Thoughts on Communication With The Community

[Sherri]

As a long time fan of TLD & a somewhat active member on this forum... I have some feedback for Hinterland that 100% comes from the heart.

Talk to us more.

When TFTFT was announced, part of the reasons mentioned for the year long multi-part release plan was to get players talking about TLD again, reinvigorate excitement in the community, etc.

With that in mind I began a habit of visiting these forums almost daily assuming that part of that communication would be from the studio to the players. But it has been a pattern of a big post with each new part release & crickets in between.

If you want players to talk about your game, you have to talk *to* players about your game.

For example, short video interviews with staff. Discussions about upcoming changes. Anecdotes about tough bugs that were fixed. New tech being used. Etc.

Sit the sound effects person on a couch & talk in a 5 min youtube video about the new sounds added (why and how).

Once a week spotlight a willing team member about what they do & why they love the game.

Fans shouldn't be speculating on whether the next part coming soon has a new map or not. We should have been told about it in a mini post or video. Show us your excitement. 😁

I know... that these activities take precious time. And no, not all studios have to be chatty with players. But if a stated goal is to get people talking & excited... this fizzles when it's only fans talking among themselves... and people drift away.

Take or leave my 2 cents here. I'm enjoying the DLC regardless. 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Sherri

[Sherri]

Not all communication needs to be a 5 page Dev Diary that takes hours & hours to write.

Sometimes just a paragraph "Hey players, we finalized X for the next TFTFT release. We really think you'll love it because of Y. The team really struggled/debated/loved Z about it. Stay tuned!"

And even just that gets players buzzing & feels good. 😊

[Mistral]

Cities Skylines 2 is doing amazing stuff in this regard, with weekly video updates and staff discussions, all planned ahead for weeks and weeks...

Crickets are unfortunate

Edited August 27, 2023 by Mistral

[nGueRRe]

I very much agree! Other small studios can do that.

[Mistral]

Speaking of which, has Raphael said anything on Twitter recently... X... X-Twitter via Elon Musk... it's hard to view nowadays so can't check myself... and as we've discussed before not the greatest of locations to drop hints of things to come. But you know, in the absensence of other communication, you take what you can

Edited August 29, 2023 by Mistral

[hozz1235]

Agreed, @Sherri!

I know Raph is pretty active on Twitter, but I abhore social media apps.

[Sherri]

1 hour ago, hozz1235 said:

Agreed, @Sherri!

I know Raph is pretty active on Twitter, but I abhore social media apps.

I just can't fathom any self-respecting company still using Twitter as anything close to a primary communication medium. It's not a good look at this point. I don't know if anything is being posted there because I left many months ago. But I would hope that their own forum - especially with Twitter becoming a swamp - would be the main communication channel along with newsletter subscriptions & Steam release posts.

[hozz1235]

17 hours ago, Sherri said:

 I don't know if anything is being posted there because I left many months ago. 

TBH, the only reason I created a Twitter account was to look for TLD updates (tells you how much I love this game if I'm willing to forego my abhorrence!).  Actually, I haven't logged on for probably a month as well.

17 hours ago, Sherri said:

But I would hope that their own forum - especially with Twitter becoming a swamp - would be the main communication channel along with newsletter subscriptions & Steam release posts.

I always hoped so too.

[Admin]

Thank you for your feedback! We will be making some upcoming changes to continue improving the way we communicate and connect with our community. We have so many passionate players, and we always appreciate your interest and enthusiasm. There's a lot to look forward to. 

[BugReportEnthusiast]

Clear communication about game mechanics is also incredibly important.

It makes bug hunting substantially simpler, and it stops players from wondering whether or not the game's functioning properly.

Because new content sometimes misbehaves, we need to know how it's supposed  to behave in order to spot any issues with its functionality.

For example, Acorn coffee has been bugged ever since it released but nobody noticed for months because people didn't realize that it was supposed to behave differently.

