1. Section 13
  2. News

Section 13 News

Thank You for Playing the Closed Beta

Agents,

Closed beta is now over. Thank you for volunteering to face the chaos in Section 13.

We've been monitoring the game to ensure stability but now the real work begins -- going through all your feedback and bug reports to improve Blackout Protocol.
There will be a report of our findings soon, so please keep an eye out.

And if you haven’t yet, do go to these channels to share your thoughts and help shape the game:

  • We ask you to rate some of the game’s key features and share your thoughts on them
  • You can share feedback, report issues, upvote on other agents’ ideas
  • Share in #feedback, #bugs-and-issues


Heeeeeeelp!

Closed Beta Now Open

Agents,

The time has come. Gear up and steel yourself to enter Section 13.
CLOSED BETA IS NOW LIVE for 4 days.

[h3]CB Schedule[/h3]
  • PST: 2 PM, Jan 12 - 2 PM, Jan 16
  • EST: 5 PM, Jan 12 - 5 PM, Jan 16
  • CET: 11 PM, Jan 12 - 11 PM, Jan 16
  • KST: 7 AM, Jan 13 - 7 AM, Jan 17
  • ICT: 5 AM, Jan 13 - 5 AM, Jan 17

Signup for the beta will remain open throughout the above time, so encourage your friends to sign up and join the ranks of our brave agents.

[h3]Our Mission[/h3]
  1. Confirm the game is stable enough to provide smooth game sessions
  2. Confirm the core shooting and rogue-lite elements of the game are fun

[h3]Your Assignments[/h3]
  • Play Blackout Protocol
  • Participate in the survey HERE
  • Leave your feedback and vote for others’ feedback HERE
  • Join Discord and discuss everything and anything Blackout Protocol with fellow agents HERE


[h3] Current State of the Build[/h3]
As this is a beta test, only some of the planned features and contents are in. A few notable things missing from the game are as below:

  • BGM: We do not have any background music in place yet, this is being worked on
  • Languages: Currently only English and Korean are supported. If you select other languages in the settings you will only see Korean. All languages will be implemented by Early Access
  • Game Balance: Balance is work-in-progress. CB data will be used as a reference point as we work on the balance
  • Content Volume: Rogue-lite Progression Content is not final, nor is the level design. But you should still be able to experience the Rogue-lite progression and general direction of our level design!


[h3]Quick Guide[/h3]
We hope you find the UI intuitive and don't have issues playing the game, but please see the quick guide below on navigating the main menu.

  • Overall navigation: Use arrows and/or WASD keys and press "Enter" to select
  • Quick Start: Join a random room or it will create a room for others to join
  • Lobby: Find another agent's room or create your own - The room is named after the host's name
  • Open Play Test Survey: Take the survey on the web form. Your feedback is appreciated!
  • Open Feature Upvote: Leave your suggestion, feedback, or report bugs on the board
  • Settings: You can change video, controls, audio, and language settings


[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
These are some known bugs you may experience playing the game. Rest assured these will be squashed before Early Access though not during this beta.

General Issues
  • Friends Only Room cannot be created
  • "Always On" option for voice chat does not work. Please set to "Press to Talk" and press "T" to talk during the game.
  • In rare cases, some data on the results page may be inaccurate if the session ends in a fail
  • The “Eliminate High-Level Threat” mission sometimes fails to clear even after the boss is defeated
  • Permanent upgrade to “Extended Clip II” may reset the weapon clip size to the default value
Synaptic Enhancement Issues

  • “Unstable Parts” does not reduce mental gauge as noted in the description
  • “Shadow Stroll” I and II do not damage/recover as noted in the description
  • “Fright Response” sometimes does not deal psychic damage per the description if the creature is within 5m.
  • “ESP” works within the map level it was acquired in, but the effect is not carried over to the following level as it should.
  • “Slow Burn" does not work with the flamethrower
  • An incorrect Credit amount is given after upgrading to “Expense Report II”


Thank you for your participation and see you in-game.
Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open. You know THEY will.

Watch to learn a little about the creatures and more.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/Blackout_Protocol/

Beta Starts Soon!

Dear agents!

We are almost there! It's tomorrow - in less than 24 hours - we are going to kick off our first beta.
Before we share more details about the beta test tomorrow, we would like to share when the beta will be starting and how you would be able to access the game!

