Thanks for sending this in, Anon. It’s not rude at all and I’m happy to chat about this! This is an important issue among the indie developer community, regardless of genre. I’ll start with a scenario.
Say you open a restaurant that serves specialized cuisine. You only serve dishes with noodles or pasta. You have other ingredients to create your different recipes, but the aforementioned is what you sell.
Person A who eats at the restaurant says, “This is delicious! I totally love it here!” and shares the place with their friends. You’re over the moon from that positive feedback and people are enjoying the restaurant.
Then person B comes. They review the menu and when you approach for their order they ask, “Hi, can I order a burger?”
You’re rightfully confused. The restaurant only serves pasta and ramen.
“Pardon me, but we only serve noodle-based dishes here. Did you want more time with the menu?”
“Oh, I read the menu. I see you have ground beef used in some of your dishes. So, I’d like a burger.”
“Sorry but, we only serve pasta and ramen.”
“You have the ground beef, right? Why can’t I have a burger?”
Exasperated, person B tells you how insensitive you are that you’ve clearly never considered selling burgers since your restaurant has ground beef. They of course say this loud enough that everyone is watching now, and it’s become a commotion.
So what do you do? You were never selling burgers. It’s a noodle-based restaurant. What solution works, and who’s wrong? You for using ground beef in a few of your recipes? Or person B who approached for the item they’d like at this specialized establishment?
Now imagine, person C steps in to break up the commotion, but they say, “From tomorrow on, sell burgers. It’ll be good for business.”
Mind you, your restaurant’s kitchen was constructed optimally to serve pasta and ramen. You’d have to invest at a hefty price to meet this demand.
Now, what If I tell you there’s a massive burger-joint beside your mom-and-pop noodle restaurant. What then?
Perhaps this was a crude analogy, but I think it puts into perspective how indie developers can feel. You wouldn’t waltz into a pasta restaurant and order a burger because they carry ground beef, would you? I’d hope not.
Following that logic, I believe developers should craft stories they love with characters they want to make. It’s destructive for anyone to receive constant, unsolicited criticism. I don’t understand this notion people have that creators aren’t people who feel pain and discouragement when others are blatantly malicious to us.
Perhaps you consider your feedback constructive, or have zero ill-intention and believe you’re giving useful feedback to a creative. After all, if you release your work to the public you MUST accept criticism, right?
Hmm, not quite.
People don’t grow from endless criticism. We don’t fault children for struggling and berate them. We understand they grow from encouragement. Yet, after becoming adults this magically shifts? We’re meant to absorb negativity and malicious intent because suddenly that’s the only way to grow?
I hope that sounds as silly to you as it always has me.
There’s a difference between something that isn’t for you and a product that’s objectively bad.
There’s so much behaviour in these circles devs don’t talk about. Like being torn down at every opportunity when a player doesn’t receive the exact experience they desired, or being badgered non-stop by them until the creator submits and makes adjustments. Things like being ridiculed by developer peers and distancing yourself from all online communication for some peace. It’s terrifying.
I don’t know how to explain to people that criticism can be constructive, yet it’s okay for creatives to reject it? Generally, when a creator has a problem, they’ve already considered the available options and deemed them unfeasible for specific reasons.
It sucks seeing fellow creators quit or disappear because they’ve been so discouraged that they’d rather never create again.
The reality is when you create something it won’t be for everyone, but that doesn’t instantly make it bad. Creators shouldn’t change their characters or foundational world-building to suit different preferences. Asking them to do so, and being upset when they don’t, is rude.
Creators shouldn’t be flamed for putting their foot down about matters like this. Yes, some feedback is valid even if we reject it. We’re not perfect, and it’s destructive to us mentally and physically trying to craft something to every player’s preference at once.
If you like a creative’s work and want to see more in the future, put faith in them and respect that they craft their works with love the way they want to.
I’m okay, Anon. End of the day, I appreciate that I’ve created a character people care about. Nothing beats that inspiring feeling.
This was a lengthy post, but I hope it sheds some light on the situation from a developer perspective. It hurts watching my peers suffer, burnout, and stop creating from the damaging experiences I’ve shared in this post.
Much love,
Riri
amandla
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
tangentwithtanner
