When will Palia launch?
We’re not ready to announce that just yet, but make sure you follow us on social media and join our Discord to be the first to know. And don’t forget to sign up for future tests too!
How can I test Palia?
You can sign up for pre-launch-testing here on the game website. Make sure to fill out the additional survey for a greater chance to be selected!
When are future tests happening?
We don’t have a specific timeline for large scale tests, but may be running small scale tests and feedback sessions over the coming months. If you’re signed up, we’ll reach out through email to let you know if you’re selected for a test.
What is expected of testers during the experience?
It's important for testers to expect lots of bugs and unpolished features! Our Alphas are still very early looks at the game, and there’s a lot of work to do to get it to be the cozy experience dreams are made of.
We also want our testers to be very vocal with their feedback. There will be some exclusive Discord channels on this server they’ll get to join. Whether the testers liked or disliked something, we want to know as there are plenty of chances for us to make changes based on what the players express.
One of the best ways our playtesters can help us is playing our game and experiencing our content in an organic way! We’ve done tons of tests of the individual pieces, but it’s hard for us to get a good idea of how the holistic experience feels. Are things well paced? Do resource requirements feel fair? These are areas where our knowledge isn’t great, so the more honest and candid feedback our playtesters can give us, the better!
It’s worth calling out that we don’t need the testers to actively try to break the game. That’ll probably happen on its own at this point. But telling us WHERE and HOW it breaks will be super helpful for us to track down and fix those issues going forward.
Something to keep in mind is that all of our players, now and future, will get a say in shaping this game. Your feedback doesn't stop impacting our choices after the playtests!
Will future playtests be closed/invite only again like the pre-alpha, or fully open?
We have a few playtests left to go before we open the doors. This is because we are still adding new systems with each phase, and we want to make sure they are working the way we want them to in smaller, controlled groups.
In the meantime, we are building up lots of plans for how to share more gameplay with the community members who aren’t able to participate in this upcoming test, so be sure to keep checking back in to stay "in the know"!
Can we get some small footage or videos for those unlucky ones who could not get access to the alpha?
Ashe: We wanted to go the extra mile to answer this, so here is a special video we put together for our fans like you!
There's a lot of stuff you all are showing us about the game and the alpha tests, which is super exciting! What things did players not enjoy in the playtest, and how are their concerns being heard and addressed?
Aidan, Game Director: We’re very happy to hear you’re enjoying the sneak peeks so far! A big part of the Alpha phase of development is absolutely getting feedback from real players. It is immensely helpful in making sure we’re on the right track, validating assumptions and sometimes exposing unexpected feedback that helps us course correct and iterate effectively.
We also utilize a variety of approaches to collect feedback from these tests including player sentiment, user research, and collecting data, evaluating each carefully before deciding whether we’ll make any new moves.
Some areas that these tests have caused the dev team to rally around improving include:
- Providing more community-oriented goals
- Additional content, notably quests
- Better supporting roleplaying with features like furniture interactivity
- Tons of UI / UX enhancements
- Accessibility features
The team is particularly excited about some of the new quest content that has been added to the game recently which dives deeper into the lore and mystery that abounds in Palia! We also talk a lot about how best to take advantage of the fact that Palia is a massively multiplayer game - which is resulting in a variety of new ways to collaborate, interact, and play together.
We also want to make sure everyone can play in a way that is comfortable for them, and will be pursuing more accessibility features like keybindings and controller support, which were sorely missed by many players in our tests so far.