Greetings operators, our vision is to build a game with transparency and player feedback. We always wanted to conduct playtests at a very early stage of development with absolutely no NDA. Something that is quite rare in the industry, but we believe is necessary in order to build a great game and a healthy environment between developers and players giving their feedback.

We have just accomplished our first milestone: carrying out our initial playtests. A handful of you had the chance to experience our initial gameplay branches, and I must admit, it was incredibly nerve-racking for us: four years of work subject to validation or invalidation within mere hours.

Our objective was to test two main aspects, the game's feel (shooting, movement, atmosphere, etc.) and the game mode (pacing, balance, etc.). These components form the core of the game. We are thrilled to announce that it's been a resounding success, exceeding our expectations!

In line with our commitment to transparency, we had no NDA, thus you are free to view the replays from various streamers or directly ask players about their experiences.

Players expressed a deep appreciation for the immersive atmosphere of the game, the PvP mechanics, and their fluidity. The PvP combat between PMCs is satisfying, with the TTK seeming just right, and recoil effects well received. The audio design and spatialization met the approval of the players, although we suspect that players may not have had sufficient opportunity to thoroughly test this aspect. Internally, we believe there is room for improvement.

The network code has proven robust, far exceeding our expectations. We managed to support up to 27 players per game (9 teams), and we are confident that we can push this boundary even further.

Nonetheless, we did encounter a couple of issues:

The performance was rather mediocre, especially considering the latest patch, despite the players using high-end PC configurations. We anticipated that some players might experience suboptimal performance due to our use of a game engine (Unreal Engine 5) that is geared for the latest generation of PCs. As a remedy, we plan to hire a specialist in engine optimization to assist us in enhancing the game's performance.

The players naturally resorted to camping, particularly towards the end of the game. Currently, there is no advantage to being the first team to secure the artifact. This tendency emerges at the end of games, but we already have solutions in mind to address this issue. The first team to secure the artifact should have a clear advantage, but they should also become the target for other players, fostering the exciting dynamic that we aim to achieve.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the players who participated in the test. It's genuinely a tremendous joy for us, and there's no comparison to the satisfaction of seeing our project well received.

We will be organizing additional playtests (dates to be confirmed). For the time being, we'll continue limiting the playtests to a restricted number of rotating players.

We look forward to the day we can conduct playtests with cloud servers, allowing an unlimited number of players to participate, but we still have a great deal of work ahead of us.
As for the game's release, it remains scheduled for early 2024. However, the task ahead is monumental, and it will undoubtedly be a challenging deadline to meet.

- Aherys