Ok, I'm not gonna lie. I'm kind of dissappointed at the reception, or lack thereof, that my game Spheer got.

I know that Pagerron was playing it, but he stopped updating me on his progress (I liked hearing how he was doing). I know at least one other person beat the game and thought it was decent. Between here and the Pav, it's been downloaded a grand total of 40 times. Now, this isn't to say I regret making it or spending time on it, I'm more proud of it than any other game I've made. To be honest, I had wished that Crazy Skating would have been talked about/played more than it did. CS certainly didn't do poorly by any stretch, but it never quite reached my expectations. In comparison, Spheer is getting far less attention than CS ever got. So, I'm frustrated.

What do you guys think? Am I just being a crybaby? If nothing else, I want to know what I did wrong, so I can learn from my mistakes. I'm gonna go out on a limb and blame the fact that the RPG Maker community has been shrinking over the years, and Spheer was poorly received because there just weren't very many people there to receive it. Or, maybe the game really just sucks and I can't come to grips with it. Let me know, guys. Thanks.

I think it's either that the community isn't as big, and/or that people just don't feel much like playing other people's games anymore. I was equally disappointed from my new SR demo's reception, despite the attempted hype I gave when I released it. Still, I'm pressing on with the project. Well... lightly pressing. But I wasn't pressing that hard to begin with.

Eh, at least I'm not alone. I was feeling inadequate. Creatively, not sexually.

>_>

<_<

...Well then, lightly press on!

Hey Jerbils,

Just to let you know bro, I still have Spheer on my memory card. I just haven't really been in a puzzle game mood lately. With my schedule as it is, I have very limited game-playing time also.

I'm planning on finishing Spheer. I'm just slow. No surprise there.

No, the game doesn't suck at all. I think it's quite creative, especially since it was made with a game intended to be used for role-playing.

I'll let you know the next time I pop it in.

I guess I'll make a few confessions of my own.

When I was working on "Raiders Of Lekunder" last year, three guys were
interested in beta testing it. I had myself a nice lil' Beta Test Tag Team. I
sent it out to 'em. Now this is, like, a 15-20 hour game. It's not one of
those 40 hour behemoths. The dudes started playing it, and I started
getting feedback. Then new posts abruptly stopped showing up. A week
went by. Another week. I'm waiting and nothing's happening. Umm,
guys? I was hoping to get this thing finished up and released. You know?

One guy said he'd gotten really busy and apologized for letting me down.
I can't remember what the second dude said. The third dude completely
dropped off the face of the map. None of these guys got even half way
through the thing before I eventually decided to go ahead and release it.

Interesting side note: The game has no random encounters. It has non-
repeating events instead. Dude #1 hates random encounters. While he
was playing it, he complained that the battles were too long and there
were too many. There's just no pleasing some people. Dude #2
likes random encounters and prefers that over the gameplay style I
created. This guy ended up playing through the whole game after its
release. Ironic.

When I released the game, I was like, "This is gonna be awesome!
People are gonna pounce on this thing and love it!" Almost nothing
happened. The aforementioned Dude #2 played it. Pagerron started
playing it. Nothing else happened. I was extremely disappointed and
started wondering if I suck, much like you're wondering.

Time passed, and I gained a better understanding of how things work
around here (and at the Pavilion). In a nutshell, these are communities
where almost all of the active members are busy working on their own
projects. They don't have the time or interest to play someone else's
game. The lurkers and passersby who play the games don't post about it.

Cherish Pagerron. He's one of few who actually take the time to play
these games.

I've gained humility from my experiences here, and I'm better off for it.
I've learned that other people aren't always reliable. And I've learned
that the active community just isn't interested. I'd wager that the inactive
community is interested. There are some out there who have played
Spheer and loved it. Unfortunately, those are the ones who can't be
bothered to open their mouths about it.

Don't lose heart. But don't expect anything either. My first game, I made
for me. And I'm satisfied with it. Those who have played it are greatly
appreciated. But I no longer have high expectations for feedback. My
current projects, I'm also doing for me.

For what it's worth, I'm eventually gonna be playing some RM2 games.
But there are some RM3 games I started playing and haven't finished yet.
And I'm working on my own projects.

