Midnight is nigh, Ghosts and Hunters - and it’s time for phantasm pandemonium!
Midnight Ghost Hunt is now available on Steam Early Access. It’s been a long and exciting road as we ramp up to this Early Access release, but now we’re ready to show MGH to the world! Here’s all the packages you can now get in your ghostly grasp:
Midnight Ghost Hunt - $19.99
This is the base game that gets you in the action.
Early Backer Pack - $39.99
Even buying and playing the base game is more than we could ever ask for! But if you’re keen on showing your support as we march onward toward full release and you’d like to get your hands on some spooky extras, then this is the perfect pack for you. The Early Backer Pack is a means for those who wish to support development to be able to do so.
As a heartfelt thank you, you'll get a couple of treats included in this pack, some of which are in production and will be available in-game very soon. You’ll get:
A fancy in-game title that identifies you proudly as an “Early Backer” (if you choose!)
Ghost Skin: The Lord, as seen in our Cinematic Trailer (TO BE ADDED SOON)
Ghost Skin: The Lady, famous for her appearance in the same Cinematic Trailer (TO BE ADDED SOON)
Hunter Skin: The Veteran, who's been around the haunted block and is definitely getting too old for these shenanigans (TO BE ADDED SOON)
Hunter Skin: The Rookie, who's new to the game but makes up for it with ambition and spunk (TO BE ADDED SOON)
Early Backer Bundle - $49.30
This package will get you the base game, Early Backer Pack, and the soundtrack bundled up with a discount!
This is the package for you if you want it all! If you want to support the team, snag all the content, and jam out to sweet MGH tunes, you’re in luck! The Early Backer Bundle includes all of the stuff from the Early Backer Pack, as well as the official Midnight Ghost Hunt soundtrack (which will be updated with more songs as they’re released!)
Midnight Ghost Hunt Soundtrack - $4.99
If you’re more excited by ethereal audio or don’t want the added skins and in-game title, the MGH soundtrack can be picked up on its own, as well.
So there you have it! MGH is out now, and we’re thrilled to welcome you to Early Access!
As a small thank you for those of you who helped us test in the past, we will have 2 exclusive skins for you in game, as well as the "Alpha/Beta Tester" title. We are still working out the details, but we are fairly certain it will just work. 🤞
For all the new players joining us, we also invite you to join our community of players and devs!
We have a very active Discord full of lovely folks, where you can discuss strategies or find other players to team up with. You can also share feedback directly with our development team there.
In addition to our Discord, we also have a fantastic community over onTwitter, and we often post updates and other fun stuff there, as well as share the latest screenshots and teasers, and we plan on posting quite a bit on ourSteam page as well if you want to follow us there!
We look forward to playing with you all, and we’ll catch you around midnight! 😉
Another week with more exciting news! This time around, we’ve got a release date for you, as well as an awesome new cinematic trailer.
THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT Today at the Future Games Show, we announced that we are releasing into Steam Early Access on March 31st, at a price of $19.99! This is wildly exciting for our team, as we’ve been working for years to develop Midnight Ghost Hunt, and now we’re finally closing in on the day it’s available to everyone.
THE TRAILER As mentioned, we also released an incredible new cinematic trailer today. We’re excited to share this with all of you, as we’ve been working on it for quite some time. It definitely evokes the spirit of MGH, and it’s awesome (if we do say so ourselves). Be sure to check it out!
ONWARD TO EARLY ACCESS! Now that you’ve watched the cinematic trailer and you’re all pumped for Early Access (...you DID watch it, right?) we can let you in on a little secret. Before we get to Early Access, we’ve got one last hurrah planned. On March 28th, we’ll kick off a two-day closed beta!
All of you long-time players have one more chance to sharpen your hiding and hunting skills! This is also a fantastic opportunity for some of you who have never had the chance to play to get another crack at experiencing MGH before it kicks off worldwide.
While we won’t be able to grant access to everyone, new players can still request access to this Beta on Steam for a chance to get to play during the Beta period. We’re planning to really open the flood gates for this final test, so we’ll do our best to give access to as many folks as we can manage.
