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

If you would like to find people to test the new Matchmaker or to just talk about Gang Beasts, join the community run Discord server here: https://discordapp.com/invite/gXh2HRH

We are aware of the issue with the M1 Macs. They are supported in a later version of Unity and we are going to upgrade our Unity version later in Q2 /Q3. We will have support available for Gang Beasts then.

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.

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.

• 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

• 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!

• 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.

• 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).

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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

• Adjusted the lights to improve baked quality.
  
• Added buoyancy to the meat paste at the front of the stage.

• 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.

• 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.

• Adjusted lights and materials to brighten the stage slightly.
  
• Adjusted the rope height to make it slightly easier to eliminate players.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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

• 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:

• [PENDING] Update loading screens and game splash

Stages:

• [PENDING] 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).
  
• [PENDING] Adjust Elevators escalation to trigger more consistently.
  
• [PENDING] Update Buoy mechanics to escalate.
  
• [PENDING] Update Chutes mechanics to escalate.
  
• [PENDING] Add more audio and effects to indicate Wheel escalations.
  
• [PENDING] Add a better indication to when players will be eliminated on Trains when the carriage detaches.

Character Movement & Combat:

• [EXPLORE] 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:

• [PENDING] Fix a long standing issue with ropes that makes their movements look strange online.
  
• [PENDING] Fix an issue on Elevators where the roller starts in the wrong position on level load.
  
• [PENDING] Fix an issue on Elevators where the background does not move online when the stage escalates.
  
• [PENDING] Fix an issue that makes some things fail to sync correctly on load.

FAQ

What Platforms is Gang Beasts available for? 

Gang Beasts is available for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems and as an Oculus Early Access game for the Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S headset.

Microsoft Windows

Gang Beasts for Windows can be downloaded from the Steam, Humble and Oculus Stores (Oculus version requires an Oculus Rift or Oculus Rift S headset).

Apple macOS and Linux

Gang Beasts for macOS and Linux can be downloaded from the Steam and Humble Stores.

Sony PlayStation 4

Gang Beasts for PlayStation 4 can be downloaded from the PlayStation™ Store, physical copies can be purchased from local and online retailers or from the Skybound Games shop (releases on 3 December 2019 in US and 6 December 2019 in EMEA).

Microsoft Xbox One

Gang Beasts for Xbox One can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store, physical copies can be purchased from local and online retailers or from the Skybound Games shop (releases on 3 December 2019 in US and 6 December 2019 in EMEA).

Nintendo Switch

We hope to optimise Gang Beasts for the Nintendo Switch but can’t confirm if Gang Beasts will release for the Nintendo Switch or give an expected release date currently.

Does Gang Beasts offer crossplay functionality?

Gang Beasts currently does not offer crossplay functionality, but we are looking into ways of adding this feature. We will announce it when we know more.

I need technical support

Please email support@boneloaf.co and send us an output log/error log, system specs and a summary of the problem and send the files attached or paste into an email it might help us identify the problem.

What controllers does Gang Beasts support?

Gang Beasts uses the Rewired framework for controller support on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, the full list of supported controllers for these platforms is maintained by the developer on the Rewired Supported Controller page.

Can I make YouTube or Twitch content from Gang Beasts gameplay?

 We currently set no limitations on making monetised or non-monetised gameplay content from Gang Beasts.

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:

• [PENDING] Update loading screens and game splash.

Stages:

• [ADDED] Standardise all breakable glass in the game to use our new fracture system.
  
• [ADDED] Standardise all buoyancy in the game to use our new buoyancy system.
  
• [ADDED] Re-bake all stages and make several small graphical improvements that should hopefully fix lighting issues some players have reported.
  
• [PENDING] Adjust Elevators escalation to trigger more consistently.
  
• [PENDING] Update Buoy’s visuals slightly.
  
• [PENDING] Update Buoy’s mechanics to escalate.
  
• [PENDING] Update Chutes mechanics to escalate.

Character Movement & Combat:

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

Online:

• [PENDING] Fix a long standing issue with ropes that make their movements look strange online.
  
• [PENDING] Fix an issue on Elevators where the rollers would start in the wrong position on level load.
  
• [PENDING] Fix an issue on Elevators where the background would not move online when the stage escalates.
  
• [PENDING] Fix an issue that makes some things fail to sync correctly on load.