The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.4.2 "unstable" alpha build are:

• added a countdown timer to the local multiplayer character select screen to support canceling the session if other players did not submit to join the session (press the input mapped for ’duck/crawl’ to stop the countdown)
  
• added geography filters for new servers in Frankfurt (EU), São Paulo (South America), Tokyo (Asia Pacific), Singapore (Asia Pacific), Seoul (Asia Pacific), and Mumbai (India)
  
• modified geometry for 'gondola' for stage
  
• modified Steam ID labels to use the selected character colour
  
• modified the default online game mode to not despawn the characters of players that leave the server (neglected characters will idle but not decrement / increment score metrics if removed from the stage by other players)
  
• modified the game camera to frame the last player on stage end
  
• modified the input mapping screen to support the mapping of single inputs
  
• modified the input reference screens with revised information
  
• modified train tracks on ‘subway’ stage to render in front of the Steam ID labels
  
• removed ‘Draw’ messaging on stage end for single player local games
  
• removed background plane and Steam Avatars from Steam ID labels
  
• removed debug input for immediately loading the next stage in the current sequence (in the current default game mode)
  
• restored 8 player support for the current default local games mode (
  
• restored menu setting to enable / disable Xinput support
  
• restored the ‘containers’ and ‘chute’ stages for the current default local game mode
  
• temporarily disabled invoking the input mapping screen from the in game menu


Please note there is no "stable" alpha build release with this post, the next stable release will be published when the 'buoy' and 'fans' stages have been restored to the default local game mode.


Online gameplay in Gang Beasts is currently supported in the "unstable" alpha builds on Steam Early Access (support for online gameplay in the default Gang Beasts Early Access builds is scheduled for a later stage of development).


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).

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.4.2 "unstable" alpha build are:

• added a countdown timer to the local multiplayer character select screen to support canceling the session if other players did not submit to join the session (press the input mapped for ’duck/crawl’ to stop the countdown)
  
• added geography filters for new servers in Frankfurt (EU), São Paulo (South America), Tokyo (Asia Pacific), Singapore (Asia Pacific), Seoul (Asia Pacific), and Mumbai (India)
  
• modified geometry for 'gondola' for stage
  
• modified Steam ID labels to use the selected character colour
  
• modified the default online game mode to not despawn the characters of players that leave the server (neglected characters will idle but not decrement / increment score metrics if removed from the stage by other players)
  
• modified the game camera to frame the last player on stage end
  
• modified the input mapping screen to support the mapping of single inputs
  
• modified the input reference screens with revised information
  
• modified train tracks on ‘subway’ stage to render in front of the Steam ID labels
  
• removed ‘Draw’ messaging on stage end for single player local games
  
• removed background plane and Steam Avatars from Steam ID labels
  
• removed debug input for immediately loading the next stage in the current sequence (in the current default game mode)
  
• restored 8 player support for the current default local games mode (
  
• restored menu setting to enable / disable Xinput support
  
• restored the ‘containers’ and ‘chute’ stages for the current default local game mode
  
• temporarily disabled invoking the input mapping screen from the in game menu


Please note there is no "stable" alpha build release with this post, the next stable release will be published when the 'buoy' and 'fans' stages have been restored to the default local game mode.


Online gameplay in Gang Beasts is currently supported in the "unstable" alpha builds on Steam Early Access (support for online gameplay in the default Gang Beasts Early Access builds is scheduled for a later stage of development).


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).

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.4.1 "unstable" alpha build are:

• fixed Yogscast Charity DLC costumes
  
• fixed an issue with characters not spawning randomly
  
• fixed an issue with the placeholder loading screen not dismissing when joining a game as a spectator
  
• modified the default game mode to 3 round wins (to win the stage)
  
• modified the game architecture to improve stability
  
• modified the placeholder loading screen to show the keyboard input reference if mouse inputs are used to start the game
  
• modified the spectating system to spectate until the the current stage ends (spectating players join the game when the current stage ends)
  
• modified the master server to prepare support for additional server geographies (in Asia Pacific, Europe, India, and South America)

Please note there is no "stable" alpha build release with this post (the next stable release will be published when more optimisations and fixes have been made to the 0.4.x builds).


