The Indie Game Magazine August 2015 | Issue 52 | Page 14

start unlocking more complex things. For
instance, create a wooden ladder and you’ll
unlock the stone version. At the beginning
of the game, your crafting station looks
like the menu for a lemonade stand. After
enough crafting, the station starts to look
like a Skymall catalogue.
IGM: How many different environments
can players explore in Creativerse? What
makes each of these areas unique?
Playful Corp: We’ve got a diverse variety
of surface environments - deserts, mountains, swamps, beaches, tundra, meadows,
rolling hills - each unique in its own way,
whether that’s its own set of trees and
blocks, unique mobs, or environmental
challenges like frostbite or deadly cliffs.

In addition to surface variety, Creativerse
stands apart by offering variety under your
feet. As you dig further underground, you
encounter different layers that have their
own sets of challenges and monsters.
The deeper you go, the more difficult,
and strange, the world gets. Some of our
players report having nightmares about
the deepest layer, called The Corruption.

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IGM: There’s a lot of negative criticism on
Steam concerning a few different aspects
of the game that I’d like to give you the
opportunity to address. First off, can you
discuss the extent of Creativerse’s payto-play features? Exactly what types of
content are blocked or otherwise inaccessible due to paywalls?

guide our free-to-play path!

IGM: Another complaint a lot of users have
concerns the volatile and condescending
nature of the active player community.
There seems to be an issue with the
current player base verbally attacking
anyone who offers constructive criticism
about the game. Is Playful Corp planning
Playful Corp: Creativerseis not free yet. on addressing this issue?
We’re charging $20 dollars to limit our audiPlayful Corp: Part of the challenge is the
ence to folks who are truly interested at a
way Steam organizes its reviews, allowing
time when our servers aren’t quite ready
out-of-date information to stay on the
for prime time, and we’re still figuring out
main page. It’s why it appears as though
what the game will ultimately become. But
we have pay-to-skip timers in the game,
we are planning for the game to finally be
even though we removed them back in
free later this year. At that point, we’ll start
October of 2014. As for our community,
accepting real money payments for items
we’ve taken steps to address this feedback
in our store. We’ve been clear from early
by speaking both publicly and privately to
on that we dislike most free-to-play games
players calling for more civil discourse.
(especially mobile F2P) and the ways in
From our perspective, things have imwhich these games monetize – typically
proved greatly. But again, Steam’s review
called Pay-to-Play or Pay-to-Win.
system allows older posts to stay on the
Our vision for Creativerseas a free game is top, and Steam also gives players who
inspired by some of our favorite free titles, haven’t purchased the game the ability
such Dota 2and Team Fortress 2, which to influence this by clicking the “helpful”
show that free games can be great AND button, which folks are much more likely to
successful with a careful and respectful do on negative reviews, allowing
approach to monetization. Currently, our them to rise to the top of the page.
store offers specialized recipe packs for We’ve sent Valve suggestions for
high end decorative blocks and consumable how to improve this review system,
items, like fireworks. There is also a new and they’re a very supportive and
feature we are calling Blueprints, which responsive company, so let’s see how
are plans you can purchase that give you things progress!
step-by-step instructions for creating unique
IGM: Right. A lot of players felt that the
structures in your world. We will continue
wait times for crafting and mining were
listening closely to our community to help

The Indie Game Magazine