Also, this beta will NOT BE UNDER NDA! Content creators rejoice, it’s finally time! 🙏
Here’s someof what’s new for our final beta:
CUSTOM GAME OPTIONS This is by far the biggest feature we’ve added since our last test. With custom game options, you can take even more control of server settings to randomize loadouts, choose which weapons to allow and which to ban, and even do things like adjust movement speeds or give everyone a mystery loadout! This should make for all sorts of fun scenarios (who doesn’t like 5x movement speed and only weapons that make for big booms?!), and we can’t wait to see what crazy game modes you all come up with!
NEW HERO PROPS We’ve also added two new hero props to MGH! The new hero props are… T-Rex Head and the Skeleton! We’ll leave it up to you to figure out where you can find them, what they do, and how they work. Suffice it to say T-Rex Head has more than a little bite to it!
FIRE, FURY, AND BALANCE As we’ve had the balancing of the Flamethrower on our minds for quite some time, we’ve decided to make it a heavy weapon from now on, similar to Project-X. Gone are the days of rapidly razing every prop in sight to the ground - now you’ll need to employ a more measured pace when using the Flamethrower, as your movement speed will be reduced while it’s equipped.
COOKING WITH A BANG Grenades can now be cooked and will cause self-damage if cooked too long (just like mom’s macaroni recipe) or if standing too close to their explosion radius, similarly to C4.
LIFE TRACKING In order to prevent players from quitting games and rejoining to be alive again, we’ve implemented a new life tracking system. Now players won’t be able to game the system by hopping in and out of servers.
ACCESSIBILITY - COLOR VISION DEFICIENCY OPTIONS We want as many people as possible to be able to play and enjoy MGH. To make that easier for our friends with color vision deficiency, we’ve added a first pass feature aimed at easing the difficulties of play they experience. We intend to continue improving this feature for the future, so if you experience color vision deficiency, be sure to let us know how this works for you!
SHOW ‘EM HOW YOU FEEL There will be FIVE new emotes to try out with this beta!
Admire the Duck
Kung-Fu
So Scary
Nirvana
Peek-a-boo
NEW VICTORY POSES We’ve added 13 new unlockable options for victory poses! Of course, you’ll need to win to use them yourself, so… best of luck!
NEW HUNTER SKINS We have added several new Hunter skins and have reworked a couple of the existing ones as well! Let us know which one is your favorite!
TITLES AND ACHIEVEMENTS In addition to victory poses and emotes, we’ve also added 29 Titles, and 42 Achievements for you to unlock!
RECENT PLAYERS LIST In order to make it easier for you to add new friends and connect with awesome players (and report ones the less awesome ones who left before you had a chance to report them), we’ve added a recent players list. You can find it in the add to party panel.
NEW VAN AND RIDE-INS Last but not least, we’ve hooked you all up with a new whip. The van has been totally redone, and vehicle ride-ins are much more realistic now! There’s stuff to look at, the vehicles turn and maneuver, and the experience is overall more dynamic and enjoyable. And before you ask… yes, you can still spray your profile picture in the van - don’t worry!
And much much more - we will publish a full changelog as usual on Discord when the closed Beta goes live!
That about wraps it up this time around, Ghosts and Hunters. We really hope you’ve enjoyed the cinematic trailer, and we look forward to playing with you all in the upcoming Beta and then Early Access. If you haven’t yet, be sure to wishlist MGH on Steam ahead of the Early Access launch to be notified when MGH is finally available for everyone. We’d love to hear all your thoughts regarding the last Beta, Early Access, and all things MGH so let’s chat over on Discord and Twitter!
Exciting news! We’ve just been featured at the SXSW (South by Southwest) Gaming Awards with a new in-depth gameplay trailer, voiced by our very own lead developer Kite!
The trailer serves as a good introduction to the basics of MGH - feel free to check it out!
We’re also very, very excited to reveal that we are headed to Steam Early Access THIS SPRING!
(Exact date to come later, stay tuned for more info!)
