That is what I learned while building 'Onyx Minesweeper', my second iOS app and a side project I initially shaped around my own idea of how a modern minesweeper game should feel.

After sharing the first version with the Minesweeper community, I received thoughtful and honest feedback about the controls, pacing, themes, hints and difficulty and just bench of things really. It showed me problems and possibilities I had completely missed while building alone. 

That feedback shaped the next part of the journey! I added adjustable gameplay pacing, more customisation, logic and random boards, progressive hints, and a new deduction mode called find the mine.

Not every suggestion became a feature, but listening helped me understand which problems genuinely mattered. Onyx became much stronger when I started shaping it alongside the people playing it, rather than only for them.

I’m still learning how to balance feedback with my own ideas. How do you decide which suggestions to follow while protecting the original vision of your project???

If you’d like to check out the game, I’d be over the moon to hear what you think :) - [https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/onyx-minesweeper/id6790800332](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/onyx-minesweeper/id6790800332)

Better products are built with users, not just for them