the problems of being a game dev

[Skullfrost]

i swear if I get asked when the game is coming out one more time

-rage-

[Warriorstrike]

I'm sorry to hear about your frustrations. You may want to add a few questions to your post that allows others to participate in a discussion to make it more discussion-worthy, but if not, you could probably just add this post to a current Member Bio Journal (or create one if you haven't yet.)

[Skullfrost]

this thread could basically be a place for game developers to complain freely about being a game dev

xD

[Warriorstrike]

That's alright! Do be sure to add a couple questions or introduce a general topic for discussion, though, or I could go ahead and move this topic to another board. It's usually a good thing to keep in mind that if you're posting in a Discussion thread, approaching a concept or questions for others to discuss is generally required in order for it to stay in the board that it is in currently. c:

[Skullfrost]

topic: sometimes being a game dev can be rlly annoying

sRSLY GUYS

other game devs can attest to this

like u have people around every corner all like "WEN IZ GAEM COMIN OUT!!!111!!!1!!" or "hOW DOWNLAOD???!!" and im just like

-eTERNAL SCREAMING-

no amount of big bolded letters all over ur site will stop these people who dont have the common sense to lOOK before asking stupid questions

and then u have the people all like "O this game will never b released!!1!!! U DUM TEENAGERS CNT MAEK GAMES HOW DARE U TRY WAAHHHHHH"

all u other game devs

do u suffer like i do

rip me and rip game devs everywhere who have to put up with pEOPLE

[Alphabet]

Not to be rude or anything, but treating your supporting community as such is kind of crappy. Plus, on your forum you seem to encourage rudeness to these people from the other members. As a game developer, it is your job to prevent that rudeness within your own community. The least you could do is tell the members that it'll be another few years before the game is released via forum announcement. After that, just kindly refer them to the announcement and deal with misplaced posts professionally. There's no reason for developers to be upset over this, honestly. It's a given that not everyone will be as observant.

[LordSuragaha]

Not to be rude or anything, but treating your supporting community as such is kind of crappy. Plus, on your forum you seem to encourage rudeness to these people from the other members. As a game developer, it is your job to prevent that rudeness within your own community. The least you could do is tell the members that it'll be another few years before the game is released via forum announcement. After that, just kindly refer them to the announcement and deal with misplaced posts professionally. There's no reason for developers to be upset over this, honestly. It's a given that not everyone will be as observant.

I agree with Alphabet here.

Indeed while it may sometimes seem tiring or exasperating having to repeat yourself so often especially about things that shouldn't be so hard to find the answer to, it's best to stay patient. You want to nurture your fledgling community and encourage them to stick around for the long haul of the development, not turn them away with your annoyed tone.

As repetitive as the questions may be its nice to know that people are so interested and anxious in your work. You should be honored that so many folks are so impatient for your game. If you don't really like to repeat yourself you can always create one big FAQ and link people there.

 If you're already becoming so annoyed by repetitive questions at such an early stage in your games "existence" it isn't a good sign for your future with the community because the repetitive questions will always present themselves at one form or another. Now is the best time to learn how to deal with your growing community patiently and professionally. Don't get annoyed but rather take advantage of their continued interest and make sure to keep them feeling involved and informed on the latest developments of your project.

Lastly keep in mind that not everyone has the experience of game making and the understanding of how much work and time goes into these types of projects. Most often your community base is a very young and naturally impatient one, so it's better to teach them and  help them to understand this rather than snapping at them or respond in a way that may seem self righteous or snooty given your knowledge over them.

As for those who doubt you or criticize your work and or potential, it's better to pay them no mind. There will always be negativity trying to dampen your spirits and fun.

There's no shame if people are a bit overly excited about your work ^^ You should be grateful!

Good luck with your project!

[Taizer]

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm lecturing to hard or being rude as I'm not the best at getting my point across, I'm not the best at words, but this is just my opinion on it all...
and
Unfortunately "Putting up with people." Is just something you are going have to learn to do in order to run a game.
And I agree with what Sura and Alphabet has said above.

