AMA with CA on Reddit's Android Gaming

Just noticed this a few minutes ago, and it just got started:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidGam...oncernedape_creator_of_stardew_valley_ask_me/

CA is doing an 'Ask Me Anything' thread on the Android Gaming subforum of Reddit! Got a question for the man who created Stardew Valley? Post it while he's still active, folks!

 

Having posted on his twitter 10+ times and SV official site ( though Disqus comment ) a few time with no answer whatsoever in both cases, i'm not really hopeful there's a point in asking him anything on Reddit.

 

He is actively answering questions live right at this very moment.

 

well, at least got an answer ( which unsurprisingly brought NOTHING new and is as credible as usual ) before my post was dragged to the abyss of the thread by the fanboy downvoting it. gotta love reddit system.

 

Was that your comment about the vita shakuras? Lol fantastic

 

Xbox, PS4 & Vita, actually. feel free to go add your own. who know, maybe if there's enough, something will actually be done ?

 

I think you need like a Reddit account or something just not worth the effort. I have attempted to contact him many times

 

askes 2 questions.. no answer.. well.. :/

 

You asked 2 questions and did not get a answer?

 

yes. but 2 really short ones.

i really love stardew valley.. but the developer seems to don't really interact much with the community over social media / mail. i tried for months to get a single response from him, without any luck.. twitter, email, reddit.. what ever i tried - no answer. so the whole concept of a AMA is a little weird when you then don't respond to questions from your community. when i posted my question, there where not much comments on the AMA so you would think that it's likely to get a response.. but nope. it's sad when you try to get a response for a long time & see people get responses, but you don't get one.

months ago i did send a mail to the support.. till today i got not a single response. so yeah :<

 

@SSShakuras and @Cystasy: The last I saw, on PC alone (almost 2 years ago, mind you), this game had sold 15 million copies. Now suppose only 1% of the people who bought the game try to get in contact with ConcernedApe, which would roughly be 150,000 people. Let's say they all considerately spaced out messaging him so he receives the same amount of messages every day so as not to be overwhelmed. Over the 3 years the game has been fully released, this would be ~136 messages per day.

He has a life outside the game, he still actively works on expanding the game (free DLC, not micro-transactions to boost profits), and he is developing another game.

Maybe cut the guy some slack.

 

i understand that offcourse. it's just sad to see other people getting their questions answered & i feel a little ignored. when i see that someone just message him "spam" over twitter chat and he then get a answer.. that's just "" to see. i understand that it's just one guy & he get a lot of messages.. but i would think that he atleast respond to support mails with technical problems (even if it would take months till he respond).

 

According to steam spy , there's between 2M & 5M owner of stardew valley and on the wiki page, I can see a "By the end of 2017, with releases for all three major consoles, Stardew Valley had sold more than 3.5 million units" so i'm kinda curious as to what's the source that help you pulling out that "15M copies on PC alone" number.
Anyway, check his twitter, and you'll see how far it's from ~136 Msg a day, add to that that most of said message are just smiley/picture/meme or simple thanks, and suddenly it's different.

As for "cutting the guy some slack", i'll refer you to the Vita mess that does NOT make one consider "cutting the guys some slack".
it's a total crash fest and we're nearing the NINE MONTHS mark since the last patch that was SUPPOSED to have solved that. since then, nothing.

 

Well I must tread lightly on what I say about him or this game apparently, but he deserves no slack at all not the least. Fact is I don't even play SV anymore (haven't for a long time) as I was waiting on this little update, many months and SV being released on anything else it could profit of later still nothing. I didn't give up on the game though just it's creator

 

Of course, my mistake on the 15 million. I did some awful reverse mathing from seeing sales numbers were over $45mm. I also forgot there is no way to DM people on Twitter, this site, Reddit, or any other social media platforms he happens to be on where people can message him. I'm also certain the lowball 1% I pulled out of the ether is wholly accurate and it would be ludicrous to think more people have tried to contact him in some way, shape, or form. Finally, my meager assumption was all these fans and critics messaged him only once, whereas, as you so aptly stated earlier in the thread, there are people who have tried to contact him more than once: 10+ times even.

Does it suck there are problems with some of the ports? Of course. Does the Vita mess mean he realistically needs to address every individual who asks him about it in some way even if they repeatedly ask? No. Was I referring to cutting him some slack on the buggy ports other developers did for the consoles and/or mobile phones? No. If you want to take things out of context and grossly over-simplify issues to fit your narrative then that's your prerogative. Perhaps I need to simplify my first post to read "It is unrealistic to expect him to respond to every single piece of correspondence everyone sends his way. He owes you nothing."

Unless I'm again mistaken, which I am prone to be, you want to direct your complaints at Sickhead Games. If the game wasn't working, you could've gotten a refund after a few weeks from the PlayStation Store, although it's probably much too late for you if you've owned it for more than nine months, which isn't his problem either.

 

He said that he committed many mistakes and can do many things better, that most mistakes was for him being a novice developer, that he wanted to go back and change (from gaming perspective and art), but if he did that he rather do a Stardew Valley 2.
For me the biggest mistake was to listen the community and release the game for a dead console (Vita), the way that I see people complaining about it is like if I wanted a update for some of my Nintendo DS games for example, Starder first version deliver much more than you paid for in my opinion.

Edit: why not ask for a copy of the android game for people that have on Vita for example? It would open a margin for people to demand it for another platforms, but at least he will take out the Vita ghost of his back.

 

Everyone totally doing this AMA wrong; tedious questions about bugs, platforms etc can be asked through support channels any day of the week

He said Ask Me Anything, so people should have been asking questions like


If ancient fruit was real, what would it taste like?

Or

Emily has an eye for colour, and she also loves her fabrics, so, does her carpet match her curtains?

And getting away from SDV entirely...

How many five year olds could you have in a fight? (Standard rules apply on this one, obviously)

 

Ask me ANYTHING means ANYTHING. Not just "some things".

i asked as an example if there will be a option for cloud saves & a way to scale the UI on Android in the future.
a lot of people have problems with the tiny font size & icons on the android version.. but the developer didn't gave us a answer yet to that topic. so imho this is a legitimate question to ask when you have the chance to ask a developer anything on a AMA (because a lot of people question this themself).

questions like your examples are more for "entertainment" and "for the lulz".. but don't help when a lot of people have serious questions about the game (like the problems with the Vita version, android bugs and glitches, "missin"g features etc). a AMA is not just for entertainment.. it's often the only way to get the chance to question someone something you question yourself for a long time (like celebritys you would never reach over social media or similiar outside of an AMA).

maybe people wouldnt question about bugs, plattforms etc... WHEN THE DEVELOPER WOULD ANSWER THEM OVER OTHER CHANNELS.. *cough* but he don't. not even over the support channels when you have serious problems with stuff. a lot of people asking the same questions for weeks.. not a single response. he would just need to answer it a single time somewhere and the question wouldn't be asked 100x times. but he don't. so you don't need to wonder that people ask such stuff on a AMA.

 

Well people asked about Abigail and the Wizard, but at least we know that she eating rocks was made official now xD
Also they asked about what fruit is stardrop.

 

Sickhead is a joke seriously it's like a ghost town. Releasing the game on this dead "vita" as you call it is just further proof as to the bigger issue here which it seems mentioning is frowned upon and that's greed.