The Outlast Trials News

I'm Alex, one of the Red Barrels team members and Game Director on The Outlast Trials. The success of The Outlast Trials Early Access has been remarkable! Being that we are indie developers that are self-funded and self-published meant that we had to make sure to take time to adapt our workflow to ensure the game's quality and longevity going forward. Since Early Access launch, we have had new members join our team, and with the help of the player feedback we’ve gotten thus far, we have been able to adjust our targets and work towards the full release of The Outlast Trials.

Red Barrels is intensely focused on production. Despite our silence, we want you all to know that we keep a close eye on our community engagement and value your discussions because at the end of the day being an Early Access title means that you are all part of the development process with us. We've gathered over 60,000 responses through The Outlast Trials Early Access Survey, we read and monitor our official Outlast Discord, the Outlast subreddit, watch streamers and videos of playthroughs, as well as monitor other platforms daily to get a full grasp on the experience our players have, and what they like about The Outlast Trials. Rosie, our Community Manager, keeps track of community sentiment and conversations to relay the community concerns to our team. Your opinion matters and impacts our everyday decisions. After you've played, you are welcome to contribute more feedback via the Spontaneous Feedback form. I personally review each comment submitted so all extra feedback is greatly appreciated!

Today, I want to shed some light on various key topics in our internal roadmap.


We are currently actively working on fulfilling a major request: bringing the game to consoles. This means launching on PS5, Xbox S/X, and older gen (PS4/XboxOne), While enabling crossplay with PC. Our aim is to ensure that the unique social experience of The Outlast Trials can be shared across platforms, despite the technical complexity it requires. Our progress is promising, but we can't provide a console release date or guarantee universal crossplay just yet. Originally targeting 2023, we are now eyeing an early 2024 console release due to the challenges faced by our small team.


Our matchmaking system philosophy involves players grouping up and deciding on Trials together, rather than having separate matchmaking for each Trial. This decision might seem unusual, but there are reasons behind it:

1. Matchmaking per Trial would divide players among many pools (25+).
   
2. Players don't evenly play all Trials; some are more popular due to player progression.
   
3. This approach significantly increases matchmaking queue times.
   
4. Players might not find matches for certain Trials, leading to frustration.
   
5. This approach could potentially harm the game experience.
   

While we prefer group selection in the Sleep Room due to its more immersive nature (group setup, loadout selection, cell visits, social interactions, arm wrestling), we're aware of the player concerns. We're not planning any major backend changes right now regarding this, but we're improving how Trials are selected to involve the group instead of just the leader (via suggestions or other ways we are currently exploring). Coop play is vital to The Outlast Trials, and we are constantly monitoring how players group up together and will continue to make improvements if needed.


We are working on a public roadmap, but in the meantime we have this:

[h2]NEXT MAJOR UPDATE - HALLOWEEN[/h2]

• Introduction of Program 4
  
• New Trial
  
• New MK-Challenges
  
• Program X refresh
  
• Program Halloween (limited event with special rewards)
  
• New Amps
  
• New Variators
  
• New Prescriptions
  
• New Cosmetics
  
• New Cell Items
  
• New Sleep Room Minigame
  
• Tons of other improvements, balance, tweaks and quality of life.
  
• And much more!
  

In addition to the topics mentioned above, we are also addressing the following issues:

[h2]Reward efforts even in the event of failing a Trial[/h2]
Murkoff acknowledges success, yet we recognize the harsh consequences of Trial failure. In the upcoming update, we are implementing an XP system centered around Performance. This means substantial XP rewards for player actions (in addition to First Time Completion and Grade Bonus payouts). This approach aims to facilitate continuous leveling and enable acquiring upgrades, rigs, and amps for reattempting Trials.

[h2]Penalize group players not participating in Trials[/h2]
Enabling players to follow their preferred playstyle has always been a central principle for our team. Whether teaming up with less experienced or more apprehensive players who prefer to join for the experience rather than objectives, we support it entirely. Yet, we've observed a minority exploiting this approach, leading to team frustration. With the new Performance XP system, deliberate lack of effort will significantly hinder progression compared to active participation in Trials. Additionally, we have plans for a comprehensive reporting system in the future.

[h2]Improve the Trial selection process as a group[/h2]
As previously stated, we're improving how groups decide on Trials together. Initially, this will involve a suggestion system (with the leader maintaining the final decision). If Trial selection remains challenging, we're open to exploring alternative methods.

