It put up a good fight, but Update 1.16 is finally here!

The Loading Screen Bug

We are happy to announce we have fixed the notorious loading screen bug, that has been plaguing some people, and we wanted to explain a few things to help shed some light on why it took so long for us t o fix it.

The bug initially was just incredibly hard to reproduce internally, which is the first step towards finding out what was actually happening. To find it we had to create a new debugging tool for the server and client builds to help us track it down. With this new tool we managed to reproduce the issue consistently, and in a way that we could generate logs to help guide us to a solution. This highlighted to us that in fact, it was several bugs manifesting as one! All of which we have fixed and should never rear their ugly heads again.

You may be wondering why we released the previous update with such a glaring bug? Well, to put it simply, it hasn't turned up before. The trigger case is very hardware and connection dependent. Although we have found out that some of the bugs have been there all along, they were very rarely triggered, at least on tests we did with the hardware we have.

It also appears that the more recent optimisations and fixes, which made certain aspects of the game quicker, inflamed the issue, making it more prominent for these users. In addition, there was a significant engine upgrade (Unity 2017 to 2020), which made unnoticed changes to the networking library we use, adding many more avenues for the issue to manifest.

It is annoying that these things happen from time to time (especially for us!), but we are always working to improve Gang Beasts, which has been evolving for 6+ years now. So thank you for being patient with us, and hopefully, we will not have anything as problematic in the future.

The Elimination Bug

Another bug people have been experiencing lately is the characters not getting eliminated when thrown out of stages. This issue was a weird one, that seems to have manifested itself since the engine upgrade. Gang Beasts being such a physics heavy game, any changes to the engine’s physics can have knock-on effects with the gameplay.

We have tried to fix this a few times and, although each attempt reduced its frequency, it was still being triggered. In this update, we have added two more solutions: one that should stop it from happening, and another that will guarantee that if it happens the players get eliminated anyway. The first measure is adding a few more checks to the characters when they enter an Elimination Volume, so it is more likely to be detected, and expanding these volumes further to increase the chance of detection. The second measure bypasses the physics system entirely, and will always eliminate players regardless of velocities or any other issues inherent to physics that can prevent the first method from working.

1.16 changes

General

• Fixed the pesky infinite loading screen
• Adjusted the damage reduction timer from 10 seconds to 4
• Fixed server ping checks not properly connecting to Sydney
• Corrected PS4 online age rating check
• Corrected PS4 lobby nameplate UI not showing

All stages

• Increased the size of Elimination Zones to better catch escaping players
• Added an Out of Bounds check that should stop anyone who does manage to escape!

Aquarium

• Optimised the bubble particles
• Fixed bubbles crashing the game (!)
• Added blockers to prevent players from getting stuck in doors
• Moved pool knockout volume up
• Small physics optimisations

Boneloaf

Gang Beasts Aquarium Update (build 1.13)

Something is lurking in the Beef City Aquarium, the Gang Beasts Aquarium Update (build 1.13) will be available tomorrow (Dec 9th, 2020) as a free download for XboxOne, PS4, Windows, macOS, and Steam supported Linux platforms (SteamOS and Ubuntu). The update has a new Aquarium stage, an updated Wheel stage that works online, a series of super hero/villain costume sets, and numerous fixes for stages, online, and gameplay issues.

General:

• Updated the game engine to Unity 2020 (from Unity 2017). This was a significant upgrade and although we've fixed a massive amount, there may be a few bugs we haven't caught yet with the transition.

• Unity 2019 dropped support for 32-bit Linux operating systems, as such Gang Beasts can now only support 64-bit Linux operating systems.

• Fixed an issue preventing bloom from working.

• Updated the project to be able to build and test on consoles again.

• Updated graphics settings to fix a few issues with the transition from 2017 to 2020.

• Mac builds now use Metal as its primary graphics API, as such there should be some performance gains for Mac users.

• Fixed some issues involving camera tracking.

• Updated splash and loading screens. This is a temporary measure until we can overhaul the entire UI of the game.

• Completely rebuilt the way we fracture glass. This new system should both look and perform significantly better on all systems.

• Completely rebuilt the way we do buoyancy. This new system should perform significantly better on all systems and allows us to do multiple types of liquid (such as meat paste).

Costumes:

• Bear and Rhino kigurumi no longer make Elevators explode.

• The "Yogscast Charity Drive 2015 DLC" has been added to the game as a default option, this was done as we found far too many people trying to exploit our users on grey markets by trying to charge exorbitant amounts of money for legacy codes. Since the DLC has achieved its purpose of raising money for charity and it has been several years since its release we figured this was the best way to protect our players.

• Added 8 "Supers" costumes to the game for a total of 24 new parts.

Stages:

• Rebaked the lighting on all stages to fix legacy lighting issues so shadows should no longer be dark and stages should be more visually appealing now.

• Adjusted any emissive materials across all stages now that bloom works again to look better.

• Updated the visuals of water on Buoy, Containers, and Wheel but there's still more improvements to be made.

• Fixed the objects that didn't interpolate online.

  Aquarium:

• Added a new stage called Aquarium, please don't feed the fish.

  Billboard:

• Adjusted the physics properties of the billboard panels to be more realistic.

• Adjusted the catwalk of the billboard to be flatter and added assistive colliders to help players stay on for longer.

  Blimp:

• Adjusted the physics properties of the balloon section of the blimp to have more grip and assist players' movement over the surface.

• Adjusted the ribbing on the balloon section of the blimp to no longer collide with the players' ball collider, which should help with navigating the blimp.

• Adjusted the blimp to be more affected by player movement.

• Added a wind effect to the blimp to help visualize the movement.

  Buoy:

• Added more ice to the stage.

• Fixed a bug preventing the ice from breaking.

• Broken ice will now melt over time.

• The buoy is now significantly less stable.

  Chutes:

• Adjusted the lights to remove light artifacts from falling sausages.

• Adjusted sausage distribution.

• Adjusted the chute doors to be able to hold more weight and slower to move, this should, hopefully, incentivise players to fight on them more due to the reduced danger.

  Elevators:

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system.

• Elevators now escalate consistently.

• Applied a temporary fix for a significant stability issue on Elevators, this fix currently does cause some visual peculiarities when played online but we felt it shouldn't hold back the update.

  Gondola:

• Fixed the grating using the wrong shader, it should look more crisp now.

