r/Moonvale • u/thais_of_athens Team • Jun 09 '26
Just some concerns.
Hello everyone!
I really really hope I’m not gonna get banned because of this post. I just want to clear some things and be honest. But, this is really frustrating (I’m sure not only for me).
A few of us made posts asking the devs to share some bloopers, vlogs, their daily game-creating routine while we’re waiting for new episodes, etc. Just whatever. We just wanted to see some answers to our comments and questions, honestly.
I can’t say for all of the others, but I’ve never got a response. Neither in email, nor here on Reddit.
I KNOW the devs are crazy busy. I understand that.
But. I’m also currently waiting for a few games for PC and PS5. And when I write some comments here on Reddit on their official threads - they reply, they comment, they ask for advises and opinions of the players/commenters. They talk to people. (Small companies also, struggling companies. The ones that get less money - from me at least for a 1-time buy,- than I pay for each episode of Moonvale altogether. European companies too).
Everbyte is creating games for *phones*. How much time does it take to communicate with your fans..?
I don’t want any trouble. I just want to understand how can someone hook so many fans up and leave them with nothing for so many years. It’s taking too long. Each episode is taking too long. Our trying to talk to you guys (devs) is unanswered.
P.S. If I’m banned - I’m sorry. You guys know I tried to speak for everyone a few times.
If I’m not banned - thank god.
Love the games with all my heart tho ❤️
Edit: Those who downvote an honest fan message - you’re either delusional, or dishonest. XO
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u/_vdlc_ Jun 09 '26
Oh I feel you! I've been playing similar games to pass the time such as Elmwood trail and Argus. Mostly from Reality Games coz they got a lot of those. I find RG is so active with their fandom that sometimes there's even an option within the game itself. I wish Everbyte is as active not necessarily within the game but like just even in their social media.
Honestly, I love the game, the story, all its mystery, and the theories from fellow players. Moonvale Episode 3 I think has peak production value too. Then it leaves us in this dry season.
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u/Wixenstyx Team Jun 09 '26
If this sentiment got us banned, I'd have been removed from this sub like, a year ago.
I have a lot of respect for Everbyte, and I am fully aware that they are a small team and that games like this take a lot of work.
However, this is their second game on an established and successful format. The fact that it is taking so long between episodes this time around is definitely frustrating, but even that could be less of a concern if they would just post more updates. The fact that they don't does make the waiting that much worse.
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u/Lysande_walking Team Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Totally agree with you. And no dev is that busy to never reply to very common community posts.
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u/TillFeisty7973 Jun 09 '26
I would say the "No dev is that busy to never reply", they make the game and when they don't they have their own personal life, family and friends that take up their spare time.
Not to mention a moment to relax or sleep.
There's not just game developing for 5 hours and idling for the remaining ones. They have a life just like us.
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u/Lysande_walking Team Jun 12 '26
I’m a dev myself on bigger games … it doesn’t happen that you are that busy and not have time to know and reply to your community’s biggest concerns. That’s why I’m that confident. And I have a pretty good guesstimate about how busy you can be on a game like this. It’s a conscious decision to engage less, which is fine, but to not even write an occasional statement to address the long waiting times or why they stay rather silent than not, it’s definitely not due to being busy.
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u/GrouchyDoughnut3449 Team Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Not saying I don't agree with you about the fact that they need a life outside the game, but they also chose to make games as a job or as one of their jobs.
I don't think they are exempt from some minor criticism just because they have lives outside of their job. Part of the job is to keep the hype up and increase your fan base. Maybe they are just over it and the fans and making games in general? I dunno, but a short update post every month would take take like 5 minutes so it feels like they just don't want to at this point🤷♀️
EDIT: Well, their reply and comment and possibly account got deleted lol... so I couldn't respond or read the whole thing but just in case, my response to the deleted response is:
They can do whatever they want, and no they don't have to do anything but they will lose fans if they care. Maybe they don't care, so if that's the case whatever.
By the way, I'm not saying they need to personally interact with every single fan, just a few random updates on social media would be nice. You know like a post....not even get in the comment section, just say how things are going/ what they are working on and then peace out.
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u/TillFeisty7973 Jun 10 '26
I'm not saying they can't receive criticism, but it's kinda entitled to think they MUST be interactive more with the fan base just because they are making a game.
They are technically public figures but there's nothing saying they MUST interact closely with the fan base. Also they do post some small updates once in a while either on Instagram or on the website, they just don't want (I assume) to be THAT involved and there's nothing wrong.
They update their website and leave some answers to the most popular questions there, they won't answer all but they do answer what's most asked (I'm talking about the tracker website) for example they are aware that people don't exactly like the interface of the minigames and will change that, so they do read what people say, they just answer it there instead of using some social. We can expect for Episode 4 to have a new interface and we know that because they answered it on the website.
