The Eye of the Sandstorm
summary
Funcom builds Conan Exiles in Unreal Engine and launches it via Steam Early Access with integrated mod tools and staggered console ports, selling 480,000 copies first month and covering development cost in a week. The early build exposes scale and stability problems: server crashes, many thumbs‑down reviews and exploits, so the team reallocates resources—adds six full‑time combat devs, hires external QA partners and shifts to polish and stability for full launch.
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:49Funcom and speaker role
- 2:33Discussing money in games
- 4:22Creative director role
- 7:09New designers at Funcom
- 13:55Game design commandments
- 16:26Early access strategy
- 19:13Funcom history and survival games
- 25:23Valve’s early access
- 27:29Rising early access quality
- 29:14Conan Exiles launch success
- 32:04Player feedback in early access
- 35:17Bad early access assumptions
- 40:18Developer vs player mindset
- 43:28Marketing and community
- 46:00Conan Exiles challenges
- 51:37Q&A: Pre-production profits
- 54:48Q&A: Bug severity
- 58:09Q&A: QA process
- 1:00:58Closing remarks
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