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New episode! Should Game Designers Listen to Negative Player Feedback? (Patreon)

Published:
2020-05-07 18:47:05
Imported:
2020-07

Content

Players certainly aren't shy about sharing their thoughts on video games. So what should developers do when players tell them they hate a certain game mechanic, character, or level? This video will explore some tips for responding to feedback and criticism. 

Hope you like it! 

Mark

Files

Should Game Designers Listen to Negative Player Feedback? | Game Maker's Toolkit

Players certainly aren't shy about sharing their thoughts on video games. So what should developers do when players tell them they hate a certain game mechanic, character, or level? This video will explore some tips for responding to feedback and criticism. Support Game Maker's Toolkit on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GameMakersToolkit Join the GMTK Game Jam https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2020 Sources Please see pinned comment Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance) DOOM Eternal (id Software, 2020) Bloodborne (From Software, 2015) Pokémon: Sword and Shield (Game Freak, 2019) Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo, 2020) XCOM 2 (Firaxis, 2016) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 2017) Mass Effect 3 (BioWare, 2012) ReCore (Armature Studio, 2016) Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, 2009) Minecraft (Mojang, 2011) Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft Montreal, 2013) Tom Clancy's The Division (Massive Entertainment, 2016) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, 2019) Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix, 2016) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt, 2015) Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft Quebec, 2018) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Inti Creates, 2019) Gods Will Be Watching (Deconstructeam, 2014) The Swords of Ditto (Onebitbeyond, 2018) No Man's Sky (Hello Games, 2016) For Honor (Ubisoft Montreal 2017) Cadence of Hyrule (Brace Yourself Games, 2019) Soma (Frictional Games, 2015) Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (Playtonic Games, 2019) Below (Capybara Games, 2018) Pathologic 2 (Ice-Pick Lodge, 2019) Fortnite (Epic Games, 2017) Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment, 2013) Don't Starve Together (Klei Entertainment, 2016) Burnout Paradise (Criterion Games, 2008) Dead Cells (Motion Twin, 2018) Battlefield 1 (EA DICE, 2016) Blasphemous (The Game Kitchen, 2019) Ratchet and Clank (Insomniac Games, 2016) Resistance 2 (Insomniac Games, 2008) Furi (The Game Bakers, 2016) Marvel’s Spider-Man (Insomniac Games, 2018) Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment, 2019) Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment, 2016) Sea of Thieves (Rare, 2018) Destiny 2 (Bungie, 2017) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Respawn Entertainment, 2019) Half-Life 2: Episode One (Valve Corporation, 2006) Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal, 2010) Slay the Spire (Mega Crit Games, 2019) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal, 2015) Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith Productions, 2017) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Sora, 2018) Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Ninja Theory, 2017) Disco Elysium (ZA/UM, 2019) Super Meat Boy (Team Meat, 2010) Nioh (Team Ninja, 2017) Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal, 2008) XCOM: Enemy Within (Firaxis Games, 2013) Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft, 2017) Invisible, Inc. (Klei Entertainment, 2015) Dead Rising 2 (Capcom Vancouver, 2010) Dead Rising 3 (Capcom Vancouver, 2013) DUSK (David Szymanski, 2018) Resident Evil 2 (Capcom, 2019) Resident Evil 3 (Capcom, 2020) Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Capcom, 1999) DOOM 3 (id Software, 2004) Heat Signature (Suspicious Developments, 2017) Titanfall 2 (Respawn Entertainment, 2016) Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian Entertainment, 2015) Astroneer (System Era Softworks, 2016) Noita (Nolla Games, In Early Access) Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios, 2016) The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Nicalis / Edmund McMillen, 2014) Music used in this episode Music provided by Music Vine - https://musicvine.com/ Other credits Sonic the Hedgehog © Paramount Pictures PAX East 2019 - Panzer Paladin Booth Setup Time-lapse | Tribute Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEXPWB2Afsg Developer Update: Symmetra Redesign | PlayOverwatch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elN-QGyToxM Devstream #135 | PlayWarframe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j42WJXL8O_Y Resistance 2 Gameplay Chapter 2 1080p PS3 Walkthrough | TRANCE GAMER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1kWB4gaHq4 Sea of Thieves Epic Ship Battle - Sloop Vs. Galleon Highlights | SonoWave TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akYYptHgYFQ Nioh: Battle Tutorial (Alpha Demo) | gaijin hunter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXOu1wG70_k

