PC Gamer - UK 2020-04)

issues, player behaviour concerns and more. “They help
us on all sorts of things,” he says, “And we can invert this
whole process so I can share information with them for
them to spread out into their different communities.”
Smite’s executive producer Travis Brown says that the
council is particularly good at flagging up little quality-of-
life issues which can make a big difference. “We’re
focused on big picture items, going for the future, and
they’ll just be like, ‘Why doesn’t this [small thing] work?’”
Brown adds that if the team is choosing whether to
implement a new feature or work on one suggested by the
Olympians, “we should be prioritising the Olympian ones
because they have more of
the pulse of the players.
They are the players”.
The councils have
dedicated spots for
representatives on each
game platform as well as
wildcard spaces for
whoever gets the most
community votes. Smite’s council is further subdivided,
making sure there’s one rep for the conquest modes and
one for the other types of match on each platform.
“On the internet any game discussion forum is
dominated by PC players,” says Cantatore. “They’re the
ones at their keyboards on the internet all the time, and
it’s easier to stream if you’re on a PC, or make YouTube
videos.” That can skew the feedback, so recruiting
platform-specific player representatives means the dev
teams can get console feedback and figure out how it
relates to and differs from what’s happening on PC.
Something I’m pleased to see is that player councils seem

to be part of how the company is getting better at seeking

and handling feedback. As a studio (or, more recently, a

set of studios), Hi-Rez is known for putting games out

relatively early in development. That’s useful for gauging

interest early and adjusting development, but it also

means a game can feel like it’s getting dragged in too

many directions by the early glut of feedback.

Hi-Rez waited two years to let the public play its

upcoming third-person shooter Rogue Company. The

game isn’t finished by a long shot, but the core experience

feels stable in a way that other recent Hi-Rez projects

haven’t. I suspect Rogue Company’s stability will make a

lot of feedback easier to

parse. When a game has a

clear identity in place, it’s

easier to tell if suggestions

will help achieve that or

conflict with it.

“We’re a lot better at

planning than we used to

be,” says Chisam of the

changes to game production. “I think our processes have

gotten mature enough to be able to take much better

advantage of that [player council] feedback and I think

that the communities have gotten mature enough as well.”

I ask Rogue Company’s lead designer, Scott Lussier

whether they’ll also take advantage of player councils, and

he gives an enthusiastic yes. “They’re really, really good

community managers,” he says, “They’re operating on

their own behalf but they’re keeping the best interests of

Hi-Rezinmind,also they’re going to be very truthful. So

yeah,I can’timagine we would go a different way.”

Philippa Warr

FAR LEFT: Council

feedback helped buff

Camazotz, Smite’s

(underper forming)

Deadly God Of Bats.

LEFT TOP: A chilly

council response to

another champ led to

the creation of Raum.

LEFT BOTTOM:

Rogue Company will

also follow the player

council format.

COMMUNITY MAGIC How other games benefit from players getting involved with development

DOTA 2

Icefrog, the lead developer of Dota 2, is

believed to contact pro players to get

their opinions on game balance.

NIER: AUTOMATA

Players can also take development into

their own hands – here a fan-made

patch fixed issues with the PC port.

SUBNAUTICA

Unknown Worlds’ Early Access success

involved player access to the developer

task board and more.

EVE ONLINE

The players who form the Council of

Stellar Management assist and advise

CCP on the game’s development.

THE COUNCILS HAVE DEDICATED

SPOTS FOR REPRESENTATIVES ON

EACH GAME PLATFORM

NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT