Recovering from bad reviews

[Eiwynn]

Your situation does not really fit what the community has talked about before, but there are bits and pieces that have been shared over the years that can help you.

Fixing your game by doing a proper copy-edit pass is a great start.

There is another thing you can do as well. I’ll let a published author explain it in their own words:

@malinryden

First game out, I’m not on facebook. I don’t really like interacting with people that much, and the thought of marketing myself was the reason why I folded my first game company back in the late nineties.

I read all my reviews that I can find. Yes, everyone. Maybe I have been lucky, maybe it’s the fact that I’m in my late forties (and an aspie), but the negatives doesn’t get to me that much. That being said, the positives doesn’t give me that much either (apart from a smile).

What does help me then? (apart from this place).

Tumblr.

I started the Fallen Hero tumblr a while before the game came out, and while it has been slow growing, I cannot overestimate how much it has done for me. It’s a way for me to interact with people, see what they talk about, listen in, have fanart and fanfiction, and above all, keep the game alive. That’s the thing, I want people to keep thinking and talking about it, and for that, they need friends. Other people who like it. Tumblr is a way for them to intersect and find other people they can gossip with, and it’s built a nice little community. And that’s what keeps me going.

Retribution will be much larger than I anticipated, and also take longer. I need something to tide people over, and the tumblr is it.

I think my MOST important lesson so far is the fact that I haven’t been the main draw of the tumblr. There are people out there with thousands of people following them, and just having them pulled in meant that all of a sudden other people heard of it, and pulled in more and so on. Influencers is such an overused term, but it’s not wrong. I’ve been lucky having a few being bullied into playing the game by their friends, and watching the virus spread have been fun.

In short, I didn’t create the feedback loop, all I did was provide the content, and I kept providing new content so they stuck around.

There are other posts in the thread this was pulled from you can learn from too, but they really do not apply to your immediate goal.

Another idea to help give your published story a boost is to write future “add-on” content. @Eric_Moser is doing this for his CCH2 story (or is it CCH?) … he is making special content that will add 50,000 words (again I think) to the original story. This adds value and shows those that supported you by purchasing your game that you care.

Maybe Eric can explain better than me with details I am not remembering correctly.

Another author that does updates to his games is JimD … Zombie Exodus and ZE: Safehaven both have content valued added into it.

I’m sure there are more examples I am not recalling at the moment.

My point being here is that you create hooks to allow everyone to take a second look at your additional effort.

Edit: Here is what another author has done… I am very impressed with this effort.

@daydreamsincolor

Hi, everyone!

The updated version of Keeper of the Sun and Moon is now out! Make sure to restart on whatever platform you’re playing on so that you access the new version—you can tell you’re playing the new version if the header for Chapter 1 has a sun and moon image.

Among other things, the new version includes chapter headers, a revised Chapter 1, a revised Cressy/Cyrus introduction, a new ending/achievement, a few lowered stat checks, and a SAVE SYSTEM to save your data for Keeper of Day and Night for when that comes out.

Hope you all enjoy!!

So, the key is to add value to your updating in ways that your readers will appreciate.