Hello everyone, this blog I want to talk about how Steam Next Fest went, the feedback the game received and the direction the game is going.
First off, the stats. The demo was acquired 4,368 times, of which 2,819 actually downloaded and played. About 240 players played more than 3 hours and the median time played is 22 minutes. Number of wishlists gained: 3,299. Reviews gained: 4 positive and 4 negative. Number of bugs reported: less than 10.
I am pretty happy about the technical part. Very few bug reports, very good game stability. However, the 'Mixed' review score is a bit demoralizing. Going from 89% the day before Next Fest started to 78% now is hard. I didn't think the demo was in such a bad state. This is certainly a reality check.
The game will come out into Early Access on August 20 but development will continue up until whenever 1.0 is ready and meets the high expectations of the automation community.
Next Fest has been a great source of feedback. Other than a few bug reports, what I gathered was mainly:
There is a bit of balancing required to make the game feel less grindy.
QOL features and better onboarding
UI and item icons improvements
And as always, expand on Swarm mechanics even more
My original plan was to work on the UI after the festival because visual fidelity is important for first impressions. But I think the priority now is balancing and QOL so that the existing content can provide a better experience. Although I would love to add more Swarm specific content like the snatchers last month, the amount of content is not an issue. It's mostly the feel and presentation of the game.
So keep an eye out for more balancing and QOL patches in the next several weeks.
Thanks for reading! The Swarm must spread.