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[marcgfx]

I came to TIGsource years ago. it seemed to me there was quite some interaction going on in the devlogs, even if it was not overwhelming. At the time I tried to participate and give others feedback on what they were working on, but I soon noticed it was pretty much a one way street. There was some feedback, but a lot less than what I was investing in others. I pretty much made it my job to comment on anyone's project who commented on mine, but gave up looking for cool projects to comment on.

Looking at the first page on the devlogs now, it pretty much confirms what I feel (last comment always by the person who opened the thread). It's just people posting about their projects and very few discussions. I feel this is a failure for a forum, but maybe TIGsource is just too big and too many people are making games?

[ThemsAllTook]

It's hard to tell, since reading without posting a reply is an invisible action. View count to post ratio might give a rough picture.

Speaking for myself, I occasionally skim the titles of new threads, click a small fraction that looks intersting, and continue reading the new posts on a fraction of those when updates are posted. It's a pretty high-traffic board, so it's easy to lose things in all the activity. I still find it useful to post in my own devlog even if I don't know if anyone is reading it, as a way to organize my thoughts, and a place I can link to if someone wants to know more about my game.

[Foxwarrior]

A weird side effect of the "new replies" button is that if you post in a thread, you're permanently subscribed to every post that ever happens in that thread in the future. Kinda makes it into a commitment.

As for reading the dev logs, I look at the pictures sometimes, and if a picture is interesting then I read the words explaining it. Lots of game dev is familiar to me, I'm just scavenging the novelty I can find.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

It's one of the main reasons I come here, the devlogs are a great way for me to cheer up when I'm not feeling that good mentally. Seeing everyone hard work really makes me feel happy.

The thing is there is so much inspiring and great work that sometimes I feel a bit redundant saying "that's awesome" or "great work" so I don't post. Maybe I should post though. I do remember that making me feel a lot better about myself when I was making games and putting myself out there.

One thing to note, I would avoid falling into the habit of expecting reciprocation. Unless this is a business making the game should be the reward itself (I realize how corny that sounds as I write it but I'm sticking with what I wrote).

edit : I just noticed right now I have some devlog tabs opened from days ago where I said to myself "this is really cool! I should really post something in this thread. I'll just keep this tab open as a reminder"

[Schrompf]

I read all of them, at least once. Most multiple times because I can't remember which ones I already tried. I revisit
only those which I remember to be interested in. Of which most I still not post in, because I feel like it's superfluous to add another "looks great!" at the bottom. Should do that more often, because it feels nice to read it on my devlog, so I should still do it as a human gesture.

[Thaumaturge]

The thing is there is so much inspiring and great work that sometimes I feel a bit redundant saying "that's awesome" or "great work" so I don't post.

Of which most I still not post in, because I feel like it's superfluous to add another "looks great!" at the bottom.

If I may say it, unless a devlog-thread is particularly busy, I don't think that even a small "that's great" is superfluous: it tells the author that people are reading (or at least looking at) their thread, and gives at least a little bit of feedback.

That said, I know that I do tend to not post such things when reading a devlog that has many posts that are quite brief--updates simply showing a single model, for example. In that case I might post only after a few such entries, I think, especially if some particular entry catches my eye.

[marcgfx]

Thanks for the insight. I pretty much gave up writing a devlog here due to very little/no feedback. It does require quite some time to write, so if it feels like no one is reading the investment seems not worth it. Guess I could be wrong then.

[litHermit]

I usually sift through a lot, and leave a short comment when I want to be updated further on projects I deem interesting. And even with those I often don't feel like I have much useful feedback to add so I mostly just observe.

If I may say it, unless a devlog-thread is particularly busy, I don't think that even a small "that's great" is superfluous: it tells the author that people are reading (or at least looking at) their thread, and gives at least a little bit of feedback.

Very much agree with this

[Imitate Fire]

I don't really use the devlogs, but I've gotten great clickthrough rates on TIG compared to other gaming forums. Could just be because my game is for a mature audience and TIG seems to have more mature users.. But yea, if you have stats on your gamepage I'd bet you'll find it's a great place to post to actually get people to check out your game.

[michaelplzno]

I've done 2 devlogs and gotten a few comments. Eh, idk if everyone is busy or what? Some people are completely wrapped up in nonsense and have about zero seconds of free thought. At first I thought it was some kind of conspiracy but actually I think there are people who are just so overwhelmed by their own lives that they simply cannot take on even the small task of reading someone's dev update.