So why Early Access?
We’re absurdly proud of Midnight Ghost Hunt in its current state. We’ve been playing with all of you in closed alpha and beta tests over the last few years of development, and we think those of you who have played extensively will agree that we’ve laid out a brilliant foundation - and that’s how we view it. We’ve built a strong foundation, and now we’re ready to build something incredible on top of it with the help of our community.
We believe the best game mechanics, the coolest gear and maps, and the most stable balance will emerge during the Early Access period when players truly start to get their hands on the game and we get a better feel for how things play out when we have a bigger scale of players.
We’ve built up a good amount of content over the last few years and we want players to experience that, but we also want to keep adding more and hearing about how players feel before we get to a full release. We want players to be able to play continuously now, so that we can get an even sense of what balance changes might need to happen.
As we go into the Early Access release, MGH will have a pretty robust set of features. These include:
Bots: can fill in for players, but are also able to play pure bot matches with you
+40 skins, emotes, and taunts
Custom game rules editor
Voice chat integrated into the game
For all of you who have been here with us from the beginning, thank you for your support and help in making MGH the game it is today! This Early Access phase is truly just the beginning.
For those of you who are new around these parts or those of you who haven’t managed to find us on the official Midnight Ghost Hunt Discord server yet, please do join us there! We actively chat with the community on a daily basis, so come and join us! We’d love to hear your feedback and thoughts so that we can make MGH even better together.
We encourage you all to tell us what you’d like to see more of, what you’d like to see less of, and what your feelings on the overall balance are. Our Lead Developer Kite has been known to queue up for some late-night matches to get a better understanding of our players’ impressions, so keep an eye out and don’t be afraid to say hi to Kite or any of the other devs! We love to chat and talk about strategy and our favorite wombo combos! 😉
We’re really excited to head into Early Access and play more Midnight Ghost Hunt with you all! See you on the hunt, actually SOON™️! 👻
Our second closed beta is now in the books and we’ve had a bit of time to digest and consider some learnings from the feedback we received and the in-game analytics. We appreciate all of you who took the time to play with us and gave us your thoughts!
Overall, we are very pleased with how the test went!
Before diving into some stats, let’s discuss first some of the main feedback that we received, and what we are currently doing about them.
We saw that many players reported worse frame rates and overall performance during this test compared to previous ones. This is something we are currently in the process of tracking down, but we think we’ve found and solved a number of things that could be contributing to this. We will continue to focus on improving performance going forward.
We also finally may have a solution to the elusive audio crackle/popping issue that many players experienced, though we’ll have to see with more testing if it occurs again.
Flamethrower balance, of course, was another hot🔥topic during this test.
“This is fine…”
We’ve tweaked damage and burn duration a number of times, but this test gave us the clarity that a bigger rework was needed. We’re currently experimenting with making the Flamethrower a heavier/slower weapon that is much less effective chasing Ghosts and much easier to get away from. Internally, this seems to feel much more balanced and gives the weapon a nice weight to it. We will continue to experiment and keep everyone posted, and let us know what you think!
Another big point of player frustration during the test were already killed players leaving the match, and having others join in their place alive again. This could mean you would need to kill much more than 4 Ghosts in a given match, creating unfair matches. We’ve already implemented a fix for this and will continue to strive to make matches as fair as possible!
Now let’s take a peek at some stats!
GHOSTS VS. HUNTERS
Balancing-wise, the most important stat is the overall win-rate between Ghosts and Hunters. During this beta test, the Ghosts had the edge all weekend long, winning around 54% of the matches. This result was quite surprising to us, because the feedback we gathered pointed towards this test feeling the most balanced to date. Did you feel the Ghosts were stronger than the Hunters? We’d love to hear from you on Discord or Twitter!
Win rate: Hunters vs. Ghosts
MAPS
Throughout the beta weekend, we saw a pretty balanced play rate for each map. We did get some feedback about some old hiding spots being eliminated, and we hear you, this is something we are looking at. We want to make sure that every map creates a unique, visually interesting environment and also offers a wide range of good hiding spots.
