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[CyanPrime]

Okay, so I posted my new ARPG engine in Feedback, and I'm getting shit for responses.
Here is the thread.

Now keep in mind that this is made from scratch, not Game Maker, not RPG Maker, not any other kind of maker.

The engine is solid. It has good graphics, and it has good gameplay, and a pretty damn unique battle system, so why the hell aren't people commenting?

I have screenshots up, and a download for the engine, and nothing. But Zara can make a empty topic and generate 3 damn pages.

[Dacke]

Any relations to Adam Coate?

But seriously, I think people test things they think are going to be fun.
The no-title-thread is interesting and fun.
A new game is fun.
A one/two-week rpg-maker engine test. Not so much.

What can your engine do that other engines can't?
Do you have anything special or unique?

[CyanPrime]

Huh? It's not made in RPG maker. =\ It's custom coded from the ground up by me.

And I'm not trying to get people to like my engine, I'm trying to get them to give feedback on what does/doesn't need work, and if it's fun enough to keep going on this path (Which I think it is.)

It's got a fun and unique battle system.

[fraxcell]

Considering your game has only been up for less than 24 hours, even two responses from other people is pretty good. People might be hesitant to look at your game because it sounds very generic, and is rather long (if you post something in the feedback forum, requesting for feedback in the title is pretty redundant).

[Dacke]

Yes, I know you made it from scratch. It is a rpg-maker. There is another rpg-maker called "rpg-maker".

But the fact that you have made it from scratch isn't really a good selling point. It's only what you can deliver that matters.

What I'm trying to say is that people aren't here as official testers. If you want someone to test something for you, you need to give something back.

One thing you can do is to give people something truly fun or unique to try. Then they will want to test it.

Another thing you can do is to come off as a friendly person. Someone others will want to help.

[Christian Knudsen]

There are other threads in the Feedback forum that haven't received any replies at all for days or even weeks. You make a new thread and get two replies within 24 hours. How do you react? By creating a new thread wherein you call the replies you've received "shit". Your sense of entitlement is really off-putting...

[Melly]

We do have a little bit of a problem with the Feedback forum not getting much in the way of visits, and I'm going to look into ways to improve that (I'll also see if Guert can help, though I think he's been awfully busy).

Cyan, here's the thing about getting attention:

1- In big part, you need luck.
2- In equally big part, your game needs to look attractive. Now, I'm not going to diss on your art, because I'm no Lurk myself, but it honestly doesn't look that impressive artistically, and as you can usually only use screenshots for that first impression, well...
3- Well known names tend to attract more attention. Yeah, I know, not exactly a great thing, but it's the truth, whether we like it or not.

I know it sounds shallow, and I'll be seeing into improving the ammount of action Feedback gets (those icons for Win/Mac/Linux support are stuff Derek should add too), but you should exercise more patience. I know it sucks when you're working on a project and it doesn't get much attention compared to those of other people, but to cope with it by creating a thread in General basically saying "I DESERVE more attention, not that Zaratustra douchebag" just comes off as childish.

It's a competitive world and not everybody gets a chance in the spotlight. But you know why you should even be working in games? Because you love to, not because you want other people to love what you're doing.

So here's my advice. Be patient, keep working on what you WANT to work on, and if your stuff really is as good as you say, eventually people will start taking notice, even if you don't amass a fanbase the size of Derek's or Cactus's, and even if it takes a while.

[dEnamed]

I clicked through that thread and backspaced out of it after a short amount of time.
Here's what went through my head while the backspace was in progress:

* Alrighty, that's looking like a RPG Thread. I love those, wasted too many years on 2D JRPGs.
* Okay, what's that? Screenshots do look kinda empty and generic. Is that a walking Trash Can with a face on it? Every door looks the same?
* Oh well, Screenshots told me nothing at all, except that it's 2D. Perhaps. Well, let's read up on things. Uh huh, uh... huh. Okay, I see, it's some sort of engine test for some Project Moonseed.
* So what the heck is Project Moonseed? Can't find no information about that. Maybe it's a prototype to test some feature. Uhh, no, doesn't look like it.
* So is it an engine? An early game? What's it about? Meh. Backspace. There was that other thread over there...

There, that's maybe not the best feedback but it shows why I didn't bother with it. A dramatic lack of information. After reading your thread I had absolutely no idea what it was about, only saw a couple of very early screenshots. I'd suggest providing much more information. You don't need stunning art or great unique features. Especially not in such an early development stage. But you need a concept or an idea, something people can grasp and relate to.
I'm a regular lurker in the Feedback Forum and usually Threads that structure their Opening Posts in a well thought out manner and provide lots of information generally generate a lot of valuable feedback. Threads that post a couple of images while posting a download link generally don't.

[allen]

I intentionally passed over both your games. I did play Fall, and it was ok. But I had nothing to say that had already been said.

After seeing your post about game maker games and the smartass comment in Zara's thread I really felt no need to give you any feedback in your latest game/engine.

This thread is also another reason for me to ignore whatever you do in the future. A ton of games get ignored in the feedback section, what makes you think yours is any special that it deserves a post in General complaining about the lack of responses? Hint: it's not.

[Sam]

Simply there isn't much to give feedback on.  Usually games posted in Feedback are finished or at least nearly.

Is the game fun?  Well no.  It's a single screen with no purpose, two enemies I have no reason to fight, and a test NPC.  No offence meant, but of course it isn't fun.  The graphics are pretty okay, only obvious feedback I could give is the small trees are overly tiled.  How to make it more fun is just too big a question this early on:  Give it a story, give it progression, give it more meaningful interaction, give it Facebook integration, make it into a first-person shooter, who knows!

The engine seems to work fine though, which is what you should be looking to test at this stage.  What's important is if the performance is already struggling; and your "shit for responces" already includes some important feedback on that.

Your sense of entitlement and bitching at other threads being more popular is not at all attractive.  I am terrible at keeping track of people, but even I've noticed that you have a tendency for unwarranted negativity in your messages.  Just be cool and remember it's a community rather than a gathering of work colleagues: no one here is obliged to help you, but you can help them anyway.


Incidentally when I have time to go trawling through the Feedback forum I tend to start a couple of pages in and look for stuff with few responses.  That bumping up usually leads to a couple more posts from others getting another chance to see it too.

[Skofo]

You should release things for feedback only after you cannot find anything to improve. If you didn't put your best into you work, why should the community care to put effort into critiquing it? I'm sure that you can find many things to improve in your game all by yourself.

[CyanPrime]

Alright, alright. I get it now. My bad. Sorry for posting this.

[lansing]

Most often if you join the irc channel usually people will be willing to give you some initial feedback.

[Corpus]

why the hell aren't people commenting?

I have screenshots up, and a download for the engine, and nothing. But Zara can make a empty topic and generate 3 damn pages.

Huh, so Zaratustra is the guy getting lots of attention now? Interesting. This is exactly the sort of complaint he always used to make.

It was annoying and inappropriate when he did it, too.

Sit down, shut up, keep making (good) games. Look where it got Zaratustra!

[falsion]

Most often if you join the irc channel usually people will be willing to give you some initial feedback.

Last time he posted a game there everyone ignored him. I was the only one that bothered. This was before he actually had any posts on the forum or a reputation. I don't blame him for being salty.

The beef against Zaratustra though, I dunno what's up with that. I guess everyone's gotta have beef with someone. It does make things a bit more interesting around here though.