I'm only being an asshole to people who are going out of their way to criticize anything they can about me or my game just because they don't like how I got myself noticed.

Yes, it's a positive feedback loop.

You're absolutely correct. Like I said before, I have no problem with people giving feedback on my game, but not go out of their way to find flaws with it because they don't like me. I'd like for the negativity to stop just as much as everyone else.

OK, this is unacceptable. You're completely outmatched here, yet you still try throw in the dirty jabs. Do you honestly believe that aeiowu hasn't created anything better than what's in Flytrap, or do you really have no clue?

I've looked at his portfolio and have seen nothing that compares to the art in Flytrap. I wouldn't have contracted him to do any art in my game if he had sent me this portfolio.

So you didn't do the graphics. You didn't do the programming. Something tells me that neither the artist nor the programmer would have such strong opinions of the quality of the final product as you do right now.

Because it was just a job to them. This is my life we're talking about.

After reading the Gamasutra thread and this one I have only one piece of advice for you kiwasabi. Stop being an asshole to everyone trying to help you or give their opinions because they are the only ones that can help you. No one's out to get you (before you dug this gigantic hole for yourself).

I'm only being an asshole to people who are going out of their way to criticize anything they can about me or my game just because they don't like how I got myself noticed.

make a clear, constructive post summing up your views on why you think Flytrap is good?

Flytrap has "simple-but-deep gameplay". It is an incredibly simple game at first glance, but as you get further into the game, you realize that there's a lot of thinking that goes into the timing of your shooting and inhaling depending on what enemies are on the screen, and whether they're angry or not.

Flytrap was structured in such a way to make the game get really crazy if you make mistakes, but then provides you with the tools to get out of even the most insane circumstances. If you shoot an enemy and don't inhale him, he gets angry, which means he'll be faster and have a more erratic behavior pattern (depending on the enemy). The angry enemies quickly make things seem like they're out of hand and impossible, but you always have a good chance of fighting your way back. Once you get down to only having 1-2 lives, you get the super beam, which is about twice as powerful as the regular beam. The super beam allows you to get back up to having a few lives (since as you eat enemies, you grow lives) and get things fairly normal again, then you resume using the regular beam. What all of this ends up meaning for your gameplay experience is that there's a rollercoaster of emotions that you experience as you play well for a while, let your guard down, screw up, and then dig yourself out of crazy situations, which ends up making you feel a great amount of accomplishment. Also, the enemy attacks were all designed so that you can outsmart/trick them so that you can always dodge any attack, so whenever you die, you feel as though you had a chance to survive.

Another interesting innovation is the extra lives, which are actually worked into the gameplay. You can grow up to 9 extra lives, which are all aligned along the bottom of the screen. You need to protect them or else they'll get killed by the enemies. There are also the small enemies who can only hurt your extra lives, which you can stun just by touching, which ends up creating exciting instances where you run across the level and jump in front of your extra life to save it, making the small enemy bounce off of you.

There are a lot more things that I could mention, but these are the main things about Flytrap that set it apart from being yet another Galaga clone.

I'm going to have to disagree with Oddball here. Honestly? I hate the focus on game developers over games, on personality over product. I hate the enthusiasm-ocracy. But I honestly care about people's genuine reactions to things that I make, and I accept that being rude will damage their feedback. And whenever I show something, I try to make it clear that I'm looking for constructive feedback, and that helps too.

I care about peoples' feedback as well, and my game wouldn't be what it is without my willingness to accept and take into consideration other peoples' opinions.

I don't mind people finding flaws with my game or its art style, but it shouldn't be based on what they think about my personality. The attacks on the game's art are ridiculous; the art in Flytrap is many times better than almost anything in the indie scene. People are just looking for something to attack, and since they can't play the game yet, they're attacking the screenshots.

aeiowu, pretty good analysis for someone who hasn't created anything better than what's in Flytrap. I will keep your comments in mind though for when the art is done for my next game.

By the way, I didn't do the art, just the art direction. You can criticize my art direction all you want, but for what I had in terms of time and resources, it's pretty damn high quality (especially compared to what else is out there in the indie game community).

I think you have missed the true joy of the indie gaming scene. Forget the quality of the games, yes there are good games and yes there are bad games, but the true joy of indie games is the sense of community and camaraderie. Leave this thread alone for a while and browse some of the other threads, maybe even participate in a few. People pat Derek Yu on the back ahead of you because they have come to know and love him through sites just like this one. In the end games come and go, but the bonds of fellowship last a lifetime. This is the real joy of indie games.

And this is the problem with the indie game scene. There's only friendship, not competition. People aren't allowed to criticize a game openly in fear of upsetting someone. This leads to the low quality games that are currently coming out of the indie game scene.

Halo is also the result of years of tedious user testing, millions of dollars in budget, and an online infrastructure previously unknown to console gaming. How does your game compare?

