Greetings Wildmenders!
Thank you so much for joining us for the second Wildmender Alpha! Because of the milestone and convention schedule, this Alpha was a 2-week compacted version. Still, we’ve gotten a tremendous amount of invaluable feedback and bug reports once again. Without further ado, let’s jump into reviewing the data from this Alpha.
Don't forget to check out Part 1 of our alpha report too!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599330/Wildmender/
Survey Results
We had 39 responses from the survey for this Alpha. Given how short the Alpha period was and how long the survey was, we want to give a big shoutout to everyone who took the time to complete it. It’s incredibly useful and insightful for us once again, and we’ve gone through every single feedback, ready to improve the game further.
Responses came from all over the world, but primarily from Europe and the United States.
People’s favorite games are: Stardew Valley, Minecraft, SunHaven, Rimworld, Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing, Space Engineers, and Deep Rock Galactic, to name a few.
Close to 50% of the respondents found Wildmender on Youtube, and 30% found the game through friends.
The majority of respondents are of the 25-35 age group, but we have good representation from all age groups.
In terms of gender identity, we have over 40% female representation in this Alpha.
Over 10% of the surveyed players played over 2 hours, and additionally, over 20% of all surveyed players played 10-20 hours. Incredibly, over 50% of all respondents played more than 20 hours, up 20% from the earlier Alpha.
Most people really enjoyed the Alpha. Having said that, we did have a few ease of use, balance, and combat related issues that hindered the gameplay experience for some. We’ve gone through everyone’s feedback, and we will be doing our best to shore up the issues players raised to deliver an even better experience for everyone. This result motivates us to keep improving and delivering.
Tutorial:
How would you rate your experience with the tutorial?
How would you rate the length of the tutorial?
People generally had a good experience with the tutorial, and the length generally felt brisk to about right. There are a number of ease of issues that people raised however, such as the interaction highlighting not displaying clearly enough, confusion with the terminology of the outpost prompts, speed of auto-advancement of the dialog. We will be looking to address these issues to make the tutorial clearer and easier.
Dunes:
How would you rate your experience with the Dunes zone?
How helpful was the game in guiding you to your objectives in Dunes?
How difficult did you find the Dunes zone (from start up to Naia)?
People generally had a positive to very positive experience in the Dunes, and most found the zone to be relatively easy. People generally found the instructions helpful in guiding them through the zone. Some players wanted more time in a game day to explore, especially during night time, and this is something we could potentially adjust for easier difficulty settings. A feedback found combat to be a bit repetitive. With the feedback, we will be looking for ways to vary up combat a bit more going forward.
How would you rate your experience with combat at the Naia Temple?
How difficult was the combat for you at the Naia Temple?
Specifically with the engagement at the Naia Temple, over 97% of the respondents completed the fight, and close to half of the people surveyed were able to complete the Dunes in under 2 hours . Most people found the temple experience to be fun, with a relatively even distribution in terms of difficulty. The majority of the respondents did find Naia temple to be on the easier side.
The vast majority of players who completed the Dunes did so within 5 hours, and this is consistent with what we saw during the last Alpha.
Salt Flats:
How would you rate your experience in the Salt Flats zone?
How helpful was the game in guiding you to your objectives in the Salt Flats?
How difficult did you find the Salt Flats zone overall?
80% of the respondents got to the Salt Flats, and of all the people who ventured into the Salt Flats, close to 93% crushed at least one outpost with the crab titan and over 95% bested all the enemies at the Stryge Temple.
While the over experiences in the Salt Flats were very positive, it remains the most difficult zone per the survey. In this Alpha, at 76% utilization, the sigil gates became the most used item/feature in traversing the sun drenched and parched zone. 66% of the respondents upgraded to the Amber Bottle or used the Memory Seed. Next up is the Water Ring at 62% utilization. The Crystal Mirror rounds out the top 5 at 59% utilization. It’s great to see more people upgrading to the Amber bottle in this Alpha, with its utilization surpassing that of the starter Water Bottle.