  Grind:

• Adjusted the lights to improve baked quality.

• Added buoyancy to the meat paste at the front of the stage.

  Incinerator:

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system.

• Updated the fire particle system.

• Adjusted the lights to make the stage brighter and fix some lighting artifacts.

• Fixed an issue with boxes and barrels passing through the front wall.

  Lighthouse:

• Replaced the glass to use the new fracture system.

• Updated the background water shader, which is a temporary solution until we upgrade the project to Unity, Universal Render Pipeline (URP).

• Updated the glass materials to prevent a weird lighting issue.

• Adjusted the joints on the Lighthouse to be stronger, so they should no longer break at the slightest touch.

  Ring:

• Adjusted lights and materials to brighten the stage slightly.

• Adjusted the rope height to make it slightly easier to eliminate players.

  Roof:

• Adjusted the joints on the Roof stage to be stronger, so they should no longer break at the slightest touch.

• Lowered the lip of the Roof slightly to make the stage slightly riskier when fighting on the edge.

• Added assistive geometry to help characters navigate.

  Wheel:

• The stage has been completely rebuilt to play better and work online.

• The lights on Wheel now sync to the music.

• Wheel now has better escalations.

• Added a dwell timer to the insides of the wheels burger gondola that will make them fall if players stay there too long.

  Subway:

• Fixed an issue that made the front train push players away instead of pulling players towards it.

• Hopefully fixed the issue that was making some sounds on subway play too loud.

  Trucks:

• Slight adjustments to the materials and textures;

• Added a slight tilt to the trucks when they move to make their movement more apparent;

• Fixed an issue where the trucks would occasionally mount the curb and collide with oncoming signs;

• Reduced an issue where signs could pass through players instead of colliding with them, this is not perfect though and we will continue to try and fix it.

  Towers:

• Added a pink smoke effect rising from the cooling towers.

  Vents:

• Fixed an issue with Vents

• Fixed a significant stability issue on Vents that appeared in the update from 2017 that caused the bridges to instantly collapse.

• Fixed a significant stability issue on Vents that appeared in the update from 2017 where as soon as the main fan activated the stage would explode and characters would find themselves embedded in the walls or ceiling.

Physics:

• Updated some physics settings to take advantage of some of Unity 2020's improvements. This will be an ongoing process to fully take advantage of all the changes. These changes should provide some small performance and stability improvements.

• All physics objects in the game should now interpolate, this should reduce an appearance of lag locally and online.

Character Movement & Combat:

• Fixed a bug that was causing arms to no longer reach when holding grab.

• Adjusted character drag to 1.6 (from 2).

• Increased punch velocity for close targets.

• Adjusted how grab and punch's resolve target vectors for the physics animation, this should significantly improve how often they reach the intended target.

• Fixed a bug that would sometimes make a character float when grabbing something above them with both hands after their stamina drained fully

• Fixed a bug with kicking that would generate incorrect target vectors for the physics animation.

• Adjusted force and attraction distances when grabbing to help reaching close targets and reduce weird behaviours under certain situations when targets are just out of range

• Added slightly more force to the arms in the stage just before punch and grabs to help reach better position. This should make punches and grab's more consistent.

• Adjusted targeting to be slightly more weighted to the players input direction.

• Increased the strength of throws slightly

• Slightly increased grip break threshold.

• Added a slight alignment force to the body when climbing, the character should be more likely to face input direction while climbing now.

• Slightly increased self lift strength on characters when climbing. This should make it easier to climb.

• Stamina now always drains when grabbing, even if feet are touching the floor. Most players will not notice any change with this. This is to try and prevent people from getting into exploitable positions where they can hang on forever. Additionally this should help reduce stalemates where someone can hang on to another player indefinitely.

• Fixed a long standing issue with the character that made it difficult to go up slopes greater than 30 degrees. Players should find it significantly easier to go up slopes and stairs now.

• Added the ability to swim for a short period to the character they will gradually sink over time after this.

• Added a temporary diminishing damage reduction when a player revives from a knockout (100% damage reduction on revival reducing to 0% over 10 seconds) to prevent knockout camping.

• Fixed an issue that would prevent players from controlling their movement when lifting themselves, additionally this should now perform better then it did prior to the bug.

• Adjusted arm direction when cheering to be relative to the character's up instead of world up.

• Increased reaction forces of all moves, they should feel more satisfying now.

• Adjusted damage of all moves to better balance them.

• Adjusted damage received when in certain situations or attempting certain attacks to help balance combat.

• Adjusted character collision to hopefully improve stability during combat.

• Added code to dynamically adjust characters collision mode based on context to help reduce likelihood of limbs getting embedded in objects, this helps reduce the frequency of a bug that appeared in the transition to Unity 2020 but more work is needed to fix it completely.

• Fixed a bug that was making the characters hips get stuck in certain geometry since the transition.

Audio:

• Added a new way we manage audio to improve the consistency of sounds across the game.

• Changed all audio to use the new systems and did a pass on every sound in the game to be better balanced and more pleasing to the ear.

• Swapped a menu sound to be less intrusive.

• Added engine noises to Train

• Added engine noises to Trucks

• Added better audio cues to indicate oncoming road signs on Trucks

• Added an audio cue to indicate an oncoming train on Subway

Online:

• Fixed a bug that would mean some scripts would not reset correctly on the second round in an online match.

• Fixed a few bugs with PhysicAudioEmitter not emitting online

• Fixed a long standing bug with knockouts not working as intended online. Locally it would increment by 1 second each time your KO'd to a potential maximum of 20. Online this would always be set to 4. This should significantly improve the feel of combat online.

• Fixed an issue where some physics objects were moved using an incorrect method. This should help improve some stability issues when characters are pushed into strange positions or somehow move faster than usual (such as getting hit by a moving vehicle).

• Fixed a long standing issue preventing boxes on Incinerator from rendering online.

• Fixed a long standing issue preventing the vehicles on Trucks from moving correctly online.

• Several optimisations and fixes to the character system to improve online performance.

• Several optimisations and changes to the way we sync objects online. This should improve online performance and stability.

• Fixed an issue with the join screen that meant player names wouldn't show up.

• Fixed an issue on Elevators that made the hatches start in the wrong position on level load.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Containers mechanics that move the containers from triggering correctly online.

Boneloaf take Double Fine to a fancy restaurant so they won't make a big scene

Hey everyone!

