I think some people mistakenly think that brutally honest feedback is all good quality and necessarily useful because, hey, that’s their “honest opinion”. Not so (IMO). Honest, constructive criticism is not entirely negative, nor is it entirely positive. It balances negatives with positives.
Could be I’m thinking about this from the perspective of an employer/employee relationship, where employers may be interested in learning how to give feedback with the goal of increasing productivity, retaining good workers, etc. Of course, this [game development] is a different situation and relationship.
The point is, all feedback that is at one extreme or another is highly questionable - not only from the perspective of a developers, but also players or potential players. It’s hard to trust anyone that seems to put everything in little black and white boxes when maybe most things should go in a gray box, a multi-hued box, or perhaps don’t belong in any particular box at all.
The biggest thing that can make feedback not be as useful toward the goal of improvement is being vague, whether it’s skewed toward positive, negative, or is even neutral. Rhetorical question: if it’s too vague, how can someone (or a team of people) know what they should keep doing or change?
I just found this gem the other day, although it appears to be a very new site and doesn’t have a lot of content, perhaps it will be useful to have someone outside of GDevelop (as far as I know) who also has training in Game Design evaluate the games that are created with it.
Someone didn’t like the feedback she received for her game.
I’m sorry to hear it’s hard on you, but no matter how unpleasant, the goal is to improve your game, not flatter you, right?
When you ask for feedback, you need to be ready for the worst, because you’ll have people coming from triple-A games, you’ll have eight year old brats, you’ll have trolls and everything else in between.
You can’t expect people who take time to test your game to take more time on top of that to find positive aspects to it and spare your feelings, or to bring constructive feedback. Some will just say “this sucks, and that too” and it’s still feedback.
About your game, there’s plenty of room for improvement, sure, but don’t forget how much you’ve made already
To end on a philosophical note: you can’t force people to think and act like you would like them to, but you can change the way you react to their thoughts and actions. If some feedback feels too rude for you, just put it in a convenient troll box and ignore it.
The whole point of the test (I didn’t actually ask for feedback) was to help me figure out a specific issue that was described when I asked for volunteers. So I am left with still wondering if it is indeed an issue for everyone or only on my end. That’s the big rub.
I didn’t put it under “How do I…?” because I don’t really have a question about how to shoot weapons, although I am prepared to share the events for the behavior.
As for feedback…
I don’t need an analysis of the overall design or a bunch of nit-picky irrelevance to the issue at this point. Despite not caring for the delivery of said feedback, I have already begun to think of ways that the game can be simplified - so the current unavailability is temporary, which is to say I have indeed chosen my actions/reactions; the negativity will not hold me back. I have put too much work in to my game to give up so easily.
There is only so much that can be done there though - if you want to play, you’re going to have to use your head and prepare to be kept on your toes. No getting around it. If not, then don’t play - can’t get any simpler than that. It’s not and never will be designed to be like Burger King; you can’t have everything your way.
Are you making a thread about feedback guidelines in general, as your first message and your title suggested, or are you making a personal vendetta about whoever gave you unwelcome/negative/inadequate feedback about your game?
If you gave instructions for a testing session and someone didn’t follow them, no need to write a topic about that, please settle the issue in private or on thededicated topic, because I don’t even know what “test” or “specific issue” you are writing about. Thanks.
You were the first to mention my game in this topic, and smirking/mocking me on top of it, therefore antagonizing that issue. I simply replied to that content in your message to explain what really bothered me, since you seemed to be assuming to know all about that and why I posted this.
You can’t afford to be this touchy, in general but especially in this field. Gamers can be savages, if a few bad reactions to this little test you had trigger such a response from you, imagine if you had something commercial out in the play store. They’d destroy you. You HAVE to learn to compartmentalise, identify the useless hateful comments (which will ALWAYS be there no matter what) and ignore them. You have no choice to be honest.
Best of luck!
I realize you are trying to help but once again, this is being made personal. Please stop, thank you. I have moved forward.
Feedback is not synonymous with testing in game development. Just learned this.
Game development is a hobby for me, not a profession or business venture. I can easily choose another to focus on and let this go if it is not leading to the satisfaction and pleasure that one normally derives from a hobby and brings unneeded stress instead - and the reasons for that don’t have to have anything to do with feedback at all. I can be frustrated with the engine, the availability of assets that fit my vision, or whatever.
I absolutely do have choices on whether this is a worthwhile endeavor to invest my time in.
I never said that people shouldn’t be honest about what they like or don’t like, nor that all feedback should be rosy positive (on the contrary, read the OP again). I’m only suggesting that reviewers be careful about extremes - in either direction. Will they be careful because of my suggestion? Probably not. I’m putting it out there anyway.
I would really appreciate it if people stopped putting words in my mouth and twisting them though.
The whole point of the test (I didn’t actually ask for feedback) was to help me figure out a specific issue that was described when I asked for volunteers. So I am left with still wondering if it is indeed an issue for everyone or only on my end. That’s the big rub.