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First goal reached. Computer fixed enough.
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Well, the organizers didn’t provide links to the nominated games, so you might have to search for them on your own. Good thing most of these games are on itch.io.
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Quick question - where have people had the best luck getting harsher constructive criticism online for IF? I’ve been super grateful to get really lovely comments on both Tumblr and here for Pactbinder (so far! It’s early days…), but I’ve been thinking I need to push out of my comfort zone a bit, especially after C3 comes out in a few weeks. I’ve had some really great feedback from a few very kind people, but I’m always on the lookout for more.
In terms of the thread topic / inspiration
I think everything I’ve read and experienced, really? Reading makes me want to write, in general, so most of my active inspiration comes from the books that make me think about my own story or characters within them (for Pactbinder, that’s a whole bunch of stuff but of course lots of campus novels, fantasy stuff, cosmic horror stuff, some English history and a lot of British poetry). That goes double for craft stuff and story structure.
When it comes to broader themes, I take a lot of inspiration from history and the world around me (unless I read something and my experiences / knowledge make me really disagree with it!); I struggle to take too much from another story without overthinking it; like I’m writing a faded copy of a copy!
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Reddit and Steam reviews. 
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Ah, that’s rough dude - sorry to hear it. Hope the launch is treating you well otherwise?
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I’m not sure how to judge how well a launch is treating someone. I’ve had three spelling/grammar corrections that were submitted and one technical/programing error over a achievement triggering too early to patch within the first three days. That is much lower than I anticipated, so that’s good.
Those first two days were rough and depressing. The first four reviews on Steam were all not recommends. After those two days, I’ve bounced back. I’m laughing and making jokes about the feedback now. Taking the useful bits and ignoring the rest. My favorite bit of feedback is a thumbs down review because it’s well written and points out things that I wish someone told me years ago.
I’ve had at least three Steam reviews call my story AI/written by an ESL writer. I think I finally figured out one of the main reasons for that: me intentionally avoiding contractions. I just submitted a fix for that, which I hope won’t cause more issues, since I fixed that in bulk. That revelation was in thanks to two posts on Reddit, pointing how how robotic it reads.
I can’t see iOS reviews and I have no Android reviews.
I know people suggested that I have someone I trust to filter those reviews, but the only person I trust to do that wouldn’t get to it for a few weeks. I decided to be impatient and heart broken over constantly wondering people’s thoughts.
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Sounds hard 
honestly though it’s super impressive to (a) finish writing a 450k story, (b) have it make sense, (c) put it out there for the world to read, and (d) have people actually read it (and enjoy it! definitely some positive feedback out there too).
Oh, and (e) to keep on growing and learning. That one’s huuuuuge.
That’s frustrating though. I love how supportive this forum is but does seem like maybe we need a place to get that harsher feedback earlier on in the process.
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It wasn’t terrible. The feeling was temporary, and I’m not looking for anyone to feel bad. It has been a great learning experience! Granted, now that I’ve been nipped on the nose, I’m going to be a bit more cautious.
Agreed, I do wish we received more direct and constructive feedback, but that has been an issue here my whole time on the forum. But it is what it is.
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I would say Intfiction, if you enter your game in their major contests (since they likely won’t review it otherwise). I didn’t agree with all their reviews, of course, but they provided some negative feedback which I didn’t get during beta testing here, and for the most part, were polite about it.
But if you’re already running a public IF… that’s out, since public releases are already disqualified from those contests.
For what it’s worth, my first four steam reviews were all negative as well (main complaint was length), and that felt like a really huge kick in the guts. I was also under a lot of stress during release. At that time, I wasn’t sure what to do, so I posted on the published author board, but ended up getting a lot of harsh feedback from other authors telling me my game was bad (because it didn’t get enough likes and engagement) and telling me to drop my current WIPs at the time. I had also wanted to write a content update for my game in light of some of the negative reception, but they also told me to drop that idea and start writing something which could sell. Unfortunately, this happened to also take place after a very bruising discussion on the forums on finances and profitability in CoG/HG, which probably didn’t do my situation any favors.
If you need to, just take a break from this forum. Log out on all your devices, change your password to something you won’t remember and pretend this place doesn’t exist. I was in your position two years ago, reading all those reviews directly, and later, I decided that I needed the mental health break. I wrote a goodbye message and took a vacation from this place for a month. (Which is why I don’t have the Devotee forum badge.)
