Ravenous Horde News

Fellow Hunters,

To dive straight into it: May 9th marks the day the Demo will be released! You can view the demo page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3577400/Ravenous_Horde_Demo/

It's been a long road but the game is in a great state! Since the last post in January lots of improvements have been made and the game is polished a lot more.

[h2]Changes since the start of the year[/h2]

The game now tracks several statistics, from how much you play to how much you fired every weapon.


You can now select skins for your weapons! Some have to be earned, some have to be found and for some you need to be lucky. More skins are planned (free and paid for later when the game releases)


The UI got cleaned up a lot. It's easier on the eyes and not as horrible as before.


Loads of other small changes have been made, some interesting and most not. Here are some examples:

• When you level up, other players in the match get a notification. (Important for the social aspect :))
  
• On the input rebinding page, the bindings are now placed in categories.
  
• Muzzle flashes on all weapons and the 3rd person characters have been improved.
  
• Dismembering gore is now a bit more in your face.
  
• Weapon audio has been improved for most guns, they all sound unique now.
  
• Added headshot support, you gain a few extra points for doing so.
  
• Zombies now have another ability called Zombie Vision, this allows to see more clearly. (It also outlines your allies for now, not sure about this feature yet. Perhaps it should be a perk)
  
• On your UI (both as Hunter and Zombie) you now see accurately which buttons you should press on your keyboard to do which action.
  
• You can now invite friends or join them through Discord and Steam into the server you are in.
  
  

[h2]Demo Limitations[/h2]

The demo comes with some limitations. The main one is that your rank is capped at 20. This means that you are limited to 9 weapons and a few perks / cosmetics which are all rank based.

As the full game gets updated throughout the year the demo will also be accordingly.

[h2]The Full Game[/h2]

Now there are a lot of things to do for the full game, such as designing paid skins and cosmetics so I can buy groceries. But as mentioned in the previous post, new maps, special equipment and the last hunter specific weapon are also on the to-do list!

It's a long way to go but I feel the game is starting to make big leaps.

[h2]Playtest[/h2]

If you happen to still have access to the Playtest version, tomorrow and Sunday the playtest server goes up at 7PM (GMT+1 / CEST) and stays up for 3hours.
Feel free to join and check out any bugs that might occur :)
If you don't have access and would like to join, hit me up on the socials!

Thank you all for the support so far and reading this. I'll go back to work :)

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/

Fellow Hunters,

It's been a while since the last post, so today I'd like to get you all up to date with what I've been working on. And as the new year is in full swing and so is the development of Ravenous Horde! I'll go over what has been done, what will be reworked and what is coming in 2025!

[h2]New map: Casino[/h2]



For the past months I've been working on a new map. (amongst other things) Casino is the 5th map available and is aimed at giving the player some more things to do during gameplay rather than only surviving the horde. Take a good look around in the dark, see if you can find anything that might light up the place, or worse, something fuelling someone's hidden gambling addiction.



Casino is also the first map home to new cosmetics and weapon skins. I'll leave it up the community to figure out how to obtain them.



The previous 4 maps will be looked at as well to see if any interactive things can be added to them. Cosmetics and weapon skins will be added for sure!


[h2]Other improvements[/h2]
While the Casino map was taking up majority of the time, some other things have been added or changed as well.

The time each round takes has been lowered from 20 to 15 minutes.

New music has been added during the game when the round is active. Something to get your blood pumping whilst the zombies are coming for your skin. Also some new character lines have been added.

I've added a flashlight option (as a Hunter) which can be toggled on or off, some areas are very dark and placing a ton of lights into the game doesn't always work well. The default for every map is that the flashlight is on, and it can't be seen by others (so it won't reveal your position to player controlled zombies)

When playing as a zombie there is also something planned to let you see better in the dark. More on that later!


[h2]Character cosmetics and weapon skins[/h2]

Ravenous Horde will be a free to play game, with paid character cosmetics / weapon skins. (because I need to eat)
However I'm no fan of predatory schemes so there will be a mix of ones that can be earned for free and some that are paid.

The plan is to keep the amount of cosmetics and weapon skins in the game limited (both paid and free) so that players will still be able to recognize that some free ones required someone to do a specific challenge, or got very lucky.

This is because some games (mainly MMO's) have so many cosmetics that the "value" of a skin becomes less as other players will not be able to recognize that skin due to there being so many. I believe that if you ever had to do some difficult challenge to get a skin it should always be clear to others that you completed that challenge and didn't get a similar reskinned variant from the store.

That said, I don't have a hard number yet for how many hats there should be, or the exact amount of skins per weapon.

