"Years of building, pitching and raising for games made the same failure painful to watch" – Why GameDataCore wants to find out how players feel
If you can't understand something, you can't fix it. That's the motivation behind a new platform that aims to cut through the noise of Steam reviews and find out what players really feel about a game, what the developers need to address, and even what game they should think about making next. Read more
Years of development, pitching, and fundraising for games proved to be a painful experience for GameDataCore, the UK-based startup led by Justin French and Simon Sparks. French explains that the co-founders were frustrated with the industry's tendency to make decisions about games based on different interpretations of player feedback. The challenge lies in analyzing player reviews, as they often contain contradictory sentiments and feedback, making it difficult to discern what developers should address.
To tackle this issue, GameDataCore developed a platform that breaks down each review into snippets and classifies them based on topic, emotion, tone, and motivation. The platform then weights these snippets according to the reviewer's profile, including their library size, playtime, and other games they play. This approach allows developers to understand the real motivations behind complaints and identify potential issues that could impact the game.
The platform's launch coincides with Steam Next Fest, providing developers with an opportunity to gauge whether their intended emotions align with the audience's actual feelings. In addition to Steam reviews, GameDataCore plans to incorporate player feedback from Discord communities, forums, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch. The company also aims to enable studios to upload their own Steamworks data, such as wishlists, sales, and activations, to gain further insights into player behavior.
By enabling developers to better understand player sentiments and identify gaps in the market, GameDataCore hopes to reduce the cycle of failure and improve the decision-making process for studios and publishers. French emphasizes the importance of learning from past decisions, stating that very few studios run proper retrospectives to assess the impact of their choices.
Written by urgent.news from GamesIndustry's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
