I think one of the most important things that's been gradually changing about my philosophy over the years is a decreased focus on liking and appreciating "good art" and an increased focus on liking just... whatever. Whatever appeals to you.

I feel like there's this mostly unspoken but strong undercurrent of "the ignorant masses don't appreciate real art, we are the enlightened ones" that you pick up when you study a creative medium in academia. And it's an extremely poisonous way of thinking.

I studied music in college and it was really easy to absorb this attitude. We all understood that we were heading for careers that were largely un-valued with minimal pay.

Our lessons focused on antiquated minutia of theory and analysis that ultimately have little relevance to anything outside work in traditional orchestral/chamber music--a very small field.

At my first college there was an entire course about "music philosophy and aesthetics" that was essentially a breakdown of why most successful modern music was actually bad (a not necessarily untrue premise, to be fair).

That combination of rigorous specialized knowledge and skill with the reality of a general public that didn't need it, didn't want it, and mostly moved beyond it was perfect for creating a very strong sense of entitled bitterness that I struggled with (and still do) for years.

Some of this bled into the way I approached developing some of my earlier Steam games, and it eventually led to burnout. I see this attitude sometimes echoed in some of the critique that surrounds indie games, and the same bitterness.

The older I get the less I've seen any value in supposedly objective measurements of quality, complexity, or artistry. As a creator I think it's far more important that you like stuff.

Because that's the extent that most of the people who play your games care about analysis: they either like something or they don't. If you like something, maybe other people like it too.

Your best shot isn't to make "good art," it's to make something that authentically channels things you like.