Apr 14, 2023

Wildmender - Maddie @ Kwalee

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

Apr 14, 2023

Wildmender Alpha #2 Report [Part 1]

Wildmender - Maddie @ Kwalee

Player Feedback

Total Feedback Reviewed:

150

Total Worked on (so far):

The rate of worked-on to total feedback is lower this time than the last Alpha, but do not be alarmed! We had a larger number of feedback reports that pointed to the same issues, and we will continue to work through more feedback going forward. It’s amazing that so many of you took the time to leave detailed feedback for us. We can’t thank you enough!

Play Time Stats

Median Play Time:

4hr 52min

Average Play Time:

12hr 51min

Min 1hr Played

73%

Min 2hr Played

66%

Min 5hr Played

52%

Basic Tutorial Completion %

91%

Naia Completion %

60%

Because we had a compacted Alpha period, the number of participants this time was about 60% of the 1st Alpha. During this Alpha, we saw median play time nearly doubled again when compared to the first Alpha, while average play time increased by almost 2 hours from an already high mark. Two thirds of all participants spent over 2 hours in-game (a 22% increase from Alpha #1) while over half of the players played for over 5 hours (a 37% increase from Alpha #1). About 30% of the players played for over 20 hours (doubling the percentage from Alpha #1), and about 6% played over 50 hours.

Overall tutorial completion rate increased by 7% compared to the first Alpha to 91%. For new players who started the tutorial, 88% of them completed the entire tutorial. While a cause for the increase in completion rate may be attributed to returning players being already familiar with the game, it should also point to the improvements we’ve made based on player feedback from the last Alpha. After all, we had a close to 10 percentage increase in new player tutorial completion rate, and the new player completion percentage is now nearly on par with that of overall tutorial completion rate. After the last Alpha, we systematically looked at the exact points in the tutorial where players had issues with or were confused by, and we made improvements at each of those points. It does appear that the improvements we’ve made are having a positive impact. Of course we’ll be looking for more feedback from this Alpha so we can continue to improve.

Naia completion rate jumped again to 68%, a 20% increase from the first Alpha. 44% of all players completed the Salt Flats progression and overcame the challenge at the Stryge Temple. This was a 24% increase from the 1st Alpha. 40% of the players completed the Canyons progression and overcame the encounters at the Gleb Temple. This was a 26% increase compared to the 1st Alpha. 38% of all players completed the new Mountain zone and all of its progression. Of the players who entered the Mountains, 81% of them made it out with the Time Needle. Overall, 30% of all players completed all zones in the game.

95% of the players who started the Stryge or Gleb temple encounter were able to complete them successfully. With the Naia Temple engagement, the completion rate was even higher, at 100%. All 85 of the players who picked a fight with the wraiths at the Naia Temple were able to defeat them.

During the last Alpha, data and player feedback both told us that the Canyons was more challenging and frustrating than the Salt Flats. People reported a number of ease of use issues. The Canyons also had in-development art assets and progression indicators that made the journey tougher. We have since addressed a number of the issues players reported, and we are seeing Canyons completion percentage now close to being on par with that of the Salt Flats.

With the Salt Flats, players also reported ease of use issues such as the clarity of the shrinking circle at the outpost as well as the storm wall at the Stryge Temple. The ease of use improvements we’ve made to directly address the players’ feedback also seems to have made a positive impact in the Salt Flats.

In the Mountains, the new zone we introduced for this Alpha round, we are encouraged to see that 71% of the new players who started the zone were able to complete it. For returning players, the completion percentage stood at 88%. For the returning players, the Mountains were new content to them as well. Perhaps prior experience with the game had a bit of a carry over effect when exploring the new zone.

Once again, we are humbled by the level of investment and dedication from everyone. Players were able to submit a number of feedback, bug reports, and performance issues that were instrumental in helping us investigate, debug, and improve.

Difficulty Setting

Normal

79%

Peaceful

Hard

Iron Child

Custom

16%

With the new difficulty settings implemented ahead of this Alpha, we were intrigued to see how much the players utilized them. While close to 80% of the players played on Normal (the default settings), a few percentage of the players did switch to peaceful. 2 players decided to take on the ultimate challenge of playing in the Iron Child setting, with permadeath and enemy health regen no less. We salute the brave souls who made the attempts! 16% of the players made custom selections in difficult settings, taking full advantage of the plethora of options available to customize their gameplay experience. It’s great to see this many people making custom selections. In the future, we could try to make the players more aware of the difficulty settings, so they could take advantage more.

