Greetings, Operators,
As 2025 approaches, we want to take this Dev Update #5 as an opportunity to look back at what we achieved together in 2024 and share some insights into our plans for 2025. Spoiler: the community will be even more involved!

We recently reached 600,000 wishlists on Steam, exceeding even our highest objective. Huge thanks to everyone for your support, enthusiasm, and for spreading the word about Beautiful Light!

This year, each month has been rich in content and improvements, but we've selected a few highlights for each of them:
• January - We kicked off 2024 with the first community playtests of the year, built on what we've made in 2023 and testing performance across more configurations.
  
• February - The first iteration of the Skin Forge was introduced, finally allowing character customization!
  
• March - We developed AtmoStorm, our dynamic weather system that simulates realistic weather conditions based on real sun position data. Ligthing and colors are then handcrafted to create -beautiful- weather scenarios.
  
• April - Major optimization work was done, and we launched the Development Timeline[deepworlds.studio], giving you near real-time insights on our progress.
  
• May - PC Gamer tested Beautiful Light[x.com]! We also hit 25,000 members on Discord.
  
• June - We reworked the movement component system, improving both workflow efficiency and game performance. You can find the open-source code here[github.com]. Also, we introduced the Boom Ball!
  
• July - The first playable anomaly, The Juggernaut, was implemented!
  
• August - We reached 500,000 wishlists!
  
• September - We compiled the most frequently asked questions into an Extended FAQ[deepworlds.studio], covering various aspects of the game.
  
• October - Our biggest playtest session yet took place, involving over 250 Discord community members, along with a few content creators.
  
• November - Playtests provided valuable insights on balance, bugs, and design improvements.
  
• December - Check out the video below! (oh, and we're now 37k members on Discord[discord.gg] !)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrksuiBkbLI

• 2025 will be a community driven and important year for Beautiful Light. We will be conducting the first medium- and large-scale playtests on Steam to test the robustness of our matchmaking system, servers, and backend.
  
• Additionally, we will be working on persistent economy systems, including inventory and stash management. Gear fear basically!
  
• We aim to begin playtesting the second map as soon as possible to validate early gameplay elements for its gameloop. This map will build upon Ground Zero, offering even higher-stakes gameplay. Here, you can bring in a previously extracted artifact to increase its value. It's all or nothing.
  
• Later in the year, likely in Q4, we will also implement the first progression systems for PMCs and anomalies.

We can't wait for you to get your hands on the results of our hard work!

Stay updated on the development progress with our dev timeline.
>>> https://deepworlds.studio/dev-timeline

Cosplay Cover image by Dare Media Productions[x.com] <3

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