- Join our Discord and check the Beta-Keys Channel: http://discord.gg/VwG4KYS
Changes (in broad strokes):
- Arena GameMode is introduced featuring Singleplayer, Co-op and Competitive PvP (Not all features are completed yet and there is no tutorial for Arena yet)
- AIs have increased Health
- All spells have increased damage
- Shield spells cost less and have shorted cooldown
- Healing spells are slightly less potent
- Changed Explorer AIs into Minibosses
- Boost Ray no longer cancels when the caster moves, improving the usability of Boost. The ray cancels if anything comes in between the caster and the receiver.
- Stamina now regen at half speed while walking and doesn’t regen at all while running. But also doesn’t take any stamina consumption while walking and running. Stamina cost for Jump and Glide has been increased
- Energy have a boost in regen when under 150.
Next Up:
- Individual keys for each spell-slot, they are shown in Input Manager currently but have no function yet. - Arena GameMode Features: Tutorial, UI for each Arena with info about Status and players etc. - Matchmaking - Sound!
Testing Focus:
- Try out the new Arena GameMode: Report Bugs and leave Suggestions in Discord!
- Try out the new Teleportation system with Portal Stones and Using “T” to spawn your own portal when you have 3 Portal Stones.
- New movement prediction for Proxy Players (other players on your screen).
- New Hit-Detection in PvP.
- Totally rewrote the AI movement system for Interpolation and Extrapolation Client-Side. A lot less CPU demanding.
- Rewrote how a specific AI is found in the game after a network call has been received that is for a specific AI. This makes for less Network data to be sent and less CPU usage when finding the AI.
- AIs Health is now shown for a few seconds when the AI either takes damage or heals.
- Added Elemental Shards and Portal Stones to AI loot-table. Bosses now only drop these special loots.
- Unlock the 3rd Element Slot by looting 4 Elemental Shards
- Using a teleport now cost 1 Portal Stone
- Spawn your own Teleport by Holding “T” to aim and releasing “T” to spawn the teleport. This cost 3 Portal Stones (There is no cost to use your own teleport the first time).
- Opening a teleport when no other teleport is active on the planet will spawn another linked teleport at a random place on the planet. This goes for Teleports spawned via 3 Portal Stones as well as for Teleports spawned by players doing a Boost-Ray circle (which doesn’t cost any Portal Stones).
- Lots of small bug-fixes in both Gameplay and UI. As well as many balancing changes.
Next Up:
- Individual keys for each spell-slot, they are shown in Input Manager currently but have no function yet. - Arena GameMode (Singleplayer, Co-op and Competitive PvP) - Matchmaking
Testing Focus:
- Try out the new Energy Mist spell in Void Element.
- Try out the new Teleportation system with Portal Stones and Using “T” to spawn your own portal when you have 3 Portal Stones.
Hello everyone!
We are one week into our beta period and we just want to start this update by saying thank you to everyone that has tried the game and given us feedback. We really like receiving your feedback and ideas about the game because that will make the game so much better. So please continue with this.
If you have not tried the game yet, please feel free to join our Discord server where you will find the ”Beta_Keys”-channel which is the place to get your Beta Key.
The official servers are live Friday-Sunday. As usual you are able to play Singleplayer at any time, and of course start your own server whenever you feel like playing with some friends.
Progress since last week - Difficulty never overlap, during gameplay the difficulty will slowly raise, but will never go over the next tier. Easy will slowly go up to the Normal starting-point but never over.
- Changed from 3 to 8 different difficulties
- Balanced out the different difficulties in a number or ways, need feedback on Singleplayer and Co-op.
- Balanced spells that deal instant impact damage in an AoE. Reduced the AoE range for them to not be OP to cast just beside a shield and damage the player behind the shield easily.
- Doubled the time that Shields stay Active
- Added Energy Mist in Void element. Cost Stamina to cast and you gain Energy from it.
- Fixed a bug that used as much CPU for hidden AI as for AIs shown to the player. Hidden AIs now get deactivated and will never use movement calculations until they get shown again. (AIs are hidden and are not synced when out of reach from the player.)
- Fixed a bunch of floating rocks as well as implemented a system that puts the player back on the ground if the player manages to clip through the ground.
- Lots of bugfixes around AIs
To see the complete full developers log, please log into our Discord server and navigate to the ”news”-channel.
