Gang Beasts

Gang Beasts patch 1.28 comes out today for currently supported platforms. The 1.28 patch addresses a recently disclosed security vulnerability that can compromise the security of games made with specific versions of the Unity editor. Unity has published resources for patching versions of the Unity editor with this vulnerability (this includes Unity 2021.3.33f1, the build of Unity that Gang Beasts patch 1.27 was made with).

To remove the potential for this vulnerability to be exploited it is important to delete older versions of Gang Beasts and install patch 1.28 as soon as you can.

Gang Beasts 1.28 also makes back-flipping less difficult compared with patch 1.27.

The 1.28 release does not include new stages or costumes or other content and modifications but we plan to give more information on development this month.

The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.28 build are:

• implemented patch for Unity security vulnerability

• modified character physics to make backflips less difficult

Gang Beasts update 1.27 releases today on all supported platforms. This patch focuses on bug fixes with some limited aesthetic improvements, as well as a number of background modifications needed for subsequent updates, including planned support for crossplay. The glass has been cleaned and polished to make it shinier, fixing a number of glaring issues with the glass fracture system.

**The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.27 build are: **

Stages

• Fixed an issue with character walk cycles when lifting objects/characters on stairs

• Fixed glass fragments blurring on Lighthouse

• Fixed some colliders on Chute to make sausages fall as expected

• Fixed some stability issues with bricks on Girders

• Modified camera on Subway (to constrain camera movement within set bounds)

• Modified shipping container to stop them from detaching prematurely on Containers

• Optimised the glass fragmentation system

Costume

• Fixed an issue with costume buoyancy for kigurumis

• Fixed an issue with crane geometry that made characters jitter when close to the crane arm

• Fixed an issue with the welders mask visor separating aggressively

• Fixed clipping issues on the tank top costume part

• Fixed erratic fez behaviour when interacting with certain objects on grind

• Fixed missing character geometry when wearing the Hi-Vis vest

• Fixed missing character geometry when wearing the security jacket

• Fixed missing character geometry when wearing the warrior dress

• Fixed missing character geometry with some football t-shirts

• Removed a duplicate “empty” costume slot from base costumes set

Online

• Fixed an issue with players failing to join game sessions when accepting invites without the game open

• Fixed an issue with players getting stuck when the host shuts down the game (Switch only)

Graphics

• Fixed an issue with the draw distance of shadows (to stop them from being truncated)

• Modified glass fracturing aesthetics

Other

• Disabled input for non-host players when a game session is starting

• Fixed an issue that could fatal exception when modifying the language selection

• Fixed an issue that stopped characters from sitting when the input for “jump” is held

• Fixed an issue where character names show as “Player 0” in error

• Fixed an issue with characters facing away from the camera on the join screen

• Fixed an issue with targeting offsets when climbing some surfaces and objects

• Fixed an issue with text rendering incorrectly for some languages

• Fixed an issue with the countdown timer UI showing on the pause menu

• Fixed the ball attraction system in Football mode to stop footballs from pushing/pulling characters

• Modified the “Default” option in settings to revert the language selection to the default

Thank you for playing Gang Beasts.

Boneloaf

Gang Beasts Update 1.26 is releasing today for all currently supported platforms.

This update focuses on bug fixes, and has no new content.

The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.26 build are:

General

• Fixed an issue with audio levels on the menu screen

• Fixed an issue with confetti not triggering in the Waves mode

• Fixed an issue with controller haptics not triggering in online game sessions

• Fixed an issue with enemies only targeting other enemies in Waves

• Fixed an issue with enemy names showing when player characters are eliminated in Waves

• Fixed an issue with the eyes of concussed and idle player characters not closing in online game sessions

• Fixed an issue with the 'Special Delivery' achievement/trophy unlocking in error

Costumes

• Fixed an issue where some costume parts made characters spawn and ignore input or have no player colours or costumes

• Fixed an issue with some costume parts sticking in the crane operator's seat on Crane

• Fixed an issue with the welding mask costume part demonstrating erratic physics on Grind

Stages

• Added more kill volumes to the Trawler stage

• Fixed an exploit allowing player characters to escape to the base of Crane on the Containers stage

• Fixed an issue with character arms sticking to the roller shutters on the Subway and Incinerator stages

• Fixed an issue with characters sticking to the crane arm on the Crane stage

• Fixed an issue with erroneous forces pushing characters forward from the chair when exiting the operator's seat on Crane

• Fixed an issue with some audio content not working as expected on Trucks

macOS

• Fixed an issue with volumetric smog not rendering on Lighthouse

• Fixed an issue with volumetric smog not rendering on Trucks

Known Issues

• Holding the jump input to sit down does not work as expected

Time to get to work - our new stage, Crane releases today!

Crane is a brand new stage included in today’s 1.25 update. Located on the docks of Beef City, this stage will see players attempting to not fall off a large static Crane. This stage includes the first implementation of our new driveables system, with players being able to jump into the Crane cockpit to take the controls.

Don’t stay there too long though - the skies of Beef City are now filled with aggressive birds ready to take you for a quick flight. Survive long enough on Crane and these avian menaces will begin to target you with aerial divebombs to pull you into the skies. The birds are relentless too, so much so that they may even follow you over to another particular stage.

In order to celebrate the successful integration of our feathered friends into the Beef City natural ecosystem, we have also included some new bird Kigurumis as costume pieces. You will be able to dress up as pigeons, bluejays, seagulls and ravens. We’ve also included some more safety costume pieces for you whilst you’re at work high above the Beef City docks.

Update 1.25 also comes with numerous bug fixes and optimisations across all platforms. Please see the changelog below.

We are now continuing our work on the next stage for Gang Beasts, which we are expecting to release for all players, when it is ready. We will share more on this stage when we have more information. Thank you for continuing to play Gang Beasts in its tenth year of release.

Boneloaf

Added content in the 1.25 build:

• New Stage: Crane

• New Escalation: Birds

• New Costumes

The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.25 build:

General

• Fixed player targeting breaking in some situations

• Fixed an issue where some thrown objects caused no damage to players

• Fixed an issue where the camera tracked the incorrect Gang in certain circumstances

• Fixed various issues with red door interactions in Waves

• Fixed numerous unintended physics interactions

• Added the ability to spawn AI characters with the keyboard

• Fixed an issue causing the Main Menu UI to become unnavigable

Costumes

• Fixed an issue where the Owl Cap costume piece had unintentionally excessive force when headbutting

• Fixed an issue where the Scientist Hair and Goggles had unintentionally excessive force when headbutting

• Optimised various headpiece costume items to reduce the chance of getting stuck in other objects

Stages

• Fixed an issue with players being unable to spawn when playing Waves on Subway

• Fixed Billboard missing section randomisation

• Fixed building texture on Girders

• Fixed a number of exploits found in the Aquarium stage

• Added missing audio assets from some stages

• Removed shadows sometimes randomly appearing on the rock wall on Train

Online

• Fixed an issue where disconnecting a controller caused players to be unable to join online games

• Fixed players inadvertently being able to match with more than 4 players in Waves

• Fixed disconnection message image being displayed as a white box

Gang Beasts Update 1.24 is releasing today for all currently supported platforms.

This update is primarily focussed on bug fixes, and there is no new content.

The key modification to Gang Beasts in this update is the implementation of a new Interactables System that will allow us to streamline how in-game objects are managed and interacted with in the game engine. This system improves performance by organising interactable objects into optimised lists, therefore making Gang Beasts interacting with the stages faster and more efficient. This change should fix a longstanding issue where Gang Beasts would target the air, instead of the intended target, when too many colliders were in target range.

The introduction of this improved Interactables System should help the game feel more responsive and intuitive. It has also been introduced to allow us to experiment with more interesting interactions between new and existing game mechanics, for example the upcoming Birds escalation that will be introduced in our next update.

We are now exclusively working on Update 1.25, which will introduce new costumes and a new stage to Gang Beasts - Crane.

Here is some gameplay from a recent playtest:

See you soon.

**The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.24 build are: ** Default

• Fixed an issue where the Space Suit made players invisible

• Fixed an issue with the Long Haul achievement not triggering correctly

• Fixed an issue with the Roast Beef achievement not triggering correctly

• Fixed an issue with player names not showing correctly in game

• Fixed an issue where saved costumes could not be deleted

• Fixed an issue where confetti didn’t trigger when blue team won in Football

• Fixed an issue where Player Language settings didn’t save

• Fixed an issue with the Camera clipping through some stages

• Fixed numerous backend issues to improve consistency

• Modified the Billboard stage to include an alternative iteration of the Billboard panels than can trigger upon starting a new round

• Optimised the Fez costume piece to be less erratic when grabbed

• Optimised the Rhino Kigu costume to be less erratic when grabbed

• Standardised the ramp weights on Wheel

Gang Beasts patch 1.23 is releasing today for all currently supported platforms.

There are a number of bug fixes in the 1.23 release but no new stages or costumes. The key modification to the game in this build is the implementation of Unity’s Addressables Asset System, the adoption of this system standardises and optimises the process for testing and releasing game content.

The Addressables implementation is a significant modification to the game and we expect the 1.23 build to trigger some limited stability issues on Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. The instructions for fixing this issue are:

Windows:

• Open File Explorer

• Go to this path replacing 'YourUser' with the users name on the computer you are playing on - C:\Users\YourUser\AppData\LocalLow\Boneloaf\Gang Beasts

• Delete the folder called com.unity.addressables

macOS:

• Open Finder

• Go to path replacing YourUser with the users name on the mac you are playing on - /Users/YourUser/Library/Application Support/com.Boneloaf.GangBeasts

• Delete the folder called com.unity.addressables

SteamOS/Linux (including Steam Deck):

• Open Dolphin

• Go to this path - /home/deck/.config/unity3d/Boneloaf/Gang Beasts/

• Delete the folder called com.unity.addressables

If you playing Gang Beasts on a Steam Deck, switch to Desktop Mode first then follow the above SteamOS/Linux steps.

Beware of hostile cephalopods!

**The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.23 build are: **

Default

• fixed an issue that could make the Input menu unresponsive

• fixed an issue that could stop the trawler from sinking on the trawler stage

• fixed an issue that left costume parts on screen after a player has left and online game session

• fixed an issue that stopped removed players from respawning in waves

• fixed an issue where AI enemies could spawn without rendering

• fixed an issue with the train geometry spawning above the tracks on the train stage

• fixed some issues that allowed invalid numbers of players in some online game sessions

• fixed some issues that could leave players stuck loading into online game sessions

• fixed an issue that stopped players starting a new Waves session without manipulating the menu settings

• fixed some issues with AI enemies spawning inconsistently

• modified the cephalopod tentacles on the aquarium stage to make the targeting of players more aggressive

• modified the configuration of spawn volumes on the gondola stage

• optimised the length of game loading times with the Addressables Asset System

• standardised the listing of game modes in the mode selection menu

Is It a Crane? (Update 1.21.1)

Roses are red, Violets are violet, Is It a Crane? It is a Crane! It has been ten full years of cartoon violence since the Gang Beasts 0.0.0 pre-alpha builds were published on Valentines Day 2014. For ten years the foaming masses of Beef City have slowly coagulated into gelatinous agglomerations of hostility, spreading through the grim streets of the Meatropolis.

