Developer Q&A: Summary

A few weeks ago, we held a Q&A with the community on Discord. First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who joined! Your passion, insightful questions, and active participation made it an incredibly valuable session. These direct conversations provide crucial insights for our development team. It helps us understand what matters most as we continually improve and expand the hunting experience you love.

We’ve handpicked and organized some of the most pressing questions and answers from the session into this article, so you have a useful reference point for all the insights shared by our developers. We focused on presenting their answers, so we occasionally rephrased or combined similar topics from both live and pre-submitted entries.

Let’s dive in

How many more years do you think Call of the Wild has? Do you already have any plans for the last map?

We are fully committed to the long run for Call of the Wild, with many years ahead of us, so right now we have no plans for a “last map”. Our goal is to continuously deliver fresh, distinctly different hunting experiences through the introduction of new animal species and gameplay innovations. We want to assure you that our plan is firmly focused on keeping Call of the Wild alive and thriving. The entire team is very excited to reveal more details in the future as we continue this journey with you.

Have you become more open to adding endangered animals to COTW? Has your stance on ethical hunting changed?

It’s been a few years since we last openly discussed our approach to adding animals, particularly endangered species, to the game. While there isn’t a simple “yes” or “no” answer, we would like to provide more context behind our process of adding new species to the game, which should give you a better understanding of our decision-making.

It begins with very careful research into each new reserve location. This research directly informs the selection of animals that best fit the local ecosystem, considering what species could realistically live or even migrate into that region in real life.

Authenticity is paramount to us, and maintaining a balanced roster variety is key to achieving that. Because of this commitment to realism, we may include animals that, while officially classified as endangered, can still be found in real-world wildlife reserves and are integral to represent the local environment.

For these species, we often carefully explain their place directly through the reserve’s main story and specific missions. While the animals included in our reserves are usually legal to hunt in real life, we acknowledge that this might not always be the case for every species we feature.

What do you think about grinding? Do you support this style of gameplay?

theHunter: Call of the Wild is a complex simulation where many different mechanics interact to create diverse gameplay experiences. Ultimately, we believe that you, our players, should play the game in the way you find most fun and enjoyable. Whether you prefer a slow, quiet hunt or want to quickly pursue rare trophies, that choice is entirely yours.

While we welcome players to engage with the game in whatever ways they find enjoyable, if we identify situations where gameplay systems lead to undesirable outcomes, we can and do make adjustments to try and refine the experience. We’ve done so in the past, for example, with the change to the spawn rate of Bengal Tigers in Sundarpatan.

Would you ever consider adding cryptids or mythical creatures to hunt in COTW?

Our primary goal