Playtest results + future plans

Fellow Wizards!

The public playtest has ended, thanks to everyone who participated! If you have requested access and gained it during the time it was public, you will remain to have access to the game until the demo release.

Now I wanted to do a little write up on the data and feedback that I've seen and what the plans are for the game going forward!

The numbers

291 players have gained access to the playtest, and 39 friend invites were sent. (with 25 still pending, I believe these invited players can still gain access even if the playtest is not public if they accept.)

46 of these players who gained access actually opened the game! And together achieved a mean (average) playtime of 34 minutes. Most of these players came from the US, but also some from New Zealand and Vietnam!

On average per run:

• Took about 5 minutes till exit (either by dying or going through the portal)

• Players got to level 11

• Killed 927 monsters

• Found about 8 augments

• Got 7 gems

• Found 2 spells

• Used the +1 to all spell levels pillar 0.0081% of the time

• Found 6 items (I found out too late that this analytic was bugged, the value is actually less)

• Upgraded one augment

• Swapped one augment

I'm sure you all can see that some changes are needed, and some have been made already (internally, not live yet).

Some of the key points are that new players don't get enough spells at the start of their journey in order to start "playing" around with spells and trying out different combo's with augments. This part of the game is core (the "Intellectual Problem Solving" type of fun I wrote about before) and should be available really fast once you start playing. Finding 2 spells on average is not enough. And to add, augments don't work for every spell, so if you have 2 spells, the 8 augments you got on average are not always going to be helpful.

The amount of swapping and upgrading of augments is also too low, and whilst it's not a mandatory thing to use, it is an element of the game that allows you to get really strong.

And while the found item counter was bugged, I think it's safe to say the amount of found items for new players is a also a little bit too low. But this could also be due to them not getting good augment/spell combinations in order to kill monsters faster later on.

There are some more metrics to look at for me, but I wanted to share a few to point out the reason why things are going to change.

I've also ran some ads on Reddit, and it seems that a particular ad with "incremental" in it's title seems to do better than the others. Users who see that ad and click on it are more likely to wishlist the game as the game description itself also hints towards that "genre". And since the incremental tag recently has been added and it aligns with what Ultimate Wizard is about (becoming the Ultimate Wizard) I think I could improve the game by slightly pivoting more into that genre.

The future

With all the data gathered and analyzed, there are a few steps I need to take (and have taken) in order to make the start of the game better. In addition, the game by itself also needed some quality of life improvements and some more polishing.

All the written changes will also be present in the patch notes once the game updates sometime in the next weeks, but I wanted to give you all a heads up anyway.

Some of the changes that are already made (but not live for you yet):

• All buttons are now animated and coloured when selected / hovered over. This just makes the game feel more polished and actually getting some feedback when doing things UI related.

• The first drop from an enemy for a new player is now always a spell. If you have an empty spell slot you now also have an increased chance to get a spell as a drop. (I thought this was already present but it was bugged)

• Chests for spells now have a different colour than chests that give augments.

• The camera no longer can clip through the world.

• All UI animations (such as upgrading a spell, finding items etc.) can now be skipped by clicking on the window.

• A minimap has been added that always shows you where the boss is, and various map events. Chests can also be seen on the minimap, but are not visible when outside of the minimap border.

And some more changes are coming:

• Spells and item chests should also spawn on the map by default, and not just augments. (Most likely not in a 1-1-1 ratio.)

• You should be able to purchase a larger variety of spells at the hub. In the full game you will need to unlock (purchase) spells / augments / items first before they can be found or bought, so this will be a temporary change.

• The permanent upgrade window will be changed into a skill tree, everyone likes skill trees, and the game will make a slight pivot towards the incremental genre, which heavily uses skill trees.

• On the skill tree you'll be able to make specific spells stronger too, so the game leans more towards an incremental game which the description hints of (you know, becoming the ultimate wizard). Expect generic increases and specific increases.

• An actual end-screen where you can see which spells did what damage amounts etc.

• The dude on map that upgrades your spell augment slot should also (or only) be present in the hub, where you use gems to upgrade your spells' augment levels. I feel that this permanent upgrade mechanic being only available in a run is a bit confusing. (And it's also a really big mechanic in terms of power.)

A snippet of the minimap.

All in all I'm satisfied with the results, yes it could be better, but it also could've been so much worse. Getting this valuable feedback as early as possible allows me to quickly improve the game where needed.

Next week I'll be announcing when the demo releases, and you all can expect some patch notes with the mentioned changes sometime before the demo release.

Thanks everyone for trying out the game! Couldn't do it without you :)

• Rinke