Survival Stats

Causes of Death:

Hunger & Dehydration

49%

Poison

Wraiths

19%

Enemy Outposts

10%

Fall

Dust Storms & Dust Devils

Others (ex. Rock falls)

What is a survival game without deaths, and what is a survival game in an arid world without death by hunger and dehydration? With the new Mountains zone, with its demand on food and hunger, and flipping the paradigm of night vs. day travel, we were not surprised to see hunger and dehydration as the leading cause of death again. With a bit of improvement in data tracking this time, we are able to segment death by wraiths and enemy outposts better. And unsurprisingly, death by enemies became the second leading cause of death. With some of the tuning and ease of use improvements we made in the Canyons, we are happy to see that poison is no longer having as severe an impact as the last Alpha round. In this Alpha, death was also generally not a deterrent from people to keep playing the game. Only 3.5% of the players quit their sessions as a result of death.

Total Resource Collected

Plant Fibers

48,354

Wood

44,455

Sandstone

36,517

Flint

14,692

Frozen Mana

18,309

Bone Fragment

12,800

Copper

11,756

Rock Crystal

6,992

Shell

3,879

Festival Cake

3,724

Feather

3,581

Amber

3,276

Glass

3,171

Honey

2,768

Knotwood

2,699

Jade

2,534

Runic Key

2,339

Ancient Pearl

1,415

Granite

1,384

Tarnished Talisman

1,298

Rock Salt

1,113

Obsidian

1,030

Luminous Tonic

747

Cement

385

Here are totals of all the resources people collected in the game during this Alpha. In terms of resources collected relative to the number of participants, they track very similarly to the last Alpha. This means that the resources collected per capita during this Alpha is once again impressive. In terms of distribution, it tracks similarly overall to the last Alpha as well. More Frozen Mana were collected this time, likely due to more combat engagements with more Wraiths as players journey further into the game. For as late game as the Honey is during the Alpha, we are glad to see it in play. The same goes with Tarnish Talisman, a new material we introduced that enabled the crafting of a new and powerful weapon.

Total Plant Seeds Collected

Grass Seed

22,216

Amaranth

19,297

Lilies

16,829

Thorntail

13,260

Mistberry

13,237

Sunburst Seed

12,552

Acorn

11,234

Rootbread Mushroom

6,586

Rainbloom Cactus

6,008

Glowstick Stalk

3,867

Fig

3,204

Monument Shelf

2,740

Moon Glory Flower

3,171

Witchwood Seed

2,649

Spindlewood Flower

2,116

Lantern Fruit

1,258

Skytorch

1,160

Umbrella Mushroom

499

While grass seeds and amaranth are still at the top, the distribution of seeds collected during this Alpha continued to improve. Additionally, the collection and consumption of individual plant flower or seed correlated more closely with crafting and survival requirements. For example, Mistberries, a fruit of the Salt Flats, is now a top 5 most collected plant. This makes sense as Mistberries are needed to activate Salt Flats outpost encounters, and they are one of the best food source for the Salt Flats as well as the Mountains. We’re seeing an increase in Acorn collection and consumption as they are needed for not only sigil gates, but for zone revival in the Dunes as well. Glowstick also saw an increase despite being in the crevasses, as it is needed for the crafting of all lamp posts. As more players got deeper into the game, we are seeing the quantities of some fruits collected from the later zones increase, and the distribution even out a bit more.

Items Crafted

Compost

8450

Honey

2768

Blessed Drop

2446

Life Spark

1564

Poultice

1503

Infusion

1187

Shining Feather

511

Trickster’s Treat

485

Wellstone

420

Sunburst Grenade

264

Life Flame

131

With the streamlining of the composting design, we are seeing composts being used more extensively. It’s great to compost! People are also producing large amounts of honey, which continues to be a pleasant surprise. It is exciting to see people finding a wider variety of ways to improve soil and plant growth conditions. Another pleasant surprise is to see how many Blessed Drops were crafted. People are using it to clear corrupted grounds and also revive springs. With the Canyons and Salt Flats being more treacherous to traverse, people are still crafting relatively higher quantities of healing items. With windcloak upgrades, shining feathers also got more use.

Popularity of Trinkets

Water Ring

312

Wooden Bracelet

299

Jade Ring

152

Feather Bracelet

Sun Ring

Pearl Bracelet

Sand Ring

Air Ring

Bead Bracelet

Twist Bracelet

Copper Ring

Crystal Ring

Obsidian Ring

Jade Ring’s utility greatly increased from the last Alpha, as Canyons zone was more fleshed out in this Alpha. The Wooden Bracelet also got a lot more use as demand for inventory increased along with the scope of the game.

Please head over to Part 2 for a closer look at our alpha survey results and closing statements!