Howdy hunters,

Welcome to a new year at theHunter! The Expansive Worlds squad are back from their holiday breaks and so are our weekly status updates. We’re kicking off the new year by welcoming some new team members. QA manager Dennis, Executive producer Anna and an animation intern Morris. You’ll get to know these guys better next week.

Here are some snippets of what else we’ve been up to so far.

Ask Us Anything

Do you have some questions for us? I imagine many of you do! Here’s a unique chance to receive a reply to a question you’ve always wanted to ask. Our Ask Us Anything is back! Unlike our previous sessions, this time you can direct your questions to the whole team and I’ll do my best to coordinate the team’s response efforts by relaying them to right people. The AUA thread will be open for 5 days, starting at 15:00 CET on Wednesday, January 13. All questions will be moderated and supervised by myself and the moderation team. I’ll do my best to get you the answers to your questions by within a week of the AUA session closing.

Here’s a reminder of our AUA rules:

• Our Code of Conduct applies
• No tech support and bugs related questions, as these usually require a thorough personal investigation and we have specific channels for those type of queries (customer support and Bug Reports forum)
• Try to avoid opinionated questions, eg. ”Why does the new gun suck?”
• Do not repost your question multiple times
• All questions may be asked, but not all questions may be answered, although we’ll do my best to reply to everything we can. If I the answer is unknown or can’t be revealed, I’ll let you know. Questions will be answered not necessarily in the order in which they’re posted.

The Ask Us Anything thread is now open

Regarding cheaters

We’ve noticed an increase in the amount of reports on cheaters as well as heated discussions regarding this controversial subject in the community forum. We hate cheaters as much as you do and in accordance with our zero-tolerance approach, they do get banned immediately once we have obtained the necessary proof. However, we want to discourage people from accusing other players publicly and indulging in what can only be described as “witch hunts”. We don’t allow and won’t tolerate such behaviour within our community platforms because we don’t want innocent people to suffer unnecessarily. If you suspect someone of cheating, please file a report at support.thehunter.com and we’ll check all the information provided and, if the case stands, that person will be banned. Thank you for your cooperation assistance, which offers tremendous help in fighting dishonesty within theHunter!

Holiday Event results

Our Holiday event is over and you can find the leaderboard with top 50 here. Congratulations to all the winners, you should by now have received your prizes and trophies. If you haven’t, please contact support at support.thehunter.com and we’ll sort it out as soon as we can.

We’ve also raffled two more revolvers among all the participants and here are the two lucky winners: HaruoRhs gets a Mule and BearsBack gets a Stallion

Missions and competitions

There have been some questions about missing missions and competitions for the newer species. We are planning to add them, it’s just that our game designers have had their plates full over the last few months, so it’s been taking longer to develop them than usual. We hope to be able to release something fun and engaging for you soon.

Downtime over New Year’s eve

We received reports about a lot of players not being able to play for hours during New Year’s eve. Our backend developer Calle has dug into this matter and has advised me that there was a problem with Google Cloud and certain certificates. The problem self-corrected after a couple of hours. Sorry if your New Year’s eve was affected.

Mungo667 and Morpheus visiting Expansive Worlds

And finally, a wee bit belated, but we received a very nice visit back in autumn. Our German community member Mungo667 visited us with his dog Morpheus on his way to hunting in the Swedish municipality of Åsele. Mungo667 met the team, learned about how we work, did a QA session with our game designer Phil and got a theHunter T-shirt for his dog. It was great to have you Mungo667!

Here is the sweet Morpheus rocking his theHunter T-shirt!
That’s it from us for today, check back next week for more news from us and don’t forget to ask your question in the Ask Us Anything.

Happy Hunting!

Discussion

Hey hunters,

Welcome to our last status update of 2015!

In this update we’re going to be looking back at the year gone by, and introducing new members of our team!

Let’s sum up 2015!

The year has been one of a kind in theHunter’s history. We’ve released a record number of reserves, species and game features, not counting minor pieces of content and fixes. It’s been a great, albeit occasionally bumpy, road and we are so grateful for your continued loyalty, ongoing support, participation in events, sharing of happy and angry posts in the forum and, in general, being the best gaming community out there. We appreciate you very much and we’re looking forward to spending 2016 together with you.

