Tactical Adventures is an independent French game studio best known for the Solasta series, a party-based RPG inspired by classic tabletop adventures.
Their latest title, Solasta II, builds on the foundations of the original game with a new campaign, improved visuals, expanded character options and deeper player choice. As the team prepared for Early Access, they wanted to ensure both newcomers and existing RPG fans would have a smooth and engaging experience from the very beginning.
The Collaboration
Tactical Adventures partnered with Antidote to run multiple playtests using different research methods.
The first study focused on first-time user experience. Six players unfamiliar with Solasta and Solasta II demo were recruited to play for 90 minutes, followed by a 30-minute interview to further understand the players’ experiences.
This allowed the team to evaluate how approachable the game felt for newcomers, particularly players familiar with RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 but without tabletop D&D experience.
The second study focused on long-term engagement and progression pacing. The team recruited 18 players from English-speaking countries and asked them to play the game for approximately 9 hours.
The goal was to understand how players experienced the game, with a particular focus on:
- Quest clarity and appeal
- Long-term engagement with the World Map
- Narration pacing
- Overall game balance
To support both studies, Antidote handled player recruitment, session management and feedback collection. Players provided insights through think-aloud gameplay sessions, surveys, Discord discussions and recorded gameplay.
“The collaboration was smooth and efficient. The sessions provided valuable player insights that helped us identify key friction points and turn them into concrete actions to improve the overall game experience.”
One of the most impactful findings came from the longitudinal study.
The playtest uncovered several usability and engagement issues related to the World Map, including navigation clarity, event pacing, and overall travel engagement over time.
As a result, the team was able to make meaningful improvements to one of the game’s core systems.
“Based on these findings, we were able to iterate on our World Map systems and significantly improve the experience, making it more engaging, readable, and enjoyable throughout the player journey.”
Aurélie also highlighted the quality of the recruited participants and the level of detail they provided throughout the studies.
“The players selected matched the target profiles for both cohorts very well and several of them provided a huge amount of detailed and valuable feedback during the think-aloud sessions, in the surveys and via Discord.”
Would Tactical Adventures Recommend Antidote?
We asked the Tactical Adventures team whether they would recommend Antidote to other studios.
“Yes, I would recommend Antidote to other game studios.
Antidote was a valuable partner throughout the development of Solasta II’s Early Access. Their support allowed us to run several playtests, including longitudinal and quantitative studies, and gather feedback from players within our specific target profiles across multiple regions.
Their research team was consistently responsive and efficient when organizing sessions and recruiting participants. They demonstrated a good understanding of the specific UX aspects we wanted to investigate and adapted well to our research needs and methods. The insights we gathered helped us identify concrete improvements that benefited the overall player experience.”