Hey, everyone!
First and foremost, we would like to express our gratitude to all of you who had the opportunity to play and participate in the Closed Beta Test of Level Zero: Extraction. And even if you didn’t have the chance to play, we still appreciate your interest, whether through liking, sharing, adding the game to your Steam wishlist, or simply visiting our community Discord. As a small studio working on its first project, we were genuinely overwhelmed by the number of players (more than 150,000 Closed Beta sign-ups!) who were eager to try out the game. We’re also incredibly excited to announce that Level Zero: Extraction has reached 200,000 total wishlists! It wouldn’t be possible without your support.
We want to remain as open to our players as possible. During this test, we received a lot of feedback on the game, its mechanics, and balance, as well as many suggestions on how you would like to see the game develop further. Currently, we're deeply analyzing all the data we obtained from the test, as well as numerous feedback threads. We will make changes based on that in the upcoming builds.
We're excited to test them in the upcoming playtests, including during the Open Beta this summer!
The four days of the Closed Beta were filled with emotions, featuring three phases of testing: two options for Alien balance and a more advanced Merc progression stage with weapons. The goal here was to gather as much data as possible and simulate various experiences for players within a short period. We've identified a few key learnings we would like to highlight and focus on as we move forward.
Some Positive Highlights
We have achieved an asymmetrical feel by offering two distinctly different gameplay experiences. Evidently, players naturally gravitate towards either the Mercs or the Aliens, each enjoying their unique gameplay and passionately supporting their chosen ‘faction’.
Based on the numerous videos posted by players and content creators, we are delighted to see that the game has evoked a spectrum of emotions! Players enjoyed funny, scary, and tense moments as they explored Level Zero: Extraction.
We were also thrilled with the overall server stability, so much so that we decided even to prolong the test for one day, which you seemed to love! Considering the limited availability of server regions, even the most distant players could successfully join game sessions and play. We will expand server region availability and add language localization in the future!
New Player Experience
Our Closed Beta primarily focused on testing the core gameplay loop and basic progression, lacking streamlined first-time user experiences, short-term goals for players to focus on, or a comprehensive look at the late-game experience. While our tutorials covered most of the game mechanics, we acknowledge that there are better ways to introduce players to the game. For future iterations, we'll prioritize short-term progression within sessions, introducing more activities on maps, such as PvE threats (AI-based enemies) and more exciting loot to discover. Our approach will prioritize growing complexity gradually rather than overwhelming players with everything at once. We will also explore more opportunities to streamline the first sessions, aiming to ease new players into Level Zero: Extraction and its complex systems.
Performance
As we approached the Closed Beta, our primary focus was on testing all gameplay systems, considering the significant evolution of our game over the past year, which included adding more layers of gameplay than initially planned. Although we did a lot to ensure the best possible performance for our Closed Beta participants, we understand there’s still so much to do regarding performance and optimization. Further down the road, optimization will become one of our main priorities as we aim to make our game accessible to more people. We apologize to all players who have experienced framerate or latency issues during the test, and we really appreciate your feedback!
Balance
Balancing a multiplayer game with asymmetrical PvP as well as PvE is a significant challenge, and we fully recognize that. During the Closed Beta, our balancing efforts were conducted within specific test environments and rules that we designed, allowing us to gain valuable insights into the challenges of balancing the game to ensure enjoyment for both new and experienced players. Moving forward, we plan to conduct more playtests focusing exclusively on late-game balance and more complex systems, including meta-progression. Join our official Discord server and stay tuned as we announce future private testing sessions.
Ultimately, we're creating this game for you to enjoy for a long time, and we greatly appreciate all the feedback on aliens-vs-mercs gameplay. We agree that both factions should have a fair chance of winning based on the tools, mechanics, and skills at their disposal.
Next Steps
First and foremost, we're dedicated to addressing all technical and significant Quality-of-Life issues identified during the Closed Beta, ensuring a smoother and more enjoyable experience for all players. Additionally, we're hard at work on a new map, offering a new and immersive environment to explore. Lastly, we're working on adding new content along with expanded Alien progression, providing even more depth and excitement. As mentioned above, we will conduct private test sessions with select players as we work our way through the development. Take a look at our Living Roadmap below—it reflects our current plans, and we will update it with new revisions throughout development:
Click the image to enlarge
Before we let you go, we've got a couple of things to show you. Сheck out the first-ever fan art for Level Zero: Extraction. A pre-nerf alien monster pokes fun at a merc who seems to be pretty knackered and using his last flare. Mean.
Credit: You're NOTHING! NO TALENT! (Discord)
Also, here's a little teaser for you all:
Again, thanks to everyone who participated in the tests, be it recent Closed Beta or even earlier private test sessions, who expressed their feedback or supported us otherwise. We're hyped and charged with excitement and energy to push forward with our work, and we're eagerly anticipating our next huge milestone: the Open Beta, scheduled for this summer. Keep your eyes peeled for updates, and make sure to join our next closed playtest!
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