Here are some numbers for everything that has happened in 2015:

• New reserves – 2
• New species – 9
• New game features – 6
• New weapons – 15
• New pieces of equipment / scope / lures / consumables – 30
• New wearables (for a hunter & dog) – 57
• New missions – 131
• New competitions – 86
• Bugs fixed – 210+
• Special events – 10
• Community created competitions and prize draws – 44
• New people joined the community forums – 1 889 (+11%)
• Social media following increased – 20 261 (+33%)
• Supports tickets resolved – 14 209
• Player surveys created and replied to – 3
• Store Discounts / Sales / Bonus gifts / Special promotions– 70+
• Free species hunts – 6
• Open beta – 1

We’ve asked the community and the team about their personal highlights of 2015, and here are some of the answers (with Whiterime Ridge and dogs having won the polls in both camps):

IzDaPat – Community member

1) The quality of work EW’s ‘art department’ has put out. Most notably: fur (finally!), new animals in general, but especially the Bisons’ and Dogs’ 3D models, textures and animations, WRR’s level design and the models and textures of some of the new weapons, e.g. the Bouquetin.

2) The social aspect of the game: more awesome people in MP games and on the forum, established groups of friends to hunt with, great discussions and debates on the forum, lots of great ideas and suggestions, more & better community competitions.

Carl-Oscar Löhn – Client programmer

I loved the Labrador Retrievers, both as new content and as work experience. Working three programmers on the same thing is really fun.

MonStarHunting – Community member

New Crossbow and increasing weapon/animal achievements (blowing the dust of my parker python).

Xan Williams – Sound designer

Watching the live stream pre-release of Whiterime Ridge and seeing how much the players loved it.

Lawger – Community member

First, the bison. I love bovines, and I hope to see them on a temperate map as well. Second, the new ducks, because it was totally unexpected for me and it added a lot of much needed variation to water fowling on RB.

Hannes Rhodin – Producer

2015 has been a great year for us and I think we have proven not only to ourselves but also to our players that we can push theHunter into the future with new and existing content. The Labrador Retrievers and Whiterime Ridge are by far my favourite additions to the world of hunters…

And as I look into 2016, I can smell blood on a rocky road…

FR_Bugs – Community member

Summer fiesta model event based on missions with several difficulty levels and NT’s release and special missions about them.

Team update

And finally, onto some real life news. In the last couple of months the theHunter team has undergone a number of changes. Amongst the people who are currently working on theHunter you will recognize a bunch of old faces and see some new ones. You will miss a couple of our old colleagues since they have moved on to pastures new, but theHunter force is strong with our team and our passion to bring you an even better game experience is bubbling.

Here‘s the current theHunter team:

• Hannes Rhodin – Producer
• Daniel Jansson – Game Designer
• Philipp Strecker – Game Designer
• Daniel Gutierrez Gustafsson – Lead programmer
• Carl-Oscar Löhn – Client programmer
• Josef Sundberg – Client programmer
• Xan Williams – Sound designer
• Tomas Lif – 3D artist
• Sandra Parling – 3D artist
• Timo Väisänen – 3D artist
• Frida Thoren – 3D artist
• Markus Tuomi – 3D artist
• Calle Gustafsson – Backend programmer
• Emil Bjurström – Backend programmer
• Magnus Eckers – Frontend programmer
• Hampus Linton – Animator
• Dick Sjöström – Animator
• David Lucas – Support Manager
• Maria Fritzell – User Acquisition Manager
• Alena Rybik – Community Manager

Those of you who have been with us long enough have probably noticed that we have a few new team members. Frida Thoren and Timo Väisänen have joined our art team, Josef has strengthened the client programming team, Xan Williams has been working on the sounds and Maria Fritzell took on a new role within Expansive Worlds, user acquisition manager. Here are the intros of the three of them; say hi to the guys and make them feel warm and welcomed.

Maria

Hi, my name is Maria and I recently joined the Expansive Worlds team in Stockholm. My job is to try to get new players on board through different marketing activities. The more players we get the more resources we’ll have for further improvements of the game.

I’m originally from Gothenburg on the south west coast of Sweden. After having lived in a few different countries I have now moved back to Sweden and to the beautiful Stockholm. I have yet to explore the city and its surroundings properly, but I have been out in the archipelago where I am planning to spend more time next summer. Travelling is my passion and I’m always on the look-out for new destinations. One of the things I love about theHunter is the stunning scenery and visuals.

Timo

Hello there,

My name is Timo Väisänen and I’ve joined the team at Expansive Worlds as a graphics artist, building everything from weapons to animals and doing a lot of texture work.

I have been working at Avalanche Studios for over 10 years now, on projects like Just Cause, Mad Max and now for a time on theHunter.

