Feedback is a lot like a power tool. It’s super useful and you can do a lot with it, but it’s also dangerous in the wrong hands.

Whether you’re making a game, doing team wide playtests, running focus tests with potential players, or working on a live service game with millions of players, you are going to get a LOT of feedback. You need that feedback to help you understand your audience and your project. But it’s a double edged sword because not all feedback is useful, and if not properly sourced will pull you in the wrong direction.

First, you need to have a very clear understanding of your goals and target audience. This sounds easy enough right? Make a good game, and target gamers. No problem. Well it’s a lot more complex than that. You clearly want to cast the widest net to get as many players for your game, but if you try to appeal to everyone, you may not serve a core audience. You need that north star to align all feedback to.

Let’s take TFT for example. Any time we run a lab or get player feedback, a common piece of feedback we get is “A new set is overwhelming and is a lot to take in, and feels complicated.” It would be a rookie mistake to take this at face value and simply make the game simpler. Maybe more reprints from the previous set to latch on to, or remove a mechanic. However this has an immediate pull from the players who desire novelty and want a deep puzzle to solve for 200-1000 games. We resolve this by sticking to our agreed North Star, which is “A deep strategy game with tons of replayability”.

Now that’s not to say you then ignore this feedback. If anything, this means it’s time to think of solutions that help onboard new players or simplify the set in places that makes sense without sacrificing that core vision for the product. Quality of life changes like Team Planner or Items popping off carousel go a long way to improving that initial feedback. But sometimes if there isn’t a way to do that, you may have to ignore feedback. You can’t please everyone!

Lastly, and this is the hardest one, is figuring out on the team where your strengths are and how to utilize those. The TFT team for example is a very diverse group with their own individual talents, and knowing who is exceptional at what can help prioritize their feedback. For example, I am not as good at thematics and animation feel as someone like Witty or Giovanni, so I’ve learned to trust their feedback much more than my own when dealing with set development in this area. I’ll often even frame my own feedback as “This feels weird to me, but I’d double check with Giovanni to be sure.” so that people can get the right message.

This is a complicated topic, but I’ve seen too many instances of following the wrong feedback lead to a feature going down the wrong path, or even worse, a game making a critical decision in its design that dooms it for players. So take great care, and don’t sacrifice that core vision. Now I’m going to go read all the feedback about the B patch and our player labs. Until tomorrow, take it easy 🙂