[h2]Keep improving the solo experience[/h2]
Outlast Trials offers a unique cooperative experience and we've always ensured a fully immersive solo option for those who prefer it. Feedback from solo players highlighted the game's increased difficulty after the tutorial. To address this, we're making slight adjustments to the difficulty while preserving the trademark tension of Outlast.

In the previous patch, we experimented with unlimited respawns. Although it helped solo players complete Trials, it diminished the intensity of dying. As a result, we're reverting to the original 3 chances per Trial. However, we're introducing a new feature: Respawn Pills. Exclusive to solo mode, these pills grant an additional +1 chance. For struggling solo players, discovering these extra lives is now a way to survive in the most challenging Trials.

[h2]Keep improving the AI behavior in some edge case situations[/h2]
Enemy AI remains a continuous focus for us. While we're content with our current AI's overall performance, player feedback has revealed some odd behavior in certain situations. In response, we're implementing significant updates: improving awareness, enhancing decision-making, and adjusting the Screamer in particular. Expect more details on AI enhancements in the future!

[h3]CONCLUSION[/h3]
A heartfelt thank you to our players for engaging with The Outlast Trials and fueling its success through your invaluable feedback. The game's triumph is a momentous occasion for our team at Red Barrels. Your input steers our path, and we remain committed to attentive listening. Your patience as we transform this project into a long-lasting experience is deeply valued. Rest assured, we are dedicated to delivering the ultimate, spine-chilling cooperative gaming experience ever crafted!

-Alex
Game Director

There is no better time than NOW to test your resilience in The Outlast Trials! Snag a copy for you and your friends at 15% off during the Steam Summer Sale starting today and ending July 13th at 10am PST.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1304930/The_Outlast_Trials/

Join our official 18+ Discord server here and meet other Reagents to jump into the Trials with!

The Outlast Trials is an Early Access title and our team has been receiving tons of great feedback from all our players in the long form survey. We also made a short survey (linked below) for when players have spontaneous feedback to give to our team about their playthroughs of Trials. We all want to get better together, and your feedback has helped inform our in-game balancing changes, and given us insight into what you want to see us bring to the game in the future in the form of new cosmetics, variators and more. So please keep sharing your thoughts as we continue our development process through Early Access!

✍️ The Outlast Trials: Full Early Access Survey
💡 The Outlast Trials: Spontaneous Feedback

As stated on our Steam page, the price of The Outlast Trials will not change during Early Access (except for sales like this one), however, we intend to increase the price at full launch. Those who purchase the game in Early Access will be upgraded to the full launch version of the game when it is out!

Hoping to see you all in the Sinyala Facility 💉

- The Red Barrels Team

Greetings Reagents!

We have implemented a fix in this small hotfix patch for a crash that some players were experiencing when skipping videos, most notably for the Reagent release video.

If you experience any issues in-game feel free to join our 18+ server Discord and create a ModMail ticket for further assistance.

Send your feedback to our team through our Survey.

Catch you all in the Sleep Room...

Greetings Reagents!
This update brings bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and balance changes based on player feedback.

This update also introduces a new experimental Special Event: Program Omega Ω.
We continue to improve the game experience for solo players as well as the first-time user experience in the early game.

Special Event: Program Ω


We are introducing our first special event: Program Omega Ω. This is an experimental program for Reagents looking for the ultimate coop challenge!

• Program Omega details:
  
  • Unlocks at the same time as Program X.
  • Group is required (2-4 players).
  • Therapy Level 20+ is recommended.
  • New Variator: Stay Together

• Please be advised:
  
  • This is an experimental special event.
    
  • Participating in this program is completely optional and not required to progress.
    
  • Exceptionally, this program is coop exclusive.
    
  • It will only be limited for a few weeks until it is vaulted.
• We are curious to hear your feedback about this first special event!

New Variator: Stay Together

• Stay Together is applied to all Trials of Program Omega.
  
• Stay close to your friends or you will take damage.
  
• Voice chat range is limited, so stay close.

Solo Play

Dev comment: Solo play is an important element of The Outlast Trials. Given the feedback we received, we realize that we may have been a bit too brutal on those playing alone. We’ve decided to revisit some mechanics to ensure solo players have a good time and that they can make continuous progress without being overly punished.

• Players now has unlimited respawns in solo, but will get a grade penalty for each respawn.
• Respawns (in solo) now restore 100% health (previously 50%).
• Enemies and Prime Assets won’t linger around objectives as much.
• General tweaks and rebalancing to AI behaviour when playing solo and cooperative in early game.
• We will observe and continue to gather player feedback and make improvements on solo play.