Map popularity
GHOST SHARD UNLOCKS
We’ve been working hard to create a meaningful progression system that gives players the choice of what they want to unlock, and when. So let’s take a peek at which weapons, gadgets, abilities, perks, and haunts you were itching to get your fingers on first! Let’s start with the Hunters.
Note that these do not take into account the default loadout since they are already unlocked. We’re just looking at what players thought fit to unlock.
Flamethrower and Frostbite were on the top of the list, with Frostbite having a slight edge over the Flamethrower. Balance-wise, we’ve noticed that there’s a bit of ground to cover for both of these choices. As mentioned before, for Flamethrower, we’ve made it a slower heavy weapon with a more niche use-case, and in our Internal Tests it has made a huge difference.
We’re still taking a look at how best to address Frostbite - we’d like to give it a bit of a boost, but we are not entirely sure how best to do so. Please do feel free to give us your thoughts while we think it over!
Shard unlocks: Hunter Weapons
Pathfinder was by far the most popular gadget during the January Beta test. In the past, some Pathfinder users reported feelings of motion sickness while using the gadget, but we didn’t hear many complaints on that front during this beta. Pathfinder did go through some tweaks between the first and the second beta, but please do let us know if you had issues using Pathfinder due to nausea and we’ll take a second look!
Trap came in at number two on our list of most used gadgets. We were happy to see people using the reworked Trap in-game, and we feel that it’s definitely moving in the right direction. If you have any thoughts on how to improve other gadgets, we’re always happy to hear them!
Shard unlocks: Hunter Gadgets
Healing Aura was a favorite in the Hunter Perks category with almost a quarter of you choosing to unlock it. Juggernaut and Quick Reload were also among the most popular perk unlocks, both having great qualities if you like to take a more aggressive approach even after midnight.
Shard unlocks: Hunter Perks
Let’s move on, and take a peek at what the stats looked like for the Ghosts.
There were far fewer clear favorite Ghost abilities when compared to Hunter weapons. Poltergeist and Doppelganger led the pack, though.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, Death Grip and Trickster were the least chosen. We’d love to get these more in line with other Ghost abilities, so we’re quite keen to get feedback from you all in the community to see what improvements you’d like to see made to improve their usage.
Shard unlocks: Ghost Abilities
Ghost haunts were also quite even - Shove Hunter and Push Object were the most often unlocked haunts. These haunts have a visible impact on the game, so that clarity of impact means they are quite fun to use (in addition to being useful) and thus chosen more frequently. Cold Spot came in as a close third, this one is my personal favorite, I must say!
Shard unlocks: Ghost Haunts
Ghost Perks had a pretty extreme variation when it came to unlocking amounts. Perception and Ectoslow were clear favorites, as both are extremely useful perks when staying away from nearby Hunters, or moving locations without being spotted.
Glutton, Untrappable, and Blast Resistant perks have a much more niche use-case, but people who use them a lot really seem to enjoy what they have to offer. Some players do enjoy a more niche style of play, and it’s great to keep this varied - both to support different playstyles and also to give those who play against these niche players the interesting experience of taking on off-meta tactics.
Shard unlocks: Ghost Perks
Whether you’ve tested with us multiple times over the years or this was your first test, feel free to leave your best tips on ability - haunt - perk combos on our Discord, we chat about MGH on the daily and it’s always fascinating to check out the strategies you’re testing!
Thanks again for joining us for our second beta and providing your thoughts and feedback as well as checking out our deep dive into the data! We’re looking forward to playing with you all again soon. Have a great weekend!
If you’ve been keeping an eye out, you might have seen our hint about another test this month! Well, today we have more information to share.
Our next closed beta test will start on Friday, January 28th, and will run through the weekend! The test is currently planned to conclude at 3 AM EST Monday, January 31st.
This is our secondclosed beta, and our NDA/no streaming rules will still stand. This is still in effect due to some experimental new features that need stress testing before we go loud on streaming.