We're profoundly thankful to have an audience and community for Boneloaf's games and toys and for the miscellaneous scenes of silliness and callous brutality demonstrated in Gang Beasts over the last decade. A glut of technical debt have made it increasingly frustrating and difficult to release frequent fixes and content in the last 2-3 years.

We've been working with Rocket Science and Unity to pass/remove these limitations for some time and expect to build to a more stable release cadence from this year.

Posts

This post gives information on the 1.21.1 stability build (released with this post) and the other builds we expect to release in the coming months. A series of posts with more explicit information on what is being made for Gang Beasts are currently being written for gangbeasts.game. If there are subjects you want information on please send suggestions to Boneloaf on social media or to posts@boneloaf.co.

1.21.1 (stability)

1.21.1 stability build is the second stability release since Rocket Science took on support for a glut of important systems (builds, online, UI, and others) in February last year. The 1.21.1 build addresses a number of stability and performance issues and also has some small cosmetic modifications and standardisations, see the key modifications and fixes section at the end of the post for information.

Other Builds

The 1.21.1 build is the first of 4 builds expected to release in the first 3-6 months of 2024.

The next build to follow the 1.21.1 build is the Addressables Asset System build, addressables support has been implemented to optimise the testing and distribution of game content. Followed by an interactables build introducing a modified interactables system needed for the crane stage. Finishing with the crane stage which will release with some miscellaneous costumes.

Crane

The crane stage is a ginormous shipping container crane from the mouldering Beef City Docks with cabin controls for operating the crane, and some truculent and aggressive birds.

Crane includes the first version of new dynamic AI navigation system, this system will facilitate some planned modification to character and escalation AI and potentially support escalations that minimise some stage and game mode exploits, don't upset the birds! Be warned!

Crane also introduces the first version of a new “drivable” system, this system supports players to get into the driver's seat of the crane cab and control the crane mechanism.

Stay safe, wear a hard hat!

The key modifications and fixes in patch 1.21.1 are:

• fixed an issue that made the cephalopod tentacles fail to pass the surface of the water on aquarium

• fixed an issue with the sand text on the fish helmet costume part

• fixed an issue with game cameras not blurring when pause menus are invoked

• fixed some issues that stall loading for some online game modes

• fixed an issue that stalls loading for online game modes if moving to a second account on hardware with multiple account support

• fixed an issue that stalls loading for online game modes if an internet connection is not available

• fixed an issue that triggers duplicates of the "2124-3001 Account error" message in some contexts

• fixed an issue that made loading a second stage longer in some game modes

• fixed an error that compromised the remapping of the x/y axis on game controllers

• fixed an error that conflated the pooling systems for the gang and football online game modes

• fixed an issue that made the default game menu fail to show in some contexts

• fixed an issue that made particle systems render erroneously on towers

• fixed some issues that compromise frame rate in some contexts

• added Rocket Science ident to the splash sequence

• removed the Coatsink ident from the splash sequence

• standardised water shaders on trawler

• optimised matchmaking scheme to stabilise online game modes

Gang Beasts patch 1.21 is releasing today for all currently supported platforms! The 1.21 patch addresses a number of miscellaneous issues which will allow us to focus on new content in subsequent updates. The 1.21 build does not include new stages or costumes and is focused on these fixes (see below for more information).

A new stage and new costumes will be released soon, once we’re confident it is ready and subject to it passing quality assurance.

The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.21 build:

General

• New languages! We now support Japanese, Korean, Chinese (simplified) and Chinese (traditional). • New Menu font to improve legibility. • Tweaked buoyancy physics across all stages that use buoyancy. • Improved Tentacles AI on the Aquarium stage. • Addressed the problem of players being randomly kicked from local games. • Corrected left and right grabs when interacting with objects. • Improved stage lighting across all stages. • Enhanced football physics to prevent clipping into the ground. • Adjusted ball deflation rates in football mode. • Updated joints in the stage to AutoJointV2 for improved stability.

Costumes

• Made various improvements to costume physics. • Fixed the Beanie to function properly. • Resolved the collider issue with the Life Vest. • Fixed collision problems with the Deep Sea Helmet.

Stages

• Enhanced escalation mechanics in the Aquarium stage. • Stability updates to Vents. • Increased stability of bricks on Girder. • Stability updates to Roof. • Improved Glass Fracture on Roof. • Made improvements to ice breaking on Buoy. • Improved Stability to Fence objects on Wheel. • Added water to Containers. • Stability updates on Subway. • Stabilized the antenna on Buoy to reduce excessive shaking of characters and camera.

Online

• Fixes to matchmaking in Gang Mode.

Issues

We’re sorry we didn’t publish more frequent content, fixes, or development information since we released the Trawler stage in December 2021. A long sequence of technical issues and difficulties have limited our capacity to publish successive updates since Gang Beasts was fully released. However, since the end of 2021 we’ve worked (with partners at Coatsink, Robot Teddy, SuperGenius, Unity, Rocket Science, and Lockit QA) to address technical issues, standardise processes to minimise technical debt and build a platform for more frequent content releases. The rest of this post summarises some of what is being worked on currently.

Boneloaf

We’ve made a number of key staff hires to supplement resources at Boneloaf and have more in-house staff working to support Gang Beasts. These hires include a Producer, a Senior Technical Animator, multiple Senior and general Engineering staff, Marketing, Player Support, Event and Operations specialists, and an internal QA team. You can find out more about everyone over here.

Coatsink

Boneloaf’s agreement with key development partner Coatsink ended at the start of 2023. We want to thank the staff and management at Coatsink for their support and friendship since 2013 and appreciate the significant contributions Coatsink staff have made to the development and success of Gang Beasts and Boneloaf.

Rocket Science

Since February 2023, Boneloaf has worked closely with Rocket Science. This team brings a glut of resources and experience working with platforms, UX/UI, technical art, tools, and services to the development of Gang Beasts. Currently, staff at Rocket Science are working on a series of important modifications to online systems (to modernise the technology), standardise our build pipelines, implement a new UI system, provide support for game modes, and other systems.

We expected transitioning to a new development partner could be a protracted and disruptive process, especially transitioning ownership of key development work from third parties, but Rocket Science have made this process as low friction as they could have. We’re excited to now be in a position where we can give more information on the development and future plans for Gang Beasts.

More Beef

Information in this post is limited to Boneloaf, Boneloaf’s partners, and what modifications have been made since the 1.18 build, with some information on technical issues and the next content release. To keep you more up to date, we’re working on a series of posts to give more specific information on current development and planned content which will give more context on what is being done to support Gang Beasts.

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Stay safe, wear a hard hat and don’t carry birdseed! Boneloaf

Welcome, everyone!

You may notice that there’s a brand new update to Gang Beasts, and we know it’s something you’ve all been waiting for, so we won’t keep you in suspense. Trawler has arrived! A brand new stage, filled with a deteriorating fishing trawler in an isolated sea and a whole shiver of sharks. That’s right, the lifeless black eyed creatures themselves will hop aboard and try to take you for a swim.

By “deteriorating fishing trawler”, we mean the stage will become just that. Survive long enough from either the assaults of your friends or the deadly sea swimmers, and the stage will begin to sink (quite literally). Remember to not let go for as long as you can, we all know what's awaiting in the murky depths.

On top of the deterioration of the stage, you’ll also have two interactive crane systems with fully functioning mechanical levers to get yourselves familiar with. On top of this, there’s a large shark cage suspended from a hook which can be detached, perfect for some “accidents” involving your friends and the deep blue, right?

And now on to some patch notes for v1.18:

Added content:

• New stage: Trawler
• New costumes:
  • Sideburns
  • Lifejacket
  • Beard
  • Moustache
  • Sailor hat and outfit
  • Shark kigurumi
  • Deep Sea Diver helmet and outfit
  • Captain hat and outfit
  • Fishing gilet and hat
  • Sailor jumper and beanie
  • Air Rescue helmet and outfit Graphics update with the move to URP Fixed costumes appearing darker

That’s all for now, but head over to our Discord or Twitter channels for more updates and information as they go live.

Thanks!

Boneloaf.

Released on 16 June and updated on 25 June, 2021

• Known Issue: the XInput toggle in Settings has been temporarily removed. This will return soon! The game will only support a maximum of 4 Xbox controllers locally until this is back, but any other controllers will still support up to 8 players!

• Switched to a new matchmaking system.

• General optimisation pass over various stages, including Wheel, Aquarium and Tower.

• Made a general pass over most stages with eliminated player issues.

• Fixed various infinite loading screen bugs when playing online.

• Loading screen changed to correctly show loading progress.

• Changed online loading system to reduce chances of missing objects when playing online.

• Reduced loading times.

• Fixed issue where objects or players would not load on various levels online.

• Fixed an issue on Train that could make matches incorrectly result in a draw.

• Camera on Wheel no longer goes through the water when a player is sinking.

• Water rendering issue on aquarium fixed.

• Online players are now correctly eliminated on Blimp now, no more infinitely falling.

• Fixed issue where certain Waves AI would not be eliminated correctly and keep the round going.

• Characters no longer jerk upwards when resuming after being paused and resuming.

• Fixed Gondola appearing invisible occasionally.

• Fixed Vents railings moving erratically over time.

• Fixed the fishbowl hat flashing for a frame when being switched too.

• Fixed Wheel lamp posts from being so erratic online.

• Fixed issue where restarting a round from countdown 0 would cause a softlock.

• Updated credits.

There is an active community run Discord server where you can find people to play with, leave feedback and report bugs.

Discord - Join the community server here: https://discordapp.com/invite/gXh2HRH

The Loading Screen Bug

We are happy to announce we have fixed the notorious loading screen bug, that has been plaguing some people, and we wanted to explain a few things to help shed some light on why it took so long for us t o fix it.

The bug initially was just incredibly hard to reproduce internally, which is the first step towards finding out what was actually happening. To find it we had to create a new debugging tool for the server and client builds to help us track it down. With this new tool we managed to reproduce the issue consistently, and in a way that we could generate logs to help guide us to a solution. This highlighted to us that in fact, it was several bugs manifesting as one! All of which we have fixed and should never rear their ugly heads again.

You may be wondering why we released the previous update with such a glaring bug? Well, to put it simply, it hasn't turned up before. The trigger case is very hardware and connection dependent. Although we have found out that some of the bugs have been there all along, they were very rarely triggered, at least on tests we did with the hardware we have.

It also appears that the more recent optimisations and fixes, which made certain aspects of the game quicker, inflamed the issue, making it more prominent for these users. In addition, there was a significant engine upgrade (Unity 2017 to 2020), which made unnoticed changes to the networking library we use, adding many more avenues for the issue to manifest.

It is annoying that these things happen from time to time (especially for us!), but we are always working to improve Gang Beasts, which has been evolving for 6+ years now. So thank you for being patient with us, and hopefully, we will not have anything as problematic in the future.

The Elimination Bug

Another bug people have been experiencing lately is the characters not getting eliminated when thrown out of stages. This issue was a weird one, that seems to have manifested itself since the engine upgrade. Gang Beasts being such a physics heavy game, any changes to the engine’s physics can have knock-on effects with the gameplay.

We have tried to fix this a few times and, although each attempt reduced its frequency, it was still being triggered. In this update, we have added two more solutions: one that should stop it from happening, and another that will guarantee that if it happens the players get eliminated anyway. The first measure is adding a few more checks to the characters when they enter an Elimination Volume, so it is more likely to be detected, and expanding these volumes further to increase the chance of detection. The second measure bypasses the physics system entirely, and will always eliminate players regardless of velocities or any other issues inherent to physics that can prevent the first method from working.