But I've noticed a pattern of this type complaining with several new servers and games popping up in the IT based circuit,  because A lot of them hate this 'release' question and all I can think is that, if you don't want these sort of questions so early on, don't even strive to get members right away, or even announce the game on a a website until it is around half completed, or heck even wait till it's almost ready for Beta release.

 You'd have more to show then as well in terms of development rather than 'hey im building a server come join my website' because people will more often than not, expect something in return for the time it took them to join up to your game.

This "When is it going to be released" question stems from the fact that most people join server sites to play games, they don't join to sit around on forums all day, because often most of them are not social players they just want to play and collect items...and more often than not I've seen entire websites desolate because the team gave up on the game not even half way and everyone left.

A key to a good game as well is having a team that act professional behind it, which means, talk it, act it, think it....everyone needs to work together and pull their weight at their tasks to get the game out faster and not to mention if everyone is rude in a public way, like how you are writing here, on FH forums, where an awful lot of your players are probably going to flux in from, then people are likely to not want to play a game with that atmosphere.

Even if you do not like how your player base is acting, don't drop to their level and act childish back, you have to put on what I've heard called a "Customer service face" and then if you still want to complain you do it away from public spot light.

As someone before has said though goodluck, I saw some of the cat models you had on the forum and they looked really interesting.

[Skullfrost]

I'm not actually rude to these people directly on the site when they ask, nor do I encourage it

ill admit though sometimes i do say something like "please look around on the site before asking questions" or something like that especially considering it is said all over the site very clearly "the game is not out yet and there is no release date, please dont ask"

i mean, i try to be nice about it but it really does get old especially when it is /very/ obvious that the game isnt released and there is no release date. hell people have asked this, in the shoutbox, even when the message right on top of the shoutbox has very clearly stated in bold: the game is not out yet and there is no release date, dont ask"

and they still ask

sometimes they ask literally /right after/ i answered someone else who asked the same question, they can clearly see the previous question and my answer, and they still ask again

so honestly it gets really aggravating after a while and while i do try to be nice in my responses to these people on the forum itself, sometimes i need to rant elsewhere because it is really annoying

because honestly is it really that hard to just read before asking questions of which the answer is plastered all over the forum, in bold letters

i mean, yeah, im grateful people are excited for MR and interested in it, but i'm really tired of being pestered all the time with the same question that's been answered 500 times and clearly visible on the site

also tbh if i could at this point if i had held off starting MR until this year i'd have kept MR to myself and my design team until it was halfway finished, but the issue with that is, you can't get developers easily that way bc you don't advertise.

and it's way too late for that now bc I started MR like 3 years ago when I was 13/14 and didn't even have the concept of "wait for game to be half done before public"

so its already public now, nothin i can really do about that at this point

[Alphabet]

also tbh if i could at this point if i had held off starting MR until this year i'd have kept MR to myself and my design team until it was halfway finished, but the issue with that is, you can't get developers easily that way bc you don't advertise.

Actually, I was able to get developers quite easily for my own project. All I advertised was recruitment here on FH and on dA. It isn't hard at all, you just need to post in the right places and say the right things to catch people's attention.

Too late? The public doesn't dictate your project. Don't allow it to. If you need to make a choice, make that choice. If you think your project is going to take more than a few years to finished, it would best to tell that to your community. If you don't want people asking when it's coming out because the due date is so far away, stop advertising and clean all game related information off of your site, save your public development thread if you'd like but only allow members to see it.

It's better than dragging on people's excitement and hoping they'll stay through it all. The longer it takes, the more fanbase you'll lose over time. Some of the ones that leave will start talking crap about your game. People did it to Aro'kai, and those people that talked crap were right (to some degree), unfortunately.

Once again, if you need to make a choice, then make it. You know what the game needs, not the public. If the public rages, you can try to explain. They might not understand, but they don't need to understand as long as you know your choice will keep the game healthy and moving along.

I'm not telling you that you should make the development of your project private. That is entirely up to you. I'm just giving you advice if this was something you really wanted to consider.