Some time back, I came across a tweet making fun of generic feedback terms, being "static," "empty," "outdated," and "monochromatic." While it is really old now, it is still just as important now as it was then. The tweet features a meme which points out the four very generic forms of feedback, and to be completely honest with you, I am beginning to get tired of hearing these exact words used over and over again as "advice."

To further things, these four concepts are already known by the typical creator, so if you comment on someone's work pointing out that their level is static, they probably already know and chose to keep it that way as a creative decision.

How Feedback Should Be

Anyway, let me make something clear: I do occasionally ask for feedback, but never in most public servers or even some private servers like I used to. I really only turn to close friends when looking for opinions on my work.

For example, I am part of a private friend group featuring myself and many other solid creators, and I do post some of my work for feedback there because they know me better than the average person and therefore give feedback according to my vision of the level, rather than their own.

That is one problem I see with using public servers for feedback: the feedback people give is often biased with their own views on the directions your level should go, rather than how you want your level to turn out.

Maybe my level is static because I don't want it to look super dynamic… Maybe I chose to make my level empty to fit a theme… Maybe I like the charming decoration of older updates… And maybe I made my level monochromatic because I like it that way.

To make another thing clear: I am not saying that these are necessarily bad aspects of a level. I just think that they have become norms, and sometimes, creators may want to break free from them.

Essays

Another thing I try to avoid is those full on essays creators occasionally give me. Like, seriously, this is just menacing. Oftentimes, these large walls of text could be summarized in a sentence or two, which means that most of the content I am being forced to read really doesn't mean much.

I would probably be okay with these paragraphs as long as it gave ideas and suggestions, rather than just saying "this good and this bad." When I ask for feedback, it is usually because something feels off about my work, and I want suggestions on how to improve it.

Real Experience

For example — and this is an actual experience of mine — I was making a level a few years ago and posted a preview of it in-game to see what people thought of it. I received one suggestion to make a certain background in the level move to the beat of the song. So, I did just that and absolutely loved it.

I still remember that experience, since I actually took something away from the feedback that helped me improve my level. I wish more feedback nowadays were like that. I do read countless paragraphs of feedback, yet none of it helps me to improve my level. It is usually just pointing things out and commenting on them, never clearly giving me anything I can take away.

Suggestions

I guess what I am trying to say is, I would rather receive suggestions, rather than just a paragraph pointing out what is good and bad. When I do go to my small friend group and post what I've been working on, it is usually so I can brainstorm ideas.

People can point out what is bad all they want. However, if they fail to give me an alternative, there really isn't much I can do. And, well, just pointing out the good stuff, while nice, doesn't really help me either.

Not to say that you shouldn't point out the good stuff— because, as I just said, it is nice to see your hard work get recognized. However, when the feedback I receive is meaningless statements, maybe you can expand a little more on that.

So I guess the ultimate reason as to why I don't ask for feedback anymore is mainly because it isn't very helpful. I rarely find myself receiving feedback and making drastic improvements to my level afterwards because of it.