This issue could have been reported within a week of its release if hinterland was clear about its intended effects

[Sherri]

6 minutes ago, BugReportEnthusiast said:

Clear communication about game mechanics is also incredibly important.

100%. Plus it's fun to talk about! It's like there is a worry that talking about it would be spoiler-y. But players who hate spoilers can avoid these conversations if they are tagged. It would be so fun to hear about why Acorn Coffee was added, what the team thinks it brings to the game & how it's hoped that it will be used. Even these small additions are opportunities for insight & excitement.

[nGueRRe]

On 9/5/2023 at 10:46 PM, Admin said:

Thank you for your feedback! We will be making some upcoming changes to continue improving the way we communicate and connect with our community. We have so many passionate players, and we always appreciate your interest and enthusiasm. There's a lot to look forward to. 

best news in months. looking forward to this.

[Semple Fi]

So I don’t frequent social media, but I know that updates are typically found there; however, I get my updates from this site. 
 

on that note, has there been any hint at the next content drop? October maybe…?? 🥺🙏

Edited September 10, 2023 by Semple Fi
Booboo

[Mistral]

8 hours ago, Semple Fi said:

 on that note, has there been any hint at the next content drop? October maybe…?? 🥺🙏

No...

[Semple Fi]

1 hour ago, Mistral said:

No...

well

 

 poop

💩

[Admin]

We are working on a Dev Diary containing some helpful news and information, which we are planning to release in the very near future. We will share more as soon as it is available, but we can confirm that it does contain some general info on TALES. 

Thank you for your patience, Survivors! 

[Mistral]

Some general info? Sounds like late October or early November for next update then...

Will this original 12-month update period be closer to 24 months than 18 months, I wonder.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Mistral

[James Hickok]

8 hours ago, Admin said:

We are working on a Dev Diary containing some helpful news and information, which we are planning to release in the very near future. We will share more as soon as it is available, but we can confirm that it does contain some general info on TALES. 

Thank you for your patience, Survivors! 

Yes!! Im waiting for this to happen soo bad ATM. Lay it on us 😃

Edited September 12, 2023 by James Hickok

[thekillergreece]

I agree that the dev team has been quite quiet over the months if not years. The only things we hear from them are dev blogs and that's about it. I mean, that's nice, really. Raph is active on Twitter and, sometimes, on TLD reddit. I'm sure he periodically checks TLD wiki as well.

I do wish I could see more than that. For example, behind-the-scenes development, fun facts during development, funny bugs the devs found, modding discussion and so on. But, especially modding discussion. There are some games, particularly indie, where the devs discuss enthusiastically about the modding work (regardless if it's official or unofficial) but I don't see that here which is strange because many mods are quite nice and add a flavor to the game. They are popular as well. Like, look at this thread. None of these would be possible without mods. Some recognition would be neat.

Hoping for more communication soon! 👍

 

Edited September 12, 2023 by thekillergreece

[past caring]

34 minutes ago, thekillergreece said:

I agree that the dev team has been quite quiet over the months if not years. The only things we hear from them are dev blogs and that's about it. I mean, that's nice, really. Raph is active on Twitter and, sometimes, on TLD reddit. I'm sure he periodically checks TLD wiki as well.

But that's the thing.....I think it's reasonable to expect that anything of any importance that Hinterland have to say about TLD to be communicated here - on their own forum. I don't feel I should have to be searching round reddit and twatter for news....

Edited September 12, 2023 by past caring
typo

[xanna]

I agree, and also updates should be on a static website, too, which I believe they are. Well, dev diaries and releases are anyway

[Enigmaecho]

On 8/26/2023 at 10:35 AM, Sherri said:

As a long time fan of TLD & a somewhat active member on this forum... I have some feedback for Hinterland that 100% comes from the heart.

Talk to us more.

When TFTFT was announced, part of the reasons mentioned for the year long multi-part release plan was to get players talking about TLD again, reinvigorate excitement in the community, etc.

