The Infection. Feature Roulette: ADD, KEEP, DELETE
Hey everyone, Laurynas here — Game Director at Engines of Fury.
In this devlog, I want to share a bit about how we approach new features and why putting players first is such a big deal for us at Engines of Fury. I’ll also give you a little peek at what’s coming in the next version — nothing too spoilery, just enough to get you excited.
Feature roulette
Imagine for a second you’re building a massive online game. How would you plan your feature roadmap?
The starting point is pretty straightforward — first, you lock in the core game loop. For us, that meant scavenging, shooting, and crafting mechanics. But what do you prioritize after that? That’s where things get tricky, because now you’re making tradeoffs — every new feature you add means pushing something else down the list.
Some devs argue for boss battles, others push for more weapon variety, or maybe co-op features. Honestly, it’s tough to say what’s “right.” Choosing the next step to give players the best possible experience isn’t easy. Trust me — we’ve had more than a few spirited debates about it in the studio.
M̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ Developing informed decisions
So how do we make these decisions? Well, the first thing we do is observe — and that’s where our test events (or ACTs, as we call them at EOF) come in handy.
You’ve probably noticed that each testing event comes with incentives for streaming. There’s a good reason for that — as developers, we’re focused on player engagement and understanding the emotional journey people go through while playing the game.
What better way to explore that than through your streams? There really is nothing like it.
Streams Don’t Lie
What are we actually looking out for in streams? We’ve got a whole system for analyzing them. Of course, we start with the basics — things like bugs, weird encounters, or whether players are dying too often. (Fun fact: if you’re streaming Engines of Fury, there’s a good chance someone on our team is literally counting how many times you die).
But that’s not really the focus. The real value lies in player emotion. We always pay close attention to which moments spark frustration and which ones create joy. Did that boss fight feel satisfying — or was the player just relieved that it was finally over?
This is where the real magic happens in our design process.
Negative experiences are usually pretty obvious. If something frustrates a large number of players, we take that seriously. It doesn’t always mean we scrap a mechanic entirely, but we definitely go back and rethink it. Sometimes it takes time, but rest assured — if something in Engines of Fury feels off, chances are we’re already working on it.
When it comes to positive experiences we double down! If we see players enjoying the thrill of hunting each other, we’ll add features like footprints to support it. If finding epic loot gets people hyped, we’ll look for ways to make those moments happen more often. You get the idea — find what’s fun, and amplify it.
So what’s on the Infection feature Roulette Wheel?
What features are being added for The Infection?
We’ll I’m not revealing all of them yet, but I can give you a few hints on what we noticed was either fun or frustrating to our players during the Cliffside playtest:
- People seemed to have a blast whenever they met someone friendly while raiding.
- Having no means of restoring your HP was rather painful for a lot of folks.
- Ambushing hostile players was kinda fun for a lot of you. Getting ambushed — not so much.
- Finding someone else’s free loot — amazing!
Now what did we do with all of this information I’ll leave this for the next time. For now, you can take guesses at the new features we’ll be adding to our next closed test — The Infection. I’m positive you’ll love it.
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