On Reviews and Criticism
I've seen a lot of reviews for my games. I even saved some of the good ones. I wish I'd saved the bad ones, too, because I think they would be funny to read years later. My favorite was a scathing review of Jet Moto in one gaming magazine --- and then a year later the same magazine ran a review of the sequel and talked about it "recapturing the magic of the original classic." Was that the original classic you gave a 1.5 out of 5?!?!?

Ah, well. There are few things as sweet as proving the naysayers wrong. And over a million sales (or so I heard) of the first Jet Moto did that.

But Sometimes They Are Right...
Sometimes the bad reviews and criticisms can be painfully accurate. Sometimes when you are knee-deep in development, you can't see the forest for the trees, and some glaring problems go into production that you had learned to ignore. Sometimes I think the reasons we're so enamored of sequels in this business is so we can go back and fix all the mistakes we made in the originals. Mistakes that are sometimes pointed out in painful reviews.

My least favorite review of Void War spent most of the time mocking the story, and devoted all but one paragraph to making a parody of the storyline. The reviewer never realized that the story in Void War IS a parody of other space-combat game stories. I guess the alien quoting lines from Zero Wing was too oblique of a reference. But while I make light of the review, the fact of the matter is that the humor in Void War was too subtle, and was lost on too many people. His point may have been totally off-base, but there was a problem with the game that he addressed.

One of the things I discovered while working with focus group testing at Singletrac was that what people say bugged 'em isn't always their real concern. Getting to the heart of their concern is the real trick. But if you want to improve, you have to go beyond face value of criticism.

Some Examples of Digging For The Real Complaint:
* Testers were complaining that the action wasn't fast enough. We tried throwing more action into the game, but that made it too hard. The solution? Change the music. By switching to a faster-paced, more tense soundtrack, and changing NOTHING ELSE whatsoever, the players found the action level "just right."

* People were complaining that they were getting sick playing Twisted Metal. We did all kinds of things to smooth out the motion of the vehicles, but people were still complaining. The real culprit? The textures on the buildings. Without anti-aliasing on the Playstation 1, the stark contrast between the lit windows and the night-darkened walls caused a disturbing shimmering when in motion. This caused players' eyes, brain, and stomach to revolt. So we reduced the contrast on the building textures, and the complaints dropped dramatically.

*Another complaint was that the graphics in one level were "blurry." We tried to figure that one out. As it turns out, it was the opposite problem from the Twisted Metal nausea-inducing problem --- our art was too low-contrast and the colors had low saturation. This was causing an effect that seemed "muddy" or I guess "blurry" to some players. The answer was to add a bit more contrast and make the colors richer (at least in the places where the player was supposed to go).

Positive Reviews Are Just As Important
Of course, it's just as important to pull out the key features that people like in positive remarks and reviews as well. It is important to know just what you are doing right! People can have just as much problem communicating what they like and love as what they dislike and hate.

For example, look at people's response to why Final Fantasy VII was such a big hit! There was a magic in that game that made it outsell all of its kin - but people have a tough time putting their finger on it. The recent flood of "Final Fantasy VII"-branded products (not just Final Fantasy, but Final Fantasy VII!) shows that Square is anxious to figure out those magic ingredients as well.

And a BLOG Review!
And speaking of reviews and criticism...

Today I was informed that this blog was listed as a Small Business Blog of the Day over at Pajama market. I'm used to receiving reviews of my games, but for my blog?!?! Well, they have extremely nice things to say, so I'm not complaining.

The post can be found here:
http://www.pajamamarket.com/pajama_market_small_busin/2006/05/tales_of_the_ra.html

Far be it for me to say they are wrong. :) Now I guess I should apply my logic I've been preaching here and deconstruct the review to try and figure out what I'm doing right..!

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:13 PM (Permalink)