To end this weeks update we would like to share below video from Ring Out Gaming where they test out the game. Here you can get a feel for what the game is currently like, but why stop there? Join the fun that is Ghostly Horizon now by signing up via our discord server!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzO-QOD8G_M
Best regards,
Ghostly Horizon Team
The Ghostly Horizon beta is here
Hello everyone! THE DAY is here! The beta is now officially released. Exciting! If you have received a key, you should now be able to play the game through Steam. If you have not been able to receive a key, fear not!
Pop in to our Discord Server and you will get a key there! Discord Server: VwG4KYS
Our first focus With a completely new game, there is a lot that needs tweaking, fixing and adjusting once actual players start using the game. This is something we hope you will help us with through feedback on all things related to the game. To give you an idea of what we, as a start, are focusing on we have some points below:
• Server stability • Number of players connected per server • Client FPS in Multiplayer and Singleplayer • Movement, in Multiplayer and Singleplayer • Game Balance, damage, stats, regeneration etc.
As you can see, much of this is related to what YOU think, feel and experience while playing the game. Therefore we greatly appreciate your communication. Let us know everything: what it feels like when moving around, how the stats, damage, regeneration e.t.c works, how the general gameplay feels/works. All constructive criticism is welcome. (Please keep in mind that the key-word in that sentence is constructive…).
Communicate with us on Discord Don’t forget to join our Discord server. We will try to be available as much as possible here so that you can get fast feedback on whatever you wish to ask or suggest. If we are not present at the time of your question we will get back to you ASAP. News, bug-reports, suggestions, help, find players... this is the place to be!
Official Discord Server: VwG4KYS
Upcoming steps of development Through we are gathering info from the game and you, our players, we will continue to develop the game. The following points are what we have our eyes set on to begin/finish during the next month:
• Hit-Detection in PvP is getting a remake, will work similar to how it is currently in Co-op against AI. This will give quicker response and feedback to the player and the game will feel more synced even with higher latency.
• Movement sync for other players on your view is getting some love with better prediction to reduce latency differences and improve hit-detection sync with the new system (see above).
• Audio is on its way!
• A Server Manager will be implemented where all your servers started via the Server Launcher is listed and handled.
• GameMode balancing and Spell balancing will be done continuously
• Survival and Invasion is getting a revamp with some progression
• Steam implementations with Leaderboard and Achievements
We just want to finish off with wishing you all great battle luck! Hope you enjoy what is the first real look into the world of Ghostly Horizon and it’s exciting world! May the best Ghosts or Ectos win!
Best regards, Ghostly Horizon Team
GHOSTLY HORIZON BETA RELEASE DATE
Hello everyone!
We are very excited about today’s announcement. After several months of hard work, we can finally present to you that our official beta of Ghostly Horizon will go live on the 15th December. Exciting right?
Get access to the beta of Ghostly Horizon To get access to the beta, all you have to do is use below link to sign up, and then you will receive a key so that you can access the game through Steam on the 15th December.
Currently, we have 1500 beta slots up for grabs. If more participants have signed up, a random selection will distribute the keys. If you are not successful in receiving a key, new keys will be released after a few weeks once the first weeks of beta have concluded.
Beta Features and Servers The beta will feature Singleplayer, Co-op and Competitive Multiplayer. The game modes available during the beta will be:
Conquest – Team-based multiplayer
Battle Royale – Free for all multiplayer
Invasion – Co-op and Singleplayer
Survival – Co-op and Singleplayer
Offical servers will be up and running Friday to Sunday every week. Of course, anyone can start their own servers for both Online and LAN use at any time so don’t be afraid. You will be able to battle all day, every day if you’d like to.
Join our Discord Server We also wish to welcome all players to join our official Discord server:
Official Discord Server: VwG4KYS
Through this channel, we wish to have a direct communication with you, our players, and everything from bug-reports, suggestions etc. is highly welcomed to be shared here. We also hope this will be a good place for you to connect with other players and as you might understand… this is the place to be! ☺
The beta will end a couple of weeks before Early-Access Release which is preliminary in March 2018.
As you understand we are very excited to finally be able to let you get a proper taste of Ghostly Horizon and we hope you are equally excited for this. We also want to remind you that we are idle ears for all your thoughts and suggestions so please let us know all your thoughts while you get into some fierce battles between your Ghosts and Ectos!
Best regards,
Ghostly Horizon Team
Weekly update featuring Game Modes
Hello everyone!
