August 11: A Look Ahead

Executive Producer, Chris Wynn, gives a deep dive into upcoming features.

Today’s update is about our progress and top priorities for the team.

 It was really great to see all of the positive feedback on the gameplay and vehicle changes that went live earlier this week. Working in Early Access can be hectic and a bit tumultuous, and we appreciate everyone’s understanding as we continue to get the game to the place that we want it. The optimizations are great, but with such a big rewrite of the existing code it also introduced some instability. We focused on that instability and put out a hotfix patch this morning to address most of that instability and the more major issues that were there as well.  A smaller hotfix patch can be expected to address a few more issues.

This week’s gameplay and vehicle update was our last major content push for a while as we’re going to be focused on bug fixes, polish, and optimizations going forward. Our top priority is creating a high-quality, highly polished game, and we will be a bit heads down to get through the final stages of that. Of course, that doesn’t mean new things aren’t coming. The team has been working hard to optimize the new map, and you can expect a completely new UI, Twitch integration built right into the game, and a scoring system to create better leaderboards.   

New Map

We’ve talked about the new map before. Our goal with it is to create a map that is more balanced for intense, competitive gameplay. This means, more equally distributed loot (or no more “bad spawns”), and better visuals and lighting to create a much richer visual experience.  The new map will be on test again in several weeks, so make sure you test it out and send us your feedback. 

New UI

Also upcoming is a completely new UI with flows for customization and easier access to the game. We’ve had a long time to observe how people play and get feedback from the community about the user experience. And let’s be honest – the current user interface in the game is serviceable, but not exactly pleasant. We have scratched the entire UI and are in the process of rebuilding it to accommodate how people actually play King of the Kill. We are still working on a getting the bugs out, but I think there will be some changes there that will make a lot of people much happier with the experience. 

Scoring

We know that immediate feedback on your accomplishments is important, so we are working on systems that add structure to the game and further enhance the game’s competitive nature. One of the things we will be adding is a new scoring system. Play a match and get scored based on your finishing position and number of kills.  See how your scores compare to everyone else on the leaderboard and use it to fuel your competitive side.

Twitch

Lastly, we want King of the Kill to be a shared experience – whether you’re a skilled player or just a viewer. We have a big screen playing KotK streams all day in the office and watching others play is one of my favorite parts of the game. We want to provide the ability to keep that going and are integrating Twitch directly into the game experience.  For streamers, this means a place to directly invite subs and viewers into a match with you.  And for viewers, you can discover the next rising H1Z1 Twitch star by filtering through various streamers based on game stats and activity.

We’ll be releasing more details on everything in the coming weeks, but I wanted to give you a quick update so you know where the team’s head is at. In the meantime, you can watch some of your favorite streamers get ready for the H1Z1 Invitational at TwitchCon. We just announced our second wave of competitors, which includes Dr DisRespect, LyndonFPS, and Aydren, as well as our Twitch Votes Invitational winners, KillyKAPOWski and HOOWy.