Tymon Smektała spent 13 years as director for the iconic zombie parkour game Dying Light and after stepping away from said role earlier this month he’s reflected on the franchise, its fans, and what listening to a playerbase can do for a game.
“I believe very strongly that this makes it your obligation to focus and listen to the players,” Smektała says during a Digital Dragons Conference talk (via GamesRadar+). “As soon as you release the game, it stops being only your game. Suddenly, there are hundreds, thousands, hopefully millions of ‘stakeholders,’ players with opinions, expectations, memories, frustrations, theories, ideas, requests. Suddenly, the game starts belonging not only to you, the makers, the creators, but also to the people who play it.”
While there’s certainly some debate as to what extent fans own the games they play, I get what Smektała is saying. Games are seeing an increasing reliance on word of mouth, streamer, and community backing. While Steam player count numbers aren’t the be-all and end-all, it’s hard to argue that games like Arc Raiders’ ridiculous numbers didn’t go a long way to helping the game prosper.
“We are not just selling products to customers, we are building a leading relationship with our community,” Smektała adds. But amid all of this Smektała does stress that listening to players isn’t the same thing as taking their word as gospel: “This doesn’t mean that you have to do what the loudest players are saying. Players are not always right about the solution… They’re very often wrong.”
Like in most cases the truth lies somewhere in between. Players are ‘always right when it comes to the feeling’ whether it be frustrating mechanics, bad narrative vibes, or just a general dislike of the direction the game is going in. “If something excites them, scares them, or makes them feel somehow special—you should pay attention.”
It’s sound advice. Usually when players are complaining about games they’re doing it from a place of love. I, for one, can be really grumpy about some of my favourite games, but that’s only because I enjoy them so much I want them to be the best version possible. Although, I have to say, some things are best left up to the devs. They usually know what’s up.
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