1.16 changes

General

• Fixed the pesky infinite loading screen

• Adjusted the damage reduction timer from 10 seconds to 4

• Fixed server ping checks not properly connecting to Sydney

• Corrected PS4 online age rating check

• Corrected PS4 lobby nameplate UI not showing

All stages

• Increased the size of Elimination Zones to better catch escaping players

• Added an Out of Bounds check that should stop anyone who does manage to escape!

Aquarium

• Optimised the bubble particles

• Fixed bubbles crashing the game (!)

• Added blockers to prevent players from getting stuck in doors

• Moved pool knockout volume up

• Small physics optimisations

Some of you may already know this but the Aquarium Update (build 1.13) has now been released! This update has a new Aquarium stage, an updated Wheel stage that works online, a series of super hero/villain costume sets, and numerous fixes for stages, online, and gameplay issues.

General:

• Updated the game engine to Unity 2020 (from Unity 2017). This was a significant upgrade and although we've fixed a massive amount, there may be a few bugs we haven't caught yet with the transition.

• Unity 2019 dropped support for 32-bit Linux operating systems, as such Gang Beasts can now only support 64-bit Linux operating systems.

• Fixed an issue preventing bloom from working.

• Updated the project to be able to build and test on consoles again.

• Updated graphics settings to fix a few issues with the transition from 2017 to 2020.

• Mac builds now use Metal as its primary graphics API, as such there should be some performance gains for Mac users.

• Fixed some issues involving camera tracking.

• Updated splash and loading screens. This is a temporary measure until we can overhaul the entire UI of the game.

• Completely rebuilt the way we fracture glass. This new system should both look and perform significantly better on all systems.

• Completely rebuilt the way we do buoyancy. This new system should perform significantly better on all systems and allows us to do multiple types of liquid (such as meat paste).

Costumes:

• Bear and Rhino kigurumi no longer make Elevators explode.

• The "Yogscast Charity Drive 2015 DLC" has been added to the game as a default option, this was done as we found far too many people trying to exploit our users on grey markets by trying to charge exorbitant amounts of money for legacy codes. Since the DLC has achieved its purpose of raising money for charity and it has been several years since its release we figured this was the best way to protect our players.

• Added 8 "Supers" costumes to the game for a total of 24 new parts.

Stages (General):

• Rebaked the lighting on all stages to fix legacy lighting issues so shadows should no longer be dark and stages should be more visually appealing now.

• Adjusted any emissive materials across all stages now that bloom works again to look better.

• Updated the visuals of water on Buoy, Containers, and Wheel but there's still more improvements to be made.

• Fixed the objects that didn't interpolate online.

Stages (Aquarium):

• Added a new stage called Aquarium, please don't feed the fish.

Stages (Billboard):

• Adjusted the physics properties of the billboard panels to be more realistic.

• Adjusted the catwalk of the billboard to be flatter and added assistive colliders to help players stay on for longer.

Stages (Blimp):

• Adjusted the physics properties of the balloon section of the blimp to have more grip and assist players' movement over the surface.

• Adjusted the ribbing on the balloon section of the blimp to no longer collide with the players' ball collider, which should help with navigating the blimp.

• Adjusted the blimp to be more affected by player movement.

• Added a wind effect to the blimp to help visualize the movement.

Stages (Buoy):

• Added more ice to the stage.

• Fixed a bug preventing the ice from breaking.

• Broken ice will now melt over time.

• The buoy is now significantly less stable.

Stages (Chutes):

• Adjusted the lights to remove light artifacts from falling sausages.

• Adjusted sausage distribution.

• Adjusted the chute doors to be able to hold more weight and slower to move, this should, hopefully, incentivise players to fight on them more due to the reduced danger.

Stages (Elevators):

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system.

• Elevators now escalate consistently.

• Applied a temporary fix for a significant stability issue on Elevators, this fix currently does cause some visual peculiarities when played online but we felt it shouldn't hold back the update.

Stages (Gondola):

• Fixed the grating using the wrong shader, it should look more crisp now.

Stages (Grind):

• Adjusted the lights to improve baked quality.

• Added buoyancy to the meat paste at the front of the stage.

Stages (Incinerator):

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system.

• Updated the fire particle system.

• Adjusted the lights to make the stage brighter and fix some lighting artifacts.

• Fixed an issue with boxes and barrels passing through the front wall.

Stages (Lighthouse):

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system.

• Updated the background water shader, which is a temporary solution until we upgrade the project to Unity, Universal Render Pipeline (URP).

• Updated the glass materials to prevent a weird lighting issue.

• Adjusted the joints on the Lighthouse to be stronger, so they should no longer break at the slightest touch.

Stages (Ring):

• Adjusted lights and materials to brighten the stage slightly.

• Adjusted the rope height to make it slightly easier to eliminate players.

Stages (Roof):

• Adjusted the joints on the Roof stage to be stronger, so they should no longer break at the slightest touch.

• Lowered the lip of the Roof slightly to make the stage slightly riskier when fighting on the edge.

• Added assistive geometry to help characters navigate.

Stages (Wheel):

• The stage has been completely rebuilt to play better and work online.

• The lights on Wheel now sync to the music.

• Wheel now has better escalations.

• Added a dwell timer to the insides of the wheels burger gondola that will make them fall if players stay there too long.

Stages (Subway):

• Fixed an issue that made the front train push players away instead of pulling players towards it.

• Hopefully fixed the issue that was making some sounds on subway play too loud.

Stages (Trucks):

• Slight adjustments to the materials and textures;

• Added a slight tilt to the trucks when they move to make their movement more apparent;

• Fixed an issue where the trucks would occasionally mount the curb and collide with oncoming signs;

• Reduced an issue where signs could pass through players instead of colliding with them, this is not perfect though and we will continue to try and fix it.

Stages (Towers):

• Added a pink smoke effect rising from the cooling towers.

Stages (Vents):

• Fixed an issue with Vents

• Fixed a significant stability issue on Vents that appeared in the update from 2017 that caused the bridges to instantly collapse.

• Fixed a significant stability issue on Vents that appeared in the update from 2017 where as soon as the main fan activated the stage would explode and characters would find themselves embedded in the walls or ceiling.

Physics:

• Updated some physics settings to take advantage of some of Unity 2020's improvements. This will be an ongoing process to fully take advantage of all the changes. These changes should provide some small performance and stability improvements.

• All physics objects in the game should now interpolate, this should reduce an appearance of lag locally and online.

Character Movement & Combat:

• Fixed a bug that was causing arms to no longer reach when holding grab.

• Adjusted character drag to 1.6 (from 2).

• Increased punch velocity for close targets.

• Adjusted how grab and punch's resolve target vectors for the physics animation, this should significantly improve how often they reach the intended target.

• Fixed a bug that would sometimes make a character float when grabbing something above them with both hands after their stamina drained fully.

• Fixed a bug with kicking that would generate incorrect target vectors for the physics animation.

• Adjusted force and attraction distances when grabbing to help reaching close targets and reduce weird behaviours under certain situations when targets are just out of range

• Added slightly more force to the arms in the stage just before punch and grabs to help reach a better position. This should make punches and grab's more consistent.

• Adjusted targeting to be slightly more weighted to the players input direction.

• Increased the strength of throws slightly

• Slightly increased grip break threshold.

• Added a slight alignment force to the body when climbing, the character should be more likely to face input direction while climbing now.

• Slightly increased self lift strength on characters when climbing. This should make it easier to climb.

• Stamina now always drains when grabbing, even if feet are touching the floor. Most players will not notice any change with this. This is to try and prevent people from getting into exploitable positions where they can hang on forever. Additionally this should help reduce stalemates where someone can hang on to another player indefinitely.

• Fixed a long standing issue with the character that made it difficult to go up slopes greater than 30 degrees. Players should find it significantly easier to go up slopes and stairs now.

• Added the ability to swim for a short period to the character they will gradually sink over time after this.

• Added a temporary diminishing damage reduction when a player revives from a knockout (100% damage reduction on revival reducing to 0% over 10 seconds) to prevent knockout camping.

• Fixed an issue that would prevent players from controlling their movement when lifting themselves, additionally this should now perform better then it did prior to the bug.

• Adjusted arm direction when cheering to be relative to the character's up instead of world up.

• Increased reaction forces of all moves, they should feel more satisfying now.

• Adjusted damage of all moves to better balance them.

• Adjusted damage received when in certain situations or attempting certain attacks to help balance combat.

• Adjusted character collision to hopefully improve stability during combat.

• Added code to dynamically adjust characters collision mode based on context to help reduce likelihood of limbs getting embedded in objects, this helps reduce the frequency of a bug that appeared in the transition to Unity 2020 but more work is needed to fix it completely.

• Fixed a bug that was making the characters hips get stuck in certain geometry since the transition.

Audio:

• Added a new way we manage audio to improve the consistency of sounds across the game.

• Changed all audio to use the new systems and did a pass on every sound in the game to be better balanced and more pleasing to the ear.

• Swapped a menu sound to be less intrusive.

• Added engine noises to Train

• Added engine noises to Trucks

• Added better audio cues to indicate oncoming road signs on Trucks

• Added an audio cue to indicate an oncoming train on Subway

Online:

• Fixed a bug that would mean some scripts would not reset correctly on the second round in an online match.

• Fixed a few bugs with PhysicAudioEmitter not emitting online

• Fixed a long standing bug with knockouts not working as intended online. Locally it would increment by 1 second each time your KO'd to a potential maximum of 20. Online this would always be set to 4. This should significantly improve the feel of combat online.

• Fixed an issue where some physics objects were moved using an incorrect method. This should help improve some stability issues when characters are pushed into strange positions or somehow move faster than usual (such as getting hit by a moving vehicle).

• Fixed a long standing issue preventing boxes on Incinerator from rendering online.

• Fixed a long standing issue preventing the vehicles on Trucks from moving correctly online.

• Several optimisations and fixes to the character system to improve online performance.

• Several optimisations and changes to the way we sync objects online. This should improve online performance and stability.

• Fixed an issue with the join screen that meant player names wouldn't show up.

• Fixed an issue on Elevators that made the hatches start in the wrong position on level load.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Containers mechanics that move the containers from triggering correctly online.

To access and download the beta branch, go to your Steam Library and right click on 'Gang Beasts' to select 'Properties'. From there, navigate to the 'BETAS' tab, then select 'public_testing'. You may need to restart steam before 'public_testing' will show up for you.

The patch notes can be found below.

General:

• Fixed an issue preventing bloom from working.

• Updated the project to be able to build and test on consoles again.

• Updated graphics settings to fix a few issues with the transition from 2017 to 2019.

• Mac now uses Metal as its primary graphics API, there should be performance gains, but there may also be a few graphical glitches we need to fix.

• Fixed some issues involving camera tracking.

• Fixed the costume editor issue preventing legs from rotating with the body.

• Fixed the objects that didn’t interpolate online.

Stages:

• Rebaked the lighting on all stages to fix legacy lighting issues so shadows should no longer be dark and stages should be more visually appealing now.

• Adjusted bloom across all stages.

Billboard:

• Adjusted the physics properties of the billboard panels to be more realistic;

• Adjusted the catwalk of the billboard to be flatter and added assistive colliders to help players stay on for longer.

