Gang Beasts News

Party game 'Gang Beasts' gets a big new opt-in Beta that needs testing

Ready to party? Now that Boneloaf / Coatsink are self-publishing Gang Beasts after splitting off from Double Fine they're starting to get back into major updates.

Information on the Gang Beasts Beta

This is the latest preview version of the next Gang Beasts update, which we would like to do a lot of testing with the community. This was a significant update to the engine as it is a transition from Unity 2017 to Unity 2019. Although we’ve managed to catch and fix most bugs so far, it is likely that there will still be some more bugs to fix as this beta is a work in progress and does not represent the final update yet. Additionally, Unity 2019 no longer supports 32-bit Linux distributions, therefore Gang Beasts now only supports 64-bit Linux distributions. This does not affect Windows or Mac users.

To access and download the beta branch, go to your Steam Library and right click on 'Gang Beasts' to select 'Properties'. From there, navigate to the 'BETAS' tab, then select 'public_testing'. You may need to restart steam before 'public_testing' will show up for you.

The patch notes can be found below.

General:

Updated the game engine to Unity 2019 (from Unity 2017). This was a significant upgrade and although we’ve fixed a massive amount of bugs, there may be a left.
Unity 2019 dropped support for 32-bit Linux operating systems, as such Gang Beasts can now only support 64-bit Linux operating systems.
Several fixes and improvements to our internal tools. This will be an ongoing process, but should help us speed up development time and hopefully reduce chances for bugs to creep into the game.

Stages:

Updated Wheel to work online.
The lights on Wheel now sync to the music
Wheel now has better escalations
Fixed a bug on Trucks that would make the horns trigger incorrectly
Fixed the TV antenna on Roof not being connected correctly
Lowered the lip of Roof slightly to make the stage slightly riskier when fighting on the edge.
Added assistive geometry to help characters navigate on Roof.
Updated the visuals of water on Buoy, Containers, and Wheel but there’s still more improvements to be made.
Fixed a significant stability issue on Elevators that appeared in Unity 2019, and if this proves successful we may apply it to other dynamic stages that involve ropes.
Fixed a significant stability issue on Vents causing the bridges to instantly collapse.
Fixed a bug on Vents where, as soon as the main fan activated, the stage would explode and characters would find themselves embedded in the walls or ceiling.

Character Movement & Combat:

Fixed a bug that was causing arms to no longer reach when holding grab.
Slightly reduced character drag.
Increased punch velocity for close targets.
Adjusted how grab and punch resolve target vectors for the physics animation, this should significantly improve how often they reach the intended target.
Fixed a bug that would sometimes make a character float when grabbing something above them with both hands after their stamina has fully drained.
Fixed a bug with kicking that would generate incorrect target vectors for the physics animation.
Adjusted force and attraction distances when grabbing, this is to help reaching close targets and reduce weird behaviors under certain situations, where targets are just out of range.
Added slightly more force to the arms in the pose, just before a punch or a grab, in order to help reaching a better start position. This should make punch and grab more consistent.
Adjusted targeting to be slightly more weighted to the players input direction.
Slightly increased the strength of throws.
Slightly increased grip break threshold.
Added a slight alignment force to the body when climbing, the character should be more likely to face the direction of input while climbing.
Slightly increased self lift strength on characters when climbing. This should make it easier to climb.
Stamina now always drains when grabbing, even if the player's feet are touching the floor. Most players will not notice any change with this. This is to try to prevent people from getting into exploitable positions, where they can hang on forever. Additionally this should help reduce stalemates where someone can hang on to another player indefinitely.
Fixed a long standing issue with the character system that made it difficult to go up slopes greater than 30 degrees. Players should find it significantly easier to go up slopes and stairs now.
Fixed a bug that was making the characters hands often get stuck in geometry since the transition to Unity 2019.

Audio:

Added a new way we manage audio to improve the consistency of sounds across the game.
Changed all audio to use the new system and did a pass on every sound in the game to be better balanced and more pleasing to the ear.
Swapped a menu sound to be less intrusive.
Added engine noises to Train.
Added engine noises to Trucks.
Added better audio cues to indicate oncoming road signs on Trucks.
Fixed a bug where road signs would trigger impact audio incorrectly.
Added an audio cue to indicate an oncoming train on Subway.