Comments

Anonymous

Thanks for the video, Mark. Feels timely--I've picked up Valorant recently, even though I'm not much of a competitive shooter guy. Even though it's in beta, it's wonderfully polished and full of crunchy mechanics that make a player interested in game design happy. But I've also been lurking quite a bit on the subreddit, which is already curdling into a toxic mess. A lot of that centers around feedback unrelated to game design (some feel the anti-cheat package is invasive), but that atmosphere comes to invade everything about the relationship between the development team and its community. I still have hope, but it seems like an unwinnable challenge. Anyways, I appreciate the thoughtful video and hope that you're able to influence the mindset of some entitled players who aren't thinking about the development teams on the other side. Cheers!

Anonymous

Solid video! This does a great job of explaining the subtleties of feedback --- something I'm trying to get better at responding to (correctly) with my game prototyping endeavors.

Gunnar Clovis

I found this video very vindicating, as these points are almost verbatim what I've been teaching my students for so many years haha!

Anonymous

Very nice and interesting topic :)

Anonymous

I was just rolling around in bed trying to think about how to solve some recently player feedback, got up, grabbed the laptop, and saw this video was available. Perfect timing. In my full time job as a user experience designer, I often tell my clients that the core of my job is to be a problem solver. So I say focus on explaining the problems and I'll come up with the solution. This not only turns the situation around where a client constantly tells you the solutions to implement, but also takes the pressure off on them to try and fix everything. We're much better at critiquing than we are solving.

Anonymous

Mark, I cannot stress how important and necessary this video is on today's obsessive hypercynical culture of either contempt or, arguably worse, hypercriticism without a single consideration as to WHY something would be added to a game. Analytical discourse and feedback discourse benefits greatly from this greatly written, easy-to-follow video, JAM PACKED with a lot more of depth than I usually see in your videos (Which, bear in mind, is not a bad thing - Your channel is by far one of the most importants for aspiring and up-and-coming game designers) and amazing, diverse and extremely relevant examples - to the point I could easily talk about several others that you haven't cited, but easily gave room for. I know it feels like I'm just sucking up to you or just exxagerating, and maybe it really is just the thrill of finally seeing someone speak up in a well-directed and well-writen way what I've been having trouble telling everyone around me for the past 5 years as a game designer, but I just wanted to say... Thank you. As a long-time fan and patreon supporter, thank you very very much. You continue to prove yourself as one of my favourite YouTubers and a great educational resource for Game Design.

Anonymous

I came across this quote from Shigeru Miyamoto talking about making the first Zelda game in his 2007 GDC Keynote that is very relevant to this video: ...and a lot of people said, “Look, why don’t you just make one way through the dungeon? No multiple paths.” But of course I ignored them all. Rather than making it easier for players to understand, I decided to take their sword away from the very beginning. You do that, then you know what you have to do. See, I did this because I wanted to challenge them to find that sword, because I knew that they would think about these problems. They would think before they go to sleep, “How am I gonna do this?,” or maybe as they’re riding to work in the morning. And at the same time, I wanted them to talk with other Zelda players and exchange information: ask each other questions, find out where to go next, exchange information. And that’s what happened. Source: 7:30 - 8:30 in this clip: https://youtu.be/jqBee2YlDPg

Anonymous

Feedback is always useful in developing any project, as long as it becomes constructive. Great video.

Anonymous

I just came across a very early example of this from Compute!'s October 1983 issue, in an article talking about the rise of online gaming... Have a look at p. 36, left hand column of https://archive.org/details/1983-10-compute-magazine/page/n37/mode/2up The salient bit discusses a game called DECWARS, and says "After a long development -- marked by enthusiastic suggestions from nearly everyone -- the game went on-line. Immediately, CompuServe was flooded with suggestions for improvement. People would sign on the DECWARS SIG and fill the screen with criticisms. It became a significant problem. After that experience, [programmer Russ] Ranshaw says they all realized that while suggestions are great, there comes a time when the programmer simply must do what seems best, letting others decide whether the game's fun to play."