Is it a Bird? (Patch 1.21)

Gang Beasts patch 1.21 is releasing today for all currently supported platforms! The 1.21 patch addresses  a number of miscellaneous issues which will allow us to focus on new content in subsequent updates. The 1.21 build does not include new stages or costumes and is focused on these fixes (see below for more information).

A new stage and new costumes will be released soon, once we’re confident it is ready and subject to it passing quality assurance.

The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.21 build:  

General 

• New languages! We now support Japanese, Korean, Chinese (simplified) and Chinese (traditional).
• New Menu font to improve legibility.
• Tweaked buoyancy physics across all stages that use buoyancy. 
• Improved Tentacles AI on the Aquarium stage. 
• Addressed the problem of players being randomly kicked from local games. 
• Corrected left and right grabs when interacting with objects. 
• Improved stage lighting across all stages. 
• Enhanced football physics to prevent clipping into the ground. 
• Adjusted ball deflation rates in football mode. 
• Updated joints in the stage to AutoJointV2 for improved stability.

Costumes 

• Made various improvements to costume physics. 
• Fixed the Beanie to function properly. 
• Resolved the collider issue with the Life Vest. 
• Fixed collision problems with the Deep Sea Helmet.

Stages 

• Enhanced escalation mechanics in the Aquarium stage. 
• Stability updates to Vents. 
• Increased stability of bricks on Girder. 
• Stability updates to Roof.
• Improved Glass Fracture on Roof. 
• Made improvements to ice breaking on Buoy. 
• Improved Stability to Fence objects on Wheel. 
• Added water to Containers. 
• Stability updates on Subway. 
• Stabilized the antenna on Buoy to reduce excessive shaking of characters and camera.

Online

• Fixes to matchmaking in Gang Mode.

Issues 

We’re sorry we didn’t publish more frequent content, fixes, or development information since we released  the Trawler stage in December 2021. A long sequence of technical issues and difficulties have limited our  capacity to publish successive updates since Gang Beasts was fully released. 
However, since the end of 2021 we’ve worked (with partners at Coatsink, Robot Teddy, SuperGenius, Unity, Rocket Science, and Lockit QA) to address technical issues, standardise processes to minimise technical debt and build a platform for more frequent content releases. The rest of this post summarises some of what is being worked on currently.

Boneloaf 

We’ve made a number of key staff hires to supplement resources at Boneloaf and have more in-house  staff working to support Gang Beasts. These hires include a Producer, a Senior Technical Animator, multiple Senior and general Engineering staff, Marketing, Player Support, Event and Operations specialists, and an internal QA team. You can find out more about everyone over here.

Coatsink 

Boneloaf’s agreement with key development partner Coatsink ended at the start of 2023. We want to  thank the staff and management at Coatsink for their support and friendship since 2013 and appreciate  the significant contributions Coatsink staff have made to the development and success of Gang Beasts  and Boneloaf.

Rocket Science 

Since February 2023, Boneloaf has worked closely with Rocket Science. This team brings a glut of resources and experience working with platforms, UX/UI, technical art, tools, and services to the development of Gang Beasts. Currently, staff at Rocket Science are working on a series of important modifications to online systems (to modernise the technology), standardise our build pipelines, implement a new UI system, provide support for game modes, and other systems.

We expected transitioning to a new development partner could be a protracted and disruptive process,  especially transitioning ownership of key development work from third parties, but Rocket Science have  made this process as low friction as they could have. We’re excited to now be in a position where we can give more information on the development and future plans for Gang Beasts.

More Beef 

Information in this post is limited to Boneloaf, Boneloaf’s partners, and what modifications have been  made since the 1.18 build, with some information on technical issues and the next content release. To keep you more up to date, we’re working on a series of posts to give more specific information on current development and planned content which will give more context on what is being done to support Gang Beasts.

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Stay safe, wear a hard hat and don’t carry birdseed!
Boneloaf