Core Keeper and Feature Upvote

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Core Keeper is a hit indie video game created by Pugstorm AB.

I chatted with Cedric Schmitt, Community Programs Coordinator at Pugstorm, about why the Core Keeper team uses Feature Upvote to manage player feedback.

Key Takeaways

The Core Keeper team previously collected player suggestions through social media platforms.

While  those platforms are excellent for community interactions,they present some limitations when it comes to structured feedback management, and this is where Feature Upvote shines..

With Feature Upvote, they now have a platform where everyone can participate, where merging duplicate suggestions is easy, and where managing the feedback is quick and straightforward.

As a bonus, they were pleasantly surprised how well Feature Upvote filters out spam.

Core Keeper’s problems managing player feedback in other platforms

Cedric told us how the Core Keeper team managed player feedback before adopting Feature Upvote:

We were managing all our player feedback through Social Media platforms. We had a specific channel where people could enter their suggestions.

We found two big problems with this approach:

• Visibility – In large threads, you can’t find stuff very easily. So the same conversations happened over and over again.
• Accessibility – Not everyone uses those platforms. For some players, giving feedback required creating a new account, learning how the platform works, locating the feedback area before they could even submit their idea.

If they hadn’t given up yet, they could then finally post their feedback.

Cedric also added that certain platforms are  more popular in some countries, such as the United States, than it is in, say, China, which can additionally limit the participation.

Core Keeper switched to Feature Upvote

After Core Keeper’s 1.0 release, the team decided to adopt Feature Upvote.

We took a week or so to research the alternatives. 

The pricing model, the accessibility, the set of features, and the customizability made us decide on Feature Upvote.

We now have a place for feedback where players can just simply type in their feedback and their email. It’s better for everyone.

Suggestions are publicly visible right away, so the community can see what’s already been shared without needing to join a specific platform.

Core Keeper now has player feedback under control

I asked Cedric if he had to struggle to keep up with the amount of data that comes into Feature Upvote?

Not at all. It takes me about 5 minutes a day to approve new suggestions and comments, so it’s not really difficult.

I can’t remember even a single point in time where there was spam on the feedback board. That’s been amazing. The possibility of being flooded with spam was a huge concern that we had because Feature Upvote is so easy for players to use.

Cedric told us about an unexpected benefit:

The easy exporting of suggestions into my own spreadsheet helps us keep things more organized.

Previously, the topics were always in flux, which made it hard to pick up from where we left when discussing feedback in our regular meetings.

Cedric told us how they now feel more aligned to their community:

We have a clear vision for where we want the game to go, but it’s always valuable to compare that with what our players want. At the end of the day, we aim to develop the game in the best interest of our community.

Since we’ve been using Feature Upvote, I think we’ve become more internally aligned to the community.

I asked Cedric what specific Feature Upvote feature he most liked?

Definitely the ability to merge different suggestions. 

Some requests come in different variations – for example, some players might request similar features but specify different platforms such as PC or console. 

Previously, those would appear as separate suggestions. 

But now we can merge them, and the votes also get merged, which is super helpful.

Cedric told us that Feature Upvote makes the whole process of managing player feedback simple.

I don’t really need to worry about spam messages, for example. I can focus on the actual suggestions and what we want to do with them. That has been such a blessing.

It’s been so simple to edit everything, and to manage the comments and suggestions.

It is super easy to use – and super, super helpful for us.