* In short, he released a demo of a game he was working on, got people’s opinions on it, acted completely reasonable and level-headed, released the game, had some negative comments made about it – and threw a full blown tantrum (it, apparently, being everyone else’s fault for pointing out errors in his game and not his own fault for not fixing them all prior to release). Down came the game, down came the page on his website where he also had the game, off went Greg into the sunset… Perhaps the most disappointing thing is that, while his game was undeniably flawed and in definite need of some fine tuning, it showed he had potential.

** And ignoring the fact that I've tended to get worked up myself a time or two over this *hobby*. :)

So why is it people get so fired up about it? Yes, it’s frustrating when you write a game and people don’t like it (we've all been there). It’s probably worse for newbies because it’s the only thing people know them by so you're basically making or breaking your reputation based on this one game. Write a good one and people will remember it for a long time (as with The PK Girl and Unraveling God); write a bad one and you'll likewise be remembered… although for all the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, most newbies seem to take every negative comment their game receives as some kind of personal insult, even those comments that are trying to be helpful and the pointing out of errors is done in an attempt to advise the author how best to fix them.

Of course, you need a pretty thick skin if you're going to be writing games. People are under no obligation to play them and even less to like them. Don’t release your first game and expect people to fall over themselves to tell you how great it is. In particular, don’t assume that because it’s free and you're doing this for a hobby that people are going to be any less scathing in their criticism of it. I've heard more than a few comments over the years from people who seem to be of the opinion that if the game is free, then it doesn’t matter what it’s like. It can be poorly written, riddled with bugs, impossible to finish. A complete mess in other words. Yet if it’s free, the argument is, what right do people have to complain over it?

The answer is, simply, that “right” doesn’t come into it. Write a bad game and people will complain whether it’s a commercial work or completely free of charge. Even if you're donating the proceeds to charity, if the game stinks badly enough you'll have people giving you a hard time over it. In short, no one cares that the game is free because there are so many other free games out there. If they don’t like yours, they won’t stick with it just because you put a lot of time and effort into it. They’ll go play something else instead. So if you're going to release a game, prepare yourself for a few negative comments about it at the very least. In particular, don’t throw a hissy fit if people don’t like your game as much as you do. Take the game down and depart and you've only wasted your time writing it in the first place. Fix it and the time spent on it will at least have been time well spent.

Greg Broulette is hardly the first person this kind of thing has happened to. Check back over the past few years and you'll lots of people who have come along to the forum, made a favourable impression, released a game that hasn’t done very well… and then never been heard from again. Greg sticks in mind a little better than the others because a) he’s the most recent one, and b) the others left somewhat more, um, *quietly*. But hunt around and you'll find plenty of others who have been discouraged from writing any further games because their first one hasn’t done very well.

So what’s the solution?

Should people reviewing or commenting on games by newcomers bear in mind that the game is someone’s debut and make allowances for this, perhaps accepting that it won’t be as polished or flawless as a game written by someone who has three or four games behind him? That sounds like a fine idea in theory but in practice I don’t see it working. As The PK Girl and Unraveling God proved, newcomers *can* write great games first time round if they're prepared to put in the necessary effort. Step outside of the ADRIFT world and you'll find plenty of people who wrote great games with their first try. So there's no really no need to make such allowances for newcomers in this respect. If they’ve tried hard enough, and listened to advice, and tested their game thoroughly beforehand, there's no reason it can’t be every bit as good as any other game out there.

My own view is that it isn't the reviewers, the commentors or the voters who need to rethink how they judge a newcomer’s game. It’s the newcomer himself who has to change his viewpoint and learn to take a few lumps if he wants to have favourable things said about his games. As said above, this is a hobby. That applies to both the game writer *and* the game player. Write a bad game, expect bad reviews. Write a good game, expect good reviews (although be prepared for the bad ones as well because not everyone likes the same things). As simple as that.

In other words, don’t take it so hard if your game isn't as well received as you'd like it to be. Pay attention to the comments made about it (some will be just knocking the game in general, but most will have something constructive to say), fix whatever’s wrong with your game and go on and write a better one.

Learn from your mistakes and maybe, just maybe, you'll write that great game one day.