With 20/20 hindsight it was obviously a good idea.

But at the time of making the decision, it was an unbelievably risky plan and the odds were stacked against it. As a matter of fact, for every successful 2D platformer made with care and love that gets released and becomes successful, there are dozens that fail miserably and that you will never hear of.

Yes, believing in yourself and taking risks makes success possible, but remember that it does not guarantee it.

Huh, it's not like Reddit to be pointlessly hateful 😌

This is exactly how Eric Barone felt, despite knowing in his heart that he had made something special to him. This is how he thought Stardew Valley would he received. The general gaming community are such cunts.

I remember the first comment I got on online was "you suck". But it was soon drowned by encouragement words and constructive feedback.

About Hollow Knight, by the time this got posted on reddit, the game was already funded through kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11662585/hollow-knight

What this image does not show is the amount of support this post received, more than 20k upvotes and plenty of endearing messages on reddit only.

u/YoDudeguy Nov 20 '15
Damn, that looks amazing! Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Will buy.

u/Eliza_Douchecanoe Nov 20 '15
I like the dark feel of it, but with light-hearted game play and sound effects. Good shit.

If I sort by votes, I had to scroll a bit to get to that 756 votes message.

It is important to filter and properly process the messages you receive. There are some mean and unnecessary messages on that image (and on the reddit thread), but they do not show the full picture and at that time could easily be ignored.

Speaking of negativity, how the hell do people deal with the way reddit looks now? Everytime I see it this way I am shocked.

Avatars, ads, wasted space, weird conversation drop downs..... yuck.

As someone who quit his job to create a video game this makes me feel good.

I will probably fail, but that's a future feeling.

This is called survivorship bias

Shitting on hard work and effort of indie devs and then wondering why the gaming ladscape is filled with souless corporate slop.

I see this behavior everywhere on the internet, and I truly believe people become like this the more chronically online they are - whether they realize it or not.

To play devil’s advocate, their incredible sales were absolutely up to luck. Like all things. But you’re right, people online are rarely worth listening to, unless you’d like the perspective of people who spend above average time on the internet. People without similar moorings to yours, and generally lacking the background that led you to your perspective and understanding. There are many benefits, and many downsides to polling the web.

I guarantee you, every loser making one of those comments doesn't do shit with their lives.

They can't comprehend that in order to get better at things, you have to practice them.

Their lives consist of working, sleeping, and playing video games. It's pathetic.

Do not consider online judgements at all.
Do your thing. Pursue your passions. Do it.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s not to listen to jaded assholes online.

I get the feeling a lot of gamedev communities are full of people who haven't built anything anyone wants to buy, and so get super bitter towards anyone wanting to try, or anyone who manages to make something that actually picks up steam and becomes successful.

They're the sorts of people that will go "X Game is objectively bad!" and then shill their own game which is also bad.

The same happens in art and animation communities, where something will become popular and people will disguise their feeling of "Why can't I get that?!" with "pfft, it's objectively bad!".

The internet really tends to be cruel. I used to open up about myself in some online spaces, but it only made me feel worse. Now I only talk about non personal stuff

this would be on r/agedlikemilk

I think a few of those people are on here now still moaning about the game being popular.

reddit specifically has also become a cesspool of hateful, miserable, morons.

Jesus christ, reddit. Take it down one single notch maybe? Like, bro