Game update29 May 2026In The Black (Main) Update Patch 1724Watch Patch Video on YouTube Overview This patch serves as a final push before our first content update. The team has focused heavily on hardening the core systems pilots use outside of missions: the squad/co-op system, ship inventory, and the ship modification pipeline. Key Highlights · Squads System & Co-op Contracts are officially back online. · Cosmetics Unlockable through rank progression.…
Greetings, Pilots. We've deployed a hotfix to address a critical hardware failure that slipped through recently and TrackIR support has now been restored. Some of you rightly pointed out that TrackIR went dark on launch. The device's Product ID was updated prematurely on our end, breaking the link. We've rolled back that change to restore immediate functionality. This gets head tracking back on…
Greetings, Pilots. Thank you to everyone flying with us during our Early Access launch. Your feedback is helping us move quickly. Our first hotfix is already live and includes: • Re-enabled onboarding after fixes for physics, collision, and progression blockers • Added fail-safes to prevent players from getting stuck during tutorial flow • Fixed unkillable Destroy objectives for better mission…
Greetings Pilots, Another week, another round of updates as we prepare for launch into Early Access. We've been busy under the hood, overhauling core systems for performance, stability, and gameplay correctness. Here is the breakdown. Core System and Performance Overhauls We have landed a significant overhaul of the ship physics, armor, and mass bookkeeping systems. Armor meshes have been remov…
Greetings, mercs! We are incredibly proud to announce that the Early Access release of In The Black will launch May 5th. That date also honors the 65th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight of an American astronaut: Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 suborbital flight in 1961. We partnered with our good friends at LT Gaming for this exclusive announcement on their YouTube channel: The full press re…
Another week, another batch of changes straight from the void. We're continuing our push on UI and quality-of-life, and this time our sights were set on the projectile impact points (PIP). The old lead/lag pips were functional, but let's be honest, they were dumb and static. We've overhauled them completely. Alongside that, we've continued paying down a massive amount of technical debt, ripping…
We've updated our Tobii head and eye tracking smoothing algorithms to reduce jitter and lag. We also slipped in a few bugfixes on some nasty edge cases that have been plaguing us. Core System Overhauls · Tobii Eye/Head Tracking Rewrite: We've thrown out the old over-simplified smoothing system that felt disconnected and jittery. The new smoothing system is based on a complex prediction model th…
Tobii Support & Backend Update Alright pilots, listen up. This week was about ripping out the guts of our singleton managers and replacing them with actual Engine Subsystems, because we're tired of race conditions and "spaghetti code" being a valid architectural pattern. We paid down a massive amount of technical debt, but we didn't leave you empty-handed. We’ve finished the Tobii Eye Tracking…
Features & System Changes · Head Tracking Overhaul: The system for head tracking and vehicle cameras has been completely rewritten for significantly smoother and more accurate 1:1 control. · Head tracking rotation is now independent of manual freelook (mouse/joystick), allowing for simultaneous input. · It's recommended to reset your look multiplier back to 1.0 found in Options > Misc . · Track…
What's New We're excited to introduce the completely redesigned Input System 2.0 for In The Black! This major overhaul brings a modern, flexible input management system that makes configuring your controls easier and more reliable than ever before. ⚠️ WARNING: All previous input settings will be reset! Legacy profiles are not compatible with the new system. Your controls will reset to defaults…
Visual Improvements Augmented Vision: Added Augmented Vision on activation of Sensors to help new and seasoned players find their way in the dark of space. Ultra Wide Support: FOV now adjusts dynamically based on screen aspect ratio to ensure that all vital parts of the ship cockpit remain visible regardless of monitor aspect ratio. Vehicle HUD Update: When the HMCS widget is triggered to be vi…
Major Additions · Camera Zoom Overhaul · Rebuilt from the ground up for smoother, more realistic control. · Added Toggle Zoom and refined Auto-Zoom behavior (now only activates on initial target focus). · Implemented a true optical magnification model , improving precision and feel. · All zoom settings now live under a dedicated Zoom tab in the options menu. · Player Feedback Improvements · The…
Several bug fixes and Quality-of-Life updates, here are some of the most notable: Gameplay & Tutorial Improvements · Weapons Tutorial Revamp: Players can now freely rotate their ship from the start of the tutorial, removing forced aim alignment. This prevents issues with ship drift during the railgun section and improves player agency. · Basic Flight Training Enhancements: · Instruction text no…
Hey there Mercs! We've got a hot new trailer for you guys! Our Early Access trailer has hit the channel, come have a look! Lots of exciting additions are coming, and sooner than you think. If you'd like to know more about Early Access, then look no further than our Press Release Document . This document not only covers what we've learned from our time at Next Fest, but also our road-map for Ear…
Gameplay & Balance Railgun Damage Adjustment · Armor thickness across multiple ship classes has been rebalanced to slightly reduce the railgun’s one-shot potential. · Adjustments affect the Hyperion , Pegasus , and Reus ship families. · This is part of ongoing tuning to encourage more dynamic mid-range engagements. Tutorial Combat Improvements · Fixed an issue in the Basic Combat Tutorial where…
Fixes · The Impeller Input Manager plugin was conflicting with Unreal Engine’s internal SDL2 library. Causing startup crashes or unpredictable behavior on some systems. · The import library has been rebuilt so that the plugin loads safely alongside Unreal Engine’s internal SDL2 without conflict. · We apologize for the inconvenience and remain committed to improving peripheral support in future…
Fixes · Fixed a startup crash that occurred on systems with older SDL2.dll files. The game now checks the SDL version at launch and skips unsupported joystick info calls, ensuring it runs safely on all SDL versions.
