Custodians. Just a few weeks ago, our Closed Playtest concluded following a two-month-long first look into the deadly world of Meet Your Maker.
We remain blown away by the number of players who stepped into the wasteland to build and raid in the first public iteration of our game. Our objectives going into the Closed Playtest were to get Meet Your Maker into as many hands as possible to gather feedback and data which would help us define our priorities as we work toward next year’s launch. We learned a lot, and we're eager to dig even deeper.
Now, thanks to the help of so many players, we feel well equipped for the next stage of this journey – honing the game to create the best possible experience for our community.
To commemorate the playtest, we’d like to share some of our favorite highlights of the amazing creativity and gameplay that took place.
BUILDING
By the time the Closed Playtest wrapped, over 16,000 Outposts had been built and shared, garnering over 275,000 accolades from Raiders who challenged their creations.
At the halfway point, we surprised playtesters with brand-new building content – the Castle Siege Deco Pack and the Cannonback Guard. Inspired by this medieval aesthetic, playtesters fortified their castle walls, going above and beyond to create stunning (and equally perilous) Outposts.
Our team had a blast trying their hand at these devastating fortresses. You can watch them challenge some of our favorite community-created Outposts, right here: Devs Raid Community Outposts
Overall, we were treated to a lot of valuable feedback on the building side of Meet Your Maker. The Replay System stole the spotlight, quickly becoming a daily ritual where expert Builders watched Raiders attempt to maneuver their Outposts. The perfect tool for learning and adapting their designs – and of course, for entertainment as well.
I absolutely love the replay system, and how it shows each raider's time and deaths in a neat little menu. Very helpful feedback for builders. - whimsical_jokers
Watching a co-op duo trying to get through my Outpost and dying 7 times has been incredibly entertaining. I love the replay feature so much; it's easily my favorite feature in the game. - Xweert123
Playtest feedback also helped shine a light on some great suggestions for quality of life improvements, as well as tweaks to our tutorial system to make building even more approachable and intuitive for new players.
RAIDING
Playtesters quickly got the hang of raiding, testing their mettle against mastermind Builders over 240,000 times throughout the playtest.
It was fascinating to watch Raiders adapt and develop new tricks and techniques to evade Guards and Traps in their pursuit of GenMat – especially when we shook things up with the addition of a new ranged weapon, the Plasmabow, along with some new hardware to play with.
Something else that stuck with us was how the community connected over raiding each other's Outposts in our private Discord server. It was delightful to see Raiders excited to test everyone’s masterpieces and give credit where credit is due.
A big thank-you to players like Arjunz, who took the time to raid dozens of community-built Outposts and give feedback to the Builders!
We got plenty of useful feedback on raiding that we’ll be digging into over the next stage of development. We're feeling great about the direction raiding is headed, and while we can’t get into details just yet, we have some ideas up our sleeves to make it even more fun and rewarding.
Fun fact: While mostly falling victim to expertly placed Guards and Traps, raiding was not without its share of accidental self-sabotage– the wasteland has not gone a single day without a Raider meeting their demise at the hands of their own equipment. Oops!
COMMUNITY
Building and raiding are fundamentals of the game, but our community is its foundation. During the playtest, we invited players to join us in an exclusive Discord server to interact with each other, give feedback, report bugs, and share memes (which were shared as dutifully as feedback). It was a privilege to start getting to know our wonderful community. Meet Your Maker is designed with creative players in mind so we expected some neat designs, but we were wholly unprepared for some of the Outposts our mastermind playtesters engineered.
With new players joining the playtest every week we were able to simulate a constantly growing player base, and with each week we grew more impressed with how kind and helpful seasoned players were in welcoming new recruits. This is exactly the kind of community we want to nurture and grow, so a big thank you to all our playtesters for starting the community off on the right foot.
I just wanted to say how lovely this community is. Huge props to the staff and mods for such a clean server. Even though you guys created the most frustrating levels, I couldn't help but feel happy that someone was able to express their dark grungy trapmaster skills. Looking forward to see you guys again when MYM Releases. Thanks for the fun memories everyone ♥️ - Anonymous Playtester
Just want to say I'm impressed with the positivity of the community around this game. Just people challenging each other to do better and being nice about it. - Anonymous Playtester
No recap would be complete without the mention of the beloved GenMat Harvester, colloquially known as HRV, or Harvey. Cute, creepy, and/or both depending on who you ask, HRV created a buzz. HRV is a being of mysterious origin, who shuttles precious GenMat back to your Sanctuary. To some, he is a beloved creature to protect at all costs. To others, an obstacle to remove.
SirTigTheGreat's tribute to HRV, which became a popular sticker in the Discord server
HRV’s just sleeping...right?
85% of playtesters killed HRV at least once. Monsters.
Speaking of HRV, when we started the playtest, we asked everyone to vote on their favorite decal which they would be able to claim for free when the game launches. The winner, by overwhelming majority, was HRV himself!
Everyone who signed up for the playtest, even if you didn’t make it in, will receive this decal for free at launch! Redemption details to come.
NEXT STEPS
With the conclusion of the Closed Playtest, our development team is working full steam ahead towards our next milestone. You can look forward to hearing more from us by the end of the year! We’re so grateful for our wonderful community of playtesters, and we can’t wait to show you more. In the meantime, you can stay in the loop by following us on Twitter and YouTube, and adding Meet Your Maker to your Steam Wishlist.
Until next time, Custodian!
The Meet Your Maker Team
VoidDaddy setting new compliance standards in the Wasteland
Hugo, the champion of the meme channel with nearly 100(!?) submissions, posting extremely relatable content
