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

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).

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).

[UPDATE] 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

[UPDATE] 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

In the last month we have been finishing work on optimising the current public stages and testing fixes for issues introduced in the transition from Unity 5.4 to Unity 5.6, we have identified a potential solution for the current character distorting / freezing and other physics stability issues and have made successful tests with a patched server configuration. We plan to patch public servers over the next hour. Please post information if you still see distorting / freezing issues or missing geometry when playing online following the server update to help us identify if the patch is not working as expected. [1]

Server availability and stability will fluctuate for the next hour as servers are patched

Other than work on optimising the current local and online stages (this work is necessary for improving physics stability and standardising collision detections), we have also been working on games modes, a full replacement for the current UI implementation, physics and server stability, standardisation of costume and prop parameters (for existing and new objects), configuring the Unity post processing stack, localisations, and improvements to matchmaking and networking. We expect to publish multiple builds demonstrating this work in June and July with a series of posts giving specific information on the full release content for the game and current plans for post launch content.

[1] For reference there is no build published with this post; in tests we have recorded a small number of distorting / freezing issues in local games but instances were significantly less frequent than online games, we will monitor server stability and prioritise publishing modified client builds (with additional optimisations and fixes) when the solution for the distorting / freezing issue has been demonstrated as working.

In the last month we have been finishing work on optimising the current public stages and testing fixes for issues introduced in the transition from Unity 5.4 to Unity 5.6, we have identified a potential solution for the current character distorting / freezing and other physics stability issues and have made successful tests with a patched server configuration. We plan to patch public servers over the next hour. Please post information if you still see distorting / freezing issues or missing geometry when playing online following the server update to help us identify if the patch is not working as expected. [1]

Server availability and stability will fluctuate for the next hour as servers are patched

Other than work on optimising the current local and online stages (this work is necessary for improving physics stability and standardising collision detections), we have also been working on games modes, a full replacement for the current UI implementation, physics and server stability, standardisation of costume and prop parameters (for existing and new objects), configuring the Unity post processing stack, localisations, and improvements to matchmaking and networking. We expect to publish multiple builds demonstrating this work in June and July with a series of posts giving specific information on the full release content for the game and current plans for post launch content.

[1] For reference there is no build published with this post; in tests we have recorded a small number of distorting / freezing issues in local games but instances were significantly less frequent than online games, we will monitor server stability and prioritise publishing modified client builds (with additional optimisations and fixes) when the solution for the distorting / freezing issue has been demonstrated as working.

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]

• 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)

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]

• 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)