00:03So in December, we kicked off our Insider Programme by inviting the first 1,000 players into our Technical Alpha,
00:09which was a huge step for us as a project and as a studio.
00:13And since then it's been so exciting to grow that audience, to add features to the game,
00:17and really start testing them in the wild with real players, providing feedback and us looking at data, telemetry and
00:23surveys and forum posts,
00:25and really figure out how to take this game forward and how to improve it and how to improve the
00:29features we've been putting in there.
00:31So yeah, it's been a huge step for us as a team and as a studio, and we're super excited
00:35to keep doing this moving forward.
00:37Almost every time we've put something new into the game, we've got feedback and we've got something that we then
00:42wanted to go and react and change.
00:44Some of the first stuff that we put into the game after that initial Technical Alpha was skeletons,
00:49so that there was a kind of AI threat in the world, and we also grew the world size,
00:53which led to some really interesting feedback around player encounters and the frequency of kind of meeting other ships and
00:59other players in that world.
01:00With skeletons, when we first put those in, we definitely got feedback from a majority of players,
01:04that they were a little bit too challenging, they appeared a little bit too frequently in the world.
01:08And so we then took that feedback, we made some tweaking to how they spawn, how accurate they are with
01:13weapons,
01:14we put those back into the build and then we tested it again with that existing player base and also
01:17some new players,
01:18and so they weren't feeling kind of too threatened or opposed by the skeletons, so we felt that they were
01:23in a good place.
01:24When we brought the larger world into the game, that was when we started getting feedback from players around the
01:29frequency of encounters with other ships in the world.
01:32And we used telemetry to kind of look to how often ships came in within a certain distance of each
01:37other,
01:37and we also got feedback from players in the forums and via the survey around, like, we didn't really see
01:41anybody in the session I was in there,
01:43I was expecting to see more ships, I wanted to go and hunt down and have a fight with players.
01:46And so with that feedback, we then looked at the kind of visibility distance across the world in terms of
01:51how our art team set up the lighting and the fogging and everything else,
01:55and so really increased the likelihood of you being able to see that ship on the horizon.
01:59And with the feedback we got from players, we made those changes, we put it in, and we're now actually
02:02measuring that as we go through each technical alpha playtest.
02:06And we're going to be measuring and seeing how players react to those changes and if we need to take
02:10further steps.
02:11One of the biggest topics within the community and within the players playing the game is around voice chat.
02:17And we're really proud of the kind of system that we've built that's proximity chat and allows players to encounter
02:23other crews in the world
02:25and have experiences where when you're close to them, you can hear them, you can kind of speak to each
02:28other and it leads to those really unexpected encounters.
02:31We've definitely seen from our telemetry and feedback from players that some people love the experience of voice chat
02:36and they love to crew up, play with people who are all talking and really kind of have that shared
02:41social experience.
02:42But we've seen from some players that maybe don't want to use voice chat, can't use voice chat for whatever
02:47reason,
02:48that they actually prefer to play with players that also aren't using voice.
02:52And we're looking at a couple of solutions.
02:55One is looking at our matchmaking and looking at is there ways that we can perhaps prioritise putting players together
03:00who you want to use voice and those that don't.
03:02But we're also looking and designing at the moment our kind of non-verbal communication system,
03:07which is a way that players will be able to communicate with each other, send instructions to each other
03:11and talk to each other without having to use voice.
03:14Sea of Thieves is a social multiplayer game.
03:17Communication is critical.
03:18And so we want to provide both a voice solution and a non-verbal solution
03:22that allows players to play in the way they want, to play with the type of players that they want
03:26and to have a great experience regardless of which option you go for.
03:29From the beginning of the project we've always had the aspiration to get the game into players' hands early
03:33and giving them access to exclusive insights and early versions of the game that they can give us feedback on.
03:38It's been really great to be able to get into that technical alpha phase
03:42and operate in that way that we want to operate going forward throughout the rest of the project
03:46as we continue this unique way of bringing the game to market.
03:50So wrapping up, we just wanted to say thanks again to everybody that's been involved in the Insider programme.
03:55Whether you've got a chance to play or not, we know there's a bunch of people that want to get
03:58in
03:59and we're going to be growing that audience every time we play.
04:01But we're always looking for new insiders too
04:03and if this sounds like the type of game that you'll be interested in
04:05if you want to get involved early, you want to get some behind the scenes kind of information
04:09and insights into how the game is growing and evolving
04:11and have the opportunity to provide feedback and shape the future of Sea of Thieves
04:15then just please visit seaofthieves.com where you can sign up for the Insider programme
04:19and we look forward to seeing you out there on the scene.
04:35We'll see you next time.
Commenti