LIVE AWARE: THE FEEDBACK LOOP
THAT FUELS TREEHOUSE GAMES
LIVE AWARE:
THE FEEDBACK LOOP
THAT FUELS TREEHOUSE GAMES
How Live Aware helps shape Voyagers of Nera
through continuous player insights
How Live Aware helps shape
Voyagers of Nera through
continuous player insights
KEY RESULTS
75% reduction in feedback processing time: Eliminated 20+ hour weekend editing sessions after each major playtests
-
7,500% increase in playtest scale: Successfully supported the automated processing of feedback during Steam Demo event where playtesters scaled from 400 to 30,000
-
Democratized insights: Team members across all disciplines can now directly access relevant player feedback without watching hours of footage
-
Faster issue identification: Critical issues like keyboard compatibility problems were identified within hours instead of days or weeks
-
Community growth: Discord community expanded from 400 to 2,000 members, supported by consistent bi-weekly playtests managed through Live Aware
KEY RESULTS
75% reduction in feedback processing time: Eliminated 20+ hour weekend editing sessions after each major playtests
-
7,500% increase in playtest scale: Successfully supported the automated processing of feedback during Steam Demo event where playtesters scaled from 400 to 30,000
-
Democratized insights: Team members across all disciplines can now directly access relevant player feedback without watching hours of footage
-
Faster issue identification: Critical issues like keyboard compatibility problems were identified within hours instead of days or weeks
-
Community growth: Discord community expanded from 400 to 2,000 members, supported by consistent bi-weekly playtests managed through Live Aware
When you set out to create a game that serves as "the best way for friends to spend time together," feedback from your players becomes more than a nice-to-have — it becomes your north star. This is the challenge that Treehouse Games embraced with their cooperative survival crafting game, Voyagers of Nera.
Founded by Michael Chu (former product manager at Riot Games who helped launch Teamfight Tactics) and Ryan Sullivan (an experienced indie game veteran from Industrial Toys, acquired by EA), Treehouse Games was built on the philosophy that games should create quality time with friends—moments of shared discovery, progression, and creative expression that bring people closer together.
Voyagers of Nera embodies this vision through its magical world where friends cooperate to explore, build, and thrive together. Unlike traditional survival games, it offers a colorful, broadly appealing experience designed to foster connection.
But creating this "hangout experience" requires deep insights into how players actually experience the game together—insights that prove increasingly difficult to gather as the team scales their playtesting efforts.
WHEN MANUAL PLAYTESTING HITS ITS LIMITS
In the early days of development, playtesting at Treehouse looked like many studios: manual and increasingly unsustainable as the game grew.
Michael Chu personally ran playtests with small groups of 4-5 players. He spent 10-15 hours per week coordinating sessions, sending emails, creating surveys, hosting Discord groups, and reviewing hours of footage. He would cut this footage down to 45-minute supercuts to share essential insights with the team.
Voyagers of Nera embodies this vision through its magical world where friends cooperate to explore, build, and thrive together. Unlike traditional survival games, it offers a colorful, broadly appealing experience designed to foster connection.
But creating this "hangout experience" requires deep insights into how players actually experience the game together—insights that prove increasingly difficult to gather as the team scales their playtesting efforts.
WHEN MANUAL PLAYTESTING HITS ITS LIMITS
In the early days of development, playtesting at Treehouse looked like many studios: manual and increasingly unsustainable as the game grew.
Michael Chu personally ran playtests with small groups of 4-5 players. He spent 10-15 hours per week coordinating sessions, sending emails, creating surveys, hosting Discord groups, and reviewing hours of footage. He would cut this footage down to 45-minute supercuts to share essential insights with the team.
"When we were scaling up our playtests beyond small groups I could personally manage, we were losing that crucial middle layer of insight—the emotional reactions, the excitement, the frustration moments that tell you so much about the player experience," explains Chu.
While this hands-on approach provided valuable insights, it didn't scale. As Treehouse expanded from friends and family testing to a growing Discord community (eventually reaching 2000 members), the manual process became prohibitive.
The team found themselves at a crossroads familiar to many devs: how to maintain rich, qualitative feedback while scaling up testing to reach more players.
BRIDGING THE FEEDBACK GAP
In mid-2024, Treehouse Games began using Live Aware to capture and analyze their bi-weekly playtests. The shift transformed their ability to understand the player experience at scale.
Live Aware's lightweight recording solution allowed them to easily capture play experiences without burdening players with complex setup. The tool's ability to automatically transcribe and organize footage made it possible to search for specific moments, create video clips of player experiences, and identify patterns across multiple sessions.
"Live Aware gives us rich qualitative feedback that fills the gap between quantitative survey data and the human experience of playing our game," says Chu. "It restored visibility into those crucial emotional moments while allowing us to scale our testing."
"When we were scaling up our playtests beyond small groups I could personally manage, we were losing that crucial middle layer of insight—the emotional reactions, the excitement, the frustration moments that tell you so much about the player experience," explains Chu.
While this hands-on approach provided valuable insights, it didn't scale. As Treehouse expanded from friends and family testing to a growing Discord community (eventually reaching 2000 members), the manual process became prohibitive.
The team found themselves at a crossroads familiar to many devs: how to maintain rich, qualitative feedback while scaling up testing to reach more players.
BRIDGING THE FEEDBACK GAP
In mid-2024, Treehouse Games began using Live Aware to capture and analyze their bi-weekly playtests. The shift transformed their ability to understand the player experience at scale.
Live Aware's lightweight recording solution allowed them to easily capture play experiences without burdening players with complex setup. The tool's ability to automatically transcribe and organize footage made it possible to search for specific moments, create video clips of player experiences, and identify patterns across multiple sessions.
"Live Aware gives us rich qualitative feedback that fills the gap between quantitative survey data and the human experience of playing our game," says Chu. "It restored visibility into those crucial emotional moments while allowing us to scale our testing."
Live Aware eliminated the weekend-long editing marathons that had become standard after major playtests. Before, Michael would spend 20+ hours editing footage from 400 players into multiple 15-minute supercuts that team members still had to find time to watch. Now, team members who previously couldn't dedicate time to reviewing 4-8 streams (each 3 hours long) can directly access the insights and specific moments they need.
SCALING UP: THE STEAM DEMO CHALLENGE
The real test came in December 2024 when Treehouse launched their Steam demo. Suddenly, they were faced with feedback from over 30,000 players—a massive leap from their previous largest playtest of around 400 people.
Without Live Aware, processing this volume of feedback would have been impossible. But with Live Aware's Insights Dashboard, the team could efficiently identify patterns and prioritize issues across several categories:
Features that players loved and wanted more of (like the art style and world exploration)
-
Features that sounded exciting but weren't delivering on their promise (like spirit unlock systems)
-
Content areas that needed expansion (like underwater environments)
-
Critical barriers to experience (like keyboard compatibility issues)
Live Aware eliminated the weekend-long editing marathons that had become standard after major playtests. Before, Michael would spend 20+ hours editing footage from 400 players into multiple 15-minute supercuts that team members still had to find time to watch. Now, team members who previously couldn't dedicate time to reviewing 4-8 streams (each 3 hours long) can directly access the insights and specific moments they need.
SCALING UP: THE STEAM DEMO CHALLENGE
The real test came in December 2024 when Treehouse launched their Steam demo. Suddenly, they were faced with feedback from over 30,000 players—a massive leap from their previous largest playtest of around 400 people.
Without Live Aware, processing this volume of feedback would have been impossible. But with Live Aware's Insights Dashboard, the team could efficiently identify patterns and prioritize issues across several categories:
Features that players loved and wanted more of (like the art style and world exploration)
-
Features that sounded exciting but weren't delivering on their promise (like spirit unlock systems)
-
Content areas that needed expansion (like underwater environments)
-
Critical barriers to experience (like keyboard compatibility issues)
Live Aware eliminated the weekend-long editing marathons that had become standard after major playtests. Before, Michael would spend 20+ hours editing footage from 400 players into multiple 15-minute supercuts that team members still had to find time to watch. Now, team members who previously couldn't dedicate time to reviewing 4-8 streams (each 3 hours long) can directly access the insights and specific moments they need.
SCALING UP: THE STEAM DEMO CHALLENGE
The real test came in December 2024 when Treehouse launched their Steam demo. Suddenly, they were faced with feedback from over 30,000 players—a massive leap from their previous largest playtest of around 400 people.
Without Live Aware, processing this volume of feedback would have been impossible. But with Live Aware's Insights Dashboard, the team could efficiently identify patterns and prioritize issues across several categories:
Features that players loved and wanted more of (like the art style and world exploration)
-
Features that sounded exciting but weren't delivering on their promise (like spirit unlock systems)
-
Content areas that needed expansion (like underwater environments)
-
Critical barriers to experience (like keyboard compatibility issues)
Live Aware eliminated the weekend-long editing marathons that had become standard after major playtests. Before, Michael would spend 20+ hours editing footage from 400 players into multiple 15-minute supercuts that team members still had to find time to watch. Now, team members who previously couldn't dedicate time to reviewing 4-8 streams (each 3 hours long) can directly access the insights and specific moments they need.
SCALING UP: THE STEAM DEMO CHALLENGE
The real test came in December 2024 when Treehouse launched their Steam demo. Suddenly, they were faced with feedback from over 30,000 players—a massive leap from their previous largest playtest of around 400 people.