Online:

Updated the ping readout to be more consistent and always show.
Fixed a bug that would mean some scripts would not reset correctly on the second round in an online match.
Fixed a few bugs with PhysicAudioEmitter not emitting online.
Fixed a long standing bug where knockouts were not working as intended online. Locally, it would increment by 1 second each time you're KO’d to a potential maximum of 20. When playing Online this would always be incorrectly set to 4. This should significantly improve the feel of combat online.
Fixed an issue where some physics objects were moved using an incorrect method. This should help improve some stability issues, such as when characters are pushed into strange positions or somehow move faster than usual (such as getting hit by a moving vehicle).
Fixed a long standing issue preventing boxes on Incinerator from rendering online.
Fixed a long standing issue preventing the vehicles on Trucks from moving correctly online.
Several optimisations and fixes to the character system to improve online performance.
Several optimisations and changes to the way we sync objects online, which should improve online performance and stability.
Fixed an issue with the join screen that meant player names wouldn’t show up.
Fixed an issue on Elevators that made the hatches start in the wrong position when the level loaded.
Fixed an issue that prevented Containers mechanics that move the containers from triggering correctly online.

Known Issues:

We’ve found that in the upgrade to Unity 2019 the strength of breakable joints are seemingly weak. We have fixed most breakable joints, such as the bridges in Vents collapsing on stage load, but there will likely be some we missed.
There was an issue that was causing people to disconnect when a stage became too processor intensive (lots of physics). We should hopefully have fixed this, but will be keeping an eye on the server logs. Please inform us if you see a pattern to any disconnects, e.g. do they usually happen on the same stage?
The guide wheels on Elevators stage will often desync and move independently of the elevator cars online.
Occasionally there seems to be an occasional desync on level load that can have some strange effects, such as grey or invisible players, camera tracking the wrong player, or some physics objects in the wrong position.
There may be some occasional visual sync issues online, especially when hats detach. This is entirely visual and is something we’re working on.
There’s some unintended side effects to the combat changes that may occasionally manifest itself on waves with larger characters. Good luck! ;)
The costume editor has a slight issue where the chest doesn’t rotate with the body.
Lower buns of the burgers, on the Wheel stage, have a bit of jitter when interacting with them online. This is entirely visual and doesn't affect gameplay.
The sound on the Subway stage plays louder than intended.
Joints on Vents are somewhat unstable, this will be fixed in a later update.
Name tags are sometimes occluded by geometry.
Some objects don't interpolate online.
There are some occasional issues with players not being updated in parties after a disconnect.
There’s some odd camera behavior on waves.
The Wheel stage motor sound doesn’t play correctly.
The ping indicator always shows. This is intentional to help with testing during beta.
Some parts of the Gondola stage break off on load.

The next beta builds

Because the idea for this beta is to get as much testing as possible, we wanted to get this build out as soon as it was stable enough. We've had to hold back on a few fixes and features and we want to add them to the next build. For clarity, below is a list of changes of things we’re currently working on but couldn't include yet due to them possibly holding back this build.

After we’ve done some more internal testing on them and confirming the build is stable enough to get valid feedback, we will push another beta build. This is by no means a definitive list and some things will be added and removed accordingly.

General:

[PENDING] Update loading screens and game splash.

Stages:

[ADDED] Standardise all breakable glass in the game to use our new fracture system.
[ADDED] Standardise all buoyancy in the game to use our new buoyancy system.
[ADDED] Re-bake all stages and make several small graphical improvements that should hopefully fix lighting issues some players have reported.
[PENDING] Adjust Elevators escalation to trigger more consistently.
[PENDING] Update Buoy’s visuals slightly.
[PENDING] Update Buoy’s mechanics to escalate.
[PENDING] Update Chutes mechanics to escalate.

Character Movement & Combat:

[ADDED] Add the ability to swim for a short time to the character system.

Online:

[PENDING] Fix a long standing issue with ropes that make their movements look strange online.
[PENDING] Fix an issue on Elevators where the rollers would start in the wrong position on level load.
[PENDING] Fix an issue on Elevators where the background would not move online when the stage escalates.
[PENDING] Fix an issue that makes some things fail to sync correctly on load.

Boneloaf take Double Fine to a fancy restaurant so they won't make a big scene

Hey everyone!

So, we wanted to let you know what’s going on here at Boneloaf. We have some information regarding Double Fine and us, and when the next Gang Beasts update is coming.

As some of you know, Boneloaf has been working with Double Fine Presents for some time. They’ve given us advice, they’ve given us splendiferous support, and most importantly, they’ve become friends and mentors to us.

We love Double Fine and they have been really fantastic to us. What Tim and his company built is pretty wonderful, but with Double Fine Presents winding down due to Double Fine's acquisition by Xbox Game Studios last year, we think it is a good time for Boneloaf to stand on its own... legs and publish Gang Beasts ourselves.

Anyway, that’s the news about Boneloaf and Double Fine. What about Gang Beasts? Currently we're testing build 1.13, the next release. Build 1.13 is made with Unity 2019.3 and includes a modified version of the wheel stage with support for online game modes and a series of optimisations and fixes for UI, audio, costumes, gameplay, and achievements.

We plan to make this build available for testing as a Steam beta next month. The 1.13 build will be released for supported platforms (Steam, Humble Bundle, PS4, Xbox One, and Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S) when testing ends. We are also working on new stages and costumes, more information coming soon.