Flytrap is the result of many months of user testing.

The key to good game art is a balance between functionality and aesthetics. From what I've seen, I don't think Flytrap is a good example of either. Here's a series of articles that touches into these subjects: http://www.davidhellman.net/blog/the-art-of-braid-index/

Feel free to play the game before passing judgment on how well the graphics work.

When confronted with failure, an easy reaction is denial. Blame others, blame the system, it couldn't possibly be something that I did! It takes a strong person to accept, move on, and make their next project better. Though in this case, due to your actions, you've somehow managed to move into the failure state before the game is even released?

And exactly how have I failed?

This is different, though. I'm saying stop automatically liking a game just because an indie developer you like made it.

I refuse to stop, what now?

Then you'll keep playing bad games. But I guess since you'll be too oblivious to notice, you'll be happy.

Oh, no doubt. It takes a jerk to decide to act like one.

Well, the jerk store called, and it wants you back.

You made this about you. Don't complain when that's what people discuss and judge.

Right, because it's easier to judge an individual than a flawed value system.

It is, you are obsessed with innovation that you cannot see the excellent depth the simplistic game play leads to. It feels like you would have been the type of dude to rail against older blizzard games because their contemporaries have more advanced features.

There are several issues with the controls, so just interacting with the game can be annoying at times. Also, since the levels regenerate each time you die, you lose everything you learned about them.

Well stop! I hate Peggle, but I don't tell my family that play it that, because telling them that what they enjoy is a simplistic lights show specifically created to cause Excitement, is just being a dick, they won't change their opinion, because they ENJOY it.

Also, "There is no best pickle, only best pickles!" seems to apply.

This is different, though. I'm saying stop automatically liking a game just because an indie developer you like made it.

Yeah, negativeGamer could probably sense how awful of a person you are even before you started these shenanigans, must be why they graded it "leave to die".

I have since fixed the problems discussed in his review.

My attitude is the only reason any of you know what Flytrap is.

So I guess this actually is just a case of yet another indie developer deciding to act like a jerk to drum up publicity for his game...

The frustration I expressed in the Gamasutra comments thread was very much real.

Well, what's more important to you:
1. Convincing other people that their criteria for appreciating games is stupid.
2. Getting people to play and enjoy your game.

So far your actions imply #1.

What's more important to you? Playing fun games, or lecturing the creators to improve their attitude? I think there are major problems in the indie scene as a whole, so #1 is very important to me, but of course in the short-term, #2 is more important.

Actually, this thread is mainly about your attitude and how it reflects badly upon you. There is very little about the quality of your game as very few people have played it.

My attitude is the only reason any of you know what Flytrap is.

People don't like you, because your very insulting towards others. I'm glad you finally admit that much.

See, that's the problem. I was insulting Derek Yu's GAME, not his PERSONALITY. Separate the person from the product. It's impossible for anybody to be critical of Spelunky because everyone loves Derek Yu too much.

Innovation != Quality!
Canabalt and Spelunky deserve exactly as much attention as they get, and attacking them won't make people like your game.

Spelunky is not really that high quality in terms of gameplay.

Also, stop attacking peoples tastes, it doesn't make any sense.

I'm not attacking peoples' tastes, I'm attacking the criteria whereby they judge the quality of a product. Judge the product, not the person.

You seem to have a persecution complex and think all comments towards you are negative. In fact the only negative comments towards you have been about your attitude.

Since when does a creator's attitude have anything to do with the quality of their product? James Cameron has 100X the ego I do, and you'll all see Avatar.

However, you have been very negative about other's work and have been outright insulting about Derek yu's Spelunky.

Right, and this is the main reason people here hate me. But you know what? The game is derivative and doesn't deserve the type of attention it's getting. People in the indie games community value their opinion of the creator him/herself too highly over the actual quality of the games they make. Hence, most people in this community have a very warped sense of quality.

By "busy", I'm referring to the difference between this and this. The second one is less busy, and thus easier to interpret quickly. These images are exaggerated and Fly Trap isn't as busy, but I personally would still appreciate it if the frogs were brighter and had stronger shadows than the background.

(both images are from this excellent guide)

Making the frogs brighter and the shadow darker are easy fixes that could be applied to the game's first update. But this still doesn't account for the graphics being "meh".

Yeah, what I meant was that a game can have no real flaws but still be kinda mediocre.

And have you played the game?

Ok, as your new PR officer, I would suggest you play Splunkey, and claim to have reversed your stance on the game, even if you didn't.

Also dropping the air of superiority would help people like you. Get involved in the indie games community! Make friends here! It's not too late!

I already played and reversed my stance on Spelunky in the original thread, and proceeded to make a lot of feedback on the game.

And it's sort of hard to make friends when everybody already hates you.