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Dev Log #27 | Feedback and how it changed for me. (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-19 11:40:30
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

It's another Monday but this time I'm not writing an Update post, as pretty much all I'm doing is waiting for Steam to approve the final build for MIST and working on a trailer for the next project, which I can't say too much about. So I'm gonna use this moment to talk about something that is pretty important to me, feedback. 

From the very first post of my very first game builds I've always invited you guys to give me your feedback, and I've always read the comments and messages on F95, Discord and Itch. As some of you can probably imagine, it can be very exhausting and outright hurtful to read unfiltered comments written by people with absolutely no empathy whatsoever. But while it can be very hurtful, there is also often a grain of truth in every criticism no matter how dumb it's written. Especially when I was just starting out and was lacking skills in pretty much every single area of game development that feedback pushed me forward and made me want to improve the game as much as I could. 

But then something strange happened. As my skills grew and the game got better and better, so grew the amount and intensity of strangely angry and negative reviews and comments. Something that sounds counterintuitive, but let's be honest here, everyone that's been on the internet long enough knows not to be surprised by it. It's the same for me. It didn't take me by surprise, but at the same time, as I've always taken feedback seriously, I also couldn't just dismiss it. So for about a year now I've been very unsure of how to deal with such feedback. Comments that often felt like outright lies or someone just wanted to troll or simply hated the game for whatever reason and was desperately looking for something to declare it as the worst erotic game in existence. But that isn't actually the worst. While in the past if something sucked about the game people would generally agree about it, now the comments started feeling very torn. In one comment the writing is praised in the next they say it's absolute shit. A third comment mentions that they like the scenes, the next says it's the worst content they've ever watched. 

The importance of feedback is that it can help me realize shortcomings that I've overlooked. I spend so much time with the game, that it becomes very easy to simply not notice when something is detrimental to the overall gaming experience. Feedback always helped me to see those mistakes that I didn't even know existed. But now, that the feedback has become very diverse and equally conflicting I don't know who I should listen to anymore. On top of that I've been developing games for over three years and while this may sound a bit arrogant, I just think I sometimes know better.

Which brings me to the conclusion of this post. Navigating feedback has become very difficult for me (especially on F95, Patreon is still very chill) I'm still gonna try it and I'll still ask for your feedback with every single release, but I need to start trusting in my own decisions a bit more. I've realized that feedback comes in different qualities and I'm just not gonna listen anymore when I realize the feedback is just plain dumb or intentionally written to be hurtful. Obviously I know It's a fine line between filtering stupid feedback out and ignoring pressing concerns because I don't want to admit my mistakes, but I think I value the games success over my ego and will always look out for those grains of truth. And if not, if anyone feels like I'm ignoring valid criticism, let me know!

And that's it for this weeks post. I've gotten sick a few days ago and have just been lying in bed the entire weekend which is actually not so bad. It also gave me the opportunity to start rendering the first frames for the trailer. Getting that one done is gonna take a looong time. That said, I wish everyone a good week!

Comments

Alexandar04

I'm truly sorry for all of the suffering you had to endure from the negative feedback. It's worth noting too that most people, myself included don't typically leave feedback if they think the development of the game is going well. I normally wait until large parts of the game are finished until I play it (the last version of MIST I played was 0.6 I believe). Likewise you also have to know who your audience is. People just have naturally different taste in games and you're not going to make everyone happy. So I think you're taking a very mature approach to handling feedback.

Matt Schulte

For some reason people have very specific things they want in an adult game and if they don't see it the game is immediately crap. Heaven forbid it contain a kink they don't like! I think much of the time we're basically dealing with children so don't listen too closely.

prrt

let me say this, when your opinion about how the game should be delivers us games like this , keep going ! absolutely keep going .

prrt

and btw producing a game that is not to your own liking comes to nothing

395games

Don't worry, it's not like it ruins my life. Just a bit of uncertainty that I wanted to talk about. I'm very much aware that the majority is silent, I myself am not much of a commenter and tend to stay silent even if I like something.

damoose79

If the feedback you receive isn't at all constructive, you should ignore it. At that point it is just ranting. There will always be those that will piss and moan just to hear their voice. I can't speak for any others, but I decided to pledge because of your different (in a good way) art and for the story. It was a story unlike others I have seen out there. Sure there been small things that could use once over, like the occasional spelling or grammatical error, but even huge studios have that. Overall it is your story to tell how you want it. Be true to your vision. Utilize the constructive feedback and ignore the trolls.

Schlomo

I never chimed in much, because I just thoroughly enjoyed the game. Mostly, that's been my five cents. Giving feedback to your game seemed like a waste of time, both yours and mine. I'll just reiterate my enjoyment of MIST. That being said, my constructive criticism to you would be to keep telling your story. It's had twists and turns that were very surprising, a story worth being told. You've never seemed afraid to let the characters teeter on the very edge of oblivion, losing battles, getting badly hurt and other such misery. It's gritty, it's slightly cruel, but most of all, it's believable. It's never just a short battle and then they rode into the sunset (and f*cked), there's a lot of details that make each new chapter worth the time. In short: Keep your grittyness, keep your dark twists of fate, keep your characters that grow stronger instead of just starting out awesome. The end is worth nothing, if not the journey to get there.

