Greetings, Descendants! This The First Descendant’s Producer, Lee Beom-jun.

 

It's already been over a month since we ran the Crossplay Open Beta Test of The First Descendant. The reason we haven't been able to share more news with you sooner is because we received so much feedback from our Descendants who participated in this test. With your incredible support and interest, we had a lot to consider in shaping the game for a better gaming experience. Our Dev Team has been having intense internal discussions every day since the test ended.

 

As a result, we were able to set some major directions in a broad framework on how we're going to develop The First Descendant, and today I would like to share with you what we've learned from the Crossplay Open Beta Test.

 

 

Firstly, the week-long Crossplay Open Beta Test that started on 19 September was cross-platform across all global regions, covering PC (Steam), PlayStation 4 & 5, and the Xbox series. Almost 2 million Descendants took part in the test, and while they participated from various regions around the globe, North America showed the most interest and playtime. We were also hugely surprised by the high level of engagement from console users, with a 5:5 split in player count between consoles and PC.

 

[Key Feedback from the Crossplay Open Beta Test]

 

As I mentioned earlier, many Descendants participated in this test and they gave us a lot of feedback. There were many words of support too, such as how they enjoyed the game and that it has improved a lot since the last Steam Beta Test, which is incredibly encouraging to the Dev Team and we're very grateful for that. But there was just as much feedback about improvements that are needed to move The First Descendant forward, so today I would like to share my thoughts on the direction we will be taking next.

 

<Missions>

To begin with, we received the most feedback about repetition of missions and underutilization of fields. The current missions and fields were designed with certain intentions by our Dev Team, but this Crossplay Open Beta Test has made us recognize an urgent need to improve the gameplay. So we're going to make significant improvements to both missions and fields. We'll not only improve the quality of missions, but also add necessary features for co-op play and matchmaking support for dungeon missions. And most importantly, we'll introduce new contents to the fields to make the gameplay more enjoyable. We'll share more details about this in the future Dev Notes when it is ready to be revealed.

 

<Prologue and Tutorial>

Many Descendants had positive things to say about the new prologue and tutorial, which made the difficult decision to revamp the prologue after the last Steam Beta Test all the more rewarding and worthwhile. However, there were also a lot of people who expressed disappointment with the storytelling in conjunction with the repetition of missions that I mentioned earlier. The Dev Team is working on several ideas and improvements in this area.

 

<UI and UX>

There were numerous comments about the UI and UX as well. We've made many improvements to them since the last Steam Beta Test, but we still received a lot of feedback. Accordingly, we're going to make improvements to the controls and visibility, including improvements to the Module UI that many have commented about, and we're also planning to make the much-requested "Loadout" feature available at launch. We’re also working on improving gamepad controls for console and gamepad users too.

 

<Shooter Play and Action>

We've also received diverse feedback on the shooter play and action aspects of the game, and we're really encouraged that many have expressed a high level of satisfaction with various combat sound effects. We're planning to continue balancing the combat sound effects and adding more detail to increase the quality. In terms of gameplay, there were a lot of complaints of frustrated players due to the difficulty in obtaining ammunition, and I would like to say we're are also preparing various improvements for this issue.

 

Regarding action, there was great interest in the completely revamped Grappling Hook and the addition of parkour. While there was a lot of positive feedback, there were just as many suggestions for more improvement. Despite the plentiful feedback on enhancing the action aspect, our Dev Team are honestly cautious about it because of the balance with the shooter play. Nevertheless, we're testing several radical features to answer our Descendants' requests seriously. We'll decide on this after taking several internal tryouts, so we’ll get to you more about it later on.

 

<Optimization and Security>

We're also aware of issues with optimization, graphics quality and settings. We're already working on specific improvements, so please look forward to them. Finally, we've made it one of our highest priorities to establish measures in response to users who used cheating methods during the Crossplay Open Beta Test. We apologize once again to our Descendants who had any inconvenience from users that did not play in a fair way.

 

There are many more development matters that I'd like to talk about, but for today, I'll conclude with my thoughts on the future development directions of the game. I believe that for looter shooters as a genre, growth elements, motivation to play, and ease of play over a long play time are more important than anything else. Therefore, the Dev Team has been focusing on strengthening the growth elements to enhance the inherent fun of the looter shooter, buffing content that allows players to use a variety of characters, and improving the UI and UX to ensure that players aren't frustrated by repetitive gameplay. Even after the release, we'll continue to address any shortcomings, and keep updating content for our Descendants to enjoy.

 

[Key Future Development Directions for The First Descendant]

 

This Crossplay Open Beta Test was an invaluable time for our Dev Team, giving us a good look at what our Descendants enjoyed, what frustrated them, and the current state of The First Descendant. So we’re using the results of the test as a basis to discuss our future plans. The Descendants’ expectations and support for the test have been so amazing that we’re eager to perfect the game even further. As such, we’re still discussing heatedly about our release schedule and future plans, and to implement your feedback for a better quality, we are looking into the launch period to be in 2024. We'll provide more details about the release schedule in the near future. It's also heartbreaking for us that we could not deliver the exact date that you have been expecting.

 

The Crossplay Open Beta Test was a precious opportunity for our Dev Team to meet so many Descendants, and we'll continue to share improvements, changes, and new features through the community as before. Even though the game isn't available to play right now, so many of you are active, supportive, and engaged in the community and through various channels. In response, we'll continue to make The First Descendant better together. We'll remain transparent in our communication and listen to your feedback up until and after the release too.

 

Thank you very much.