So, we wanted to let you know what’s going on here at Boneloaf. We have some information regarding Double Fine and us, and when the next Gang Beasts update is coming.

As some of you know, Boneloaf has been working with Double Fine Presents for some time. They’ve given us advice, they’ve given us splendiferous support, and most importantly, they’ve become friends and mentors to us.

We love Double Fine and they have been really fantastic to us. What Tim and his company built is pretty wonderful, but with Double Fine Presents winding down due to Double Fine's acquisition by Xbox Game Studios last year, we think it is a good time for Boneloaf to stand on its own... legs and publish Gang Beasts ourselves.

Anyway, that’s the news about Boneloaf and Double Fine. What about Gang Beasts? Currently we're testing build 1.13, the next release. Build 1.13 is made with Unity 2019.3 and includes a modified version of the wheel stage with support for online game modes and a series of optimisations and fixes for UI, audio, costumes, gameplay, and achievements.

We plan to make this build available for testing as a Steam beta next month. The 1.13 build will be released for supported platforms (Steam, Humble Bundle, PS4, Xbox One, and Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S) when testing ends. We are also working on new stages and costumes, more information coming soon.

Thank you for supporting Gang Beasts, stay Safe and Keep on Truckin’ \o/

Boneloaf

Gang Beasts Train Update Changelog (build 1.0.5)

Choo, Choo, the Gang Beasts Train update (build 1.0.5) is available now as a free download for PS4, Windows, macOS, and Steam supported Linux platforms (SteamOS and Ubuntu), the update has a new train stage (an industrial freight train transporting shipping containers on a precarious cliffside track), a series of miscellaneous costume sets (beef mascot, fire fighter, frogman, pirate, and rail worker), and numerous fixes for game issues and exploits.

Concurrently with the work on the 1.0.5 build we have also worked to standardise, optimise, and modularise the game structure to support making new content and systems for a series of planned game modes, specifically we have made a full review of the processes and systems for prototyping and testing new costume parts and stage geometry for the game, the work on standardising content and systems was necessary to configure the game for the playset and story game modes, to support more frequent content releases and bug fix patches, and to support other platforms and markets without negatively impacting work on other game modes and game content. 

We expect to release examples of this work in the next significant content release later this year with a series of updated hazard escalations, stage variations, and new costume sets.

Information on support and planned content

Currently we’re making a full review of support and documentation processes to identify and patch game and server issues more efficiently and to make more information on supported platforms and planned content available through http://gangbeasts.game and the Boneloaf YouTube channel.

Please email support@boneloaf.co if you have game issues or questions not currently addressed on the game FAQ page; please see the @MeatTelecom page on Twitter for server status and server maintenance announcements for the Gang Beasts Online Multiplayer Servers.

The list of key modifications and fixes made in the Train build are:

• added multiple costume sets (beef mascot, fire fighter, frogman, pirate, and rail worker)
• added train stage
• fixed a camera stability issue when characters climb specific wall sections on the incinerator stage
• fixed an issue making some ambient game SFX audible with the pause menu invoked
• fixed an issue making the velocity of the subway train dissimilar in online game modes to local game modes (on the subway stage)
• fixed an issue making the velocity of the turbine column dissimilar in online game modes to local game modes (on the vents stage)
• fixed an issue that exposed the restart instruction in the pause menu for some game modes in error 
• fixed an issue that made jumping from a climbing posture fail to register in some contexts
• fixed an issue that made the velocity of vertical wall jumps excessive in some contexts
• fixed an issue when exiting from the local game menu in some contexts
• fixed an issue with ambient occlusion on Nvidia GPUs
• fixed an issue with character colour selection in local game modes
• fixed an issue with the blur filter when invoking the pause menu from the score screen
• fixed an issue with the costume parts tinting in error on the character customisation screen
• fixed an issue with the implementation of the bridge structure collapse on the vents stage 
• fixed an issue with the syncing of light fixtures on the subway stage
• modified climbing scheme to limit scope for wall exploits
• modified collision detection performance
• modified concussion timings
• modified game camera to track ball movement in the football game mode
• modified input references to support mouse input (press the left mouse button with the mouse cursor over a specific input reference to invoke the associated instruction)
• modified menu implementation to apply image effect settings on the attract mode screen 
• modified menu implementation to explicitly lock input and disable UI SFX on loading and interstitial screens
• modified online networking scheme to prevent exploits in online game modes
• modified targeting hierarchies to target susceptible body parts when punching, kicking, butting, and grabbing
• modified the costume saving implementation
• modified triggers for contextual and random character emotes
• optimised and stabilised miscellaneous costume parts and stage geometry

Roses are Red, Violets are Violet (Gang Beasts Valentine’s Update)

If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in hazardous industrial machinery you should try the new and improved MeatTel. Online Matching Services 2.0 (MOMS 2.0), let MOMS optimised algorithms sort through the offal and offcuts to find you some prime international beefs on Valentine’s Day.

Come to Beef City, the City of Eternal Beef this Valentine’s and visit the coast lighthouse for a romantic break and fall head over heels into panes of broken glass and collapsing safety railings wearing an fashionable selection of sentimental heart and love influenced costume parts.

Information on Gang Beasts Valentine's Update

The Gang Beasts Valentine’s update (build 1.0.4) is available now as a free download for PS4, Windows, macOS, and Steam supported Linux platforms (SteamOS and Ubuntu), the update has a new lighthouse stage, a series of Valentine’s themed costume parts (a small gift to the Gang Beasts community for their patience and support on the anniversary of the release of the 0.0.0 public pre-alpha builds of the game).

The key feature of the Valentine’s update is a significantly revised matching service built to optimise and scale the capacity of official game servers and host a high number of concurrent online game sessions than previous iterations but the update also has a number of other modifications, optimisations, and fixes made to menus, stages, costumes, messaging (see the list of key modifications and fixes at the end of this post for information).

Some inconsistencies with the stability of matching services is expected in the next hour as Coatsink transitions the game to use the revised online matching services and scale server capacity.

Information on support and post-launch content

Since Gang Beasts left Steam Early Access and was released for PS4 in mid-December we have been working with Double Fine and Coatsink to monitor, optimise, and patch online matching services, address limitations with the current online session matching scheme[1], and identify and fix stubborn release issues.