A bit of personal history: I grew up during the early 80s with an Atari
130XE home computer. I programmed numerous arcade style video
games and a few Cretaceous period RPGs. Back then, we didn't have this
fancy internet that makes game sharing a breeze. The most exposure I
got at the time was a few games published by a local computer group. I
made numerous text adventures and arcade games that no one else ever
played. I programmed my games, tweaked 'em to perfection, fixed bugs
and stuff, and improved my programming style... mostly for an audience
of one! It was a lot of fun, though, and I really enjoyed the games I
created. "Raiders Of Lekunder" has seen more exposure than anything I
did back then.

Sadly, while I'd love to play the games and give my feedback...honestly..I don't have a single copy of any of the rpgmakers with the exception of xp.

Although, the more I think about it the more I might just change that...Wasn't Ix selling some?

Oh and I basically second almost everything Cryth said.

Pagerron: Good to hear from you, Pag. I didn't expect to hear about every little thing that you did in the game, but it was always enjoyable to hear how you were progressing. Also, I don't expect you to play it exclusively until you've finished it. Basically, all I'm really expecting is for you to enjoy the game (I'm hoping that didn't come off as conceited). As Crythania said, you're basically the only guy playing RPGM games and posting about them. I greatly appreciate that, and I'm certain everybody else here does as well.

Crythania: Excellent post. I'll concede that it's probably a silly endeavor to make an RPGM game and expect it to spread like wildfire across the internets, although admittedly that's what I was kinda hoping for. I think what it comes down to, is that we feel people giving feedback on our games validates us and the time we spent on it. Problem is, this particular community is not likely to give us that validation, and that leaves some of us feeling empty. The validation is the knowledge that we worked hard on something and finished it.

I don't know...

I've never finished ANYTHING for ANY RPGMaker.

Not anything that required any Serious Effort anyhow.

I've got half a VFX Editor guide done.

A couple Demos.

One Garbage Game for RPGM3 that takes MUCH Longer to Download, Transfer, Load, and start, than it does to play.

And Now I'm working on a Garbage Doctor Who game for the next Garbage Contest.

I posted screenshots of my VFX DALEKS and got no response at all either here or at the pavilion!

It didn't faze me a bit.

I just assumed that it's Sheer Gloriousity simply Stunned Everybody into Silence. (what other explanation is there??)

But for me, it's more about the Journey than the goal. I honestly Want to finish a game.

The Clean Underwear Quest is Very Dear to me.

But I have the rest of my life and wont be too upset if I never finish it.

I just enjoy creating stuffs, and treat it like I'm playing a video game. A "Game-Making" game.

The only way to win is if you make something you like!

If others like it too, that's Great!

But even if everyone Hated and Reviled my games, I'd make them exactly the same way anyhow!

I do this because it's fun. No External Validation needed.

[spoiler]Now Go Post A Response in my Doctor Who Thread, Dang It!![/spoiler]

I've been working on my game with SK now for two and a half years. What I'm trying to do is get into a state of mind where I expect it to be just as popular as any other game that was put out in the RM community.

I've always told myself that I'm going to be proud of my work without regret, reguardless of how many people do not play it. And in all honestly, I'll probably have to go that route. I say that because our community seems to be based more on the creation of the games and not so much on the playing of said games. I know you make a game for other people to play, but reguardless if it's great or not... there's only so much you can do to get others to play it.

I guess what I'm saying is that you should pull the pride from your work through your effort you put in it, not how many people play it.

I think that's what every game developer hopes for. Especially us! We're
not even doing it for a paycheck! We're doing it for "love of the game".
It's only natural to want your product to be enjoyable enterainment. Not
conceited at all.



I was hoping "Raiders Of Lekunder" would spread like wildfire, too. For all
I know, it could be a popular download around here. Or it could be a
complete flop. (I don't know how to find out how many times it's been
downloaded here at the Mag). I think we're insecure about our talents.
We seem to want others to acknowledge that we are, indeed, talented
artists. Insecurity needs validation.

I think the best thing you can do is train yourself to be secure in the
knowledge that you worked hard and created something that's very cool.
Pop in your game and play it sometime. And see how cool it really is.
And be satisfied with a job well done. Also, give it some time. The game
is here, available for download. Someone may come along in the future
and be totally blown away by your product.

Getting back to what I was saying about my younger days, I made some
puzzle games that no one else played. I played them, and I was happy
with that because I didn't have a whole lot of options for game sharing at
the time. That sounds a lot like masturbation. But please yourself. Then
you won't be so disappointed when others fail to meet expectations. If
you're happy with yourself and what you've created, you won't need that
validation. Then when someone shows up and says "Man, your game
rocks!", it's all the sweeter because it's not placating an insecurity.

