itch.io

I'm more than willing to admit that the game does have balancing issues, as you mentioned - there's things I definitely would suggest changing for the devs, like the 15% power hit with Foxy and some of the audio cues (specifically ones with Freddy come to my mind) could be timed better.

But just to note it for a variety of reasons, one of my primary points I made while arguing with them was specifically their attitude and how they phrased things. I don't have a problem with people criticizing developers if they're doing it in a fair manner, but saying "this game is too hard, it needs to be changed because I want it to be" is not the move on several different levels. 

Developers of any game, especially indies, are fundamentally people and should be treated as such, hence why I went in on stayrt so much and for so long. Programming a game is insanely fucking difficult, letalone making the assets and audio and other stuff for it, so I'm admittedly going to be a bit defensive when I see a game that I'm kind of fond of, which is made by a small number of people on their own time and with their own money, is getting shit on by someone that at best doesn't have any kind of real experience in how games are made. 

Devs (for various reasons) typically can't and generally shouldn't go and say shit in comment sections (like this one). I also think that it's best that devs don't ever interact with the community outside of some very particular situations, as they can often be extremely toxic and insanely vile. Look at even the best fandoms/communities surrounding a vast majority of most pieces of media and you'll almost instantly see what I mean. Because of that, I think it's best for communities to self-police, like with what I am attempting to do in this comment section. 

I'd say that some of what stayrt was writing was definitely toxic, however they also were putting effort into criticizing it. (I'd like to think they were looking to give criticism that can be used to better the game.) I also understand the want to see something good be improved - but again, taking the most hostile tone online isn't the play here, for a variety of reasons. As a rule of thumb, I most often approach using internet forums (or comment sections like this) as if I'm interacting with actual people. If someone, like you for example, is being reasonable, I'm more than happy to respond in kind. If, on the other hand, there's someone just spewing nonsense, then I'll oblige them in kind and jump down their throat, because like I said previously, devs are people, and they read the comments and reviews of their games. If all they see is anger and vitriol, it kinda makes them not wanna engage with the community, and that's pretty sad to see. 

If I remember correctly, an example of this idea can be seen with MrDrNose - he (I presume they are a 'he') is a developer of Voices of the Void (one of the more popular games on Itch.io) and he mentioned previously somewhere that one of his older games, Advanced Education with Viktor Strobovsky, stopped receiving updates for several reasons, but one of the less immediate reasons being that he was getting frustrated with people comparing his game to Baldi's Basics. Admittedly they are similar in some minor ways, but there's quite a few obvious differences, and being compared to something significantly larger and getting people whining about this or that being too different to BB eventually led to him getting tired of working on the project. Maybe this is "stupid" to some extent, but it also doesn't change the fact of the matter that people don't like getting shit on, even if it's through written (or typed) word. Think about No Man's Sky, as another example - don't you think the people working on that game got kind of frustrated with developing it because of how everyone online was bitching and moaning about how much it sucked? It's a miracle they kept developing at all on that game, because the hatred for it was fucking EVERYWHERE. It was hatred that might've been deserved to a small extent, but if I had someone commenting things like what stayrt was saying every day about my work, I wouldn't bother working at that job. It'd be exhausting.

Anyway, I'm not really writing all of this for you per se, stppd - I'm moreso writing it for anyone else that's reading it, because I'm actually really sick of seeing people just talking shit online 24/7. This kind of thing is why the internet is and pretty much always been a cesspit of arguing and whining - everyone is just typing without thinking about how the other person(s) might feel. I would like to see some degree of civility online. Obviously this won't be likely to change anyone's attitude, but I'd rather make a call to action that goes unheard than not make the call in the first place. Maybe it does actually change even one person for the better. I'd hope so. 

Anyway, I think of my little ruleset as Newton's Third Law but applied to internet discussion. By that, I mean to "treat others as you are treated." If someone's being civil, be civil back. If someone's being a little shitty, feel free to be a little shitty back. If someone's really being a prick, admittedly it's probably best to block or ignore them if possible, but it's not out of the question to be as equally of a prick in kind. Long as it doesn't exceed the bounds of the internet, it should be fine.

Ok, anyway, I expect a 500-word three-paragraph thesis, double-spaced and turned in by this Wednesday. Class is dismissed.