[R> Other] Any advice?

[granit2000]

Hey everyone!
I recently released my first game, and overall I’m really happy with the feedback I’ve gotten here — honestly, I’m even a bit surprised by how far it spread beyond this site.

At the end of the game, I added a link to my SubscribeStar page — unfortunately, it’s still stuck in "YOUR PROFILE IS UNDER REVIEW" mode. I contacted their support, but haven’t heard anything back, and it’s already been a month.

To be honest, I wasn’t even looking for donations as much as I was hoping to get some feedback from players — to better understand what people are looking for, what I should pay more attention to, and which direction to take next.
In short, I just want to figure out where to go from here.

Any tips on how to get more feedback? The game thread has been pretty dead for the past couple of weeks.
I’d really appreciate any ideas or suggestions!

 

[Eranwel]

Hey bro, from my experience I learned that unfortunately people hardly ever want to communicate with creators, so most of the time you just need to judge a situation by yourself. If a game is bad, silence is your biggest feedback you'll get and even if you'll get people talking to you, it could be a loud minority so listen to what people are saying but you still need to ask yourself what your game actually needs.
It's a really tough shit not to be out of touch with your target audience. Why people don't wanna talk? They're either shy, don't give a fuck, don't like AI that looks ugly/off/inconsistent or don't want to be viewed as an asshole.

 

[granit2000]

Hey bro, from my experience I learned that unfortunately people hardly ever want to communicate with creators, so most of the time you just need to judge a situation by yourself. If a game is bad, silence is your biggest feedback you'll get and even if you'll get people talking to you, it could be a loud minority so listen to what people are saying but you still need to ask yourself what your game actually needs.
It's a really tough shit not to be out of touch with your target audience. Why people don't wanna talk? They're either shy, don't give a fuck, don't like AI that looks ugly/off/inconsistent or don't want to be viewed as an asshole.

Thanks for taking the time to reply — I really appreciate it! Yeah, this is definitely a tricky and pretty ambiguous question.
I totally get that asking the audience for every little thing — like every "sneeze" — is way too much. And dropping half-hour chunks of content once every few months… let's just say that's not exactly ideal either.


Ideally, just release a full, completed story all at once. That way people can just sit back and enjoy the whole thing in one go, instead of waiting years between tiny updates like some kind of content drip-feed.


What about AI-generated art? Well, that’s definitely a controversial topic. See, hiring actual artists is expensive, and not many people are willing to work for free or on pure passion alone. And if someone changes their mind halfway through for whatever reason, keeping the visual style consistent becomes a nightmare.
Still, looking back three years ago, I’d say AI art has gotten way better and way easier to work with. Honestly, at this point, AI-generated visuals can be pretty decent — as long as you don’t just slap something out there with zero care.


As for gameplay — especially in RPGMaker — I can't really recall seeing any really compelling combat systems. Some games have had fun twists on losing a battle or making fights more theatrical, but actual engaging mechanics? Pretty rare. So yeah, mostly you're left with story as the main hook.

In short — I was just hoping to get some honest, critical feedback from people who actually played it. But given all the points above, that’s easier said than done...

 

[Eranwel]

Thanks for taking the time to reply — I really appreciate it! Yeah, this is definitely a tricky and pretty ambiguous question.
I totally get that asking the audience for every little thing — like every "sneeze" — is way too much. And dropping half-hour chunks of content once every few months… let's just say that's not exactly ideal either.


Ideally, just release a full, completed story all at once. That way people can just sit back and enjoy the whole thing in one go, instead of waiting years between tiny updates like some kind of content drip-feed.


What about AI-generated art? Well, that’s definitely a controversial topic. See, hiring actual artists is expensive, and not many people are willing to work for free or on pure passion alone. And if someone changes their mind halfway through for whatever reason, keeping the visual style consistent becomes a nightmare.
Still, looking back three years ago, I’d say AI art has gotten way better and way easier to work with. Honestly, at this point, AI-generated visuals can be pretty decent — as long as you don’t just slap something out there with zero care.


As for gameplay — especially in RPGMaker — I can't really recall seeing any really compelling combat systems. Some games have had fun twists on losing a battle or making fights more theatrical, but actual engaging mechanics? Pretty rare. So yeah, mostly you're left with story as the main hook.

In short — I was just hoping to get some honest, critical feedback from people who actually played it. But given all the points above, that’s easier said than done...

Yup, exactly. Good luck bro

 

[lurkathon]

I believe you can run a poll in your game thread, like y.v. has done here Space Journey X
That may get you more direct feedback on issues you are curious about. Of course I have no idea how to set one up, perhaps a mod or another dev can help there.