Fine-Tuning Player Experience in Mighty Action Heroes
We didn’t get Mighty Action Heroes right the first time. People rarely get things right the first time around, despite all the data and research that exists as a reference when making games.
Game design is a very feedback-based and iterative discipline. Player feedback serves as a compass, guiding game developers towards the “gold mine” that is Amazing Game Design™. In this article, I’ll run you guys through my learnings as a game designer for our battle royale, Mighty Action Heroes, mainly about receiving external feedback and how we utilize it to improve the game.
PlsTalkToMe.txt
The first step is, obviously, getting feedback from the players. From players’ feedback we can see their behaviors, what they think about the game, and what they think about themselves in the game. We can see what they like and don’t like, as well as their expectations having played similar games. But for players to even leave feedback there has to be a channel for them to voice out their thoughts. That’s where things like these come in:
- Mighty Action Hero’s Discord server: Feedback posted here tends to be more spontaneous and natural, and players have the chance to directly communicate with members of the team (catch Akzent replying to feedback in our Discord!)
- Player surveys: Feedback from here is long-form, almost essay-like feedback that dives into the nitty-gritty of the features. We find that sometimes some people like to spam this with spam answers (filling in and typing only ‘dfhsdjkfhsd’, for example); but such answers are easily eliminated when processing the data.
- Social Media, namely X (formerly known as Twitter): We’ve had players @ us on X to leave comments and feedback on the game from time to time. (Give us a follow!)
Beyond that, it's important for game devs to be proactive in nudging players towards sharing vital feedback. For example, implementing rewards for surveys can yield better engagements and actual answers (not just spam ones).
Something we’ve seen other games do as well is having a “rate us” popup after the first feel-good user experience… which is usually your first win after the tutorial!
We also have supplementary data such as analytics that tell us about the players’ behaviors as well.
Acknowledging Player Feedback
Before we even get started compiling and analyzing feedback, we have to thank the players and acknowledge whatever input they have for the betterment of Mighty Action Heroes. Traditionally, this is done in channels where we can communicate directly with players (such as X and Discord); but we can also do this in the form of granting them in-game items as appreciation when they’ve completed a survey.
If they feel appreciated and heard, they might be compelled to keep leaving feedback. It also helps to explain to them why we do certain things like A and some other things like B, which helps the players understand the position we’re coming from when we’re making certain decisions related to the game. Whether it’s technical constraints, budget, manpower, or even just ‘not within our objectives’. When players understand the constraints, they are more likely to appreciate the thought process behind the decisions. Maybe they’ll have even more deeper thoughts after we’ve shed light on why we make those decisions, who knows?
Analyzing Feedback
Besides feedback from players, we also have hard data to refer to: Mighty Action Heroes’ analytics. Let’s start with what we do with analytics, shall we?
We usually keep track of when important updates/releases happen as well as ongoing collaborations and events beyond the game itself. With those in hand, we can usually see why certain things are what they are; for example, we can see that the retention rate increased on a certain date because we’ve had a tournament or event happening then.
When it comes to releases that had big changes to balancing or even new features, we usually give it a 1 to 2 weeks’ buffer from its release date to see its effects on the relevant Key Point Indicators (KPIs). For example, when we released Challenge Matches (now known as 1v1 Showdown), we gave it a few days to see if it’d increase the time players spent in matches as well as the retention. The first few days we didn’t see any considerable changes, but after a week or so the numbers started to pump, and after we rolled out matchmaking stability updates the numbers soared even more. From there, we can see that the changes we made are having positive effects.
An example would be if we get feedback that the players think the prices of Gems (one of Mighty Action Heroes’ in-game currencies) are too high; we can cross-reference the amount of purchases we’ve had for Gems and sort it by country as well. In that case, maybe we’ll consider things like regional pricing or lowering the requirement for Gems in different parts of the game overall.
During this phase, we also filter out potentially impractical feedback. Not all feedback is created equal, for example, if someone leaves feedback like, “Mighty Action Heroes should be a first-person shooter with a solo campaign mode!” We don’t do anything with such feedback as it doesn’t align with our objectives nor improve the game towards the decided direction. In this case, it doesn’t contribute towards Mighty Action Heroes being an accessible battle royale; fun for new and experienced players alike.
We also use other games (competitors and similar games) as benchmarks for some of our KPIs and see where we’re lacking.
Prioritizing Feedback and *Actually* Implementing Them
For the Design team, we now have a goal section in our design document that has to be filled with the KPI we’re using to determine if this feature is successful or not, as well as what existing data should we look at when designing the feature. Previously, we did have the goal section but it wasn’t rooted in “what changes we want to see in analytics and player feedback”. What this means our design was rooted in references and data from other games instead of our game; which is detrimental to the game in the long run since despite being similar games it’s not the same games with the same audience as our reference games.
At Mighty Bear Games, we usually implement changes in this format: get it Design reviewed before moving on getting feedback from the wider team during play sessions. Play sessions with different members are as valuable for gathering feedback as other channels, as everyone at Mighty Bear Games plays games! They might have different thoughts on how to do things based on the games they’ve played, similar to how players approach our surveys. We also have a system for cataloging feedback from internal play sessions as well, to make sure any feedback we get is discussed and prioritized instead of being lost to the void.
When it comes to balance changes, the changes are usually incremental and not as drastic. Game development is an ongoing process, and addressing feedback doesn’t always mean implementing drastic changes overnight. We do have a “designer jam” session where we make changes without engineering or art intervention, testing out very very drastic changes to the game and pushing the limits to see if what we’re doing can be improved. What the players get is usually a watered-down version of this, as we don’t want to surprise players with very big and sudden changes that heavily impact how they play the game. Something like that would upset players as they’ve worked hard towards learning how to play the game as they are now and finding their own playstyle.
The difficult part of prioritizing all this feedback we have is striking a balance between doing something for the existing player base as well as keeping the game running towards its objectives, which yield a different player base entirely.
Release The Kraken!
After releasing the changes into the wild… What good are these changes if they’re not communicated to those who asked for them? We do release notes on our Google Play Store page as well as on our game lobby on both browser and Android.
Additionally, we’re thinking about potentially improving this in the future by having detailed patch notes including number changes if there are any balancing changes (directed more towards the ‘core’ players); think League of Legends’ patch notes. We can also include things like the ‘intention’ behind the changes we’ve made so the players have a little sneak peek into what’s our thoughts and decisions without having to reach out for it or speculate.
Conclusion
Player feedback is a cornerstone of successful game design. By actively seeking, analyzing, and addressing player input, we can create a user experience that even exceeds player expectations! Embracing this collaborative approach not only makes the game better but also improves our connections with the players along the way. Remember, a game is not just a product; it’s an ongoing conversation between the devs and the players!
That’s all from me! I hope this article was enjoyable and helpful — feel free to leave some comments if you have other tips for how to utilize player feedback better. Heck, if you’ve got any feedback on how the team’s been handling the feedback, feel free to leave them here as well! And don’t forget to give me claps!
