Hello, we just had another private playtest two days ago for the new build. Special thanks to CorgiCraft and all his friends, and anyone else who participated in the playtest. It was a very fun event and all of you helped provide valuable feedback to make this a better game.
Team Balance:
The main game loop feels much more extended and balanced than it ever was in earlier tests. No one felt unfairness during the combat and search. Both sides' players have a very solid chance to win, and mostly, it's all about strategy and skill. Though due to the limit, there might be some broken "meta" way to ruin the game balance that we just haven't found. But we can deal with that later when it's found, overall, it's a very good start.
Money System:
The new economic system is one of the main things I really wanna give a test. And unfortunately, it didn't meet my expectation. Most of the time players just tend to ignore the collective objectives and also very hard to find the need of buying a gun before entering the game. I think the lobby layout and how the player's holding money amount is displayed are the main reason why this system is totally losing players' attraction. As well as the redundant free weapon supply caches available on the game map. We will do some adjustments for all of this. Overall I want players to feel rewarded in long term by playing long and smart.
Weapons & Items for Infested:
The throwing "melee" weapons were both added before the playtest, and they felt fantastic, throwing a hatchet and getting the infestation right on the hit feels amazing. Though it wasn't working very reliable, we are definitely going to keep and expand this feature in later updates. Traps also help make infested players' gameplay dynamic, but it just can't compete with that direct satisfaction of throwing a spinning hatchet at your friend in VR.
Next Step:
The game is very playable and I'd say it's 90% complete for the release. Here are the things I'd like to fix before the release:
Patch all the minor bugs we experienced during the playtest.
Adjust the lobby layout to fit the new system.
Adjust the economic system.
Make a quest build and do a bit performance test.
Though not promised, if everything works okay I'd just release this game as we planned at the end of this month. I know the game still feels a little bit too short and could be lacking content. But we can add more features after the release step by step.