over 3 years ago - /u/its_guy_smiley - Direct link

Hi all, Matt here again. I run the store and work on some of our out of match features, and I’d like to talk to you today about level up celebrations in the next release. In Chapter 2, some players will see bigger level up celebrations when you unlock a new item. However, some of you won’t see these celebrations just yet.

More specifically, some of you will see new celebrations when you complete a quest, or level up in a chapter, class or mage rank.

https://preview.redd.it/3x3u8eig7zp61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=35888634b0224fdcc3cb8b18f67869632d86b3e4

However, the rest of you will continue to see the existing flow when you complete a quest or level up.

https://preview.redd.it/wjownrwf7zp61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcb7ebdf1a236d305aca56b84d8b4cd12a33aced

This experience is intentional as we look to make Spellbreak better in the long run.

Our #1 goal is to make Spellbreak the most fun possible in the long run. But sometimes it’s unclear which changes add the most fun and are worth iterating on.

One way to understand the fun of individual features is through a concept called a/b testing, where some players get one experience and some get a different experience. In this case, by isolating level up celebrations we can understand their impact without that impact getting drowned in the broader 3.0 update.

There are a couple of reasons we might test a change like this. The most common is when a developer isn’t sure if a change is an improvement. However, that’s not the case here—we’re pretty confident these level up celebrations strictly make Spellbreak more fun (or at least no worse for those of you who want to mash that skip all button).

Other times, we might test a particular change to better understand precisely how much of an improvement it is, because we’re considering further similar changes. In this case, if we find level up celebrations make the game much more fun, we’ll likely make similar additional changes in future updates. We’d love to make winning a match feel more celebratory, for instance. Development resources are always finite. More clearly understanding the impact of our updates helps us more compare things like additional fun weighty celebrations to other changes we’re considering.

We’ll need some time to understand the impact of this change, and we’ll likely leave this split experience in place for a month or two before all players see the new bigger celebrations.

We know disjointed experiences can be confusing. Sometimes you feel like you’ve got a different experience than the player next to you, or your friends are talking about something you don’t see. We feel this pain, so we’ve made sure to keep testing like this out of the core fundamentals of the game like the in-match experience. Moreover, our aim is for all of you to experience the new level up celebrations as soon as possible. Finally, we want to reiterate that this is the only test like this live as of Chapter 2.

In the end, building Spellbreak for the long term seems worth the work of some changes like this, and we appreciate your patience as we build for the long term.

Happy hunting,

Matt

External link →
over 3 years ago - /u/proletariat_sloth - Direct link

Nice skin spoiler, jeez

over 3 years ago - /u/Proletariat_Andrew - Direct link

I think about wearing armour like this every day but worry it'll make me look middle aged.

over 3 years ago - /u/Proletariat_Andrew - Direct link

Originally posted by GloGangWorldWide300

That’s dope I hope console gets fixed soon the game feels less fun to play now with all the random frame drops

Hi there! Could you help us out a little with some specifics?

  • Which console?
  • What region?
  • What mode?
  • When are you having the random frame drops?
  • Where are you having the random frame drops?

If you haven't already, please fill submit a request here and give as much information as you can so we can look into it, thanks!

over 3 years ago - /u/its_guy_smiley - Direct link

Originally posted by A1D2R3

He says that’s not the case here and it is an improvement to the players (which it is, of course, it’s something new that doesn’t affect gameplay negatively and that’s always an improvement to players, regardless of how good it is.)

If everyone got the new experience, we wouldn't be able to tell how much it's better. 0%? 1%? 20%? Sometimes everyone says something is better, yet no one changes their behavior or plays any more than they used to. How much yall play is in many ways a good proxy for understanding how much fun yall are having.

Understanding how much better it is lets us know how to prioritize similar improvements. Say we find that this change drives players to play 10% more matches overall - a pretty good lift for a feature of this size. Now it's easier to justify making the victory screen more celebratory when that means not doing something else with that development time. Had this driven 0% increase in say matches played, we might do something else instead and leave something like victory screen on hold.

over 3 years ago - /u/its_guy_smiley - Direct link

Originally posted by ItsOHPEE

soooooooo how does one get the cool things?

be lucky! (or be patient)

over 3 years ago - /u/its_guy_smiley - Direct link

Originally posted by akcolors

What if the reason the players end up playing 10% more is from a completely different reason all together? how do you distinguish that from this celebratory experiment exactly?

That's why this isolates players into groups where one gets the new celebrations and one group doesn't. But they both get dominion, leagues, etc.
If we merely compared before chapter 2 to after, any change would far more likely be from any of those far larger factors.

The good thing about a/b tests is they let you isolate a single difference!

over 3 years ago - /u/its_guy_smiley - Direct link

Originally posted by RJFerret

A/B testing is presenting information in different ways, to see which is more effective. The same is done on websites at times.

It has little to do with concrete rewards. It has to do with how info is presented (see the inline images). If more "huzzah" prompts folks to play more, they design around that premise. If having a lengthier delay causes folks like me to get frustrated waiting for BS screens and leave instead of playing more, they design around that premise.

You can't learn without gaining information, if you only present info one way, you keep yourself ignorant of the results of presenting info another way.

Have you ever thought, "if only I could go back and say this instead?" Here's a method of doing that, present "this" to others.

The resulting data informs future decisions.

They are posting this as a heads up so when you see on a livestream someone going through different screens than you do, you don't complain that your game is bugged.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks RJFerret!

over 3 years ago - /u/its_guy_smiley - Direct link

Originally posted by NeesyGG

It depends on sample size and the exact numbers. But a large enough sample and a wide enough margin, anything else being the cause is unlikely.

Thanks Neesy! And expanding...

Generally you have similar populations of players on both sides. So we're not comparing say pyro players to frostborn players, or americans to europeans. Given a large enough group on each side all the differences will balance out.

over 3 years ago - /u/Proletariat_Andrew - Direct link

Originally posted by GloGangWorldWide300

Play station nae and every single game mode and the frame drops happen randomly when I’m hovering or when I’m in a fast paced fight I just lose frames. And it all started when crossplay was implemented before that I had no issues with the games performance.

Sorry to hear that! Please be sure to send us a report when you have a chance!