We’re are also working to make more documentation, development, support, and FAQ information available on the Gang Beasts site but please email support@boneloaf.co if you have game issues or questions not currently addressed on the game FAQ page; please see the @MeatTelecom page on Twitter for server status and server maintenance announcements for the Gang Beasts Online Multiplayer Servers.

Currently we are working on game content for a series of planned updates, information on specific post-launch content (stages, game modes, costumes, VR support, and other features) will be published in subsequent posts in the coming months as the work and testing on specific post launch content ends.

[1] the previous matching implementation has some architectural limitations that compromised some matching services at peak times (when contention for slots in online game sessions is high).

Gang Beasts 2xLP Vinyl Soundtrack

For those asking where to buy the Gang Beasts Soundtrack, there is a Gang Beasts Soundtrack page on the iam8bit store have a opened store page for taking pre-orders for the Gang Beasts 2xLP, Classic Black Vinyl by doseone & Bob Larder (with Album  by Fat Knack).

The list of key modifications and fixes made in the Valentines’ build are:

• fixed an issue that made costumes draw irregularly (when scrolling through multiple custom costumes in succession
• added a button reference / instruction for setting character or gang controller in online and local game menus
• added haptic feedback support (compatible controllers trigger force feedback when taking punches, kicks, headbutts, and other blunt force injuries or when grip stamina is close to spent
• added lighthouse stage
• added support for restarting the current local game from the in-game pause menu (restarting from the pause menu in a random game session with load a new stage, not the current stage)
• added Valentine’s themed costume parts
• fixed an issue that could force UI text and other information off screening some context
• fixed an issue that could make the wrong networking message show in error in some contexts
• fixed an issue that erroneously rendered sections of the exterior negative space on incinerator as white
• fixed an issue that erroneously set the menu context to the costumes menu if the game start timer is cancelled  and the back instruction is submitted from the local or online menu
• fixed an issue that made the game stall or exit if a client running on an Ubuntu OS is in the game session [Steam only]
• fixed an issue that malformed the rendering of the disconnection error character graphic
• fixed an issue that prematurely exposed menu input from the opening logo screens
• fixed an issue that stopped the selection of head costume parts in some contexts on the costumes menu
• fixed an issue that triggered the associated character to headbutt when the input for duck / slump is used to exit from the in-game pause menu
• fixed an issue where members of the same gang can be separated in error in the gang game mode
• fixed an issue with football game scores incrementing when the ball collides with a goal (if the game ended in a draw)
• fixed an issue with SFX samples triggered on the last stage persisting to the menu when a game session ends)
• fixed an issue with the balloon screen showing rows for players not in the current game session in some contexts)
• fixed an issue with the decrementing numbers starting on a low value (in the local and online game menus)
• fixed an issue with the fire implementation on incinerator rendering over in-game messaging
• fixed an issue with the fog and water implementations conflicting to make superficial artefacts [Oculus only]
• fixed an issue with the railing colliders not syncing erroneously on chutes 
• fixed an issue with UI information for the current menu or screen failing to dismiss when transitioning to a new menu or screen
• fixed online syncing issues with some costume parts
• merged online services for supported PS4 regions to support cross region PS4 game sessions (similar to not setting geographical filters on online dating services) [PS4 only]
• modified balloon screen to give more contextual information (balloons won in past stages fade onto screen concurrently with the screen blur transition, balloons won on the current stage inflate in place)
• modified football UI size for legibility to standardise with other UI sizes
• modified menu camera parameters, menu UI, and transition timings to make standardise immediacy  of menu transitions
• modified messaging colours to standardise in-game messaging
• modified session win confetti to pass through character and stage geometry 
• modified the character colour palette to support 12 colours (blue, brown, green, lime, magenta, orange, pink, purple, tan, teal, and yellow)
• modified the football game mode to add a golden goal mode if the game timer ends without a winning side
• modified the glass implementation on elevators to optimise for concurrent glass breaks
• modified the local and online menus to disable costume and colour selection when a game session request has been submitted to the game session matching service
• modified the number of voice sets associated with NPC enemies on waves (to standardise voice sets for NPC enemies
• modified the tolerances for left analogue stick input on menus to improve menu item selection
• removed modal from input mapping menu to standardise menus

Information on the 0.7.0 Gang Beasts beta build and full launch content

We have written this post to summarise current and recent development work and to give more information on launch content for the game as we are still a number of weeks from publishing the next Steam build.

We plan to start testing the next build (build 0.7.0) from next week and have scheduled support from Babel, Coatsink, and Double Fine to help with the identification, documentation, and fixing of a small number of persisting issues preventing the release of the next Steam build (and to facilitate and optimise testing cycles).

The 0.7.0 build has a glut of fixes and modifications made to optimise, standardise, and refine gameplay, menus, messaging, networking, matchmaking, menus and other UI, interstitial game screens (hint screens, loading screens, and score screens etc.), the following is a summary of key game content modifications in the coming 0.7.0 beta build with information on the work left to finish before the full launch of the game.

PS4

We're working through PS4 certification currently and expect to have to make at least one more submission before passing, we can then schedule a meeting with Double Fine, Sony, and other partners to set a date for the PS4 release. We are currently on schedule to set a release date in late 2017.

Online

The minimum limit for private online sessions was set at 4 players for testing when support for private online sessions was published in late September (concurrently with the move to Multiplay's server architecture), a limited number of issues surfaced with the matchmaking process during the Steam Free Weekend stress test and also in October but Coatsink have been aggressively addressing these issues and we expect to lower the minimum concurrent player limit for private sessions from a minimum of 4 to a minimum of 2 in the 0.7.0 beta build.

We expect to talk with Double Fine, Coatsink, Multiplay, and other partners later this month to make a full review of current server provision and capacity, please email support@boneloaf.co if you frequently have issues connecting to online servers in the 0.7.0 beta build (for reference support for private online sessions replaced the private server tool in September as the private server tool is not compatible with current client builds, support for the private server tool will be reviewed later this year).

Localisation

The game has been localised for 7 languages, the supported languages in the full release build are Brazilian Portuguese, English (UK), US English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, (the UK English and US English localisations share most strings) with a small number exceptions that we expect to have localisations for soon, support for other languages will be added post launch. For reference we currently expect localisation support to be the 0.7.0 beta build and we will post information on other planned localisations to the FAQ section of the gangbeasts.game site as we confirm support.

