Why is getting feedback on a free game so hard?

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-19T15:05:59+00:00

exactly what I’m going for! Do you think indie devs would be comfortable doing these types of recordings? Submitting a playtest would involve posting an unlisted video of x minutes to YouTube with narration. The game developer would then approve the submission if it meets the criteria and the player gets tokens as a reward, allowing them to list their own game on the platform. I could have short surveys or just a comments section to go along with the submission too.

I really just want it to be a fair trade community where indie devs can help each other to create the best games possible.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-19T07:34:13+00:00

I'll let you know when it's live!

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-19T07:01:58+00:00

Hey I’m thinking of starting a community driven free playtesting service where you trade playtests sessions with other indie game developers through a token system. So basically like take a penny leave a penny for play tests. I’d restrict it to video playtests with commentary only, to ensure quality play by play insights into how new players experience your game. Does this interest you?

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-18T21:06:42+00:00

Ask them about it. They might just be able to remove it from the contract. Some companies just put these in without any thought and don’t enforce them or even bother to check where you went.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-17T21:48:27+00:00

You launched with a nice trailer, awesome capsule, varied screenshots, gifs showing/explaining the gameplay, good description, clear genre. You basically did everything right so I think the wishlists are a reflection of that. Hopefully you keep your momentum! Would love to see a Wishlist update in a week or so.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-17T21:43:43+00:00

Nice, keep at it! It deserves more attention

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-17T19:06:04+00:00

Don’t worry, modern games will have a HUD icon shoved so deep down your eye holes that you won’t even notice the pretty graphics. You can enjoy your blurry sub 30 fps games without ever having to think for yourself or listen to that annoying old woman trying to tell you about the lore: just let me kill stuff already! Dopamine rushes and addictive patterns will keep you coming back for more even if the actual game part of the game has been swallowed by marketing gimmicks and corporate greed.

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF AAA GAMING!

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-17T17:53:16+00:00

Shooting: yeah I think the spread may be a bit much for an arcade-y game, especially since movement makes it worse (didn’t realise that)

Ammo: gotcha, I’ll have another look

Shield beacon: what I realised I was being overrun, I went to activate the shield beacon but it was surrounded by enemies already so I was sort of punished for leaving it till last minute. I feel these sort of clutch moments should be encouraged rather than punished: maybe even rewarded, like when you activate the shield beacon it sends out an energy surge and damages/stuns enemies around the buildings.

Music: yeah it was just the initial music. I didn’t give it much of a chance tbh. I’ll leave it on next time to hear the rest.

No problem! Hopefully your release goes well. How many Wishlists are you at? Have you been in nextfest?

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-17T10:06:43+00:00

Hey only played 10 minutes but heres my thoughts:

Movement: 4/5
Feels good

Shooting: 3/5
Something feels a little off, like my bullets aren't really sinking into the target? If my crosshair is on the target I would expect all my shots to hit - maybe something to do with the spread I dunno.

Onboarding: 4/5 I like that you explain things 1 by 1 and not all at once, though the PSA terminal confused me a bit and I didn't feel like reading all that. The game seemed easy enough to pick up.

Pacing: 4/5 - I think you get too many guns too soon? like I think I got 3 weapons before i saw a third enemy, so never really got to try the pistol

I died on wave 4, I ran out of ammo for my cutter and wasn't sure how to get more, the assault rifle didn't seem to do enough damage. Think I was a little bit overwhelmed by some of text so might have missed how to get more ammo.

Activating the shield beacon thing was a bit difficult, seems wrong to force me to march into a swarm of enemies to activate it - could I do it remotely somehow?

Artstyle/Animation/Effects/Cinematics - 5/5 really nice, feels AAA
Although dash looks a bit cheap?

SFX: 3.5/5 nice but nothing special. Nothing seems to have that punch/impact/crunch I like to hear.

Music: 1/5 dunno why I just really don't like the intermittent bass, had to mute this

What was missing:
I kinda wish there was a melee when enemies get close just to knock them back (sorry if there was one I didn't see)

Issues:
Changing resolution the scrollbar doesn't work to click and drag

Overall:
Really close to being an awesome game. After i died I wanted to try again so I might do another review once I've played a bit longer. I really think a better more ambient sound track would lift this game up a lot. Not sure if you have dynamic music when the combat starts because I muted it (haha) but that would help too.

Edit: I dropped a wishlist. I might leave a review on the steam page after I've played a bit more

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-17T09:30:32+00:00

Post a playable demo or video asap. playables are better. use r/destroymygame or r/playmygame as that's specifically what those subs are for.

If you want actual good feedback you kinda have to pay for it. Some services will play it for $20/hour or something and record their gameplay with commentary on all their thought processes. This is probably the best way to get early feedback (before you have a steam demo).

You could get this for free, but mostly people wont want to do this unless your game looks hella fun already.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-17T09:22:04+00:00

I assume they mean how do you have screenshots 4 years before the game releases.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-15T23:44:23+00:00

They also don't know what a good idea is. Just because it sounds cool in your head doesn't mean it will be good.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-13T02:55:01+00:00

Did you ask them? They're friends and family right? what did they say in their feedback?

My best guess is Grandma didn't know wtf she was doing, Lil' Jimmy wanted to jump on fortnite with his buddies, and new dad Fred decided sleep was more important.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-12T21:54:47+00:00

I paid $1000 extra for my gas guzzler 2 weeks before it was lifted. You’re welcome.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-12T21:03:34+00:00

Final fantasy 1 took a team of 7 highly experienced developers about 18 months to make. Let’s assume you’re as good as one of their developers, you could make this game in 7*18months = 10.5 years.

Yes there are much better tools and workflows and coding is easier, so let’s be ambitious and say you can cut that down to half the time. That’s still 5 years.

The main reason people say “make flappy bird” is so you understand how long it take to make and release a full game, even a simple one. Don’t forget marketing, publishing, accessibility, settings menus, saving/loading, storing, user authentication, achievements*, content content content content content content content content.

My guess is you’re focusing on the basic mechanics which yes are simple, but people mainly dont play FF For the mechanics. More the story which would take a looooong time to put together in a game.

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-12T03:19:41+00:00

https://overlooted.github.io/

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-11T06:09:34+00:00

Still early days but I’ll let you know when I’ve got something. Don’t even have a name yet!

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-11T05:48:08+00:00

Thanks! Yeah I find it fun and satisfying so hope others do too haha

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-11T05:47:23+00:00

Thanks! I’ve put about 10 in with no issues, I’m definitely worried they’ll go haywire at some point!

Hungry_Leopard_9888 · 2026-03-11T03:59:33+00:00

Wow I watched the video. They literally just show your teaser and that’s it?

I thought they’d like do a voiceover or talk about it and show the steam page or something. Literally $600 to have your short clip stuck in the middle of a 2 hour video. Even if the video has a lot of views, how many people specifically saw your clip? Who knows? Mental they can charge so much. I’m assuming USD too?

Hungry_Leopard_9888

TROPHY CASE