Time to get to work - our new stage, Crane releases today!

Crane is a brand new stage included in today’s 1.25 update. Located on the docks of Beef City, this stage will see players attempting to not fall off a large static Crane. This stage includes the first implementation of our new driveables system, with players being able to jump into the Crane cockpit to take the controls.

Don’t stay there too long though - the skies of Beef City are now filled with aggressive birds ready to take you for a quick flight. Survive long enough on Crane and these avian menaces will begin to target you with aerial divebombs to pull you into the skies. The birds are relentless too, so much so that they may even follow you over to another particular stage.

In order to celebrate the successful integration of our feathered friends into the Beef City natural ecosystem, we have also included some new bird Kigurumis as costume pieces. You will be able to dress up as pigeons, bluejays, seagulls and ravens. We’ve also included some more safety costume pieces for you whilst you’re at work high above the Beef City docks.

Update 1.25 also comes with numerous bug fixes and optimisations across all platforms. Please see the changelog below.

We are now continuing our work on the next stage for Gang Beasts, which we are expecting to release for all players, when it is ready. We will share more on this stage when we have more information.
Thank you for continuing to play Gang Beasts in its tenth year of release.

Boneloaf

Added content in the 1.25 build:

• New Stage: Crane
  
• New Escalation: Birds
  
• New Costumes

The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.25 build:

General

• Fixed player targeting breaking in some situations
  
• Fixed an issue where some thrown objects caused no damage to players
  
• Fixed an issue where the camera tracked the incorrect Gang in certain circumstances
  
• Fixed various issues with red door interactions in Waves
  
• Fixed numerous unintended physics interactions
  
• Added the ability to spawn AI characters with the keyboard
  
• Fixed an issue causing the Main Menu UI to become unnavigable

Costumes

• Fixed an issue where the Owl Cap costume piece had unintentionally excessive force when headbutting
  
• Fixed an issue where the Scientist Hair and Goggles had unintentionally excessive force when headbutting
  
• Optimised various headpiece costume items to reduce the chance of getting stuck in other objects

Stages

• Fixed an issue with players being unable to spawn when playing Waves on Subway
  
• Fixed Billboard missing section randomisation
  
• Fixed building texture on Girders
  
• Fixed a number of exploits found in the Aquarium stage
  
• Added missing audio assets from some stages
  
• Removed shadows sometimes randomly appearing on the rock wall on Train

Online

• Fixed an issue where disconnecting a controller caused players to be unable to join online games
  
• Fixed players inadvertently being able to match with more than 4 players in Waves
  
• Fixed disconnection message image being displayed as a white box

Gang Beasts Update 1.24 is releasing today for all currently supported platforms. 

This update is primarily focussed on bug fixes, and there is no new content.

The key modification to Gang Beasts in this update is the implementation of a new Interactables System that will allow us to streamline how in-game objects are managed and interacted with in the game engine. This system improves performance by organising interactable objects into optimised lists, therefore making Gang Beasts interacting with the stages faster and more efficient. This change should fix a longstanding issue where Gang Beasts would target the air, instead of the intended target, when too many colliders were in target range.

The introduction of this improved Interactables System should help the game feel more responsive and intuitive. It has also been introduced to allow us to experiment with more interesting interactions between new and existing game mechanics, for example the upcoming Birds escalation that will be introduced in our next update.

We are now exclusively working on Update 1.25, which will introduce new costumes and a new stage to Gang Beasts - Crane.

Here is some gameplay from a recent playtest:
See you soon.

The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.24 build are: 
Default

• Fixed an issue where the Space Suit made players invisible
  
• Fixed an issue with the Long Haul achievement not triggering correctly
  
• Fixed an issue with the Roast Beef achievement not triggering correctly
  
• Fixed an issue with player names not showing correctly in game
  
• Fixed an issue where saved costumes could not be deleted
  
• Fixed an issue where confetti didn’t trigger when blue team won in Football
  
• Fixed an issue where Player Language settings didn’t save
  
• Fixed an issue with the Camera clipping through some stages
  
• Fixed numerous backend issues to improve consistency
  
• Modified the Billboard stage to include an alternative iteration of the Billboard panels than can trigger upon starting a new round
  
• Optimised the Fez costume piece to be less erratic when grabbed
  
• Optimised the Rhino Kigu costume to be less erratic when grabbed
  
• Standardised the ramp weights on Wheel

Gang Beasts patch 1.23 is releasing today for all currently supported platforms. 

