The demo was our first chance to put EMPULSE in your hands at scale, and you showed up. Thousands of you filled out our survey, started Discord threads, and gave feedback via X, Reddit, and videos. That kind of response is exactly what makes building EMPULSE in the open possible. We also hit 250,000 Wishlists which is an amazing milestone. Thank you all!
The demo averaged an 8.1 out of 10 on fun in the survey which shows us that the core of the game is landing. An 8.1 is not a 10 though and we know there is room for improvement. We are reading everything and here is what stands out most to us after the Next Fest Demo:
• Favorite weapon: the Modulator assault rifle
• Least favorite weapon: the Finale hammer
• Favorite P.A.I.N.T.: Speed
• Favorite modes: Upload and TDM
• Favorite map: Elevation
• Biggest art note: the character art style needs more personality
• Biggest gameplay frustration: fighting against mechs
Each of your responses gave a lot more specific and actionable feedback, but these are the initial standouts that we plan to act on. The Finale hammer is getting attention for day one of Early Access, and the art style and anti-mech feedback are both things we are exploring. Here is what came through loudest and what we are doing about it.
A few things were disrupting the player’s flowstate, and making the moment-to-moment action less fun.
1. The hammer was too strong. We are nerfing it for day 1 of Early Access
2. Speed P.A.I.N.T. was the obvious pick in almost every situation, and when everyone gravitates to one option, that is a balance problem. We have a small nerf for day one and we will keep tuning it based on how it plays.
3. The grapple hook is now slightly faster and holds onto more of your speed, so chaining movement feels as good as it should.
4. We are actively monitoring weapon balance and will have more to share on that soon. Balancing is never finished, and we will keep adjusting as more of your feedback comes in.
The most consistent piece of art feedback is that the game looks too clean and too simple. Early on we aggressively leaned into readability, both because this is a movement shooter and P.A.I.N.T. already adds a layer of color to the maps. The trade-off is that the world lost some of its personality, and we want that back.
We have the team adding more destruction and detail to the maps. We are also improving the existing characters to look more realistic, and we will be sharing character concepts soon to get your input on where we take character direction next.
The below image is very early exploration on how we are adding more “character” to the maps.
A lot of you want more room to move. Our level design team is building two new maps, both of which are bigger than anything in the game today. We plan to drop them into an experimental playlist in the coming weeks so you can play them early and tell us what is working before they reach the main rotation.
The below image is a WIP blockout (very early, and not final art) for an upcoming map we’re excited to have you all playtest in the future.
You want the option to aim down sights, but not at the cost of the accurate hipfire that makes the movement feel good. We are working on ADS animations now. Rather than just adding ADS to the game, we will share work-in-progress videos as it comes together so you can weigh in before it hits the game… and eventually test ADS in experimental playlists before implementing it into the main experience. Make sure to join our Discord to see the WIP videos and give us feedback.
You want more variety and more depth from the mechs, and we’re working on two things already. First, an animation to get into the mech,so players have to fight harder to cleanly enter a mech. Second, we are exploring ways to add variety, starting with different mech weapons, and possibly entirely new mech types in the future.
Right now the hammer carries a lot of the weight as your answer to mechs. After reading through the initial feedback, we noticed that a lot of players want a variety of secondaries, both to customize their playstyle and to counter mechs. We are exploring concepts for alternate secondary options and new dedicated anti-mech secondaries.
We could keep this list going, because you gave us a lot to work with. The more of you playing and talking to us, the faster EMPULSE becomes the game we all want it to be. We will keep reading your feedback, developing in the open, and shipping updates as quickly as we can. See you on June 24 for the start of Early Access and keep the feedback coming.
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