Has it really been a full year of MGH Early Access, already? We can’t believe it either! We’re so thankful for all of you who played Midnight Ghost Hunt during the Early Access period, and, of course, the OGs who have been here since our Beta, or even the Alpha tests, back in the day. To celebrate the occasion, MGH is getting its seventh update, aptly named the ANNIVERSARY UPDATE. We have quite a few new things to show off so why don’t we jump right into it!
DEDICATED SERVERS
You’ll be happy to know that as of this post, our first-pass implementation for dedicated servers is now live! We’re thankful for the patience you’ve shown during this journey since we had quite a few technical hiccups to overcome before we were able to bring this much-anticipated feature to you all. You can now play on either user-downloaded and configured dedicated servers or some of our official 24/7 dedicated servers. Peer to peer is still an option of course, but dedicated servers provide much more stability and hopefully improved performance as well!
Dedicated servers will be broken up into two categories, user hosted and “official”. The official dedicated servers will be run by us, and we will have servers available in 3 regions, US West, US East, and Europe, with Asia hopefully coming soon! These servers are up and running right now, so be sure to check them out!
User hosted servers can be hosted on pretty much any Windows machine, just open your Steam install folder and then open the WindowsServer folder and check out the “ReadMe_CustomRules.txt” to get started! When hosting a server, you can set a server name, a password, and some custom game settings!
Also in the very near future, you will be able to go to https://server.nitrado.net/ to rent a server directly from Nitrado. We will have more news to share on this soon!
As this is the first pass on the dedicated servers, we’re keeping a close eye on how things play out. We’d be happy to hear your feedback, so don’t hesitate to let us know your thoughts on our Discord.
FREE WEEKEND, DOUBLE SHARDS & 66% SALE
We’re always excited to introduce MGH to new folks! Now that we have reached an important milestone and are just about to wrap up our first year of Early Access, we can’t wait for more people to experience MGH with us. To celebrate Update 7, we’ll be having a free weekend on Steam! The free weekend will run from March 30th to April 3rd.
To welcome all our new players, welcome back our longtime supporters, and give a boost to all of the shard sharks out there, we’ll also be granting double the normal amount of Ghost Shards throughout this whole week (March 30th to April 6th) for all players.
Those of you who are checking out this post because you’ve given MGH a whirl over the free weekend, and like what you see, you’re in luck! We’re also running the biggest sale ever to celebrate our one-year anniversary! MGH is 66% off from March 30th to April 6th, so there’s no better time to snag a copy. If you’re a new player concerned about carrying over your progress from the free weekend, worry not! All of your progress from throughout the free weekend will carry over if you decide to give it a test run first and purchase it on the last day of the deal.
In addition to the base game being on sale, you can also get 66% off the Early Backer Bundle, Early Backer Pack, and the Soundtrack if you’d like to show a bit of extra support during our one-year Early Access anniversary!
WEAPON/GADGET SKINS
For the first time ever, we are bringing you weapon skins, with some anniversary flair, of course!
Grenades have never looked this delicious. Don’t let the copious amount of frosting fool you, though. These cupcake grenades still pack a punch!
If you want to send your ghoulish ghost friends a gift, the C4 present will definitely be delivered to the right address. Open at your own risk.
2 new SKINS
The Disruptor Hunter skin is a stylish outfit designed to strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest ghosts.
The Returned Ghost skin gives a sense of both familiarity and eeriness with it’s hauntingly realistic portrayal of a Hunter who recently met their demise.
A NEW HERO PROP AND ANNIVERSARY DECORATIONS
What is a birthday celebration without some cake? Beware, this cake bites back! Our new hero prop, Chompkin Birthday Cake is a wonderful addition to the hero prop line-up. In MGH, the cake eats you. Time to bake it till you make it!
The van and the maps are decked out, as is tradition, and ready for the anniversary shenanigans. You only turn one once, after all!
SOUNDTRACK DIGITAL RELEASE
Ghostwood Empire, the talented duo behind the Soundtrack of Midnight Ghost Hunt, are releasing the MGH Soundtrack digitally on most platforms where you can listen to music. You can find it on Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, and more! You can also check out the 35-minute music video on YouTube, the soundtrack creates that perfect MGH ambience to listen to while gaming, working, or studying, even if we say so ourselves. The Soundtrack consists of 11 absolute bops, so please go check it out! The soundtrack available on our Steam page has some exclusive editions of tracks, so the digital release is slightly different.
LOOKING BACK ON OUR FIRST YEAR IN EARLY ACCESS
This year has really flown past, and we’re so thankful to have you here with us as part of this journey. We’ve gotten valuable feedback during the first year of MGH Early Access, and you, our community, have been directly affecting what things the developers have been spending their time doing.
