If you're thinking about developing or already are, read this.

[HopesGaming]

Well written, TheTypist.

I think one of the most underlooked aspects of game making is the mental part.
Many people are really emotional. An emotional dev with negative comments is a recipe for disaster.
You can't do anything about negative comments. Those will happen. There is no such thing as a game liked by everyone.
But you, random dev out there, can do something about controlling your emotions. Be professional even if this is a hobby and a side thing.

I was like you too, Typist.
My game was a pure hit and miss. No clue how it would be received. Anyone who played my game by now knows it's not the usual game out there. But never would I've imagined it would do as it has.
And I am grateful and overjoyed but the negative part about having a fast success game is that the expectations for that game get a bit messed up. Now a new dev (moi) with a new game that is only two updates in - is compared to the big premium devs out there that do this fulltime. That combined with a unique kind of doing adult games (story first - sex later) and a huge pool of players in a short time have given me a hell of a lot of different kinds of comments.

But luckily my personality is a bit more on the 'relax' side. A lot of my negative comment at the start was about too much grind and the management part. Some really harsh and rude - while others were more constructive.
Looked into it. Agreed. Tried to fix it as good as I now could.
Later it was about missing adult content. Some really harsh and rude - while others were more constructive.
Looked into it. Didn't agree. So, I replied to those people in a non-rude manner that that is not my style of doing it. That does not resolve the negative comments. But in my own mind, I've now addressed it and moved on.

Point is. Too many devs do not look into the root of the negative comments. They'll get emotional. They'll get offended. They'll make a reply full of anger. And this will just end up hurting their own game down the line.

The only time I feel I let it get to me was due to stressing myself out. When you get hit by illness in this industry and can't work you feel a lot of stress due to not being able to work much. Some understand and some won't.
Fact is, you take longer than usual and this end up getting a lot of negative comments.

But alas, it's part of being human.

TD:LR

New devs. Don't get emotional. Don't be bitching at the negativity. Take a deep breath. Is the negative comment valid?
Yes? Address it - fix it.
No? Ignore it.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Many people are really emotional.

In fact you don't need to be emotional at first, it can quickly become a Pavlov reflex. Just look your own case and all the praises you received. It's easy, even with a small part of what you lived, to become emotionally addicted to the positive comments.
It's not something you want, nor something you seek, it's just something that happen. The more you've see positive comments, the more your brain will expect to have his dose of dopamine each time you decide to read what is said about your game.

 

[HopesGaming]

In fact you don't need to be emotional at first, it can quickly become a Pavlov reflex. Just look your own case and all the praises you received. It's easy, even with a small part of what you lived, to become emotionally addicted to the positive comments.
It's not something you want, nor something you seek, it's just something that happen. The more you've see positive comments, the more your brain will expect to have his dose of dopamine each time you decide to read what is said about your game.

Absolutely. That is definitely something that can happen.
And it has been seen many times. A new game comes out, praises are mostly what occupies the thread, and after a couple of updates in (maybe a bad update, a bad event, etc.) people start to write harsh and negative comments.
This makes a normally calm/silent dev into a very defensive person. This sudden burst of negativity can really mess with the head. Some delete their accounts, some become rude, some do drastic changes to the game as a 'fight-back' and so on.

I also had that many time happened. As you said, with all the positivity that been coming in, the brain kind of expect that.
And then you open and see someone rate your game a low rating and you just feel like jumping the guy, write to him and so on. But usually it only takes a split second and you go back to normal mode.
And that is usually what should happen. Take a step back. Only write when you in a calm state. If you absolutely want to defend your self, never do it in anger.

 

[Deleted member 167032]

We as devs, open the door...

Once we post it here or any type of platform we open the door. You can "prepare" yourself in your head as much as you like... it's never what you would face.

As you have said. Take a step back and just focus ot those who love your game. Have someone else read teh negatives and then tell you what was said as this will lighten the negativity and filter out teh actual message, positive critique if you will if there is one.

Ive had negative critique's where you can see the person rushed through the game and had not clue what was going on. So nothing of great value for me to take from those.

Absolutely. That is definitely something that can happen.
And it has been seen many times. A new game comes out, praises are mostly what occupies the thread, and after a couple of updates in (maybe a bad update, a bad event, etc.) people start to write harsh and negative comments.
This makes a normally calm/silent dev into a very defensive person. This sudden burst of negativity can really mess with the head. Some delete their accounts, some become rude, some do drastic changes to the game as a 'fight-back' and so on.

I also had that many time happened. As you said, with all the positivity that been coming in, the brain kind of expect that.
And then you open and see someone rate your game a low rating and you just feel like jumping the guy, write to him and so on. But usually it only takes a split second and you go back to normal mode.
And that is usually what should happen. Take a step back. Only write when you in a calm state. If you absolutely want to defend your self, never do it in anger.

 

[Winterfire]

release a .01 and abandon it due to the jerks or.. realizing just how much work theyve undertaken...

