Project L @ Evo 2023 Recap

Hi, everyone! Tom here. I wanted to take a minute to reflect on what was a truly special weekend at Evo. First, thank you to everyone who came by the booth to play Project L. I know I speak for the whole team when I say that your hype and enthusiasm for the game was overwhelming! While we were delighted to give you the chance to play, we did come to Evo with some objectives in mind. Let me break down how the weekend went from a game dev perspective.

As you’ve heard me say again (and again…), the game is still deep in development. So why go to Evo? It’s pretty simple: your feedback really is important to us. This wasn’t a formal playtest, but it was a vibe check from the collective minds of the people we’re making this game for: YOU!

So, how’d it go? Here are some of the major themes of feedback we heard from you, and how we’ll address them between now and launch.

First, let’s talk about Duos and Mixed Mode play.

We’re incredibly excited by the new kinds of fun this can unlock for fighting games, and for the most part, you were too! A lot of you were die-hard solo players, while others said you’d prefer to play duos. We heard lots of theorycrafting about which was the better way to play. This is exactly the reaction we were hoping for. We think this is a wide-open space with lots of possibilities, so please continue to tell us what you think as the game evolves.

We also got a lot of great feedback around the clarity of gameplay. We heard that when the game gets super crazy it can be a little hard to follow the action. For where the game is now, this honestly isn’t a big surprise. There’s a ton we can do to make key moments of the match clear and readable without nerfing the pace and excitement of combat. In the near term, we’ll focus on things like visual clarity between point and assist champs, calling out key moments in the match (like parries and Last Stand), and upgrading the HUD to more strongly signal when your abilities are available.

This was our most comprehensive check-in to verify that we’re on the right track. I’m super pumped about where the game is now, and from your reactions at Evo, it looks like you are too! We have a strong foundation to iterate from, and now thanks to all of your feedback we have some clear next steps to make the game even better.

So once again, this is the part where I remind you that Project L is still very much in development. The team can’t wait to get to work on all of the things we learned over the weekend.

If you were able to attend or watch Evo online, simply: thank you. Thank you for showing up to support fighting games and helping our community grow. And if you were able to stop by the Project L booth, a big thank you for helping us test the game and ultimately make something you’re excited to play. This was a big step for us! We’ll continue to keep you in the loop as we get the game ready for launch.

One more thing before signing off. A lot of you asked if you could buy one of the custom fightsticks we had at our booth. We need to hold on to them for now, but as a parting thank you here’s downloadable stick art (PNG examples here) so you can create your very own. We used the HORI Fighting Stick α, but you can pretty easily adapt the art to most any fightstick or button box. That’s all for now. Stay tuned, and we’ll see you soon!