Input

We're currently working on localisations for input references (for keyboard, mouse, and officially supported game controllers) but still need to standardise the UI for input mapping sequences with the rest of the game. The lack of support for mapping mouse button inputs is a temporary issue and we current expect this to be fixed in the next 0.7.0 beta build.

For reference support for VR touch controls is planned to come with full VR support next year.

Climbing

We have made multiple passes on the climbing implementation and supporting geometry to make climbing less difficult and more immediate in recent builds in preparation for a last pass on stages to add specific support for complex structures (examples of complex structures are the small billboard structures on roof, the buoy structure on buoy, the truck body work on trucks, and the turbine on vents), for reference some section of complex will have a lower targeting priority than expected until this work is finished.

Spawning

We need to set explicit spawn patterns for game mode configurations to balance gameplay and modify patterns to fit the selected game logic, specifically we need to implement set spawn patterns, for example gangs spawn patterns need to be on opposing sides of the selected stage (in 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, or 4 vs 4 gang mode games).

Stages

We have finished work on the geometry for launch stages (excluding a small number of superficial modifications and props), stages identified as launch stages have had passes to optimise performance, standardise colour schemes, and address gameplay issues, the stages with significant modifications made to geometry are billboard (new billboard sign and catwalk structure), chutes (lowered catwalk and modified pipe works), grind (new meat slurry implementation, new pipework, new articulated grinder implementation, and new catwalk), subway (new scene with modified hanging lights, staircase, prop, and platform geometry) and trucks (new truck geometry and some minor cosmetic modifications).

Camera

We have transitioned to Cinemachine procedural camera framework and are currently working to improve support for user modification of the single player camera, group tracking, geometry clipping, camera bias, lerping, and dampening etc. but are seeing significant improvements over the previous camera system. We are also working to standardise the presentation of player information and the post stack implementation (specifically the default parameters for graphics setting).

For reference the issues with settings and resetting inputs, graphics, and other menu settings is being addressed and is expected to be fixed in the 0.7.0 build.

Modes

We are working on minimising the steps and time it takes to configure and start game modes and game sessions, and on exposing more support for game mode customisation, we are also experimenting with a longer window for identifying draw states. We are also working on making character, costume, and gang / team selection less confusing in the game mode configurations screens.

Costumes

We have been working on exposing more costume customisation parts and the UI and flow of the costume customisation screen, we have also been working to fix physics stability issues and gameplay exploits associated with specific costume parts. We have also exposed an additional four character colours and made multiple passes to improve colour and colour tints (and minimise clashes with the colours for non-character geometry).

Thank you

Thank you for staying with us we push to get to the full launch of the game, we're working on some fun holiday content for next month, and are excited that the full game will be out soon.

If you have questions please email support@boneloaf.co or Tweet @boneloaf. We plan to make a post with information on testing for the 0.7.0 build later this month with any additional information we can give on the next builds and full release content.

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.6.1 beta build and Steam Free Weekend

Since the Gang Beasts online beta in August 2016, Boneloaf have been working with a small team at Coatsink to finish the content and systems for the full game, a significant part of this work has been to transition to Multiplay’s dedicated game hosting solution and Hybrid Cloud Orchestration technology to give official Gang Beasts servers a scalable, low-latency, managed hosting platform maintained by a specialist team of game server experts.

We have published the Gang Beasts 0.6.1 Early Access beta to Steam in the last hour and have made the game temporarily free on Early Access as a Steam Free Weekend game from 10am PDT / 6pm BST on Thursday 21 September to 1pm PDT / 9pm BST on Sunday 24 September to stress test the new server architecture and networking scheme and support for private sessions on official servers.

Please see the post at beef.city/060 for information and a changlog listing the key modifications and fixes in the 0.6.0 unstable build. For more information on Multiplay please see the Press press release at beef.city/multiplay

For reference we expect to have some inconsistencies with server availability and stability in the next hours as we transition to Multiplay's servers and scale server capacity.

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.6.0 unstable beta build

Since the last Gang Beasts build was published in July we have been working with Coatsink to migrate the official Gang Beasts servers to a scalable low latency hosting solution, we have also made a series of significant optimisations and modifications to progress the performance and stability of the matchmaking , UI, and character systems. We have been testing potential 0.6.0 builds with Coatsink, Double Fine, and support from a QA team at Babel since the start of September, the matchmaking system, new server architecture, networking scheme, and costume fixes are at a stage where we need to test at scale to identify issues that are difficult to find when testing in the office.

Currently we are working on standardising the optimised UI, localisations for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese (support for other languages is planned), costume fixes, post processing, achievements, a modified implementation of the current camera system (built on Unity Cinemachine procedural camera system), and additional game modes (the 0.6.0 unstable build has the first public implementation of the local gang game mode, the gang mode is not supported online currently).

The 0.6.0 build as an unstable beta with this post for testing and patching before it can replace the current default Steam build (build 0.5.7a), to test the 0.6.0 build right-click on the game name on the Steam library page and select 'Properties' from the dialogue window that opens, from this window select the 'BETAS' tab then the "unstable" option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled 'Select the beta you would like to opt into:’).

Please note the 0.6.0 unstable build has been explicitly made for stress testing servers and only has support for the melee (local and online) and gang game modes (local only) and has some UI settings and other content disabled.

We are testing stage wins in preference to stage rounds in the 0.6.0, the implementation is similar to the previous implementation but a new stage is loaded after each stage win (currently the win parameter is set to 2 wins for public online games and limited to 1-4 wins in local and private online games.

