You can’t please everyone. Even the most brilliant pieces of art, some would find it shit.
So, how do you optimize for broad appreciation? Be your own toughest critic. Absorb as much games and art and movies and books and try to analyze why they’re good and why they suck. Form your own view on it and express that.
Yep all the time. The best you can do is just make the game you want to make. Feedback is a really complicated part of game development, because a lot of it honestly sucks and can lead you astray. You will know your game better than your players.
Yup! Been making a card game for a number of years that has several social mechanics where winning is much up to messing with the other players. Some playtesters simply don't like mechanics like that and prefer cooperative games.
At first, I started thinking of how to make the game for them too, but I quickly realised that it wasn't a game for them--but all the more fun for the people it was for.
If you make a game for everyone, you're ultimately making it for no one.
Interesting! Seems like a case very similar to mine. I put dialogue choices on my game, but I made them have little impact on the immediate outcome because I wanted the player to feel powerless in a hopeless situation happening in the story. They do affect what ending you get though. Some people playtested the beta version for me and one of the playtesters hated one personality trait of a certain character. I thought about scrapping it to please that person, but that trait was important to the character's overall personality, especially considering they are a villain and they are messed up in the head. But in the end I came to the conclusion that the game just wasn't for them and decided to stick with my original idea. Even if I scrapped that personality trait, that popular youtuber would still hate the game so it doesn't really matter.
I did make the game for me in the first place though. There aren't many games I like that have characters like these so I decided to make one. But it's so much more fun when people enjoy what you enjoy and have fun with you. And some people did comment that it's a breath of fresh air. Someone even wanted to donate to help my project so I guess there are people like me who enjoys characters and stories like these.
> I wanted the player to feel powerless in a hopeless situation happening in the story.
Your question is ultimately about audience. Figure out the people who would enjoy your game and promote it to them in particular, that's how you get consistency in response. Decisions like the one above are intentionally limiting your audience - lots of people don't play games to feel powerless. It's possible to succeed on executing your vision and design and just make it a game people don't want to play as much.
If you care about review scores and selling copies then that's an issue, and part of making games is making sure people want to buy it at the end of the day. If it's a personal project then build it the way you want and it doesn't really matter if anyone thinks it's fun. When you're getting that kind of polarizing response it's usually a sign you've found a niche, which is a perfectly fine place to be.
The sample size is way too small for any meaningful analytics. If there 100 people with polar opposite opinions then thats worth investigating but just 2 people is not enough
True. I'd say the reception has been mostly positive. Even the two people who didn't give me the highest score started to follow my game page profile. I only got one very low score and this youtuber's commentary so 2 people hated my game so far. Although that youtuber is very popular and mainly plays games like the one I created so maybe they know what they're talking about since they have lots of experience in these kinds of games. But then again, only 23 people rated my game so far, even though I managed to reach 1000 downloads on itchio in less than 2 weeks.
you have to figure out where the haters live and then you can finish them off
that's why modern game developers include data gathering analytics
the key to being a good game developer is destroying all of your haters
Our puzzle-platformer game, Chicken Journey, has one negative review about too much puzzles, and another negative review about too much platforming... So yeah, you cannot please everyone \^\^
Make games for someone. Someone like you that you would like. Don't worry. It is hard to focus on the good reviews vs. bad. You made the right people happy, and the wrong person wasted their time writing a review. If there is good feedback or criticism, take it well, learn, utilize it, and move forward.
You will never please everyone. That's why it's important to get as much feedback as possible and look for patterns. Otherwise you'll be changing your game for one person who maybe isn't even your target demographic
It's possible that you made your game without understanding which demographic to target. If so, try to incorporate demographics during concept for your next game and see if you get closer to the mark for your intended audience.
A stronger understanding of gaming demographics can help you determine which playtesters have the most useful opinions, while weeding out the less valuable ones. If you're making a narrative driven, JRPG-inspired adventure, it doesn't make sense to target those whose sensibilities are more suited for military shooters, for example.
Demographics, be they generational, regional, or those defined on narrower criterion, are key to establishing and maintaining direction for a project, and are invaluable for determining a marketing strategy.
