The game is EXTREMELY inconsistent

[Hooch]

I love the game idea. At the core, it's solid and I'm having fun.

However, the more I play, the more I am finding that scores seem arbitrary and the attributes that make a game good or bad (or great) are extremely inconsistent.

As an example...

My first Pet game, I was told through a game report that "Level Design" is not important.

However, on my 2nd Pet game, I was told through a report that "Level Design" is "quite important."

I'm keeping track of what makes genres and platforms "great" by using Excel. So I can go back to my spreadsheet and see the necessary qualities or areas to focus on, to make the game a great game.

But this is inconsistent. What is the point in having all these areas to develop/focus on...if in the end, it doesn't matter at all?

Also, I produced a game with x attributes last year (game time of course) and received a near perfect 9.75. So I decided to follow it up with a sequel, using the same "formula." This time around, I have 4 developers (I'm in a new office now) and improved areas of focus (story, dialog, world design for my alt history/rpg game) and am using the same marketing.

So given the formula + updated tech/areas of focus, the game should have done very well. I'm taking into account a little bit of randomness. I expected at least a game rating of 8.

Yet...given all the above, it averaged at around 6. Why? The only thing I can think of is complete arbitrariness of areas of focus + tech advancement. And this just spoils the experience as it is saying "It doesn't matter what you do, it's all random anyway, mash the keyboard."

Is anyone else having a similar experience?

[【Ｎｉｃｅ Ｈｉｓｓ】]

Messaggio originale di Obiwan:

Messaggio originale di Wotsa:

Has it really changed that much? I haven't tried it yet. Cause one of my biggest issues was the fact that you where pretty much locked in what sliders you had to use with what games.

It really has mate, i genuinely was gutted once i realised the set sliders worked everytime and wished id never read up on it - ignorance is bliss kinda thing ... but i have deliberately tried to replicate this method in the new version and it does not work ... AT ALL - i am so happy :D

Hopefully it isn't just another slider combination lol.

[Hooch]

Messaggio originale di Wotsa:

Where exactly is the inconsistency?

See the plethora of examples provided in my posts.

[Obiwan]

Messaggio originale di Wotsa:

Messaggio originale di Obiwan:

It really has mate, i genuinely was gutted once i realised the set sliders worked everytime and wished id never read up on it - ignorance is bliss kinda thing ... but i have deliberately tried to replicate this method in the new version and it does not work ... AT ALL - i am so happy :D

Hopefully it isn't just another slider combination lol.

Tried that too!, the game takes topic and genre into account now so although one setup may work for RPG 1 it wont wokr for RPG 2 .. also the startin topics are no longer static ... its no longer a case of medieval, military, space and sport and then research racing then fantasy - it is totally random everytime and even the unlocked ones are random ... it seems that attempting to do 2 RPG's without moving sliders at all regardless of unique topic in seen as lazy development now and rightly so! .... honestly the time btween updates is udnerstable now not to mention why they deemed 1.4 the version that would finally see a more global/steam release .... stop asking me questions and give it a go!!!!

[【Ｎｉｃｅ Ｈｉｓｓ】]

Messaggio originale di Aionion:

Messaggio originale di Wotsa:

Where exactly is the inconsistency?

See the plethora of examples provided in my posts.

All I've seen is various posts about what reviewers say. You realize only the numbers matter right? What they actually say is just fluff and doesn't mean anything.

Saying "Best game I've played in Ages!" for a game called Poop Eater doesn't really mean much. Not like if I make another Poop Eater they are going to like it. It all depends on the game score.

[Obiwan]

Messaggio originale di Aionion:

Messaggio originale di Wotsa:

Where exactly is the inconsistency?

See the plethora of examples provided in my posts.

In these situations were the topics there same? if you made a sequel did you develop a new engine? did you modify sliders AT ALL regardless of the genre being the same? were the topic/genre combos favourable .. if not were "strange topic combos" a trend at the time? did you add any new game features? were you taking your guide from the reviewers or the game report? honestly Aionion there are SO many factors toward success now that you needa really understand the whole game before you take to the forums. I was polite! please show me the same courtesy.

[Hooch]

Messaggio originale di Wotsa:

Messaggio originale di Aionion:

See the plethora of examples provided in my posts.

All I've seen is various posts about reviewers say. You realized only the numbers matter right? What they actually say is just fluff.

Saying "Best game I've played in Ages!" for a game called Poop Eater doesn't really mean much. Not like if I make another Poop Eater they are going to like it. It all depends on the game score.

No, that was one example and I no longer consider that an inconsistency since it was explained away.

It is a slight source of frustration however. What sense does it make to have a reviewer in the game say "Adventure games are no good on PC" when actually they do according to the game mechanic?

What it is telling the player is we should just bypass the review page altogether because it is completely crap...it's all irrelevant.

OK...so it's a meaningless little feature. If that is the case, why have it be a part of the game it if is completely meaningless and irrelevant? It certainly isn't immersive since players shouldn't change anything they do based on the reviews.

And despite the income generated matching the review scores (a game with poor reviews also has poor revenue; a game with great revenue also has great revenue)...apparently just a coincidence, the review system isn't a way to judge the quality of the game in any way, shape, or form. That being the case, for me, it breaks the immersion. It's also highly unrealistic. While not all reviews are absolutely accurate (in the real world), as a general rule, good review publishers do get it pretty close to the user experience. In this game however...we are told they don't...despite them actually representing the virtual-gamer experience. It's inconsistent.

[PunkieTheAlien.TTV]

If your game is a repeat then your game bombs. Try to dance around genres and keep up with a custome engine... its the best I can offer since I'm on new game plus... 1 :P

[【Ｎｉｃｅ Ｈｉｓｓ】]

Messaggio originale di Aionion:

It is a slight source of frustration however. What sense does it make to have a reviewer in the game say "Adventure games are no good on PC" when actually they do according to the game mechanic?

