Hey folks, how’s it going?

So, today I’d like to address a topic that in my opinion would be a good starting point for a discussion. Don’t wanna sound preachy, of course, but I’d just like to talk about it.

Feedback.

I can’t overstate how important it is for a game developer or a creator, in general, to receive feedback from the audience, whether it’s in the form of ratings/votes, or directly through commentary, in either written or audio-visual form.

I mean, it’s true. Sometimes, a creator is simply driven by one’s own inspiration and creativity, and external validation isn’t really that much of a consequence in the process. It’s also true, however, that depending on the project, external feedback can potentially lead a developer to be more inspired and think of any kind of improvement one may apply to a project.

Something I unfortunately see sometimes is a relative apathy towards giving such feedback to authors. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of developers out there who would like to improve upon their work, and without any sort of contact with the public, it would be difficult for them to realize if what they’re doing can lead to an improvement or not, or at least reflect upon what they’ve done and give them a dimension of thoughtfulness and self-awareness.

So, it makes me wonder why this happens. If i.e. a game has over 20 thousand views and only 1 or 2 ratings, or very few comments, if not any of them at all. I mean, it’s not really about the stats per se, in the end they’re just numbers. My point is rather about the relative lack of touch with the public, made of actual people who have seen the game page and maybe even downloaded the game.

It costs nothing to let a developer know whether you liked the game or not, if only a little bit of your time. Whether it’s about a 1/5 or 5/5 rating, or a “I really enjoyed playing this!”, or “I think you should improve X thing in your game.”, etc.

It shows interest. It builds up communication. You’re letting the developer know that you did care in some way about their work, that you spent some meaningful time. And that’s incredibly important for me. Whether a game is free or not, that doesn’t matter. If it’s free, then it should probably be more available for scrutiny!

It’s not even about financially supporting a creator. For me, words in this case are the better currency for spreading more knowledge and understanding. In a time when information is so widely available and things around us change at increasingly faster rates, would it be too much to ask the public to slow down a bit and show creators that you care about them? :)

I hope I didn’t annoy you with this very long post, and as always, stay tuned for more.