Have Squad, Will Find Match

29 February, 2024 

Folks, Squid Gumbo here. It's Thursday - and what a Thursday it is! Not only is it a Leap Day (Happy Leap Day to those that celebrate), but it’s Weekly Cheese day! This week has seen some really exciting advancements in the development of afflicted and I am supremely hyped to bring them all to you. So get ready, the Weekly Cheese starts here and now.

Big News Everyone!

As you may or may not have seen, depending on your attentiveness to our social media presence, afflicted officially entered into closed play-testing this week! You read that right, our humble 3rd Shift Studios team and a select group of community members have been sent on the glorious task of testing out afflicted and all of its elements. While this is a fun process, it's also an incredibly taxing one. The main goal is not necessarily to shoot each other in the face and fight back against the zombrie scourge, but to really put afflicted (and Ryan) through its paces. Finding bugs is critical to making the game as player-friendly as possible, and I'm grateful to all who have taken the testing of the game under their wing.

Of course, this current group of testers isn't the "end-all, be-all". Far from it! In the coming weeks and patches for the afflicted demo, we'll be opening more slots for critical members of the community to join us in play-testing to ensure the experience is a fun one for everyone. When we release this to the world, we want to make sure everybody feels that it's as polished as possible! We'll leave the launching of half-finished games to some of those other publishers...

Into the Thick of It!

Another long week of work has come and gone, but this time around we're all feeling incredibly accomplished. Having had a successful team meeting where we were able to actually get into the game and start exploring what it has to offer, things are looking pretty bright. Here are the details for what went down this week:

• Ryan

  • Hey so, I've got some pretty sweet updates for you this week. Is my mental health deteriorating and is my body failing? Okay yes but check this out.

    • Ton of bug fixes reltated to multiplay.

    • Got it so when you search for a match using the matchmaking system, the whole party gets pulled into the same server (just need to get the server to add team members to the same team next).

    • Did a TON of refactoring on major systems (Lobby, Cloud Inventory, Steam, Authentication Manager).

    • Fixed projectile visuals. They're still sliiiiightly off but its not super noticeable. I’ll still work on getting them dead on.

    • Worked with Cole to get the Level Generator to spawn correctly.

    • Got Cam's bunker menu integrated with the new menu system. Lookinnnn gooooood.

    • Ton of documentation.

    • Created a user account system that’ll allow us to create admins. Admins will have access to a private room in the bunker that'll allow them to do admin stuff…

  • annnnddd... THE DEMO IS ON STEAM AND WE ARE STARTING PLAYTESTING AGAIN! Just internal playtesting for now and our insiders. But this means we are getting heckin’ close. What I'm really happy about is our State of The Game updates arent going to be FFFKINNN PowerPoints anymore.

  • Vitals

    • CoLdBrEaWCounter == ?? (intelligence officers are still missing - sending recon squad).

• Bryan

  • Still working with Mike on zombie titan bosses and level-specific zombie models! They’re looking sick.

  • Continuing documentation on final list of weapons, weapon components, decorations, and consumables. This is a big life that has a huge impact on the end state of the game.

  • Continuing to think about script/screenplay for entry & extraction cutscenes.

• Bruce

  • Dreaming up new Terry skins…among other things…

• Marc

  • Pushing out the freshest memes possible (and doing a great job).

• Mike

  • Still working with Bryan on zombie concepts and helping bring them to life! They’re gonna blow your socks off and your hair back.

• Cole

  • Did some more map updates to the swamp and the city.

  • Worked with Ryan to fix a bug where map chunks marked to spawn once were spawning more than once.

  • Making room for the community play-testers and their feedback!

Keep Your Eyes Peeled

Over the coming weeks, things are going to start appearing. More media, more memes, and more afflicted in general. I mentioned last week that it's time to start gathering up those squads, and this week I'll reinforce it. Start consuming that afflicted media, bring the squad together, and let's get the hype train rolling. We're working hard to make sure this demo is as good as possible - and we can't wait for you all to join us in it!

In Closing

It's a good week, folks. Play-testing is underway and things are really starting to churn over here at 3rd Shift Studios. Ryan's going to be hard at work ironing out bugs and such - so send him your thoughts (and some cold brew). Things are heating up!

Stop Clipping Through the Map,  

Squid