One issue that arose from the Alpha test is a call for more visual variation. One way we’re looking to improve this is to distribute the spawning of the “lighthouse” islets more evenly throughout the zone. This would have the auxiliary benefits of having more evenly distributed sigil gate locations as well as zone revival quests later on. Another top feedback was to improve the clarity of the usage and language describing the shell horns. A third highlighted issue was the number and look and feel of the indestructible wraith structures, leading to confusion about what to do as well as too much corrupted land later on in gameplay sessions. To address this, we will be looking to make the visuals of the structures more distinct from other wraith outposts/towers, as well as to balance the spawning of the structures further. A player had a suggestion to have the Wind Cloak upgrades be unlocked after completion of other zones. We thought this was a pretty cool idea as well.
How long did it take you to complete the Salt Flats - from first time entering to completing the fight at the Stryge Temple?
62% of the players completed the Salt Flats within 5 hours during this Alpha, while 38% spent 5 hours or more. It is a larger and more difficult zone than the Dunes with more destinations and quests to complete. 10% of the respondents were able to complete the Salt Flats within 2 hours, while a small percentage of the players were even able to complete the zone in less than 1 hour. To these players, we salute you!
How would you rate your experience of combat at the Wraith Tower?
How difficult was the combat at the wraith tower?
How would you rate your experience of the combat at the Stryge Temple?
How would you rate the difficulty level of combat at the Stryge Temple?
Based on the survey responses, people generally found the combat at the wraith outposts and the Stryge temple difficult. The variety and number of enemies at the wraith outposts, along with the desiccation, was a significant ramp up from the Dunes combat experience. The enclosed space at the Stryge temple, coupled with the number and variety of enemies/hazards, continues to make the fight there more difficult. The knockback effect of the storm wall is another contributing factor to the difficulty. We’ll continue to improve balance, variety, and the logic to combat engagements based on the feedback we received from this Alpha.
Canyons:
74% of the respondents waded into the Canyons during this Alpha. This was an increase of 26% from the previous round. And of them, 96% completed at least one gear quest and close to 95% completed the entire progress and the Gleb temple fight. 29% of the players spent over 5 hours in the Canyons before completing the Gleb temple.
About how long did it take you to complete the Canyons - from first time entering to completing the fight at the Gleb Temple?
The sigil gate is again the most used item/feature in traversing the Canyons at an utilization rate of 78%. The Memory Seed comes in second at 70%, which is encouraging to see. The Purifying Totem, the Wind Cloak, as well as the Crystal Mirror all tied for 3rd place at 67%. Next up is the Jade Ring at 56% utilization. The Amber Bottle also had over 50% utilization at 52% rate.
How would you rate your experience in the Canyons Zone?
How difficult did you find the Canyons zone overall?
How helpful was the game in guiding you to your objectives in the Canyons?
How would you rate your experience of the Gear Quest?
How difficult was the Gear Quest for you?
Compared to the last Alpha, people’s experiences with the Gear quests improved overall, and they perceived the difficulty level to be more reasonable as well. With more items at players’ disposal, people perceived traversing the Canyons and dealing with the poisonous air to be easier.
In terms of feedback, one major issue players found was the clarity of the Gear quests. We had a feedback about finding a gear before a quest was triggered, leading to confusion. The quest instructions and gear location were also at times not as clear as they could have been. One idea that we might pursue is to have the guard give the player a key to unlock the chest containing the gear when the player initiates the quest. Addressing these ease of use and clarity issues will remain a priority for us. Another suggestion was to do more to enhance the look and feel of the Canyons as a city ruin, and we have some ideas about how to do that as well.
How would you rate your experience of combat at the Gleb Temple?
How would you rate the difficulty level of combat at the Gleb Temple?
The experience at the Gleb temple appears to be balanced and enjoyable overall once again. There was more of a spread in perceived difficulty this time, with the majority of the players finding the difficulty to be down the middle or skewing a bit on the difficult side.
One of the feedback for the engagement at the Gleb temple remains a desire for variety, and we will be looking at that as part of a more general examination of combat variety overall. A player also reported a case of the dust storm spawning during the Gleb fight, wreaking additional havoc. This we will definitely need to take a look at. One feedback also noted confusion with Gleb’s instructions for producing honey, which we will look to improve as well.
