by Dave Georgeson

We had our first external test last Saturday, inviting a slew of people from the Stars Reach Discord channel to join us. Around 58 of them joined during the two-hour test, along with part of the dev team.

A good time was had by all. Although this first test was mostly about stability (making sure people could get in, that the servers were solid during the test and making sure our feedback channels worked), we also asked the playtesters to give us feedback on our movement and emote systems within the game.

Players were able to walk, run, sprint, stealth, dodge, jump, climb, grapple and grav mesh (anti-gravity flying) around the map, testing these various methods and letting us know how they liked them. 

The verdict was strongly positive. Here’s a few quotes from players posted after the test:

hooby: Between the options to run, roll, climb, grapple and fly and all of them being pretty fast and fluid, the movement in the game instills an incredible feeling of freedom. In summary: “weeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Asclepius: I absolutely LOVED grapple and gravmesh – what a way to get around. And I’m pleased to say that on my machine the game ran as smooth as silk; frame rates mostly around 50-60, occasionally dipping to 45. 

dao: The combination of grapple and grav traversal really does feel amazing! 

Additionally, we asked players to test our 30+ emotes and 50+ conversation moods. The moods affect your word balloons to show off emotions and the emotes trigger animations and echo into the chat pane. Since most of this group of testers were veteran MMOers, they took to the system like ducks in water and immediately had fun.

Players were also highly receptive that they have a real chance to help mold the game by testing it so early and giving us their thoughts.

robo: I like that we’re testing the game systems progressively over time as ya’ll tweak them. 

AlmostYouman: Overall, (I’m impressed by) the expansiveness of possibilities.

Players explored, hung out with devs, and even got some guided tours along the way after the first flush of excitement ebbed a bit.

Some other fun things that players encountered and discovered:

Rommi Noodles: I climbed over a wall and it turned out to be a dam!

AlmostYouman: There was a structure in the cave with a radiation leak. I died in the radiation.

Signus: The biggest thing for me was accidentally taking off into flight right as the light changed from the sunset and I saw the horizon, light over the mountain, and people distantly moving. The world felt very visceral and traversable, very “Breath of the Wild”-like. Something you feel you can interact with.”

Overall, it was a great start to our series of external playtests. 

We’ll be doing a follow-up to this first test soon, with a much greater volume of players so we can see where our breaking point is on the servers. Then next month we have a much more involved test for players to help us with and we’re looking forward to it very much. More details on that soon!

Editor’s Note: click here to join our playtests.