Greetings Testers!
As Phase 1 of the Bot Colony _redux Playtest winds down, we'd like to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to all the players who engaged with the game and provided feedback.
It was nerve-racking to put the game "out in the wild" for the first time in earnest, but so worth it.
We're in the midst of a big transition from Unreal 5.5 to 5.6, which comes with a lot of re-tooling (and some great performance gains). In addition, we are hooking up Episode 1 and 2 to the main branch and they are inheriting the engine updates and adding new features.
When we're back for the next playable version update, you can expect some great content and QoL features (many of them a direct response to player feedback), including:
Proper tutorials during the New Game experience to fully train the game's robot communication system and UI.
A completely new Episode 1 gameplay path, with selectable mission settings and modes.
Totally remastered Episode 2 with a comprehensive visual makeover and new secrets to discover.
A near-feature complete Episode 3 that takes the player beyond the insect bot Factions into other tense encounters.
Tighter third-person controls and camera.
More responsive and accurate server performance.
Many new cutscenes and story elements.
For all Episodes, we'll (finally!) be implementing a proper Checkpoint system, so your hard-earned progress is saved at every step.
Stay tuned for news of the game's return to active testing. Nakagawa's robots are looking forward to chatting with you again.
Kind regards from the entire team at North Side.