Is the game adorable? Does the game have Romantic sensibilities (for the uninitiated, I’m not talking about romantic relationships, I’m referencing Romanticism, which was an artistic movement that emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental). A game doesn’t have to necessarily fully embody Romantic ideals in order for me to enjoy it, but I tend to prefer stories that have those elements, so it’s part of my grading process.
| VIBES | Score |
| Art/Aesthetic | |
| Music | |
| Cuteness | |
| Romanticism | |
| TOTAL SCORE | __/16 |
Lastly, Engagement, which is my way of talking about the game play aspects of the game. Don’t worry, I still have no idea what I’m talking about, and this all comes down to whether I was comfortable picking up the game, and how long it took me to understand the way it works and really enjoy it. The grind vs level criterion is there to account for the fact that some games are just boring.
| ENGAGEMENT | Score |
| Challenge | |
| Accessibility | |
| Speed to Comfort | |
| Grind vs Level | |
| TOTAL SCORE | __/16 |
Here’s where my teacher sensibilities kick in. I add everything up for a composite score, and then give each game a letter grade based on a typical grading scale!
| SCORES | – |
| Vibes | |
| Story | |
| Engagement | |
| COMPOSITE SCORE | __/48 |
| SCORES | GRADES |
| 44-48 | A |
| 38-43 | B |
| 33-37 | C |
| 29-32 | D |
| 0-28 | F |
Non-Gamer Gamer Girl 