We’ve been hard at work improving the balance, polish, and overall quality of the game since our last test. Before allowing content creation at a larger scale, we want to make sure everything runs smoothly and the game feels fun and fair for all participants! Thank you for understanding, we’ll make sure to keep you updated on all the news about content creation soon™.
Now, let’s take a closer look at what’s new in this closed beta!
🖥️ NEW FEATURES 🖥️
Map Polishing/REWORK
Our most iconic map, Mansion, has gone through quite a visual transformation! We’ve made it feel closer to the haunted Victorian mansion concept that inspired it. Take a peek at the above video to get an idea of how it looks now.
Museum has also seen a visual polishing pass, cleaning up meshes and improving the lighting.
Factory has seen some layout tweaks in an effort to make the map more balanced - internally these changes have made a big difference, we are looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
A few other maps have had some polishing as well, we can’t wait to hear what you think!
Progression (v2)
Last test, we introduced progression to unlock gear and abilities based on player level. We received great feedback on this topic and we’ve decided to try a different approach.
Now, you can unlock gear and abilities with your Ghost Shards, just like the cosmetics. This game is all about counters and switching your loadout to best suit the situation - so it makes sense to let players pick what they want to unlock first instead of an arbitrary level requirement.
The costs to unlock gear are relatively low, so you can quickly gear up without overwhelming new players immediately with all of the choices available. Simply earning XP and completing matches will give you Ghost Shards.
Bots
Our AI-controlled bots are now ready for testing! By default, they will fill empty player slots until players join and replace them. This ensures a 4v4 match at all times. The host of the match can disable this if needed in the Server Tools interface.
Keep in mind they are very much a work in progress, but definitely give us feedback! The easiest way to do this is by joining us on Discord.
Anti-cheat
We’ve implemented a new anti-cheat system to ensure all MGH matches are as fair as possible! Please note this is also an experimental new feature that needs testing on a large scale.
Matchmaking IMPROVEMENTS
We introduced matchmaking in our previous beta and received great feedback on how it worked out. We’ve taken that into consideration and made various tweaks and bug fixes that should ideally make more balanced matches going forward if the players queue through the quick play system.
As always, this is a work in progress, so let us know what you think after playing some rounds.
Server browser improvements
Server browsing is better than ever! We’ve included some new filters in the server browser, including regions, friends only, and by map! If any of your Steam friends are playing on a server, that server will appear at the top of your server list and be denoted with an icon to make playing with them even easier.
Vaulting
Vaulting is here! Now Hunters can climb up and over any obstacles in the way. From what we have seen internally, this has helped the Hunters feel much more nimble and mobile, but be sure to let us know what you think!
VAN RIDE IMPROVEMENTS
The iconic van ride (or the boat ride if you’re heading to the Ghost Ship) has been fine-tuned, making the ride feel better with realistic bumps, camera tweaks, and new sitting animations.
TRAP REWORK
In an effort to make Anti-Ghost Traps more consistent, they now pull you out of your prop into Ghost form when you are caught in it. You simply need to punch the trap a few times to break loose, but you are vulnerable in this state.
There’s also new visual polish and animation tweaks for the trap - including a range indicator that gives you a sense of how close you can get to it.
The Untrappable perk for Ghosts makes it so you are not pulled out or slowed very much.
Cosmetics
Ghost skins are finally here! We have 9 new ghost skins for you to choose from. We also have a few new hunter skins, and they are now visible in first-person! Pretty nifty.
NVIDIA DLSS Support
If you happen to be one of the lucky ducks who have an RTX 20 or 30 series graphics card, feel free to test out NVIDIA’s DLSS functionality. You can read more about it in our previous blog post.
🗝️KEYS🗝️
If you have a key from any previous test, you can join the MGH beta by simply reinstalling Midnight Ghost Hunt - Beta Test on Steam to participate.
If you don’t have a key, things have changed a bit this time around.We are now using the Steam playtest feature to manage access!
