So today I posted a post on reddit (which I really don't do often) with a gif of my current state of the game, I know it doesn't look VERY good, but it's... decent I guess. And somebody made a comment about how my game looks like shit. On one side it's motivating because I want to make something that doesn't look like crap, but on the other side it can be really demotivating. Have you ever had people say this stuff to you? If so, how did you feel?

Oh my gosh EddieK this happens to me all the time, but instead of other people calling my game shitty it's actually my own thoughts.  Take my main project unirule for example.  I am very proud of all that I've accomplished and often times when I show people who I know they're always like 'er, that's nice.... anyways'.  lol, you'll never win over everyone.  Just don't lose focus.

16 minutes ago, EddieK said:

And somebody made a comment about how my game looks like shit.

If that's all he has to say i would just ignore him. It's hip to be toxic but there should be always better critique around, and people say the same about upcoming AAA games as well.

6 minutes ago, Awoken said:

Oh my gosh EddieK this happens to me all the time, but instead of other people calling my game shitty it's actually my own thoughts.  Take my main project unirule for example.  I am very proud of all that I've accomplished and often times when I show people who I know they're always like 'er, that's nice.... anyways'.  lol, you'll never win over everyone.  Just don't lose focus.

I feel you... The problem is that non developers don't understand how much effort it takes to make a game and they don't appreciate it as much as we do. But as the saying goes "The customer is always right"

8 minutes ago, JoeJ said:

If that's all he has to say i would just ignore him. It's hip to be toxic but there should be always better critique around, and people say the same about upcoming AAA games as well.

Yeah I agree with you. Constructive feedback would be nice, like what exactly the person doesn't like or what do they think is missing. I think I'm being a bit over sensitive at this point. After I release my game on steam, I think I will get much more negative feedback but hopefully at least with more details.

6 minutes ago, Anri said:

Eddie, Reddit is the home of the keyboard warrior so take it with a pinch of salt.  GameDev is a dedicated site and so as long as you can handle honest criticism let us take a look at your work.

You can see some of the screenshots here:

https://www.gamedev.net/gallery/album/1966-tower-defense/

What do you guys think I could add to make it more appealing?

5 minutes ago, EddieK said:

What do you guys think I could add to make it more appealing?

Yeah... programmer art  but i agree its decent.

Many details are just too small. You could make the turrets larger. Actually their boring quadratic bases dominate the screen. (Those bases are your main problem i think - one alone may look good, but arranged in repetive rows they look bad).

Textures have too much high frequency details (turrets structures and jeeps camouflage).

The stripe pattern colored borders on the bases is a bit annoying - maybe just the color without the stripes. You could also Make larger bulbs or glowing areas on the turrets itself instead.

The rings on the glowing towers could be thicker, and form a curved cone profile instead a straight line to be more interesting.

The green grass could use some low frequency variation, like being darker to wards the corners of the playfield (like a vignette effect).

The wall modules have some brightness mismatches, this looks unintended. Their sides could be angles at beginning and ends eventually.

1 minute ago, JoeJ said:

Yeah... programmer art  but i agree its decent.

 

Many details are just too small. You could make the turrets larger. Actually their boring quadratic bases dominate the screen. (Those bases are your main problem i think - one alone may look good, but arranged in repetive rows they look bad).

Textures have too much high frequency details (turrets structures and jeeps camouflage).

The stripe pattern colored borders on the bases is a bit annoying - maybe just the color without the stripes. You could also Make larger bulbs or glowing areas on the turrets itself instead.

The rings on the glowing towers could be thicker, and form a curved cone profile instead a straight line to be more interesting.

The green grass could use some low frequency variation, like being darker to wards the corners of the playfield (like a vignette effect).

The wall modules have some brightness mismatches, this looks unintended. Their sides could be angles at beginning and ends eventually.

 

 

Wow, thanks for all the great feedback! I really appreciate it and I will will try to adress all of these issues. I also should either go find someone who does modelling, or try to improve my own modelling skills to make the game more appealing to the eye.