What if you launched your next game a bit early, on platforms like Steam's Early Access service and the Xbox Live Game Preview platform -- and it proved wildly successful? How would that influx of player feedback affect your development roadmap?

Studio Wildcard dealt with precisely those challenges with its Early Access hit Ark: Survival Evolved. At GDC 2017, Studio Wildcard's Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak took the stage to speak at length about Ark's development strategy for Early Access on Steam, "Game Preview" on Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

It was interesting because they covered everything from how Wildcard fostered a thriving and active community to how it balanced core development priorities vs player-requested features, gauging player satisfaction beyond the "loudest voice in the room." 

Of course, there was plenty of talk about mistakes that were made, and the talk offered some potentially useful takeaways for fellow devs looking to successfully navigate Early Access with their own projects.

If you missed the talk in person, no worries: you can now watch it entirely for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas