Hello competitors! So it has been roughly three weeks since the start of our very first public playtest! Time flies. What a madness it has been for us, watching streams, cringing at bugs, crunching the data, and ultimately creating a plan for a game experience you’re all going to love! Today’s development blog is aimed at detailing what worked with the demo, how we felt we can improve and what new features we have planned as a result. [b]What went well?[/b] First and foremost, I would like to thank every single player who joined in on the weekend, had some fun and reported feedback in anyway to us (in-game or Discord). Over 125 user-generated bug reports were sent in using the in-game tools over the weekend. These reports have been an absolute goldmine for tracking issues we have never seen at all, as well as helping track issues that keep evading us! Additionally, big shoutout to anyone who took our post-alpha survey as again, this feedback is essential for us to attempt to quantify opinions. Aside from the enormous amounts of information and feedback we received from the alpha, the most important thing that went well in my opinion was the reception from the players, content creators and online discussion. After spending over a year working on the project in a very small team to then actually be able to watch players race, figure out stage routes, create the most ludicrous outfits, and absolutely dupe their friends in a zombie chase was unbelievable. Over the weekend we saw a total of over 40,000 player deaths, but this often led to laughter over frustration which is a huge win for us all! [b]What did we feel was not so good?[/b] It was a huge relief to see that in general, the number of hard crashes or game breaking bugs was relatively few. That said, any crash or any bug that un-immerses the player is a big no-no for us so apologies for anybody who’s character is still stuck drowning infinitely or are still stuck waiting for the game to end after all have finished! Rest assured, these problems will be remedied in any future playtests and/or launch. It was no surprise that at this stage of development that important features were missing from the alpha build. Features such as squads, friends list, platform integration, smarter matchmaking and player progression were all hugely missed in the alpha BUT are all planned features for launch! This means our matchmaking online experience will be much more engaging from start to finish, even if it may have felt a little sparse in the alpha. [b]What features are we designing/improving?[/b] One of the most confusing components of the Slaughter League alpha gameplay was definitely the combat. It appears we did a terrible job at informing players how and when combat is allowed and viable. In the alpha, to attack, players must be moving at max speed (not sprinting) for at least one second and must be grounded when the attack is started. We did not tell you this so that’s on us. Now, I’d like to keep this feature similar because having a way to kill other players does need some restrictions but the telegraphing when this ability is ready needs improving dramatically. That said, we also felt that players wanted to engage in combat a lot more frequently, especially while waiting for stage objects. We intend to split combat into two distinct states: • Charge – same as in the alpha, requires a build-up run, must be on the ground, dramatically slows the attacker down if they miss and can be reversed ending in the attacker’s death. Additional telegraphing to be added. • Nudge – this will be the default attack when the above conditions are not met but will only slightly nudge other players away from you. This means you can indirectly kill others or maybe just throw them off their course, enough to get an advantage. As this feature could completely change the feeling and flow of the gameplay it is something we intend to implement and iterate on heavily. Essentially, we need to find a way to balance it to maximize fun and minimize abuse. Be sure to check in next week where I will share some new upcoming features for Slaughter League’s core movement. Don't forget to join our [url=https://discord.gg/v8UsZ5epTt]Discord[/url] where you can hear it all first, or talk with the devs about the game!