Dev Diary: Matchmaking, New Platforms, Feedback & Bounties

Hey, folks! HAWKED Executive Producer Andy Duthie here. As we’re a few weeks past the major milestone of Issue #2: Dark Arrival, I wanted to take that moment to share with you more recent updates, what we’ve got cooking, our current challenges (some old, some new), and how we plan to tackle them.

Matchmaking

Matchmaking issues remain a concern for our team. We want to make a game people like to play without any roadblocks, and you shouldn’t have to wait for unreasonable times to play HAWKED. We’ve implemented changes to soften waiting times in the past, but the issue remains a complex one, with solutions that are challenging both to pencil out and implement.

We are developing solutions and look forward to sharing them as we approach Issue #3. If you have any ideas or further feedback about your matchmaking experience, please let us know via the usual channels.

Upcoming Content

We’re full steam ahead on Issue #2: Dark Arrival, and there’s some cool events and content coming up soon:

• Bjorn’s Doomsday Beach Bash (June 20): Bjorn sees fire, but he's determined to go out with a splash. Take on limited-time Quests to unlock exclusive summer rewards!
• Venture 2 (June 27): The story of Issue #2: Dark Arrival continues! As GRAIL struggles to get back on its feet in the wake of VEKTR’s attack, a legendary figure from the past is called upon to help mobilize the Renegades.
• Bounties (Every Friday): Check back on the website every week to find out what the latest Bounty is. We’re closing the first month of Bounties with a bang—and bigger prizes—from June 28.

We don’t want to leave any players behind as the adventure hurtles on. Adding new platforms to our roster has always been an important goal for us, and with HAWKED recently becoming available on Xbox One and Epic Games Launcher, it’s super to see veteran and new Renegades boarding the Riftwake in Issue #2: Dark Arrival.

Even more new platforms are coming, too. One we’re very excited to launch is Steam Deck, and we’re focused on flicking that switch by the release of Venture 2, or close after.

The Impact of Issue #2 & Our Feedback Cycle

Like any live service game, we’re only as strong as our relations with our player base, and that’s built on good old communication, teamwork, and a dash of intuition. We’re fortunate to have a vocal community that is just as determined to make HAWKED the game we know it can be.

When Issue #2 hit, we’re certainly happy with the impact the new patch has had on existing players. Our survey ratings increased significantly during and after its launch. We have processes to cut through the noise and get to the crux of the message, to distill feedback from players into tangible issues, and then begin formulating solutions and improvements.

Receiving player feedback from a variety of places, especially Discord, Reddit, and Steam, we prioritize subjects by activity. That might include things like likes and upvotes. So if you’re planning on giving feedback through our socials, it’s best to look for similar topics already posted rather than flooding them. Posts with little activity are easy to miss, a post with many similar comments and upvotes piled in, well, that’s something that would more easily catch our attention!

Collecting popular and active feedback, we then bring it to a discussion between myself, the Development Director, and the Creative Director. Knowing the capabilities and work plans of our extended teams, we then prioritize these issues into three distinct categories: NOW, LATER, or NEVER.

• NOW: Finds a place into our next patch cycle, usually up to a month away.
• LATER: Added to our backlog to be addressed at some point in the future.
• NEVER: Something that is either too technically challenging for us or doesn't fit with the direction of our vision.

We then convey this back to our Community Managers, who in turn formulate it into communications with our player base. A key connection here is also our developers, who ask for specific survey questions to get answers that strongly impact their work — so take the time to answer them!

Community Challenges – Monthly to Weekly

We’ve always aimed to have events, challenges, and contests to complement our content releases. We ran our first Community Challenge (Trinket Trials) in May. It ran across the conclusion of Issue #1: Renegades and the launch of Issue #2: Dark Arrival, so it was an uncertain period. Though we weren’t happy with the results, we got enough data and learnings to retool and point us in a new direction, closer to our original vision.

Using player activity times, analyzing top performers, and reviewing other metrics from the first Community Challenge, we were able to introduce Bounties. We wanted it to require less of a heavy commitment for players, more and a greater variety of rewards, and a faster, more quickly refreshed pace of challenges. Now you can look forward to a new challenge every week, with varying challenge levels, new objectives to pursue, and even better rewards to push for.

Our first-ever Bounty was a success and you all managed to earn an exclusive Weapon Pattern, with a couple of more lucrative rewards for one random Renegade and the top-performing Renegade. We’ll be looking closely at how Bounty #2 turns out—so good luck!

With the vote results coming in, the Class Card Contest also recently concluded. We wanted to involve you in the ongoing saga of HAWKED and give you a truly consequential opportunity to shape it. The engagement, creativity, and care each participant showed in their entries was inspiring stuff. We’re looking forward to organizing similar events in the future!

If you’re experiencing issues or have ideas to improve your HAWKED experience, jump on Discord. We read everything, and your voice really can make the difference.

Thanks again, Renegades! See you on X-Isle.