There are a number of bug fixes in the 1.23 release but no new stages or costumes. The key modification to the game in this build is the implementation of Unity’s Addressables Asset System[unity.com], the adoption of this system standardises and optimises the process for testing and releasing game content. 

The Addressables implementation is a significant modification to the game and we expect the 1.23 build to trigger some limited stability issues on Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. The instructions for fixing this issue are:

Windows:

• Open File Explorer
  
• Go to this path replacing 'YourUser' with the users name on the computer you are playing on - C:\Users\YourUser\AppData\LocalLow\Boneloaf\Gang Beasts
  
• Delete the folder called com.unity.addressables

macOS:

• Open Finder
  
• Go to path replacing YourUser with the users name on the mac you are playing on - /Users/YourUser/Library/Application Support/com.Boneloaf.GangBeasts
  
• Delete the folder called com.unity.addressables

SteamOS/Linux (including Steam Deck):

• Open Dolphin
  
• Go to this path - /home/deck/.config/unity3d/Boneloaf/Gang Beasts/
  
• Delete the folder called com.unity.addressables

If you playing Gang Beasts on a Steam Deck, switch to Desktop Mode first then follow the above SteamOS/Linux steps.

Beware of hostile cephalopods!



The key modifications and fixes made in the 1.23 build are: 

Default

• fixed an issue that could make the Input menu unresponsive
  
• fixed an issue that could stop the trawler from sinking on the trawler stage
  
• fixed an issue that left costume parts on screen after a player has left and online game session
  
• fixed an issue that stopped removed players from respawning in waves
  
• fixed an issue where AI enemies could spawn without rendering
  
• fixed an issue with the train geometry spawning above the tracks on the train stage
  
• fixed some issues that allowed invalid numbers of players in some online game sessions
  
• fixed some issues that could leave players stuck loading into online game sessions
  
• fixed an issue that stopped players starting a new Waves session without manipulating the menu settings
  
• fixed some issues with AI enemies spawning inconsistently
  
• modified the cephalopod tentacles on the aquarium stage to make the targeting of players more aggressive
  
• modified the configuration of spawn volumes on the gondola stage
  
• optimised the length of game loading times with the Addressables Asset System
  
• standardised the listing of game modes in the mode selection menu

Roses are red, Violets are violet, Is It a Crane? It is a Crane! It has been ten full years of cartoon violence since the Gang Beasts 0.0.0 pre-alpha builds were published on Valentines Day 2014. For ten years the foaming masses of Beef City have slowly coagulated into gelatinous agglomerations of hostility, spreading through the grim streets of the Meatropolis.


We're profoundly thankful to have an audience and community for Boneloaf's games and toys and for the miscellaneous scenes of silliness and callous brutality demonstrated in Gang Beasts over the last decade. A glut of technical debt have made it increasingly frustrating and difficult to release frequent fixes and content in the last 2-3 years.

We've been working with Rocket Science and Unity to pass/remove these limitations for some time and expect to build to a more stable release cadence from this year.


This post gives information on the 1.21.1 stability build (released with this post) and the other builds we expect to release in the coming months. A series of posts with more explicit information on what is being made for Gang Beasts are currently being written for https://gangbeasts.game/. If there are subjects you want information on please send suggestions to Boneloaf on social media or to http://posts@boneloaf.co.


1.21.1 stability build is the second stability release since Rocket Science took on support for a glut of important systems (builds, online, UI, and others) in February last year. The 1.21.1 build addresses a number of stability and performance issues and also has some small cosmetic modifications and standardisations, see the key modifications and fixes section at the end of the post for information.


The 1.21.1 build is the first of 4 builds expected to release in the first 3-6 months of 2024.

The next build to follow the 1.21.1 build is the Addressables Asset System[unity.com] build, addressables support has been implemented to optimise the testing and distribution of game content. Followed by an interactables build introducing a modified interactables system needed for the crane stage. Finishing with the crane stage which will release with some miscellaneous costumes.


The crane stage is a ginormous shipping container crane from the mouldering Beef City Docks with cabin controls for operating the crane, and some truculent and aggressive birds.

