jefequeso: It's actually not too big a deal. He made a video about my game The Moon Sliver and didn't like it. I said he could have at least put a link to the game in his video description. You know, just as a common courtesy, in case a few out of his vitriol-laden viewers actually wanted to check it out. And he just fluffed me off. I believe his exact words were "Yeah. Didn't though."
While Jim could almost certainly have handled his somewhat snotty reaction better (trust me, I've had my own brief and less than amicable exchange with Jim Sterling), the fact of the matter is that he is a journalist, and you can't go and try influencing his publications. By the by, he very rarely links to the storefront pages in his reviews, anyway.
jefequeso: Maybe "asshole" is a bit of a strong word, but it's a surprisingly sore spot for me. Yeah, it's all well and good to go on about "that's what comes from charging money for something" and "you need a thick skin to be a game developer," but at the end of the day, no matter how prepared you are it's incredibly disheartening for someone with that much power and clout to treat your hard work like a joke, and you like an inconsequential piece of garbage. And for thousands of that person's peons to all be trying to out-hyperbole each other about what sort of horrible diseases your game inflicted upon them. Especially since that most draining, frustrating part of being an indie developer is already trying to convince people that you're more than an inconsequential piece of garbage.
The store page is extremely clear about what the game is, precisely because I didn't want to deal with people who hate "walking simulators" purchasing it and hating it simply because they aren't in tune with the sort of experience it's supposed to provide. You know, live and let live.
Sorry to say this, but when the market entry barriers were lowered, that basically turned every single developer into an inconsequential piece of garbage. There are literally thousands of developers out there dreaming of being the next Jonathan Blow or Ed McMillen, or fantasising about establishing the next big developer. Every one of them thinks that their game is absolutely awesome, and every one of them is going to find out that their game is irrelevant in the greater scheme of things.
Journalists get dozens of games shipped to them each week by aspiring indie developers, and most of them just get tossed by the wayside and never even reviewed. Even if it was a negative review, count yourself lucky that you even got that kind of coverage in a major online publication.
(For what it's worth - I don't even like Jim Sterling. He was fine when he was constrained by The Escapist, as he had limits imposed on him that inspired him to be a little more witty and discerning with his criticism. Since he left (or maybe was kicked out behind the scenes) hís website has been basically nothing but vitriol.)
