THE IN-GAME SURVEY

Despite being a solo dev, I\'ve always viewed this game as a team effort.

So many amazing ideas have come from the community, and I\'m super grateful for the help. But there\'s always been this one big problem - I only heard from the most active players and the small percentage of people who joined the discord.

But Skillshot City is played by newbies and lurkers too! So that\'s why a month ago, I added an in-game survey. It appears on the main menu, and you get to answer 1 randomly selected question after every match. Doing so gives you +100 ACID, and gives me that sweet, sweeeet feedback. It also shows the results so you can see what others think too!

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/d37599fcb2aab5edab391c60545b26e6b65e6763.jpg\"][/img]

Harder Zombie Revivals

The image below shows that in general, players find zombie revivals pretty nicely balanced, with most people saying the difficulty to revive feels about right. But there it is still a clear preference for making them harder, as shown the by middle bar being longer than the bottom one in the image below. So I\'ve made players spawn a bit further away from the heart crates to balance this.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/d9cb9af02fe7893185f2b9d7b45d2df12aa872f0.jpg\"][/img]

More Supply Drops

Another change is that a new wave of supply drops now spawns at the start of each round. So there are 2 waves now instead of 1. Here\'s how the results look in my backend data, where I can filter the information to account for recency and player level etc.\n

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/7c83f31df5ea99ea98f5c3f9e6e784ac8cb15db1.jpg\"][/img]

More Skill Points

I\'ve also increased the amount of skill points we earn each game. Much more XP now drops on the ground, I made the leveling curve faster, and the supply drops mentioned above will also help achieve this. I only put this question up yesterday so the sample size is small (35 votes so far). But players clearly want more skill points, so I can confidently buff this.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/947d6d1593e83557fbe827dfa724e3131eea84f9.jpg\"][/img]

More Survey Questions

There are many other questions like this. Most of them suggest the game is in a good spot. For example, players are happy with the Time to Kill, Matchmaking Difficulty, and Match Duration:\n\n[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/342f2f0de94601b223395bb68b5861df61b9c2a1.png\"][/img][img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/05b7c3a1eac186cbdbdf240152bfe904a1bb247d.png\"][/img][img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/66c269605e202c57ec01aee05224b1df418edebc.png\"][/img]

But I\'d love to get even more survey ideas! So if there\'s a question you think would be neat to appear in this in-game survey, please let me know in the comments and I might add it!

OVER 2 MILLION YOUTUBE VIEWS

The main thing I\'ve been focusing on for the last few months is youtube. It\'s the best way to reach more players and fill up our servers. So I\'m making youtube videos that tell a short 30s story about the game\'s mechanics, teaching game design, or explaining some broken combo in a fun way.

For example, this recent video got 600k views and explains the zombie revival mechanic:

Or this video, showing a sneaky way to FLY in the game (this is still possible, but kinda pointless):

Or this one, explaining the game design concept of \"flow\" and why I added XP Pools:

There\'s still a lot to learn about how to go viral, but it\'s going well so far! The newer videos are getting more views on average, and the channel crossed over 2 million views just before new years eve, earning 500,000 views in a single day. Quite a nice Christmas gift!

As a result, we\'re seeing more players download the game and fill up our servers, The average player count is the highest it\'s been in years, and the plan is to get it a lot higher once I really figure out how to go viral.

You can check out all the shorts at this link here (don\'t forget to smash that subscribe button!): [dynamiclink href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@skillshotcity\"][/dynamiclink]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/327810b412b903e6c6fb7f59804b36a9278b3263.png\"][/img]

OTHER RECENT CHANGES

I\'ve made a few hotfixes to the game over the last month. I\'ve updated the in-game changelog but not offically posted about them here on Steam. Here are some of the bigger changes if you haven\'t played in the last few weeks:

\\[MAJORISH CHANGES]

• Syringes are no longer awarded when overtime begins, but instead are awarded after getting 3 kills per round. This makes hunting kills early each round more meaningful

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• Cops have significantly more damage, smarter AI, and are more aggressive

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• The kill streak mechanic is now shown below you health bar. It now goes up to 10x isntead of 5x. The cash you get from a kill is $100 x killstreak (so the first one gives $100, then $200, up to a max of $1,000)

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• F2P players can now complete the final 60 challenges in each grid (but still need the DLC to claim them).

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• Vendors now always drop a double damage drop when killed, but they deal more damage

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• Completing a KILL FRENZY mission now also gives you 60 seconds of Frenzy at +50% ROF

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• At max wanted level, a helicopter now follows you around to shoot missiles at you

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[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27528347/babfc735ff8ad25c549f8df7d66472a16808ab83.png\"][/img]

TODAY\'S CHANGELOG

And these are the rest of the changes that just went live today:

\\[GENERAL CHANGES]

- Globally muted players no longer see the in-game chat

- The Deluxe DLC now includes 10 bonus legendary flasks. Existing Deluxe owners have had this added to their accounts.

- Slightly more ACID is dropped from crates in-game

\\[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

- A new wave of supply drops now spawn at the start of each round

- Rounds have 3:30 minutes before overtime begins instead of 4:00

- Crate Race modifier gives +5 points for rare crates

- More XP drops as loot in the map

- An extra gangster camp spawns in the map

- The leveling curve is slightly faster in-game

- Double Damage drops no longer spawn randomly in combat

- Vehicles regenerate health a bit slower

- Slightly less time required to climb wanted levels

- Guns take slightly longer to reload

- Casting Frenzy no longer overwrites the Frenzy effect from Kill Frenzy missions

- Fixed a bug with Mirror Image not showing a golden health bar for people with the Starter Pack

- Impact Zone modifier has a +35% instead of +50% explosion size

- Caster\'s cooldowns are +30% instead of +50% faster

- Scavenger\'s shifts restore +50% instead of +33% faster

\\[SKILL CHANGES]

- Self Repair cooldown is 2s longer and mutation moves a tad slower

- Radiate cooldown is 2s longer

- Mirror Image cooldown is 2s longer and the clones are a bit weaker

- Shift Supply\'s shifting range is a tad longer

- Shift Attack\'s damage lasts 0.7 instead of 1.0s

- Proximity Rounds has a slightly larger trigger radius (50 vs 40m)

- Force Fields get +50 more health across all levels

- Critical Rage is easier to use because the double damage drop lands closer to you

- Blade Fury slashing DPS is higher, ranging from 30 to 110 instead of 40 to 80

- Shockwave cooldown is now 2s longer

- Charged Shot\'s bullets have a slightly larger hitbox

- Armed Robbery can be triggered every 30s instead of every 40s

- Hypnotic Army has a slightly larger range

- Fire Storm mutation drops more molotovs, especially at lower rarities

- Invisibility low damage duration is 0.5 instead of 1.0s, and it\'s mutation gains damage a tad faster

- Energy Vortex has a slightly larger range at lower levels

- Phase Drifting\'s healing range on the mutation is a tad larger

- Clip Magnet has a bit more seeking

- Spike Trap\'s spike duration is now 12 instead of 8s