Crane includes the first version of new dynamic AI navigation system, this system will facilitate some planned modification to character and escalation AI and potentially support escalations that minimise some stage and game mode exploits, don't upset the birds! Be warned!

Crane also introduces the first version of a new “drivable” system, this system supports players to get into the driver's seat of the crane cab and control the crane mechanism.

Stay safe, wear a hard hat!

The key modifications and fixes in patch 1.21.1 are:

• fixed an issue that made the cephalopod tentacles fail to pass the surface of the water on aquarium
  
• fixed an issue with the sand text on the fish helmet costume part
  
• fixed an issue with game cameras not blurring when pause menus are invoked
  
• fixed some issues that stall loading for some online game modes
  
• fixed an issue that stalls loading for online game modes if moving to a second account on hardware with multiple account support
  
• fixed an issue that stalls loading for online game modes if an internet connection is not available
  
• fixed an issue that triggers duplicates of the "2124-3001 Account error" message in some contexts
  
• fixed an issue that made loading a second stage longer in some game modes
  
• fixed an error that compromised the remapping of the x/y axis on game controllers
  
• fixed an error that conflated the pooling systems for the gang and football online game modes
  
• fixed an issue that made the default game menu fail to show in some contexts
  
• fixed an issue that made particle systems render erroneously on towers
  
• fixed some issues that compromise frame rate in some contexts
  
• added Rocket Science ident to the splash sequence
  
• removed the Coatsink ident from the splash sequence
  
• standardised water shaders on trawler
  
• optimised matchmaking scheme to stabilise online game modes

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:  

• 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. 

• 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. 

• 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. 

 
• Fixes to matchmaking in Gang Mode. 

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.  

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. 

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.

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.  

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.  

---

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

It's been difficult to give much information on Gang Beasts in the last 8 months (since the Trawler stage[gangbeasts.game] came out) as we build Boneloaf's development and operations teams with support from Robot Teddy[robotteddy.org].

We’re working with Robot Teddy[robotteddy.org], Coatsink[coatsink.com], Multiplay[unity.com], and Lockit QA[www.lockitqa.com] to hire more development, testing, and operations staff to support more frequent content and bug fixes and to build more exhaustive production and support processes. This will mean more communication from us, and to release more stable builds of the game for you.

We're currently testing modifications, fixes, and stage and costume content for the next Gang Beasts release (more information to come pretty soon) and have made this post to summarise what else we're working on and to give information on some other fun Gang Beasts stuff.


Some of the population of Beef City have slipped from the meaty grip of the Beef City Police Department and escaped the Beef City limits, (potentially) Coming To Stores Near You Soon!.

Boneloaf is working with Toikido[toikido.co.uk] (makers of the splendid Among Us[innersloth.com] merchandise) on a series of silly gelatinous and non-gelatinous Gang Beasts toys and accessories.

The first batches of Gang Beasts figures, plushies, and apparel are scheduled to be in stores from this September.

Check out a selection from the first series below. Which Gang Beast will you be bringing home?


To support the release of Gang Beasts merchandise in stores, we have modified the current Gang Beasts logo (with help from the wonderful Terri Vellmann[terriv.games]) to be more legible and readable at different sizes and in different contexts. The modified logo will replace the current game logo in builds, online stores, and other contexts the current Gang Beasts logo is used in the coming months.

We feel that this new logo fits the slapstick ‘Saturday-morning-cartoon violence’ of Gang Beasts and their antics across Beef City. Hopefully you do too!


The municipal authorities of Beef City and the nefarious Meat Co. have swollen the gristly arteries of Beef City into a sprawling “Meatropolis” of buildings, infrastructure, industry, and attractions including strip malls, car parks, a sports arena, emulsified meat treatment and processing facilities, and the Meat World amusement park.

We have been working with a number of 3D and technical artists at SuperGenius to transform the old Beef City terrain and geometry (seen in the background of exterior stages in current builds of Gang Beasts) into a colourful and sprawling toy city. The next section of this work is to merge exterior stages from the game (and other stage prototypes) with the new geometry and textures to build Beef City into a bloated “Meatropolis” with enhanced visuals, and Easter eggs on what’s coming next.


