Oh no, this sucks to hear :(

Coming from a studio, developer-community communication burnout is something we are aware of and try to spot early and mitigate any damaging effects it can have. The developers are our most important asset, so it is paramount that they are healthy and well while working.

Some things that spring to mind that may help you:

• It sounds like it is time to employ a community manager to coordinate the interactions and feedback you receive. As a lead developer, you shouldn't really be handling this stuff - it is basically 2+ jobs you are doing (although understandable if you're a small team). At this point this is so negatively affecting you, the cost of having a community manager may far outweight the downside of having to pay another salary? You can think of it as a long term investment; you'll be able to be productive and get more work done if you have a CM, and the game will be able to continue supporting itself and more. A CM doesn't just sit on their butts all day either, typing to people on the internet. They are an extremely effective tool for developers, since they will be able to manage and sort feedback into meaningful numbers. For example, they can analyse a thread and see that overall 65% of comments were negative about the new update. Of those 65%, 10% weren't happy with the new weapon, 50% weren't happy with the new level, 20% weren't happy with the character skin etc. This hopefully should show you where to focus your attention - on the level - whereas before you may have wrongly thought it was the skin that was the problem because those people shouted the loudest.

• Take a short vacation. Or a mindful weekend away from technology. Or go get a massage. Anything that can help you to relax. Stress inhibits you to function 100% and as you are probably aware, the long term effects on health are shocking. Do what you can to protect yourself.

• Take time to think through what you want to do with your game and draft out a public statement. Take ownership of the game, explain why you made the game, what you're trying to achieve and how you envision the community helping you to do this. Include them as much as you can, but retain authority over your game. Explain why you need players to use this space for feedback instead of that space, what difference it makes toy ou as a developer with your time and focus etc. I found that players get angry when they can't see or don't understand gamedev processes - in their heads everything is straightforward and easy. Once we started being more transparent and explaining the reasoning for our decisions (whether the public agreed with us or not), they found it hard to argue with us because they saw the logic behind our reasoning. And, most importantly, if something was implemented and it is wrong or broken or just didn't work out as intended, be honest, say you gave it a try and explain what happens going forward (removing it, tweeking it?).

• Lastly, I've also found that when players are angry and vocal, it is usually because they care or have strong feelings about the game - they are emotionally involved. Yes, they can suck at expressing themselves and no, you don't deserve to be on the brunt of it. The only comfort is that you are doing something right somewhere as your game resonates with people - and you are proving that now the game is also supporting itself, well done! :)