That's a lazy or beginner mistake (mostly the latter), if you are not in a hurry and write a game design before doing anything else, you will have a clear view of what needs to be done, when and how.

Also, in general your projects should be short when starting out, granted that I have some big projects in mind as well I would never dream of attempting them (For the reasons you have smartly listed out, even more so in my situation as I do not have a computer but a potato).

 

[xFerisu]

I really liked your post bro, since I'm looking for become a game developer too, but I'm out of any ideas to continue writing the story of my game. I have already a name for it and it's called WOLVEAR (Wolves + Fear). It's supposed to be a metroidvania game with a lot of science fiction, thriller and action, also it's supposed to be in pixel art. I'm trying to get more real science content to put into the story. Until there it's cool, but I also want to put some historic content, like the mysticism around the USSR experiments. In my mind this would do an awesome game, but to be honest, I don't know if I'll manage to develop this, BUT, after reading this text of yours, made me happy and encouraged to keep trying to finish the story to start the development with some ex-college mate ^^'

 

[xFerisu]

Also, after releasing my suppost game called WOLVEAR, I'm going to start a H-game in pixel art too (I guess I can say that I love, but it's kind of late, right? xD), BUT not any kind of pixel H-Game, but one that you can play with your girlfriend/boyfriend. I can say that by myself (I know there aren't a lot of couples like me and my girlfriend) because even my girlfriend asked me one why there's no such h-game that you can play in cooperative mode because she liked to play games like Kurovadis, Parasite In City and Anthophobia but those games are hard to play (her opinion) until the end by herself, but she also wanted to play with me. That's the way I'm looking for, but to start a h-game without any support like Patreon or itch.io demands some money to make it properly and without any issues and, also, to pay people to work in this like graphic design, programmer and someone to do the OST (I know I'm looking too foward since I didn't even finished my first project yet). I must finish and release WOLVEAR to get funds to do my h-game releasing free updates until finish the game development to release. ^^'

 

[DJsona]

Hi John! first i want to say : I love your game so much !! he is already in my top 10. and if you put some Mother daughter kissing i will become my number 1 by far i wish you the best of the best for your future !!

My girlfriend took notice and always questioned me, eventually finding out why I've been up till 6 am 5 days in a row trying to work out and update. She recently left me for that sole reason, and I was hurt, and honestly still am...

You broke my heart, but nice guy like you allways win ; )
Since i discover F95 i want to make a game too, but unfortunatly i m not english native so im in front of another wall. but you give me hope, and it's priceless : ) from the botom of my heart : Thank you man !!!!!

 

[seamanq]

John: Thanks for your post. I am twice your age plus a little, but it doesn't necessarily get that much easier. After playing some of the VNs on F95Zone, I got the bug and downloaded Daz 3D and Ren'py the last week of November. I released the alpha of my first game the first week of January. I deliberately worked hard to make sure that my actors weren't straight out of the box (except one, but she was a new purchase from an infrequently-seen developer in VNs). I made some mistakes with my poses and a few of my characters were absolutely hated. Since then, I have gone through and redone almost every single sprite, making major improvements. I have also found a lot of continuity problems, and that led to re-rendering a significant amount of episode 1 (and some of episode 2). The good news is that I feel I have a much better game going forward.

Regarding the haters, I have been active in online communities for over 30 years. I was active on bulletin boards before the internet took off, and I was active on AOL when Kai Krause was a regular contributor. Man, he helped me learn so many things about Photoshop back when it was at version 2.0. The thing I learned about people from the early days until now is that folks get really comfortable hurling insults while hiding behind the anonymity of a keyboard. Once the internet took off, it wasn't (and still isn't) any different.

Several game developers have pitched in about the value of criticism. Even if you don't like it, criticism is still valuable. Sometimes it forces you to push back from your story and re-evaluate. But I learned a huge lesson from Dr. Pink Cake when he released a chapter of Acting Lessons that many people absolutely hated. It's your story. In fact, when he wrapped up Acting Lessons, he said almost exactly those words. Live your story.

So, my game and my story is different than most, and some people will view my game and absolutely hate it, because it's not their kind of story. I wish them well. Other folks will read my story and think it's totally unique. I'm hoping that as my characters develop and blossom, they will come to love them as much as I do. I feel kind of blessed that I have a really powerful computer with a decent video card that a consulting gig with a major corporation paid for.

All I can say is this ... like Dr. Pink Cake said, it's your story. Some people may love it. Some people may hate it. If you're looking for approval from the outside, then maybe developing anything for the public isn't for you. I wish all of my fellow developers the best of success, and I'll keep plugging away, and I encourage anyone who has the passion to keep at it. Trust me, if you do what you love, then at the end of the day, even if you're the only one, you will have produced something that you love and are proud of.

 

[MaxCarna]

As american folks usually say "my two cents" on the matter... I believe that public negative comments, bad feedbacks, even filled with hatred, shouldn't be, by far, the worst thing for creators. The worst is the silence, get no reaction from your product, can't say what people think about it. I've seen more springs than you, if those extra years brought any lessons.

