A little while back Gearbox Software held a Closed Technical Test for Battleborn on which the community could help out. During the course of the test, the community got the hammer the servers and played a small part of the game. While team over at Gearbox learned a lot of things from all the data and feedback they received. But what did they actually learn from this experience? Well, 2K sat down with Chris Brock (Producer), Randy Varnell (Creative Director), and Jimmy Sieben (Lead Programmer) in a room and forced them to answer some questions like:
CTT Questions:
- A big part of the Closed Technical Test is to stress the servers. How’d that go? What did you find out?
- Part-way during the CTT, you adjusted Phoebe’s abilities. What did you learn about the available heroes and how they’re balanced? Will you consider adjusting characters’ abilities similarly when the Battleborn ships?
- We also know that you changed the frequency of gear drops during the test. What did you learn about the gear system and how players were using it?
- The CTT threw players straight into a game mission or competitive multiplayer. How did people generally react to that? Will there be a tutorial or introduction on how to play the game?
- So, Randy, who were you playing as during the CTT?
- OK, so you’re out there, playing alongside (and against) everyone online. Did you learn anything about the game from playing directly with the public?
- Now that the Closed Technical Test is done, we’ve got eyes on the Open Beta coming up. What kind of changes can we expect for that – and the final game?
- Speaking of things you learned from the tests, were there any happy accident discoveries that came out of all this?
- How is feedback and data from the CTT helping Battleborn development at this point?
awesome to see the data prove out that our designs are on track!
Randy Varnell
Overall the team was happy with the results of the test. There were some bumps on the road that were only visible by doing these kinds of tests. The team responded and was able to address some issues during the test even without using a full patch. Characters and Gear are getting tweaked for a more balanced experience. The multiplayer map Paradise is getting some adjustments to be less snowball-y in the game mode Meltdown giving the other team a better chance for a comeback in the later game. As the test was thought to be multiplayer-focused the team noticed that the story mode was very popular in single-player. If you want to read all the details Check out the Full Interview.