Because it was a bad review. That reviewer didn't like adventure games on the PC. Again, the text on reviews are just fluff, they don't mean anything and they are more-or-less randomly generated based on what sliders you used, the score, and the genre you chose.

Messaggio originale di Aionion:

What it is telling the player is we should just bypass the review page altogether because it is completely crap...it's all irrelevant.

That's what game reports are for. Reviews are important and tell you how good the game was, that's it. Game reports gives you more detail.

Messaggio originale di Aionion:

OK...so it's a meaningless little feature. If that is the case, why have it be a part of the game it if is completely meaningless and irrelevant? It certainly isn't immersive since players shouldn't change anything they do based on the reviews.

It's not irrelevant. They tell you how good your game is and give it a score, which helps determine how well it sells. If it bombs you are doing something wrong.

Messaggio originale di Aionion:

And despite the income generated matching the review scores (a game with poor reviews also has poor revenue; a game with great revenue also has great revenue)...apparently just a coincidence, the review system isn't a way to judge the quality of the game in any way, shape, or form.

The quality of the game determines the reviews you will get. The reviews you get (and fans, marketing, etc.) determine how well it sells.

Not too hard to understand. Make a good game, get good reviews. Get good reviews, sell a lot of a games.

[sierra_one_]

Aye, I've come across an issue today where the reviews rated me poorly and told me the genre/topic combination was terrible, whereas my game report concluded that the genre/topic combo was excellent, especially on the platform. Something must've gone wrong somewhere, but it was odd seeing that. Loving the game though!

[【Ｎｉｃｅ Ｈｉｓｓ】]

Messaggio originale di sierra_seven_:

Aye, I've come across an issue today where the reviews rated me poorly and told me the genre/topic combination was terrible, whereas my game report concluded that the genre/topic combo was excellent, especially on the platform. Something must've gone wrong somewhere, but it was odd seeing that. Loving the game though!

I'd chalk it up to random comment generation. But for immersion's sake, you can easily write that off as a reviewer's opinion. It's less meta-gamey that way. Just because one reviewer hates RPG's on the PC doesn't mean it is a bad combo.

[Hooch]

Messaggio originale di sierra_seven_:

Not too hard to understand. Make a good game, get good reviews. Get good reviews, sell a lot of a games.

OK, to clarify:

As far as reviews are concerned:

1) Only the actual score matters. The text is completely irrelevant.
2) This score does or will affect sales, so getting a high score is indeed, important.
3) For accurate text data (combos of genre/platform/type, etc...) the Game Report is used.

Is this correct?

[sierra_one_]

Messaggio originale di Wotsa:

I'd chalk it up to random comment generation. But for emersion's sake, you can easily write that off as a reviewer's opinion. It's less meta-gamey that way. Just because one reviewer hates RPG's on the PC doesn't mean it is a bad combo.

Aye, not a horrific problem, but it broke the immersion a fair bit. Good idea though, I'll bear that in mind for later playthroughs :D

[【Ｎｉｃｅ Ｈｉｓｓ】]

Messaggio originale di Aionion:

Messaggio originale di sierra_seven_:

Not too hard to understand. Make a good game, get good reviews. Get good reviews, sell a lot of a games.

OK, to clarify:

As far as reviews are concerned:

1) Only the actual score matters. The text is completely irrelevant.
2) This score does or will affect sales, so getting a high score is indeed, important.
3) For accurate text data (combos of genre/platform/type, etc...) the Game Report is used.

Is this correct?

Yeppers. The text is just randomly generated junk. Though, I do wish it were better.

[bills6693]

Ok so the problem that has been encountered seems to be fairly clear, and a fair source of confusion.

What the game reviewers are saying is innacurate. This can sometimes be the case. They can say stupid things. However, generally you can ignore them in favour of what the 'game reports' say. And it is the game reports that add the ++ or -- on the game development screens.

So basically, the reviewers may be just, well, lying basically. I admit, it is really stupid, it can confuse players and needs to be solved. However, if you just follow the pluses and minuses the game reports give you, and use what you would consider to be logical to fill in the blanks, you should get generally good games.

What needs to be done is the reviewer comments need to be fixed. They need to be only able to select things that are in line with how the game reports will feed back and what is actually true in the game. At the moment, I think it is just a case of if a game does badly, the reviews select two aspects and say they don't mesh well, when in fact those two things they happened to have picked work great, but other things brought the game down.

Hopefully this can get addressed to resolve these problems :)

EDIT: Just adding, yes Aionin that is correct :)

[【Ｎｉｃｅ Ｈｉｓｓ】]

Messaggio originale di bills6693:

Ok so the problem that has been encountered seems to be fairly clear, and a fair source of confusion.

What the game reviewers are saying is innacurate. This can sometimes be the case. They can say stupid things. However, generally you can ignore them in favour of what the 'game reports' say. And it is the game reports that add the ++ or -- on the game development screens.

So basically, the reviewers may be just, well, lying basically. I admit, it is really stupid, it can confuse players and needs to be solved. However, if you just follow the pluses and minuses the game reports give you, and use what you would consider to be logical to fill in the blanks, you should get generally good games.

What needs to be done is the reviewer comments need to be fixed. They need to be only able to select things that are in line with how the game reports will feed back and what is actually true in the game. At the moment, I think it is just a case of if a game does badly, the reviews select two aspects and say they don't mesh well, when in fact those two things they happened to have picked work great, but other things brought the game down.

Hopefully this can get addressed to resolve these problems :)

Agreed. The comments can be very confusing. I just look at the reviewers as being over-opinionated idiots, just like in real life. =P