With the Starhawk closed-beta concluded, I wanted to catch up with senior producer Harvard Bonin to see how the past few months have treated the game. While I was able to learn a great deal about the community's involvement with the bug-squashing process, Bonin also teased what the team at Lightbox Interactive have in store for post-launch support.
RespawnAction: Overall, how would you describe how Starhawk's closed-beta went?
Harvard Bonin: From our team standpoint, it had a ton of highs mixed with a few lows. I'm happy to say we were more successful than not when it came to proving out the game. Overall, the fun factor seems to be there and players are responding positively. I can say from a personal experience that I had a few late, great nights playing with the fans. We collected a gigantic amount of data and with that we were able to make frequent (often daily) updates to the beta. It was really done the way betas should be done, and we're proud of that. We're running surveys now at http://www.lightboxinteractive.com/starhawk-beta-survey-1. We ask players to answer some questions and really participate in game making.
We also had private forums for players and we got a ton of info from that. Overall, we had some freezes, crashes, balance issues, etc. There was nothing that wasn't surprising and we've been able to address a lot of this stuff. Our public beta starts soon and the next 1.2 update will fix even more. We realize players want more vehicles, structures, maps, etc. to play with, however, we are testing the game and we're getting plenty just from the content we have right now. We'll see what we add in the future.
We'll have a community page up down the road, but in the meantime if players want to participate with the team on a daily basis, visit https://www.facebook.com/#!/StarhawkTheGame.
RA: At first, there were only a select few Warhawk veterans who were able to participate in Starhawk's beta. How did this initial group act throughout? What were some of the core bugs/problems found and in turn tweaked as a result?
HB: They were good players. They were respectful and understood what we were trying to do with the testing. They were great partners--as were most of the players. They were also playing a LOT, which was great. The biggest overall issue that seemed to rise above was the veteran player's passionate need for the traditional Warhawk flight. We're happy to say we're going to have that at the start of the public beta...so let's hope that quiets them down a bit!
Otherwise, wall spam--using all of the mission's inventory slots to build walls, thus leaving no room to buy/build other items--is a continuing problem that we need to sort out, but we think we've got a handle.
RA: As time went on, how did the beta process run as the number of players grew?
HB: Actually, our servers were fine...which is nice. We got a lot more info as new (and often new to even Warhawk) players joined. Less experienced players play the game differently. Sometimes players roll up all the issues they experience with freezes, lack of host switching, etc., into one big "this sucks" bug...which it is not. It's a bunch of different issues.
A beta is meant to squeeze out all those sorts of problems so we're happy they are happening! We need to kill these bugs now before we release sometime in 2012.
The public beta will include Korea, Japan, Europe, Latin America and North America so it's truly a global beta. We expect to see more unique play-styles and bugs. We'll also get the PlayStation Plus members and the Uncharted 3 (North America and Europe) voucher owners in there as well.
RA: Has the closed-beta helped Starhawk gain a more concrete release window?
HB: I'd say so. There are fewer uncertainties and more of an appreciation for the work we have left. There are always bugs that are hiding and hopefully we'll find a great deal more in the public beta.
RA: Warhawk was known for having consistent, substantial, and in some cases, free downloadable content. While it's a long ways off, what does the team have in store for post-launch support?
HB: Actually, I can't go into specifics, but we do have a bunch of free DLC planned...and it might be surprising. We, of course, have stuff we are happy to take your money for, too! We rethought our DLC strategy and we'll reveal more about it as we get closer to release.
Info on the public beta will come "very soon," and although we are still unaware of Starhawk's release date, Bonin tells us it will be "when it's damn good and ready."
