@AgentV Good to hear you have an update out and feeling more positive about your next project One thing I did forget to mention, is that in some cases a lot of really negative reviews can come in first (which I guess makes sense as at least some of them are coming from people who read the demo and don’t want to buy it so it doesn’t take much time between release and the review being posted- one of the downsides of google play, people who have not read the whole game can still review on the small amount they have seen) and if you’re lucky, it can trend upwards again a bit given time when people who have liked it enough to buy it start leaving reviews. If you’ve done an update hopefully it will help with this a bit more too. A lot of people won’t change reviews, but if they haven’t left them yet you could be in luck
I think a lot of us who have been around for a while have learned to generally not take things that are harsh but meant to be helpful personally (And be grateful someone’s put the effort into commenting on our work no matter how many things the beta tester thinks we need to improve in there!), but for people not used receiving crit it can be confronting and cause them to see it as a personal attack when it’s not.
These authors do need to try and separate themselves from their story, and generally harden up a bit to crit and not take it personally as it’s in your best interests to listen to what readers are saying to decide if something needs changing. (Or alternatively expressly say no negative feedback which kind of defeats the point of this forum.)
But on the other side as a reviewer I was always taught to use the feedback sandwich method especially when I’m not sure how someone will take it.
Feedback sandwich (aka a balanced approach which helps protect egos and prevent misunderstandings as an extra benefit):
Find at least one thing you like about the game (and be honest.) Talk about that first.
Give any more negative feedback in the middle. Try to keep it focused on the work without getting really personal with attacky and overly blunt words about the author’s ability to write in there.
I think the sandwich is bullshit. Why I have to sweeten the deal like a politician? I am doing them a favour. Google plus Steam people wont be sandwich the truth. If I have to present a decorative scenery to protect the writer from the truth… Where is the point of the feedback? I don’t do feedback to raise The Author self-esteem, there are shrinks for that.
You don’t have to No one providing their time is under any obligation to give feedback in any way other than suits them, however I’ve found the sandwich works well for me. Positive feedback can be as useful as negative in my experience and showing that you did like something about the story is often enough to convince authors to not shut down. It’s less sweetening the deal, and more giving a complete feedback of what worked and what didn’t. Feedback should be honest. There’s no point in artificially sweetening feedback by giving people the wrong advice that something is working well if you don’t believe it is. By nature, many people are often more likely to keep trying to improve at something if the feedback doesn’t sound like there’s nothing redeeming about what they’ve put their heart and soul into and they should just forget the whole idea.
Compare two senarios:(Not about the game we’re posting on, this is just an example )
Your story was full of grammatical errors (list here) you should use a spell checker. The conclusion needs an alternative ending. It’s disappointing that you only wrote one which doesn’t work at all for a choice game. Your choices need to matter so you need more than one ending.
I really liked the introduction and the story concept is original and had me hooked from the start. I noticed however that there are a lot of grammatical errors that really need to be fixed before you publish this. Here’s a list of the errors I found and I recommend running a spell checker through your game before you post further updates to the story.
I was also disappointed that the game only seemed to have one ending which seemed to negate my previous choices which up until then did seem to make me feel like I was having an impact on what happened in the story. I only discovered that there was a single ending because I enjoyed the game enough that I wanted to play it twice and it’d be a shame if people replaying it were turned off what is otherwise a nicely made game due to unnecessary railroading. I look forward to seeing more of what you write in the future.
Anyway, both give the same criticism and are equally useful for dealing with the negative aspects, but the second also tells the author why they liked the game enough to bother giving their time to critique it and tells them what they’re doing right. But yeah, no one has to do this by any stretches of the imagination, it’s just something I was taught to do with writing critiques and it works for me and my style personally.
Using The Sandwich is just a way of being diplomatic. Unfortunately not everyone is thick skinned enough to receive direct feedback. But I agree that you don’t have to always say “I like…” because sometimes a work may not even have anything positive going for it. IMO, a good way of giving a feedback would be: What you like/dislike > why it works/ like it/ dislike> how it can be improved
While I agree that as a writer, getting feedback is a privilege and not a given, it is a bit arrogant to think that as the critiquer that you are doing the writer a favour, as not all feedback is good/constructive feedback. Think of giving feedback as a two way street. It is a privilege to both give and receive
Any person that spends time and effort in reviewing and looking your game is doing you a favour. I know what it is present a demo and doesn’t have any single person providing feedback. Any person who takes time and effort to give you feedback whatever you agree with it or not deserve to be acknowledged as they were investing their time on you and your game.
Say that is a understatement. it doesn’t enter in the quality of the feedback anyone just for investing their time deserve being recognised
Thanks. I just read your review and appreciate the time you took to write it, as well as this post.
I will for sure be much more conscious in testing my own game and getting more feedback (and being more willing to make large edits after submitting it to the forums).
Having a long dedicated beta, with a diverse group of beta-readers, is definitely an important step in the making of a game.
Diversity is important, not just to have many identities and experiences covered, but also because different people offer different types of feedback.
Some people focus on the little details, some on the bigger picture. Some are more opinion based, while others only deal with more factual elements like grammar and typos.
(And some people will offer you a chaotic mess of feedback, that jumps back and forth between all of those! Ahem )
All of those are important in their own way, so be sure you get them all covered.
I think the best way to overcome negative reviews is to look at them objectively. About a year ago I had to submit a 10 page essay to a panel of my high school’s English teachers for a competition I took part in. When you get the reviews and scores back, you get A LOT of feelings. When your favorite teacher writes that your work is absolute garbage, thats tough to get over. What I did is I just took an objective stance. I didn’t look at the reviews as a reflection of me, per say, rather they were simply a collection of constructive criticism. I looked at each comment, tried to pick out one thing I could improve upon, and if I couldn’t find anything, the comment wasn’t worth my time. I love bad reviews, because when you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way you can go is up!
Don’t worry about the troll reviews. They start out strong but lack stamina; after a few weeks they lose interest and wander off in search of new targets. Focus more on your omnibus score than Google, it is more troll (and idiot) proof.
Tbh, whenever I see a review for a COG / HG that complains that it’s too political or SJW, that just immediately makes me want to buy it more. So, for me at least, troll reviews tend to backfire!
People complain that the story is politically engaged, and is what they would consider to be “social justice warrior” stuff (it’s a term used by people who don’t like progressive politics, to complain about games that demonstrate progressive tendencies).
One thing I did forget to mention, is that in some cases a lot of really negative reviews can come in first (which I guess makes sense as at least some of them are coming from people who read the demo and don’t want to buy it so it doesn’t take much time between release and the review being posted- one of the downsides of google play, people who have not read the whole game can still review on the small amount they have seen) and if you’re lucky, it can trend upwards again a bit given time when people who have liked it enough to buy it start leaving reviews. If you’ve done an update hopefully it will help with this a bit more too. A lot of people won’t change reviews, but if they haven’t left them yet you could be in luck 
No one providing their time is under any obligation to give feedback in any way other than suits them, however I’ve found the sandwich works well for me. Positive feedback can be as useful as negative in my experience and showing that you did like something about the story is often enough to convince authors to not shut down. It’s less sweetening the deal, and more giving a complete feedback of what worked and what didn’t. Feedback should be honest. There’s no point in artificially sweetening feedback by giving people the wrong advice that something is working well if you don’t believe it is. By nature, many people are often more likely to keep trying to improve at something if the feedback doesn’t sound like there’s nothing redeeming about what they’ve put their heart and soul into and they should just forget the whole idea.
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