As pledged in this year’s Community Direct, as part of our ongoing commitment to better dialogue and transparency, we conducted one of our largest ever player surveys with Season 16’s Big Listen. In the spirit of this concerted effort towards improving transparency, we wanted to share with you how the results of this survey shook out and how we’re thinking about some of the signals we received.

Before we get into the nitty gritty, we want to say thank you to everyone who took the time to give us their feedback. We’ve found the results genuinely illuminating (as well as confirming a few assumptions and hunches), and it’s given us a clear set of priorities to think about. Of course, game development is hard and change doesn’t happen overnight – but we are listening and focusing our efforts on the things that matter most to you, our players.

We discussed these results at length on the latest episode of the Sea of Thieves podcast, so for those of you with 45 minutes to spare, tune in below to hear Creative Director Mike Chapman and Production Director Drew Stevens talking about what this means for Sea of Thieves’ future. However, if you’re after the key headlines, please read on – we have them all right here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqrGKEbGsZcSeason 16 Headline Learnings

First up: one of the big learnings from this survey was that among the thousands of folks we asked, we saw a significantly stronger affinity with Athena’s Fortune than The Reaper’s Bones – 64% to 36%, which was a surprisingly large margin to us given the closely fought battles of Adventures gone by.

So, going into a Reaper-themed Season with Season 16, we’ve been able to recognise retrospectively that the majority of players might not have vibed with the overall theming. While this will perhaps have coloured some of the survey perspectives, there are still all kinds of great insights we want to share with you all.

The overall player rating for Season 16 was 6.1 from our active players which, while not phenomenal, was a good result. Over a quarter of active players rated the Season as an 8/10 or higher, and less than 6% rated the Season as 1/10 or 2/10 – so there’s some recognition that, broadly, it was a solid experience. We’re always going to want to see that score go much higher, but given the transitionary nature of Season 16, it’s been heartening to see that players reliably took some enjoyment from its offering.

Season 16 Content Highlights

Those helpful Mercenary Skeletons of the Order of Bone and Blade were the highest-rated feature by far in Season 16 – their user rating came out on top, followed by the unsealable Reaper’s Chests and new cosmetics. The new Voyages introduced during Season 16 were broadly rated as fine, but players did not express a particularly keen desire to play them again – so we can recognise that there perhaps wasn’t the intended replayability appeal there.

We’ve heard this feedback, and for those who are interested, Creative Director Mike Chapman provided some good context behind the decision to introduce these Voyages on our latest podcast. In the same way that we fleshed out The Hunter’s Call at the beginning of the year, we wanted to expand the offering for The Reaper’s Bones – and these Season 16 Voyages are a solid entry-level introduction to Reaper play, as PvE experiences that bring a little more PvP threat.

We were more surprised by how little awareness and understanding players felt in general around the new Season 16 content. The Voyages ranked more highly for comprehension, which makes sense given they’re very much aligned with the Voyage structure our pirates are used to. However, around the new tools like the Cannon of Rage and Mercenary Skeletons, there was a sense that many players weren’t fully aware of them or didn’t feel well-informed about how they worked.

This is a sign we’ve already begun taking cues from, levelling up the UI Seasonal Tabs and Deeds to promote better discoverability of the content we’ve been introducing in every Act. A version of this went live with Season 17, and Season 18 will bring further refinements – so we hope to see these data points change more positively over time.

Game Health

Overall game health was rated 3/5 by our active users, with quality and stability being the key areas of technical performance we struggled with most. However, one of the biggest signals we got from this survey was that it’s the player-driven health metrics impacting the experience most of all.

Cheating and toxic behaviour from other players were rated 2.6/5 by all respondents. From our community sentiment, customer support contacts and game telemetry, we’ve always had an awareness of this problem – but to see it so concisely summarised in a low score was a stark reminder that we still have much to do in this area.

We do have some key improvements coming to Hourglass Battles to address some of the encounter-based toxicity, which Production Director Drew Stevens talks about in the latest Developer Update. But, more critically, we need to take a step back and look at how we influence players and gameplay at a fundamental level, to make encounters with other crews feel fairer and more fun.