Without Live Aware, processing this volume of feedback would have been impossible. But with Live Aware's Insights Dashboard, the team could efficiently identify patterns and prioritize issues across several categories:
Features that players loved and wanted more of (like the art style and world exploration)
-
Features that sounded exciting but weren't delivering on their promise (like spirit unlock systems)
-
Content areas that needed expansion (like underwater environments)
-
Critical barriers to experience (like keyboard compatibility issues)
Live Aware eliminated the weekend-long editing marathons that had become standard after major playtests. Before, Michael would spend 20+ hours editing footage from 400 players into multiple 15-minute supercuts that team members still had to find time to watch. Now, team members who previously couldn't dedicate time to reviewing 4-8 streams (each 3 hours long) can directly access the insights and specific moments they need.
SCALING UP: THE STEAM DEMO CHALLENGE
The real test came in December 2024 when Treehouse launched their Steam demo. Suddenly, they were faced with feedback from over 30,000 players—a massive leap from their previous largest playtest of around 400 people.
Without Live Aware, processing this volume of feedback would have been impossible. But with Live Aware's Insights Dashboard, the team could efficiently identify patterns and prioritize issues across several categories:
Features that players loved and wanted more of (like the art style and world exploration)
-
Features that sounded exciting but weren't delivering on their promise (like spirit unlock systems)
-
Content areas that needed expansion (like underwater environments)
-
Critical barriers to experience (like keyboard compatibility issues)
One particularly valuable insight emerged around international keyboard compatibility. The team discovered many international players were churning within the first 10 minutes simply because they couldn't comfortably access their inventory with non-North American keyboards.
"Without Live Aware's ability to capture and analyze these experiences at scale, we might have missed this critical feedback or discovered it much later," notes Chu. This insight caused them to reprioritize adding key binding options much earlier in their development timeline.
CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Beyond identifying issues, Treehouse has embraced transparency with their community. They've created videos responding to player feedback, showing their development process, and demonstrating how player input directly shapes the game.
This approach has fostered a vibrant, engaged community that feels invested in the game's development. The team now runs regular playtests every two weeks, with Live Aware helping them process feedback from these sessions efficiently and thoroughly.
One particularly valuable insight emerged around international keyboard compatibility. The team discovered many international players were churning within the first 10 minutes simply because they couldn't comfortably access their inventory with non-North American keyboards.
"Without Live Aware's ability to capture and analyze these experiences at scale, we might have missed this critical feedback or discovered it much later," notes Chu. This insight caused them to reprioritize adding key binding options much earlier in their development timeline.
CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Beyond identifying issues, Treehouse has embraced transparency with their community. They've created videos responding to player feedback, showing their development process, and demonstrating how player input directly shapes the game.
This approach has fostered a vibrant, engaged community that feels invested in the game's development. The team now runs regular playtests every two weeks, with Live Aware helping them process feedback from these sessions efficiently and thoroughly.
One particularly valuable insight emerged around international keyboard compatibility. The team discovered many international players were churning within the first 10 minutes simply because they couldn't comfortably access their inventory with non-North American keyboards.
"Without Live Aware's ability to capture and analyze these experiences at scale, we might have missed this critical feedback or discovered it much later," notes Chu. This insight caused them to reprioritize adding key binding options much earlier in their development timeline.
CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Beyond identifying issues, Treehouse has embraced transparency with their community. They've created videos responding to player feedback, showing their development process, and demonstrating how player input directly shapes the game.
This approach has fostered a vibrant, engaged community that feels invested in the game's development. The team now runs regular playtests every two weeks, with Live Aware helping them process feedback from these sessions efficiently and thoroughly.
One particularly valuable insight emerged around international keyboard compatibility. The team discovered many international players were churning within the first 10 minutes simply because they couldn't comfortably access their inventory with non-North American keyboards.
"Without Live Aware's ability to capture and analyze these experiences at scale, we might have missed this critical feedback or discovered it much later," notes Chu. This insight caused them to reprioritize adding key binding options much earlier in their development timeline.
CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Beyond identifying issues, Treehouse has embraced transparency with their community. They've created videos responding to player feedback, showing their development process, and demonstrating how player input directly shapes the game.
This approach has fostered a vibrant, engaged community that feels invested in the game's development. The team now runs regular playtests every two weeks, with Live Aware helping them process feedback from these sessions efficiently and thoroughly.
One particularly valuable insight emerged around international keyboard compatibility. The team discovered many international players were churning within the first 10 minutes simply because they couldn't comfortably access their inventory with non-North American keyboards.