Bad comments give you expose, provide an opportunity to you reply and show that you are bigger, better. Some people can decide to support you exactly because one of your answers to a hatred comment. They decide what they will give to you, but you decide what to make with that, what you can turn it into. Interactions and publicity by themselves are gold, beside that behind the curtain of a bad feeling, showing someone that don't know how to express itself, maybe you can fish an ideia that will improve your product even more.

Silence is the worst. One of the major ills of our time is people getting more and more indifferents, maybe calloused by the number of bad news that the information era started to throw at their laps, or maybe just too distracted by smartphones charms. It's getting harder and harder to call someone attention, to provoke and cause someone to make you a comment, it's a win, no matter what they have to say.

That being said, everyone on Patreon lives the constant challenge to drive their projects and don't allow their projects to drive them, and this is very hard. In my case on Patreon I experienced a big grow from october, 2017 until june, 2018, then my pledges started to fall. I thought some strategies to retake the grow, which I was able to achieve on september, 2018 but... my vacations on my regular job arrieved on october, 2018.

I'm married, it would be impossible not to go on a travel with my wife... Pledges falling down again since them. But see, that's where I saw the devil's face, maybe if I wasn't married, I would spent my vacation working to keep the pace. Probably my health, mental and physical, would charge me hard on the following months. Any creator is susceptible to be enslaved by his project, to constantly please the crowd. That is what we should be much more concerned, than hatred comments.

I saw this article on the last year, it served me as a warning, I believe that would be good to share with all creators:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Winterfire]

As american folks usually say "my two cents" on the matter... I believe that public negative comments, bad feedbacks, even filled with hatred, shouldn't be, by far, the worst thing for creators. The worst is the silence, get no reaction from your product, can't say what people think about it.

+1
I didn't even read the rest before liking the post.

 

[Vantr]

I'm sorry if I bother writing here after all this time but I wanted to thank you.

I didn't know about these kind of games until I saw them in steam. One day I decided to play one and I liked it, and after that I play other games and loved them, Because I Love Her was one of them. After playing many of those games I always came up with some ideas that I would like to see. Two weeks ago I decided to learn making renders in DAZ and when I found this post it really motivated me.

I'm still learning, some things that I found very difficult before I can do them now but it is not enough to make a game, I need to learn more. Hopefully in a future I can make games that people would like.

Thank you Typist for this post, I hope this comment doesn't bother you and if it does, I apologize. I love your game and I wish you the best! <3

 

[FunBearDude]

so glad i stumbled upon this post, such a nice read!
i also just started making my first game and have no idea how things gonna turn out
but now i know i am not alone in these difficulties of game dev,
it gives me strength to carry on and keep fighting to bring my game out~

 

[BigSexy57]

They are our friends, and we must be a good friend back and give them more. They like what we're putting out, why let the haters change that for you, it's unfair to the folks who love you and your work, and they will feel betrayed or hurt if you listen to all the hate...

This is not true. This is the truth.

Yes, it is your personal opinion, and since you don't have anything better - you will defend this point of view like the only way to stay confident to preceed in doing of what you are doing. I can understand and respect that, because i believe people have rights to commit mistakes as much as they want to, untill they become dead or wise enough to stop making all the same mistakes already. Hope you will understand one day, that negative feedback - is also a feedback, and tbh it is the most and only valuable one, if to understand its objective reasons and subjective form of expressing the report about it, which could be hidden by the wall of not pleasunt emotions about what you have done rudely wrong or even just not perfect enough in your game from some players' points of view - then it can become the best fuel to make the right driving of your porn game development project by the one and only highway, which is leading to create a true masterpiece, while all other roads can looks easier or ordinary, but will lead just to another pathetic bs, as it statisticaly quite usual for that business brunch.

 

[TheTypist]

This is not true. This is the truth.

Yes, it is your personal opinion, and since you don't have anything better - you will defend this point of view like the only way to stay confident to preceed in doing of what you are doing. I can understand and respect that, because i believe people have rights to commit mistakes as much as they want to, untill they become dead or wise enough to stop making all the same mistakes already. Hope you will understand one day, that negative feedback - is also a feedback, and tbh it is the most and only valuable one, if to understand its objective reasons and subjective form of expressing the report about it, which could be hidden by the wall of not pleasunt emotions about what you have done rudely wrong or even just not perfect enough in your game from some players' points of view - then it can become the best fuel to make the right driving of your porn game development project by the one and only highway, which is leading to create a true masterpiece, while all other roads can looks easier or ordinary, but will lead just to another pathetic bs, as it statisticaly quite usual for that business brunch.

That bit was not me saying to listen to only those who support you. It was me trying to convey that you must not let the hate overwhelm you with thoughts of giving up altogether, quitting and therefore leaving those who do like what you’re doing behind altogether.

All feedback and criticism should be welcomed, read, and taken into account within reason. My post was intended for those thinking about becoming a developer or possibly quitting while in the early stages.

This thread is from years ago and many things have changed, but you got the wrong message from that sentence.