Predecessor Report - July 2023

Welcome back to another exciting edition of the Predecessor Report!

Developer Diaries 2023年7月28日

Summary

Welcome back to another exciting edition of the Predecessor Report!

July has been a busy month here at Omeda HQ, with the team busy putting the finishing touches on our next original Hero, Lizard!

That’s not all though, the UI team are making huge progress on the Predecessor’s visual identity and the brainiacs behind our skill-based matchmaking have been chipping away at a number of big improvements.

Today we’re covering all of this and more - offering you some sneak peeks at upcoming content, never-before-seen development insights, and our usual round up of amazing community content!

Let’s dive right in!

Codename: L I Z A R D

What can we say about Lizard…

Well for one he can’t change colours, he has a reptile dysfunction! Okay that joke was a tad scaly, but we had to snake a few in! Badum-hisss!

Okay seriously though, with V0.10 nearly upon us (we’re currently targeting August 8th), it’s finally time to talk a little more about our next original Hero!

You’ve known them as Lizard for a while now, but today we can reveal their official name!

Drumroll please!

Oh it feels good to finally use that name. Zarus. ZARUS. Z A R U S.

You might recognise that shield from the Season 2: Road to Ascension roadmap too!

Zarus, known across the lands as The Champion of Nyr, is a melee bruiser with the agility to chase down his foes and the power to make them wish he couldn’t. His abilities combined with his durability encourages fast paced, high-risk high-reward trade-based gameplay that we hope you will love.

Speaking of abilities, here’s a sneak peek at a few of his ability icons!

Any guesses as to what these abilities might be called or what they might do? I’ve got money on that one on the right being a cake stand of sorts…

That’s all we’ll shed on Zarus for now though; you can expect to learn more about this mighty fighter next week!

A match made in heaven!

Earlier this week we released Sr. Operations Manager, JShredz, from his deep, dark, data den to shine a light on what’s been going on with Predecessor matchmaking.

The long and short of it is that true skill-based matchmaking is incredibly hard to do well, and takes a lot of time, data and resources to tune just right.

We’ve made some great improvements recently which have already had a substantial impact on the quality of matchmaking, and we have further plans for some major back-end changes that will make things even better still!

Don’t just take my word for it though, go read our dedicated Matchmaking Improvements blog!

New UI hype!

So we’ve spoken a bunch of times now about how we’re prioritising delivering a new User Interface (UI) over new features right now. As already explained, this is because the UI is a major piece of infrastructure that many other features depend upon, meaning that the longer we put it off the slower and harder it becomes to deliver other new features. It’s also an important milestone on our journey to console!

So what does it take to overhaul the UI of an entire game? Research, time and iterations. Lots and lots of iterations. And even that’s a massive over-simplification of the process!

Below is an example of an early wireframe design for the new Hero menu (taken from much earlier in the process). The finished screen will probably have a lot less Kiras.

This step is much closer to what we’d expect the finished product to look like, but there’s still a long way to go. Even at this point there will still be a number of changes as we continue the iterative process.

Console when?

It’s still a common question, and we’re excited to see such an unstoppable eagerness from our console community!

While we don’t currently have a confirmed release date for console, we have recently hit a couple of crucial milestones meaning that we’re closer than ever:

◆ One of the requirements to submit a game to console is the creation and implementation of a Code of Conduct or, as we’ve called it, a Community Charter.

◆ We’ve completed a number of important branding, key art and asset requests from PlayStation that are required in order to list on their store.

◆ We’ve begun submitting game builds for review by Sony and Microsoft as we start the process of getting Predecessor in front of their various checks and balances.

That last point is particularly exciting, as it’s easily the biggest step towards delivering Predecessor on console.

Let’s talk toxicity!

Let’s not beat around the bush. There are a minority of players that are purposefully making games unenjoyable through the use of grotesque, overtly aggressive, or outrightly discriminatory language. And we won't stand for it.

Earlier in the month we unveiled the first step in our journey to tackle this malicious behavior - AI controlled, automated chat muting.

We're pleased to confirm that ( as of the time of writing) we have identified zero incorrectly assigned chat suspensions from the new automated system!

All in all we’re confident that the system is operating effectively and comprehensively for the benefit of the wider community.

For more information, please read Community Experience Manager Zuzu’s blog post, Tackling Toxicity.

Runway or run away?

Over the recent months we’ve really been stepping up the production quality of our marketing assets, and we couldn’t be more pleased with how they’re coming out!

We’d love to see your captions for these images! Share them with us over on Discord or Reddit!

Omeda Asks - Acquazzone

This month we’ve been deep in the trenches, battling all sorts of data. From toxicity to game balance, sales revenue to matchmaking; data is at the heart of everything we do.

Q: Hey Acquazzone! So what exactly does a Principal Data Analyst at Omeda Studios do?

A: Lots of things, but mainly ( and with around one and a half million matches played up to today) Predecessor has lots of telemetry events, so my job is to make sense of those data points and use them to improve the player gaming experience.

Q: Sounds like a lot! So how important is data to the Omeda Studios team?

A: We like to think of ourselves as data-informed, meaning any decision we make about Predecessor will always try to incorporate data among the information used. This leads to better precision and increased confidence that we’re doing the right things.

Q: Sounds technical… and complicated! To some people data might not be the most interesting part of game design. What is it that you love about your job?

A: I personally love how often my beliefs are wrong and therefore how often I learn new things.

That’s a wrap on our conversation with Acquazzone for now! Let us know who you’d like to see interviewed for future Predecessor Reports!

COMMUNITY ROUND UP

She’s a Kira, queeeeeen…

Two’s Company

Superb Screenshots

Check out some of Arkokin's stunning screenshots, shared with us on Discord! Which is your fav?

Predcasts ft Omeda Studios Staff!

In case you missed it, a lot of the Omeda Studios team have been popping up on the community Predcast, a weekly livestream hosted by WinduTheMace!

Prime Championship Circuit 5

Following the success of PCC 4, the Prime Championship Circuit is back with a prize pot of $3,500 and teams made up of some of the most talented Predecessor players out there!

For those of you in the dark, the PCC is the premier community tournament series, featuring professional casters and unbelievable gameplay. If you’re at all interested in the Predecessor competitive scene, you should definitely be checking it out!

Sign ups are now closed, but you can watch all the action on the PCC Twitch Channel on August 12th!

That’s about all we have time for this month!

What do you think? Want us to continue this style of monthly blog post? Tag me over on Discord (@Karifora) and let me know!

Until the next time!

~ Kari, Senior Community Manager