Blimp:

• Adjusted the physics properties of the balloon section of the blimp to have more grip and assist players’ movement over the surface;

• Adjusted the ribbing on the balloon section of the blimp to no longer collide with the players’ ball collider, which should help with navigating the blimp;

• Adjusted the blimp to be more affected by player movement;

• Added a wind effect to the blimp to help visualize the movement.

Chutes:

• Adjusted the lights to remove light artifacts from falling sausages;

• Adjusted sausage distribution;

• Adjusted the chute doors to be able to hold more weight and slower to move, this should, hopefully, incentivise players to fight on them more due to the reduced danger.

Elevators:

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system;

• Elevators now escalate consistently.

Gondola:

• Fixed the grating using the wrong shader, it should look more crisp now.

Grind:

• Adjusted the lights to improve baked quality.

Incinerator:

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system;

• Updated the fire particle system;

• Adjusted the lights to make the stage brighter and fix some lighting artifacts;

• Fixed an issue with boxes and barrels passing through the front wall.

Lighthouse:

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system;

• Updated the background water shader, which is a temporary solution until we upgrade the project to Unity, Universal Render Pipeline (URP);

• Updated the glass materials to prevent a weird lighting issue;

• Adjusted the joints on the Lighthouse to be stronger, so they should no longer break at the slightest touch.

Ring:

• Adjusted lights and materials to brighten the stage slightly;

• Adjusted the rope height to make it slightly easier to eliminate players.

• Roof:

• Adjusted the joints on roof to be stronger, so they should no longer break at the slightest touch.

Wheel:

• Added a delay to the pier escalations to prevent them triggering on stage load;

• Fixed an issue that would usually eliminate an unlucky player on load;

• Adjusted the escalation timings slightly, which will be an ongoing process until we’re happy with the way the stage is playing;

• Reduced the dwell timers on the burgers.

Subway:

• Fixed an issue that made the front train push players away instead of pulling players towards it.

Trucks:

• Slight adjustments to the materials and textures;

• Added a slight tilt to the trucks when they move to make their movement more apparent;

• Fixed an issue where the trucks would occasionally mount the curb and collide with oncoming signs;

• Fixed an issue where signs could pass through players instead of colliding with them.

Towers:

• Added a pink smoke effect rising from the cooling towers.

• Vents

• Added security cameras to the stage.

Character Movement & Combat:

• Added a temporary diminishing damage reduction when a player revives from a knockout (100% damage reduction on revival reducing to 0% over 10 seconds) to prevent knockout camping.

• Fixed an issue that would prevent players from controlling their movement when lifting themselves, additionally this should now perform better then it did prior to the bug.

• Added the swimming ability to the character (although this won’t be enabled until we add in the new buoyancy in all stages).

• Adjusted arm direction when cheering to be relative to the character’s up instead of world up.

• Increased reaction forces of all moves, they should feel more satisfying now.

• Adjusted damage of all moves to better balance them.

• Adjusted damage received when in certain situations or attempting certain attacks to help balance combat.

• Adjusted character collision to hopefully improve stability during combat.

• Added code to dynamically adjust characters collision mode based on context to help reduce likelihood of limbs getting embedded in objects.

Known Issues:

• We’ve found that, in the upgrade to Unity 2019, the strength of joints that can break are seemingly weak. We have fixed the main issues with this, such as the bridges in Vents collapsing on stage load, but there will likely be some we missed.

• There was an issue that was causing people to disconnect when a stage became too processor intensive (lots of physics). We should hopefully have fixed this, but we will be keeping an eye on the server logs. Please inform us if you see a pattern to any disconnects, e.g. do they usually happen on the same stage and after the same set of actions?

• The guide wheels on Elevators will often desync and move independently of the elevator cars online.

• Occasionally there seems to be a desync on level load that can have some strange effects, such as grey or invisible players, cameras tracking the wrong player, or some physics objects in the wrong position.

• There may be some occasional visual sync issues especially when hats detach. This is entirely visual and is something we’re working on.

• There’s some unintended side effects to the combat changes that may occasionally manifest itself on waves with larger characters, good luck.

• Joints on Vents are somewhat unstable.

• Nametags are sometimes occluded by geometry.

• There are some occasional issues with players not being updated in parties after a disconnect.

• There’s some odd camera behaviour on waves.

• The wheel’s motor sound doesn’t play correctly on Wheel.

• The ping indicator always shows. This is intentional to help with testing during beta.

• There are some strange effects on Elevators online to do with syncing, this will be fixed in a later beta build.

• We have noticed a few crashes on Mac with the new glass, we hope to have fixed this but it’s something we will be keeping an eye on.

• We have noticed occasionally eliminated beasts are formed into meatball like shapes and appear in strange locations, this is not intended and we would like players to know this has nothing to do with the meat processing factory in Beef City.

Regarding the next update: Sadly, we weren't able to achieve everything on this list but these are goals we’re still working towards. So for clarity, these changes are things we’re currently working on for the next update.

General:

• Update loading screens and game splash

Stages:

• Standardised all buoyancy in the game to use our new buoyancy system (there was a last minute bug we found with this that made players entering liquids extremely strong).

• Adjust Elevators escalation to trigger more consistently.

• Update Buoy mechanics to escalate.

• Update Chutes mechanics to escalate.

• Add more audio and effects to indicate Wheel escalations.

• Add a better indication to when players will be eliminated on Trains when the carriage detaches.

Character Movement & Combat:

• We plan to explore a potential solution that should reduce the success rate of players who like to walk into hazards while holding you by linking grip strength to stamina, which should make it easier to escape prolonged grabs. If this solution seems effective and doesn’t create any other issues, we will try to include it in the next update.

Online:

• Fix a long standing issue with ropes that makes their movements look strange online.

• Fix an issue on Elevators where the roller starts in the wrong position on level load.

• Fix an issue on Elevators where the background does not move online when the stage escalates.

• Fix an issue that makes some things fail to sync correctly on load.

This is the latest preview version of the next Gang Beasts update, which we would like to do a lot of testing with the community. This was a significant update to the engine as it is a transition from Unity 2017 to Unity 2019. Although we’ve managed to catch and fix most bugs so far, it is likely that there will still be some more bugs to fix as this beta is a work in progress and does not represent the final update yet. Additionally, Unity 2019 no longer supports 32-bit Linux distributions, therefore Gang Beasts now only supports 64-bit Linux distributions. This does not affect Windows or Mac users.

To access and download the beta branch, go to your Steam Library and right click on 'Gang Beasts' to select 'Properties'. From there, navigate to the 'BETAS' tab, then select 'public_testing'. You may need to restart steam before 'public_testing' will show up for you.

The patch notes can be found below.

General:

• Updated the game engine to Unity 2019 (from Unity 2017). This was a significant upgrade and although we’ve fixed a massive amount of bugs, there may be a left.

• Unity 2019 dropped support for 32-bit Linux operating systems, as such Gang Beasts can now only support 64-bit Linux operating systems.

• Several fixes and improvements to our internal tools. This will be an ongoing process, but should help us speed up development time and hopefully reduce chances for bugs to creep into the game.

Stages:

• Updated Wheel to work online.

• The lights on Wheel now sync to the music

• Wheel now has better escalations

• Fixed a bug on Trucks that would make the horns trigger incorrectly

• Fixed the TV antenna on Roof not being connected correctly

• Lowered the lip of Roof slightly to make the stage slightly riskier when fighting on the edge.

• Added assistive geometry to help characters navigate on Roof.

• Updated the visuals of water on Buoy, Containers, and Wheel but there’s still more improvements to be made.

• Fixed a significant stability issue on Elevators that appeared in Unity 2019, and if this proves successful we may apply it to other dynamic stages that involve ropes.

• Fixed a significant stability issue on Vents causing the bridges to instantly collapse.

• Fixed a bug on Vents where, as soon as the main fan activated, the stage would explode and characters would find themselves embedded in the walls or ceiling.

Character Movement & Combat:

• Fixed a bug that was causing arms to no longer reach when holding grab.

• Slightly reduced character drag.

• Increased punch velocity for close targets.

• Adjusted how grab and punch resolve target vectors for the physics animation, this should significantly improve how often they reach the intended target.

• Fixed a bug that would sometimes make a character float when grabbing something above them with both hands after their stamina has fully drained.

• Fixed a bug with kicking that would generate incorrect target vectors for the physics animation.

• Adjusted force and attraction distances when grabbing, this is to help reaching close targets and reduce weird behaviors under certain situations, where targets are just out of range.

• Added slightly more force to the arms in the pose, just before a punch or a grab, in order to help reaching a better start position. This should make punch and grab more consistent.

• Adjusted targeting to be slightly more weighted to the players input direction.

• Slightly increased the strength of throws.

• Slightly increased grip break threshold.

• Added a slight alignment force to the body when climbing, the character should be more likely to face the direction of input while climbing.

• Slightly increased self lift strength on characters when climbing. This should make it easier to climb.

• Stamina now always drains when grabbing, even if the player's feet are touching the floor. Most players will not notice any change with this. This is to try to prevent people from getting into exploitable positions, where they can hang on forever. Additionally this should help reduce stalemates where someone can hang on to another player indefinitely.

• Fixed a long standing issue with the character system that made it difficult to go up slopes greater than 30 degrees. Players should find it significantly easier to go up slopes and stairs now.

• Fixed a bug that was making the characters hands often get stuck in geometry since the transition to Unity 2019.

Audio:

• Added a new way we manage audio to improve the consistency of sounds across the game.

• Changed all audio to use the new system and did a pass on every sound in the game to be better balanced and more pleasing to the ear.

• Swapped a menu sound to be less intrusive.

• Added engine noises to Train.

• Added engine noises to Trucks.

• Added better audio cues to indicate oncoming road signs on Trucks.

• Fixed a bug where road signs would trigger impact audio incorrectly.

• Added an audio cue to indicate an oncoming train on Subway.

Online:

• Updated the ping readout to be more consistent and always show.

• Fixed a bug that would mean some scripts would not reset correctly on the second round in an online match.

• Fixed a few bugs with PhysicAudioEmitter not emitting online.

• Fixed a long standing bug where knockouts were not working as intended online. Locally, it would increment by 1 second each time you're KO’d to a potential maximum of 20. When playing Online this would always be incorrectly set to 4. This should significantly improve the feel of combat online.

• Fixed an issue where some physics objects were moved using an incorrect method. This should help improve some stability issues, such as when characters are pushed into strange positions or somehow move faster than usual (such as getting hit by a moving vehicle).

• Fixed a long standing issue preventing boxes on Incinerator from rendering online.

• Fixed a long standing issue preventing the vehicles on Trucks from moving correctly online.

• Several optimisations and fixes to the character system to improve online performance.

• Several optimisations and changes to the way we sync objects online, which should improve online performance and stability.

• Fixed an issue with the join screen that meant player names wouldn’t show up.

• Fixed an issue on Elevators that made the hatches start in the wrong position when the level loaded.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Containers mechanics that move the containers from triggering correctly online.

Known Issues:

• We’ve found that in the upgrade to Unity 2019 the strength of breakable joints are seemingly weak. We have fixed most breakable joints, such as the bridges in Vents collapsing on stage load, but there will likely be some we missed.

• There was an issue that was causing people to disconnect when a stage became too processor intensive (lots of physics). We should hopefully have fixed this, but will be keeping an eye on the server logs. Please inform us if you see a pattern to any disconnects, e.g. do they usually happen on the same stage?