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).

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.4.1 "unstable" alpha build are:

• fixed Yogscast Charity DLC costumes
  
• fixed an issue with characters not spawning randomly
  
• fixed an issue with the placeholder loading screen not dismissing when joining a game as a spectator
  
• modified the default game mode to 3 round wins (to win the stage)
  
• modified the game architecture to improve stability
  
• modified the placeholder loading screen to show the keyboard input reference if mouse inputs are used to start the game
  
• modified the spectating system to spectate until the the current stage ends (spectating players join the game when the current stage ends)
  
• modified the master server to prepare support for additional server geographies (in Asia Pacific, Europe, India, and South America)

Please note there is no "stable" alpha build release with this post (the next stable release will be published when more optimisations and fixes have been made to the 0.4.x builds).


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).

For the last month we have been working with Coatsink to implement online support in the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build (published with this post). The information in this post summarise a number of the key differences between the 0.3.4 'unstable' and the 0.4.0 'unstable' builds.

The structure of the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build has been significantly modified from the previous 0.3.4 'unstable' alpha build to include placeholder information screens and other planned content and some content is temporarily disabled, specifically the debug spawning commands, the ‘waves’ game mode, and the 'buoy', ‘chute’, ’containers’, and ’fans’ stages (this content needs additional work before it is restored).

In the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build there are 4 online stages playable and 12 local stages, the online stages are:

• grind
  
• ring
  
• trucks
  
• subway

the local stages are:

• billboards
  
• blimp
  
• elevators
  
• girders
  
• gondola
  
• grind
  
• incinerator
  
• ring
  
• subway
  
• towers
  
• trucks
  
• wheel

The 'buoy', ‘chute’, ’containers’, and ’fans’ stages and the ‘waves’ game mode will be restored to ‘unstable’ builds in a coming build.

Downloading 'unstable' builds
The instructions for updating from 0.3.1, 0.3.2, 0.3.3, and 0.3.4 builds to the 0.4.0. 'unstable' alpha build are:

• right-click on the Gang Beasts game name on the Steam library page
  
• select “Properties” from the window that opens
  
• from the Properties window select the “BETAS” tab and then the 'unstable' option from the dropdown menu

To revert to the default Early Access branch select 'NONE- Opt out of all beta programs' from the same dropdown menu.

The rest of this post is a series of paragraphs with current information and summaries on what progress has been made to date on content for the game.

Default game mode
The default game mode in the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha has modified win logic for the default game mode (winning scenarios is currently set to 3 wins to test stage cycling) to let player play in all rounds, the old game logic will be restored in a coming build.

0.3.4 and 0.3.1
The 0.3.4 ‘unstable’ alpha build has replaced the previous default 0.3.1 alpha build, please move from the ‘unstable’ to the default branches to continue playing with the debug spawning commands, the ‘waves’ game mode, and the ‘chute’, ’containers’, and ’fans’ stages until this content can be restored to the ‘unstable’ branch.

Online Beta
The signup process for the online beta ended at the start of July, the online beta itself is scheduled to end and be removed from Steam on Friday 5 August 2016 at 23:59 GMT (as support for online game modes is now included in the 0.4.0 Steam Early Access ’unstable’ alpha build).

Private Servers
Support for hosting private servers will be released when the 0.4.0 build and server implementation has been tested and made stable in August.

Couch mode
Support for playing online with 1-4 local players (players on the same system) has been tested internally and will be added for testing in a coming build.

Linux Support
Currently there is no Linux version of the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build, we plan to make a Linux build available in August.

Servers
Currently the 0.4.0 'unstable' alpha supports servers in the following geographies:

• US East (N.Virginia)
  
• US West (N. California)
  
• US West (Oregon)
  
• EU (Ireland)
  
• Asia Pacific (Sydney)

we will be working to add servers in the following geographies in August:

• EU (Frankfurt)
  
• South America (São Paulo)
  
• Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
  
• Asia Pacific (Singapore)
  
• Asia Pacific (Seoul)

Xinput
There is no setting to enable or disable Xinput support in the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build currently (this will be restored in a patch release soon). For reference the 0.4.0 build shares preference settings with the 0.3.4 build and defaults to the current XInput setting used for the 0.3.4 build and some earlier builds (a temporary solution for enabling or disabling XInput support is to switch to the 0.3.4 build and use it to enable or disable XInput then revert to the 0.4.0 build).

