Honestly, this is an actual shame. Periodically, I tend to find myself back here to look at upcoming romhacks and to see how the community is continuing to change and grow. While I have been impressed with how romhackers are shaping their creations, this hack in particular struck a chord with me, especially with how creative the idea time travel was as a mechanic in this format. While I was never a huge fan of G/S/C hacks (Don't get me wrong, I could appreciate them and the work put into them of course, just could never become invested in them), this hack in particular captured my interest, and it looked like it held, and still holds, incredible promise.
If there's more to the story, then there's more to the story and for reasons they're not being divulged, which is perfectly fine. There is no need or demand to share anything that had transpired in order to come to this conclusion. However, if comments from others are the main reason for this decision, I do find it rather silly for a multitude of reasons, with my main two reasonings being:
- If this is a project you love and want to see to its completion, comments and criticsms from others that are specifically trying to tear you, the creator, down do not matter. If someone is criticising the way you want to create or advertise something you want to make and do not provide any suggestions or listen to what you have to say, why should they matter? What are they contributing to the growth and creation of this project other than attempting to bring people down? Absolutely nothing. Yeah, they can take a mental toll on creators if they let them, but why let them? Why let yourself be filled with their negativity? Why let them negatively impact a project you want to work on? Especially if they are not romhackers and they just play romhacks. From experience, even when a project is released, the people that bash romhacks they do not like and post online and rant or whatever, odds are they still played that romhack. While a player's experience should be something to appreciate and acknowledge for future endeavors, when it comes to those that specifically want to hate a product, they will engage with that product and try to tear it, and its creator/creators down. They do not care about the product, all they care about is hating a product and letting the world know they hate it. As a creator, you have to come to terms with the fact you cannot please everyone with your romhack or the way you promote/advertise your romhack. Although unfortunate to say, if they don't like you or your product, then you are never going to win them over in the first place. That is how content creation works. If this is a project you love and want to continue working on, you have to accept this. You have to accept that your project and the way you may advertise your project will not please everyone, and that if you love your project, that people trying to bash you or your project do not matter. There words may hurt or bother you and may cause some mental/emotional stress, but they're simply just words, nothing more.
- As far as the competition idea is concerned, if people do not like the way you want to advertise or create engagement within your project and fanbase, if they are not providing anything constructive, then it's not your problem, it's theirs. Personally, I liked the idea of having a spriting competition. I thought it was a great idea to interact with your project's fans and the community. Competitions, especially in regards as advertisements for products or in this case, romhacks, are nothing new. Very long ago on another romhacking website, a contest that was being hosted by me in October of that year revolved around making a romhack that was Halloween themed. What came of that was the Halloween Demo for Pokemon Rose and Pokemon Cursed Version, part of Joexv's Holiday Hacks Series. Granted nothing came of the competition (or website for that matter), but suffice to say, something good did come out of that competition. Good rom hacks by creators who continued or still continue to create and expand their projects. Contests and competitions in my opinion, are good and mostly bring forth something positive. The person in the screenshots clearly has a different opinion on that matter and that is alright. They did not provide any suggestions or listen to your input, and that is alright. One person does not make the entire audience of your project, believe me.
My advice? If this was a project I adored creating and wanting to see come into fruition, I would not let comments like the ones seen in the screenshots bother me. For my mental health and the wellbeing of those on my team if I worked with a team, I would just move on from comments that are not going to help me improve my project and simply just continue creating what I wanted to create. It's easier said than done, sure, but if this is a project you want to see to the end, then no matter how hard it would be to move on and ignore hate, I would find a way to do just that.
With that in mind, whether you take a break, continue the project, or quit entirely, that choice is up to you and your team. However, just do what you feel is the right thing to do, not what others may believe is the right thing to do. Either way, I admire what this hack aims to do and I do truly believe that this hack, or a hack with these core ideas in mind, has huge potential when it comes creating and engaging and innovative rom hack of an existing franchise. :)