Psychologically we can analyze someone who is so busy they don't have time to think: what are they hiding from? When the world stops whirring around them they are just stuck with themselves and have to face what that whole chestnut is I suppose.

Anyway, I've heard the "busy" excuse so many times my eyes roll out of my head when I hear it. I'm really desperate to know what someone who is super busy spends their day doing. That's another one: I hear people who have a ton of e-mails, "oh I have so many emails to answer" like what are they talking about constantly?

However, as you know, I've started taking some time to play games that catch my fancy on my stream and I do find the tig devlogs and feedback section to be a good source of cool games to try.

[Rarykos]

Most devlogs have the quality of a student project. There, I said it. I'm culpable, as well.

We're crowded, that's all. Rarely do you get something interesting or visually appealing. Some people make generic games. Some people openly clone other games. Most of the time it's somebody's first project they have no business in sharing. Or worse yet - they're trying to start a business, but everyone can see it's doomed to fail.

Oh and there's a special place in hell for publicly traded stock companies trying to promote their shit. I'm talking about companies under PlayWay's money umbrella.


I open about half of the devlogs. Usually there's nothing to say.

[Schoq]

it's 2020 and nothing reaches anyone unless it's on their ig/twitter/fb feed

[s0]

it's 2020 and nothing reaches anyone unless it's on their ig/twitter/fb feed

that plus the original tight knit, feedback driven culture of tigsource died long ago. this place used to be an incubator for new games, now it's just a giant advertisement board, which is regrettable.

[Foxwarrior]

It's your fault for not making the observation that Mario is Sonic's uncle into useful, actionable information that could improve someone's game.

I think a few of the dev logs get useful comments on them sometimes though.

[marcgfx]

Maybe it's just that the audience here are developers, so it should give them some valuable insights that they can use for their own games. But I agree, it's gotten very crowded and that you auto-subscribe to a thread by leaving a comment is maybe not that good...

[ProgramGamer]

Yeah, the eventual (distant) rebuild of TIGSource will allow you to unsub from threads for sure. That's something that annoys even me.

[Teniom]

It depends where you post it I guess.
I have written quite a few dev blogs - but so far mainly on IndieDB.
Some were more in-depth, others lighter on the technical side, and some were straight-up just gameplay/mechanic explanations.

I pretty much stopped going 'in-depth' as I found that the responses to those were the worst. Gameplay/mechanic explanations with light technical details seemed to generate the best reaction.

From a readers perspective, I understand that. I tend to follow games - and then get interested in the techniques used to create the games, not the other way round. Though most people would post dev blogs on communities heavy with devs, I think (my own opinion) that the majority of devs think similarly - get attracted by the game first - then stay and learn how they did it, just my 2c worth!

[internationalfish]

I remember the same; pretty sure there was more interaction years back when I first got here.

Are there any other sites that are better for this? Twitter is no way to communicate a devlog, and logs on itch.io don't seem to have much reach unless you're regularly participating in their jams...

Yeah, the eventual (distant) rebuild of TIGSource will allow you to unsub from threads for sure. That's something that annoys even me.

I've been in the "eventual (distant) rebuild" boat many times... have you considered trying an SMF upgrade to 2.x? Then you'd be able to try out this mod: Ignore Topics. It hasn't been updated in years, but relatively recent comments on its support thread suggest it might still work.

[JobLeonard]

the original tight knit, feedback driven culture of tigsource died long ago. this place used to be an incubator for new games, now it's just a giant advertisement board, which is regrettable.

Maybe I'm arguing semantics, I wouldn't say that it died so much as that it got crowded out by said advertisements.

I still sub to threads and give feedback. It's the main reason I'm here - I'm neither a game dev nor do I even get to play the games whose devlog I follow all that often or with much depth, because Linux + lack of time. But I love watching the craft of them being made and having conversations with the developers.

[Micah.WhiteBoxGaming]

Thinking i'm super old now. I came here like almost a decade ago when Mine craft was launched. Then I came back as a dev my self and got tons of good and bad feedback on old projects. Recently came back again seeking feedback on current projects. Dev logs seem nice but I agree lots of advertisements. I totally get it you want to promote your game but Dude!!!! Support the community as well and get involved. I'm like coming here because there are so many cool devs like me to chat with and nerd out with on the forums.