I live in Stockholm and have lived here or around my whole life. I´ve been in the game development business since 1998 when I started as a graphics artist with Crytec that just started back then. We were a group of people from all over the world, working from home and submitting our work to a server in Germany. Only when they got their new offices in Coburg Germany I opted instead to start working at a Swedish company Paradox Entertainment on the games like Europa Universalis and Svea Rike.

My interests are music and playing the guitar. I’m into the Gibson Historics line of guitars and I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to all things guitar gear.

Josef

Greeting everyone!

I’m Josef Sundberg and I recently joined theHunter as a client programmer. As many others on this team I went to The Game Assembly and was in the same class with Danny, I remember we did a text adventure game about a janitor way back in our first year there.

I started at Avalanche Studios as an intern four years ago and have most recently been working on Mad Max as a gameplay programmer with the vehicle combat.

In my spare time I like to play video and board games with friends. I also enjoy watching sci-fi and fantasy tv-shows and reading fantasy novels. And I often go and play badminton with my coworkers.

That’s it from us for today. Please be aware that the team will be on vacations until January 7th 2016, so during that time communication will be scarce. See you all in 2016!

Happy hunting and happy holidays!

Discussion

Howdy hunters,

Time for our status update and here’s what we’ve been up to at Expansive Worlds.

Introducing theHunter: Legends

Yesterday, together with theHunter community, we beta-launched our new game – theHunter: Legends. Developed by another Stockholm based studio Goo Technologies in collaboration with Expansive Worlds, the game offers a totally different experience from what you’re used to in the EHR, but if you like shooting clay pigeons on Logger’s Point trap shooting range or fancy practicing taking down airborne birds, you’ll definitely enjoy Legends! It is a casual free to play game and you will need to have a Facebook account to play it. The game is still in the beta stage, but we’re super curious to know your thoughts – so go give it a try and share with us your feedback. You can read more about the game and how to join the beta in the dedicated forum thread.

Let’s sum up 2015!

We’re looking back at 2015 in theHunter and charting out the highlights of the year – come and tell us what were your biggest highs and lows in theHunter in 2015 and what hopes you have for 2016.

Happy holidays from theHunter team!

The holiday season is alive and kicking and it’s time for a traditional present from the EW team. Another piece of clothing for your holiday attire? Why not! This year it will be a pair of super snuggly reindeer Mittens, specially designed for handling weapons in cold weather while keeping your hands warm. As always, we want to thank you for staying with us throughout this year and hunting on despite all the bumps we’ve been through. You can grab your pair for free in the store until Monday, December 14th.

Farewell to all the good hunters who left us forever

We’re finishing today on a slightly sad note, as we’ve recently become aware that two brilliant members of theHunter community have left us forever. Game veteran Master Hunter and Manfred3175, an active and loved member of our German community Jagdfreunde. Judging by their friends’ testimonials, both guys were amazing people and will be missed.

This tribute video, made by another member of the German community Pratze as a tribute to Manfred3175, with creator’s permission I would like to dedicate to Master Hunter as well as all those people who became our friends in the game in the forum and who one day have just disappeared and there was no one there to tell us whether they’d gone. We will remember you, thank you for hunting.

Discussion

Hello hunters,

It’s finally December and we’re all slowly getting into the holiday mood. We hope you get a chance to take a stab at our traditional Holiday Event that kicked off two days ago. As usual, there are daily missions, competitions and sales from now until Christmas, December 25. Like it sometimes happens with events of such scale and complexity, we’ve ran into some teething problems at the start, especially with the Secret Santa option, but they’ve all been sorted out now. You can read more about this in our special Holiday Event thread.

November is over, and so is our Movember event. This year we sold 1574 moustaches, for which we donated 3148 dollars (about 28000 Swedish crowns) to the Movember foundation which will go towards funding research projects focusing on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, poor mental health and physical inactivity. Thank you for your support and contributions. Together we’ve helped to change the face of men’s health! And while we are on it, make sure to check the results of the devs’ personal Movember challenge and cast your vote for your favourite moustache of the Expansive Worlds.

Today we released one of the most requested weapons of all time. A new crossbow, with a reverse draw! It’s ethical for all species in the game and simply looks wicked. We definitely recommend checking it out.

We want to take this opportunity to announce that in three months, on March 3rd 2016, we’ll end official support for operating systems Windows XP and Vista. The reason is that Microsoft has already stopped supporting XP and is slowly dropping support for Vista. Due to this, those old operating systems carry security risks and significant hurdles for our technical team. Just a disclaimer; the game might still work on Vista and XP after we drop the support for those, however, we cannot guarantee that it will and will not be responsible for game performance.