All that you have to do is go to our Steam store page and click “Request Access” under the Playtest section. If you are chosen you will get notified on email and on Steam directly, and the game will automatically show up in your Steam library! If you want to click that “Add to Wishlist” button while you are there, we sure wouldn’t mind. 😉
There’s many more changes, including many balance tweaks based on feedback (Yes, the Flamethrower got tweaked) - stay tuned closer to the test for a full changelog.
JOIN US ON DISCORD!
To give us feedback on the test, we will still be using our Discord, so make sure to join us! We might throw a few keys in #general still, just for old times sake 👀
We’re beyond excited to play Midnight Ghost Hunt with all of you again! We’d also love to hear what you are most looking forward to. Let's chat on Discord & Twitter, and we’ll see you on the hunt on the 28th of January!
We’re bringing you some exciting tech news! We’ve partnered with NVIDIA to bring DLSS to Midnight Ghost Hunt.
NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is AI rendering technology that increases GPU performance. DLSS taps into the power of a deep learning neural network to boost frame rates and generate beautiful, sharp images for your games.
In Midnight Ghost Hunt, this means that you get to enjoy those sweet, sweet extra frames and take advantage of a 4K monitor (if you happen to have one lying around) yet cutting down on hardware strain at the same time!
NVIDIA Reflex dynamically reduces system latency by combining both GPU and game optimizations.
If your PC has an RTX 20 or 30 series graphics card, make sure to take advantage of it the next time you play MGH! Which reminds me…
We’ll be having another beta test this month, so get ready! 😉 Exact timing and more details coming soon, so keep an eye on our Discord and Twitter for updates!
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!
Museum Map
First concept of the "Reaper"
Ghost animation revamp
First blockout of the Ghost Ship
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.
Prop animation: roll
First concept of the Salt Shotgun
VACUUM WORK IN PROGRESS
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.
Hunter animations
Spectrophone concept
Generator blockout
Generator prepped and ready to go
Ghost Ship starting take shape
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.
Chomping chest
Project X animation rework
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. 👀
Frostbite animation test
Frostbite in-game test
Graveyard test
Skullroom plan for the Graveyard
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.
Ghost crouch/in-air animation smoothed out
First concept of the Flamethrower
Ghost possess
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!
First pass on the Med Kit
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!
Ghost Ship fence modification
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!
Yes, you read that title correctly! 😉 This Halloween weekend, we will be running our first closed beta test.
This beta test will start this Friday, October 29th and run through the Halloween weekend. The test is currently planned to conclude 3AM EDT Monday, November 1st.
To celebrate moving into closed beta, we've got a lovely new teaser trailer for you to check out!
Although this is our first closed beta, the NDA/no streaming rules will still stand. We have many new systems and features added that have not yet been tested at scale. We want to make sure these run smoothly before opening up for content creation, as first impressions count! Thank you for understanding, and stay tuned for news on content creation in the future.
Moving into closed beta means we are focusing more on polishing and improving existing content rather than creating new gameplay content. With this test, we think we’ve reached a good threshold of available content for a potential initial release. We feel we’ve reached a good amount of available maps, weapons, gadgets, and so on.
We would, of course, love to hear your thoughts and feedback, so keep ‘em coming on Discord and beyond!
Now, let’s see what’s new in this closed beta!
🖥️ NEW FEATURES 🖥️
Matchmaking
We’ve implemented a real matchmaking system for this test. We heard the feedback from our last test loud and clear - making fair matches is our biggest priority. Too many new players were facing off against seasoned alpha pros. This system will attempt to place you (and your party) with players of similar “skill” or playtime, similar region/ping, and more.
This is a very experimental new feature that has yet to be tested at a large scale - so that’s what we’re doing during this beta!
Progression
Instead of overwhelming new players with all the gear and ability possibilities and hundreds of combinations, we’re introducing a progression system. Fear not, leveling up is quite fast and you’ll be able to unlock all the gear and abilities once you hit level 17. We’re looking forward to hearing all of your feedback regarding this feature. If you’re a returning tester (first and foremost, thank you for joining us once again), your player level won’t be wiped out during this test, so worry not!