With that in mind I began a habit of visiting these forums almost daily assuming that part of that communication would be from the studio to the players. But it has been a pattern of a big post with each new part release & crickets in between.

If you want players to talk about your game, you have to talk *to* players about your game.

For example, short video interviews with staff. Discussions about upcoming changes. Anecdotes about tough bugs that were fixed. New tech being used. Etc.

Sit the sound effects person on a couch & talk in a 5 min youtube video about the new sounds added (why and how).

Once a week spotlight a willing team member about what they do & why they love the game.

Fans shouldn't be speculating on whether the next part coming soon has a new map or not. We should have been told about it in a mini post or video. Show us your excitement. 😁

I know... that these activities take precious time. And no, not all studios have to be chatty with players. But if a stated goal is to get people talking & excited... this fizzles when it's only fans talking among themselves... and people drift away.

Take or leave my 2 cents here. I'm enjoying the DLC regardless. 

I agree with the underlying sentiment and spirit of this. I saw a while ago there was job posting for a community manager role and I was hoping that would be the liaison between the community and studio, someone to revitalize the mailbag and handle that AmA, interviews and stuff 

[Sherri]

On 9/5/2023 at 4:46 PM, Admin said:

Thank you for your feedback! We will be making some upcoming changes to continue improving the way we communicate and connect with our community. We have so many passionate players, and we always appreciate your interest and enthusiasm. There's a lot to look forward to. 

Last winter I stopped my daily visits to the forum. Now I stop by every few months. Sometimes I wait extra long in the hopes that with a long enough wait, surely there will be *some* type of new communication from the studio to players. I'd take crumbs at this point.

Crickets.

It really is a shame. No other game that I own has such loyalty from me. I keep coming back to it and the DLC is frickin awesome. It's just really sad that my enthusiasm feels one-sided. I assume that community manager role was never filled.

As a fellow Canadian I know our cultural reluctance to toot our own horns and be super vocal about what we do and are excited about... I guess one learns to accept things as they are. And on the flip side- it probably means more dedication to creating great content. 🙂

Looking forward to future releases. 

[Mistral]

On 4/11/2024 at 3:26 PM, Sherri said:

I assume that community manager role was never filled.

Well if it was filled, leaves lots to be desired...

Edited April 15 by Mistral

[Raphael van Lierop]

Hey all,

Thanks for bringing this thread back to life.

Re: my posting on Twitter -- no, I don't use it anymore. I've not been too quiet on my reasons why. And "losing" a community there that I spent years building has made it hard to feel much like investing time in other replacement options like BlueSky, etc. I don't think I'm the only one who feels a bit burned out by social media. Honestly it's just been easier to bury myself in work.

I've been trying to find a good way to be more active in the forums and be more available again. I hate to sound trite but we are just so *busy* right now, it's been hard to stick our heads up for air. So much going on here and we are slowly working our way towards being able to share more of it, but it's just taking time. Those of you who have been with us for a while know we can be slow about stuff. Yeah, I know. Understatement. 😅

I've not been super happy with our community engagement for a while now, and that's something else we've been strategizing around and have plans for. But, as much as you may feel forgotten at the moment, you really aren't. I do have a dev diary coming which will outline TALES Part Five and give you some other updates (ex. TALES on Switch status), and as I hinted we're working towards some other stuff we're pretty excited to share with you.

Apart from that, things are just brutal in our industry right now so a lot of our thoughts are with our friends from fellow studios who are going through hard times with project cancellations, layoffs, closures, etc. Hinterland is fine!! But it's tough to see many of our close colleagues at other studios affected by these mass layoffs and all the industry turmoil. 

It gets really easy to just hunker down and focus on things you can control, like your work and the stuff that's right in front of you, but I appreciate you gently reminding us that we need to pop our heads up once in a while. Sorry that I've been quiet and that you felt we had forgotten about you.

- Raph