While we have been spending a lot of effort on making sure Ground Branch is stable and performs well before heading into the final push for Early Access, there are a few connectivity issues with this build. We really wanted to get them sorted before putting a new build out, but given family time over Christmas and some personal challenges some of us are currently facing (Please see previous news post), we decided to put one out now instead of holding off any longer. With people being off work or out of school our hope is the added testing will help us work through the problem. We will also be doing a follow up build with more fixes and some new stuff that wasn’t quite ready very shortly after the new year.
Well what can we say… its been way to long since the last public build and we apologize. There have been numerous private testing builds with the Operator Edition owners and they have provided tons of information on fixing bugs and provided suggestions on improving the game. It also made us realize that the internals of the game have reached a point where we need to refine our process a bit to better accommodate faster/cleaner iteration that allows us to get public builds out faster and with much less work on our end. We have taken care of that, but in the mean time WE HAVE A NEW BUILD!!!!!
Hey everyone, welcome to a new year! Lots going on with us here, especially with Ground Branch. We’ll get to that but first I would like to draw your attention to something we have partnered on with FragOut Studios named Sniper Tactical.
As some of you may know we partnered with FragOut Studios to help with the Weapons and Animation work for Ground Branch. Through that relationship we decided to lend them a hand in bringing some smaller less hard-core titles to market. The first of those titles is Sniper Tactical, a lemmings type puzzle game with sniper shooting mechanics mixed in. The gameplay revolves around bringing hostages to safe-zones which in turn is done by shooting enemies in correct order. Your job is to clear the path for your allies on the ground by taking out targets, bearing your own safety in mind. As enemies display various behavior types, it is up to you to learn how they will react and find a solution to each level. Hostages will move after you fire a shot so delivering accurate hits on the bad guys is not optional. Act quickly or slowly – depending on the situation.
Sniper Tactical is available as a Steam Early Access title on January 8th, 2016. While the experience isn’t the same as Ground Branch, the price is right for an enjoyable experience that is easy to pick up and play, but still takes skill and patience to master. Give it a try and let the developers know what you think.
Now for some Ground Branch news…… Things have been moving along quite well recently. We have closed out sales of the Operator Edition and are getting some great testing, feedback and collaboration from those who decided to make the purchase. Multiplayer connectivity is finally getting to the point where matches can be played and even in its very rough state people are enjoying the experience. Tremendous work has gone into the UI and the work needed to make our unique customization systems work as needed in both a single player and multiplayer environment.
Gameplay is still very rough and there are lots of bugs and graphics glitches, but here are a couple videos of some Operator Edition owners giving the latest build a go. Please remember you are watching a VERY early development build with LOTS of known issues and unfinished stuff. 😉
This one is played on a small developer test map that is used for various systems development/testing so the graphics are pretty basic. Its not a pretty map, but the video actually does a good job of showing off some of the fun gunplay you can have in small spaces. The players in the video seemed to have fun at least!
The latest video shows the current progress on the Ground Branch AI, specifically the basics for movement, cover and engagement. Lots to do still, but its good to finally get things to a point where they are actually working in the Ground Branch main branch. Hopefully we will be able to get a first pass of our Terrorist Hunt style mode out to the Operator Edition users soon.
So hopefully everyone has a great 2016 and we hope to see you playing Ground Branch soon!
We are happy to announce that our official Tech Preview is available for free download right now. Yes, an actual playable version of Ground Branch! We also have our store open where you can financially support development of Ground Branch moving forward. In addition to the free Tech Preview we also have an Early Access pre-order, a T-Shirt and the Operator Edition….Which includes immediate access via Steam to our development builds leading up to the official Steam Early Access release. For more information check out the store:
Major credit cards and PayPal accepted
By purchasing the Operator Edition you not only help us financially, but you also have the opportunity to continuously provide feedback from playing development builds. We will use this feedback to help shape not only the Early Access release, but Ground Branch itself. We are committed to releasing development builds bi-weekly and will provide hot fixes as needed. We may also do more frequent updates if the need arises.
This is our current crowd funding to get to a successful Early Access, so if you are able please give a little extra at the store. When making a purchase, or even just getting the free Tech Preview, just enter an amount above what the set price is… easy as that. 🙂 So please support development of Ground Branch by making a purchase, giving a little extra or just by spreading the word!
The Plan
The plan for the funding we raise from the store is to put together a solid and engaging Early Access build for Steam. This will include everything currently in the Operator Edition with the addition of more content along with examples of PvP and Coop gameplay all wrapped up in a polished presentation.
The Tech Preview will be updated as needed to continue its use as a great testing platform for compatibility and performance issues. However, we will not be keeping feature parity with Operator Edition builds for much longer as it is not a game demo. Once the Early Access is available on Steam we will release a proper Ground Branch demo.
So please, spread the word and join in the Ground Branch fun!
What others are saying
Here are just a few excellent video first looks of the Tech Preview and Operator Edition by those that have already joined in:
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