We are back with this weeks update on the current process of the development of Ghostly Horizon. Since last week a lot of coding has been done to get closer to a finished beta of the game. Below we have made a small list of the progress that has been made to include you in the process of what has been going on:
This weeks progress - We have completed the first part of the Steam integration by successfully uploading Ghostly Horizon to Steam. Ghostly Horizon now runs successfully through Steam, which we are really excited about.
- Ghostly Horizon’s single-player mode is now fully functioning in Survival and Invasion game modes. You will also be able to choose from three difficulty options when playing single-player (Easy, Normal and Hard).
- Online Co-op gameplay has also received a difficulty option, which you will be able to adjust between 40-300%. To give you some idea of what these percentages mean, 65% = Easy, 100% = Normal and 135% = Hard if translated to regular single-player mode. So set your sights on 300% folks, we dare you!
- Player scores have been modified to be adjustable depending on which difficulty you choose to play at. This means that the player score will look different depending on the difficulty you choose: Easy = 4225 pts Normal = 6500 pts Hard = 8775 pts.
- Leaderboards have been improved and can now be synced with correct information to all players even if some players are not synced due to being too far away from each other.
Feature of the week: Game modes For this weeks feature we will give you some more details about the different game modes you will be able to play in Ghostly Horizon. Like we have mentioned before, Ghostly Horizon will feature 4 game modes, which will be equally thrilling to engage your Ghost or Ecto in. Below we present a little more in-depth description of the different game modes and hope you get even more excited to soon get your hands on a Ghost or Ecto and commence battle.
Conquest This is a team-based game mode, where your Ghosts or Ectos must fight to protect their homes which are linked to the planet's energy. The planet beholds three large crystals which are all linked to three smaller crystals spread over the planet. The objective for each team is to first capture the three smaller crystals which enable capturing of the larger crystal. Once a team has captured two large crystals, the opposite teams home will become vulnerable to capture.
In this game mode teamwork, speed and skill are equally important and while the crystals will be your main focus the battles will be intense nonetheless.
Battle Royale This game mode is not for the faint-hearted. An all out, leave nothing on the line, battle royale which will not end until there is only one Ghost or Ecto left standing. All players spawn in on different locations on the planet, and as the game moves forward a wall slowly shrinks the playable area to force the players to commence battle. This game mode features no respawns so if your out, you are out. So to quote a scene from the famous movie with the same title as this game mode: ” Sometimes there is no next time, no second chance, no timeout. Sometimes it is now or never.”
Survival This game mode is a single-player or multi-player Co-op mode where you take the role of a Ghost being trapped under attack fro a swarm of Ectos. For each new swarm of Ectos attacking, they become more aggressive, accurate and precise. To survive you have to fight back with all you got and keep your team alive. If a Ghost is killed, or there are new players waiting to join the game, three crystal in a cluster are placed at six different locations on the planet where you are able to open a portal and let your teammates in to the game. But… there is a catch. Opening a portal also means a Ecto boss is spawned in to the game which you will have to defeat.
In a later release of Ghostly Horizon this game mode will feature the possibility for the Ghosts to execute objectives around the planet which will let them advance to the next planet, and another planet after that until they reach their home planet and are safe.
Invasion This game mode, like Survival, is also a single-player or multi-player Co-op mode where you take the role of a Ghost. The Ectos have invaded the planet through six portals and your objective is to close these portals and avoid having more Ectos invading the planet. Fighting off Ectos might sound easy enough, but each portal is guarded by an Ecto boss and his guards which make the task a bit more tricky. Co-op with your teammates and stop the Ectos from invading your planet before you run out of time!
Hope you enjoyed getting a little more insight into Ghostly Horizons progress and game modes. We will continue our hard work the following days and get back to you with our weekly update next week. Hopefully, by then the game has an official beta release date. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Best regards,
Ghostly Horizon Team
New Youtube video - Human vs. AI Battle
With the Beta less than a month away, please enjoy below youtube video showing you some of the latest developed parts of Ghostly Horizon. The video feature three human controlled Ghosts batteling AI controlled Ectos in some seriously intense battles.
Let us know in the comments what videos you'd like to see next!
LIKE, SHARE & SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE CONTENT!
https://youtu.be/ZhVigZdyPkQ
Weekly update featuring character customization
Hello everyone and thanks for hanging in there awaiting the upcoming beta of Ghostly Horizon. We are hard at work to get it to you as soon as possible and each day we are getting closer to a release. Currently we are aiming to go live with the beta in about 3-4 weeks time, so not long now until you get to control your Ghost or Ecto for the first time. Exciting!
