We are excited to announce that after some great feedback during beta, a new build is up on the main branch, and Minimum is back up in the store (with a "welcome back" sale price!). If you didn't get a chance to check out the beta, here are some highlights:
Player Hosted Servers: All servers are now hosted by other Minimum
players. This should add some flexibility, and give players more options on how to play.
All New Server Browser: A new visual interface allows players to see what servers are available, who’s on them, and what rules are in play.
Updated Server Launcher: Quickly access key server options from a visually intuitive launcher. The Launcher.exe gives you the tools to host a server, along with options like max players, target score, time limit, and more, and should make it easier for server hosts to create more customized game types.
New Admin Interface: Server have access to a new visual interface that allows them to access key admin options, participate in chat, manage the map cycle and more. (By pressing the left ALT button or typing in "ToggleAdmin " in the console.
We're continuing to work on the game, and we expect regular updates in the coming weeks and months. Please keep the great feedback coming, we couldn't do it without the amazing Minimum community!
The Minimum Team
New Build, New Browsers!
Greetings Minimum Users!
After a few weeks of beta, we’ve taken some great feedback from the community and made some significant updates to the game. Our big focus has been on visualization and transparency for the new server system (Please note, this is still on the BETA BRANCH). Among other fixes:
All New Server Browser! A new visual interface allows players to see what servers are available, who’s on them, and what rules are in play (standard “automatch” is still available).
Updated Server Launcher interface Quickly access key server parameters from a visually intuitive launcher. The Launcher.exe will include options like max players, target score, time limit, and more, and should make it easier for server hosts to create more customized game types.
New Server Admin Interface Server have access to a new visual interface that allows them to access key admin options, participate in chat, manage the map cycle and more. (By pressing the left ALT button or typing in ToggleAdmin in the console.
We are aware of the concerns some players have expressed regarding the inventory reset. Unfortunately, the majority of this data was tied in with the server system that was shut down by the third party partner, and is no longer available. We are able to view some of this via Steam, and are investigating, but we don't have a fix for this at present. It is a top priority and we will keep players posted.
Again, we want to thank all of our core players for supporting the ongoing growth of Minimum. Let us know what you think of the new build, and thanks again!
The Minimum Team
Beta Tomorrow!
Greetings Minimum Fans,
Minimum is back! Players will find the game they’ve come to know and love in great shape, with all the action that brought them here in the first place intact. We’ve made a few tweaks that we think will make for an overall improved experience.
We're going to run a quick beta for current Minimum owners to make sure everything looks good to you, and prioritize any issues we might have missed as we head into full re-release next week.
The beta will go live at Noon tomorrow. We'll be posting more details on the changes we've made (including a guide for setting custom game rules on your servers), as well as a roadmap in the morning, and look forward to getting back online!
We regret the downtime, and we recognize the inconvenience this may have caused our players. As a thank you for your patience, we’re gifting all players who currently own the game with a big pile of in-game blocks to give you a head start on your arsenal.
Firstly, we’d like to thank you for your patience. In the past few months we’ve gone through a challenging and significant re-engineering of the back-end for Minimum. We’ve worked as quickly and diligently as possible, and think we’ve come up with a good solution to get the game back up and running, and even expose some cool new functionality.
The big fundamental fix here was a shift from privately hosted servers over to player hosted servers. As some of you may be aware, these “servers” touch Minimum in a number of places, not just the actual gameplay instances but player progress, loadouts, schematics, blueprints, etc. etc. In the new system, players will host their own servers through an intuitive interface built into the game. As part of this, they can tweak a number of gameplay parameters to give a highly customized gameplay experience for their friends and challenges.
We intend to release a playable version within the next few weeks, as we have a few outstanding UI bugs that we’d like to squash. This first deployment should be thought of as a ‘beta’ release of the new system. We are still smoothing out some of the edges, but the game runs great, it’s definitely Minimum, and it’s definitely fun!
Stay tuned here, we should have big announcement with final dates and details very soon. Thank you again for your patience and support!
The Minimum Team
Progress Report
Greetings Minimum Fans!
We’d like to give an update on the progress we’re making towards getting Minimum back up and running. As we previously announced , we have been working diligently to replace the gameplay and account server architecture after an unforeseen closure of the third party service powering these systems.
