Dev Blog #10 – July Playtest Results
Hello Coaches!
Coming to you live from the Blindspot Games headquarters. In the last few weeks, we’ve been busy bees, not only working on your suggestions from the 2nd Closed Beta, but our title had a name change. Say hello to Infinity: HexaDome Tactics!
After gathering your suggestions of the last playtest, we’ve worked hard in adding some new elements to our 3rd Closed Beta.
Our community opened its arms to the latest playtest with much excitement. We even had a voice channel party where 12 people joined to watch a few masterclass games from our dedicated players.
In this beta, we experimented with a few new features, such as removing the roll visuals to see how the community would react. Both the arena and our tutorial received a makeover, with the tutorial being replaced by Bootcamp. You can find a detailed list of all changes in our latest patch notes.
This beta marked some exciting milestones for the community. Did someone finally take down our undefeated Game Director in our Beta Challenge Stream?
Let’s dive into the results!
[h2]Closed Beta Playtest Results: [/h2]
Over the period of the playtest, we gathered feedback across different platforms. Our data excavation tools scoured through an in-game comment box and rating system after matches, as well as a bug submission tool that sends information to our Jira directly. Additionally, we went through the comments of socials, including our Steam Community Hub, Discord channels, and surveys for further information.
Here’s what we learned:
[h2]What players liked:[/h2]
[h2]What could be improved: [/h2]
Our new Bootcamp gained mixed feedback. While our previous playtesters appreciated the new visuals and learning flow, newcomers to Infinity: HexaDome Tactics found some crucial information missing, such as how points are calculated and how line of sight works. We believe that the Bootcamp is on the right track and needs some fine-turning to be ready for a broader audience.
It was heart-warming to see how our community supported each other with the difficult elements of Bootcamp. Some players tried many times before finally understanding how to complete the stage.
‘‘By the way, the fact that I was willing to play that level 10+ times is a testament to the overall quality of what I’m seeing here so far.’’ - Psyberduck
One main discussion point from our Discord community was how much they missed the visuals of the rolls. We removed them as an experiment to for faster gameplay and to make the UI look less busy. Boy, were our community members fast in letting us know how they felt a void and lack of suspense without them. Our co-founder, Aurelien, went quick to work in creating a patch where it became optional for the players to see the rolls when playing in game. Right away, they felt a difference, and were ecstatic with the fast turnaround.
‘I really think the rolls on screen give it the extra hmph As someone that played with them on screen it feels empty and like there's a void when an action happens, I'm really curious to see the opinion of those that haven't played with the rolls on screen.’ - Nayder
Another topic mentioned in various places was noticing just how powerful Hexxer’s Retro Vade ability is. There were comments about how she can use the same ability 6 times in 1 Turn – leading to many players feeling in-awe yet frustrated of such a powerful ability.
Finally, there was a huge milestone that occurred near the end of our beta. In every playtest for the last six months, we’ve challenged our playtesters to compete against our Unbeatable Game Director, Régis. He has reigned supreme and never lost a battle.... that is, until he competed against SuperJon.
After two incredible matches against Tangerine_Kirin and CraftyLeviathan, everyone tuned in to our Twitch channel to see if SuperJon could take down our game director. He was #1 on our leaderboard for the past two beta playtests and it all came down to this fight...
It was 30 minutes of strategically picking their team of champions, using their abilities and ultimates, when finally... SuperJon took the lead, winning with a 6-0 score.
A huge congratulations again to SuperJon! His victory led him to win our epic prize bundle of:
Watch the full stream here
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
“Thank you all again for this experience - this has become my top game played this year after having no background in turn-based tactical (only getting a brief demo at PAX), so I am hopeful this game can catch on and be successful 😊" SuperJon
[h2]Final Thoughts:[/h2]
We want to take this time again to say a huge THANK YOU to all of our playtesters and community members for your support on Infinity: HexaDome Tactics. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve already started tweaking some of the game mechanics for our upcoming playtest.
Want to stay in the loop on the latest developments? Be sure to follow us on socials for exclusive sneak peeks, playtest updates, and exciting news!
Coming to you live from the Blindspot Games headquarters. In the last few weeks, we’ve been busy bees, not only working on your suggestions from the 2nd Closed Beta, but our title had a name change. Say hello to Infinity: HexaDome Tactics!
After gathering your suggestions of the last playtest, we’ve worked hard in adding some new elements to our 3rd Closed Beta.
Our community opened its arms to the latest playtest with much excitement. We even had a voice channel party where 12 people joined to watch a few masterclass games from our dedicated players.
In this beta, we experimented with a few new features, such as removing the roll visuals to see how the community would react. Both the arena and our tutorial received a makeover, with the tutorial being replaced by Bootcamp. You can find a detailed list of all changes in our latest patch notes.
