You may have already picked up that some of our Kickstarter backer tiers included private Alpha Early Access playtesting as a reward. Recently, they’ve been busy helping us playtest Deathground’s Mission Command and Bunker maps! This means we’ve been busy fixing and patching bugs they’ve helped us find along the way, on top of continuing to polish and improve the performance, gameplay and visuals. Getting the game, even in this Alpha form, into hands beyond our own has been a tremendous milestone for us and we’re truly grateful for the feedback so far!

We’ll be continuing to polish as we head towards Beta, leading up to launch. But until the wider community can get their hands on these initial maps too, here’s a quick update on just a handful of things we’ve been working on here.

Weather and lighting updates have helped set the menacing tone of Deathground outside and darkened the mood in our Mission Command map. You’ll have a torch, of course, but maybe a flash of lightning will help you find your way through the darkness…

Wish you were here?

There may be more places to take cover from the rain inside the facility, but you’ll still have to sneak past lurking dinosaurs in closer proximity. We’ve been improving the level design to help you navigate your way through and around this map, without compromising that sense of urgency to survive.

From feeling free and out in the open…

…to Hide and No Sneak

Of course, it'll be all fun and games watching your teammates run away screaming. Then again, when it's you being chased, take a cheeky peek over your shoulder just after sliding into a vent (in perhaps the coolest way possible) to check how close you were to being dinner.

Are they still following me?!

We’ve been improving how the primary items work and feel in-game too. Tracking a Compy with the Motion Detector might be fun - but sneaking around Raptors whilst attempting to escape by hacking terminals can be stressful, to say the least!

Gotcha, Compy.

The Hacking Device in action!

We’ll be heading into Alpha Early Access Phase 2 this month where Alpha-pledge Kickstarter backers will move on to playtesting the next map - The Geothermal facility’s Powerplant!

As always, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord[//] or watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok[www.tiktok.com]. Don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[//], Instagram[//] and X/Twitter[//] too. And if you’re an Alpha-pledged Kickstarter backer, keep an eye out for your next Mission Briefing coming soon!

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/1200770/Deathground/

After telling you about adding the 4th player slot in a recent update, we’re stoked to say that our new medic character, Dr Choi, is now fully playable and an option in-game. Our artist has finessed the model’s clothing and hair and she’s been fully textured, skinned and rigged with full animations by our animator, Beate.

Calling Dr Choi!Player down? No problem.WIPs of the Medic coming to life recently.But whose blood is on that ID card…?A little lore drop for you, Dr Choi is a brilliant biological researcher turned highly capable field medic. And because of her background, we’re naturally adding a Med-kit to the primary items options! …Wait, options?

After considering a lot of community feedback about not wanting to be restricted by a set aesthetic and ability for our playable characters, we’ve opted to open things up a bit more for you.

Our 4 playable characters with their lore-specific items.We want to give more power to the player. So, instead of being bound by a character class, you will now be able to mix and match your preferred character and a primary loadout item. Then in-game, while you won’t be able to carry more than one primary item, you will be able to drop ‘n’ swap your current primary item out if you discover another one in the map.

Here’s a quick summary of our starting four:

Motion Detector
The Scout’s go-to sneaky handheld device that allows the player to track the location of dinosaurs lurking nearby. Perfect for the rogue-type folk who need to be in the know.

Hacking Device
A handheld device of the Engineer's design that allows the player to 'Hack' some objects within the environment, unlocking or activating them. Just be careful, you don't want to set off any unwanted alarms in the process!

Tranquiliser Rifle
The high calibre rifle has now become a tranquiliser gun for gameplay balancing purposes. Still, with limited ammo, it can be fired at dinosaurs to temporarily send them to sleep. If you’re the sharpshooter of the group, the Survivalist’s item is for you.

Med-kit
A reusable Med-kit which allows the player to heal themselves or other players. Who needs a medic?! Most likely, all of us…

Let us know in the comments if you have any suggestions for future items!

Trust the Engineer to hack open the door where the raptor was waiting. Silly Advik…As always, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord[//] or watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok[www.tiktok.com]. Don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[//], Instagram[//] and X/Twitter[//] too. And if you’re an Alpha-pledged Kickstarter backer, make sure to check out the latest update posted last week!

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/1200770/Deathground/