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‘Warhammer: Vermintide’ dev explains why they allowed the beta to be livestreamed
Most developers might shudder at the thought of their unfinished game being displayed for the masses, bugs and all, but Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide studio Fatshark AB said that allowing players to livestream during the game’s testing phase was a huge help in ironing out some of its issues.
“We had a Beta and allowed people to stream,” Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund explained in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “We know that we have bugs in the game, but it’s so valuable to allow people to stream and get feedback. We can watch them play live and find out whether they have any issues – like understanding how to play the game, for example.”
Wahlund boasted that during the week before launch, Vermintide was the second-most streamed game after League of Legends, and he credits a significant portion of the attention received by the game to its popularity with streamers and livestream viewers. “We’ve been able to reach out, and it seems to be working,” he said.
“Obviously you need some luck to get the right people to play and write about the game,” Wahlund added. “If you can get someone to write about your game, stream it on Twitch, or make a video about it on YouTube, the snowball starts to roll. Do you need luck? Of course. But you can also earn luck by making a great game.”
Wahlund said that Vermintide did benefit from being tied to a major IP like the Warhammer franchise, which already has its own rabidly dedicated fan base, and he explained that being a self-publishing indie studio gave Fatshark an edge in creating Vermintide that a larger developer might not have had.
“For us, because we were working with an IP like Warhammer, it could have been a danger to have too many stakeholders,” he said. “I think if you want to do a really great game you need to have a clear path on what you want to do, and the more people who are involved in that process the more you get a sort of ‘mean’ of a design rather than going fully focussed in one direction.
“I think a lot of games can suffer from compromise. If the publisher and the developer are not on the same page at all times it can cause issues.”
Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide officially releases on PC on October 23, and it will be coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 sometime in early 2016.
Image courtesy of Fatshark AB | Steam
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