Hello there everyone,
The first stage of testing Dustland - our recent playtest session - was a fun one for everyone. We've had a while to look back at how things went and what we've learnt, and we'll be sharing that with you now, so join us as we go over what we've learnt!
Before anything, we want to thank everyone for taking part. We had hundreds of players dive into our post-apocalyptic world, and they hunted bugs, both the game enemy types and the bugs that we - the developers - need to squash!
All in all, this playtest was a crucial milestone for us as it allowed us to assess the game's mechanics and server performance under real-world conditions. As with all playtests for games at this early stage, there were many bumps on the road, but we learnt a lot of things that will shape the game's future direction.
Playtest Highlights
Player Participation
With hundreds of eager players taking part, we got a great first look at how the game would perform under multiplayer conditions. After all, it's one thing to develop a multiplayer game and test it internally, but it's an entirely different thing to let a few hundred players in at once.
In-game, we saw that the players quickly passed through the tutorial, with a good split between those that played through the entire thing, and those that skipped the tutorial and went straight into the game. This tells us that having that skip option was a good choice.
Once in the main body of the game, we saw that the player took part in the main game's mission structure, with the in-game (enemy) bugs, being quickly hunted down.
One point that we've learnt that will be important for future playtests is that we need to track the mission completions, so we'll be working on adding those tools so that we can closely monitor what the players do.
In-Game Combat
What about combat? Though it is early days, we did have various weapons in the game and it was clear to us that the players had no problem handling the enemies Dustland threw at them. Creatures that included swarms of bugs were eliminated throughout the test—an encouraging sign that players were adapting well to the game's combat mechanics. Perhaps, we could make things a little more challenging in the future!
Lessons Learned and Areas of Focus
Every playtest has a purpose, so what was the purpose of our playtest? We wanted to test the game's stability, find out how our servers performed under heavy load, and also, how the players interacted with the game's core mechanics.
So, what did we learn? As expected, there were some technical issues, such as server instability and bugs affecting mission mechanics. However, these are well within expectations, in fact, it would be much more concerning if no issues were found, especially at this very early stage.
- Server Stability: One of the primary objectives was to test server behaviour with a large number of concurrent players. While the servers performed well initially, as more players joined, the game's servers started to struggle, and even crash. For a playtest, this is great as we now know where we need to focus our efforts in order to improve the server stability.
- Mission Mechanics: We haven't reached concrete conclusions or decisions yet because we received a lot of feedback about how the missions work, but we will definitely be refining them.
What’s Next for Dustland?
Easy one first, we've begun working on fixing the critical bugs that were found during the playtest. These include server crashes, map-related issues, and inventory system problems.
Outside of the game, we'll be making improvements to the player registration systems, as it was clear that we need to make it easier for players to register and play the game.
Upcoming Playtest
Good news - the next playtest is scheduled for November 2024!
This next playtest will focus on refining the game’s stability and enhancing its core mechanics based on feedback from the initial playtest. You can expect smoother gameplay, better server performance, and much more polished mission structures as we continue to improve the game.
Finally, we'd like to once again thank everyone for taking part! This playtest also allowed us to begin forming the core of Dustland’s community as the level of engagement and feedback that we got was amazing. We can't wait for November and the second playtest when we show you the results of your feedback and our work!