Futuremark Games Studio went against the grain when it updated is zero gravity FPS, Shattered Horizon, with a huge 'Moonrise' content update pack last month - for free.
The Moonrise update - which added four entire new levels to the game, along with a load of plot additions and gameplay tweaks - was crafted perhaps entirely in response to feedback from users and reviews. That's customer care right there.
In part one of our interview with the highly opinionated Futuremark CEO Jukka Mäkinen and producer Jaakko Haapasalo, we spoke about the developer's extreme response to constructive criticism and other hot topics in the PC gaming world - such as a certain iron-fist DRM system. And they had plenty to say about that...
Tell us how community feedback helped shape the Moonrise Pack, and a little on the most significant gameplay change/tweak brought about as a direct result of that feedback.
Jukka: Futuremark Games Studio is a small team, only 20 people. Gathering feedback from the community is a very important part of how we work. We ran a very successful closed beta for Shattered Horizon and after the beta ended we created a program called the Arconauts that would help us continue to get high quality feedback from players. One of the perks of Arconaut membership is early access to new content. Shortly after we announced the Moonrise content pack our Arconauts started helping us test the four new levels playing on private servers with a special development build of the game.
Jaakko: Testing began at a very early stage, what we call block geometry, where our designers have used basic shapes to rough out the structure of the levels. When the Arconauts first started playing the levels didn't have any textures or lighting effects, sounds were missing and things like collision and physics meshes were incomplete. Bugs and glitches were fairly easy to find but the main role for the Arconauts was helping to balance the levels, telling us which control points were too easy or too hard to capture and defend, which parts of the levels they enjoyed and why, whether one team had an advantage over the other and how the strategies for each levels changed with the amount of people playing.
Level design for zero gravity is a significant challenge and we made several changes based on player feedback. We broke the Deadeye dish in two for example to resolve gameplay issues with cover and movement. At one point we were thinking of letting go of the indoor spaces in Searchlight since they posed a major timetable challenge. But the feedback on the indoor sections was so positive that we finally decided to keep them in, get them finished and in the game no matter what.
We also put out major game update just before Moonrise, which included an addition vocally demanded by the players: voice chat. The specs features for that came almost word for word from the community, mainly through our support and feedback site where the discussion of favourite features was at times very passionate, but always useful.
Why did you choose to release Moonrise for free?
Jaakko: Short answer: because we said we would support Shattered Horizon with free content after the game launched. Now Moonrise is out we're already hard at work on the next content update which will also be free. For a longer answer, it has to do with how we view making multiplayer games. Launch time is not the end of the development effort, but rather the beginning of a fruitful relationship with the player community. We continue to sell Shattered Horizon, and we continue to develop Shattered Horizon. The result is a better game for our customers, and people are always willing to pay for true value.
Jukka: We are not opposed to selling additions in principle, but there are right and wrong ways to go about it. With multiplayer games for example, you don't want to split the player community with artificial price fences on additional content. A paid update, if we ever do one, should not leave you feeling left behind if you don't get it, or leave you feeling isolated if you do, but should instead feel like a natural and unconstrained choice to pay more if you want more.
Shattered Horizon - Moonrise
Official trailer
2:15A Moonrise DLC pack trailer
Shattered Horizon - Moonrise
Official trailer
2:15A Moonrise DLC pack trailer
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Reviews of the initial Shattered Horizon released last year were a mixed bag. How do you reason the game's shortcomings and were you expecting the criticisms?
Jaakko: Shattered Horizon is all about zero-gravity combat and the freedom of movement. I'm very happy with the way the team realized that core vision. The main criticisms we've had concern the amount of content and the amount of gameplay variety. To a certain extent we agree with this even though we felt the game was priced accordingly at only €19.95. It would be useless to deny it in any case, since we are already hard at work answering these criticisms: we have just now come out with four new levels, and we will address gameplay variety in our next update but more on that at a later date.
What lessons have you learned from this that will affect the way you attack your next project?
Jaakko: The main lesson for us has been the benefits of engaging the community early, and engaging them often. This really hit home with us around the time of our closed beta: we were almost overwhelmed with the amount of enthusiastic, high-quality feedback on the forums.
And by enthusiastic I don't mean uniformly positive but passionate, well-argued, well-informed, and ultimately very, very useful. The game really came together during beta. Next time I hope to start even earlier, run the beta for longer, and put even more work into connecting with the community.
The other lessons are more internal, and concern the way we work and our development process. We have learned a lot about how to structure deadlines, and how to set useful objectives for ourselves that will help us get games out to gamers even faster in the future.
What's next from Futuremark?
Jukka:We will continue to develop Shattered Horizon. We believe the zero gravity FPS deserves a serious backing. For the next game project, we have ideas, but I don't want to talk about them yet, except to say we will always try to include something of the unconventional in what we do.
I'd also like to highlight the fact that in the other half of our office, our 3DMark team is working on some seriously awesome DX11 stuff. It looks great, and that focus and investment in the latest graphics tech has benefits for the game studio too.
What's your view on the recent revelations of Ubisoft's new DRM policy which requires users to have a constant internet connection to play their games?
Jaakko: Piracy is a difficult challenge facing our industry, and particularly PC game developers. There's considerable leeway in how you approach the problem, as there should be, but ultimately it's the players themselves who will decide what is and isn't acceptable. The question I ask myself with all DRM approaches is will it be more or less convenient for me, as a paying customer?
If it stays out of my face, I'm cool with it. But if it gets in the way of being entertained, inconveniences me or seems unnecessarily restrictive then ... well, it's not like there is a shortage of other games demanding my attention.
Jukka: Exactly. Whatever the DRM used, games need to be hassle free for those who have bought their copy the proper way. Taking good care of the customer is always better than chasing the thieves.
Part 2 of our Futuremark Studio interview covers the future of PC hardware, what can be expected from the stereoscopic 3D revolution and the highs and lows of Cloud gaming. Check back for that soon.
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