What do you want developers to do for you?

I'm currently developing a game and my goal (after creating a great game that I know people will love) is to avoid backlash during launch because of issues not related to the core game. My game is a platformer that I hope will bring fun gameplay, a good story and aesthetic, and be generally enjoyable. It's not gimmicky or 'pretentious' (it's an honest action game with a few small rpg elements), and it doesn't have pixel art or is a 'love letter to the 16-bit era.' It's an honest-to-god GAME. I'm not sure the final platforms (it's in XNA/Monogame so porting is pretty easy) but I can promise the final version will have PC settings that are adequate and will release on and off Steam with no-DRM versions available. It will be $10-20.

What would you like me to include/change/avoid to make you not hate my game for something other that what it is?

did the content pipeline for monogame ever get sorted out?

Well there's always going to be criticism its just no way around it. As long as the majority of people like your game. Then you know your doing something right, but as of now you have to show people how your game will play. Show them something impressive and get them excited. Anyway best of luck to you hope the game turnsout good.

Don't know that there is answer to this question. People will like the game or not. The best thing you can do is have good communication with your players, that's all.

Criticism will always happen, and constructive criticism is always a good thing for developers to listen to and take into account when making their next game. You're never going to make a game that pleases everybody, so don't try to do that. Be confident in your own ideas and don't water them down because of the whims of others - but don't write off what they have to say without thinking at all.

Also, what's wrong with a love letter to the 16-bit era? I'd like to see more of those that aren't trying to be stupid parodies or high art. Just some great music, hard level design, and dumb paper-thin plots.

Yes it will. At least let people know you heard them. Do not pull a silent treatment.

The only thing I could possibly "hate" in a game is being restricted as the player.

You can have a shit story, mediocre graphics, terrible voice acting, no cutscenes, hell even small environments. But as long as your game has a rich and non-restrictive set of mechanics for me to mix together and straight up abuse, creating wonderful and satisfying outcomes with my own two hands rather than watching it happen on screen, then you get my money.

A game with great characters or memorable set pieces can be played a few times. A game with seemingly endless gameplay possibilities for the player's intelligence and skill to figure out and master and string together in satisfying scenarios, can be played forever.

Edit: But I'm in the minority so don't listen to me. In order to have an all around-acclaimed game, you need to either deliver an addicting game (Skyrim, Minecraft, CoD and World of Warcraft), or a game that is clever and compelling and sometimes straight up pretentious, something that makes reviewers feel they're real adults, such as Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect and Saints Row 3.

To answer the main question of the thread.
Developers should just do what they feel like doing and enjoy it at the same time.
It's easy to spot when developers have become so sick of making a specific type of games compared to someone who enjoys what they do.

I love platformers. I mean, I REALLY love them. Here is what I look for in a great platformer:

• 60fps with no more than 1 frame of lag between user input & display (careful design of main game input & draw loop). Pretty key. If you don't have this then just don't bother.
• fine-tuned controls - if there isn't any air control make the jumping fast and snappy, if there is air control make it responsive with "just enough" inertial effects
• maybe check into easing curves/functions for animated objects if you already haven't
• pixel-level collision detection is always best
• use recognizable, simple silhouettes for all collide-able moving objects
• use palettes with good contrast to key the player in on which parts of geometry they can collide with and which are for just for flare
• every player input action should have little, short sound effects / particle effects / a few frames of anim (dust from skidding, a quick flash when you strike, "bonk" & a few frames of particles when hitting head, different version for walls, etc). So many platformers are sooooo plain when a few very simple particles and sound fx would add so much character.

There is a real glut of platformers out there so you'll have to work hard if you want even $10 from gamers. You're in luck though most of them are pretty crappy Box2D test beds with no real tuning in movement or animation functions.

I got a good chuckle out of that xD

Well clever humor is part of being a clever adult :P

@falserelic: I'm really looking for suggestions for platformer specific stuff and external-to-game issues like DRM or things like that. I understand that my game will be judged for what it is, I just want to make that as good as I can.

@tourgen: Thanks for the advice!

1. 60fps is a must. Lag frames may end up being dependent on limitations of the platform, especially on Xbox. Many cases you actually have no way to get below 3 frames of lag, but 1 or less is the goal.

2. I'm experimenting with some of the best platformers of all time to look for good physics sets, then will redesign the one I choose to what I need.

3. Will do

4. I probably *won't* end up doing this for a few reasons, the largest of which is the fact that AABBs are actually more satisfying to the majority of players when sized correctly. While I appreciate that the SMB/Dustforce/etc crowd would like pixel-collisions better, it doesn't really make sense from a design or technical perspective for this game (it's not a precision platformer, it's an action game). Still a possibility, depends on final art assets and direction.

5. Yeah, I've read a lot about silhouette design from Valve and others in research papers. I probably won't do the final art myself, but this is an important detail.

6-7. This is great advice, thanks. Some of the best in the thread.

My goal is not really to milk cash from players, more to get my name out and get some minor income for further game dev. I don't really need my own games as an income source right now. Putting it at $10-20 is a good way imho to keep players from dismissing it as an ultra budget game while letting as many people play as possible, which is the goal. If it were a competitive mulitplayer game it would probably be free-to-play with cosmetic purchases, just to get as many people to play as possible.

Not rolling /w box2d as it usually creates a really loose physics-platformed feel that's only appropriate in puzzle games.