Attention Officers,

Welcome to the 78th edition of our Ready or Not Development Briefing, September 27th, 2024!

This week we’ll be taking a look at a new motion capture session, which we used to gather some valuable gameplay and cinematic shots for the upcoming DLC and future RoN content. In the process, we’ll outline a sample of the new features under development, namely AI item caching, suspect loadouts, hesitation system variations, suspect squad systems, and a new ban manager.

In other news our dev team is going to be featured in an AMA through eXputer’s online forums! If you have any burning questions for us, make sure to submit them at this link before questions close on Oct. 3rd: https://forums.exputer.com/threads/ready-or-not-devs-ama.957/

Note: These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that the content in our development briefings may still be a work in progress and subject to change.

Attention Officers,

Welcome to the 77th edition of our Ready or Not Development Briefing, August 30th, 2024!

August has been an eventful month between patches and some occasional downtime across the team.

In this briefing, we share moments from Gamescom and a brief intro to some of RoN’s recent feature development avenues, along with some undercurrents of movement from an ‘alternate reality’ storyline.

Quick mention― if you find yourself eyeing the Ready or Not development shirts on display in the following photos and looking for something of your own, keep an eye out for merch coming in the future. An abundance of care continues to go into our selection of merchandise partners and designs with the ultimate goal of equipping you with merch that is tangibly excellent.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. 

🔻🔻🔻

Read the full briefing here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/4599951478187399561

Attention Officers,

Welcome to the 76th edition of our Ready or Not Development Briefing, August 2nd, 2024!

This week we want to provide a hopeful retrospective from our Game Director, Gruntr, regarding the recent release of our first DLC, Home Invasion. The message also serves as a general reflection that will help you understand our current experience as a game development studio.

Thank you for all of your feedback and continued support for the game as we look to support the game to the best of our abilities.

We’re eager to deliver you all more Ready or Not content, growing together throughout the process. Speaking of which, Patch 2 for Home Invasion is on its way shortly.

Note: These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that the content in our development briefings may still be a work in progress and subject to change.

🔻🔻🔻

Read the full briefing here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/4357880461170647249

Attention Officers,

Thank you for joining us for the 75th edition of our Ready or Not Development Briefing, July 5th, 2024!

Today we’re sharing our teaser trailer for the incoming Home Invasion DLC, announcing the successful efforts of the UE5.3 github community in completing our open-source modding tool bounties, announcing a new optimal 4-week schedule for newsletter communications, and laying out community-focused comms/events that we’ll be releasing with our returning Community Manager, Kaminsky!

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol. 75 Development Briefing Summary Points:
(not a changelog)

• The teaser trailer for the incoming release of DLC 1 “Home Invasion” is now unveiled with emphasis on its story premise! (https://youtu.be/byt7k1z46QI)
• Our Unreal Engine 5.3 updated open-source modding tools bounty is now successfully completed.
  
  • These updated tools benefit UE5.3 modding as a whole but also help support RoN’s transition to UE5.3, with an official SDK still being our ultimate end goal.
• Starting today, we’ll be changing the schedule and structure of our newsletter-type communications so that they run in 4-week intervals.
  
  • In addition to the existing developer briefings, we are re-launching community focused newsletters. They will release in offset 4-week intervals so that there is a new newsletter of some sort about every 2 weeks.
• Our returning Community Manager, Kaminsky, will be providing many community-focused communications and hosting events like gamenights, giveaways, and AMAs!

🔻🔻🔻

Read the full briefing here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/4157466472561245087

Attention Officers,

• DLC 1 will no longer release during the Spring timeframe, though it is close to completion. It will release as soon as properly viable
  
  • We will be able to provide more info in the coming weeks with the next newsletter as progress on the situation is made

• Vast majority of DLC 1 content is completed
  • DLC 1 comes with 3 new weapons (plus effectively a 4th)
    
    • (available to all players regardless of DLC ownership)
  • 3 new maps largely completed with glimpses shown
    
    • (available to all players in multiplayer with a lobby host who owns the DLC)

• We have completed a transition for RoN from Unreal Engine 4.27 to Unreal Engine 5.3
  
  • It was important for efficiency and engine benefits that we complete the engine transition before adding new content to the game
    
    • Not every new UE5 feature will be utilized by RoN, but there is a solid list of immediately noticeable benefits that we’re confident will be included:
      
      • Better PSO integration tools, PSO precaching, DLSS 3.7, FSR 3, and new anti-aliasing methods (TSR).

