Beautiful Corner Demo

What is up, Guardians?! It’s been a couple of weeks since we kicked off the Beautiful Corner demo, and to say we’re still buzzing is an understatement! Today we’re excited to relive and celebrate the demo’s standout moments, share key results, and dive into invaluable community feedback!

But before we get into it, a massive shoutout to each of you who played, gave constructive feedback and had faith in our vision to evolve the game. We are simply thrilled with the results, and we couldn’t be happier with the strides that Mineloader has made to bring us to where we are today!

TLDR

• The Beautiful Corner Demo: The Beautiful Corner Demo showcased the huge progress we’ve made over the last five months. Handpicked community members dived in, highlighting key features and offering feedback, shaping our ongoing journey to perfect the GOG experience.
• Promising Engagement Results: Shifting GOG to a roguelite squad RPG was a win! In a 3-day demo, 168 members averaged 8 hours of play, with SkyGabriel hitting 45 hours! A staggering 41,000+ activations for Morax’s Ultimate and a whopping 5,567 equipment pieces crafted showed the community’s unwavering dedication.
• Overwhelmingly Positive Feedback: 90% of our playtest respondents agreed they could see themselves playing GOG consistently once launched. Players really enjoyed the new core gameplay loop and its roguelike mechanics. They loved the improved graphics, animation quality and special effects. Many cited that they love the accessibility and convenience of GOG while at the same time being hooked to the gameplay loop and crafting system. Your insights are key to our refinement and future success!
• Community’s Creativity in Inspiring: The entries to our daily routine challenge were legendary! From tending chickens to Netflixing, you showed us how seamlessly GOG fits into your life and routines. And Tayo, your shower-play? Iconic!

The Beautiful Corner

The Guild of Guardians, Beautiful Corner Demo, was a crucial developmental step in our game’s evolution. This significant milestone served as a concentrated and refined version of the game, intended to test and validate the game’s fundamental mechanics, core loops and visuals while showcasing the huge progress our team and Mineloader have made over the last five months.

The demo was rolled out to an exclusive group of community members and partners. Their role? To play, engage, and provide constructive feedback. Like most demos, we took this approach to ensure that the game’s development was in line with our earliest supporter’s expectations, allowing for adjustments and improvements based on real-world feedback.

This demo was much smaller than our previous demos but was ample for players to experience core systems, including features like the endless dungeon and the Throne room for farming Summoning tickets while providing our developers with the data and feedback we need to continue building a gaming experience worthy of the GOG community.

Impressive Playtime Results

Shifting to a roguelite squad, RPG was primarily motivated by our desire to sustain players’ interest and engagement over extended periods of time. The integration of parallel play ensures players can relish the GOG experience while simultaneously engaging in other pursuits, and one of the core objectives of this demo was putting that to the test!

Even with just three hours worth of gameplay content in the demo, across a three-day period, 168 dedicated community members playtested, averaging an astonishing playtime of 8 hours!

In fact, 82% of players delved deep, spending over an hour in the game, with 65% dedicating an expansive 12 hours! But the pinnacle of commitment? SkyGabriel took the cake with an epic playtime of 45 hrs! What a machine!

The Church of Morax continues its reign across Elderym, with Morax’s Ultimate taking centre stage, boasting a remarkable 41,736 activations, making Morax the most levelled-up Guardian in the demo. On the crafting front, our community merged an impressive 27,536 materials and crafted a staggering 5,567 equipment pieces! Absolutely Epic!

Stellar Playtest Feedback

We cannot express enough how grateful we are for the community’s active involvement and feedback following the demo. Your insights are the keystone of our development process. Through your shared experiences and thoughts, we’re able to discern what truly resonates with the community and where we need to focus our energy. Your voice plays a pivotal role in ensuring Guild of Guardians evolves into a game that everyone is proud to be a part of.

First up, we’re simply thrilled to learn that following the Beautiful Corner demo, 90% of playtesters said they could see themselves playing consistently once launched.

Players showed incredible enthusiasm for the demo. They were drawn to the dynamic gameplay mechanics, exploring dungeon runs and getting hands-on with strategic hero leveling. The game’s visuals received much praise, with crisp graphics and refined animations standing out. The adaptability of playing on mobile, coupled with features like auto-battle, resonated with many. Elements like crafting, progression, and the innovative rune system added depth to the experience with the soundtrack also receiving nods of approval.

The positive trajectory of the game’s direction and trust in our developers was evident, though there’s always room for improvement with suggestions for refinement and deeper customisation. We are thrilled with the feedback!

While many of you were vibing with the game’s direction, there were of course a few bumps in the road. Technical hitches, like crashes and freezing, were a pain. A few found gameplay becoming a tad easy or repetitive, and let’s face it, we all want more variety in items and runes!

Some community members felt the UI could be friendlier, especially on those smaller screens, and some felt lost without a solid tutorial. Worries about the star system and its potential pay-to-win vibe popped up too.

All in all, this feedback is gold for us, as we have plans for additional tweaks and changes ahead -

• Developing the FTUE, First-Time User Experience
• UI UX improvements for Crafting, Merging, Upgrading
• Room transition speeds and gameplay speedups
• Ongoing combat and balance improvements
• More and better music
• Proper Sound effects and a more visceral experience

GOG Daily Routine Challenge

Throughout the demo, we kicked off a playful daily routine challenge, asking playtesters to show how Guild of Guardians seamlessly blend into their day-to-day. Whether that was tackling dungeons while tending to their chickens, or plotting hero moves during a steamy shower, our community truly outdid themselves in juggling GOG with their regular tasks.

The entries we received? Utterly brilliant! Players dived into battles while working up a sweat or even during their Netflix chill time. These candid moments not only underscored how captivating and user-friendly GOG is, but also highlighted the parallel play unique to Guild of Guardians.

A massive shoutout to everyone who joined the fun and immortalised their daily GOG moments. And, of course, hats off to the legendary Tayo for his unforgettable, and rather splashy, winning entry of playing GOG in the shower. Absolutely iconic!

The Road Ahead

Through our recent alliance with Mineloader, we’re now poised to execute GOG with unprecedented accuracy and consistency. Our joint efforts over the last few months have borne fruit, evident in the impressive progress we’ve made and the standout success of the Beautiful Corner demo. Both the raving feedback and strong engagement data show that GOG is resonating deeply within our community and with our target demographic. This all underscores our clear and efficient path forward towards launch.

As we close out this chapter, we’re diving deep into preparations for our next big step: the eagerly anticipated Limited Beta set for Q3. Your continued support fuels our journey, and together, we’re crafting something truly remarkable for the world of gaming.

Until next time, Guardians.
LFGOG!!