• The guide wheels on Elevators stage will often desync and move independently of the elevator cars online.

• Occasionally there seems to be an occasional desync on level load that can have some strange effects, such as grey or invisible players, camera tracking the wrong player, or some physics objects in the wrong position.

• There may be some occasional visual sync issues online, especially when hats detach. This is entirely visual and is something we’re working on.

• There’s some unintended side effects to the combat changes that may occasionally manifest itself on waves with larger characters. Good luck! ;)

• The costume editor has a slight issue where the chest doesn’t rotate with the body.

• Lower buns of the burgers, on the Wheel stage, have a bit of jitter when interacting with them online. This is entirely visual and doesn't affect gameplay.

• The sound on the Subway stage plays louder than intended.

• Joints on Vents are somewhat unstable, this will be fixed in a later update.

• Name tags are sometimes occluded by geometry.

• Some objects don't interpolate online.

• There are some occasional issues with players not being updated in parties after a disconnect.

• There’s some odd camera behavior on waves.

• The Wheel stage motor sound doesn’t play correctly.

• The ping indicator always shows. This is intentional to help with testing during beta.

• Some parts of the Gondola stage break off on load.

The next beta builds

Because the idea for this beta is to get as much testing as possible, we wanted to get this build out as soon as it was stable enough. We've had to hold back on a few fixes and features and we want to add them to the next build. For clarity, below is a list of changes of things we’re currently working on but couldn't include yet due to them possibly holding back this build.

After we’ve done some more internal testing on them and confirming the build is stable enough to get valid feedback, we will push another beta build. This is by no means a definitive list and some things will be added and removed accordingly.

General:

• Update loading screens and game splash.

Stages:

• Standardise all breakable glass in the game to use our new fracture system.

• Standardise all buoyancy in the game to use our new buoyancy system.

• Re-bake all stages and make several small graphical improvements that should hopefully fix lighting issues some players have reported.

• Adjust Elevators escalation to trigger more consistently.

• Update Buoy’s visuals slightly.

• Update Buoy’s mechanics to escalate.

• Update Chutes mechanics to escalate.

Character Movement & Combat:

• Add the ability to swim for a short time to the character system.

Online:

• Fix a long standing issue with ropes that make their movements look strange online.

• Fix an issue on Elevators where the rollers would start in the wrong position on level load.

• Fix an issue on Elevators where the background would not move online when the stage escalates.

• Fix an issue that makes some things fail to sync correctly on load.

The 1.0.11/1.011 builds have a number of fixes that give parity between public builds for currently supported platforms and a number of gameplay, costume, UI, online, and input fixes.

Please see Gang Beasts FAQ page or email support@boneloaf.co if you have specific feedback on this build or other questions about the game.

The list of key modifications and fixes made in the 1.0.11/1.011 builds are:

• added a player list to the online pause menu

• added build numbering to the settings menu (to help with support issues)

• fixed an audio issue that stopped the puddle drip SFX from playing back

• fixed an issue that allowed dropkicks to be exploited

• fixed an issue that allowed goals to be scored when the game has ended in the “football” game mode

• fixed an issue that could attribute "Big Head" and "Drop Kick" achievements to the wrong character

• fixed an issue that could make the game unresponsive if a user disconnected when starting an online game session

• fixed an issue that sent players to the online menu screen if the input for back is pressed multiple times when an online game session is loading

• fixed an issue that still showed characters that have left an online game session on the session hosts online menu screen

• fixed an issue that stopped the “Ground Floor' achievement from unlocking in online game sessions

• fixed an issue where AI characters could unlock the "Safety warning" achievement

• fixed an issue where characters could be removed outside stage geometry when grabbing falling meat on chutes

• fixed an issue where players are kicked from online game sessions if the associated game controller is disconnected when joining servers

• fixed an issue where the input label text for ‘the “gang” and “colour” parameters now showing as expected for online game session clients

• fixed an issue with controller disconnection messages conflicting with server disconnection messages

• fixed an issue with objects/props sticking on puddles on "subway"

• fixed an issue with some audio setting not being modified by user settings

• fixed an issue with the "Ground Floor" achievement unlocking in error (achievement should no unlock if the character is in a concussion or fall state)

• fixed an issue with the game credits sequence not scrolling from the start of the credit roll

• fixed an issue with the game score screen not showing in some contexts

• fixed an issue with the game score screen reordering the current game statistics on screen

• fixed an issue with UI information conflicting with disconnection messages

• fixed multiple issues with costume parts not rendering as expected

• fixed numerous issues with costume geometry

• fixed syncing issues with some parts

• modified "elevator" to stabilise elevator cables when broken

• modified audio settings to make them fade in after the attract mode screen

• modified audio settings to make them fade in after the attract mode screen

• modified costume system geometry and database to support more combinations of costume parts

• modified football to use a golden ball if the game enters extra time

• modified the implementations for triggering the "Big Head", "Drop Kick", and "Self Storage" to limit the potential for accidental unlocks

• modified the local game session screen to force characters into the set/join state (to stop late costume, colour, or gang/team modifications)

• modified the maximum concussion length

• modified the parameters for kicking inactive players to not kick absent players in private online game sessions

• modified the public kick timer window from 30 to 60 seconds

• modified the rendering of usernames for offscreen characters

• modified the stage loading sequence to avoid exposing characters to the game camera before their costumes/colours are set

• modified UI button references to not show in contexts where not needed

• modified UK and US text label localisations for the ambient sound parameter from "Ambiance" to "Ambience"

• modified waves mode to support the re-spawning of eliminated players between waves

• optimised loading times for some contexts

• removed the score screen from the "football" game mode

• updated the input system to Rewired 1.1.19.6

We have been working to address a series of issues with the character costume system (the system that builds and renders character and costume geometry), the 1.0.8 build (released with this post) includes fixes for the bull mascot costume and other complex costume parts that have compromised gameplay in recent builds. The 1.0.8 build also addresses issues Russian players have had connecting to online sessions without a VPN.

Please see Gang Beasts FAQ page or email support@boneloaf.co if you have specific feedback on this build or questions about the game.

The list of key modifications and fixes made in the 1.0.8 build are:

• added a confirmation screen that shows if input settings are modified

• fixed a graphical issue that showed as a flickering at the front of the incinerator stage

• fixed an issue where characters could sink into stairs on the towers stage

• fixed an issue with the satellite dish supports on the roof stage

• fixed issue where character geometry could pass though the fence on the alley stage

• modified English language translation for left grab to left punch (to standardise with other languages)

• modified font used for UI button references (for legibility)

• modified geometry for a number of costume parts (for stability)

• modified IP addresses used by the game session matchmaker from addresses block by Roskomnadzor/Federal Service for Supervision of Communication in Russia

• modified opening logo sequence to support skipping of current logo

• modified the bull mascot head to balance with other costumes

• modified scheme for unlocking the “Safety Warning” trophy

• modified the ‘long hair’ part to standardise with other costume parts

• modified the camera tracking trigger volume on the containers stage to stop the camera from moving below the water

• modified the costume customisation UI to only show currently available inputs

• removed obstructions to the camera on the chutes stage

• replaced baked lighting to fix issues with the arena stairs on the ring stage

We published the Gang Beasts 1.0.7 patch build in the last hour to address an issue with the Bull Mascot costume, we're also remaking our costume testing and debug processes to minimise and limit the scope for potential costume inconsistencies in subsequent builds.

If there are other issues that you want to flag with Boneloaf, please email support@boneloaf.co.

The only modification made in the 1.0.7 build is:

• modified the bull mascot head to balance with other costumes

The list of key modifications and fixes made in the 1.0.6 build are:

• fixed a series of audio issues that stop music and SFX sources from playing in some contexts

• fixed a series of online syncing issues that could compromise the stability of the physics simulations on numerous stages and some costume parts

• fixed an issue that calculated the forces from headbutts and punches concurrently

• modified the draw window to load the next stage in the stage sequence if the stage ends in a draw

Information on Gang Beasts Train Update

Choo, Choo, the Gang Beasts Train update (build 1.0.5) is available now as a free download for PS4, Windows, macOS, and Steam supported Linux platforms (SteamOS and Ubuntu), the update has a new train stage (an industrial freight train transporting shipping containers on a precarious cliffside track), a series of miscellaneous costume sets (beef mascot, fire fighter, frogman, pirate, and rail worker), and numerous fixes for game issues and exploits.

Concurrently with the work on the 1.0.5 build we have also worked to standardise, optimise, and modularise the game structure to support making new content and systems for a series of planned game modes, specifically we have made a full review of the processes and systems for prototyping and testing new costume parts and stage geometry for the game, the work on standardising content and systems was necessary to configure the game for the playset and story game modes, to support more frequent content releases and bug fix patches, and to support other platforms and markets without negatively impacting work on other game modes and game content.

We expect to release examples of this work in the next significant content release later this year with a series of updated hazard escalations, stage variations, and new costume sets.

https://youtu.be/2cqaGr7j4Y0

Information on support and planned content

Currently we’re making a full review of support and documentation processes to identify and patch game and server issues more efficiently and to make more information on supported platforms and planned content available through gangbeasts.game and the Boneloaf YouTube channel.

Please email support@boneloaf.co if you have game issues or questions not currently addressed on the game FAQ page; please see the @MeatTelecom page on Twitter for server status and server maintenance announcements for the Gang Beasts Online Multiplayer Servers.

The list of key modifications and fixes made in the Train build are:

• added multiple costume sets (beef mascot, fire fighter, frogman, pirate, and rail worker)

• added train stage

• fixed a camera stability issue when characters climb specific wall sections on the incinerator stage

• fixed an issue making some ambient game SFX audible with the pause menu invoked

• fixed an issue making the velocity of the subway train dissimilar in online game modes to local game modes (on the subway stage)

• fixed an issue making the velocity of the turbine column dissimilar in online game modes to local game modes (on the vents stage)

• fixed an issue that exposed the restart instruction in the pause menu for some game modes in error

• fixed an issue that made jumping from a climbing posture fail to register in some contexts

• fixed an issue that made the velocity of vertical wall jumps excessive in some contexts

• fixed an issue when exiting from the local game menu in some contexts

• fixed an issue with ambient occlusion on Nvidia GPUs

• fixed an issue with character colour selection in local game modes

• fixed an issue with the blur filter when invoking the pause menu from the score screen

• fixed an issue with the costume parts tinting in error on the character customisation screen

• fixed an issue with the implementation of the bridge structure collapse on the vents stage

• fixed an issue with the syncing of light fixtures on the subway stage

• modified climbing scheme to limit scope for wall exploits

• modified collision detection performance

• modified concussion timings

• modified game camera to track ball movement in the football game mode

• modified input references to support mouse input (press the left mouse button with the mouse cursor over a specific input reference to invoke the associated instruction)

• modified menu implementation to apply image effect settings on the attract mode screen

• modified menu implementation to explicitly lock input and disable UI SFX on loading and interstitial screens

• modified online networking scheme to prevent exploits in online game modes

• modified targeting hierarchies to target susceptible body parts when punching, kicking, butting, and grabbing

• modified the costume saving implementation

• modified triggers for contextual and random character emotes

• optimised and stabilised miscellaneous costume parts and stage geometry

The full list of key modifications and fixes made in the Valentines’ build are:

