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Beast Hour News

Beast Hour. №13. August 2022

Raiders & Beasts!

The 3rd Beast Hour open playtest took place at the beginning of August. Now, we're making changes and preparing for the next and the best playtest yet! Let’s have a look together at Beast Hour's development updates.



Action logs

Something is constantly happening to you in Beast Hour. To help you keep track of everything, we have added an action log feature. Now, each time you collect Arkana, fight with other players or escape Beasts, there will appear a special notification in the left part of the screen, showing the experience received.



Less penalty for falling down

We often hear that new Beast Hour players have difficulties with parkour playing as Raiders. It’s true that our movement system takes some time to get used to. There can be a short superhero-style stun upon landing if you fall from a great height. Now, it takes much more height for the stun to occur.



Sound settings

Ever since the first public playtest you asked us to add sound settings. This request was especially important for streamers and bloggers. We are glad to tell you that this feature has finally been added! Feel free to tweak different aspects of the sound settings to your liking.



Bridges

Beast Hour is all about movement and exploration. We do our best to add some new methods of interaction with the environment each and every time. For the next playtest you can expect bridges added to the game. Useful both for Raiders and Beasts, they create new ways to navigate the map, hunt and escape!



In addition

We stream Beast Hour and answer your questions every month – watch the latest video on our YouTube channel. Join the next stream in the middle of September!

Wishlist Beast Hour on Steam and follow us on social media as we post new content every day! Your support on Patreon also helps very much!

Contact us via email if you want to participate in development or would like to discuss other forms of cooperation – [email protected]

The Beast will come!

Beast Hour Survival Fest – Livesteam with Devs. August 2022

Beast Hour – asymmetric steampunk PvP-parkour horror game🐺

Raiders & Beasts!

August 7th, 6 PM UTC, PLAY Beast Hour: run, hunt, fight for 3 hours straight!

Watch the stream and play with the devs!

Join the pack on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/beasthour

Discord: http://discord.gg/5KFaakTP24
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeastHourGame
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beasthourgame/
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/beasthourgame
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeastHour
Website: https://www.beasthour.com

Beast Hour – Steam Survival Fest



Servers
* Since 2022-07-15: improved server matchmaking, games are found faster.

Map
* Minor map bug fixes and decoration improvements (check out the Industrial District =)

Mechanics
* Since 2022-07-15: added Ropes that quickly raise Raider to the top of the wall. Beasts can destroy them.

Udoku Hiro
* Since 2022-07-15: default size of Gas Throw clouds increased.
* Since 2022-07-15: Gas Throw Upgrade #1 Spraying increases cloud size more.
* Gas Throw direct hits deal increased damage depending on the amount of poison stacks on the enemy.

UI
* The Howl UI-mark now tells Raider how much Hunt time is left.
* If Raider becomes invisible while being marked by Beast's Howl, the Howl UI-mark turns gray, showing that Raider isn't visible to the Beast at this moment.
* Beast Howl ability icon tells Beast how much Hunt time is left.

Settings
* Added sound settings (master volume, music, Keep's voice, effects).

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!

Beast Hour. №11. June 2022

Raiders & Beasts!

It’s been a crazy month for us all as Beast Hour Alpha-test has finally started! We as a team are so proud to have such a dedicated and overall great community and we're happy you are with us on this journey:)



Alpha-tests

Important date in Beast Hour history: 19th of June, 2022. This day we had our first public test and it lasted for three hours straight. Our goals for the test were:

1) Get your feedback on the gameplay (btw, you can leave it here – it’d help us tremendously)
2) Check out how the servers are working.

Right now we are preparing the next version of the game which can take some time as we do want to make the game better and not just release the same build. The exact date of the next test will be announced later – stay tuned and join our Discord!



Things we’re working on

We decided to focus on a few main issues first:

1) Udoku felt underpowered compared to Zelus.
2) It was difficult to get connected to a match.
3) Raiders need more ways to escape Beasts.
4) Sound options should be added.

Closer to the start of the next test we’ll be able to tell you more about the upcoming changes in detail.



Prepare for the next game!

A few tips for your future playtests:

- When you play as Raider – run away from Beasts, but not in a straight line: use parkour to get higher and always change directions to keep some distance between you and Beast.
- Heal your Raider character by completing Arkana quests.
- When you play as Beast – capture Altars (=parts of the map) to use Howl and track down Raiders with ease.
- As a Beast your HP gets automatically restored by simply staying out of a fight for some time. Also destroying Arkana speeds up the regeneration and empowers your next attacks.
- You can read gameplay tips and descriptions of abilities pressing F1 and F2 during the match.

Most important – watch the full tutorial to learn many cool gameplay nuances! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQmBZ0P_Og9seydf29g-bmjZRE7kolblv



Also

We stream Beast Hour and answer your questions every month – you can watch the latest video on our YouTube channel. Join our next stream in the middle of July!

Wishlist Beast Hour on Steam and follow us on social media as we post new content every day! Support us on Patreon as it really helps our indie team!

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!