Happy Holidays, Ghosts and Hunters!
As we move toward the closing of the year and the dawning of another very exciting one, it's time for a look back at the long and fascinating road that has taken us here!
2021 was the biggest year for Midnight Ghost Hunt yet - the team grew in size massively, and we made huge strides toward delivering a fun and polished game.
The feedback from our Alphas and our very first Beta have helped us on the path to making MGH an exciting and wildly fun game, and your kind words of encouragement have kept our spirits high.
So, what all went down in the MGH world this year? Glad you asked! The answer is… lots! Let's take a peek.
JANUARY
In January, the Midnight Ghost Hunt team expanded significantly when two amazing teams from Sweden became part of the MGH family. Partner studios She Was Such a Good Horse and Ernst & Borg Studio were brought on board to help make MGH the best game it can be.
She Was Such a Good Horse is a studio made up of veteran developers who came on board to support the project across all aspects of development, including the production of art assets, animations, code, and design decisions. Over the last year, we’ve moved forward in all these aspects immensely!
Ernst & Borg Studio has brought a combined experience in both traditional architecture and environment artistry to the environmental design of Midnight Ghost Hunt. Looking back to January 2021, it’s amazing to see how far the environments within MGH have evolved. The niche expertise of E&B Studio has truly brought the environments of MGH to life.
Both of the teams were super excited to be part of the MGH journey and got started by familiarizing themselves with the project, existing maps, weapons, gadgets, and abilities and taking a critical look at the game.
The teams then started to work on multiple different facets of Midnight Ghost Hunt simultaneously. Museum was worked on heavily, Ghost Ship saw its very first blockout during January, the fan-favorite weapon Reaper was created all the way from concept to its first pass animations, and the Hunter Bot AI went through some major improvements!
FEBRUARY
By February, things were in full swing and the teams in Sweden and the U.S. were working in synergy, right in time for the first Alpha test of the year! The February Alpha test took place between the 12th and the 15th and included a ton of new and improved content including:
✨Map: Museum
✨Hunter Weapon: Reaper (Sniper Rifle)
✨Hunter Weapon: Sledgehammer
✨Ghost Ability: Corruption
✨Hunter Skin: Professor
✨Prop Animation Overhaul
During the end of January and early February, the team was heavily concentrated on prepping for the Alpha and working on implementing new prop animations, finalizing the Sledgehammer, and adding a ton of quality of life improvements.
After the test was over, it was time to go over the feedback we received and balance, balance, balance. The feedback given by the community is truly invaluable to us, and we appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time to write feedback for us!
Though the Alpha test required a large amount of both prep work and post-alpha workshops, the team continued to work tirelessly behind the scenes all throughout the Alpha craziness! During February the team worked on new props, the concepts for the Vacuum and the Salt Shotgun (two of my personal favorites). One of the larger undertakings was the first-person animation rework, which included tons of stages from introducing new bones for the character rigs, a brand new camera setup, and procedural weapon animations.
MARCH
During the spring and summer of 2021, the team was deep in development and were able to establish new concepts, features, maps, weapons, and more.
The animation overhaul continued successfully, and more and more weapons and gadgets were transferred from the old system to the new one during the month of March. The Hunter’s generator got a facelift, and became the workbench-like structure it is now.
The Team's AI genius Måns was able to take the Hunter bots to a new level, improving their movement and rotation, teaching them how to use the radar, and nudge and shoot props. The bots learned to choose different targets, investigate new props in the area if the Ghost they saw disappeared, and were prompted to move to a different area if the Radar reading was zero. There was still more work to do regarding the Hunter bots, but we were definitely moving in the right direction!
In March, we also saw the first concept for the Hunter gadget Spectrophone and continued working on the Ghost Ship map.
APRIL
April was a very idea-rich month, and the team worked on both improvements on old weapons, gadgets, abilities, maps, and props but also a large volume of new ideas on all fronts.
Spectral Cannon, Harpoon Bazooka, and Project X got new animations in both first and third person, the Generator redesign was finished, and Frostbite (which was code-named Nail Gun) came to life. Some of our favorite props were also designed in April. Hint: One of them can shoot you, the other eats you!
…give up? Well, that would of course be our iconic hero props Ship Cannon and Mimic Chest!
All of the maps were also reassessed and potential improvements were mapped out (pun intended), to make sure they were fun and fair to play in as both Ghosts and Hunters. April also saw the first blockout of Graveyard, the newest map in the roster.
MAY
In May, the development continued with the first iteration and implementation of the Hunter perks “Healing Aura” and “Quick Reload” and bringing the Frostbite in-game.
Lots of old favorites also got the rework treatment including the Radar, Grenades, Pathfinder, and Defibrillator. Work on the Ghost Ship and Graveyard maps continued, and the idea of underground catacombs for the Graveyard was born. We also came up with two new concepts for weapons, but we’ll hold onto that information for now. 👀
JUNE
In June the team dedicated quite a bit of time to level design. Graveyard’s room structure started to take shape and Asylum went through a few different layout changes. The first round of polish also took place in Mansion, Asylum, Factory, and Ghost Ship.
Hunter bots were also put through quite a bit of work through the summer and they were taught to use even more gadgets and switch to the Vacuum or the Defibrillator if necessary. Tons of smaller fixes were also implemented in June.
