Earlier this morning, the team at Arc System Works released a new set of information called the Developer’s Backyard. Chronicling their observations with the beta’s results and player feedback, the developers have commented on their findings.
Previously, towards the end of April, a multi-day Closed Beta had been released for Guilty Gear Strive. At BagoGames, we’ve reviewed it and given our thoughts on the beta, which you can read right here.
Arc System Works’ Observations
To paraphrase a few of the things noted about their observations, the development team has talked about various topics of the game. Topics included in this Guilty Gear Strive Developer’s Backyard include the game’s general pacing, the most voted characters, the abysmal lobbies, amongst other topics.
The team has provided a general chart showing the average ratings of each aspect of the game on a scale of 1 to 5, which can be seen below. (Image credit: Arc System Works)
As for other topics, they’ve also provided statistics for what characters were most requested for Japan, North America, other Asia regions, and Europe.
North America’s rankings can be seen below, for instance (you can see Japan, Asia, and Europe’s rankings on the article itself) (image credit: Arc System Works):
As for the online lobbies, Daisuke Ishiwatari (General Director for Guilty Gear Strive) and Akira Katano (Development Director) had some words about the online lobbies. They touched on two topics, specifically, the abundance of errors and design of the lobbies. On the subject of the errors:
Mr. Ishiwatari: “Our plan during development, as with the rest of the game, is to create something entirely new for the online mode.”
And Mr. Katano: “However, we ran into many bugs and other problems during the closed beta test. In addition to fixing those bugs, we’ll be taking a new look at the matching system as a whole.
We are working to be able to provide everyone with a pleasant online experience by fixing these issues and creating another opportunity for you to try out the game.
We apologize sincerely for all of the problems with the beta test.”
And Mr. Ishiwatari had some words about the game’s lobby design, as well. “With GGST, we’re trying out a new design compared to prior ASW titles by using 2D pixel art style 3D avatars and such.
This venture is necessary to create new mechanics and fun that wasn’t possible with the 3D avatars we’ve used previously. While they weren’t included in the closed beta test, we’ll be showing them off at the next opportunity.
In addition, we’ve seen many opinions that the style doesn’t mesh well with the world of Guilty Gear. In regards to this concern, we hope you’ll keep on the look-out for new information as we’ll be showing you new designs that weren’t included yet in the closed beta test.”
If you’d like to know more about the full observations of the developers, you can read Volume 1 of the Developers Backyard here.
What did you think about volume 1 of the Guilty Gear Strive Developer’s Backyard? Do you hope to hear more news about the game and its development cycle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.