Game Development

So, to me game development is just a hobby, and I haven't been active for about a year now - and one problem leading to that hiatus is actually positive feedback I got on my games. (Other things were giving up smoking, exacerbated health problems, personal issues in life completely unrelated to developing - just to not overstate the effect of the feedback).

There is something wrong with my psyche somewhere, unsure how fundamentally, but a livetime of psychologists and psychiatrists haven't helped so far - where as soon as something feels expected of me, feels "real" - I freeze up, up to the point of genuine feelings of mortal terror even (but without concrete thoughts of anxiety like explicit consequences that are feared). What makes this complicated is, that I still like the appreciation in the moment, when reading positive feedback, in the first moments at least, before this feeling of "oh no, now there are eyes on me and my work" cripples me. The same dynamic has held me back enormously in general - where working on free projects and helping people out has been relatively easy to me, but as soon as I get money for something with an attached expectation, I turn into a bit of a mess and it takes conscious work and effort.

Negative feedback hurts, of course, and it has other problems attached. But it at least has not turned out to be as crippling to my abilities. Without knowing the title you reviewed - I think your review is definitely fair - as a bit of a perfectionist, I am also sometimes confused by what people release with actually taking money for it. I think, if I were the recipient here, I'd definitely feel a bit of shame, but mostly because of the high price point of the game. In general, I feel appreciative of feedback, like most people here I'd wager. But again, sometimes there is this weird thing, where good, constructive criticism can make me freeze up, because it feels like now there is this expectation in the room. Dismissive reviews, I can strangely live with more easily, because it's easier to just imagine them not being my target audience to begin with, or not having engaged with my work.

Okay, this has turned out to be a bit of a therapeutic traumadump, hope it still was interesting as a perspective, and maybe someone shares the same basic experience. In general, I try to engage in good faith with feedback, both giving an taking - unless what I am engaging with is clearly not doing that to begin with. Making games is hard, and unless you are trying to rip people off, everyone needs their cringey and bad projects on their way to their better ones and I think that should be respected. Also: Even cringey and bad games have some value in my eyes, and not simply as mockery. I enjoy the humanity expressed in some of them very much.

I haven't worked on anything that big but I have gotten a ton of feedback on my free games and apps, some of which was really harsh. Positive reviews are always fun to read but usually I focus on the negative reviews. Negative reviews are hard to read but tend to be the most insightful, you get an idea for the things in your game that need work or are too frustrating for others. I think your review is pretty good feedback in general.

Many people definitely need a reality check - just don't be rude. Lots of people think their game is going to be the next big thing or that somehow people aren't going to compare it to games that are extremely similar and probably the same price.

I was at a gaming event once and one of the demos I tried was extremely unintuitive and at some point you had to search the floor for a key that's way too hard to see (me and friends spent like 5 minutes running around a dark room). I pointed this out to the devs and they got super defensive, telling me that it's not supposed to be obvious and you're supposed to be looking for items for real. This is how not to take feedback. When someone says your game sucks, take notes and try to improve.

In terms of taking feedback, the best advice I can give is just be open minded. When someone says the game sucks, no matter how stupid their feedback is, just give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they're right. Maybe they suck at video games and the tutorial needed to be clearer, maybe the writing really is boring and not as interesting as you thought, maybe it's just not clear enough where you're supposed to be going, etc. It's good to get perspective of others.

Not all feedback is useful though, sometimes the game just isn't for them. If Dark Souls actually took all that criticism about the game being hard and added an easy mode, it wouldn't be as gripping or popular as it was. Don't let players bully you into changing your vision just because they wished your game was a different game.

TL;DR: Feedback is always good, don't be afraid to voice your opinion. For devs, keep an open mind but don't let it get under your skin.

Its hard lol. I rarely take pride on positives and mostly dwell on the negatives. Not good or healthy but what are you going to do.

Flaws are hard. I've gotten some pretty brutal review smackdowns for things that were largely out of my control, or things I was aware of but couldn't fix in a satisfying way, and that just feels awful.

But on the flip side I got reviews that pointed out issues I had never seen or even noticed, or worded it in a way that clarified the issue, and those are helpful.

All you can really do is remember the dev is human at the end of the day. Full of flaws and likely jumped on a project too ambitious for their own good.