[2021] Support Device released to all Creators

Hey Creators,

Today we are launching the Support Device to all creators!

Our goal is for creators to be able to make amazing, high-quality content, and for our players to have the best experience possible. 

Part of a great experience is ensuring that other players are present and that matches are full. We’ve been looking into this area and seen fewer full matches than we’d expect. Some of these issues were bugs (and some have already been addressed), but others are a result of how we’re incentivizing creators.

The current pre-game HUD ‘Support Me’ feature has been in use for a while, and hasn’t proven itself. It doesn’t provide a consistent player experience across platforms, it isn’t part of the game world itself, and it's only fit for lobbies. That last point is particularly important, as it has ended up incentivising the use of lobbies, even when the game mode would actually be better, with fuller matches, with Join In Progress enabled.

We recognize that not all games and experiences benefit from Join in Progress, but if your map would benefit from it, we want you to be empowered to turn it on and have players experience your map at its best, without having to compromise on your support.

Support Device: Rules

The only rule when using the Support Device is do not force usage of the Support Device for players to proceed in the game.

Support Device: Best Practices

When you use the Support Device, please consider these best practices.

• You can place a Billboard device to draw attention to the Support Device. Please only use a maximum of the ‘Medium’ font size (which is the default billboard font size). 
• When using a billboard to encourage players to support you, please use one of the recommended billboard messages below, when creating your billboard. For solo creations use I, Me, my.  For Team Maps use We, Us, our. Examples include:
  • Press button to support Us
  • Press button to support my/our creations. 
  • We appreciate your support by pressing this button.
  • Thank you for the ongoing support.
  • To support future creations, press this button
• You can place decorations around the Support Device. You should not create arrows, hearts, or other obvious work to encourage or create advertisement of the support.
• You should allow for 2 full tiles of space between the Support Device and any player spawn or teleport devices. Remember not to make advertisement a player’s first experience, as per our player experience best practices documentation.
• You’ll find that the Support Device is limited to one per island. Consider placing it in a shared spawn hub, or a dedicated non-combat zone within the map, or in an appealing place in your experience.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the usage of this device, and we may tweak or update our best practices or rules as needed.

Stay Creative!