• fixed an issue that made costumes draw irregularly (when scrolling through multiple custom costumes in succession

• added a button reference / instruction for setting character or gang controller in online and local game menus

• added haptic feedback support (compatible controllers trigger force feedback when taking punches, kicks, headbutts, and other blunt force injuries or when grip stamina is close to spent

• added lighthouse stage

• added support for restarting the current local game from the in-game pause menu (restarting from the pause menu in a random game session with load a new stage, not the current stage)

• added Valentine’s themed costume parts

• fixed an issue that could force UI text and other information off screening some context

• fixed an issue that could make the wrong networking message show in error in some contexts

• fixed an issue that erroneously rendered sections of the exterior negative space on incinerator as white

• fixed an issue that erroneously set the menu context to the costumes menu if the game start timer is cancelled and the back instruction is submitted from the local or online menu

• fixed an issue that made the game stall or exit if a client running on an Ubuntu OS is in the game session

• fixed an issue that malformed the rendering of the disconnection error character graphic

• fixed an issue that prematurely exposed menu input from the opening logo screens

• fixed an issue that stopped the selection of head costume parts in some contexts on the costumes menu

• fixed an issue that triggered the associated character to headbutt when the input for duck / slump is used to exit from the in-game pause menu

• fixed an issue where members of the same gang can be separated in error in the gang game mode

• fixed an issue with football game scores incrementing when the ball collides with a goal (if the game ended in a draw)

• fixed an issue with SFX samples triggered on the last stage persisting to the menu when a game session ends)

• fixed an issue with the balloon screen showing rows for players not in the current game session in some contexts)

• fixed an issue with the decrementing numbers starting on a low value (in the local and online game menus)

• fixed an issue with the fire implementation on incinerator rendering over in-game messaging

• fixed an issue with the railing colliders not syncing erroneously on chutes

• fixed an issue with UI information for the current menu or screen failing to dismiss when transitioning to a new menu or screen

• fixed online syncing issues with some costume parts

• modified balloon screen to give more contextual information (balloons won in past stages fade onto screen concurrently with the screen blur transition, balloons won on the current stage inflate in place)

• modified football UI size for legibility to standardise with other UI sizes

• modified menu camera parameters, menu UI, and transition timings to make standardise immediacy of menu transitions

• modified messaging colours to standardise in-game messaging

• modified session win confetti to pass through character and stage geometry

• modified the character colour palette to support 12 colours (blue, brown, green, lime, magenta, orange, pink, purple, tan, teal, and yellow)

• modified the football game mode to add a golden goal mode if the game timer ends without a winning side

• modified the glass implementation on elevators to optimise for concurrent glass breaks

• modified the local and online menus to disable costume and colour selection when a game session request has been submitted to the game session matching service

• modified the number of voice sets associated with NPC enemies on waves (to standardise voice sets for NPC enemies

• modified the tolerances for left analogue stick input on menus to improve menu item selection

• removed modal from input mapping menu to standardise menus

To read the full post associated with the Gang Beasts 1.0.4 build, please see http://beef.city/1_0_4

For support please email support@boneloaf.co

Update at 20:30 BST on Friday 21 September

We've been working with Coatsink and Multiplay for the last 24 hours to fix server performance and matchmaking issues identified in the first span of servers tests. There are still some minor issues and annoyances with the process for starting online game sessions but the key issues compromising the stability and performance of the matchmaking service has been addressed and patched.

The matchmaking service has been taken down in the last 30 minutes for some minor fixes but is coming back online currently and should be availanble for a second batch of stress testing in the next 10. Connecting to the current online multiplayer implementation requires updating to the 0.6.2 build.

Sorry that we were not able to provision servers in less time and the interruption in access to online games, we don't have the volume of players using the unstable builds to fully stress test the new networking scheme and needed to publish the server testing builds as default Steam builds to make testing valid but we're now close to having a stable and scalable hosting platform that supports both public and private game sessions and can support other online game modes.

Update at 3:20 BST on Thursday 21 September

Coatsink have identified the issue as a deadlock in one of the client threads when it receives a high volume of requests; the issue has been isolated to an authentication process.

The matchmaker is available currently but it will continue to ignore some request until Coatsink can finishing patching in the morning (the time in the UK is approx. 3.20am), apologies for the interruption, this is an issue we didn't identify in internal testing or testing in the "unstable" build as we could not manufacture the volume of concurrent users.

We will post an update to this post as soon as we have an estimated time for the second stress test (we currently expect the second stress test to require downloading a new client build, Steam should prompt you to download when this build is available).

Update at 23:30 BST on Thursday 21 September

Coatsink have identified a single issue to fix before we can push the matchmaking update, we will post more information soon.

Update at 20:25 BST on Thursday 21 September

Coatsink have temporarily taken the matchmaking server offline to patch some issues identified in the first batch of tests, will post an ETA for when they are back online soon.

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.6.1 beta build and Steam Free Weekend

Since the Gang Beasts online beta in August 2016, Boneloaf have been working with a small team at Coatsink to finish the content and systems for the full game, a significant part of this work has been to transition to Multiplay’s dedicated game hosting solution and Hybrid Cloud Orchestration technology to give official Gang Beasts servers a scalable, low-latency, managed hosting platform maintained by a specialist team of game server experts.

We have published the Gang Beasts 0.6.1 Early Access beta to Steam in the last hour and have made the game temporarily free on Early Access as a Steam Free Weekend game from 10am PDT / 6pm BST on Thursday 21 September to 1pm PDT / 9pm BST on Sunday 24 September to stress test the new server architecture and networking scheme and support for private sessions on official servers.

Please see the post at beef.city/060 for information and a changlog listing the key modifications and fixes in the 0.6.0 unstable build. For more information on Multiplay please see the Press press release at beef.city/multiplay

For reference we expect to have some inconsistencies with server availability and stability in the next hours as we transition to Multiplay's servers and scale server capacity.

Since the last Gang Beasts build was published in July we have been working with Coatsink to migrate the official Gang Beasts servers to a scalable low latency hosting solution, we have also made a series of significant optimisations and modifications to progress the performance and stability of the matchmaking , UI, and character systems. We have been testing potential 0.6.0 builds with Coatsink, Double Fine, and support from a QA team at Babel since the start of September, the matchmaking system, new server architecture, networking scheme, and costume fixes are at a stage where we need to test at scale to identify issues that are difficult to find when testing in the office.

Currently we are working on standardising the optimised UI, localisations for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese (support for other languages is planned), costume fixes, post processing, achievements, a modified implementation of the current camera system (built on Unity Cinemachine procedural camera system), and additional game modes (the 0.6.0 unstable build has the first public implementation of the local gang game mode, the gang mode is not supported online currently).

The 0.6.0 build as an unstable beta with this post for testing and patching before it can replace the current default Steam build (build 0.5.7a), to test the 0.6.0 build right-click on the game name on the Steam library page and select 'Properties' from the dialogue window that opens, from this window select the 'BETAS' tab then the "unstable" option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled 'Select the beta you would like to opt into:’).

Please note the 0.6.0 unstable build has been explicitly made for stress testing servers and only has support for the melee (local and online) and gang game modes (local only) and has some UI settings and other content disabled.

We are testing stage wins in preference to stage rounds in the 0.6.0, the implementation is similar to the previous implementation but a new stage is loaded after each stage win (currently the win parameter is set to 2 wins for public online games and limited to 1-4 wins in local and private online games.

The key modifications and fixes made in the 0.6.0 unstable Early Access beta build are:

• added a force that applies when releasing grabbed characters and objects (the force is applied in the same velocity vector as the released character or object (making throws more forceful)

• added an limited input deadzone to mouse input (to ignore small mouse movements and minimise conflicts with other input sources)

• added contextual support scripts to dynamic objects to improve stability, and character and object interactions (dragging, lifting, hanging etc.)

• configured stages to use the modified targeting system (significantly lowering the number of hidden colliders in each scene)

• fixed an exploit where devices with support for rapid-fire buttons gamed the concussion system

• fixed an issue that erratically applied movement forces when jumping from climbing states

• fixed an issue where the grab system could fail to reset temporary joints in some contexts

• fixed an issue with character sliding movement that could lock the character in an endless sliding state in some contexts

• fixed an issue with concussion length scaling

• fixed an issue with force and direction calculations (to make glancing blows less frequent and increase the number of successful blows)

• fixed an issue with the character system that gave NaN and INF errors (triggering a fatal exception)

• modified force parameters for the character support geometry increased physics stability

• modified inertia tensor properties for character body parts to stabilise character on character interactions (and other interactions)

• modified physics calculations for damage to account for optimisations to the character movement system

• modified score sequence to render on stage end with background blurring (currently implementation disables input soon after the win state is met, this will be reviewed in a coming build)

• modified secondary character moves (diving headbutts, dropkicks, and sliding kicks) to carry more damage, failing to land a more forceful move can concuss the assailant temporarily

• modified the character costume colour cycle sequence from yellow, green, blue, red etc. to red, blue, green, yellow etc.

• modified the character movement system to optimise performance and standardise mass, drag, and force parameters

• modified the character systems to remove tags use and string comparisons (to reduce the number of game object in scenes and improve scene loading times)

• modified the characters arms configurations to minimise contexts where arms can get stuck behind characters heads

• modified the hoisting implementation for climbing to inherit the direction of character movement

• modified the pause menu to limit input to the device the menu is invoked from

• modified ropes on the ring stage to stabilise interactions with characters and objects

• modified the targeting system to remove the need for assistive geometry and set hierarchical priorities for body parts, objects and surfaces (assistive geometry is still used for specific contexts)

The key issue with the 0.6.0 unstable Early Access beta build are (this list will be updated as we collate information on issues):

• camera rotation in game menus can over rotate in some contexts

• message strings can clip stage and character geometry

• parameters for rope break tolerances need modifying to make breaking less difficult

• escalation patterns for some stage need modifying to improve gameplay

In the hours immediately following the distribution of the 0.5.7 Gang Beasts Early Access build (publish on Thursday 29 June) we identified some performance issues on the Gang Beasts public servers, these issues escalated on over the subsequent days on populated servers triggering administration scripts to force server instances to restart and abruptly end game sessions on servers with the issue (the administration scripts are necessary to stop servers from terminally failing).

On Monday 3 July at approx 8pm BST we made the decision to take down the servers to address and patch for stability issues (and some matchmaking and connection issues) and have subsequently made multiple tests with a series of client and server builds. We have publicised the 0.5.7p1 build concurrently with this post and have provisions number of public servers at for testing.

Sorry for the protracted unavailability of public servers this week, together with Coatsink we have tried to maintain a high level of availability for public servers for the Early Access community by aggressively patching servers but were unfortunately not able to avoid taking public servers offline in this instance.

Other Information

For reference the key issue compromising the headless Linux server builds (that run on AWS architecture) was a severe memory leak that made disconnections, stage loading failures, and other stability issues more frequent until server administration scripts triggered the server to restart.

We were not able to reproduce the memory leak in testing before publishing the 0.5.7 Early Access build and the associated public server builds last Monday (the issue was only identified when public servers were populated with a high volume of concurrent players).

For reference the 0.5.7p1 builds is a separate branch to the coming 0.5.8 build and has no modifications from the 0.5.7 Early Access build (other than being built from Unity 0.5.6p1 not 5.6.2f1 and having online support for the incinerator stage temporarily disabled for this build).

