Weekly Update - February 21st, 2020

Hey there, Ghost Hunters!

Not much new this week, but we did want to go over some specifics about our upcoming PAX East appearance! (February 27 - March 1 in Boston, MA)

If you’re going to the show, feel free to swing by and play the game! There will be laughs and probably some lamps hitting heads.

If you come by and play Midnight Ghost Hunt, you’ll get an exclusive glow-in-the-dark Discord pin!

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There will also be limited edition Midnight Ghost Hunt shirts available. We’re not sure yet how we will distribute them, but if you are a mega-fan we may give some out!

In addition, players will receive a post card with an alpha key good for an upcoming alpha test.
If you verify you got this post card with the mods, you’ll be granted a spare key for a friend AND an exclusive “PAX East 2020 Participant” Discord role!

Next week we’ll be away, so we’ll be putting a pause on weekly updates until we are back.
When we return, we’ll discuss the upcoming alpha test (date TBA) and what new features we’ve got cooking.

We can’t wait to see some of you in Boston! We will provide some pictures of the booth via our Discord and Twitter. We hope to see you there.

That’s it for this week, Ghost Hunters!

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Weekly Update - February 14th, 2020

Hey there Ghost Hunters!

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This week we are happy to announce that thanks to our friends at Discord, we will be making a “haunting” appearance at PAX East!

Swing by the Discord booth from February 26th until March 1st to get an early look at Midnight Ghost Hunt! We will have a total of 8 machines so we’ll have a full lobby!

Perfect for you and up to 7 of your best pals to come by for a chance to try out the game.
WARNING: MGH has been known to ruin friendships. Ghosts are scary.👻

We hope you can come by for some good ol’ fashioned ghost hunting. There may even be some swag I’ve heard…

If you’re a content creator, definitely come on by and check it out! Although we are not permitting recording during this showcase, we’d love to connect for future opportunities.

BUT: WHAT ABOUT THE ALPHA TEST?!

We know everyone has been waiting all winter long for news on another alpha test.

It’s taken a little bit longer than anticipated because we want to make sure the test is stable enough to be enjoyable and productive! We appreciate your patience!

That being said… you MIGHT want to keep your eye on the Discord in the coming weeks. No reason in particular. Just a hunch.

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Weekly Update - January 31st, 2020

Hey there, Ghost Hunters!

This week, we’ve got a new member of the development team to introduce. We’ve been looking long and hard for an experienced Unreal Engine programmer to help us make our game less haunted!

(With bugs, of course. Ghosts are normal.)

Midnight at the Asylum is a less than friendly place.

Midnight at the Asylum is a less than friendly place.

Here to introduce himself is Michael Brune; take it away!

Hey hey Ghost Hunters! I'm Michael Brune from Underflow Studios. I've joined Midnight Ghost Hunt's team to help ensure the project releases on time and to the highest of quality possible. My previous work includes Squad and The Away Team.

I'm excited to bring my expertise in Unreal Engine 4 multiplayer and C++ to Midnight Ghost Hunt. In addition to MGH, I am also working on Hackpoint, an immersive sim about exploitation, infiltration and exploration. If you'd like to keep up on Hackpoint I recommend following me on Twitter or checking out my blog.

Until we speak again, Brune out.

Feel free to say hey to Brune on Discord, he’s got a fancy new Dev role now.

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Weekly Update - January 24th, 2020

Hey there, Ghost Hunters!

Welcome back to another installment of our Weekly Updates.

This week, we are previewing UI changes that the team has been implementing over the last few weeks.

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You may recognize our old main menu design if you’ve played in any of our alpha tests. Kite designed this early on in the project and has wanted to revamp it for many months now.

One of the problems with the old design was that it was quite GPU intensive. It was a live render of a portion of the Mansion map, complete with dynamic moonlight shadows and a fireplace. This caused some fairly poor performance on lower end hardware.

Kite spent some time over the holiday break redesigning the UI:

Watch and share MGH Opening GIFs on Gfycat

(Click the gif above to view at high quality, Gfycat embeds are standard definition)

On the left hand side of the menu is the navigation pane. Clicking one of the options will transition the page up or down. We’ve also added a live render of a hunter on the side - this will eventually show your equipped skin, maybe play some emotes, or switch to a Ghost.