Arm Wrestling

• You can now challenge other players while sitting at the table.
• Point at a player and press the interact button to challenge them.

Prescriptions

Dev comment: These actions are now available from the start instead of being locked behind upgrades. Purchasing these prescriptions will now improve their base actions.

Redesigned some Actions/Prescriptions (Rx):

• “KICK TO HELP” is now “HARD KICK”:
  • Players can now help teammates grasped by enemies without needing to acquire an upgrade.
    
  • However, helping teammates now exhausts the player.
    
  • Purchasing “HARD KICK” prescription greatly reduces the stamina cost of helping teammates.

• “LIFE SAVER” is now “STAY OF EXECUTION”:
  
  • Players can now save teammates being executed by enemies without needing to acquire an upgrade.
  • Saving teammates now exhausts the player.
    
  • Purchasing this prescription greatly reduces the stamina cost when performing this action.

• Players who acquired the previous prescriptions will automatically receive the newer version and it will be equipped. New players will have to acquire them as usual.
  

Rigs
Healing Rig:

• “Poison” upgrade:
  • Affected enemies slowdown effect has been increased.
    
  • Affected enemies slowdown duration has been decreased.
    
  • Fixed missing reaction animation on some enemies.
    
  • Dev Comment: The poison upgrade wasn’t perceptible enough, so we increased its effect but reduced the duration. We also fixed an issue where poison wasn’t triggering the reaction animation on some enemies.

Blind Rig:

• Base Rig:
  • Increased base deploy time to 3s (was 2s).
    
  • “Deploy Technique” upgrade:
    
  • Increased upgraded deploy time to 2s (was 1.5s).

X-Ray Rig:

• Fixed an issue where X-Ray wouldn’t work properly if 2 players would use the rig at the same time.

Balancing and improvements

• All players in a group can now navigate the Programs menu.
  
• Completed Trials via Coop play are now replayable even if requirements are not met.
  
  • Previously, players would still have to complete requirements in order to replay a Trial that was previously completed via Coop (selected by a leader who had access to this Trial).
• Stamina consumption while running decreased by 20% - you can now run for longer duration.
  
• Exhaustion time decreased by 20% - exhaustion now recovers faster.
  
• Recovering from bleed-out now restores 25% health (was 50%).
  
• Exit Trial objective marker is now displayed from further distance.
  
• Completing a Trial that wasn’t unlocked will now make it available for replay, instead of having it locked until the unlock conditions are met.
  
• “Slippers” amp now only works when walking on glass. Running will still trigger a sound disturbance.
  
• Walking on glass while having the “Slippers” amp equipped won’t register as a score penalty anymore.
  
• Added a new GAMEPLAY category in the Settings screen:
  • Toggle run (define the run input behavior).
  • Hide item after delay (auto hide the equipped item after a short delay to clear the field of view).
• “Toggle Run” setting now works correctly on gamepads.
  
• Increased the sound made by Pouncers in hiding spots.
  
• Added new voice announcements during the Exit Trial countdown to help players understand the remaining time.
  
• Added border art around Player Icons in all menus where player icons are displayed.
  
• Visual tweaks of the Settings menu.

Fixes

• Fixed a memory leak introduced in the previous update.
  
• Fixed and updated some text, typos, and grammatical errors.
  
• Fixed an issue where the global handwritten Murkoff comment was not correct to the situation.
  
• Fixed an issue where Vouchers or Release Tokens were sometimes not correctly rewarded to players.
  
• Grades of Trials completed in Coop will now display correctly
  
• Fixed an issue where walking on glass with the Amp “Slippers” was still incrementing as “Triggered Sound Traps” in the Results screen.
  
• Fixed navigation issues and bugs in all Trials.
  
• Fixed some issues for grab animations that would occur in some instances.
  
• Fixed an issue where the equipped item would sometimes disappear when used while in Psychosis.
  
• Fixed an issue where sliding got players stuck and unable to move.
  
• Fixed an issue where enemies wouldn’t get stunned by thrown items in some situations.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could survive the Exit Trial post-countdown using the Healing rig.
  

On the radar
As we continue to gain feedback from all our players through our Survey we are looking at these key areas to work on in the future:

• Reward efforts even in the event of failing a Trial.
• Penalize group players not participating to Trials.
• Improve the Trial selection process as a group.
• Keep improving the solo experience.
• Keep improving the AI behavior in some edge case situations.