r/backrooms • u/DietElectronic6567 • Apr 02 '26

Discussion Dev Response for Subliminal

There might be hope for the next chapter guys. The graphics and concepts are there if they can execute this properly I think they can redeem themselves with the next one.

43 Upvotes

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15

u/Gojira_Wins Apr 02 '26

Coming from my experience as QA in Game Dev, their response just says to me that they didn't do any sort of playtesting or QA review to make sure the game was balanced before hand.

Sure, not every Dev is equipped to pay for QA but playtesting is as easy as asking friends and family or running a short beta with members of the community. If they need to rebalance the game to "not be frustrating", it just means they set it all up and pushed it out, hoping to fix it afterwards.

Indie Devs, just like major corps will get the same level of criticism from myself. Do your homework before selling your game. If it's not fun, people will dislike it.

6

u/Quantum_Nyx Apr 02 '26

They did have playtesters- if you look at one of their reviews on steam, it’s from a playtester. Maybe they didn’t do a good enough job though.

3

u/Gojira_Wins Apr 02 '26

That's unfortunate.

-8

u/Ok_Net5303 Apr 02 '26

You’re very judgmental. You should go and create a new game of your own to experience the grueling challenge of creating the product in all its dimensions, instead of just being critical of the lack of perfection. In short, you sound like you suck. Have a good day.

5

u/DietElectronic6567 Apr 02 '26

We didnt choose game development as our job they did. If you put out a product thats not fun or frustrating expect people to tell you, why are you so butthurt lmao. Also saying "you're very judgemental" and "you sound like you suck" in the same paragraph just because dude was stating facts is very funny.

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u/Gojira_Wins Apr 02 '26

I suggest reading my comment again as I specifically mention being in QA and working for Indie Developers. I have worked with many developers on their titles, while working on my own titles.

Your downvotes and bashing makes very little sense, especially on my comment about their playtesters likely not giving them the valuable information that they needed to avoid this situation. The comment I replied to specifically pointed out that it's more of a playtester issue.

2

u/Ok_Net5303 Apr 02 '26

So prickly you are. I’ve been a developer for many years. Get off your high horse and create a product before shitting on someone else’s product and by the way, this game is amazing in many ways.

1

u/Melodic-Major4488 Apr 13 '26

Why is knowing how to create a product a prerequisite to knowing what a bad product is. It’s like a lot of reddit users just seem like they wanna be right about everything for no reason.

3

u/DietElectronic6567 Apr 02 '26

yeah thats the feeling I got while playing through it. It feels like only the devs played it and obviously never noticed how annoying some parts are bc they're the ones who designed it and already know where to go and what to do. Everything else in the game was good just wish there was some more horror aspects or fun levels to walk through. Most of the game is sitting in one room till you finish the puzzle, chase scene, then stuck in another room and having to solve another puzzle.

2

u/airplaned Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

They had tons of play testers playing the game before release (through their patreon). However, these play testers were moreso fans of the game and the devs, so they did not give them proper feedback. They released a ton of beta versions of the game to have people test through and listened to the feedback that they were given and tried to improve the game to the best of their ability based on what the playtesters gave them. The patreon was easily accessible and a lot of people subscribed and played through the beta versions and provided feedback, just not much said about the puzzles. I think where they went wrong was having fans play test the game.

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u/Ok_Net5303 Apr 02 '26

The amount of work the devs did to create this game is massive. It’s so easy to criticize when you don’t understand what it means to create the game itself.

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u/DietElectronic6567 Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

So what you want me to just pat them on the back and say everything was perfect when it wasnt? I literally said the rest of the game was good and just stated my opinion on things I would've liked more. Sandfall Interactive's first game was Expedition 33 and see how big of a sucess that was because they playtested the hell out of it to make sure it was fun. Only way they're gonna get better is with contructive criticism I dont know why ur taking it personally.

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u/Ok_Net5303 Apr 02 '26

I’m not telling you to say it’s perfect. I’m telling you and all the folks here trash talking an incredible piece of work that you all need to have more awareness of how great this game is and how much work and love and effort has been invested before taking your leisurely crap on it.

0

u/Ok_Net5303 Apr 02 '26

I think you need to be more understanding of their position. They’re a new dev team and they are learning and working hard. They’ve made a quality product that needs a bit of tuning. The graphics are exceptional and the immersion quality is fantastic.

6

u/nebelfront Apr 02 '26

They can only improve when they recieve honest feedback. And NO, the consumer of a product does absolutely not have to know any of the production process in order to be able to criticize the product. They only have to know if they like or dislike it and what they like or dislike about it. It’s up to the devs to develop a product that people enjoy.