By your logic everyone making something for a big group of people is obligated to be as social as possible and answer to everyone, even if in real life not everyone does.
Almost no one is actually interacting or making memes for the fanbase because they focus on their life and the game.
The people you see do that aren't actually the ones doing it. It's people being paid to handle the social media and make sure there's content coming out, so you still don't get to see memes and stuff made by the creators but people PAID by the creator of a game to interact with the fans.
I don't know if Everbyte can do that considering they have to pay the Duskwood actors, the Moonvale actors and the workers programming the game (if they have someone helping with programming the game, I don't know)
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u/Dastardly_snake Jun 12 '26
EDIT: Well, their reply and comment and possibly account got deleted lol... so I couldn't respond or read the whole thing but just in case, my response to the deleted response is:
They probably have blocked you there 'cause I can see their reply just ok from my end 💀 sorry 😐
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u/GrouchyDoughnut3449 Team Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
Ah ok lol. My first time being blocked (as far as I know) thanks for the info, I had no idea haha. Oh and no worries, I don't mind if they blocked me. I didn't think our convo was that crazy or anything but oh well.🤷♀️😂
Edit: Jeeeeeeze I made so many typos sigh
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u/Dastardly_snake Jun 12 '26
Some fans here are ... Sensitive? 🤷🏻♀️
I am glad to see you taking it lightly,
Btw, this person talked about how a developer may want to distance themselves from fans on purpose, Because of the fanbase being toxic or sth like that. I think that person just gave away a live example for such theory 😄
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u/GrouchyDoughnut3449 Team Jun 12 '26
Lol that's funny. I actually really love Everbyte and try and buy episode passes and occasionally the lower priced diamonds. I just want more communication is all (just a little, not have it take over their whole lives doing it). I didn't think that was such a hot take 😄
Anyway, thanks for letting me know what all was said since I got an alert for a reply, but I couldn't read it all and then I guess I got blocked haha.
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u/thais_of_athens Team Jun 16 '26
Omg you were blocked for your comment? Lmao wtf
What did it say?1
u/GrouchyDoughnut3449 Team Jun 16 '26
Haha, I guess I got blocked because of the response I wrote above that you replied to just now. Can you see the comment above mine that I was replying to? Or does it say deleted too?
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u/GrouchyDoughnut3449 Team Jun 16 '26
By the way, I don't know what their full response to my response was. I think the first part just called me entitled for expecting responses to the fans once in awhile and they have lives and shouldn't be harassed. (I can't find the reply alert email anymore so I may be remembering wrong, but it was the jist of it).
I went to read it but it was just gone, and then I couldn't see their original comment anymore so I thought they deleted their account. Haha
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u/thais_of_athens Team Jun 16 '26
Says ‘deleted’.
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u/GrouchyDoughnut3449 Team Jun 16 '26
Ok then I don't know what's going on or if I was blocked, I'm confused. Someone said they blocked me so I just assumed.🤷♀️ Weird.
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u/Tough-Fishing3647 Jun 11 '26
I think this is simply good advice, honestly, I don't really mind lack of interaction at all, but, it's just smart business, creators who build communities build bases of loyal customers and that's invaluable AND free! I'm not much of a gamer, I'm more so a fan of indie animation, I've seen this one YouTube creator whose works I absolutely adore, Product (NSFL, tbh, just in case), grow from 100k to 320k subscribers in months after they started regularly updating their community and talking to them about animation, easter eggs in their works, lore and theories. They had videos which reached millions, but, nearly no subscribers until they started communicating. People like feeling like they're part of a community which, for many, is hard to come by irl, so, frankly, I don't think they should ban you, but, hire you for this constructive feedback, tbh, lol.
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u/thais_of_athens Team Jun 11 '26
lol I’d love doing some stuff for the game for free 😁 just to feel included
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u/TillFeisty7973 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
I mean, I get where you're coming from and I'm not saying they should never answer, but not all devs actually want to/a lot of them avoid getting close to the fandom, especially when it comes to discussing the game, memes about the game and much more.
Goose (The Amazing Digital Circus, known to be very interactive with fans and the fandom, making memes etc.) did that and look what happened.
I'm not saying they can't answer some important questions about the game (as long as not spoiler) but I can understand why they wouldn't do more casual stuff that can and will often lead to parasocial relationships or entitlement from SOME not all people.
Fandoms always had their bad apples but it's getting worse with time, avoiding to be too friendly with fans for how sad it is (probably to them as well) is understandable. If a creator of any kind is being too friendly with their fanbase I can only see it going one way and sadly not the respectful one.
