Improving with vague or non-existent feedback

[verysunshine]

I've been publishing games for over a year. They're all small, simple projects. A couple are disasters. The rest are okay, but not that good.

I want to get better at making games, but I don't have a lot of feedback. The feedback I do have is short and vague. Things like "the art is pretty", "the game is boring", or "the game is interesting". How do I improve if I don't know what people think?

[Wudgeous]

I've always been more of a lurker, too anxious to put my content online lest I leave some kind of paper trail. As a result, I also often struggle with feeling like I'm just throwing spaghetti at the wall and not really knowing what will stick.

The most helpful thing to me has been research. I keep a tumblr where I'll reblog art tutorials, writing advice, and even mental health resources. I play other peoples' games (indie and AAA) and take notes of the things I enjoy, and consider how I might use some ideas or effects in my own games. I leave constructive feedback for them with the optimistic hope that they'll visit my page in exchange (this doesn't always pan out, but hey, gotta give in order to receive, right?). I look back to my favorite games growing up, and examine what resonated with me. I bought The Art of Game Design (which is a whole ass textbook) and am slowly trudging through it.

tldr; I personally improve by identifying what I enjoy and working on that.

[Mutive]

I think there are a few things you can do.

1. You can reach out to people and specifically ask for feedback. You aren't guaranteed a response, but people are often willing to check something out when asked. (Particularly if you're flattering with your ask. e.g. "I've always loved your reviews/games/blog/whatever and wondered whether you'd be willing to take a look at my game and offer some suggestions.")

2. Offer feedback yourself. While people won't necessarily respond in kind, it does build good will. (And I think some will reciprocate. This is especially true if you leave feedback *and* ask for it yourself. Personally I'm more inclined to help when someone is being a good community member than when they endlessly ask with no signs that they're willing to give in return.)

3. Try to use other metrics to gauge interest. (e.g. on Steam you can see how long a person has played your game on average and check out stats that can give some hints as to what players are thinking even if they don't leave a comment)

[parttimestorier]

I think one of the most important things that you can do is decide on whose feedback you care about. If you're just getting comments saying "this is boring" from totally random people on itch.io, you don't really have any idea whether that's someone who's really in your intended audience at all. Maybe it's someone who just says that about every visual novel - who knows? If you try to get more feedback out of internet strangers, you don't really know who they are or what kind of game they're even interested in. They might not have opinions you agree with at all, and their advice might not be very helpful for what you're trying to do.

What I think would be a lot more productive would be to think about which of your friends, or maybe just acquaintances in the VN community that you feel comfortable approaching, seem to you like they have "good taste." Find some people who like the kind of games that you want to make, and whose opinions you usually value. Then when you ask those people for feedback, be as specific as possible about which areas you're looking to improve. If you just say, "How do I make this game better?", that's a really broad question that can be hard to formulate an answer to. But if you give them a specific problem to think about, like, "I worry that this character doesn't come across as very sympathetic" or "I don't know if people are picking up on what this detail is supposed to mean," that's something that's easier for them to think of a solution to, and easier for you to implement instead of trying to do everything at once.

I also think this is probably easier to do in the beta testing stage of something instead of when it's finished. Asking someone to play your finished game and get back to you with their advice about it might be a bit awkward - they might feel like they already have a long backlog that you're adding to, and also, they might be worried about hurting your feelings by criticizing something that you've already released. But if you ask someone if they'd like to test a beta and give you feedback on it, that's something that I think a lot more people will be happy to get involved in. It can be fun and interesting to get early access to something other people haven't seen yet and have a chance to play a role in the creative process of it, and people will probably feel more confident giving you advice about something that's still in progress too.