The key modifications and fixes made in the 0.6.0 unstable Early Access beta build are:

• added a force that applies when releasing grabbed characters and objects (the force is applied in the same velocity vector as the released character or object (making throws more forceful)
• added an limited input deadzone to mouse input (to ignore small mouse movements and minimise conflicts with other input sources)
• added contextual support scripts to dynamic objects to improve stability, and character and object interactions (dragging, lifting, hanging etc.) 
• configured stages to use the modified targeting system (significantly lowering the number of hidden colliders in each scene)
• fixed an exploit where devices with support for rapid-fire buttons gamed the concussion system
• fixed an issue that erratically applied movement forces when jumping from climbing states
• fixed an issue where the grab system could fail to reset temporary joints in some contexts
• fixed an issue with character sliding movement that could lock the character in an endless sliding state in some contexts
• fixed an issue with concussion length scaling
• fixed an issue with force and direction calculations (to make glancing blows less frequent and increase the number of successful blows)
• fixed an issue with the character system that gave NaN and INF errors (triggering a fatal exception)
• modified force parameters for the character support geometry increased physics stability
• modified inertia tensor properties for character body parts to stabilise character on character interactions (and other interactions)
• modified physics calculations for damage to account for optimisations to the character movement system
• modified score sequence to render on stage end with background blurring (currently implementation disables input soon after the win state is met, this will be reviewed in a coming build)
• modified secondary character moves (diving headbutts, dropkicks, and sliding kicks) to carry more damage, failing to land a more forceful move can concuss the assailant temporarily
• modified the character costume colour cycle sequence from yellow, green, blue, red etc. to red, blue, green, yellow etc.
• modified the character movement system to optimise performance and standardise mass, drag, and force parameters
• modified the character systems to remove tags use and string comparisons (to reduce the number of game object in scenes and improve scene loading times)
• modified the characters arms configurations to minimise contexts where arms can get stuck behind characters heads
• modified the hoisting implementation for climbing to inherit the direction of character movement
• modified the pause menu to limit input to the device the menu is invoked from
• modified ropes on the ring stage to stabilise interactions with characters and objects
• modified the targeting system to remove the need for assistive geometry and set hierarchical priorities for body parts, objects and surfaces (assistive geometry is still used for specific contexts)

Beef City News

17 sep 2014

The information in this post has taken longer to collate (and confirm) than expected but we wanted to address the most frequent questions we’ve seen on the Steam forums, Facebook, Twitter, IndieDB and in email since we released the first alpha builds on Early Access.

Thank You Thank you for supporting the development of Gang Beasts by buying the Early Access version, we would not be in a position to continue the full time development of the game without your support. Thank you also to the people that have played and promoted the pre-alpha prototype builds that can be downloaded from IndieDB. Early Access We submitted Gang Beasts to Early Access to fund the development of the full game and to continue the development of the game in a public context that gives players of the game the scope to inform and give feedback on the development and plans for the game. Double Fine The publishing agreement we have with Double Fine gives us a glut of practical advice, and access to technical support and the other key resources that we identified as necessary to make the full version of Gang Beasts (without the pressure to compromise or modify key game mechanics or content). We are working with Double Fine to identify and solve specific issues with the current version of the game and to move to a more standardised development schedule with additional support and resources for testing, localisation processes, and other practical tasks. Pricing The Early Access price for Gang Beasts was informed by a review of the pricing for other Early Access games and conversations we had with other developers; the price is based on the level of content, number of game modes, variety of customisations, and number and variety of stages that are currently planned for the full version of the game (Steam users that support the development of Gang Beasts on Early Access automatically own the full version of the game when it is released). We have not set a date for the release of the full version but there will be many content updates and key technical improvements to the game whilst in Early Access.

The Pre-alpha builds We submitted the first pre-alpha build of Gang Beasts to IndieDB on 14 February 2014, the pre-alpha version of the game is currently similar to the Early Access build (with some key differences) but the pre-alpha build was not a stable platform for the development of the full game, this is partially due to the high number of forces that acted on the previous versions of the game characters (to structure the various character movements) but also because a significant percentage of the scripts and assets for the game were tests or temporary solutions. Significant sections of the game, the game characters, and assets have been refactored or rebuilt for the Early Access build (to make a stable platform for making and testing new content), we have made a number of minor updates to the Early Access build (current version is 0.1.4) and are now working to fix more involved bugs and issues such as the current lack of custom input support and adding support for explicit controller pairing.

Characters The Early Access builds of Gang Beasts have a rebuilt and optimised version of the Gang Beasts characters, the modifications were necessary to reduce the number of concurrent forces acting on them to prepare for the implementation of climbing, straddling, kicking, elbowing, and walking on inclines, stairs, and other undulating or uneven surfaces, we will continue to make modifications to the new versions of the characters to conform their movement more closely with the character movement in the 0.0.3 pre-alpha build, adding new contextual moves when needed. There will be additional body shapes / sizes to play as in coming builds. Customisations We plan to have a full character customisation system with a scheme for sharing customisations with others, we have reviewed various potential implementations but currently plan to continuing making and adding customisations to the Early Access builds before committing to a specific customisation system (see below for pre-viz of one of the gang customisations, for the Meat Factory district that we’re currently working on). Follow this link[fatknack.blogspot.co.uk] for more concept art

Stages We are working on a number of stages currently and plan to include several new stages in the next content release, the stages that are close to being releasable are a stage with a pair of suspended shipping containers, a cooling tower, and a revised version of the ‘Street’ stage (from the 0.0.2 pre-alpha builds), other stages that are currently in development are an industrial freezer room, a pedestrian foot bridge, an industrial storage facility, and a city park (to replace the ‘Sandbox’ stage from the pre-alpha builds). Game Modes We have plans for numerous game modes and mini-games, including boss fights (play as a boss vs friends), waves, vandalism (damage the vehicle), team and tournament modes, hat fights, and a single and co-op story mode with enemy AI and boss fights. We are working to modify the previous AI from the pre-alpha builds to work with the new version of the character and expect to include support for AI enemies in at least some of the stages in the next content release. Input We are working to add a custom GUI for the custom input mapping, this will allow multiple players to play on a single keyboard (we don't suggest playing with multiple players on the same keyboard unless you have anti-key ghosting hardware as standard keyboards are limited to approx. 6 concurrent registered key presses). The current (and previous) Early Access builds have an issue with indexing input devices with some configurations, this is because there is no unique ID associated with each connected input device i.e. the order of the list of connected input devices reported by the system is arbitrary (and can potentially include other devices), the solution we are working on forces players to explicitly associate their device with a character i.e. the first player to press ‘Jump’ is player 1, the second is player 2 etc. similar to the character selection screen in Mario Kart, Bomberman, and other multiplayer games.

Optimisation We have been working to port Gang Beasts to Unity 5 (Gang Beasts is made with the Unity game engine) for the last week, the performance improvements in testing have been are significant. We are continuing to work on optimisations for the current and coming stages but have moved from Unity 4.5 to Unity 5 for the next significant release (the first content release on Early Access) as we expect this to make Gang Beasts substantially more performant on most systems (see the YouTube video herefor a comparison). We can’t currently give an estimation for when this content release will be submitted to Steam but it is a key priority.