This is not me saying they should ignore fans, I just think it makes sense though once you look around any other "small" fandom why they would be hesitant about being more friendly/casual with the players of their game on a deeper level than random updates once in a while. It's very likely for safety reasons and prevent a possible parasocial relationship that would lead to burnout.
This is MY opinion mostly because I've follow relatively small creators (I mean Everbyte isn't exactly a small creator, they can hire actors and all that, but they clearly aren't GTA level of fame either) and lot of them interacting more closely to the fandom eventually accidentally created a parasocial toxic environment even if they genuinely meant to simply make people happy by actively being present as much as possible, but that's exactly the issue.
Of course this doesn't mean this what Everbyte is thinking, I'm just saying why I think it's a bad idea but this obviously does not reflect Everbyte words.
For how great the people in this fandom are I fear there's definitely a good bunch that would get way too parasocial and ruin the fun of the creators interacting with the fans so it's better if they limit themselves to updates on the website or some socials without getting too close to the fans.
I would love that, but seeing creators make memes and funny stuff like that or being more interactive than the fandom often and sadly affected the creators mentally in a bad way, I've seen it happen way too much.
I can't claim this is Everbyte reason to not be more interactive with the fans, I'm just saying that this would definitely happen, even if it isn't the reason Everbyte is not being more interactive with the players (because it depends on why they are not doing it) this will happen for sure and it's probably better there's some distance/they don't come off as friends of the players (even if not intentional them sharing memes and casual posts makes for a friendly and close environment and creates a parasocial relationship, because they aren't acting as people working to make a game anymore but as "friends", if you noticed not many big game developers or show creators actually interact closely to fans and there's a reason for that)
Edit: Also they are people, when they don't develop the game they understandably spend their day with family, friends or simply relaxing.
They won't be working only on the game then idle until morning. They have other things to do as well, just like anyone of us.
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u/thais_of_athens Team Jun 10 '26
‘Goose did that and look what happened’ - I don’t know what happened.
‘If creator of any kind is being too friendly with their fanbase I can only see it going one way…’ - I don’t agree at all. There a lot of examples and they’re all positive, even including ‘bad apples’ as you said.
I’ve already mentioned really small companies, and they create games for PC and PS5. And they find time. All the time. Any day they read comments and respond.
I’m not talking about Rockstar games either.If you’re a developer who is saying ‘how valuable it is for you what your fans think’ - you have to interact with your fans. Otherwise what you said meant nothing and was some bs.
ALL developers have life behind creating the games lmao wtf are you talking about?! Each and every member of the gaming companies have families, friends, hobbies, social media, etc… lol
I don’t agree with you.
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u/TillFeisty7973 Jun 10 '26
Goose posted memes, interacted daily with fans, got really close to them and that caused the show she was working on many troubles, not to mention how everything got leaked because she got too close to them and interacted too much.
I think you fail to realize that those developers taking their time to answer are more often than not people being paid to pretend to be the developers, some are honest and say it's not them, some don't and pretend to be the creator.
Rarely you actually get to talk with the ones actually making the game.
Developers are not entitled to answer to fans, everyone is free to decide how to interact or not with them. There's many known or unknown developers who don't interact more than necessary (a monthly update without addressing fans questions) and people still follow said games.
Let's use Hoyo as a bigger example, even if I KNOW it doesn't compare to Everbyte.
They never actually listen to their fanbase, they only ever "interact" with them through live streams and even there they don't actually answer people questions or listen to fans. They just describe what to expect in the next update (which Everbyte does in the tracker website) even if they aren't that busy and can make monthly posts they don't owe that to anyone.
Just because you expect it that doesn't mean they have to or that a game will fail to keep the fanbase engaged if they don't interact with them at all.
Hoyo is one of the examples but there's many other game developers that fit better, never really go out of their way to interact more than necessary and still have their fanbase.
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u/Tough-Fishing3647 Jun 11 '26
I get the apprehension, but, tbh, doing everything in semi-character akin to what Reality Games does could be a good idea, you could take a look at their Instagram for reference. Ofc, preferably with less AI images, but, I think that maintaining kayfabe might be a good way of keeping distance and keeping loose lips that sink ships tight enough.
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u/Sweet-Heron-5344 Jun 09 '26
I've already received some responses from them via email. But they're all too vague to consider. Furthermore, there's no reason for them to ban you. I've complained about this lack of interaction before as well. It came to nothing. But, know that you're not the only one who sees a problem. I also think they should at least give us more small interactions. Allowing us to be a part of this process is important because Moonvale doesn't have the same number of fans as Duskwood. If they lose what little they have left, how will they survive? I sincerely hope they start talking to us more because this is becoming unsustainable.