The last thing I'd like to mention is that there is a finite amount of money you can spend on the game. There are no plans to set up a never ending stream of skins / battle passes or stuff that you have to keep paying for in order to have everything unlocked.

As always, you can play with your friends regardless of who purchased what. New maps are free and there's no playerbase fragmenting through DLC's.


[h2]2025 plans[/h2]

First things first: Ravenous Horde will release this year. There will be no delays, in worst case scenario's it will launch with less content than planned but it will be released. The goal is to release the game in Q4 this year.

Now before that happens, there's a Demo release planned. The Demo will have a level cap and will allow you to play on most likely 6 maps. For all the players that have played in a playtest so far, your savefile will be converted to a Demo savefile. The demo (and the demo server) will be available 24/7 until game release. The Demo will also be updated from time to time if content is added that affects the Demo, such as controller support for example.

I'm not sure yet if upon full game release your Demo savefile will be converted to a normal savefile or that you will have to start over. Both ways have their (dis-)advantages.

Before the Demo releases, the game needs polishing.

- The UI will get another overhaul because I can't get it themed right how I want it to be. I'll go for a more generic look.
- The game will be localized in all languages that are displayed on the Store Page.
- The stats tab will be added.
- Another map will be added.
- The in-game UI will be slightly changed so every zombie and hunter ability (like the sentry already has) will show what key bind you need to press and is clearly displayed on your screen.
- The perk icons need updating.
- The last hunter should have his own unique weapon.
- And a ton more, like cosmetics, new perks and special grenades and equipment.

With that being said, thank you all for the support so far and reading this. I'll go back to work :)

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/

Fellow Hunters!

Here are the patch notes after getting feedback on some bugs and performance issues.

[h2]Patch notes for v0.0.8a[/h2]

- Greatly optimized performance on all maps.
- Your sentry now de-spawns when you die as a hunter.
- Updated the clear night weather condition on the factory map to have lamps to brighten the area a bit.
- Increased the purchase trigger around the ammo refill station
- Zombie characters now use their hats if they had it equipped as a hunter. (AI zombies have random hats)
- Removed the bullet hole / blood decal painting on zombies. (This caused performance issues)
- Added a wishlist button to the in-game pause menu.
- The maximum zombie AI limit changed from 30 to 40.

- Fixed several glitch spots that allowed you to be out of reach of zombies.
- Fixed a bug where people disconnecting from the server would not remove them from the player list in-game. (And would show a full server)
- Fixed a bug where the sentry was louder than nearby allies.
- Fixed a bug where the healing tip on the screen would stay when spawning as a zombie after dying as a hunter.
- Fixed a bug where you could rotate your corpse when dying as a hunter.
- Fixed a bug where player arrows on the minimap would not clamp correctly to the border on wide screens.


Thanks for all the feedback so far!

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/

Fellow Hunters,

As of now the Month+ Playtest is active! Bring your friends and have a good time!

All access requesters and players who request access at anytime during the playtest will be automatically accepted. If you have played before, your account will be reset at the start of this playtest.

If you encounter anything odd, let me know :)

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/

Fellow Hunters!

In preparation for the playtest that starts tomorrow several changes have been made to the game!
Please note that all levels are reset upon the start of the playtest.

[h2]Patch notes for v0.0.8[/h2]

- Added more perks to unlock
- Added some more voicelines to the hunter

- Removed the countdown timer for playtests in the browser menu and main menu

- All maps now have the same amount of uniform weather conditions. (6 variants)
- More AI zombies spawn
- AI zombies arrive in "waves"
- Lowered AI zombie HP, but scales upwards as time passes
- Greatly optimized the AI zombies
- Any locked clothing, weapons or perks now always are shown in the loadout menu
- Weapons now don't affect run/walk speed anymore
- Weapons now have limited ammo and can be refilled at specific spots on the map
- XP multiplier is set to 1. (As more zombies spawn now)
- Allies are now clamped to the minimap border
- AI zombies are now also on the minimap if you are a zombie
- The server now immediately disables hitboxes on dead zombies, allowing for weapons which shoot multiple bullets to hit targets behind eachother
- Bullets and explosions now affect dead bodies on the client side

- Fixed a bug where the sentry wouldn't target player controlled zombies
- Fixed a bug where AI zombies would have low resolution skins
- Fixed a bug where throwables would throw weird when looking down or up


[h2]What's next?[/h2]
I'll be working on more content, more maps, perks and new special equipment such as mines, a rocket launcher and a flamethrower! (Along with their respective perks)



Thanks for all the support so far! Hope you enjoy the playtest which starts tomorrow!

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/