What it will mean for those of you who still run those operating systems on their computers? We wouldn’t like to lose you from the theHunter community, so we would like to encourage everyone to upgrade to Windows 7 or higher. In fact, if you do this before the end of 2015, we’ll add 30 membership days to your account (in addition to those that you’re entitled to according to our compensation plan as per previous status update). To apply for this incentive, please submit a support ticket.

If upgrading from XP or Vista is not an option for you, and by March 2016 you’ll have more than 1 month of your membership time remaining, you can either transfer your unused membership time to a friend or apply for a monetary refund for the unused membership time (in this event all unused membership days will be removed). We’re going to provide detailed instructions on membership transfer and refunds in a separate post within the next month, so stay tuned. We’re kindly asking you to not create support tickets on those two matters before then as we won’t be able to address them.

A short note to those of you with XP who cannot play the game. We’re still working on the issue and we’ll keep you updated on the progress. We’re sorry for the troubles the decision to end support for XP and Vista might cause to those of you affected, however, as time progresses and technology develops, we need to take such decisions in order to provide the best possible game experience for as many players as possible from all over the world.

That’s it from us for today!

Happy hunting!

Dicsussion

Hello hunters,

It’s status update time and we want to kick things off with the survey results and prize draw

A couple of weeks ago we ran a player survey focused on Whiterime Ridge and we wanted to share some of the results with you. This has been our most successful survey, with about 11000 players having completed it.

As you can see from the reply chart below, almost 80% respondents are either extremely happy or happy with the release of Whiterime Ridge.

We’ve also asked you about your experience and here are the results:

Here’s how you rated different aspects of Whiterime Ridge on the scale from 1 to 5:

This brings the average score for this reserve to 4.07. In general these results show us that despite the turmoil surrounding the release, we’ve done well and you support us which means a lot. Thank you for your appreciation!

As promised, we’ve randomly picked 5 respondents and awarded them 1000 em$. The lucky ones are: EngeeL, ColoradoKid, Evilworm, SanglierNoir34 and paulieboy1977.

Now onto the promised compensation plan for players who have been experiencing issues since the release of Whiterime Ridge. We’ve divided all affected players into three categories, depending on the seriousness of the issues they’ve experienced:

1. Couldn’t play the game at all or could play but didn’t get any credit for progress (mostly players with the “Vista” issue whose statistics was not saved).
   If you fall into this category you will be compensated with 30 membership days.
2. Could play the game but experienced serious, game-breaking issues (e.g. game crashes every hunt or every other hunt).
   If you fall into this category you will be compensated with 15 membership days.
3. Could play but have been experiencing minor issues and occasional crashes.
   If you fall into this category you have already been compensated with the free .454 El Bisonte and a double XP weekend which will be announced once the issue affecting many XP users is fixed.

If you’ve experienced any of the serious issues which fall into categories 1 or 2, you’ll need to submit a detailed support ticket here, specifying the problems you’ve been experiencing. Please attach a copy of your dxdiag report. Our support manager will look into each particular case and will handle your compensation if you qualify.

Attention XP users who still can’t play the game: We haven’t been able to fix the issue yet but we are continuing to work on it. A statement from our lead programmer Danny:

When dealing with OS related issues, it’s pretty hard to find what the problem really is without being able to test for them. XP as an OS is not supported anymore by Microsoft, which makes things harder. The other problem with such old OSs is the security aspect of it. We cannot install computers with XP or Vista within our organisations network, which (again) makes it even harder to find the issues.

XP users can either wait for the fix and corresponding patch then claim their lost membership days retrospectively once the problem is resolved, or, in case they upgrade to Windows 7 or higher they can apply for compensation and get their lost membership days retrospectively, starting from October 7th.

And last but not least, some people have expressed their disapproval of the fact we’ve been releasing a lot of weapon “reskins” lately, claiming that they’re not needed. So, I wanted to quickly address the matter here. Releasing item variations and increasing the amount of items in the store is not an underhanded tactic on our part. There is no pressure on players to buy all the items we release. Reskins give players more choice, especially new players who may not already own a version of the item in question. To make new items from scratch naturally takes longer, therefore this happens less often than variations of existing items. But without easy-to-implement items, we simply wouldn’t be able to sustain the level of development that currently goes into the game.

That’s it for now.

Happy hunting!

Discussion