Thank you for supporting Gang Beasts, stay Safe and Keep on Truckin’ \\o/

Boneloaf

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 1.0.11/1.011 builds

The 1.0.11/1.011 builds have a number of fixes that give parity between public builds for currently supported platforms and a number of gameplay, costume, UI, online, and input fixes.

Please see Gang Beasts FAQ page or email [email protected] if you have specific feedback on this build or other questions about the game.

The list of key modifications and fixes made in the 1.0.11/1.011 builds are:

added a player list to the online pause menu
added build numbering to the settings menu (to help with support issues)
fixed an audio issue that stopped the puddle drip SFX from playing back
fixed an issue that allowed dropkicks to be exploited
fixed an issue that allowed goals to be scored when the game has ended in the “football” game mode
fixed an issue that could attribute "Big Head" and "Drop Kick" achievements to the wrong character
fixed an issue that could make the game unresponsive if a user disconnected when starting an online game session
fixed an issue that sent players to the online menu screen if the input for back is pressed multiple times when an online game session is loading
fixed an issue that still showed characters that have left an online game session on the session hosts online menu screen
fixed an issue that stopped the “Ground Floor' achievement from unlocking in online game sessions
fixed an issue where AI characters could unlock the "Safety warning" achievement
fixed an issue where characters could be removed outside stage geometry when grabbing falling meat on chutes
fixed an issue where players are kicked from online game sessions if the associated game controller is disconnected when joining servers
fixed an issue where the input label text for ‘the “gang” and “colour” parameters now showing as expected for online game session clients
fixed an issue with controller disconnection messages conflicting with server disconnection messages
fixed an issue with objects/props sticking on puddles on "subway"
fixed an issue with some audio setting not being modified by user settings
fixed an issue with the "Ground Floor" achievement unlocking in error (achievement should no unlock if the character is in a concussion or fall state)
fixed an issue with the game credits sequence not scrolling from the start of the credit roll
fixed an issue with the game score screen not showing in some contexts
fixed an issue with the game score screen reordering the current game statistics on screen
fixed an issue with UI information conflicting with disconnection messages
fixed multiple issues with costume parts not rendering as expected
fixed numerous issues with costume geometry
fixed syncing issues with some parts
modified "elevator" to stabilise elevator cables when broken
modified audio settings to make them fade in after the attract mode screen
modified audio settings to make them fade in after the attract mode screen
modified costume system geometry and database to support more combinations of costume parts
modified football to use a golden ball if the game enters extra time
modified the implementations for triggering the "Big Head", "Drop Kick", and "Self Storage" to limit the potential for accidental unlocks
modified the local game session screen to force characters into the set/join state (to stop late costume, colour, or gang/team modifications)
modified the maximum concussion length
modified the parameters for kicking inactive players to not kick absent players in private online game sessions
modified the public kick timer window from 30 to 60 seconds
modified the rendering of usernames for offscreen characters
modified the stage loading sequence to avoid exposing characters to the game camera before their costumes/colours are set
modified UI button references to not show in contexts where not needed
modified UK and US text label localisations for the ambient sound parameter from "Ambiance" to "Ambience"
modified waves mode to support the re-spawning of eliminated players between waves
optimised loading times for some contexts
removed the score screen from the "football" game mode
updated the input system to Rewired 1.1.19.6

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 1.0.8 patch build

We have been working to address a series of issues with the character costume system (the system that builds and renders character and costume geometry), the 1.0.8 build (released with this post) includes fixes for the bull mascot costume and other complex costume parts that have compromised gameplay in recent builds. The 1.0.8 build also addresses issues Russian players have had connecting to online sessions without a VPN.

Please see Gang Beasts FAQ page or email [email protected] if you have specific feedback on this build or questions about the game.

The list of key modifications and fixes made in the 1.0.8 build are:

added a confirmation screen that shows if input settings are modified
fixed a graphical issue that showed as a flickering at the front of the incinerator stage
fixed an issue where characters could sink into stairs on the towers stage
fixed an issue with the satellite dish supports on the roof stage
fixed issue where character geometry could pass though the fence on the alley stage
modified English language translation for left grab to left punch (to standardise with other languages)
modified font used for UI button references (for legibility)
modified geometry for a number of costume parts (for stability)
modified IP addresses used by the game session matchmaker from addresses block by Roskomnadzor/Federal Service for Supervision of Communication in Russia
modified opening logo sequence to support skipping of current logo
modified the bull mascot head to balance with other costumes
modified scheme for unlocking the “Safety Warning” trophy
modified the ‘long hair’ part to standardise with other costume parts
modified the camera tracking trigger volume on the containers stage to stop the camera from moving below the water
modified the costume customisation UI to only show currently available inputs
removed obstructions to the camera on the chutes stage
replaced baked lighting to fix issues with the arena stairs on the ring stage