If you’re feeling better about it now, just take a break from writing, do something easy. Set sometime in the future to regroup and figure out what you want to do next, but don’t worry about it now. For what it’s worth, you’re not alone, and some other writers also had a very stressful first release especially once they start reading the comments online. If it gets overwhelming, just stop and detach yourself from the writing world first.
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That is an amazing attitude 
half the battle as a writer is sticking with it and always doing a little bit better than last time. A good writer is never done growing!
As for where to get the harsher feedback…now that I think of it, I’ve been finding it helpful being part of a group of serious writers who specialise in linear fiction. They are great for discussing craft with and critiquing things like flow, sentence structure, and the like.
What horrible advice!
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Sounds like you’re handling it pretty well then, which is awesome. I was pretty anxious and nervy even when I first posted Pactbinder’s opening chapter and prologue in December (then again when I dropped C2 a couple of months ago) - can only imagine how much worse the final launch feels.
That part about getting well written and helpful feedback you wish you’d heard a long time ago really resonates with me - it’s definitely what I fear most.
Ouch! That’s a shame. Yeah, it’s tricky…I guess the only thing working in my favour is that I’m writing a pretty long story, so I do have a good bit of time before anything I write is actually ‘launched’. Hopefully I’m lucky enough to find a few critics along the way.
But I guess that’s the Catch-22 - most of the people who don’t like our stuff understandably won’t have the time or inclination to give feedback whilst it’s a WiP.
I can definitely imagine that would be super helpful!
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I feel like always having the feeling that my writing is terrible might actually do me some favors in preparation for reviews…
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I’m wondering if mentorship might be a good option too for some writers? I’ve heard some authors comment that if someone reached out to them asking for guidance, and it seemed that person took the craft seriously and was willing to put in the work, they’d be happy to mentor them.
It might not be a bad idea to reach out to authors you really respect. Some people are more than happy to help if asked directly.
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‘Learn from your experiences’ is good advice, but I think it’s quite hard to do when the experience is so recent.
If all spelling mistakes and bugs are taken care of, why don’t you take some time off?
Not only finishing a story, but getting it published for public sales is a huge achievement, and you should treat yourself to some rest.
Oh, and it’s late, but congratulations on the release 
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i just messaged u on tumblr as well, but i just got lucky! there was a discord group i left semi-recently (all the notifs got distracting over time) but there were two or so writers in there who gave me good solid criticism for my first Deux demo drop. now i have one of them helping me out with chapter 2 alpha testing as well, and two others from Tumblr who’d sent me good ideas/feedback before who were down to alpha test! but basically just anytime i get any good/interesting/insightful criticism, i try to reach out and ask if they’d be willing to help test/critique the game in the future. obviously i’m not too too far in the process yet, but it helped a lot with Chapter 1 and i think it’s gonna do the same for Ch 2!
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That’s actually a really good idea. idk how it didn’t occur to me to just ask people who have been kind enough to read through and critique Pactbinder and, err, ask if they didn’t mind doing that again every now and then…
I am a Hamartia of Very Little Brain, evidently!
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I like this idea. I find though that the most helpful feedback I’ve received has been through anonymous feedback forms, but maybe I should start including an option to include contact info if they’re comfortable with me reaching out for more questions
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@Hamartia on the topic of (harsher) feedback - I fell like at this point I’ve encountered this from every possible angle. I usually am compelled to try and offer feedback or at least share whatever errors I find (I’m a human error detector as long as it’s not my own writing). My problem when giving feedback is gauging whether it’s even wanted and if it is, how detailed/ how ‘harsh’ should it be. I’ve a lot of effort wasted on such things as well before. So from a feedback givers point of view, I think more specifics and clear prompting/ asking would defs be great. I certainly can go from nice to everything, but need to know it’s actually wanted. A direct means of contact also makes things easier I think.
@Dvalor53 I’ve started reading your work today actually! I didn’t get too far yet, (and I think I encountered aforementioned early achievement as well as some errors) but one thing that has caught my interest already is the unique take on the stat system, I’m heckin curious where that’ll go.
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It’s a fair point. I think my actual WIP post has a fairly detailed set of feedback requests as a starting point, but I didn’t even think about the possibility that I should outline that I’m OK with intense criticism (or outline what ‘intense’ / harsh meant in this context)…I’m gonna fix that!
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