Again Cryth, a great post. I won't doubt that I'm at least a little insecure when it comes to making games. I know I've got some degree of talent, because people have played and given me positive feedback on games I've made in the past.

One of the truly great things about being an independant game developer (and this is not specific to RPG Maker), is that you have total creative control and freedom... that is something that is invaluable. As I said, I'm extremely proud and satisfied with how Spheer turned out. It completely meets the expectations and vision I had for it before I even started it.

But, on that notion, I view the games I make as an extention of myself. Hell, you could say that the games I make are like my children. And when my games don't do well or aren't well recieved, to some degree I feel affected personally. It may be a poor mindset to have, but it is what it is.

I'm not looking for justification for making any of my games, I get that as soon as I finish them. But for me, a major part of the game creation process is having poeple play and enjoy the finished product. And as of yet, I haven't gotten much of that with Spheer.

I suppose this is why the Mag started this whole review system. At least then you're guarenteed at least one good opinion on your game. Assuming of course the person assigned to your game actually does a good job at giving you his or her opinion.

And I of course also am hoping that, when I finish my game, it'll be downloaded like digital hotcakes. I mean, I've been talking about it for something like six years. That by itself should mean people will play it when it's actually finished. (Heh, I wish.)

That's the problem with this community. No one plays others' games. I have zero feedback on Usuru despite the hyping and extras included and overall work done. All that and I haven't heard a comment from anyone.

Ahhh...

But the strength of this community lies in the way folks will clamor and try things out in order to help you get your game made!

I know I have precious little time to play video games.

I spend that time making games (mostly).

There are very few places to go when you're stuck on making an idea work properly in an RPGMaker!

I'd like to spend more time playing other people's work, but just can't.

Try requesting Reviews (or previews) and Screenshots / Video files from those who offer these services if you want to increase visibility. That usually gets responses. [spoiler]Unless they're for Doctor Who! </sarcasm>[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I can't help it! I'm a Sarcaleptic!! I have Uncontrollable Bouts of Sarcasm!!![/spoiler]

...

[spoiler]Well...[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Maybe I could help it.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I don't know.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I never tried![/spoiler]
[spoiler]Wouldn't be much point, really.[/spoiler]

Well, I'm blaming my lack of playing games on the weather. I been feeling very cooped up in my home. Theres times in my life where I have nothing going. And I wish I could do something. And then theres them times where I have too much and no time.

I think part of the problem is that there isn't any real set method for commenting on anybody's games. As it stands, the only thing you can do is hope somebody will take the time to find your topic about your game (if you have one) and post in it. This place really needs a user-review system. Like having the games in the Game Vault have a "Write your own comments" option. Sure, games that get p/reviewed in a Mag issue wind up having a rating feature, but the option isn't really prominently featured, so a lot of people would wind up missing it, not to mention that it is only on games that get officially p/reviewed. We need to decide on some sort of commenting or rating feature, and it needs to be presented in a way that people will know it's there and thus be more likely to make use of it.

Unfortunately this whole idea has been mentioned several times and doesn't seem likely to happen any time soon.

EDIT: Another idea, if the others are too much of an undertaking. Maybe a forum specifically made for people to ask for and make comments to other people's games. Dunno if it'd work any, but at least it's something.

You just need to put more work into promoting it. look at hippy hunt 2 and whispers in the woods. both games were promoted heavily by the creators, and got a lot of downloads and feedback because of it.

Doesn't really work for demos, though.

But yeah, when I finish this, it'll get heavily promoted to the point of risking people hating it because it doesn't match the hype.

jerbils, you need screens of your game, maybe even a video of it in action. That'll get people's attention.

Yeah, I took some screen shots of vistas seen in ROL, added 'em to the
game's description, gave 'em their own thread in the ol' PNG forum, and I
made a nifty siggy with direct links to the game's download page and the
PNG forum. That's the best I can do by way of promotion without
spamming the boards.

I'm almost tempted to make a siggy spot for Spheer that you could use,
but you gotta post regularly for it to work. I'd also have to find a memory
card that has enough room on it for Spheer.

I was thinking of making siggy spots for "Daniel's Quest 3" and "Series 1:
Destiny Beckons", but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Hmm. I suppose I could take some poor quality screen shots. Unfortunately, I don't have the equipment to make it look decent; I'll have to take a direct photograph of the screen, and we all know how that ends up. I'll get started on it today.

EDIT: It's up now, I posted a picture thread for Spheer. Thanks, guys.