Networking We have listed Gang Beasts on Steam as an exclusively local multiplayer game to avoid confusion. We have had many requests for online support and want to have support for online modes but we can’t commit to adding support until we have implemented a stable, tested, and working solution (and have secured the various resources necessary to support it). We are working with Multiplay to identify potential schemes for an online implementation. Support If you have support issues with the current build, please email support@boneloafery.com, this helps us to prioritise support for specific issues. If you have graphical or performance issues please include information about the operating system, manufacturer, and system specification.

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.5.0 beta

Since the last Steam Early Access post was published at the start of December we’ve been working with Coatsink to test significant modifications and fixes to the character, costume, game mode and networking systems (the 0.5.0 build replaces the 0.3.4 and 0.4.4 Steam Early Access builds). 

Servers will be intermittently unavailable for the next hour as servers are modified (the 0.5.0 build is needed to play online as pre-0.5.0 builds are not supported by the modified server scheme)

Online / Servers

Online multiplayer support in Gang Beasts has had numerous iterations since the online beta started in May and is now sufficiently stable and scalable to release in the default Early Access builds on Steam. 

Currently the Gang Beasts online multiplayer supports the following server geographies: 

• US East (N.Virginia) 
• US West (N. California) 
• EU (Ireland) 
• Asia Pacific (Sydney) 
• EU (Frankfurt) 
• South America (São Paulo) 
• Asia Pacific (Tokyo) 
• Asia Pacific (Singapore) 
• Asia Pacific (Seoul) 
• India (Mumbai)

following the publishing of the 0.5.0 beta build we plan to add support for servers in US East (Ohio), and will then assess supporting server geographies in Canada (Montreal), China (Ningxia), China (Beijing), UK (London), and France (Paris) as and when Amazon Web Services, the server hosting solution we lease server capacity from, make these server geographies available. 

For reference latency will be lower if you are can connect to servers close to your location (you can use the server filter to show proximate servers), if there are no servers in close proximity to your location please email support@boneloaf.co with information on your location. If you are playing from a location that is not close to the currently supported servers please test the dedicated server tool (published with this post) as a temporary solution until the server infrastructure is expanded to support your locality (the server tool should be available through the Steam tools section and support Windows and Linux currently, please read the readme.txt file distributed with the build for more information on the server tool). 

The list of modifications and fixes made to the online and server implementation in the 0.5.0 beta build are: 

• added support for modifying the camera Y axis with the single player camera (mapped to left and right D-pad and left and right cursors keys by default) 
• added an lobby to invite friends to before connecting to a server 
• added support for playing with multiple local players online 
• added online support for the blimp, billboard, buoy, and container stages 
• added PTT VoIP (Push-to-talk Voice over Internet Protocol) support * 
• fixed an issue that could make input mappings fail online 
• fixed an issue that made servers ignore input held at round start (held inputs now trigger on round start) 
• fixed an input issue with servers 
• modified the scheme for storing and retrieving servers in the central server and refactored some backend server systems 
• overhauled the master server scheme (to improve stability and implement support for polyinstancing)

* the default mapping for PTT VoIP is right trigger on game controllers and the “C” key on keyboards

Please note the 0.5.0 build will replace the current builds on both the default and unstable branches

Please note the 0.1.0 Dedicated Server Tool will only have support for Windows and Linux operating systems initially (please read the readme.txt file distributed with the tool for more information

Local

Local multiplayer support in Gang Beasts has seen a number of improvements and fixes including, an provisional support for in game camera modification (single player only), support for playing online with multiple local players, provisional support for debug spawning (we plan to expand debug spawning support to form the template for sandbox modes in later builds), and a basic version of the revised waves game mode (currently limited to the grind stage). 

The list of modifications and fixes made to the local game in the 0.5.0 beta build are: 

• added modified scenes and geometry for blimp, billboard, buoy, subway, vents**, and containers 
• added provisional support for single player camera adjustments (with D-pad or cursor keys) 
• added support for playing with multiple local players online 
• exposed the debug spawning system in local (currently does not have support player-controlled characters and some nav meshes are missing) *** 
• fixed an issue in local game modes (with more than 4 players) giving false server disconnection errors 
• fixed an issue that could make playing a local game with more than 4 players fail 
• setup the waves game mode for local games (currently only the grind stage with default grey AI is available for the waves game mode)

** the name of the fans stage has been modified to vents (the original name for the fans stage) 
*** debug spawning is disabled for online for official servers

Stages

We are still working to finish modified geometry for stages but are close to having final geometry on most stages (excluding colour grading and post effects), the list of stages modified for the 0.5.0 build are: 

• blimp (optimisations, blimp geometry and colouring, beef city geometry, fog sphere) 
• billboard (optimisations, billboard and scene geometry, beef city geometry, fog sphere) 
• buoy (optimisations, water implementation, beef city geometry, fog sphere) 
• chutes (optimisations, scene geometry, escalation geometry) 
• containers (optimisations, container geometry, beef city geometry, fog sphere) 
• elevators (optimisations, provisional glass break particle system) 
• incinerator (optimisations, scene geometry, fire particles) 
• subway (optimisations, scene geometry) 
• vents (optimisations, scene geometry)

Menu / UI / messaging

We’re still working to standardise the game menus, UI, and messaging to remove annoyances and make key content more accessible, the 0.5.0 beta build fixes a number of issues with game menus and a modified score screen (with star shaped balloons for points), the key modification to menus, UI, and messaging: 

• added support for saving menu and character costume settings 
• added support for storing some settings (last character selection and other game settings) 
• fixed an issue with the Steam overlay triggering the in-game pause menu 
• fixed an issues that stoped local game modes from pausing when the pause menu is invoked 
• modified input mapping screen to show keyboard and game controller mappings concurrently 
• modified online menu UI to work with the new lobby system 
• modified server browser to show more server entries per screen 
• modified the score screen shown at the end of each round to prioritise score information (we are working on solutions to show other key information and metrics contextually in game) 
• modified the temporary main menu background to improve legibility 
• modified the loading and interstitial screens to only show a new stage is loading 
• modified when loading and interstitial screens show should now only appear when a new level is loaded

Character

Character movement, force parameters, concussion system, and targeting hierarchies have been modified to improve game play and the character customisation system has been exposed for testing, the full list of modifications to the character and character costume systems are: 