In addition to work on bug fixes, more stable network schemes, and stage and costume content, we’re also working to support crossplay modes between more platforms, a series of modifications to the costume system (to support more variation and minimise the severity of costume glitches), and more language support: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, and Korean is coming to all supported platforms in a coming release.

We’re also in the process of engaging UI and accessibility specialists to audit and replace the current game menus and other UI contexts to remove or reduce inconsistencies and annoyances.


We’re aware servers and online modes have been less stable recently, we have escalated these issues with the networking teams at Coatsink and Multiplay. They’re working super hard to make sure that everyone can have a stabilised online experience. Thank you for your patience.


As we wrap up this post, we’d like to quickly thank all the players that have played and continue to play Gang Beasts. We receive many requests for information on what our next stage could be, and we can reveal this “corrupted” screenshot for you to investigate.

What do you think the next stage might be?

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That’s all for now, thanks for taking the time to read this post! If you’d like to reach out to us, feel free to do so over on Twitter or on our community-run Discord server[discordapp.com]. We’d love to chat.

Best of luck out there,

Everyone at Boneloaf xx

Welcome, everyone!

You may notice that there’s a brand new update to Gang Beasts, and we know it’s something you’ve all been waiting for, so we won’t keep you in suspense.
Trawler has arrived! A brand new stage, filled with a deteriorating fishing trawler in an isolated sea and a whole shiver of sharks. That’s right, the lifeless black eyed creatures themselves will hop aboard and try to take you for a swim.

By “deteriorating fishing trawler”, we mean the stage will become just that. Survive long enough from either the assaults of your friends or the deadly sea swimmers, and the stage will begin to sink (quite literally). Remember to not let go for as long as you can, we all know what's awaiting in the murky depths.

On top of the deterioration of the stage, you’ll also have two interactive crane systems with fully functioning mechanical levers to get yourselves familiar with. On top of this, there’s a large shark cage suspended from a hook which can be detached, perfect for some “accidents” involving your friends and the deep blue, right?

And now on to some patch notes for v1.18:

Added content:
- New stage: Trawler
- New costumes:
- Sideburns
- Lifejacket
- Beard
- Moustache
- Sailor hat and outfit
- Shark kigurumi
- Deep Sea Diver helmet and outfit
- Captain hat and outfit
- Fishing gilet and hat
- Sailor jumper and beanie
- Air Rescue helmet and outfit
Graphics update with the move to URP
Fixed costumes appearing darker

That’s all for now, but head over to our Discord or Twitter channels for more updates and information as they go live.

Thanks!

Boneloaf.

Released on 16 June and updated on 25 June, 2021

• Known Issue: the XInput toggle in Settings has been temporarily removed. This will return soon! The game will only support a maximum of 4 Xbox controllers locally until this is back, but any other controllers will still support up to 8 players!

• Switched to a new matchmaking system.
  
• General optimisation pass over various stages, including Wheel, Aquarium and Tower.
  
• Made a general pass over most stages with eliminated player issues.
  
• Fixed various infinite loading screen bugs when playing online.
  
• Loading screen changed to correctly show loading progress.
  
• Changed online loading system to reduce chances of missing objects when playing online.
  
• Reduced loading times.
  
• Fixed issue where objects or players would not load on various levels online.
  
• Fixed an issue on Train that could make matches incorrectly result in a draw.
  
• Camera on Wheel no longer goes through the water when a player is sinking.
  
• Water rendering issue on aquarium fixed.
  
• Online players are now correctly eliminated on Blimp now, no more infinitely falling.
  
• Fixed issue where certain Waves AI would not be eliminated correctly and keep the round going.
  
• Characters no longer jerk upwards when resuming after being paused and resuming.
  
• Fixed Gondola appearing invisible occasionally.
  
• Fixed Vents railings moving erratically over time.
  
• Fixed the fishbowl hat flashing for a frame when being switched too.
  
• Fixed Wheel lamp posts from being so erratic online.
  
• Fixed issue where restarting a round from countdown 0 would cause a softlock.
  
• Updated credits.

There is an active community run Discord server where you can find people to play with, leave feedback and report bugs.

Discord - Join the community server here:
https://discordapp.com/invite/gXh2HRH

If you would like to find people to test the new Matchmaker or to just talk about Gang Beasts, join the community run Discord server here: https://discordapp.com/invite/gXh2HRH