Winter

I am itched to give my two cents here. I gotta say that your game has the perfect balance for me in terms of story writing and erotic scenes. Some games I've played are either too erotic, and the story is poorly written, or the story is well written, but the erotic scenes are subpar. I'm so glad that I found MIST! Every single update was worth waiting for. I'm so excited to see your next project, and I will definitely support it.

Darkminou

Well, all i can give you, is just my support and maybe a little word, as an artist. Over the time i had my share of criticism too, some were blunt but realistic, Others were just mean to be mean. As a creator, you'll always have both things. Wonderfull fans and community that will support you, and also bad Trolls that just want to be mean . All to say, there's a sayin in art. When peoples tell you why a thing don't work for them they're always right. When they told you how you should solve it, they're always wrong. Basicly, they can tell what bug them out, and it's a truth, it bug them after all. But you are the only one that can find a way to improve, or not, your games. Sometimes peoples will just not like a mecanic, or a picture, or a story. It happen, you can't make everyone like it. And on internet, there's no middle ground for a lot of peoples. A movie is awesome or it sucks and you should burn the director. No "ok movie" X) All to say, you're doing great. It was one of my favorite game of this year. Hentai and not hentai. And it was a pleasure to play. Take care of yourself, and don't get the trolls get too much to you.

Canicula

Are you calling us dumb??? How very dare yo.... ok yeah I've been on the internet long enough to know you're absolutely right. Hope things go well for you. I value your game and honour you for the effort you put into it. Thank you, and may your next project be as entertaining and a massive success.

RMZ

Seeing as there a literally reviews on F95 like "There was a man that looked at my girl from across the street! That's NTR!11!1!!!!! 1 STAR!!!" I wouldn't bother listening to those few poor souls. I think your success speaks for itself, MIST is a great game and a lot of people like it, so you can't really be bad at this can you? 😁 Also: Feedback from "paying customers" is probably always a lot more valuable than that coming from freeloaders and like you said, it's a lot more civil.

Cory Jones

Hi Rathieu, Love your work and your honesty. People can be dicks and there is nothing anyone can do about it other than accept that they are having a bad day, year or life. My wife goes through the same thing with her erotic writing. One pearl of wisdom regarding creative writing is to get a couple of Alpha and Beta readers (Or game testers in this case) that is aligned to your purpose. Working with them will help keep you and the project focused a sane. Send me a DM if you want to know more. :) DarkViper

Aj

Keep up the great work my guy, just keep in my mind the more popular something is the more intense for both good and bad the fanbase gets. F95 reviews are pretty hit and miss, I usually look for the ones that rate something like 3-4 stars and see what they wrote. Sounds like you've already put a lot of thought into this. I can't wait to see your new trailer.

MuteButtonHero

Anyone who writes content experiences this if they become successful enough to be noticed. It's not just one thing that causes this but many so there's not really a way to satisfy them all. The most common solution I have seen is to put together a group of beta readers/players you trust. That means your release cycle will have an extra step with the extra time that entails but you get the feedback you need from people who are truly interested in your project. Look for people who have given you good, insightful feedback in the past and privately invite them into your beta group. You don't get a broad of a cross section of feedback but it greatly improves the signal to noise ratio on feedback. Another approach is to have others read the feedback and forward the ones worth your time. You still need screeners who's judgement you trust and typically that work is compensated in some way. Thus it's typically used by those with a significant and dependable revenue steam. You keep the broad base for feedback but it's expensive. A third option -- and one that Michael Straczynski uses -- is to charge money to access his feedback enabled tiers on his Patreon. Yes, really. It's self funding and insures that those giving you feedback are really interested but people are literally buying access to give you feedback which feels a bit creepy to me. I do know one author who read literally every comment on her various channels but she also reads crazy fast and has to have stone skin not to get torn down but some of that crap. I prefer the beta reader option but you gotta find what works for you.

Rachnera

I've seen a couple of developers say that, while they keep being attentive to, and thankful for, feedbacks from other sources (Patreon, forums, Discord, etc.), they've just stopped caring about F95 entirely because of the sheer toxicity of the place. And can't say I blame them for that. I'm sure there might be a few enlightening posts on there from time to time, in the same ways there are dumbfounding comments under (for example) Patreon posts from time to time. But if the signal-to-noise ratio is that bad, cutting the stream might just be better.

Shadowninja27

I really liked the game. Don't know what other people's problem with it is. I liked the story and sex scenes. My only criticisms are a few things in the plot which don't make sense to me. Like Lily said she swims to keep fit but then its later said she is afraid of the water. I also wished that we could have gotten an explanation as to what the scientists were trying to do when they conducted the experiments. Was the director trying to save himself? A family member? Just some crazy scientist who wanted money and fame? Other than that I thought it was a good game.