So, Ludum Dare is getting bigger and bigger at each edition. This is AWESOME! More cool games to play, more insights gained, more great people to meet!
With all these newcomers around, I noticed that quite a lot of people in this edition don’t have a clear understanding on how to get their games played and rated. We veterans know that, but it might not be as obvious for newcomers. Anyway, the ‘strategy’ to get a lot of ratings and comments on your game is quite simple:
Go play and rate a lot of games yourself!
I’m not saying this because this is ‘the right thing to do’. I mean, it *is* the right thing to do, cause you’ll allow many other developers who worked as hard as you to also get feedback about their games. But it’s more than that: Ludum Dare has a ‘the more games you rate, the more you’ll get ratings for your game’ logic embedded into its workings.
It all starts with the games that are shown when any Ludum Dare participant clicks on the “Play and Rate Games” link. This is the screen that is shown:

In order for your game to receive ratings, it must show up on this screen. And what is the criteria that the system uses to pick which games show up here?
It’s actually simple! Have you noticed these little numbers below every game’s thumbnails?

The games that currently have the lowest Default score (the “D” among those numbers) show up on that list. Almost everyone who’s navigating on the Ludum Dare site to play games will play one of those games shown on that list – therefore, they will be picking one of the games with the lowest Default score. Getting your game played and rated boils down to keeping your Default score low. (yeah, in this case, the lower, the better)
The Default score is calculated by considering 2 basic factors: how many games you have rated (your Coolness score, show as a “C” in those little numbers below the thumbnail), and how many times your game have been rated (your “Ratings” score, shown as an “R”). The most games you rate, the better will your Coolness score be, and therefore it will go up in the priority list to be shown among those games in the “Play and Rate” screen. Your own game will be played and rated more or less proportionally to that – when someone rates your game, your game goes down in that priority list a little bit, so that other games can also receive a fair amount of ratings.
tl; dr: you keep playing and rating games, and your game will keep going up in the priority list that decides which games appear on the “Play and Rate” screen. As your game gets there and is played, it will go down in the priority list, and if you want to receive even more ratings, you have to keep playing and rating games too!
A WORD OF ADVICE (for people considering exploiting this system)
So, we are all gamers here and when we see a system, the first thing we do is start thinking on how to exploit it. “Duh, I will just open a thousand games and give them random ratings, preferably low rates so that they don’t compete with mine, and my game will be played thousands of times and I’ll be rich and conquer the world!”. If you think like this, you are in the wrong community. This is not even a proper competition and the winner doesn’t get a prize, and also cheating the rating system won’t make your game go well in the ‘competition’ (what makes you do well in the competition is making a great game). You should be here in a humble spirit, more than anything else to learn from others, make some friends and improve your craft.
With the ugly stuff out of the way, that’s it!
My most honest and warm welcome to all newcomers! I still remember my first time here last year (hell, I still feel like a noob, to be honest), and one of the greatest things I took from my first participation was the feeling of belonging to a community made of such nice, smart people. If it’s your first time here, I want you to feel the same way! It is awesome and beautiful how this event is growing at each edition. 
So, every one of you newcomers, I can’t hug all of you in person, but please feel hugged. And now go play some games, give them honest ratings, be sure to leave a nice and thoughtful comment containing some honest and useful feedback! We’ll be doing the same for you! 😀
Cheers!
Gabriel @pixel_cows