We have enlisted a development partner with significant experience working the MBER platform to help, and they have made significant progress in getting the key systems rebuilt. Atari and Human Head have jointly agreed to move the game to this new team going forward.
The development team has made steady and significant progress toward getting the game back up and running, but there are still a few pieces left to iron out. We are currently able to spin up an internal server, manually join in players, and run matches. We are now focusing on the various progression/customization components (blueprints, unlocks, loadouts, etc.). Based on current progress, the game should be back up and running in early 2016. We will update this timing as we learn more detail.
Again, we truly appreciate your patience as we work through the process of rebuilding the Account and Server structure for Minimum. We understand this is an inconvenience, and we are working as quickly as possible to get everything resolved.
Thanks, and Happy Holidays,
The Minimum Team
Minimum Update and Next Steps
Minimum Fans,
Following our announcement last week, we regret to inform you that the server downtime on Minimum will extend a bit longer. With that said, we have established a strategy to get the game back up and running, and are pushing to get this work done ASAP.
As mentioned in the previous post, Minimum's account and gameplay servers have experienced some issues. A key middleware behind these systems has been discontinued by the service provider, effectively disabling the game for the time being. Unfortunately, this is more complex than a simple change in server provider, so some additional dev work is required. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. You will see that we have paused the sale of the game until the issue is resolved.
Again, we have a plan in place to fix this issue. We will need a few weeks to get this implemented, but the result is a Minimum game experience that is more flexible, more stable, and just as much fun. We are aware there is lots of concern and discussion in the community. We are hearing these voices and we are doing everything we can to get the game back up as quickly as we can.
Thanks again for your patience, and stay tuned as we get more visibility into details, timing, and feature tweaks.
The Minimum Team
Minimum Servers and Services Offline Indefinitely
tl;dr: The game will not be playable for an indefinite period of time.
Dear Minimum fans,
It is with a heavy heart that we here at Human Head Studios have to announce that, starting this evening, Minimum’s Mber servers and services will be going offline indefinitely. This will affect everyone who has purchased the game in the past as well as anyone who purchases the game after the shutdown occurs. We know that sounds unbelievable but let us be clear: we do not control the sales, pricing or servers for Minimum. These are all under the auspices of Atari, the game’s publisher, and we have had no communication from them regarding their plans going forward.
Minimum has been a rollercoaster project for everyone involved, not least of all us. From its originally inception at TimeGate to its cancellation during their bankruptcy, and then to its resurrection and transfer to us through the trials and tribulations of Early Access and live game patches. Everyone on the Minimum team poured our heart and souls into creating something under difficult constraints and with an eye toward focusing on our community and making something that was as much yours as it is ours.
Although the servers will go offline tonight, and there will be a significant interruption of service for Minimum, we at Human Head will do our best to get the game back into a state where it can be played by everyone who paid for it. We’re developing a strategy to remove Mber-related features and make it so that anyone who owns Minimum can run a public game server for it. We’ll be doing all of this on our own dime and of our own volition to show our appreciation and respect for all of you. It may take some time and we can’t give you a specific timeline yet, but we hope you’ll be patient with us as we try to figure out how to make this work.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our Twitch streams, everyone who bought into Early Access and endured bugs and balance issues, everyone who bought the game once we launched and anyone who knows the joy and defeat of close Titan matches. We couldn’t have done this without the support of you, the fans, and we are forever grateful for all you’ve done for us.
This isn’t how we wanted it to end, but we hope that you’ve all created lasting gaming memories that will keep the spirit of Minimum around for years to come.
Yours in gaming,
Norman Nazaroff, the Minimum team, and Human Head Studios
Server Downtime
Minimum Users,
We are anticipating some disruption with our Account/Server system, which may affect user ability to login to the game over the next few days. We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible.
We will update as soon as additional information is available.
Watch the 1st community Tournament!
Watch as the community kills each other!
http://www.twitch.tv/humanheadstudios
Minimum Developer stream is now live!
Watch us talk and show off the new Weapon and Armor released today!
ALSO: Will we discuss new maps, features, or the sequel Maximum? Find out!
