Originally posted by hallaloth:

1) Its hard to say because most dev teams aren't going to answer that question directly. We don't know the entirety of their vision and there could be things players really want that the dev team intends to put time into later. They've definitely taken time to balance things and keep on top of bugs at the very least. . .most of which they couldn't do without at least listening to what people are saying.

2) I'm sure a lot of what they play is more 'play testing' than just playing the game. When your work day consists of building a game you may want to step back and play something else when you get home. However, given the scope of Valheim and the love we can see for it, I imagine they do take a few minutes here and there to just enjoy it.

3) I think its been stated that optimization is something they intend on working on once the game is finished. I don't have a source for that, but I thought that that had been stated somewhere.

4) Its been the little things. The Sunrise coming up over the meadows. Just the freedom to build something awesome. The enjoyment of getting people together and letting everyone do what they enjoy and still being able to progress. It's also just a pretty game for its simplicity.

1. Go to youtube and to Jiroc the viking's channel. He's interviewed many on the dev team who have answered questions they and others posed. Lots of information there.

Also, a dev recently posted 2 posts on a thread here answering some points made by others:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/892970/discussions/0/5456682769569364392/?ctp=3

So devs are interacting with players in these regards, the only issue is that, like most dev teams, they don't consolidate such information specifically catering on the steam forums.

2. A dev on jiroc's channel specified they actually play in their free time.

3. I swear I see this silliness on so so many EA games. Optimizations (for the most part) occur at the end of a development cycle and so many game's devs speak to this. One of the main reasons why is that development is a fluid process and if you optimize at each and every step and things change, you've wasted too much labor/cost in "optimizing" that was completely a waste of time. You do of course small optimizations just to help make some additions work but you do so limitedly to account for the expectations of changes later.

Its like how most authors do not write one page of a novel and edit/optimize it then write the next. Most write the novel and then go back and edit significantly as needed. The reason why is what happens on page 3 at first writing may need to be changed due to what happens on page 343. Or that the author gets to the end and decides to rewrite the entire first chapter to better set up the climax and denouement of the story.

Valheim's ice caves/cult of the wolf actually may be a good example of that.

But also not a small number of instances of "optimization" demands by players aren't what game devs as a whole define as optimization either. Ark is a perfect example where some player complain "the game isn't optimized" yet when exploring the reasons why they lament that, it turns out they had comps not mean to either play the game period or that they expected to play the game at the best graphic fidelity and performance when their comp just barely met the minimum requirements to play and not even close to recommended or higher.

4. People always want more/different for the most part. Some want simplicity others want to have massive expectations for something to be massive and adding things they want because of their "vision"/perception of what the game should be. Bottom line though, its mostly and more importantly primarily a decision of the devs and players, while able to be listened do, are mostly just along for the ride.

One semi benefit to when something has good foundational simplicity with a game like this one is how that translates to letting players' imaginations and creativity to fill their wants/needs instead of being an on the rails style game.

Even on the dev team differences shape the game. Head of the game didn't want -any- portals in valheim. Second in command wanted portals to allow anything. A compromise was reached and only metal wasn't allowed. Its all a fluid process, especially given what I've read/listed to concerning their team's approach to development.