Beast Hour. №12. July 2022
Raiders & Beasts!
The second test of Beast Hour is over. We’ve received A LOT of feedback – thank you for participating and telling us your ideas. New tests are coming, so stay tuned and don't miss out!
During these amazing playtests and after them you've been asking about many things. We try to answer everyone on Discord, Twitter, Reddit, via DMs, etc. as new questions keep coming all the time. This particular newsletter highlights the most popular topics and shares some plans for the future.
Server-connection issues
When the servers go live for the first time, something always goes wrong. And it did. The most noticeable problem was waiting for the connection to a match. Some people spent up to 30 minutes looking for a match. That was really unfortunate.
BUT! The combination of the dev team work & cool advice of server engineers from our community worked like magic! During the second test the situation greatly improved, and the average wait time was no longer than about 3 minutes. We keep on making servers better, as there is always room for improvement.
3 hours limitation
Both of the tests were limited in terms of time available to play. That was done due to the following reasons:
1) Beast Hour is still in development and our audience is still growing (you are really very kind and supportive, by the way!) So, to be sure that there are enough players to play with, we set this exact day and time window to bring everybody together.
2) As the server infrastructure is currently working in a test mode, it can't be running 24/7. It’s simply not possible at this stage of development, unfortunately.
We totally understand that these playtest time windows cannot be perfect for everyone. Especially for people in Asia and Australia. The choice of the time was based on Steam data – usually during these hours players play action PvP games like Beast Hour. So, this way most part of our community can get their hands on the game.
If you want to make tests last longer and more, visit our Patreon page – every donation matters!
Or do the most important thing: come and participate in future tests, tell your friends about Beast Hour, follow us on social media & share our posts! Remember – multiplayer game is its community!
Beasts are too strong
Beast Hour is a game about intense and dynamic parkour chases between Raiders and Beasts. From the very beginning of development we wanted players to feel that monsters are hunters and human characters are prey. That’s why, for example, Werewolves deal much more damage. It should be an especially difficult challenge if a Raider decides to fight a Beast rather than run away.
But it’s important to mention that there are only 3 Beasts and 5 Raiders in every single match. It’s a well-considered decision made to balance the game. Yet it’s not enough. Werewolves are, of course, stronger but Raiders are more nimble in the matter of movement, so use it! Parkour and never ever try to run in a straight line!
Game freezes
We have a small yet annoying issue at the very beginning of the match. The thing is that for a few seconds there are no game objects to interact with, and once they appear on the map, the game freezes not for long no matter how good your PC is. Truth be told, many multiplayer games face the same problem, but they manage to find a way to conceal it one way or another.
In our case the plan is to add corresponding tutorial screens, which will be shown to every player, according to a character he/she has chosen. And only after that the player gets the control over the character and the match starts. By doing so, on the one hand, new players are introduced to the rules of the game no matter what, and, on the other hand, this unpleasant yet necessary situation is hidden.
By the way, we have a video tutorial! Please, watch it before your next test!
In addition
Keep asking questions and check our future newsletters for answers!
We stream Beast Hour and answer your questions every month – you can watch the latest video on our YouTube channel. Join the next stream in the middle of August!
Wishlist Beast Hour on Steam and follow us on social media as we post new content every day! Support on Patreon also helps very much!
Contact us via email if you want to participate in the development or would like to discuss other forms of cooperation – [email protected].
The Beast will come!
The second test of Beast Hour is over. We’ve received A LOT of feedback – thank you for participating and telling us your ideas. New tests are coming, so stay tuned and don't miss out!
During these amazing playtests and after them you've been asking about many things. We try to answer everyone on Discord, Twitter, Reddit, via DMs, etc. as new questions keep coming all the time. This particular newsletter highlights the most popular topics and shares some plans for the future.
Server-connection issues
When the servers go live for the first time, something always goes wrong. And it did. The most noticeable problem was waiting for the connection to a match. Some people spent up to 30 minutes looking for a match. That was really unfortunate.
BUT! The combination of the dev team work & cool advice of server engineers from our community worked like magic! During the second test the situation greatly improved, and the average wait time was no longer than about 3 minutes. We keep on making servers better, as there is always room for improvement.
3 hours limitation
Both of the tests were limited in terms of time available to play. That was done due to the following reasons:
1) Beast Hour is still in development and our audience is still growing (you are really very kind and supportive, by the way!) So, to be sure that there are enough players to play with, we set this exact day and time window to bring everybody together.
2) As the server infrastructure is currently working in a test mode, it can't be running 24/7. It’s simply not possible at this stage of development, unfortunately.
We totally understand that these playtest time windows cannot be perfect for everyone. Especially for people in Asia and Australia. The choice of the time was based on Steam data – usually during these hours players play action PvP games like Beast Hour. So, this way most part of our community can get their hands on the game.
If you want to make tests last longer and more, visit our Patreon page – every donation matters!
Or do the most important thing: come and participate in future tests, tell your friends about Beast Hour, follow us on social media & share our posts! Remember – multiplayer game is its community!
Beasts are too strong
Beast Hour is a game about intense and dynamic parkour chases between Raiders and Beasts. From the very beginning of development we wanted players to feel that monsters are hunters and human characters are prey. That’s why, for example, Werewolves deal much more damage. It should be an especially difficult challenge if a Raider decides to fight a Beast rather than run away.
But it’s important to mention that there are only 3 Beasts and 5 Raiders in every single match. It’s a well-considered decision made to balance the game. Yet it’s not enough. Werewolves are, of course, stronger but Raiders are more nimble in the matter of movement, so use it! Parkour and never ever try to run in a straight line!
Game freezes
We have a small yet annoying issue at the very beginning of the match. The thing is that for a few seconds there are no game objects to interact with, and once they appear on the map, the game freezes not for long no matter how good your PC is. Truth be told, many multiplayer games face the same problem, but they manage to find a way to conceal it one way or another.
In our case the plan is to add corresponding tutorial screens, which will be shown to every player, according to a character he/she has chosen. And only after that the player gets the control over the character and the match starts. By doing so, on the one hand, new players are introduced to the rules of the game no matter what, and, on the other hand, this unpleasant yet necessary situation is hidden.
By the way, we have a video tutorial! Please, watch it before your next test!
In addition
Keep asking questions and check our future newsletters for answers!
We stream Beast Hour and answer your questions every month – you can watch the latest video on our YouTube channel. Join the next stream in the middle of August!
Wishlist Beast Hour on Steam and follow us on social media as we post new content every day! Support on Patreon also helps very much!
Contact us via email if you want to participate in the development or would like to discuss other forms of cooperation – [email protected].
The Beast will come!