For the last month we have been working with Coatsink to implement online support in the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build (published with this post). The information in this post summarise a number of the key differences between the 0.3.4 'unstable' and the 0.4.0 'unstable' builds.

The structure of the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build has been significantly modified from the previous 0.3.4 'unstable' alpha build to include placeholder information screens and other planned content and some content is temporarily disabled, specifically the debug spawning commands, the ‘waves’ game mode, and the 'buoy', ‘chute’, ’containers’, and ’fans’ stages (this content needs additional work before it is restored).

In the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build there are 4 online stages playable and 12 local stages, the online stages are:

• grind
  
• ring
  
• trucks
  
• subway

the local stages are:

• billboards
  
• blimp
  
• elevators
  
• girders
  
• gondola
  
• grind
  
• incinerator
  
• ring
  
• subway
  
• towers
  
• trucks
  
• wheel

The 'buoy', ‘chute’, ’containers’, and ’fans’ stages and the ‘waves’ game mode will be restored to ‘unstable’ builds in a coming build.

Downloading 'unstable' builds
The instructions for updating from 0.3.1, 0.3.2, 0.3.3, and 0.3.4 builds to the 0.4.0. 'unstable' alpha build are:

• right-click on the Gang Beasts game name on the Steam library page
  
• select “Properties” from the window that opens
  
• from the Properties window select the “BETAS” tab and then the 'unstable' option from the dropdown menu

To revert to the default Early Access branch select 'NONE- Opt out of all beta programs' from the same dropdown menu.

The rest of this post is a series of paragraphs with current information and summaries on what progress has been made to date on content for the game.

Default game mode
The default game mode in the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha has modified win logic for the default game mode (winning scenarios is currently set to 3 wins to test stage cycling) to let player play in all rounds, the old game logic will be restored in a coming build.

0.3.4 and 0.3.1
The 0.3.4 ‘unstable’ alpha build has replaced the previous default 0.3.1 alpha build, please move from the ‘unstable’ to the default branches to continue playing with the debug spawning commands, the ‘waves’ game mode, and the ‘chute’, ’containers’, and ’fans’ stages until this content can be restored to the ‘unstable’ branch.

Online Beta
The signup process for the online beta ended at the start of July, the online beta itself is scheduled to end and be removed from Steam on Friday 5 August 2016 at 23:59 GMT (as support for online game modes is now included in the 0.4.0 Steam Early Access ’unstable’ alpha build).

Private Servers
Support for hosting private servers will be released when the 0.4.0 build and server implementation has been tested and made stable in August.

Couch mode
Support for playing online with 1-4 local players (players on the same system) has been tested internally and will be added for testing in a coming build.

Linux Support
Currently there is no Linux version of the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build, we plan to make a Linux build available in August.

Servers
Currently the 0.4.0 'unstable' alpha supports servers in the following geographies:

• US East (N.Virginia)
  
• US West (N. California)
  
• US West (Oregon)
  
• EU (Ireland)
  
• Asia Pacific (Sydney)

we will be working to add servers in the following geographies in August:

• EU (Frankfurt)
  
• South America (São Paulo)
  
• Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
  
• Asia Pacific (Singapore)
  
• Asia Pacific (Seoul)

Xinput
There is no setting to enable or disable Xinput support in the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha build currently (this will be restored in a patch release soon). For reference the 0.4.0 build shares preference settings with the 0.3.4 build and defaults to the current XInput setting used for the 0.3.4 build and some earlier builds (a temporary solution for enabling or disabling XInput support is to switch to the 0.3.4 build and use it to enable or disable XInput then revert to the 0.4.0 build).

