[mrrichard999]

I mean criticism is always going to happen in any kind of art form. You don't think someone looked at the Mona Lisa and was like "meh"?

I did like three rom hacks. Legend of Zelda: Curse from the Outskirts was downright horrible. Castlevania: Cadence of Agony was mediocre at best, and Castlevania: Chorus of Mysteries might be the only one I can actually say I'm somewhat proud of.

There was an article published in a magazine about Curse.
Some guy this weekend at an Arcade Con literally got a picture with me and asked for my autograph because I made Cadence.
Reviews of Chorus ranged from "This should be the true Castlevania II" to stuff that was downright scathing. There's a review on this very site that says that Optomon and I shouldn't have even bothered.

Point being, people are never going to feel the same way about your work that you do. There's really nothing you can do about it except expect it to happen.

Its funny how the people who usually post negative stuff like that are the ones who don't even really do any ROM hacking or comprehend the amount of work that goes into something that big and difficult of a project. For the record I think all 3 of those hacks are great pieces of work! I hope you guys make more stuff in the future. 

[SunGodPortal]

Just the other day I decided to give Puzzledude's Quest (http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/703/) another chance. Not long into it, it was obvious that I was not going to be able to deal with the overworld. So I placed the flute in one of the first few chests and took out the overworld mazes (they just bogged the game down). To do so without destroying the game I had to use what I believe was your empty overworld items string in hex.

I have to say, by negating the overworlds I wasn't really missing anything. Your hack mainly seems to focus on the dungeons. There's a bit too much emphasis on the blue/orange blocks but otherwise it's been quite fun and challenging. Although in some cases I would handle it a little differently, I do believe that your use of the star-looking floor tile to indicate that the room puzzle has an unorthodox solution is quite brilliant. Something about solving those little riddles is just SO satisfying. Like the feeling of figuring out the game's original puzzles back in the day. At first I though that adding a bunch of spikes to the floor of the boss rooms was stupid/cheap but then I realized that this required you to devise totally different strategies. For example: Blind. I couldn't go anywhere but two spots near the bottom of the room. I had to wait for the boss to move near the bottom (all the while dodging fireballs) and then when the time was right, I activate the cape and then just start swinging wildly. Rinse and repeat until all three heads of the boss have been beaten. Completely different than playing the boss originally.

I thought I remembered more back-tracking (there was some) but I guess I was getting some of these dungeons confused with PW and GoW. At this point I would again like the point out how painful the overworld mazes are. If I didn't know how to hack and mod this game to remove them that would be it. I wouldn't be able to get passed them because they make it impossible to move across certain areas without having to first walk across every single tile on the screen. In the original game you could cross certain areas in a matter of seconds, now you can't cross any screen without having to waste a minute our two in an annoying maze.

Although I had serious problems with the overworld and in some ways think that this hack feels unfinished (the lack of changes outside of dungeons other than mazes, the seeming lack of a dark overworld) I now believe that this is a very cool hack and it makes me wish that there were more hacks like it and BCvsG.

Good job PD, just not with the overworlds.

[Seeeeph]

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[M-Tee]

Rarely is criticism actually given in a constructive way. Even more rarely does the recipient actually listen to criticism without getting defensive.

If you can't take criticism, don't publish work. It's very simple.

Besides, all people gain from praise is stagnation.

[SunGodPortal]

Sadly I can't send it into oblivion with my none existant angelic admin powers here!

heh Yeah here you're just a commoner.

You're god damn right!

It's funny how satisfying it is though to overcome Hyrule Magic's obstacles/freak-outs. As much as I hate this program it has become a sort of love-hate scenario and I feel a strange sort of pride knowing that I am learning to master a program that many others find unuseable. A month or two ago I kind of ran out of steam and wondered if I was going to continue working on Zelda III or not in any form. Next thing you know I'm right back at it.

Besides, all people gain from praise is stagnation.

Depends. In some cases a bit of praise can give you the strength you need to finish something very difficult and continue on far beyond where you previously thought was the end of the road.

[Erockbrox]

If I fail, I still call it quits because the game will have been made for my own joy...

This is why I am part of your project. If you do fail then I will be there to catch the errors and fix them so that you won't fail. We cannot fail in this game. PERIOD! I will not allow failure. This game is going to be a FU*KING hit so help me God.

[M-Tee]

It's a tad of an overstatement, true. But endless flurries of blind praise really do hinder progress, and anyone that's pursued or taught higher education in any creative field will likely agree that breaking students of that habit and training them to both give and receive criticism is one of the largest hurdles an instructor must face.

Likewise, sitting in on a mid-level critique is a far better way to assess the quality of an a program than by viewing the output of its students.

The point is that criticism, along with learning how to handle even the worst of it, is essential for progress.

[Disch]

I'm chiming in very late.  I didn't read any replies in this thread -- and I barely skimmed the OP's post.  But it sounds like he was complaining about how it's impossible to win when creating a hack.

I just want to say -- if you are making a hack (or really any art) for anyone other than yourself, you are doing it wrong.  Make stuff you want to make and if you want to share it with others... great.  And if people like it and sing your praises, even better!

But don't make something with the ultimate goal of winning praise.  You'll hate the process, and you'll just feel worthless and disappointed if the praise doesn't come.

[Seeeeph]

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[Erockbrox]

It's a tad of an overstatement, true. But endless flurries of blind praise really do hinder progress, and anyone that's pursued or taught higher education in any creative field will likely agree that breaking students of that habit and training them to both give and receive criticism is one of the largest hurdles an instructor must face.

Likewise, sitting in on a mid-level critique is a far better way to assess the quality of an a program than by viewing the output of its students.

The point is that criticism, along with learning how to handle even the worst of it, is essential for progress.

I think you give praise when praise is due. If something is just freaking awesome then its okay to say that. On the other hand, if something stinks then tell them it sticks, but also tell them how to make it better so it doesnt stink. Lastly, if you say something is good out of kindness when it really stinks then you are doing the artist/author a disservice because you giving them a false impression that their work is good when it really isnt.

I personally would like to say that if you do give positive praise for some things then it might excite the person and really give the person hope and then they strive to become super super great at what they do.

Its actually kind of interesting. Sometimes positive praise can make a person better or negative praise too, but both of these can also make a person worse. It just depends on the type of person and their personality.