Here’s a look at the new find/create servers section:

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A player may want to jump straight into video settings after launching the game. We’ve made that a bit easier and cleaner.

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There’s much more to come! Please let us know what you think, we’d really love some feedback on the new direction we’ve taken.

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Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/midnightghosthunt

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Weekly Update - January 10th, 2020

Hey there, Ghost Hunters

Welcome back to another Weekly Update.

This week, we are previewing some changes coming to the Asylum map.

A visit to the residential building will surely cure any post-treatment complications

A visit to the residential building will surely cure any post-treatment complications

As seen in previous weekly updates, we are working diligently on expanding each map to allow for more hiding spots.

We feel like Mansion is big enough to warrant more testing before proceeding. Now it’s time to expand Asylum to be roughly the same size.

To expand upon this map, we’ve decided to add another building entirely to the Asylum grounds. This building is across the courtyard from the main residential building.

This area will be the treatment section of the Asylum, structured more like a hospital, although less formal. There’s an operating room, a small industrial kitchen, some hallways, and more.

Ready to clean up your act.

Ready to clean up your act.

The building has 3 entrances to the ground floor, allowing you to enter either the stairway, kitchen or common area. The 2nd floor offers a lovely view of the courtyard and opposing building.

It is also conveniently located right next to the Hunter spawn area, so if you’re a Ghost be cautious and ensure you aren’t making any noise upon their arrival.

Each of the windows also doubles as an escape. If a Hunter has you pinned, launch yourself out the window and make your escape!

Watch and share Destiny2 GIFs on Gfycat

Our dynamic room variations are also in the process of being handcrafted by our lovely developers.

For those who are unaware, dynamic room variations randomize props and their layouts to help ensure no game ever feels the same! You can read more about dynamic room variations here.

New secrets await discovery!

New secrets await discovery!

That’s it for this week, Ghost Hunters

Thanks for checking out our latest additions to Asylum! With a bigger map and better escape routes, the Ghosts may have gained the upper hand on the Hunters.

How do you feel about these changes? Do you think another building will be too hard for a team of Ghost Hunters to explore and manage? Or do you believe in yourself and your crew? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/midnightghosthunt

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Weekly Update - January 3rd, 2020

Hey there, Ghost Hunters!

Welcome back to our Weekly Update, and Happy New Year!
We hope all you Ghost Hunters enjoyed your holidays with family and friends.

The team is returning to work after some much needed R&R. We will prove that 2020 will indeed be the Year of the Ghost!

Without further ado, let’s continue showing off some new features in development

A dark gloomy night falls upon the Asylum, silently awaiting new patients to come fill its empty beds.

A dark gloomy night falls upon the Asylum, silently awaiting new patients to come fill its empty beds.

One of our core focuses during the development of Midnight Ghost Hunt has been providing enough content and replayability.

Replayability can be accomplished in a number of ways. A satisfying progression system and daily/weekly challenges with unique rewards are a solid way to do that. Obviously a large selection of maps will help here, too. Maybe even custom maps! These are certainly being explored for the final release.

While we aren’t quite yet ready to discuss these features yet, we do have a new feature to share with today. It’s a system that will ensure no two games are identical.

Dynamic room variations!

An example of a room variation. Left is the classic default, right is a new room layout you may encounter randomly.

An example of a room variation. Left is the classic default, right is a new room layout you may encounter randomly.

Many players from previous alpha tests have noted that once the Hunters memorize prop placements, they have a significant advantage.

A common request has been to add some sort of randomization to the props to solve this problem.

That’s exactly what we’ve done! 

Each room now has a large set of prop layouts to be chosen at random, and each room is independent from each other. This means there are a huge amount of potential variations for each map, and it’s unlikely you would see the same exact Mansion twice in a row!

Generally, these layouts are hand-crafted to look somewhat realistic, instead of fully procedurally generated. That might look like a mess, really. It just picks one out of many presets for each room.

We’re also nudging props a bit on top of this, to create another layer of randomization.

The Hunters must ask themselves: is that chair moved because a Ghost moved it, or did it start that way? We hope this will create more moments of hiding in plain sight.

We also have set up “wildcard” props that can randomly select one prop from a pool of possible props. Sometimes it will be a lamp, but other times it will be a potted plant.

