There are two constants that you can depend on when you make a game, and that is that some people will hate your game and some people will like it. Even the most poorly received games have fanbases, which is why you can always depends a game to have a good two points higher average user rating than average critics rating. It's only when those people that like or hate your game get a voice and spread around their opinion that most developers begin to notice and count them as critics. And, much like the way a director might respond to criticism of a movie, how you respond to criticism of your baby defines you in the public eye.

There's several possible methods of responding to criticism, and each one has an archetype. A person that, whether they like to or not, have shown themselves to be the perfect example of a particular response to criticism, good or bad. The major responses, of which all the sub-responses derive from, can be divided into 4 groups, and each group has an independent developer operating today that falls into the category and helps define it. So let's go through them!

The first category, and the most vocal, is those with what could be termed Derek Smart Syndrome. They accept praise with the utmost glee, and respond back against criticism with comments that are almost designed to cause a flame war. They have fragile, albeit large, egos and can't stand anyone not loving their baby. The big difference between this category and other people (who feel this sort of disapproval at people not liking their project from time to time) is that these people are chronic about it, and they let everybody know. They explode and completely ruin public perception of them and their games. After all, if they respond to criticism with "no, you're wrong", what does that say about them? The most recent example of this is Luc Bernard and his declaration that, because of the harsh criticism of Eternity's Child, he would be leaving the game industry. The most common response? He's a whiner. This is the worst possible way to respond to criticism.

The second category, which can make you look extremely pretentious to the average person, is the Dismissive Developer. These are the people that release games that they want to play, and when criticized or praised, they dismiss it and focus on another aspect of the game. For example, if harshly criticized, a person under this category might say that they made the game the way they wanted to play and go on their way. If praised, they might say that it's cool that it got good criticism, but there's still things wrong with the game. Maybe it wasn't perfect. Maybe it didn't sell enough. The perfect example of this is Jonathon Blow, who recently made the incredible platformer Braid. While he likes that his game has gotten praise, he hasn't really focused on it, choosing to talk about how he needs more sales to recoup his costs. This sort of person is the one who makes games not to please an audience, but to please themselves. And frankly? They often make really good games. Staying true to your interests is a great way to make an amazing game.

The third category, and my personal favorite, is the Apathetic Developer. This is the developer who doesn't actually read criticism. After all, nobody is forcing him to look at the criticism someone has given him. Whether their games are popular, despised, amazing, or any other descriptor, they don't really care. They just chronically make games. Sometimes they are cool little prototypes, other times they are full games. It doesn't matter, the developer just doesn't care. One of my favorite indie developers, cactus, falls into this category. He just makes game prototypes, often incredibly bizarre games, and lets people talk about them. He doesn't pay attention to the criticism. As far as he is concerned, once the game is released, it's done, and criticism serves no purpose to him as a developer. At least that's how it seems. This lets him make lots of little small prototype games which are way more fun than you would expect, like Stallions or Clean Asia.

Much like how there's many different kinds of personalities, there's many ways to deal with criticism, most with only subtle differences. It really depends on the person who is being criticized. As an independent developer, though, you're best off going with ignoring it and just focusing on your games or by taking it and incorporating fixed elements into future games. Dismissing it can make you look pretentious and exploding at critics just makes you look stupid and thin-skinned. So take it easy.