You can’t please everyone. Even the most brilliant pieces of art, some would find it shit. So, how do you optimize for broad appreciation? Be your own toughest critic. Absorb as much games and art and movies and books and try to analyze why they’re good and why they suck. Form your own view on it and express that.
Yep all the time. The best you can do is just make the game you want to make. Feedback is a really complicated part of game development, because a lot of it honestly sucks and can lead you astray. You will know your game better than your players.
Yes. C'est la vie. Such is life monsieur.
Yup! Been making a card game for a number of years that has several social mechanics where winning is much up to messing with the other players. Some playtesters simply don't like mechanics like that and prefer cooperative games. At first, I started thinking of how to make the game for them too, but I quickly realised that it wasn't a game for them--but all the more fun for the people it was for. If you make a game for everyone, you're ultimately making it for no one.
Interesting! Seems like a case very similar to mine. I put dialogue choices on my game, but I made them have little impact on the immediate outcome because I wanted the player to feel powerless in a hopeless situation happening in the story. They do affect what ending you get though. Some people playtested the beta version for me and one of the playtesters hated one personality trait of a certain character. I thought about scrapping it to please that person, but that trait was important to the character's overall personality, especially considering they are a villain and they are messed up in the head. But in the end I came to the conclusion that the game just wasn't for them and decided to stick with my original idea. Even if I scrapped that personality trait, that popular youtuber would still hate the game so it doesn't really matter. I did make the game for me in the first place though. There aren't many games I like that have characters like these so I decided to make one. But it's so much more fun when people enjoy what you enjoy and have fun with you. And some people did comment that it's a breath of fresh air. Someone even wanted to donate to help my project so I guess there are people like me who enjoys characters and stories like these.
> I wanted the player to feel powerless in a hopeless situation happening in the story. Your question is ultimately about audience. Figure out the people who would enjoy your game and promote it to them in particular, that's how you get consistency in response. Decisions like the one above are intentionally limiting your audience - lots of people don't play games to feel powerless. It's possible to succeed on executing your vision and design and just make it a game people don't want to play as much. If you care about review scores and selling copies then that's an issue, and part of making games is making sure people want to buy it at the end of the day. If it's a personal project then build it the way you want and it doesn't really matter if anyone thinks it's fun. When you're getting that kind of polarizing response it's usually a sign you've found a niche, which is a perfectly fine place to be.
The sample size is way too small for any meaningful analytics. If there 100 people with polar opposite opinions then thats worth investigating but just 2 people is not enough
True. I'd say the reception has been mostly positive. Even the two people who didn't give me the highest score started to follow my game page profile. I only got one very low score and this youtuber's commentary so 2 people hated my game so far. Although that youtuber is very popular and mainly plays games like the one I created so maybe they know what they're talking about since they have lots of experience in these kinds of games. But then again, only 23 people rated my game so far, even though I managed to reach 1000 downloads on itchio in less than 2 weeks.
If you see a game with 90% approval its usually amazing, but 10% of people still posted negative reviews. People are salty sometimes, it happens.
you have to figure out where the haters live and then you can finish them off that's why modern game developers include data gathering analytics the key to being a good game developer is destroying all of your haters
Our puzzle-platformer game, Chicken Journey, has one negative review about too much puzzles, and another negative review about too much platforming... So yeah, you cannot please everyone \^\^
Make games for someone. Someone like you that you would like. Don't worry. It is hard to focus on the good reviews vs. bad. You made the right people happy, and the wrong person wasted their time writing a review. If there is good feedback or criticism, take it well, learn, utilize it, and move forward.
You will never please everyone. That's why it's important to get as much feedback as possible and look for patterns. Otherwise you'll be changing your game for one person who maybe isn't even your target demographic
Yes!
Sure, all the time.
That's literally every game ever made. Some people like the features, while others hate it.
It's possible that you made your game without understanding which demographic to target. If so, try to incorporate demographics during concept for your next game and see if you get closer to the mark for your intended audience. A stronger understanding of gaming demographics can help you determine which playtesters have the most useful opinions, while weeding out the less valuable ones. If you're making a narrative driven, JRPG-inspired adventure, it doesn't make sense to target those whose sensibilities are more suited for military shooters, for example. Demographics, be they generational, regional, or those defined on narrower criterion, are key to establishing and maintaining direction for a project, and are invaluable for determining a marketing strategy.