Toxic behaviour is a huge topic to tackle and it encompasses so many parts of the experience, but we’re committed to finding a path through to change those numbers. More on this as it comes, but we’re teeing up a second, more in-depth survey to dig into the heart of this issue so that we can prioritise related areas for work moving forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjPFeayVfSo

Community Relations

As part of this survey, we also wanted to know what you thought of how we were communicating, and if you felt we were listening to your feedback. These are perhaps some bold questions to ask, but again, as we said in the Community Direct, we’re serious about improving community relations and bringing players’ perspectives to the forefront of our decision-making.

So: first, we asked if you thought we were listening to the community. You scored us 3/5 on this, with 43% of all active users rating us a 4 or 5. However, nearly one in five players (19%) scored us a 1/5, believing that we do not listen to our players at all – so it’s clear that while some feel there’s a foundation to build on, we need to do some work here to win back your trust and prove we’re listening.

Since the Season 16 Big Listen survey went out, we’ve made some advancements here based on your feedback: we’ve introduced 110 FOV, made the incoming spatial audio experience more player-friendly, worked on weapon switching, adjusted Season 17’s Reaper Fortress loot pools, and we have plenty of other feedback-inspired irons in the fire. We’re hoping to see this effort reflected in Season 17’s scores too, and we’ll keep putting the work in to ensure we’re addressing your key pain points.

Just on this: it would be remiss of us not to address the sentiment that some of these updates have skewed towards a certain player type, rather than all players. However, we want to assure players that there are ton of discussions ongoing where we’re looking at what would be impactful quality-of-life changes for everyone. We hope to have more to share here in the coming months, so please stay tuned for fresh information (and register as an Insider to test these upcoming changes, if you’re not already one of the crew)!

Also on the topic of communication, we asked if you thought our communication was regular and transparent enough, and you scored us 3.5/5 on this – with almost 60% of all active users rating us at a 4 or 5. We’ve been working on this lately, and we’re pleased to see it reflected in the scores. Again, we could still be better here and intend to drag that average up. However, it’s another solid foundation to build upon, so thank you for recognising our efforts with the return of the Dev Updates, the Community Direct commitments and everything else we’re doing – like the survey itself – to ensure a better dialogue with you all.

The Future

While we’re still working out what this really means for our development roadmap, as these results are still contextually very fresh, we have some clear signals about what players want to see the most. We can’t yet comment with any specificity on what we’re doing in these particular areas, but we wanted to be honest about what our players have asked from us – so, the top five most popular areas for future content updates amongst our active users include:

(1) New world regions and locations
(2) More narrative content
(3) New ship types
(4) New World Events
(5) New sandbox tools and mechanics

The Community Direct in early 2026 will be the next opportunity for us to unveil some of our content plans for the year ahead, so look forward to that!

And the Survey Said…

This was an incredibly useful first set of results for us. We’ve surveyed our players before, but not on this scale – so the sheer volume and breadth of the feedback has been invaluable. We’ll continue with our Seasonal surveys and track some of those key health metrics from Season to Season, with the hope of seeing the needles move in the right ways. And we’ll continue to share those results too, as part of our ongoing commitment to sharing in what we’re up to and why we’re making some of the decisions we do.

The survey for Season 17 will be arriving soon, so if you’d like to participate and have your say, sign up to the Insider Programme and ensure your email preferences are on to receive the invite – you can do this by logging in to the Sea of Thieves website and checking your Account page. Thanks to all of you for taking part!

Hi everybody, great news today! We just released the next major content update for Heroes of Science and Fiction with both a new factions and a new campaign!
We hope you'll enjoy the new content and all the included improvements!

Play as an ancient race of intelligent parasitic aliens that posess different hosts!

• 7 units, each with its upgraded version
  
• Warmachine: the Goo Spitter
  
• 13 Commanders
  
• Unique base buildings (including item storage!), siege battle map and base music theme
  
• Biomacer faction skill

Follow Annika Finch, a famous young Sovereign captain on her journey and see some of the dark secrets of the Siren System finally uncovered!

• 4 levels, 8 intro and outro screens
  
• 2 new music themes
  
• (Hopefully not a spoiler) Encounter both your old enemies and the Tumori Tribes!