For the past two months we have been working with Coatsink to iterate on the networking scheme and game content for the Gang Beasts online beta, in parallel to this work we have been collaborating with SuperGenius to scope and implement the game mode and character customisation systems for the game.

The next stage is to merge the online support and stage optimisations from the online beta with the ‘unstable’ branch and then integrate the Character Customisation, Character Colour, and Game Mode systems.

The rest of this post is a series of paragraphs with current information and summaries on what progress has been made to date on content for the game.


The online beta has been in testing for approx. two months and has been played or pre-loaded by ~60,000 players from 133 countries to date, the work on the network refactor has been committed to the Gang Beasts master branch and we have moved to merging the online multiplayer beta with 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ beta (for release later this month).


We currently expect to finish the work to merge online multiplayer support into the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha in July (for reference the current 0.3.4 ‘unstable’ alpha build will replace the current 0.3.1 default build on Steam when the 0.4.0 is published).


We have postponed removing the Gang Beasts online beta signup page at http://beef.city/beta until Monday 4 July 2016 at 11:59pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) to give owners of Gang Beasts on Early Access additional time to requests keys before the signup page is removed. For reference there is no selection process for participating in the online beta and participants are not expected to promote the game, stream, or record gameplay (for information and signup instructions for the online beta please see the post at http://beef.city/u_0-3-4 or the pinned thread at http://beef.city/key_info).


Key requests made before 1 July 2016 have been sent out, if you made a request for a key or keys before this date and have not been sent keys, please populate and submit the form at http://beef.city/key_issue with your information for support.

For reference the first batch of keys for the online beta expired recently and a second smaller batch with an incompatible release state were added to the distribute() system in error, these keys can be activated in the Steam client but the ‘Gang Beasts Online Beta’ title will not become available in the Steam Library. A number of the keys sent out on Friday evening and Saturday morning were from the second batch, if you received keys with the wrong release state please forward the email you received with the incorrect keys to support@boneloaf.co to get replacements.


For online beta participants with the false ‘Failed. Entitlement’ issue, this issue has been patched in the 0.0.8 online beta build released last week.


Work on the character customisation and character colour systems is close to finished but we don’t currently expect to be able to include them in the 0.4.0 build but should have a version that is sufficiently stable for testing in the weeks after the 0.4.0 build is published.


Work on the game modes system is also close to finished but can’t be fully implemented until the full Character Customisation system has been tested in game.


We have been working with Bruce Slater (a technical artist at Ruce) to build and optimise the stages for the full version of the game and expect to have some of this work in Early Access builds of the game soon.


Support for hosting private servers is planned but not supported in the online beta currently as we have to limit the number of server types at this stage of testing.

For the past two months we have been working with Coatsink to iterate on the networking scheme and game content for the Gang Beasts online beta, in parallel to this work we have been collaborating with SuperGenius to scope and implement the game mode and character customisation systems for the game.

The next stage is to merge the online support and stage optimisations from the online beta with the ‘unstable’ branch and then integrate the Character Customisation, Character Colour, and Game Mode systems.

The rest of this post is a series of paragraphs with current information and summaries on what progress has been made to date on content for the game.


The online beta has been in testing for approx. two months and has been played or pre-loaded by ~60,000 players from 133 countries to date, the work on the network refactor has been committed to the Gang Beasts master branch and we have moved to merging the online multiplayer beta with 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ beta (for release later this month).


We currently expect to finish the work to merge online multiplayer support into the 0.4.0 ‘unstable’ alpha in July (for reference the current 0.3.4 ‘unstable’ alpha build will replace the current 0.3.1 default build on Steam when the 0.4.0 is published).


We have postponed removing the Gang Beasts online beta signup page at http://beef.city/beta until Monday 4 July 2016 at 11:59pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) to give owners of Gang Beasts on Early Access additional time to requests keys before the signup page is removed. For reference there is no selection process for participating in the online beta and participants are not expected to promote the game, stream, or record gameplay (for information and signup instructions for the online beta please see the post at http://beef.city/u_0-3-4 or the pinned thread at http://beef.city/key_info).