Many of the mechanics related to Ghosts were worked on, most prominently being a total rework of the possess animation & VFX. The VFX for being broken out of a prop were also revamped with an entirely new animation for the smoke/shards. The team also added a wobble animation to highlight when a prop is possessed as a nice visual cue. Ghost consume also went through the first VFX iterations of the year.
Before the much-needed summer break, the team came up with the concept of the Flamethrower (thanks to the hotter than hot summer weather). Ragdolls were also heavily improved with a complete revamp of the physics, including Hunters getting back up after being revived.
JULY
In July most of the team was enjoying a much-needed and well-deserved summer break. ☀️
Towards the end of the month, the team slowly got back into the world of Midnight Ghost Hunt. Level Design continued on with collision fixes, the blockout of a map that remains under the “TOP SECRET'' label, and tons of optimization work.
Although the team tried to spend some time chilling and enjoying the summer, they still had time to work on Hunter bots, Miasma VFX, Ghost melee VFX, Death Grip, Spirit VFX, revive animations, and possess effects. I have no idea how they do it!
I (Tinny here! 👋) also had the honor of becoming part of the team MGH at the end of the month, and I’ve been so happy to be part of MGH’s story and community. You all rock!
AUGUST
Mid-August was time for our BIGGEST (and last!) alpha test ever! As we had a longer time between tests, we had a massive catalog of new content to share. Some of the new things we introduced during the August 2021 Alpha:
✨Maps: Ghost Ship & School
✨Weapons: Salt Shotgun & Frostbite
✨Gadgets: Spectrophone, Vacuum, C4
✨Ghost abilities: Death Grip, Apparition, Revamped Poltergeist, Telekinesis, and Trickster
✨Features: Experimental Party Support & Team Assignment, Visual Polish & Animation Overhaul, Experimental Controller Support
Once again, we received very thoughtful feedback and critique that helped us continue on making MGH better than ever.
The team also continued with some behind-the-scenes work, such as future content like the Medic Box and the Riot Shield. Tons of map tweaking, bug hunting, and optimization also took place backstage.
In August and September, we also tried out some new types of content on our blog. We took some deep dives into the data behind our August Alpha test and looked behind the scenes on how the team came up with the initial idea of a gadget or a weapon coming to life in-game.
Are these the types of things you like to read about? What other types of content would you like to see in the future? Let us know on Discord or Twitter!
SEPTEMBER
Based on the feedback we received during the August alpha test, we started to make some changes. We realized that the Ghost Ship map was a bit too open and decided to add some things that would break the line of sight faster. We added a fence on the beach, modified the layout of the cave, and added some shelving in the ship to give Ghosts a few more options for hiding spots.
Hunter Bots went through a plethora of bug fixes, attack range tweaks, and improved attack/grenade/trap behavior.
We also started work on our new matchmaking system this month, but things really kicked off in October!
OCTOBER
October was, of course, the month of the Ghosts and a very exciting month for Midnight Ghost Hunt. We were preparing for our first ever closed Beta test. The whole team was buzzing with excitement and extremely thrilled to reach this milestone in the development journey. We didn’t think there was a better time to organize a Beta test than Halloween!
The Beta test introduced a whole host of new content, including exciting new features we’d been working on for quite some time, and were very happy to unveil for the community to check out. Here are some of them:
✨Features: Matchmaking, progression, cosmetic overhaul, prop layout variations, new voice chat system
✨Map: Graveyard
✨Weapons: Flamethrower, Riot Shield
✨Gadget: Medic Kit
✨Hunter Perks: Overkill, Gadgeteer
In addition to the Beta test at the end of the month, the team and some partners worked super intensely to get the matchmaking feature to a testable level. It was a complicated process but we’re so happy that we were able to test it on Halloween with you all (even with a couple of hiccups)! We’ve kept on working on it, and believe it can only get better from here on out!
Before the test, we also took a few sprints to be able to deliver cool new features like prop layout variations and progression unlocks.
The prop layout variations really helped change up gameplay with each match and we were pretty pleased with the result.
Progression certainly received a lot of feedback and has been internally discussed and worked on much since October. Stay tuned for more information on that.
Our brand new cinematic teaser trailer for MGH was published in announcement for this beta - if you haven’t seen it yet - check it out here!
How did you like the new Graveyard hero prop, Gargoyle? We must say it’s become one of the team favorites since the last test, and we can’t wait to see what kinds of mischief you get up to when we play next time! 😉
NOVEMBER
In November, we took a few deep breaths after the conclusion of our first beta test.
Reviewing all the bug reports and feedback from the beta was our biggest priority, and creating a plan of attack on how best to action these points.
Many bugs were fixed, maps were polished, and feedback implemented. Unfortunately, we’re not ready to release detailed information quite yet, but you should definitely keep an eye on this space in the coming year!
DECEMBER
There’s so much new stuff that the team has been working on during the last couple of months, and we’re really itching to show you what’s to come. For now, I have to hold my tongue, though, and keep a few secrets a bit longer! We can’t wait to see you in the new year, we have a feeling it’s going to be a pretty good year for MGH.
On behalf of the entire MGH team, I want to thank you all for the support throughout this wild and eventful year! We truly could not have done it without your excitement and passion propelling us along, or your feedback guiding us! Merry Ghostmas and Smashing New Year, Ghosts and Hunters! We’ll see you in 2022!
-Tinny
Community Manager