• New skirmish maps - Lost Connection and One Way Out
  
• Spawner buildings on the exploration map for each faction
  
• Scrapyard workshop sells different warmachines
  
• One-way teleports
  
• Encyclopedia with all commanders and units organized by faction
  
• Improved calendar panel layout with colored phase text and custom icons for different cycle events
  
• Icons of different layouts in map generator
  
• Added commander bio to commander tooltips in scenario configuration and encyclopedia
  
• Academy upgrade that allows to research abilities can now be used repeatedly but with increasing cost
  
• New music jingles for map win/loss screen ♫
  
• New music theme for Orbit, improved music crossfades, fixed a couple of cases of volume jumps, for example after battle ♫
  
• Improvements in various sound effects: item pickups, Cannon explosion, Sawty jump, crystal biome ambience, Worm underground movement, a few healing effects, Show Resources and Treasures
  
• Editor: New event action for controlling commander orientation
  
• Editor: New event action, configurable delay/wait
  
• Editor: Implemented a manipulate-commanders command to disable tracking of a commander as must-stay-alive in victory conditions
  
• Editor: New reward for defeating selected neutral army: a fusion core
  
• Editor: Automatic synchronization of colors of connected teleports
  
• Editor: Spawners can be configured to match the faction of a base (as the player can select the faction when starting the map)

- Updated Unity to 2020.3.49f1 with a fix of the recently discovered security vulnerability, fixed what got broken by this upgrade
- Hotfixed any human in hotseat mode getting defeated caused the dialog to force return to main menu
- Fixed unit models with multiple materials not correctly flashing white when hit
- Fixed 6-unit armies sometimes spawning in different order than the order of units in the army
- Fixed a few issues with difficulty settings not correctly carried over between campaign maps
- Fixed bases remembered in fog of war had different name than the actual base at their position
- Fixed missing unit icon on discovered neutral armies, fixed inconsistency in tooltips of discovered neutral armies
- Fixed AI sometimes attacking dead units
- Fixed Mysterious Wanderers/Traveling Merchants could decide to block a bridge
- Fixed tooltips on consumables in hero action selector weren't taking in account reordering of these items by availability and sometimes showing tooltip for the wrong item
- Fixed resource collectors could spawn over pickable resources during cycle event
- Fixed skills forgotten at an altar of clean slate not available to be learned again
- Fixed hacked and hypnotized status effects
- Fixed some typos and minor issues in texts


Here's an updated roadmap for the rest of Early Access - we're getting there! :)

As always, thanks to everybody who helped us test the build before release and special thanks to the community translators! If you'd like to join the community, we'll be happy to have you on our Discord server:

Greetings everyone! We are getting close to the point where we will be rolling out to the main branch on Steam. So we have some great news to all of you that purchased the game when it was known as "Sanguivore". Not everyone that purchased the game is a member of our Discord, so we will be letting all Steam users know about this.

Currently the game is NOT playable on the main branch, it is still the old game and the account API is no longer available for the old game. So, The current build of NightSpawn ([c]0.31.254[/c] / [c]0.31.256[/c] ) will be available for all. As the game will be a FREE 2 PLAY title when we fully release on Steam & Epic Games. We are giving all current premium owners of the game (meaning you spent money accessing the game beforehand, when it was Sanguivore) access to the premium features in NightSpawn, this includes:

• Chapter 1 - 4 Season Premium Passes (first 4 season passes),

• Exclusive playable character (just for Sanguivore purchases),

Everyone that previously logged on to the game when it was Sanguivore has been marked in our system has a [c]OG[/c] player, if you purchased the game and have not been able to log on / create an account, please submit a ⁠support-tickets with proof of purchase and we will get you setup. When the game goes live fully, you will automatically receive your gifts when logging into the game.

We will be running BETA weekends where, content will automatically unlock in all builds of the game for that specific weekend. This content will include features that are mentioned in the Available at FULL launch list below. First one planned: 14-17th November 2025*

Subject to change*

The current build of the game is a feature locked version, meaning not all features will be available. Here is a list of what will be available and what will be available at full launch:

• x1 Playable map - Into The Mist,

• x1 AI controlled monster - The Lycan (Werewolf),

• Non-Premium currency - Blood Shards,

• Non-Premium cosmetics,

• Escape Mode - Single player,

• Escape Mode - Peer-2-Peer (Coop),

• Character progression cap - Level 3 / 19 character perk unlocks,

• Escape scenarios - Limited to 4,

• Languages - English only,

• Playable characters - Limited to 4 of 22,

• x4 Playable map - Into The Mist, Twenty Below (Reworked), Web of Fears, Carnival of Carnage,

