Since the last Early Access build was published in January we have been working with Coatsink to prepare the infrastructure for a public beta of online multiplayer support for Gang Beasts and are now at a stage of development where we can make a selection of the most optimised stages available to play in an online multiplayer beta for play testing and stress testing.

The online multiplayer beta will be made available through Steam as a separate build from the current ‘stable’ and ‘unstable’ alpha builds, this is necessary to preserve access to the current ‘unstable’ and ‘stable’ alpha builds (while the stages not currently included in the online beta are optimised for online multiplayer) and to give the Early Access community a specific forum for posting online specific questions, bug reports and feedback to.

Information on the three stages that are playable in the initial online beta will be posted on Steam this month (as a Steam announcement) with specific instructions on the process for participating in the online beta and information on the next batch of stages that are currently being optimised for online multiplayer. The first batches of online beta keys will be sent out by email this month with subsequent batches of keys being sent out frequently as server capacity is scaled.

The online multiplayer beta will be merged with the ’unstable’ alpha branch at a later date (when the key work on stress testing and bug fixing the networking implementation has ended and server capacity is scaled to support the full Gang Beasts Early Access community).

Whilst testing and scaling the capacity of the online beta over the next 3-4 months we will continue to push new content, optimisations, and polish to the ‘unstable’ branch, starting with the 0.3.3 ‘unstable’ alpha build published with the post.

Please post feedback and information on game bugs on the 0.3.3 "unstable" alpha build thread if you have issues specific to this build.

Please note there is no "stable" alpha build released with this post

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.3.3 "unstable" alpha build are:

• added four AI character voice sets
• added four character voice sets
• added setting to the Input menu for enabling / disabling XInput on Windows systems (the game has to be restarted before the XInput setting is executed) *
• added additional VO to current voice sets
• added additional wooden foot fall SFX on ‘wheel’ stage
• added ambience to ‘towers’ stage
• added B side music on ‘billboard’ stage
• added box burning SFX on ‘incinerator’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for doors, railings, and pipes on ‘chutes’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for girders on ‘girders’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for metal structures and railings on ‘subway’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for metal structures on ‘billboard’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for metal structures on ‘gondola’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for metal structures on ‘wheel’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for railings and doors on ‘grind’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for railings and stairs on ’towers’ stage
• added collision triggers and SFX for shutters, stairs, ducts, and railings on ‘incinerator’
• added collision triggers and SFX for stairs, floors, and railings on ‘fans’ stage
• added conveyor SFX on ‘incinerator’ stage
• added grind mechanism SFX volume modifier when characters are in close proximity to grind wheels on ‘grind’ stage
• added large fan mechanism SFX on ‘fans’ stage
• added rope SFX on ‘ring’ stage
• added script to nullify collision triggers on ropes on ‘ring’ stage
• added small fan mechanism and evacuation SFX on ‘fans’ stage
• added soft foot fall and metal foot fall SFX on ‘blimp’ stage
• added subway train SFX on ‘subway’ stage
• added wheel mechanism SFX on ‘wheel’ stage
• added wooden foot fall and wood break SFX on ‘girders’ stage
• fixed significant memory leak from the buoyancy simulation used on characters (and the buoy and ice fragments on the ‘buoy’ stage)
• fixed an issue that could stop music from playing on the ‘buoy’ stage
• fixed an issue that stopped menu items from being selectable with the cursor keys on the volume settings screen
• fixed an issue where the character system could spam errors if a navmesh is not found
• fixed an issue with volume settings not modifying the volume on the menu screens
• modified / increased cable collision SFX levels on ‘gondola’ stage
• modified / increased character concussion sound levels
• modified / lowered floor board SFX levels on ‘wheel’ stage
• modified / lowered foot fall SFX on ‘ring’ stage
• modified / lowered individual grinder wheel SFX levels
• modified / lowered warp sound levels
• modified / lowered wood SFX levels on ‘gondola’ stage
• modified ambience on ‘billboard’ stage
• modified and optimised geometry, textures, and scripts in the ‘trucks’ stage
• modified and optimised geometry, textures, and scripts in the ’subway’ stage
• modified and optimised geometry, textures, water, and buoyancy simulations in the ‘buoy’ stage
• modified debug spawning to include a larger character body and other functions **
• modified enemy AI to jump obstacles in some contexts
• modified fan blade SFX on ‘fans’ stage
• modified fan particle effects on ‘fans’ stage
• modified kill volumes and fog height in ‘chutes’ stage
• modified lighting / bloom parameters in the ‘ring’ stage
• modified spatial distance of cooling tower SFX on ’towers’ stage
• modified the current ‘join’ screen to make the UI less complex
• modified the local multiplayer camera settings on the ‘wheel’ stage to track player characters more consistently
• modified triggering sequence for water splash SFX on ‘wheel’ stage
• replaced character feet scraping SFX on ‘trucks’
• replaced wood foot fall SFX with metal foot fall SFX on ‘elevators’
• restored timestep modified keys ’-‘ (deincrement timestep) and ‘=‘ (increment timestep)

* for reference enabling XInput support limits the number of concurrent XInput devices (Xbox 360 controllers and other XInput compatible controllers) to four, disabling XInput forces Xbox 360 controllers and other XInput devices to use Direct or Raw input (bypassing XInput’s four device limitation (making it possible to play with 5-8 concurrent Xbox 360 / XInput controllers), for reference disabling XInput prevents both Xbox 360 controller triggers from registering concurrently on Windows systems.

** for reference the key mappings are:

• keys 1-8 spawn objects
• keys 1-8 with the shift modifier key pressed spawns the default character body and binds control to the corresponding player number
• key 9 with the shift modifier key pressed spawns the default character as an enemy AI
• keys 1-8 with the control modifier key pressed spawns a larger character body and binds control to the corresponding player number
• key 9 with the control modifier key pressed spawns the default character as an enemy AI

Information on switching to / from "stable" and “unstable” branches

To download 'unstable' alpha build of Gang Beasts right-click on the game name on the Steam library page and select 'Properties' from the dialogue window that opens, from this window select the 'BETAS' tab then the 'unstable' option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled 'Select the beta you would like to opt into:' (to revert back to the last 'stable' branch select 'NONE- Opt out of all beta programs' from the same menu).

For reference switching between 'unstable' and 'stable' branches of the game can force the selected build to download to the Steam client.

Gang Beasts is an Early Access game that is currently in uninterrupted development, the 0.1.x and 0.2.x builds have bugs, partially implemented gameplay content and mechanics (please see the Steam Early Access FAQ for more information).