We hope this will contribute to an overall sense of unpredictability that will help Ghosts find better hiding spots and prevent Hunters from just memorizing everything to their advantage.

That’s it for this week, Ghost Hunters

Thanks for reading about our new randomization system! Coming to a Midnight Ghost Hunt alpha test near you soon™.

How do you feel about these changes? Have you seen instances where a similar mechanic really improved the experience of a game for you? We’d love to hear about it so we can perfect ours!

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Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/midnightghosthunt

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Weekly Update - December 20th, 2019

Hey there, Ghost Hunters!

Seasons greetings, and welcome back to another Weekly Update.

This week, let’s continue our preview of upcoming Mansion map design changes!

A new stairway hides in the upper levels of the Mansion. What secrets might it hold?

A new stairway hides in the upper levels of the Mansion. What secrets might it hold?

As mentioned in last week’s update, we are working to expand our maps. Many alpha testers have reported the maps as being a bit too small - not enough good hiding spots.

We’ve started with our iconic map, our haunted Mansion.

Our latest addition to this map is a fairly common haunted house trope:
the spooky haunted attic!

Climb with me, won’t you?

Climb with me, won’t you?

The attic is our third floor of the Mansion - you can find it up the stairs from the dining room.

As we discussed last week in our weekly update, we want to make sure every enclosed space has at least 2 exits, and the attic is no different.

Climb the staircase, or drop through the trap door into the 2nd floor hallway before attempting to make your escape, the choice is yours!

Again, the idea is to reduce the chances of a Ghost feeling cornered in every single room. This allows Ghosts many different escape routes, and forces Hunters to split up and cover all exits a bit more.

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The attic is a bit dark in some places - plenty of places to hide. Hunters - don’t forget your flashlights!

We’ve also got some new props to possess. Much of the furniture in the attic has been covered with cloth to keep them preserved.

Quite fitting for a Ghost, I think - chase around those Hunters covered in a white sheet!

Watch and share Attic First Show GIFs on Gfycat

That’s it for this week, Ghost Hunters

Who’s excited to play this new iteration of Mansion? Maybe the Ghosts will come up on top more often now!

Happy holidays, everyone! Spend some time with family and eat some delicious food.
See you next week!

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Weekly Update - December 13th, 2019

Hey there, Ghost Hunters!

Welcome back to another Weekly Update!

This week, we’re previewing some changes we are making to our maps.

A new doorway in the Mansion has appeared…

A new doorway in the Mansion has appeared…

Some common feedback we received is that our maps feel a bit small. Not enough hiding spots. It's too easy to cover the whole map with a group of well-coordinated Hunters.

So, we've decided to expand upon the existing maps to make more varied hiding spots, while also playing up the trope that the map concept is based around.

Mansion is probably our most iconic map - it was in our E3 Trailer that debuted earlier this year. It was voted as the favorite map during our recent alpha test. This map seemed like a good place to start our renovations.

Let’s go over the first new addition to the Mansion: the Library.

A two-story library has emerged in the Mansion.

A two-story library has emerged in the Mansion.

When you think of a haunted mansion, an old library often comes to mind.

The cobwebs and dust built up from years of abandonment, lots of dusty books and tomes to posses.

There’s even ladders that you can use. And, of course, you can always hide on the chandelier.

With this new area, we’ve added several new playable props. Books, statues, chairs, and more!

The library grows cold after Midnight. Don’t let your teammates go in alone.

The library grows cold after Midnight. Don’t let your teammates go in alone.

The library is two floors with three exits, one on the ground floor and two on the second floor.

One of our biggest focuses following our Halloween alpha test was to make sure each room has multiple escape routes. Getting stuck in a dead end always feels rather oppressive.

With these renovations, almost every single room inside Mansion has at least two exits. This gives Ghosts more ways to outsmart and escape from the Hunters. The Hunters can’t force you into a choke point if they don’t know which escape you’ve chosen, so try to lose your tail before you escape!

A view on the second floor.

A view on the second floor.

So, that's the library! A two-story wing of the house that's adjacent to the main foyer.

There are other new areas of the Mansion, too - stop by next week for another preview!

Thanks so much for reading!

That’s it for this week, Ghost Hunters.

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