• Escape Mode - Single player,

• Escape Mode - Peer-2-Peer (Coop),

• Character progression cap - TBA,

• Escape scenarios - Multiple,

• Languages - English, German, French, Spanish, Etc.,

• Playable characters - x22 (Plus any additional added, inc. exclusive unlock),

• Play Tarot cards (game modifier/challenges),

• Non-Premium cosmetics,

• Premium character cosmetics,

• Non-Premium currency - Blood Shards,

• Premium currency - Fear Fragments,

• Updated The Lycan monster (Werewolf),

• Updated The Noble monster (Vampire),

• NEW The Arachnid monster (Spider),

• Updated The Arachnid monster (Spider) - Mesh update,

• NEW The Grand Puppeteer monster (Demon),

• NEW Investigators (x4) Vs. The Monster (x1) Mode,

• NEW Play as The Lycan (4v1 mode),

• NEW Play as The Noble (4v1 mode),

• NEW Play as The Arachnid (4v1 mode),

• NEW Play as The Grand Puppeteer (4v1 mode),

• NEW Monster Evolutions - monster changes form up to 3x from feeding and gathering blood.,

More information about all features that will be included will be posted closer to the time of NightSpawn going live on the MainBranch, including dates and so on.

It has been five years since an update came to life in the pre-Final Edition era. This major update brings lots of new features, optimizations, and fixes:

Vertical moving platforms: By popular request from GGHallGamer, platforms can now move vertically as well as horizontally. Place several moving platforms next to each other to create a larger platform and open up new paths in your levels. But beware — heroes and enemies can be crushed if the platform reaches the ceiling!

Moving spikes: Also requested by GGHallGamer, spike boxes can now move up, down, left, or right. This adds a whole new layer of challenge and excitement for both creating and running levels.

New achievements: Hard mode, Expert mode, and EXTREME MODE! Complete levels with very low clear rates to unlock these elite achievements.

Optimized Main Menu: The Main Menu has been slightly redesigned to make stats and options easier for newcomers to understand.

New tutorial mode: Based on feedback from several players, newcomers can now access the Tutorial list, where each level teaches a specific mechanic. Don’t worry — you can still complete these levels and earn world records.

Optimized camera: The camera now moves less, providing a calmer and smoother gameplay experience.

100 levels listed per filter category: Browse a larger catalogue of levels — 100 levels per category for now. The plan is to implement pagination so you can access all levels, not just a limited selection. Remember, you can create your own playlists at dashworld.online via the game's "Playlists" menu if you want specific levels listed.

Toggle screen shake on/off: Also requested by Devonrv, this option can be found in the Settings menu of the Main Menu.

---

• Fixed collision issues where bullets would sometimes miss metal crates.

• Prevented shooting through platforms from underneath.

• Fixed collision errors when possessing a power-up and touching a sploder.

• Corrected slopes being drawn incorrectly when spikes were nearby.

• Adjusted achievements: Previously, some achievements required 50K plays. They now cap at 10K plays.

• Added difficulty display in Run Mode.

• Updated default featured playlists: Tutorials, Arcade Mode, Runner Levels, and Hardcore Concerned are now featured.

• Fixed crashes when the camera follows the world record ghost while the player dies.

• Fixed broken Discord invite in the Main Menu.

• Made Underground theme slightly less dark — it is no longer pitch black.

• Optimized enemy movement on slopes.

---

• Some problems with moving spikes' collision masks.

• Minor jitter when moving enemies collide with moving spikes.

• Occasional unfair deaths caused by vertical platforms crushing the player.

All of these are being addressed for Build 3000 Patch 1.

Please leave any feedback you think could help, and report bugs on our Discord server:

https://discord.gg/N8x6AhUg

---

A huge thanks to GGHallGamer, Devonrv, and everyone who provided great input, feedback, and critique. This is what makes a community-driven game come to life!

DASH ON! — BD

---

Here is a new demo hotfix for you!

• A minor hotfix focused on improving performance.

Further updates will follow shortly.