Weekly updates As you can read in the header we will now be delivering weekly updates on the development of the game so that you can keep up with progress that is being made. Each week we will also zoom in on a featured part of the game to give you some inside looks on what you will be able to do in the game.
This weeks progress So what has been done since last time we updated you guys? Well, a lot to say the least. We have built a complete AI system to include in your upcoming battles, which will be an essential part of the Ghostly Horizon experience. The AI will be able to assume different types of roles in the game including Patrol, Guard, Explore, Linger, Hunt, and Combat.
We have finished development of the different game modes, which will be next weeks feature that we showcase for you guys. To let you in on an early secret, Ghostly Horizon will feature 4 game modes: Conquest, Battle Royale, Invasion and Survival. More about this next week.
The game map has gone through a complete makeover now showing Friends, AI, Bosses and Enemy players. Enemies are shown for a few seconds when they take damage and to enable a better co-op experience the map now includes area/biome texts to easier navigate and cooperate with your teammates.
We have also had some work done on our spells including rebalancing all spells and healing spells, replaced two spells (the game now has Meteor and Thundercloud) as well as made all shields better both in use and looks.
To finish of this week’s progress report we would like to introduce our feature of the week, which this week is Character customization.
Feature of the week: Character customization In any game you play, you want to be able to customize your character after your own preferenses to make it more of your own. Of course, this is possible in Ghostly Horizon. To make your own character more personalized we have included the possibility to change cloths, eyes, crystals, inside glow and more. In below video you can get a inside look on how this is done and what you will be able to do.
https://youtu.be/56sGA7bTWSw
Hope you enjoyed reading about the progress of the game and we can’t tell you how excited we are to soon be able to release the beta and hear what you guys think.
Best regards,
Ghostly Horizon Team
Thank you all for 500+ Followers!
We want to thank everyone who is Following the game here on Steam!
We had only 40 followers a couple of days ago before we went out with information about running a Beta with those that follow the game and now we are over 500 followers! Awesome!
Keep on sharing the game on social media, let us build a good a community for Ghostly Horizon!
We are always here for questions and we are reading every comment that you guys write!
Beta is Incoming, some more information.
Ghostly Horizon is aiming at starting Beta Testing in December 2017.
To join the beta please Follow the game on Steam now.
You will be able to get a Steam Beta-Key for the game when the time comes, if you follow the game.
Depending on how many players want to join the Beta we might have to release beta-keys in waves with a day or a few days between. Both depending on available game-servers and if Steam allows us to create the amount of Beta-Keys that is needed.
(Beta-Keys are controlled by Steam.)
We are also encouraging players to run their own public servers when the beta launches. We will have a guide on how to run your own Ghostly Horizon Server!
Development before Beta starts:
Currently we are working on AI, to be able to provide offline and Co-op gameplay. The AI code is 90% complete, we are working on getting a good aim code for the AI right now. AI can patrol a set path, guard a bunch of objectives or explore the planet in search for enemies. If the AI sees a player it goes into combat mode and if the AI loses track of the player it will travel to the last place it knew that the player was and search around that area for a while before going back to its original objective of patrolling, guarding or exploring.
After the AI is done we are implementing a new network sync code that only sync players and AI that are close to each other in-game. This allows us to have more players on a server since not all data needs to be sent to all players (as most games do). We can do this in a good way because the game-world is a round planet.
When the new net-sync is done we are creating a Character Customization system. The current Ghosts and Ectos in the screenshots and videos are placeholders during Alpha.
We are also fixing code around GameModes and implementing keyboard-input options so that players can change input-keys. And we are adding 3 new spells.
GameModes during beta will be:
Battle Royale - Free for all PvP with shrinking play-area for intense fighting.
Conquest - Side-based PvP. Battle over objectives and destroy the enemies home.
Arena - PvP, Coop, Singleplayer. Fight it out 1v1 or 3v3 in different arenas around the planet.
Survival - Coop, Singleplayer. The Ectos have invaded, you need to survive and kill as many as possible.
There is about 2months left before beta starts, we are working hard and it is looking good for a mid-december beta start currently!
Here is a little video showing the lobby screen (without the UI), a camera that circulates the planet randomly.
https://youtu.be/4zDvRDJKxjE
Best Regards
Markus Boberg - Game Designer / Programmer
Ghostly Horizon Team
