Sybixsus dude:
Man, I gave you a ton of feedback and was really looking forward to playing this. Unfortunately, it seems nothing I said has made it into the game. I was very disheartened to see that there's not even mouse control, let alone running and hitting the ball! It's actually irritating that I spent so much time writing those long long posts to you and you didn't change a thing so I could enjoy and possibly buy this game!
Quite a slap in the face really. I gave you a lot of advice as someone who had the same issues as you. After I fixed up many many things, now our game is beginning to take off and make us some good money. I suppose some just need that personal first-hand experience.
Man, I gave you a ton of feedback and was really looking forward to playing this. Unfortunately, it seems nothing I said has made it into the game. I was very disheartened to see that there's not even mouse control, let alone running and hitting the ball! It's actually irritating that I spent so much time writing those long long posts to you and you didn't change a thing so I could enjoy and possibly buy this game!
Quite a slap in the face really. I gave you a lot of advice as someone who had the same issues as you. After I fixed up many many things, now our game is beginning to take off and make us some good money. I suppose some just need that personal first-hand experience.
Sorry, I thought I included all the same text here as I did on Blitzcoder, but I must have only put it in the showcase entry.
I implemented both mouse control and hit-and-run. They didn't take long. I implemented mouse control just the way you liked it in Tennis Critters ( I downloaded it at last to see what you meant. )
Unfortunately, I didn't like either. They made the game significantly less playable for me. They made the game unenjoyable and unpredictable for me.
I can't release a game I don't enjoy playing. Do you see me saying I'm right about this? I don't think I'm right. I think I'm releasing the only game I can honestly release. I see comments from people I respect such as yourself, GFK, Simon, and one other from another forum about the game and I'd be a fool not to listen. I'd be a fool to think that there's anything other than a good chance you're right and I'm doing it the wrong way.
But I'd be the biggest fool of all to release the game the way you want it if it makes me hate the game, wouldn't I? Isn't that the epitome of everything that's wrong in the games industry? Developers churning out the same old crap because that's how the last five games that sold well did it? I don't want to emulate the big boys,
I won't compromise my integrity to make sales. If that makes me an idiot, so be it. How could I stand behind it when someone say, "mouse control sucks" or "the hit and run thing makes it hard to control the shot." Lie and tell them I like the controls the way they are? Another chunk of my integrity down the drain. Or should I tell them the truth and say "I hate the controls, but these experienced developers told me that was the way to do it"?
I'm sorry if you all hoped for a different game. I'm sorry if you all hoped I was going to make another Virtua Tennis or Mario Tennis. A lot of people seemed to get the idea that I was doing that, right from the day I started it, but it was never my intention to clone someone else's game. There's nothing wrong with clones, I've written a few, but there's no creativity in them. If I wanted a job writing clones, I'd get a job with EA.
Having said all that, what would you do if the vast majority of people were happy with the controls and a minority weren't? You may not like ( or indeed believe ) the fact that most people who commented liked the controls, but it happens to be true. The fact that three ( now four, since Simon hadn't commented before ) of them happen to be people I respect is supposed to make me turn around and ignore the others who liked the controls? That doesn't even fit with the commercial argument I don't necessarily want to follow anyway.
You want my sales figures less than 24 hours after I made the ShareIt account active? I haven't posted the game anywhere but the coding forums yet. I haven't even posted on the forum I got the majority of my feedback from yet. I was waiting to get some feedback on the website before I did that. Make sure the downloads are coming through ok.
I'm only judging by the tone of your reply, Ban, but it appears I've offended you by releasing the game that I wanted to make and that plays the way that gives me the greatest pleasure. If that's the case, I apologise. If you think I didn't listen to your feedback, you're wtong. Not only did I listen, I implemented everything you wanted, and everything GFK wanted. I chose to take them back out again ( which took considerably longer than it took implementing them in the first instance ) because they detracted from the game for me. I asked for feedback and I wanted it. I don't recall promising I would implement everything everyone wanted regardless of my own vision for the game.