Mountains:
We are excited to share data from the Mountains for the first time, woohoo!
62% of respondents made it to the Mountains zone. We would love to have seen this percentage be higher, but given how compact the Alpha was, this was also not surprising. What was encouraging to us was the completion rates in the Mountains. 95% of Mountains players reached and completed both the Temple of the Past and the Temple of the Present. 92% of all Mountains players completed the entire zone. We were pleasantly surprised by the high completion rates, as this was everyone’s first time going through the new zone.
About how long did it take you to complete the Mountains - from first time entering to getting the Time Needle from Oros at the Temple of the Future?
Over 70% of the players who entered the Mountains completed it in less than 5 hours. Given the narrative and exploratory nature of the zone, this was not a surprise. Despite the short duration of this Alpha, some people did take the time to garden in the Mountains, contributing to longer play times for them in the zone, which was great to see.
In terms of item utilization, Sigil Gates had incredibly high usage at 91% of respondents. The Wind Cloak, the Festival Cake, and the Crystal Mirror tied at 77%. Seeing people gobbling down Festival Cakes brought smiles to our faces. But it also speaks to the demand of the new zone on food consumption. Memory Seed also had higher usage at 64%. With hunger (and to a lesser extent dehydration) and navigation being the major challenges in the zone, we were not surprised to see items of food source and mobility getting the highest usage.
How would you rate your experience in the Mountains zone overall?
How difficult did you find the Mountains zone overall?
How helpful was the game in guiding you to your objectives in the Mountains?
The reaction to the Mountains zone was overall positive, and the perceived difficulty level was a bit bimodal, with a portion of the players finding it challenging while another portion finding it relatively easy to moderate. Growing and collecting enough food for the Mountains was the biggest challenge players had, and because of the terrain, players realized that the Wind Cloak could only take them so far.
In this build there was an issue with Starnetal spawn, making them very difficult to find. This was something we’ve since addressed. The combination of falling rocks and the enemy towers also made traversing difficult. One issue that the players raised was with the transition between climbing and running because of the slopes. This is something that we will investigate and optimize further. One player idea was to have the springs in the Mountains essentially be hot springs when restored. We thought this was an amazing idea, and it would aid in gardening and zone revival as well.
How difficult was finding and completing the Temple of the Past for you?
How difficult was finding and completing the Temple of the Present for you?
How difficult was finding and completing the Temple of the Future for you?
In finding the different Oros temples, the difficulty distribution looked relatively spread out. One player feedback was to have more subtle variations to the temple structures as well as the surrounding vegetation to add more variety and also better indication that the players are at the right places. We may look at adding additional hints or indicators to help guide the players as well.
End Game:
We were able to enlist the help of a few players to help us give an initial test and run through the first iteration of the end game sequences. Thanks everyone for braving the work in progress elements and giving us invaluable feedback! So far with the location of the quests themselves, people didn’t have a very difficult time finding them, which was positive to see.
In terms of clarity of instructions, we wanted to follow up with the players more to see if there are any specific issues or feedback to improve clarity. In terms of difficulty, players generally found them to be in the middle, which was what we were targeting.
Generally the Crater zone was not difficult to locate for the people who tested, and the perceived difficulty was middling. In fact, a number of Alpha players who did not test the end game sequences were also able to find the zone. With the players who noted a lack of clarity of instructions for the Crater zone, we want to follow up with them to see how we could improve there as well.
The testers tended to find the last sequences more difficult but enjoyable. With the players who felt that instructions were not clear here, we definitely want to follow up and learn more specifics so we could see how to improve. With more people testing, we are also keen to see what tactics and strategies emerge in the future. We definitely want to make sure that there are multiple interesting tactics and strategies in the future.
Gardening:
How was your experience with gardening in Wildmender?
How would you rate these different elements of gardening?
How do you feel about the pace of growth of your garden/oasis?
How busy do you feel when you are managing your garden/oasis?
