For this episode, we had the pleasure of hosting Ian Cofino, Co-founder at Afterburner Studios.

What you'll listen to in this episode:

1. A short intro about Ian, how he got into the industry and what are his favorite games of all times.

2. Ian shared with us what was the feedback process they had for their latest game "Dreamscaper" and how they had a nine-month open development process with feedback and input from their audience:

Minute 8:41 - "First we did things like a pre-alpha with just friends and family to solicit feedback. Then we did an alpha that was public, that people could join our Discord and get a key and we did a Kickstarter demo, and then a beta and then an early access launch in August of 2020, and each step of the way we were soliciting feedback. We're soliciting feedback throughout that whole process as well."

3. Ian discusses how player feedback is extremely important for the games industry, especially  due to its user interactivity:

Minute 11:05 - "gaming is different than a lot of other fields, because it has so much user interactivity. So, separate from something like movies or books, you know, television, there's so much more back and forth that's required between the audience and the creator, when you're making a product, especially thinking about it as a business. So, it's really important that audience feedback is taken into account as you're developing."

4. We asked Ian how Indie Studios collect feedback from their games since we know that not having a community makes it extremely hard for Indie designers and developers to have this feedback to optimize their games:

Minute 12:18 - "For a lot of indie Studios, that's very challenging and we made a point of marketing very early on so that we could grow that community and we use them in tandem. So, growing the community to us also meant soliciting feedback. So, it wasn't just getting more exposure for the game. But it also meant getting more feedback so that it was kind of like a flywheel in that sense."

5. Finally, we asked Ian how they balance positive and negative feedback and how does it impact their product decisions, and he shared some valuable insights:

Minute 15:38 - "We try our best to maybe divorce emotion, a little bit from it, and think rationally about basically what is this person really trying to say. Because a lot of times, you'll receive feedback as a game developer, that might run counter to what your goals are, what your intentions are, for the artistic intention of the game, or the mechanics, how you want players to experience things. So, it's always about a synthesis of where they're coming from, why they've given this feedback, and what your intentions are for the game.