"Without Live Aware's ability to capture and analyze these experiences at scale, we might have missed this critical feedback or discovered it much later," notes Chu. This insight caused them to reprioritize adding key binding options much earlier in their development timeline.
CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Beyond identifying issues, Treehouse has embraced transparency with their community. They've created videos responding to player feedback, showing their development process, and demonstrating how player input directly shapes the game.
This approach has fostered a vibrant, engaged community that feels invested in the game's development. The team now runs regular playtests every two weeks, with Live Aware helping them process feedback from these sessions efficiently and thoroughly.
"If I could do it again, I might have launched the demo earlier because having both the demo and Live Aware working together created a powerful feedback loop that accelerated our development," reflects Chu.
THE ROAD AHEAD
As Treehouse continues refining Voyagers of Nera, their roadmap is heavily influenced by the insights gathered through Live Aware. They are enhancing underwater environments with more life and resources, refining hunger and stamina systems to feel less punishing, and making sailing mechanics more immersive with proper wind and wave effects—all direct responses to player feedback.
With plans for Early Access on the horizon, Live Aware remains a crucial tool in their development process, helping them identify what's working, what needs refinement, and what unexpected opportunities might emerge.
For Treehouse Games, the combination of their community-focused development philosophy and Live Aware's ability to scale qualitative feedback has created a powerful engine for creating the ultimate hangout experience.
"If I could do it again, I might have launched the demo earlier because having both the demo and Live Aware working together created a powerful feedback loop that accelerated our development," reflects Chu.
THE ROAD AHEAD
As Treehouse continues refining Voyagers of Nera, their roadmap is heavily influenced by the insights gathered through Live Aware. They are enhancing underwater environments with more life and resources, refining hunger and stamina systems to feel less punishing, and making sailing mechanics more immersive with proper wind and wave effects—all direct responses to player feedback.
With plans for Early Access on the horizon, Live Aware remains a crucial tool in their development process, helping them identify what's working, what needs refinement, and what unexpected opportunities might emerge.
For Treehouse Games, the combination of their community-focused development philosophy and Live Aware's ability to scale qualitative feedback has created a powerful engine for creating the ultimate hangout experience.
"If I could do it again, I might have launched the demo earlier because having both the demo and Live Aware working together created a powerful feedback loop that accelerated our development," reflects Chu.
THE ROAD AHEAD
As Treehouse continues refining Voyagers of Nera, their roadmap is heavily influenced by the insights gathered through Live Aware. They are enhancing underwater environments with more life and resources, refining hunger and stamina systems to feel less punishing, and making sailing mechanics more immersive with proper wind and wave effects—all direct responses to player feedback.
With plans for Early Access on the horizon, Live Aware remains a crucial tool in their development process, helping them identify what's working, what needs refinement, and what unexpected opportunities might emerge.
For Treehouse Games, the combination of their community-focused development philosophy and Live Aware's ability to scale qualitative feedback has created a powerful engine for creating the ultimate hangout experience.
"If I could do it again, I might have launched the demo earlier because having both the demo and Live Aware working together created a powerful feedback loop that accelerated our development," reflects Chu.
THE ROAD AHEAD
As Treehouse continues refining Voyagers of Nera, their roadmap is heavily influenced by the insights gathered through Live Aware. They are enhancing underwater environments with more life and resources, refining hunger and stamina systems to feel less punishing, and making sailing mechanics more immersive with proper wind and wave effects—all direct responses to player feedback.
With plans for Early Access on the horizon, Live Aware remains a crucial tool in their development process, helping them identify what's working, what needs refinement, and what unexpected opportunities might emerge.
For Treehouse Games, the combination of their community-focused development philosophy and Live Aware's ability to scale qualitative feedback has created a powerful engine for creating the ultimate hangout experience.
"If I could do it again, I might have launched the demo earlier because having both the demo and Live Aware working together created a powerful feedback loop that accelerated our development," reflects Chu.
THE ROAD AHEAD
As Treehouse continues refining Voyagers of Nera, their roadmap is heavily influenced by the insights gathered through Live Aware. They are enhancing underwater environments with more life and resources, refining hunger and stamina systems to feel less punishing, and making sailing mechanics more immersive with proper wind and wave effects—all direct responses to player feedback.
With plans for Early Access on the horizon, Live Aware remains a crucial tool in their development process, helping them identify what's working, what needs refinement, and what unexpected opportunities might emerge.
For Treehouse Games, the combination of their community-focused development philosophy and Live Aware's ability to scale qualitative feedback has created a powerful engine for creating the ultimate hangout experience.
Voyagers of Nera is currently in development by Treehouse Games. Visit their game website for more information and wishlist their game on Steam.
To learn more about how Live Aware can help your team capture and analyze player feedback at scale, click here to sign up for a demo.