[Beta Starting Time]
  • PST: 2 PM, Jan 12 - 2 PM, Jan 16
  • EST: 5 PM, Jan 12 - 5 PM, Jan 16
  • CET: 11 PM, Jan 12 - 11 PM, Jan 16
  • KST: 7 AM, Jan 13 - 7 AM, Jan 17
  • ICT: 5 AM, Jan 13 - 5 AM, Jan 17


[How to Participate]
If you have already "requested access" for the playtest before the beta starting time, you will be able play the game without taking any additional action!

If you applied for the beta after beta started, we would be accepting more testers every few hours.

Also, you would be receiving the email stating you have been accepted for the playtest from Steam!


[What to Expect]
We will be sharing more detailed information related to the beta test very soon. So please stay tuned!


The game is mean to be played as 3 player party - meaning if you play alone, it will be very difficult or almost impossible to clear the mission. So, please be prepared to participate in the session with your friends or meet other fellow agents in the game.

As this is our first beta, don't be too harsh with the feedback - but at the same time please share us your honest feedback. We are all very excited preparing this beta and see you in the game soon!

Ocean Drive Studio

Blackout Protocol Dev Log #1: Beginning of the Journey

Hello future agents!

As we approach the very first closed beta, I wanted to share a few thoughts including our future plans for the game.

But before I do--some players might know who we are, but I assume lots of you haven’t heard about Ocean Drive Studio. We are a young dev studio based in Korea and US, and we recently released our first game, Lost Eidolons, which is a turn-based tactical RPG and quite different from Blackout Protocol.

As a studio, we have a very strong vision and philosophy for creating fun and engaging games. And although Blackout Protocol is quite a different genre from Lost Eidolons, our vision of how to create the game is the same. The devs behind Blackout Protocol are very passionate gamers of the rogue-lite, twin-stick shooter genres much like how the devs behind Lost Eidolons were turn-based tactical RPG lovers! Also, as we did with Lost Eidolons, our number one priority is making the game with the community. We really value opinions from fans who love these genres like us, and we plan to share ongoing development and future plans periodically via dev blogs. We’ll also be providing thoughts on Discord, Steam Community, and Feature Upvote.

If you want to know more about the studio, please visit our website! Here are some blogs I would recommend:



[h3]What to Expect From The Beta[/h3]

NOW! Let’s talk about Blackout Protocol and the upcoming beta!

We have worked on the game for over one and a half years, but we have mainly focused on shaping the core gameplay in that time so you will notice polish is not there.

But most of the core gameplay and systems have been implemented and balanced out for the beta! As this is our first public outing, you might experience technical issues or bugs we had not seen in our isolated internal tests. But if we do find critical issues during beta or get reports of them from you, we will try to fix such issues right away.

As the game is not finished, you would be able to test out a few progression features but the full content wouldn’t be there yet.

With this first beta, we have three objectives:

  1. Verify if the game is stable
  2. Verify if the core gameplay is fun
  3. Verify if the game is unique enough from competitors


But we want to hear all the thoughts and insights you might have, so please share your thoughts with us!

We are all thrilled to finally have you play the game! And we are even more excited (and nervous at the same time) to hear your feedback. We are very serious about taking feedback so please do not hesitate to share every little thought you have when playing the game.

If you haven’t, please join our Discord channel to talk about the game or find other players to play the game together! Also, you can always leave your thoughts on the Steam community, and Feature Upvote board we would be sharing before the closed beta! Lastly, please participate in our survey so that we can better shape the game for future Early Access!

[h3]What’s Next[/h3]

After the beta, we plan to improve the game and participate in Steam Next Fest, and we hope to enter Early Access in near future.

Our goal here is to ready the game for Early Access, then make improvements with your feedback, start adding content, add polish, and finally release the official version.

We do have a rough timeline for when we’d like the official release to be, but we fully understand Early Access will give us insights that will steer us away from it. So rather than commit to a date of the official release, I will commit to transparent communication and actively making decisions with the community for the betterment of the game. Once beta ends, we will make sure to share what we learned from the beta and what would be the next step for the game!

We really appreciate all of you showing interest in the Blackout Protocol and look forward to working together to create something meaningful for the fans of the genre.

Thank you and speak again soon!


Head of Global Business,

Jungsoo Lee

Happy Holidays from Ocean Drive Studio

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

2022 was a milestone year for us at Ocean Drive Studio. We announced our second title, Blackout Protocol, as we launched our first and got to meet some of you at PAX West.
We are gearing up for an even bigger year in 2023, so keep an eye on us.

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! It's going to be a blast!

Don't forget to sign up for beta and wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/Blackout_Protocol/