Attention Squaddies,
After a series of updates to Squad over the course of 2022 we wanted to touch base with you, our community of players, and update you on a few goings on with the game and behind the scenes here at Offworld!
SQUAD V3.2
The next update to Squad will be v3.2.
At the end of last year we set ourselves the goal of improving not only communication with you, but also delivering on a number of the promises that we have made over the years. We really wanted to start this year on the right foot, and work to demonstrate our commitment to Squad and to our community of players.
In 2022 so far we have released monthly Updates including a significant overhaul of our lighting and shadows systems, two new factions (the Australian Army and the American marine forces), and other improvements to the game. The team has been working incredibly hard to deliver these updates, and address issues with them through quick hotfixes when required. We’re really proud of the progress that has been made.
While it’s still too early to share a date for v3.2, we are currently on track to release at the end of August. This means that July will be the first month in a while that we spend working on Squad without releasing an update. We know that you’ve recently experienced a monthly schedule for updates, so we wanted to let you know before you start wondering where this month’s update is.
Now that we’ve pushed out a ton of great content, V3.2 will feature bug fixes, and various updates meant to improve Squad’s performance. We’ve seen a lot of requests for this focus from our community, and this is another step to ensure we are paying active attention to the feedback you all provide us with. We are already working to test some of these in our Closed Playtest Sessions with select members of the community.
We will have more details about v3.2 as it gets closer to release, and are looking forward to sharing those!
NEW ADDITION TO COMMUNITY TEAM
As many of you know, we have been looking to hire a Community Manager for Squad for the past few months following OWI_Krispy’s move back home to the United Kingdom. We still miss Krispy, but are delighted to announce that we have found Squad’s new Community Manager! They’re working on getting up to speed on the ins and outs of the community, and you’ll be meeting them later this week.
This addition will allow us to further level up the community team and begin to really focus on providing our players, Server Owners, Partners, and other community members with the best possible connection to Offworld Industries. More hands on deck always ups the ante on what we can do!
This also means that OWI_Wedge will slowly be transitioning to a bit more of a behind the scenes role and won’t be quite as visible in the Squad community. You may see other refinements as well over the coming weeks and months.
While we don’t want to talk too much about what we have planned at this point, more regular Development Diaries sharing what’s going on behind the scenes at Offworld Industries, and letting you know what the focus of our next release will be is a goal for our team. We are also looking at our Developer Q&As to see how we can make them more informative and useful to a wider audience.
NEW STUDIO
One of the things that we will be doing in these Development Diaries is to share a bit of a peek behind the scenes here at Offworld. While not directly affecting you as a player, we hope a look at the goings on behind the scenes of the development of the game might be illuminating and add a bit more flavour!
It’s summer time here in New Westminster, British Columbia, a city just outside of Vancouver. The past few weeks the team has been preparing to move into our new offices, and many of the members of our development teams who have been working remotely will be starting back in the office a few days a week.
On days off the past few weeks many of the team came into the studio to help put together furniture, move in computers, and get the studio ready for operation. The OWI IT team had an epic weekend long move to set up our new infrastructure and were able to minimize disruptions to game development, ensuring that both the Squad and Beyond The Wire teams had everything they needed for their first days back in the office!
Offworld will continue to be a mixture of remote and in-studio development teams, but the opening of a new office and the resumption of in-person work is a big step for the studio.
We look forward to bringing you all more Squad updates, more Squad news, and introducing our newest Community Manager to you all very soon!
At ease,
OFFWORLD OUT.