Ten million goals in 5.5 million games with 1.3 million downloads – the raw numbers from the latest UFL open beta look pretty impressive. “This is a surprising result for us,” says Eugene Nashilov, CEO of Strikerz Inc. The most important insight also concerns the rush generated by the testing phase: “We were able to validate our product idea. That is the most important result. important of this open beta. Because it means that the community is open and ready to play UFL.
Strikerz Inc. is therefore “very pleased with the results,” even though the UFL still suffers from some issues. However, most of what was revealed during the open beta was “already known” to the developers. Nashilov is also positive: “The community is very communicative with us. We had a lot of interactions with test users and influencers.” The connection between the community and the UFL is “strong, which gives us valuable insights into the minds of players.”
According to Nashilov, the focus is on diversity of impressions. There were comments from “people from different countries, with different opinions on football and different gaming preferences.” For Alexander Bogomolskiy, director of publishing, this is also important in terms of connectivity: “We have understood where our players live and how we can best adapt the network experience to them. Now we know where we need to increase capacity.”
Balance of play: Will UFL be faster or slower?
Strikerz Inc. is working to prioritize issues. “What should we fix first, second, third, and so on?” Nashilov asks. High on the list are various aspects of the game, including playability and ball speed. “The split within the community is almost 50:50 when it comes to whether we should make the game faster or slower,” the CEO says. He can’t yet say which way the UFL’s final balance will tip.
The speed of the ball, in turn, is also related to physics, and this will be “updated a few more times before release.” Which is definitely on the developers’ agenda: “We want to bring the ball a little closer to the ground. On high passes and strong lifts, it definitely flies too high – we are not the only ones who noticed this.”
Manual defense: “Do not simply change players”
What the test players liked was the manual effort required to successfully dribble with the virtual ball. According to Bogomolskiy, some open beta users saw the successful implementation “almost as a unique selling point. It wasn’t our intention at all.”
Strikerz Inc. is also happy with the positive comments about manual defense, because Nashilov does not want “the UFL to become a pure attack simulator.” It should be “rewarding” and challenging to defend against attacks in your own area: “We want in the UFL to actually have to do something to prevent a goal. Not just change the player.”
Nashilov and Bogomolskiy were unable or unwilling to give a specific view of the future beyond the second announced open beta. It is “difficult to communicate a timeline for the launch or other planned events.” However, the CEO can “guarantee that we will see many different events and partnerships in the game that we have not yet announced.” Bogomolskyi admitted that a possible early access had “opportunities”, but they always exist and for everything.