For information on the current server unavailability see the pinned post at http://steamcommunity.com/app/285900/discussions/0/1368380934285718547/

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.5.7 beta

In June we have continued working with Coatsink to address performance and stability issues and other annoyances, part of this work can be tested in the 0.5.7 Early Access build and associated server configurations (published with this post). The key patches and optimisations in the 0.5.7 build are specific fixes for the character distortion and freezing glitches introduced in the transition to Unity 5.6 (and other physics stability issues), a significant decreases in CPU use, numerous networking and matchmaking stability fixes, and reduced build sizes.

Other work included in the 0.5.7 build includes modified and optimised city geometry for the background of exterior stages (only in the blimp and girders stages currently), modified and optimised geometry for the girders, incinerator, and wheel stages, Rick and Morty character costumes and multiple new character costume parts [1], large enemy AI body types for enemy AI (in the current waves stages), an improved AI for the waves game mode (AI aggression and throwing still need additional work but can be tested in the grind and incinerator stages), and a modified colour tinting system to support more variation for costume customisations. https://youtu.be/2T26tXGRhCY

Other work that is partially exposed in the 0.5.7 build includes the implementation of a custom atlasing system for scene optimisation (this is the last stage in the stage optimisation workflow, only the gondola and wheel stages use this system in the 0.5.7 build but the other stages are being moved to the atlas system currently), a custom buoyancy system (only exposed on the wheel stage in the 0.5.7 build for testing but will be moved to the other stages that have water or meat paste volumes when the current buoyancy parameters have been modified and standardised).

Other work not exposed in the 0.5.7 build includes modified and optimised geometry for the alley, grind, towers, and roof stages, optimisations to the character and prop physics implementations to significantly lower the frequency of physics calculations made per frame and stabilise collisions. https://youtu.be/RuIpfufwZEM 14 of the 16 public stages support online in 0.5.7 build, the key priorities for July are to execute the current QA schedule, finish the last modifications and optimisations and add online support for the chutes and towers stages, finish the last modifications and optimisations for the alley and roof stages, make a last pass to standardise character, prop physics optimisations and climbing, fixes and improvements to matchmaking, game modes, UI, localisations, and post processing.

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.7 Early Access beta build are:

• added modified and optimised city geometry to the blimp and girders stages

• added 17 new costume customisation parts and cat, panda, penguin, and rhinoceros kigurumi costumes

• added food production worker 1, food production worker 2, boiler suit, and security guard costume presets for enemy AI on the grind and incinerator stages

• added large character body types for enemy AI in waves mode

• added modified and optimised geometry for the girders stage (with local and online support)

• added modified and optimised geometry for the incinerator (with local and online support)

• added modified and optimised geometry for the wheel stage (with local and online support)

• added multiple stage escalations to the wheel stage

• fixed a significant physics issue that made character geometry distort and freeze

• fixed an issue that stops clients from joining servers if they had previously disconnected from a server in the same game session

• fixed an issue where characters could pass into the grinders on the grind stage without entering the concussive state

• fixed an issue with trains SFX ignoring the game SFX volume settings

• modified and optimised city geometry to blimp and girders stage

• modified concussion SFX to only trigger if characters are subjected to a concussive blow (concussion SFX should not trigger for falling and sinking hazards)

• modified the colour system to support tinting (to support costume customisations variations)

• modified gondola and wheel stages to use a custom atlasing system for performance (this work is the last batch of planned optimisations for the stage geometry)

• modified server configuration to automatically restart less frequently (restarts is necessary for clearing memory)

• modified some trigger volume tests to optimise performance and make detect specific character interactions and events (for the achievement implementation)

• modified the climbing implementations for online and local games to standardise

• modified and optimised UI for the character selection and character customisations screens

• reduced memory usage

• reduced the game file size by approximately 40% / 1.25GB

• removed some redundant code from the client for optimisation

• replaced buoyancy with optimised custom implementation (objects float before sinking. characters float but lose stamina, concussed characters sink)

• temporarily removed the game over messaging for local single melee player games

• temporarily removed support for the waves mode for the grind stage

The list of key issues identified with the 0.5.7 Early Access beta build are:

• issues with camera on wheel stage (we are working on implementing support for the new Unity Cinemachine 2.0 CinemachineTargetGroup to improve the tracking of multiple characters)

• issues with colliders on the pier on the wheel stage (online only)

• costume parts can show through other costume parts in some context with some costume configurations

• the implementation for the bridge deformation in vents needs modifications to stabilise the bridge

• water implementation is not standardised

• modified and optimised Beef City geometry is not standardised for external stages

• large enemy AI characters can get stuck in doors on the grind and incinerator stages

[1] the full list of costume parts FastFood_foodHygieneForageHat, FoodProduction_01_foodHygieneHat, FoodProduction_01_foodHygieneJacketWithGloves, FoodProduction_01_foodHygieneShoes, Garbage_hiVisVest Garbage_militaryCap, GroundsKeeper_overallsBottom, GroundsKeeper_overallsTop, Paremedic_bumbag, costume_tophat, costume_fez, costume_sombrero, costume_denimVest, costume_denimjacket, IceCreamVendor_iceCreamManShorts, Construction_hardHat, and Construction_dungarees

For the last month we have been working with Coatsink to move Gang Beasts to Unity 5.6 [1] to exploit performance improvements and make use of the expanded NavMesh, lighting, text rendering (TextMesh Pro), particle, post, camera, and debugging tools. The work to move to Unity 5.6 is done and most stability and rendering issues associated with moving to the current Unity 5.6 release have been identified and fixed.

Testing for the 0.5.6 beta build (published with this post) has ended, please flag any issues with Boneloaf support (support@boneloaf.co).

The 0.5.6 Early Access beta build has online support for the elevators stage, modified and optimised geometry for the subway and elevators stages, and a series of other optimisations, fixes, and modifications to UI, networking, and character and costume stability. The 0.5.6 beta also has a modified win state for the melee game mode and a provisional scheme for removing idle players from official servers (see the changelog section of this post for information).

In the last month we have also been working with partners to finish the optimisation of stage geometry and physics simulations, expand enemy AI abilities and pathfinding, setup game modes, debug new costume parts, fix camera issues, and rebuild and optimise menu and in-game UI (some of the optimisation work is exposed in the 0.5.6 beta but work on game modes, AI enemies, costume parts, menus and UI, and camera and post effects can’t be exposed for playtesting until a later build). [2]

The list of modifications and fixes made in this beta build are:

• fixed an issue with character postures on the costume customisation screen

• fixed stage specific issues with baking lights and re-baked light maps for some stages

• implemented a scheme for removing idle players from official servers (the current server session will end and show the message “You were kicked due to inactivity” if inputs are not frequently sent to each player) [3]

• implemented online support for elevators stage

• modified formatting for UI text and modals for legibility

• modified server disconnection messaging to give more information

• modified the default win state for the melee games on official servers to two round wins per stage (to give players that lose the first round a round to fight in before the stage can cycle (spectating players can join from the next round or the next stage if the stage has ended) [4]

• modified Steam API authentication messaging (Failed Platform Entitlement) with summary information and instructions

• modified Steam ID names to not scale with distance in non-VR games

• modified the stair light fixture on subway to support swinging from it

• optimised the geometry for subway and elevators stages (made less significant optimisations to geometry for other stages)

• renamed “survival” game mode to “melee” [5]

[1] we expect to make the full release build of Gang Beasts with Unity 5.6 later this year when the full set of launch content (game modes, stages, and costume sets) are fully tested and playable

[2] we have also been working on minimising and removing exploits and deviations in local multiplayer and online multiplayer game modes, please flag exploits and other issues in the comments

[3] this implementation will be reviewed and modified if removing idle players is exploited or otherwise compromises gameplay)

[4] similar to Street Fighter if World Warrior’s were gangs from Beef City and had mass brawls not tournaments

[5] for reference “melee”, “football”, “waves”, and “sandbox” are the four game modes planned for the full release of the game (other game modes will be added in a series of free post launch updates)

We have finished testing on the 0.5.5 beta build (published with this post), the list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.5 beta build are:

• added provisional AI enemy costume sets waves gang members for testing

• fixed an input issue that made character input(s) submitted when invoking the pause menu to span the menu (sending the same set of character inputs as the pause menu is exited)

• fixed an issue that stopped the audible playback of concussion SFX when characters are rendered unconscious

• fixed an issue with the server filters implementation that ignored Canada (Montreal) and UK (London) geographies when selecting / deselecting all geographies

• fixed an issue with calling the pause menu that could stall the game if the menu is invoked immediately before joining a server

• modified colliders on the chute stage to optimise and stabilise physics simulations

• modified colliders on the subways stage to optimise and stabilise physics simulations

• modified the attachment trigger volume for the UID 23 Hobo_woollyHat (HEAD) costume part

• modified the billboard panels on the billboard stage to make them removable

• modified the hat attachment implementation to limit the scope for rotation

• modified the server filters UI implementation to support the selection / deselection of the Canada (Montreal) and UK (London) filters with keyboard and controller input

• replaced the loading screen and interstitial screen system with placeholder hint content and rasterised compositions of stage geometry (to show the next stage loading)

Current issues identified with the 0.5.5 beta build are:

• 4th wall is still climbable on the subway and vents stages

• dynamic and static friction parameters need modifying for falling meat paste sacks (to modify and stabilise the velocity of falling meat)

• missing colliders on the open rucksack model (UID 173 costume_rucksack)

• missing section of building geometry at left of gondola and elevators stages

• the screens masking stage loading can fail to dismiss in some context

• enemy AI are persistently aggressive

Please note the 0.5.5 beta build replaces the 0.5.4p2 beta build for server compatibility (moving between the default and “unstable” builds on Steam will download the same 0.5.5 beta build)

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.5.4p2 beta

We have finished testing on the 0.5.4p2 build (published with this post), the list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.4p2 beta build are:

• added provisional hat re-attachment support to test attaching removed hats to character heads (when the base of a hat collides with the a non-hat wearing characters head from a congruous angle)

• added voice SFX for audio feedback on the character selection screen

• modified the burger hat costume part to support full detachment (to standardise hats and address the burger hat exploit)

• modified the water volume on the buoy stage to test inflicting accumulative harm to characters that are colliding with the water simulation (to limit the scope for exploiting character forces to move grabbed ice fragments to escape other characters)

Please note the 0.5.4p2 beta build has the full set of modifications and fixes listed in the Fixed 0.5.4p1 patch notes and has full support for two new server geographies in Canada (Montreal) and the UK (London).

Current issues identified with the 0.5.4p2 beta build are:

• 4th wall geometry is climbable on multiple stages

• billboard panels don’t break on the billboard stage (panels will be made breakable in a coming build)

• stage masking UI plane is not rendered when playing online if local is played previously in the same session (quitting and restart the game if you have this issue until it is fixed in a coming build)

• concussion SFX and some other in-game SFX are muted or fail to play

• dynamic and static friction parameters need modifying for falling meat paste sacks (to modify and stabilise the velocity of falling meat)

• invoking the pause menu immediately before joining a server can stall the game at the server joining screen

• missing colliders on the open rucksack model (UID 173 costume_rucksack)

• missing colliders on yellow pipes structures on chutes stage

• missing section of building geometry at left of gondola stage from a local game

Information on the Gang Beasts 0.5.4p1 beta and 0.5.4p2 beta

We have identified an issue with the 0.5.4p1 distribution that made it inaccessible, we are working on a second patch build (0.5.4p2) with some additional fixes and improvements and currently expect to publish this build later this week.