Gameplay Updates Drone Sweep · You can now select the difficulty level of Drone Sweep · Contract payout is now properly displayed and rewarded to players Free Flight Safety Boundaries Free Flight now includes a Play Area Enforcement system that prevents ships from drifting indefinitely into space. The system will automatically warn players who approach unsafe limits and gently guide them back i…
Hey there Mercs, A new training short has hit the Youtube channel. Go check it out and see what you can learn! We've seen a lot of comments talking about piloting flight controls feeling slow and sluggish. We hope this alleviates that problem for you. Let is know what your thoughts are in the comments, and let us know what other tutorials you'd like to see in the future.
Big thanks to LT Gaming for covering the demo as their review of In The Black has now passed 100,000 views! Many players have also discovered the game through Steam Next Fest — we’re thrilled to welcome all the new pilots to the community! Since the video went live, the demo has already received a major update (see our Oct 11 Patch Notes ), including: - New Drone Sweep mission (includes co-op)…
Greetings, Mercs! We’ve just released a new Demo Overview video on YouTube! A huge thank-you goes out to Nathan , whose brilliant work helped bring this video to life. We plan to create more content like this, along with shorter videos focused on tips and tricks to help the community get the most out of In The Black . Let us know what you think — your feedback helps us deliver the kind of conte…
Gameplay Updates New Drone Sweep Mission (CO-OP / Singleplayer) · Added a brand-new Drone Sweep mission to the Contracts lineup. · Players work together to clear waves of autonomous drone defenders in low-orbit combat zones. · Improved spawn logic and round progression to ensure smooth cooperative play. Weapon Ripple Fixes · Fixed an issue where ripple-fired weapons could mis-sequence or skip v…
Greetings Mercenaries, Have you heard the news? In The Black has released a demo! A historic moment like this deserves an occasion…a new Livestream perhaps! We will be holding a Livestream to commemorate this achievement on Saturday, October 11, at 11:00 AM EDT. You can watch the stream on our Steam, Youtube, and Twitch channels! Along with playing our new demo, we will be joined by Jack Mamais…
Post-Match Enhancements · Post-Match scenes now display real squad data instead of placeholder/random squads. · Full squad performance is tracked and shown, including correct squad names, members, and top squad highlights. · Top squad determination now uses actual performance stats, falling back to legacy behavior if no squad data is available. Squad & Team System Overhaul · New client-to-serve…
🚀 Post-Match Overhaul · Introduced a new Post-Match streaming system for faster, more reliable result transfers between server and clients. · Added player performance breakdowns: credits, XP, commendations, repair costs, and rentals now display clearly. · Victory bonuses, commendations, and economic adjustments now roll into a final credit payout. · Improved post-match cameras, spacing, and sh…
Join Principal Designer David Wessman and Assistant Producer Al Wood this Saturday, August 9 starting at 12:00 EDT. We're actually going to do two 2-hours sessions with a one hour break in between. For everyone who already has a key, please join us as we return to Saturn for some nuclear-powered space combat! For everyone else, please be sure to tune into our livestream on Twitch or our communi…
Today Principal Designer David Wessman and Assistant Producer Al Wood are livestreaming a playtest of In The Black. Join us on Twitch or Discord to chat and ask questions. We're actually going to do two 2-hours sessions with a one hour break in between.
Hailing all mercs! The next Playtest with the Devs is today! SURPRISE!!! We start at 15:00 EDT. We're going to play for 2 hours. If you have a key, please join in! If you don't have a key you can still check out the action as we'll be livestreaming. You can catch the livestream on our Twitch channel or by joining our Discord channel: For a chance to win a Steam key, you need to join one of the…
—
Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.