It’s great to see that the players continue to enjoy the gardening experience overall. Expanding the garden, having a large variety of plants, and irrigating the land are what the players found most enjoyable. The work we’ve done since the last Alpha to improve germination and seed drop balance also appears to pay dividends, as the perception of pace of growth is now more in the middle. In terms of the feeling of being busy, the distribution was relatively even. As the garden increases dramatically in size though, water management can feel overwhelming, and some players felt that the gardening was too manual.
Some players also had difficulty identifying which plants need to be watered as well as if a plant is receiving enough water to survive on its own. We will be updating both the tutorial as well as visual feedback to make this clearer. We may also look to improve the frogs’ help in collecting items to help with seed gathering and making aspects of gardening a bit more automated.
Crafting:
How was your experience with crafting in Wildmender?
How do you feel about the variety of crafting options in the Alpha?
How do you feel about the variety of cosmetics in the Alpha Build?
With crafting, the overall reaction from players improved from the last Alpha. The reaction to the variety of cosmetics paralleled the reaction to overall variety. This means that people want more cosmetics! The Pearl ring was found to be consuming too much food to be used more frequently, and we’ll be looking at that balance. Another feedback was that the windmills and pipes broke down too easily, and this is something we’ll be looking into.
Survival:
How was your experience with survival elements (water and food needs) in Wildmender?
How difficult was it to survive in the game?
People’s experience with survival improved overall from the last Alpha. In terms of survival difficulty, the results again showed a relatively normal distribution.
Difficulty Settings
How would you rate the difficulty level of Wildmender overall?
Have you adjusted the difficulty levels under Difficulty in Wildmender’s Settings?
If so, what difficulty are you currently playing on?
How difficult was it to find the Difficulty settings?
How helpful were the Difficulty settings?
Overall, the difficulty level of Wildmender looks to be at an appropriate place based on the survey results. Close to 40% of the respondents made use of the difficulty settings, and finding the difficulty settings was relatively easy overall. Most people also found the difficulty settings to be helpful. Going forward, we could look at how to make the settings easier to find by calling them out more.
Multiplayer:
20% of our respondents tested in multiplayer this time. Of the people who played in multiplayer, most of them played in 2-players.
How was your experience with multiplayer?
How well did multiplayer work for you?
We want to thank the brave souls for helping us test multiplayer once again. When it worked properly, the multiplayer experience was enjoyable for people, and players’ experience with multiplayer improved from the last Alpha. Some players again experienced performance issues and bugs. Performance optimization will continue to be a top priority going forward for us.
Select Community Feedback
“The dehydration while in the Salt Flats was pretty difficult until getting the ring, but I think it was a really nice amount of challenge to keep you interested.”
“Managing mana to fly around above the poison was a little tough in a good way. The purification totem instructions also weren't crystal clear; the journal entry wasn't very illuminating about crafting/using them and I missed the text from that guard as I was trying to escape the poison asap. I knew what to do, but I imagine someone might have trouble there on their first play-through.”
“I accidentally got a gear piece before getting the quest to go find it and was very very confused. It took me a few hours of randomly searching around to find the gate ghost who finally gave me the quest. I did report this but I'm not sure if it was a bug or not.”
“I did not have much of a strategy, so I just kept on exploring the map and enjoying the scenery. My end game strategy was to make like 50 fest cakes and hunt for the illusive starmetal. But the game ended before I got that far. Also, I did not want to rush through the story, I wanted to take my time to restore the springs and restore the grooves. Build my Oasis (very proud of how it came out, a shame I do not know how to make a video) would have loved to share it.”
“It is very rewarding to take a moment to watch and enjoy what was a dry patch of sand becoming a lush paradise. The oasis grows at a good pace , not too fast , not too slow , if one actually wants to expand it , working hard on it does pay , and it even offers benefits such as easy access to food , fresh water , and shade , so the oasis is not a mere good looking place , it also offers many much needed benefits , especially when considering the rather harsh conditions of the surrounding desert.”
“Release the game! I need the game! I want it! It's awesome! And I love the music”
In Closing
We want to thank everyone for your incredible help once again! Your feedback and suggestions were invaluable. We will continue to process them while we work towards finishing the game. As always, stay tuned in Discord for more news and updates.
- Team Muse