OUTBRK News

It’s chase season once again and we’re continuing our progress with Outbrk! We’ve been very busy over the last couple of months between our playtests (and then integrating the feedback into the game!) and the recent Catapulte contest we were a part of. It’s an exciting time for our development as all of the components of the game are starting to come together!


Catapulte Contest:

Like most of you are probably aware, last month was the big Catapulte indie contest we were finalists in. We didn't win Catapulte, but won the INDIE 2022 prize ! The INDIE 2022 prize is a $4000 check awarded by Polymorph Games, Berzerk Studio, Parabole, Fika Productions, Bishop Games, Sabotage, Chainsawesome and Nine Dots, 8 of the most prominent indie studios of Quebec. It shows great recognition from our peers developers and we've received an incredible amount of praise and support. This infusion of financial support has been at a perfect time and has helped us greatly!

Playtest Feedback:

In our last newsletter, we recapped much of the feedback that we received from our first multiplayer playtest. Missed it? Read it here!

We’ve also updated our Trello page, which will show the actionables behind the feedback from our community. We continue to maintain our commitment to transparency.

From the playtest, we’ve taken feedback and started working on several fronts. We’ll be reworking much of the storm reporting functionality and continuing to investigate the inconsistencies with the matchmaking process ingame. We continue to work alongside our networking team to prepare a stable multiplayer experience!


New Car:

We’re excited to announce that we’ve picked up a new car model for Outbrk. The previous placeholder sedan will be no more, and this slick grocery-getter will soon be integrated ingame! Stay away from the core, getting hail dents on the daily driver would suck!



Kickstarter Backer Reward:

Easter Egg, incoming! We’ve brought this cute cosmetic into the game as part of a Kickstarter Easter Egg for one of our Philanthropist Tier Backers. This Shepperd bobble head will be unlockable by finding a bigger easter egg hidden in the world of OUTBRK that will be crafted in partnership with our Philanthropist kickstarter backer.

Hey everyone!
In this edition of our monthly OUTBRK newsletter, we’re giving a small update on the big indie contest we’re finalists in, and we’re sharing the results of the big playtest session we’ve had with some of our Kickstarter backers.


Last month we announced that we qualified in the top 5 finalists in a local indie competition called Catapulte. Ahead of the big finals that will take place on April 7th, we’re receiving weekly training in presentation skills and marketing strategies. These experts are helping us build a strong pitch and maximize our chances of winning, and we’re spending a lot of time refining our presentation to integrate their valuable feedback.



This month was one of the busiest months on OUTBRK so far. We’ve held a big playtest session with more than 50 players among our kickstarter backers. They were able to play one round of OUTBRK each and give us their impression of their experience. We’ve also asked them to fill out a short form to gather more detailed feedback on our gameplay systems.
We’re still compiling the results, but we can share two very promising stats; We asked player to grade on a note from 1 to 5 (1 being I totally disagree, and 5 being I totally agree) these following statements :



We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but these grades are showing we’re doing something right and it’s really encouraging. Some players that participated in the Playtest also sent us recordings of their experience, and we’ve put them together into a highlight video. You can watch it here :

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

That is all for this month’s newsletter! Stay safe, chasers !

-The OUTBRK Team

Welcome back to our monthly OUTBRK newsletter. In this edition, we’re talking about a big indie game contest we’re finalists in, and we’re finally announcing our first public playtest for kickstarter backers!

CATAPULTE

In the last month, we submitted our application to a few indie competitions and we got selected to be part of the 5 finalists in a local indie studio accelerator called “Catapulte” with prizes totalling more than 125k CAD$ in grants and external support for the winning team. By reaching this stage, we will receive training by industry professionals for the next few weeks and finally present our project in front of judges on April 7th. This is massive for us and winning this competition would enable us to truly deliver on our vision for OUTBRK much faster.



KICKSTARTER BACKERS PLAYTEST

On the game’s development side, we’re excited to share that after some preliminary internal testing, we’re ready for a second round of playtests, and this time, we’re inviting Kickstarter backers! Playtests are a very important part of our development and will provide an opportunity for us to begin laying out a more concrete release timeline as we validate our design and technical systems.

If you are a kickstarter backer, make sure you are a member of our Discord server by following this link - and then make sure you have the blue “Backer” role. If you don’t, contact David (MOARNial) in the OUTBRK Discord server and we’ll get it sorted out.

We will use Discord to coordinate everything related to this very important Playtest session, from planning to giving you access to the game and collecting feedback after players have had the chance to try the game.

That is all for this month’s newsletter! Stay safe, chasers!

The OUTBRK Team

Welcome back chasers!

Our team hopes that everyone's New Year is off to a fantastic start. Here's our January Development Outlook! Last month, we debuted our initial car customization system and previewed some of the Kickstarter Backer Content in the game. Of course, you can't have customizable cars without a garage, so our latest focus has revolved around the "Car Garage" experience within OUTBRK.

Purchasing new cars, skins and car parts being an essential progression point of the game, we want to make sure that the garage experience makes sense and is approachable for all audiences. Players will likely spend a good chunk of time in this menu - so we're taking out time to get this right. We'll also be continuing to integrate unlockable car attachments, vehicle models, and personalization options as we continue our work. For now, we've got a placeholder cheese flavored corn chip hail guard!





A couple months ago, we shared the evolution of our in-game maps and radar products following playtest feedback. It’s now time to show an early version of our in-game "Chaser Network" where players can report weather elements they’ve spotted on a map and all other chasers will see their reports on their map.We're excited to see how this feature will add another way for players to engage on OUTBRK.



Since that original round of playtesting, our network team has also been able to continue to improve the online experience overall and we're now expecting a much smoother multiplayer system. Their vital work has been pivotal in making customizable vehicles and other components to be visible to all players on a server, a foundational feature that is essential for replayability and community driven experiences.


Chase season is getting closer, stay tuned!


The OUTBRK Team

Merry Christmas and happy new year !

In this season of festivities, we’ve been working on integrating something really important for us : Kickstarter Backer Rewards !

Since the completion of our Kickstarter campaign, we’ve been regularly trying to get in touch with all of our Ambassador backers to integrate their Text, Image, Billboards, Town names and Vehicles in OUTBRK. If you backed an Ambassador reward or higher (you can check your pledge on kickstarter.com directly) and haven’t heard from us yet, please check your spam folder. If you still can’t find an email from us asking for your assets, contact us at [email protected] and we’ll sort this out.

That being said, here is a little preview of some kickstarter reward stickers integrated in OUTBRK :









One other massive recent news is that the entire OUTBRK world is now in “2nd pass” state, meaning that everywhere in the world has received at least some amount of details; cities are built, industrial complexes are constructed, farmlands are plowed… There are now plenty of things to look at, anywhere you might be in our 625km² world. To give an idea of how big this task was, it was started in February of 2021 and it was David’s main priority since then.











Our next focus is the car garage. Buying new cars and modifying them with different colors, decals and attachments will be a big part of OUTBRK, so at the moment we’re laying down the foundation of this entire system, how the player will navigate in the different menus, and how it will be synchronized on the network.

Until then, stay safe and happy holidays.

-The OUTBRK Team