just discovered someone uploaded my jam game to vndb to score it poorly and i was relieved to find that a sweetly invested gesture from a stranger instead of an upsetting one; but realized I should stop looking at these while I'm ahead, and that I have already gotten opinions on it from people I respect. I have always found that awareness of eyes on your art affects how you make it, and I think this has a negative impact on me if i'm aware of an audience during the creation process. How do you navigate protecting yourself from the response to your work online?
it's a tricky balance to figure out honestly. on the one hand, making things while worrying about audience definitely affects the process, and can make it harder to be vulnerable or messy. on the other hand (in my experience at least) withdrawing from audience completely can kinda prevent you from making anything. art gains meaning from being shared with others. if i'm the only one that sees what i'm making, and i have no sense of how others might respond to it, even my deepest passion projects start to feel kinda boring and myopic. imo even a negative response is better than no response in that regard.
i don't really have a good answer tbh, i'm a no name artist that barely has an audience and am too scared to share a lot of my work online. but i'm trying to push myself out of my comfort zone more, and i hope to find that balance for myself soon. i hope you can find your own balance soon too.
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i've found that people have very rarely been unkind about the things i've made, even though they've sometimes been very scrappy in nature. people try and nudge you in the right direction more often than not. that's not a bad thing. that's an opportunity for you to grow as an artist.
you can't control how others react to your work, so it's best to control what you can. like how you feel about feedback
i also agree on what was said before that withdrawing too much can end up backfiring. art does gain meaning from being shared with others. maybe its fine if youre content just hearing from your friends and and you arent creating new problems from trying to avoid public feedback. people work differently after all
theres no one size fits all solution but to me the priority is to find people you like sharing with and once thats established the "noise" of strangers feels a lot less impactful in what i end up making. if you see reactions from others but allow it to happen with the knowledge that your own opinion of your own art is the 1st priority, 2nd most important thing is getting to share your artistic stuff with your pals, and then the 3rd secret thing is whatever you get out of strangers
attempting to separate the distracting thoughts from you during the creation process is what id focus on. because if its getting in the way of actually making stuff then yeah thats a shame and a problem. if you catch yourself wondering how people would react to something mid creation, try and stop yourself and remind yourself who youre making it for
ideally, you do want to create for yourself and make those things exactly how you want, but the fact that you and by extension what you make, are shaped by other people and the world is just one of the many ways how inspiration finds us in the first place. everyone is affected by their surroundings even outside the context of art, and the art wont be purer or anything juts because someone manages to never see the reactions of others. its not something to be afraid of i think
maybe thinking about it from that angle makes it easier to focus on your own approach without finding the idea of extra eyes detrimental to your creation process. the thing wont even exist to be seen if you dont make it first, so worrying about it up front isnt relevant. thats how i try to think about these things at least (´ー`)
its important to remind yourself that your audience is WORMS and they should be happy to get what they get
also vndb is full of chuds
It's also good to remember audience spaces are for audiences and peer spaces are for peers. It's healthier to not read reviews on vndb, Goodreads, whatever bc it's the readers' business not genuine feedback channels business
thank you for the thoughtful responses here. i am kinda new to this so it helps to hear
i think i came off more negatively than i meant to; i have a lot of leftover hurt from friend and family's disinterest in things i make, my oldest peers all stopped making things at some point and i am still surprised when they acknowledge something i've done. i think i am having trouble navigating identifying when someone is audience or peer or friend(does not intend to make things) or friend(won't read/play/do what you make) or friend. im so glad someone would Care enough to put my game on vndb in contrast to no audience at all, but at that moment realized i need to be careful where i look so i dont get in my head about it and thus distracted from continuing to make art for the purpose of self expression. i have started to think that anyone i know who is in some way trying to distract me from making and sharing art with/for other people is my enemy and acting like this has been beneficial even if it's hamfisted. and sometimes that enemy includes myself forgetting i get to choose who i care what they think
>>3mtmjdqcxnc2f
unrelated to anything but this art has soul
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