• added a grab delay to the jump implementation to stop characters from targeting posterior objects and enemies when jumping 
• added the costume customisation system **** 
• fixed a field of view issue that stopped elbows from triggering 
• fixed a targeting issue to make characters prioritise anterior grab targets (over posterior grab targets) 
• fixed an issue in the character hierarchy that triggered inconsistent leg behaviour 
• fixed an issue that made characters slide vertically on walls when grip fails 
• fixed an issue that made kicking forces and movement inconsistent 
• fixed an issue where melee attacks would apply forces incorrectly (should be less prone to physics explosions) 
• fixed an issue that limited grip parameters when climbing from a jump state 
• modified and optimised character movement forces and timings 
• modified colliders on character feet for stability 
• modified concussion parameters (to reduce length for long concussions) 
• modified damage parameters for body parts to make them take more damage to the chest, waist, hips, arms, and legs on collisions (head, stomach, crotch, hands and feet parameters have not been modified) 
• modified drag forces on characters (to make lifting and throwing characters less difficult) 
• modified force parameters for climbing to make climbing less difficult (some surfaces will still be difficult to climb until grab targets are fully populated to all stages) 
• modified force scaling in damage calculations (to inflict more violence than other collisions) 
• modified force parameters for punches, head-butts, and kicks to standardise character movement 
• modified front and rear sliding to make characters elevate their legs immediately before sliding 
• modified kick parameters to limit spamming 
• modified targeting hierarchies to contextually prioritise anterior targets when jumping or falling 
• modified the character breathing simulation to improve character stability 
• modified the character’s vertical field of view (to reduce the frequency that characters target objects below their feet) 
• modified the climbing implementation to contextually offset targeting per arm 
• optimised the object targeting system for stability and performance 
• restored contextual elbowing (for contexts where enemies are immediately behind the character) 

**** saved costume customisations could be lost or corrupted on subsequent updates while the system is in development

Information on switching to / from "stable" and “unstable” branches

To download the "unstable" branch on Steam right-click on the "Gang Beasts" game name on the Steam library page and select "Properties" from the window that opens, from this window select the "BETAS" tab and then the "unstable" option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled "Select the beta you would like to opt into:". To revert back to the last 'stable' branch select "NONE- Opt out of all beta programs" from the same menu. 

For reference switching between unstable and stable branches of the game forces the selected build to download to the Steam client (replacing the previously selected build). 

Please note the 0.5.0 build replaces the 0.3.4 and 0.4.4 Steam Early Access builds, moving between the default and “unstable” builds on Steam will both download the 0.5.0 build until the “unstable” build is updated to 0.5.1

PS4 Release 

We have been working hard to make a PlayStation 4 build of Gang Beasts for submission to Sony (for a potential 2016 release), unfortunately there are still some modifications and fixes to make before we can make a submission and it is now too late in the year to certify the game for a 2016 release, we understand that this is disappointing for PS4 owners wanting to play the game and are pushing to make the submission as soon as we can to make a Q1 2017 release date feasible.

Gang Beasts 0.3.4 unstable build and information on the Gang Beasts Online Multiplayer Beta

Information on participating in the Gang Beasts Online Multiplayer Beta

The signup process for participating in the Gang Beasts online multiplayer beta is open.

To manage the distribution of Steam keys for the online beta we are using the distribute() build distribution service from Vlambeer, distribute() is designed for the distribution of keys to press (please ignore Press references when submitting key requests).

Please note that the initial online multiplayer beta only supports Windows operating systems and is currently limited to three stages ('grind', 'subway', and 'trucks'), the next batch of stages that are being optimised for inclusion in the online multiplayer are 'buoy', 'gymnasium', 'ring', and 'elevators'.

The process for submitting a key requests for the Gang Beasts online multiplayer beta through distribute() has five stages, the process is:

Open the URL https://dodistribute.com/access/knof3oKvFd/ in a browser

In the ‘Log in with your e-mail address:’ section (outlined with a red box in the screen capture immediately below this sentence) enter the email address you want the beta key(s) to be sent to

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Check the email account you submitted for an email from noreply@dodistribute.com with the subject line “distribute() | Confirm your request” and follow the instructions for confirming the request.

To confirm the request paste the 16 character code from the last sentence of the email in to text field labelled ‘Code:’ (outlined with a red box in the screen capture immediately below this sentence) and left click on the ‘confirm request’ button or left click on the long URL on the second to last line of the email.

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Confirming the request will open the main distribute() key request page, from this page specify the number of keys you want to request and select the ‘PC (Steam)’ setting (outlined with a red box in the screen capture below).

Please note the maximum number of keys that can be approved per request is four.

In the ‘Or add your own publishing platform:’ section enter a your Steam username in ’Name:’ text field (outlined with a yellow box in the third screen capture at the end of this post) and left click the ‘request’ button to submit the request.

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Please note that the online multiplayer beta keys will be sent out in batches, the first batches of keys will be sent out by email from next week with subsequent batches of keys being sent out more frequently as server capacity scales.

Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.3.4 “unstable” build

Please note there is no "stable" alpha build released with this post

The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.3.3 "unstable" alpha build are: 

• fixed a number of missing/corrupt navMeshes
• fixed an issue that could prevent front and rear sliding states from triggering
• fixed an issue that made characters stay in the ‘headbutt’ state when headbutting
• fixed an issue relating to AI not identifying a navMesh agent
• fixed an issue with spawned AI entering kill volumes
• fixed an issue with the water system that rendered water with zero polygons on specific systems
• modified enemy / object targeting hierarchies to prioritise objects in front of targeted characters
• modified stamina to reduce at a slower rate when characters are moving
• modified the climbing system to make climbing less difficult
• modified the colour palette on the ‘trucks’ stage
• modified the dropkick and diving states to use a minimal assistive targeting (to make targeting enemies / objects with dropkicks and diving less erratic) 

Information on switching to / from "stable" and “unstable” branches

To download 'unstable' alpha build  ‘unstable’ branch on Steam right-click on the ‘Gang Beasts’ game name on the Steam library page and select 'Properties' from the dialogue window that opens, from this window select the 'BETAS' tab and then the 'unstable' option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled 'Select the beta you would like to opt into:’. To revert back to the last 'stable' branch select 'NONE- Opt out of all beta programs' from the same menu. 

For reference switching between 'unstable' and 'stable' branches of the game forces the selected build to download to the Steam client (replacing the previously selected build).