We have pushed a patch release in the last hour to address issues identified with the 0.5.4 build (published yesterday), the list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.4p1 beta build are:

• fixed an issue with inaudible arm velocity SFX

• fixed an issue with inaudible concussion SFX

• fixed an issue with the meat paste falling on the chutes stage

• modified game audio to balance SFX and other audio

• modified the truck colliders a second time to address issues with specific colliders on the trucks stage

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.5.4 beta (published Thursday 2 March 2017)

The Gang Beasts 0.5.4 beta build published with this post has a number of fixes, optimisations, and other modifications including improvements to the input mapping system, the gondola and trucks stages, the SFX and the orbit camera systems.

We are still working on other stability fixes and minimising in-game exploits and other annoyances and expect to have more examples of this work in coming builds.

Following the 0.5.4 build Coatsink will be pushing out support for two new server geographies in Canada (Montreal) and the UK (London) with full support coming from next week.

Please note the 0.5.4 beta build replaces the default 0.5.3 and ”unstable" 0.5.3 beta builds for server compatibilty (moving between the default and “unstable” builds on Steam will download the same 0.5.4 beta build)

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.4 beta builds are:

• added VOIP indicators for spectating players

• added a second speed to orbit cameras (two camera inputs in the same direction of travel accelerates the camera orbit, camera inputs in the opposite direction of travel slow or stop the current camera orbit)

• added per player support for resetting custom input bindings

• fixed an issue that made the game unresponsive if launched in the Steam Client offline mode

• fixed an issue that stopped playback of the warp SFX when music is muted

• fixed an issue with kigurumi tails clipping other geometry on the costume customisation screen

• fixed an issue with leg costume parts that made characters show irregular visual artefacts

• fixed an issue with the current truck colliders on the trucks stage

• fixed horn SFX on the trucks stage

• modified VOIP and name labels to lock them to the bounds of the screen (to indicate when an offscreen player is talking)

• modified the suspended platforms on the gondola stage with hinged side gates

• modified the horizontal and vertical building geometry in the gondola stage (to mask the scale of the building)

• modified the volume of menu and UI SFX

• optimised SFX performance

Current issues identified with the 0.5.4 beta build are:

• concussion SFX is missing or not audible (should be fixed in 0.5.4p1)

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.5.3p1 beta (published Thursday 16 February 2017)

We have pushed a patch release in the last hour to address issues identified with the 0.5.3 build (published yesterday), the list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.3p1 beta build are:

• patched an issue that stopped local games from ending on the vents stage if the game is set for more than 1 win

• fixed an issue that made the waves game inaccessible

• fixed an issue that stopped the forces on the vents stage from pushing or pulling characters when the fan blades are spinning

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.5.3 beta (published Wednesday 15 February 2017)

Since the 0.5.2 build was published last month we have been working with Coatsink to patch keys issues introduced in recent builds and recent versions of Unity and are publishing the first batch of optimisations, fixes, and other modifications in the 0.5.3 beta.

The 0.5.3 build has numerous bug and stability fixes but we are still working to fix issues with the multiplayer camera, vents glitches, costume exploits and conflicts, inconsistencies with lift forces and concussion times and expect to push these fixes to Steam for testing in coming builds.

We have also started work on a full rebuild of the UI, localising for multiple languages, and a more standardised testing process (with additional resources working with us to identify and fix issues).

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.3 beta builds are:

• added online support for the vents stage

• fixed a number of controller input issues on the pause menu

• optimised / modified the vents stage to stabilise fan animations and standardise timings

• fixed a server issue that erroneously shows the “you took too long to load” message

• fixed a server issue that made loading screens dismiss prematurely

• fixed a server issue that made the server connection process repeat if many players connect to an empty server concurrently

• fixed an issue with the localisation parser that would crash the client if a stage is won by a player with a less than (<) character before a greater than (>) character in their SteamID

• added a setting for finding the currently available microphone to the audio menu

• fixed an issue that shows the failed entitlement messaging in error

• fixed an issue that stops the scores from increment on the incinerator stage

• fixed some railing issues on vents

• modified the camera for the trucks stage (stop or cycle orbit direction with the inputs mapped to left and right camera input)

• modified the ordering scheme for selecting from saved costumes

• modified the saved costume implementation to not save non-customised characters (to stop duplicate copies of non-customised characters from saving)

• modified the game sound to fade out when the stage ends

• modified the character preview implementation on the costume customisation screen to stabilise character physics when replacement costume parts are cycled

• modified the coin screen animations to reduce the time it is shown on screen

• modified the default volume level for SFX

• modified the music and other audio for the containers, elevators, ring, towers, and wheel

• modified the quick join debug messaging to reduce the number of text strings on screen

• modified the server and client processes for monitoring scene loading (to avoid contexts that stall connecting clients at the stage loading screen)

• temporarily added an online timer to force rounds to end after 5 minutes have passed (the timer will be replaced with stage escalations at a later stage of development)

Please note the 0.5.3 beta build replaces the default 0.5.2 and ”unstable" 0.5.2 beta builds for server compatibilty (moving between the default and “unstable” builds on Steam will download the same 0.5.3 beta build)

Update Wednesday 11 January 2017

We have pushed a server fix for the glue hand issue and patched 0.5.2 build that addresses a keyboard mapping issue. Please tell us if you still have issue with the 0.5.2 build as we continue to identify and patch issues in preparation for the next build.

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.5.2 beta

Since the 0.5.1 build was published on 30 December 2016 we have been working with Coatsink to standardise character movement, optimise and fix input issues, and to scale server capacity and stability as the Gang Beasts Early Access community has increased significantly since the 0.5.0 beta build was published (on the 23 December 2016).

Quick Join

The 0.5.2 beta build has had numerous modifications to improve the Quick Join implementation, specifically to optimise the management of server connections and make disconnections less frequent; if you have issues connecting to servers with Quick Join in the 0.5.2 beta build please test connecting to servers with low pings from the server browser.

Gang Beasts Server Tool

We are working on making a number of guides to give more instructive information on using and customising the Gang Beasts Server Tool and will be adding a specific sub-forum for the server tool (the previous Server Tool forum was made inaccessible when the tool was associated with Gang Beasts on Steam).

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.2 beta builds are:

• added support for clearing custom input mappings for a single player (previous implementation only supported the clearing of all custom mapping)

• fixed a an issue that truncated some server listings at the end of the server browser

• fixed an issue where failures to connect to the master server showed the string “MENU_ONLINE_CONNECT_ERROR” and not the associated error message for the issue

• fixed an issue with the default server filter settings that only populated the server browser with servers for the US West (N. California) and Asia Pacific (Sydney) geographies by default, the default filter now populates from “All” geographies to show all currently available servers

• fixed an issue with the punch implementation that made the character punch when exiting a grab state in some contexts

• fixed an issue with the quick join ping implementation

• fixed support for mapping custom mouse inputs (for reference mouse inputs can only be mapped to a single player)

• modified character lifting implementation (to make lifting objects and characters less erratic)

• modified damage parameters (to make concussions less immediate)

• modified drag parameters on characters to make character movement less erratic (this modification lowers the maximum potential length of throws *)

• modified maximum angular velocity parameters for characters (to make character movement less erratic)

• modified quick join implementation to make subsequent connection attempts if the current connection fails

• modified quick join implementation to prioritise low ping, part-populated servers

• modified the custom input mapping implementation to make input more stable

• modified the ping implementation for server browser stored listings

• modified the quick join implementation to give more instructive messaging

Information on switching to and from "stable" and “unstable” branches

To download the ‘unstable’ branch on Steam right-click on the ‘Gang Beasts’ game name on the Steam library page and select 'Properties' from the window that opens, from this window select the 'BETAS' tab and then the 'unstable' option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled 'Select the beta you would like to opt into:’. To revert back to the last 'stable' branch select 'NONE- Opt out of all beta programs' from the same menu.

For reference switching between 'unstable' and 'stable' branches of the game forces the selected build to download to the Steam client (replacing the previously selected build).

Please note the 0.5.0 release replaced the previous default 0.3.4 and 0.4.4 "unstable" Steam Early Access builds, moving between the default and “unstable” builds on Steam will download the 0.5.2 stable build until the “unstable” build is updated to 0.5.3

A number of issues have impacted online multiplayer gameplay since the 0.5.0 beta release on 21 December some of which were patched in a recent server update, the key issues were that have compromised online and physics stability are:

Concurrent Players

There servers had a significant escalation in the volume of concurrent players (peaking at ~160% or 2.6 times more players than the previous record high), to address this we have added additional server capacity and will continue to monitor contention for servers and scale capacity if the number of online players continues to escalate.

Player Hosted Servers

A high number of player hosted servers registered (or attempted to register) with the master server in the days immediately following the release of the Gang Beasts server tool (on 23 December 2016), this negatively impacted on the performance of the Master Server. A significant percentage of player hosted servers that successfully registered with the master server (player hosted servers that were shown in the server browser list) did not have port forwarding configured or were otherwise inaccessible stopping other players from joining them.

To address these issues we have temporarily stopped player hosted servers from registering as public servers until the implementation can be modified (remote players can still connect to player hosted servers with the Direct Connection option in the online menu).

For discussion and support for the Gang Beasts Server Tool please use the forum at http://steamcommunity.com/app/497110/discussions/

Physics Instability

We have been testing to identify the source of the physics inconsistencies introduced in the 0.5.0 builds and have identified the issue is with frame rate independence (making the game physics fluctuate significantly when running on different hardware specifications). We have been testing a potential fix for this issue and are publishing this as the 0.5.1 beta build concurrently with this post.

The modifications to the characters physics (which are listed in the change log in the 0.5.0 posts are not the source of the issues with physics inconsistencies), the issue is with the game physics not calculating independently of frame rate which manifests as lower (weak) forces for systems with lower frame rates and compromises character stability for systems with exceptionally high frame rates.

Quick Join

We are working on the Quick Join implementation to improve the management of contention for server slots with less frequent disconnections; if you have frequent issues connecting to servers with Quick Join please connect with the Server List with geographical filters (to index servers in proximate geographies) until improvements to the Quick Join implementation are published.

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.1 beta builds are:

• fixed an issue with the character system to make the character physics work independently of frame rate

• fixed missing collider on subway

• modified amplitude of RingDing SFX to lower volume by approx. half

• modified amplitude of warp SFX sample to lower volume by approx. half

• modified the master server to manage higher CCUs (Concurrent Users)

• modified the master server to make the server list populate faster

Information on switching to / from "stable" and “unstable” branches

To download the ‘unstable’ branch on Steam right-click on the ‘Gang Beasts’ game name on the Steam library page and select 'Properties' from the window that opens, from this window select the 'BETAS' tab and then the 'unstable' option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled 'Select the beta you would like to opt into:’. To revert back to the last 'stable' branch select 'NONE- Opt out of all beta programs' from the same menu.

For reference switching between 'unstable' and 'stable' branches of the game forces the selected build to download to the Steam client (replacing the previously selected build).

Please note the 0.5.0 release replaced the previous default 0.3.4 and 0.4.4 "unstable" Steam Early Access builds, moving between the default and “unstable” builds on Steam will download the 0.5.1 stable build until the “unstable” build is updated to 0.5.2