Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags

I'm perplexed...

A topic by Cinos created Jan 05, 2021 Views: 678 Replies: 20
Viewing posts 1 to 11

My page has  291 views stuff has been downloaded a total of 23 and only 6 followers, I don't care so much as having so little followers, but why don't anyone ever comment on my stuff if I have so many views and downloads?

Moderator(+3)

Few people ever interact with something they see online. You'd need to have as many downloads as you have views now before you can hope for a comment.

Moderator(+1)

This sounds about right. Out of all the people that see your game in the search results, a small percentage will click on it. From the people that click on it, a small percentage will download it. From the people that download it, a small percentage will leave a comment/review/follow you.

The only thing you can do, is influence that percentage to be as high as possible. You can do that in multiple ways including (in no particular order):

  • Make better cover art. This will make more people click in your game if they see it while searching.

  • Improve the project’s page. Screenshots, videos, art, and a nice detailed description that will give users an idea of what to expect if they decide to download it.

  • Make a better game. Yes, that’s a tough one. Theoretically this can be said about all games out there, but if a lot of people are downloading a project, but don’t talk about it, this could suggest it could become even better.

  • Participate in communities so people get to know you. This might give you some followers, especially early on, until your projects take off.

  • Keep in mind that game dev is a “competition”. To attract more users you need to make something “better” than what other people are making.

Judging by the numbers you provided, it all looks normal. ~20 downloads means there’s low chances of one of them commenting. Think about how many games you’ve played in your life, and how many times you left a review/comment on a game.

Well, why should they?

1 I've never reviewed anything in my life, and have only more recently done stuff like discord, as far as comments go I've done it on YouTube videos which to be people playing the game but they don't make none, or chatting on amino or discord, and the point of people commenting on my stuff is so I know what to do to make it worth paying for or something

(+3)

I understand. But don't compare the lack of comments with a lack of quality. In fact, that you got some downloads and no comments is actually perhaps a good thing since people tend to comment only when they have something to complain about. When it comes to creating video games no comments often mean satisfied players. There are of course exceptions for players who are so overwhelmingly enthusiastic that they leave comments to express their happiness. And there are also players who are just too lazy to complain or often not interested into.

A few sentences in this thread are really true:

  • "Few people ever interact with something they see online"
  • "But don't compare the lack of comments with a lack of quality."

When I see how some people on YouTube complain when they got over 50k views bot only 6K likes.... Loads of people just cba to click like buttons let alone leave a comment. That doesn't denote what you created is bad though. It's just the way people are. Of course, seeing happy fans is what we all want... that's what you do if all for after all. But I'm afraid only a few get to that point.

Ok it's if I don't get feedback I can't improve or make any progress in this cause I don't know what I need to do until someone tells me so if noone comments here rather or not they're happy with my stuff what can I do to make any progress?

(+1)

Yeah, that's something we all suffer from. And also note the question "What is feedback?". I mean when people write me "This game is wonderful" it's just as useful to me as when they write "This game is shit", of course, I'd rather see the former than the latter, I'll admit that, but still.... Now a lot of people can't be arsed to write serious feedback, so expecting that to happen by just posting a game will just be like a lottery ticket when it comes to feedback. The chance you get USEFUL feedback that way is about as big as the chance you'll win over a million dollars in the lottery.


We do have the "Get Feedback" forum here on itch, which is entirely dedicating in asking people for feedback (https://itch.io/board/255031/get-feedback). Requesting it there does not guarantee you get feedback, but at least the people who can be arsed to write actual feedback. 

Unfortunately I am in the middle of prepping my own game project up for the official beta status (if you don't mind alpha you can download it from itch already) making that I do not have much time to actively seek out games in order to give feedback. If I had more time I would have been looking at your stuff already.  From what I can see the graphics are not your strongest point, but hey, it's not mine either, I just had the luck I was given some handy stuff I was allowed to work out so I can "show off" a little, but unfortunately it's the first thing people and judge by. And what may also be important as that you provide more information on your game pages in order to make people know a bit what to expect. Telling this in a nice juicy matter is hard, but will also do a more great deal. In the end it's the gameplay that matters most, but unfortunately with the high load on games out there already (even when you only look for free games) the presentation can do a lot to attract people. So that is without playing the first tip I can give you. If you know people who are pretty good in that department perhaps you can ask them for some ways how to do this. If there are some people talented in this field in your friends network, and most notably your IRL friend network (I mean outside the internet) it's even better.


When it comes to gameplay and technical stuff I really can't spare the time now to look (as I got too much on my own plate for now), but if you are serious enough (which it looks like you are) you can learn a lot from experience (I had to learn it without the internet. Can you imagine?)

thanks, but one more thing before I go, I don't see how the graphics aren't my strong point cause I'm an artist I draw a lot

(+2)

There are a lot of very useful replies here, and getting attention (whether this is feedback, followers, views or sales) is a huge issue for all game devs. Two points I'd immediately add:

1) If comments are your main concern, also upload your games to Newgrounds. The comments won't always be nice, or even helpful- but you will get more.

2) Work on your games' thumbnails. People are far, far more likely to be interested in a game with an eye-catching thumbnail. I'm not an artist, but spend a lot of time making thumbs that I'd want to click on if I'd just seen the game. If you are an artist, then you should be able to make something that draws players in quite easily. Look at examples from other games, and try and think about what makes you want to investigate.

Hope this is at least a little bit helpful :)

(+1)

Ok, I just don't know what to make for thumbnails when I haven't always even gotten to the point a game even has graphics or even a name sort a speak, and I'm terrible at scenes

(+1)

Well that's how you can improve then. If you have talent at art (and I wish I did), then incorporate that into your games!

I always think game developing requires such a huge set of creative and technical skills, so I'd advise that you play to your strengths. Like, if you're good at art, base your games around that and come up with some cool sprites, backgrounds, thumbnails etc.

You've started a thread asking for comments of your games, so you can get better- which is what we all want to do. From your comments, I think you're very aware of your strengths and weaknesses as a dev, though- you don't need other people to confirm these.

I'd suggest just keep working on your games, and put out the games you'd like to play. I find most devs are their own harshest critics. Just do the best you can and try to see things from the point of view of someone who's just logged into itch.io. Will they want to play your game? And if not, why not?

thanks, so is there a way to show you a sample of what I can make spritewise?

You could always post a jpg/ png in a reply, although I'm probably not the best judge.

I've tried before on other topics or whatever it won't let me

it says this "Errors:

  • body: expected text between 1 and 20480 characters"

Add some text to the post where you're trying to upload an image.

(+1)

I usually only have very few words to any response so it hasn't worked before I don't know what to say or do

(+1)

Hi! Try using the buttons on the toolbar instead of just drag&drop. I had that problem once too when I just dropped an image.


Here an example of an image added through the button on the toolbar

dagger-icon

If you're having problems even with the toolbar tools, then I'm not so sure of what may be happenning.

ok and just to be clearer I was using ctrl + c and ctrl + v