We are looking forward to your bug reports.

Hi everyone!

We're back again with our next comic! Can you believe it? Only 4 days remain until the game's launch this Tuesday, the 28th. Today's comic features two characters from Polly's past, including her ever important sister Alice. Poor Polly, will she ever be noticed?

Just one more time in case you missed it in past posts, Silly Polly Beast releases on the above date at 11am ET / 8am PT / 15:00 UTC. As mentioned prior, he game will be $19.99 / 16.75 GBP / 19.50 EUR / руб.650 / 58 CNY (other prices are regional as well). There will be a 15% launch discount for 2 weeks.

As usual, we hope you enjoy the comic and see you next Tuesday on the 28th!

This update brings a rewritten multiplayer lobby system and few gameplay tweaks.
- Multiplayer lobby with support for public & private servers
- Multiplayer server area selection
- Hit force score multiplier increased slightly(harder hits add more multiplier to combos)

Added official servers:

• NA West (Oregon)
  
• NA West (San Jose)
  
• NA Central (Dallas)
  
• NA East (Montreal)
  
• EU Central (Frankfurt)
  
• Asia (Seoul)
  
• Asia (Singapore)
  
• Australia (Sydney)

Hey there!
Our friends at Lustration team kindly asked us to show you their new furry game in the making -
Astra: Ardent Show 🎪🔥


https://store.steampowered.com/app/3970070
Astra: Ardent Show is a visual novel about a charming but rebellious fox princess who escapes to a mysterious island in search of freedom and new adventures.




Meet Astra - a true diamond of her bloodline. Astra had it all - a handsome husband, a beautiful castle and a whole kingdom to her name. But she missed the exact thing in her life - a true freedom.




Uncover the secrets of Astra’s past, meet the island's unusual inhabitants, and make a choice that will determine the fate of this unruly princess ✨



Help Astra make right descisions, because your choices impact the fate of not only a newly initiated wandering artist but two big islands!

GAME FEATURES:

✍️ A visual novel heavily dependent on YOUR choices
🔀 Various types of genitals (furry or vanilla)
🎥 Animated h-scenes
🎨 Hand-drawn characters from our artists
📖 Text-based mini games
⚔️ A battle system

Your new adventure with princess Astra awaits! 🦊
Please, support our friends with your likes and wishlists, it’s very important to them and their team - they love their project with their hearts and souls and hope you’ll love it as much 💖

👉🔥 WISHLIST ASTRA: ARDENT SHOW NOW ON STEAM 🔥👈

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3970070
🔁 Follow Lustration Team on social media and tell them we said hi! 🔁

Discord: https://discord.gg/UW5TTaH6Ap
X: https://x.com/LustrationTeam
Telegram: https://t.me/Lustrationnews

Hey there!
Our friends at Lustration team kindly asked us to show you their new furry game in the making -
Astra: Ardent Show 🎪🔥


https://store.steampowered.com/app/3970070
Astra: Ardent Show is a visual novel about a charming but rebellious fox princess who escapes to a mysterious island in search of freedom and new adventures.




Meet Astra - a true diamond of her bloodline. Astra had it all - a handsome husband, a beautiful castle and a whole kingdom to her name. But she missed the exact thing in her life - a true freedom.




Uncover the secrets of Astra’s past, meet the island's unusual inhabitants, and make a choice that will determine the fate of this unruly princess ✨



Help Astra make right descisions, because your choices impact the fate of not only a newly initiated wandering artist but two big islands!

GAME FEATURES:

✍️ A visual novel heavily dependent on YOUR choices
🔀 Various types of genitals (furry or vanilla)
🎥 Animated h-scenes
🎨 Hand-drawn characters from our artists
📖 Text-based mini games
⚔️ A battle system

Your new adventure with princess Astra awaits! 🦊
Please, support our friends with your likes and wishlists, it’s very important to them and their team - they love their project with their hearts and souls and hope you’ll love it as much 💖

👉🔥 WISHLIST ASTRA: ARDENT SHOW NOW ON STEAM 🔥👈

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3970070
🔁 Follow Lustration Team on social media and tell them we said hi! 🔁

Discord: https://discord.gg/UW5TTaH6Ap
X: https://x.com/LustrationTeam
Telegram: https://t.me/Lustrationnews