Hello everyone!
April has been all about one thing: Stability. We’ve been closely monitoring our closed playtest sessions and listening to your feedback. The board is full of sticky notes, and we’re knocking them down one by one to ensure the game is ready for a much larger audience.
Public Playtest Coming Soon!
We’ve had so much fun watching the first wave of pioneers explore the depths. Because of the progress we’re making, we are planning to open the playtest to the public by mid-to-late May!
If you want to be notified the second it goes live—or if you’re hoping to snag a spot in the final closed sessions before then—make sure you have us Wishlisted and are part of our Discord community!
We’ve been diving deep into the technical bugs identified by our testers. Here is a look at what we’ve been fixing this month:
Critical Fixes & Optimization:
Resolution & UI: We’ve addressed issues where the resolution would break and optimized the HUD to hide correctly when interacting with the upgrade table.
Physics & Environment: Fixed "floating" assets like trees and chairs, and corrected the rope/cable behavior to ensure it appears consistently for clients.
The "Lush" Area: We’ve done a pass on the Lush biome to fix floating trees and ensure enemies are spawning and exiting caves correctly.
Quality of Life & Controls:
Flashlight Overhaul: No more negative numbers on the flashlight! We’ve also adjusted the regen speed and corrected the light-stick replication.
Input & Scrolling: We’ve inverted scroll variables where needed and fixed a bug where scrolling would affect the inventory.
Navigation: Fixed several "stuck" points, including cases where dying would send players under the map or elevators wouldn’t trigger correctly after a late-join.
Gameplay Balance:
Audio Cues: Adjusted enemy sound distance so you can actually hear them coming before they're right on top of you.
The "Magnet" Tool: Fixed issues where spamming magnets would cause client-side glitches and improved the "hook" logic for animals and items.
The Upgrade Table: No more floating tables! The upgrade desk is now properly grounded and includes a "Close" button for a better exit flow.
The road to our May public playtest is paved with bug fixes, and we couldn’t do it without your help. Every wishlist and every Discord message helps us keep the lights on and the development moving.
Get ready—the gates are opening soon, and the depths are waiting.
— The Burning Boats Team