Let’s take a quick look at all the things we had an opportunity to put out during the first year of MGH Early Access:
MARCH 2022
On March 31st, Midnight Ghost Hunt went into Early Access. The community really came through (thank you!), and during the launch, we even reached Steam’s Top Sellers number two spot, right behind Elden Ring.
MAY 2022
In May, it was time for our first big update. Based on community feedback from our alpha and beta tests, we decided to work on the Factory map and give it some extra love. Prior to the EA launch, we had taken Factory out of the map rotation and gave it a new life as a creepy Doll Factory. With the first update, we brought in tons of new hero props: Murder Doll, Warehouse Gate, Forklift, Soda Machine, and Speaker. Our melee weapons, Ghost Smasher and Sledgehammer also went through a rework to improve usability. Early Backer skins became available, and our friend from Satisfactory, the Pioneer, got her own skin both as a hunter and as a ghost. During Update 1, we also added lots of new victory poses, emotes, and titles.
JUNE 2022
In June we put out something of a mixture between a patch and an update, and since we are an inventive bunch, decided to name it the Summer Patch. We added the in-match challenge system, Ghost in the TV hero prop, new skins: Jock and Birthday (which is very topical right now!), plus some new emotes and victory poses.
SEPTEMBER 2022
In September we started gearing up for the spooky season, and it was time for Update 2. Mr. Giggle’s Happyland a.k.a the Carnival map was something we were extremely excited to release since the community polls and suggestions had been hoping to see a creepy Carnival or Circus-themed map in the MGH universe. The ghosts also gained a brand new ability during this update, Deflector. Hunters were awarded with some new drip, and the Paramedic, Pilot, and Old Hippie skins were added in. We like a plethora of hero props at the MGH HQ, so Jack-in-the-box in three different color variations was added in to take the mood of the carnival to the next level. In addition, we added a few more titles and a new song to the MGH Soundtrack.
OCTOBER 2022
Oh, October. Our favorite month. Spooky season speaks to us. In October we changed things up and decided to switch up our update strategy a bit. Smaller updates, more often. That’s how we like it. Update 3, the Halloween Update, brought in spooky new Halloween-themed decorations and hero props (of course!). Chompkin Pumpkin, Pumpkin-gut-spewing Jack-in-the-box, and Witch Doll made the maps feel even more spooky, for the occasion. Our new experimental game mode, Darkness, also saw the light of day for the first time. Random level variation on Mansion was also brought on for the first time, and it’s another fantastic idea we were able to bring to life thanks to the community feedback! To celebrate Halloween, the hunters were able to get dressed in a fan-favorite Duck Hunter costume and the ghosts could don the Pumpkin Head Ghost skin. These are some of our favorite skins, so far!
NOVEMBER 2022
In November, we were feeling thankful and Update 4 was released with a brand new feature, the Boombox. Have you found all the cassette tapes since the feature was launched? We added in a new hunter gadget, Camcorder, and in the name of Thanksgiving, all the maps and the van were ready for the feast. Our released hero props were also in theme. Splattering Pumpkin Pies and a tasty, juicy Turkey, what more could you ask!
DECEMBER 2022
In December we put out Update 5, and our third new map, the Mall. Decked with seasonal decór, the abandoned Mall truly felt like we had traveled back to the 1980s. The Hero Props this time around made quite a pair, Spooky Santa and Creepy Elf. We hope you were not on the naughty list in 2022. We added in some seasonal skins for both hunters and ghosts, bots were improved, and the soundtrack was updated. Last but definitely not least, we introduced the Progression Tier System to add a bit more fun to leveling up.
FEBRUARY 2023
Just last month, we pushed Update 6, in the name of love! The much-anticipated host migration feature was added to MGH. All the maps and the van were decorated in Valentine’s theme so you could spend some quality time with a special someone, and the lovely new hero props Cupid and Chocolate Box added some love to the maps. The Carnival Map was also expanded upon with the addition of the Tunnel of Love, and some improvements to the progression UI were made to allow you to keep a better track of your progression level.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The Early Access journey for MGH isn’t over yet, and we’re still finalizing all of the details before we’re ready to share an updated Roadmap with you all, but we hope to have one out soon!
Thank you for all of your support this past year, Ghosts and Hunters, we appreciate it more than you know! As always, all the details can be found on Steam. We’re excited to celebrate our first anniversary with you, we hope you enjoy Update 7. Come share your favorite MGH memories, and all the feedback with us on Discord, or drop us a comment on Twitter!
👻 -Team MGH