This beta marked some exciting milestones for the community. Did someone finally take down our undefeated Game Director in our Beta Challenge Stream?
Let’s dive into the results!
[h2]Closed Beta Playtest Results: [/h2]
Over the period of the playtest, we gathered feedback across different platforms. Our data excavation tools scoured through an in-game comment box and rating system after matches, as well as a bug submission tool that sends information to our Jira directly. Additionally, we went through the comments of socials, including our Steam Community Hub, Discord channels, and surveys for further information.
Here’s what we learned:
[h2]What players liked:[/h2]
- The art style of the champions, their animations, and VFXs.
- Music and SFX.
- The passion and dedication of the devs shown in our Discord by answering questions, releasing patch notes, jumping on bugs, and listening to the community.
- The new visuals and introduction of Bootcamp.
- The makeover of the PanO Arena with a new jumbotron and sponsor banners!
[h2]What could be improved: [/h2]
- Rework the Bootcamp to make sure the most important gameplay information comes first.
- Lean more into the lore with more engaging Bootcamp dialogues.
- Adjust the difficulty of the Bootcamp to be more accessible for newcomers, avoiding challenging puzzles.
- Bring back the visual representations of the rolls.
- Improve the RNG mechanics to reduce frustration from unlucky rolls and prevent early match quitting.
- Ensure the visibility of the Hexadrops from all camera angles.
- Address balancing issues with the 4-round mechanic by adjusting champion abilities, sponsors, and other elements to ensure fair play.
- Add custom timers for those that want shorter or longer gameplay. With the latest changes, players noticed that they didn’t have much time to strategize their moves.
- Add more quests in Seasons.
- Create an automated way to end a match when there’s no possibility of winning.
- Clarify the sponsors mechanic, including progression and rewards.
Our new Bootcamp gained mixed feedback. While our previous playtesters appreciated the new visuals and learning flow, newcomers to Infinity: HexaDome Tactics found some crucial information missing, such as how points are calculated and how line of sight works. We believe that the Bootcamp is on the right track and needs some fine-turning to be ready for a broader audience.
It was heart-warming to see how our community supported each other with the difficult elements of Bootcamp. Some players tried many times before finally understanding how to complete the stage.
‘‘By the way, the fact that I was willing to play that level 10+ times is a testament to the overall quality of what I’m seeing here so far.’’ - Psyberduck
One main discussion point from our Discord community was how much they missed the visuals of the rolls. We removed them as an experiment to for faster gameplay and to make the UI look less busy. Boy, were our community members fast in letting us know how they felt a void and lack of suspense without them. Our co-founder, Aurelien, went quick to work in creating a patch where it became optional for the players to see the rolls when playing in game. Right away, they felt a difference, and were ecstatic with the fast turnaround.
‘I really think the rolls on screen give it the extra hmph As someone that played with them on screen it feels empty and like there's a void when an action happens, I'm really curious to see the opinion of those that haven't played with the rolls on screen.’ - Nayder
Another topic mentioned in various places was noticing just how powerful Hexxer’s Retro Vade ability is. There were comments about how she can use the same ability 6 times in 1 Turn – leading to many players feeling in-awe yet frustrated of such a powerful ability.
Finally, there was a huge milestone that occurred near the end of our beta. In every playtest for the last six months, we’ve challenged our playtesters to compete against our Unbeatable Game Director, Régis. He has reigned supreme and never lost a battle.... that is, until he competed against SuperJon.
After two incredible matches against Tangerine_Kirin and CraftyLeviathan, everyone tuned in to our Twitch channel to see if SuperJon could take down our game director. He was #1 on our leaderboard for the past two beta playtests and it all came down to this fight...
It was 30 minutes of strategically picking their team of champions, using their abilities and ultimates, when finally... SuperJon took the lead, winning with a 6-0 score.
A huge congratulations again to SuperJon! His victory led him to win our epic prize bundle of:
- $50 Steam Gift Card
- Free key to The Hexadome
- "I Beat The Game Director" in-game title
- Your name in our game credits
- Become a VIP Discord member to get exclusive sneak peeks
Watch the full stream here
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
“Thank you all again for this experience - this has become my top game played this year after having no background in turn-based tactical (only getting a brief demo at PAX), so I am hopeful this game can catch on and be successful 😊" SuperJon
[h2]Final Thoughts:[/h2]
We want to take this time again to say a huge THANK YOU to all of our playtesters and community members for your support on Infinity: HexaDome Tactics. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve already started tweaking some of the game mechanics for our upcoming playtest.
Want to stay in the loop on the latest developments? Be sure to follow us on socials for exclusive sneak peeks, playtest updates, and exciting news!
- Join our Discord
- Wishlist The Hexadome on Steam
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on TikTok
- Follow us on Facebook
