Alpha Test Recap

Survivors.

It's been a few weeks since our Alpha test wrapped up, and we've been buried in spreadsheets ever since. 301 of you showed up to the survey, and told us exactly what you thought of the game. That's what this is all for.

Before we get into the numbers, a genuine thank you. Whether this was your first time playing God Save Birmingham or you came back after the Pre-Alpha, your time and honesty means everything to a small studio like ours, building something we care deeply about.

Right then, let's talk about what we learned.

Who Joined the Test?

About 29% of survey participants (88 players) were returning from the Pre-Alpha in September. The other 71% were brand new to the game entirely. That mix is really valuable for us. Returning players help us track whether our changes are landing. New players tell us whether the first impression holds up without the goodwill of having been there from the start.

In terms of platform, the overwhelming majority of you are on PC — no surprises there. A solid chunk are also PlayStation players, which is good to know as we think about future platform priorities.

The test session was capped at one hour per session this time, double the time of 30 minutes from Pre-Alpha, and 50% of you played beyond the one-hour cap — meaning you kept going even once the intended window was up. Another 32% hit the full hour. Only 18% played less.

Is the Game Headed in the Right Direction?

We think so, and so do you, mostly. But we wish we were running in the right direction rather than taking baby steps towards it.

When asked how much fun you had overall, the average score was 7.4 out of 10.

First session fun came in at 7.2.

Those numbers climb when we look at players who stayed longer, which tells us something important: the more time you spend with God Save Birmingham, the more it clicks. The game rewards patience and curiosity, and we need to do a better job of conveying that in the early minutes.

Asked about the game's potential heading into Early Access, the average score was 8.2 out of 10, with 46.5% of players rating it 9 or 10. That number gives us a lot of confidence that what we're building has a ceiling worth reaching for.

54.8% of players left with higher expectations than when they arrived. 35.9% stayed the same. 9.3% decreased — this particular number is up from 5% in the Pre-Alpha, and it's a number we're not dismissing and committed to bring back down.

What's Working, What's Not?

God Save Birmingham is a medieval zombie survival simulator with physics. That's a lot of things to get right simultaneously. Here's how each component scored:

Visuals continue to be our strongest pillar. Physics remains a genuine differentiator — players consistently describe it as what makes the game feel unique. Survival mechanics, controls, and UI sit solidly in the middle: functional, appreciated in places, but with clear room to grow.

And then there's combat.

5.7 out of 10. Down from 6.1 in the Pre-Alpha — and that stings, because we actually worked on combat between tests specifically to move that number up. When we asked what content you most want to see in the final product, "more weapons and improved combat" came back as the single biggest request, by a wide margin. We hear you.

But before we pile on more weapons, we know the right order of business is to get the fundamentals right. We've drawn up a focused list of changes targeting how combat feels — its perceived accuracy, the weight behind each swing, and how zombies respond to your attacks. We're working through that list now, and we hope to run a dedicated combat-only focus test soon. If you participated in previous tests, we may come knocking. We'd love your help pressure-testing the changes.

Beyond combat, fortification and simply having more to do were still the most consistent desires voiced by testers. We want to bring more depth to fortification, more locations, more enemy variety, more crafting recipes — more of everything. We also took note of your feedback on the physics system, inventory flow, UI clarity, and controls. Not everything can be addressed before Early Access, but none of it has been lost on us.

The world of Birmingham has a lot left to show you, and we're building on your feedback with every development sprint.

For now, combat is the singular focus. We're not moving on until it stops being something players criticize and starts being something they want more of.

On the Technical Side

76% of you had a clean session with no major issues. That's down from 85% in the Pre-Alpha — a direction we're not happy with.

Couple of the more frequently mentioned issues were:

• A grab animation loop where being grabbed by a zombie triggered a shaking animation that persisted while still allowing movement — breaking immersion and combat flow.

• Crashes during eating and drinking interactions, which were frustrating given how central survival mechanics are to the game.

These along with other bugs reported in the survey are being actively investigated and fixed. We’re also ramping up our QA process to ensure future tests as well as the final product are more stable and better optimized.

A Note from the Returning Players

88 of you played the Pre-Alpha back in September and came back for more. We asked how the Alpha compared. The response was overwhelmingly positive: "cleaner," "smoother," "more polished," "more to do," "better performance." A few of you noted the lighting improvements specifically, and several mentioned the introduction of the journal system as a welcome addition.

That feedback means a lot. It tells us the work we've done between tests is visible and felt. And honestly, after seeing the combat score, we needed to hear that some of the changes from Pre-Alpha were landing. So thank you for the encouragement.

What Comes Next

Listing it out, it’s:

• Combat. Combat. Combat.

• Squash bugs.

• Improve UI clarity and inventory flow.

• Keep building out the world.

As mentioned earlier, we will likely run a dedicated combat focus test soon to put our improvements in front of our players again. We will continue to run tests to see how players feel about the game before committing to an Early Access date.

We’d rather get it right than get it out fast.

We'll be sharing updates as they happen, here on Steam, and across our channels like X, Discord, and YouTube.

Thank you for being part of all this. 97% of you said you want to come back. We're going to make sure it's worth it.

— ODS Team