How we actually decide on a score

People ask us how we land on a rating, so here's the honest version. There's no spreadsheet with weighted formulas. The number is a summary of a longer conversation the team has after we've all spent real time with a game.

We ask a few things every time. Does the game respect your time? Do the controls fight you? Is there something here after the first hour, or does the novelty carry the whole thing? A game can be simple and still score high if it does exactly what it sets out to do.

Genre matters a lot. We don't hold a casual tapper to the same standard as a sprawling RPG — we compare it to other games in its lane. A 4.3 for a casual game and a 4.3 for a strategy game mean 'excellent for what it is,' not 'these are equivalent experiences.'

And yes, we change our minds. If an update fixes a problem we criticised, we go back and adjust. The number is a snapshot, not a verdict carved in stone.