Alexander Rehm

Connections, especially on LinkedIn and similar networks used by people in your industry is a wonderful start to network. Make it a two-way connection though, engage with their content, provide feedback, share your own thoughts.... and don't be afraid to just reach out of the blue to people, inform them why, tell them you are looking for advice or thoughts on your progression - you would not believe how often people are willing to support each other in the same industry!

Please remember, however, that not all player feedback is equal: think about the target audience when reviewing feedback: - Are they actually your target audience, or is the feedback from players who spend less than average time in your game? - Does the feedback come from a vocal, but tiny, part of your audience? - Are they engaged? Are they passionate? Are they that sweet spot of both? - Does the game data you're getting align with the feedback? Or is there a misconception somewhere that you need to iron out first?

Respecting time zones can be difficult, especially when individuals have Teams / Slack or similar communication tools on their phones - ensure you are clear with your teams that you respect their core hours, and while the times where you respond to messages or emails may be suitable for you, it should absolutely be important to your recipients to respond at a time that is suitable to them, meaning ideally in their work hours. If you can, schedule messages so that they arrive at a time that would be in their respective time zones. This may not always be possible - especially when you have teams from multiple timezones in the same chat or email thread - but making the effort will ensure you are doing your best to being respectful.

Once you have clearly identified what the key technical challenges are, focusing a "strike team" on two areas can help: 1) Identify the must-have items you absolutely have to have to make your core loop work and ensure your vision remains intact 2) Prioritise these features based on urgency - what can you test early to get the most value out of feedback, and what can be delivered over a longer period (or later in your milestones) to still ensure you can launch on time. This will require transparency with your leads and the studio leadership, so that everyone will be able to buy into the new plans, and provide assistance where possible

Maintaining integrity is not as easy as it sounds: it will require time and effort on both sides, and you as the developer need to remain pro-active. Remaining professional and respectful is not often easy, but rewarding in the longer term.

Player feedback is crucially important, especially when you need to grow your audience engagement: - Identify your key players, those who still are engaged actively, but also those who have stopped playing recently - Open a dialogue with those players: be open and honest, inform them that you want to learn more about what makes them continue to play, or what made them stop - Listen, actively: what is working and what isn't. Be open to hear harsh truths, especially when you had a different direction in mind - Review and respond, clearly: what is it you are going to do and what you aren't. And inform when you are likely going to implement that feedback. Engaging, actively listening and acting will help improve player engagement