Key requests made before 1 July 2016 have been sent out, if you made a request for a key or keys before this date and have not been sent keys, please populate and submit the form at http://beef.city/key_issue with your information for support.

For reference the first batch of keys for the online beta expired recently and a second smaller batch with an incompatible release state were added to the distribute() system in error, these keys can be activated in the Steam client but the ‘Gang Beasts Online Beta’ title will not become available in the Steam Library. A number of the keys sent out on Friday evening and Saturday morning were from the second batch, if you received keys with the wrong release state please forward the email you received with the incorrect keys to support@boneloaf.co to get replacements.


For online beta participants with the false ‘Failed. Entitlement’ issue, this issue has been patched in the 0.0.8 online beta build released last week.


Work on the character customisation and character colour systems is close to finished but we don’t currently expect to be able to include them in the 0.4.0 build but should have a version that is sufficiently stable for testing in the weeks after the 0.4.0 build is published.


Work on the game modes system is also close to finished but can’t be fully implemented until the full Character Customisation system has been tested in game.


We have been working with Bruce Slater (a technical artist at Ruce) to build and optimise the stages for the full version of the game and expect to have some of this work in Early Access builds of the game soon.


Support for hosting private servers is planned but not supported in the online beta currently as we have to limit the number of server types at this stage of testing.

The signup process for participating in the Gang Beasts online multiplayer beta is open.

To manage the distribution of Steam keys for the online beta we are using the distribute() build distribution service from Vlambeer, distribute() is designed for the distribution of keys to press (please ignore Press references when submitting key requests).

Please note that the initial online multiplayer beta only supports Windows operating systems and is currently limited to three stages ('grind', 'subway', and 'trucks'), the next batch of stages that are being optimised for inclusion in the online multiplayer are 'buoy', 'gymnasium', 'ring', and 'elevators'.

The process for submitting a key requests for the Gang Beasts online multiplayer beta through distribute() has five stages, the process is:

Open the URL http://beef.city/beta in a browser

In the ‘Log in with your e-mail address:’ section (outlined with a red box in the screen capture immediately below this sentence) enter the email address you want the beta key(s) to be sent to



Check the email account you submitted for an email from noreply@dodistribute.com with the subject line “distribute() | Confirm your request” and follow the instructions for confirming the request.

To confirm the request paste the 16 character code from the last sentence of the email in to text field labelled ‘Code:’ (outlined with a red box in the screen capture immediately below this sentence) and left click on the ‘confirm request’ button or left click on the long URL on the second to last line of the email.



Please note the maximum number of keys that can be approved per request is four.

Confirming the request will open the main distribute() key request page, from this page specify the number of keys you want to request and select the ‘PC (Steam)’ setting (outlined with a red box in the screen capture below).

Ignore the 'Login with Twitch or Google (YouTube)' section unless you are a YouTube / Twitch content maker and want to associate your YouTube / Twitch account with your key submission.

In the ‘Or add your own publishing platform:’ section enter a your Steam username in ’Name:’ text field (outlined with a yellow box in the third screen capture at the end of this post) and left click the ‘request’ button to submit the request.



Please note that the online multiplayer beta keys will be sent out in batches, the first batches of keys will be sent out by email from next week with subsequent batches of keys being sent out more frequently as server capacity scales.


Please note there is no "stable" alpha build released with this post

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.3.3 "unstable" alpha build are:

• fixed a number of missing/corrupt navMeshes
  
• fixed an issue that could prevent front and rear sliding states from triggering
  
• fixed an issue that made characters stay in the ‘headbutt’ state when headbutting
  
• fixed an issue relating to AI not identifying a navMesh agent
  
• fixed an issue with spawned AI entering kill volumes
  
• fixed an issue with the water system that rendered water with zero polygons on specific systems
  
• modified enemy / object targeting hierarchies to prioritise objects in front of targeted characters
  
• modified stamina to reduce at a slower rate when characters are moving
  
• modified the climbing system to make climbing less difficult
  
• modified the colour palette on the ‘trucks’ stage
  
• modified the dropkick and diving states to use a minimal assistive targeting (to make targeting enemies / objects with dropkicks and diving less erratic)

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).