Cosmetic Overhaul
When you complete matches and earn XP, you’ll get a specific amount of ghost shards. Ghost shards can be used to unlock cosmetic items like skins and emotes. We wanted to experiment with a different type of system that gives you the ability to unlock skins and emotes you like the most, instead of them unlocking randomly after leveling up.
NOTE: We are not planning any microtransactions as a part of this system - it’s just a way to unlock the cosmetics you want. We will let you know if this plan changes, depending on our pricing model on the full released game.
Prop Layout Variations
Each room of each map will have several different prop layouts. This means that the props will populate the rooms in different locations. This should provide a lot more variety in the gameplay and Hunters with photographic memory won’t immediately know that a Ghost is hiding in a prop due to its location. Memorizing prop locations, hard mode!
New Voice Chat System
We have changed our voice chat provider, which should generally work better for our purposes. We’ve also implemented some ghostly touches into area voice chat, make sure to test it out. 😉
🗺️NEW MAP: Graveyard🗺️
Our new map is very appropriate, considering it’s Halloween. Are you ready to explore this multi-level cemetery? The church and the surrounding burial ground are full of new props, hiding spots, and mysteries. Remember to keep an eye on the skies as well, you never know where the Ghosts might be hiding. I bet you’re dying to get in. 💀
🔥NEW WEAPON: Flamethrower🔥
The Flamethrower is the newest addition to the MGH weapon line-up. It sprays anti-Ghost acidic flames and burns props over time. With the Flamethrower you can burn props, but you have to make sure that they’ve fully caught on fire. This works similar to the Frostbite from last test - this makes it a little harder to probe for Ghosts in props with.
💪NEW WEAPON: Riot Shield💪
Holding up the Riot Shield blocks incoming damage. After several hits the shield can overheat and you’ll need some time to let it cool down, during which you will be vulnerable. The Riot Shield also has some offensive capability with the shield bash, though with low damage and a knockback effect. It can be particularly useful after Midnight to absorb some hits, or to block incoming Poltergeist floating props or even Miasma.
🩹 NEW GADGET: Medic Kit 🩹
Medic! This is a box of medical bandages that will let you heal yourself or your teammates quickly. Each box has 3 heal charges available. You can either directly apply bandages, or leave the medic kit on the floor for others to use on themselves.
During our last test, we received feedback about the Hunter’s instant heal at the Generator being very frustrating to deal with. They could instantly recover from all damage you dealt to them every few seconds. This has been removed! Now they must equip this gadget and apply the bandages. This can take time and can be interrupted with any damage.
✨NEW PERKS✨
Overkill Want to cause some carnage? Are you a self-proclaimed FPS god? If so, Overkill sounds like the perk for you. Instead of equipping one weapon and one gadget, you can abandon the gadget slot and equip two weapons instead.
Gadgeteer The Gadgeteer perk is the reverse of Overkill. If you’re a true gadget lover and different types of gizmos and doodads are your thing, feel free to discard the weapon slot and go for two gadgets instead.
We’re looking forward to finding out what kind of combos you all will come up with!
🗝️KEYS🗝️
If you have a key from any previous test, you can join the MGH beta by simply reinstalling Midnight Ghost Hunt - Beta Test (previously called Alpha Test) on Steam to participate.
If you don’t have a key, there are a few ways for you to acquire some for the upcoming beta. Here’s how you can go about it:
JOIN US ON DISCORD! As usual, we’ll be giving away keys on our Discord, so remember to invite all your friends to join our server if they haven’t got a key! Keep an eye on your DMs, because our key bot will be hard at work a few days prior to the beta.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! We’ll be giving away keys on our Twitter leading up to the launch of this test, so follow us there for a chance to snag a key!
SIGN UP ON THE MAILING LIST! Sign up on our newsletter here for a chance at a key! We won’t be sending as many via email due to spam filters causing many lost keys, but it’s also a good way to keep up to date with development!
We’re beyond excited to play Midnight Ghost Hunt with all of you again! We’d also love to hear what you are most looking forward to. Let's chat on Discord & Twitter, and we’ll see you on the hunt this weekend!
