RPG Maker Forums

So the Birthday Bash event got a lot of newbies to enter and release their games. (I'm one of them.) And while there were some standout projects, some stood out for all the wrong reasons. For those who received nothing but glowing reviews, congratulations and keep up the good work, but this post isn't for you. Likewise, if you got bad reviews and resolved to make improvements, you don't need my advice. No, my words are for those of you who felt they were treated too harshly, or decided maybe this game making thing isn't for you. And if you give me a few minutes, you will benefit from it. I guarantee it.


Before I begin, a little background on me. I'm a published author. No, I'm nobody famous, but I'm not an "Amazon author" either. I wrote and sold some short stories, sold a book to an indie publisher, and now exercise my creative muscles in other ways. I tell you this because while I'm a newbie to RPG Maker, I'm no stranger to putting stuff out to be judged by the public. I've collected more rejection letters than manuscripts. If I didn't learn to handle criticism maturely, I couldn't have kept going, and I certainly couldn't have improved my writing.


Now that that's out of the way, let's begin.


First, you finished your project. You should feel proud of this. It's quite an accomplishment. I've talked to a lot of wannabe writers who've never finished any of their stories. I have an old school buddy who hasn't even started the novel he swears is all in his head. It's been there for the past 30 years, but he'll get it written some day, he promises. More people want to have completed a project - being a book, or a game, or whatever - than have completed one. In fact, I have a lot of unfinished manuscripts and a few unfinished games. So good on you for getting it done.


Second, you released it to the wild. This is the bravest thing anyone can do. You've shared a piece of yourself with complete strangers. Even among people that finish projects that's rare. I know writers who have stacks of manuscripts they are afraid to let anyone else read. Now that you're feeling good about yourself, read on.


You bared your soul and some people - maybe a lot of people - found some negative things to say about it. Maybe they found a lot. Maybe they laughed at it for all the wrong reasons, like happened to me. But everyone starts somewhere. Everyone. People are going to look at your early efforts and, unless they are your mother, they are going to be unimpressed. So how do you handle this?


You have to learn to be objective about your own work. That's one of the hardest things to do. You gave birth to it, poured your life into it, it's an extension of you, right? Wrong. It is no more than the end result of some effort. It is no more you than what you flushed down the toilet this morning. Some people struggle to get past this part. They also tend to have the most fragile egos. Until they grow some thicker skin, the world is going to be a scary place for them. Everyone else, let's move on.


You have to be thick skinned. My first rejection letter hurt. It hurt so much I gave up on writing. I thought, "well that's it then." I should have kept at it. But I didn't. I let others determine what I should do with my life. It wasn't until much later when I had nothing more f***s to give that I gave it another go. I'm glad I did. The thicker skin I had grown in the meantime made the inevitable rejection letters easier to take. Then something crazy happened - I'd put together something somebody else agreed was good enough to publish.


Getting back to that objectivity, you have to accept that maybe other people are right. Yes, people on the internet are dicks, but that doesn't mean they're wrong - just that the minimal risk of being punched in the face means they don't have to be polite. For example, some might consider the most glaring problem with Lemuria was the sprite glitch. To me, that was just Murphy's Law. No, the most glaring problem in my mind was that I knew better than to upload it with that windowskin but did it anyway. The critics were right - that was horrendous. And I do know better. However, it's not usual to know what you did wrong.


A certain author comes to mind. He shall only be referred to as Ned (not his real name). His abuse of the English language should be a crime, but he refuses any offers of editing. He insists that his grammar is "artistic style." Faulkner had artistic style. This guy has a poor public school education. He's the opposite of thick skinned, his ego is so fragile that he can't handle any criticism whatsoever. He surrounds himself with sycophants and avoids review sites like leper colonies. What he continues to turn out is unreadable crap, and he will never improve because nobody can tell him he's doing anything wrong. Ned will never be good at anything in his life because he refuses to acknowledge his shortcomings and make necessary changes.


Don't be like Ned. Accept that some of what others say might be valid and take an objective look. Don't give up either. Recognize your mistakes and learn from them. To be successful at anything in life, you have to take your lumps. Or you can be a baby, whine that the critics didn't "get" you or quit just because someone on the internet said something mean. Maybe that will work out for you somehow.