• We are posting open bounties to update open-source modding tools and support Unreal Engine 5 modding as a whole (Affected tools: UE4SS, UAssetAPI, UAssetGUI)
  
  • RoN will receive official Software Development Kit modding support now that the UE5 transition is complete, but it will take time for the official SDK to be done properly and polished

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Read the full briefing here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/4173225900653684815

Attention Officers,

Thank you for joining us for the 73rd edition of our Ready or Not development briefing, May 10th, 2024!

This week we’ll be showing some work on new AI target detection systems that make engagements feel more fair in situations where the player is partially obscured from Suspect/Civilian AI line of sight.

We have two new specific types of target detection checks under development that are meant to meet this goal of fairness: “dynamic visibility blockers” that make thick CS gas clouds obscure your location from AI, and “AI detection cone checks” that make you less likely to be detected between small cracks or when mostly-obscured by cover at longer distances.

We also want to highlight this May as Mental Health Awareness month and contextualize the new videos on the topic that are releasing on our YouTube channel. In this newsletter you’ll find some additional development philosophy regarding the inception of our existing SWAT AI mental health system in-game for Commander Mode.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol. 73 Development Briefing Summary Points:
(not a changelog)

• AI Target Detection Changes
  • New dynamic visibility blockers that cause thick CS gas clouds to block effective AI target acquisition
    • AI fires at target’s last known position
  • AI accuracy is now reduced per meter of CS gas thickness
  • New target detection “cone” checks help prevent AI from acquiring targets through unintended tiny cracks, small gaps from a distance, and acquiring peaking players from a distance or at difficult corner angles
• May is Mental Health Awareness Month
  • New thematically relevant videos releasing on the VOID YouTube channel to help bring awareness to mental health concepts present in the game
    • First video is titled “PTSD”
  • Game design insights for the inception of the SWAT AI mental health feature in Commander Mode; simply surviving is not always enough.

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Read the full briefing here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/4210378060872317425

Attention Officers,

Thank you for joining us for the 72nd edition of our Ready or Not development briefing, April 12th, 2024!

Today we’re doing an early overview discussion of how our first piece of Downloadable Content, “Home Invasion”, will work and as well as provide a bit of initial info regarding its contents.

We want to have an accessible approach to our paid DLC, release a free game update parallel to Home Invasion to create a broader “Home Invasion Release,” and expand upon our in-game narrative in a nuanced, impactful manner.

DLC content is just one component of our ongoing support for Ready or Not. We have many bugfixes and free content updates in the pipeline.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol. 72 Development Briefing Summary Points:
(not a changelog)

• Free general game update launching parallel to the paid Home Invasion DLC, bringing forward some planned Quality of Life improvements and features
• DLC maps are available to be played at full quality by everyone in multiplayer matchmaking as long as their lobby host owns the DLC
• To be properly revealed at a later date for the Home Invasion DLC:
  • 3 new maps
  • 2 new weapons
• The Home Invasion mission narrative will provide continuity with the base game, yet also provide a nuanced experience that will take you away from the stark darkness of criminal ring activity to a much broader spectrum of disturbing grey.

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Read the full briefing here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/4166466695875350102

Attention Officers,

Thank you for joining us for the 71st edition of our development briefing, March 29th, 2024!

This week we’ll look at our new dynamic dialogue-related systems for AI which will give us more flexibility and nuance for storytelling, as well as showcase some of the recent work on our lip sync system.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, although they do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol.71 Development Briefing Summary Points:
(not a changelog)

• Dynamic Dialogue System
  • Allows for easily creatable dialogue strings between multiple characters
  • Intricate level of customization
  • Complements existing reaction voice line system
  • New dialogue being written and recorded
• Lip Sync System
  • Video showcase of the recent early implementation of our lip sync system

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Read the full briefing here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/5970156536076279777

Attention Officers,

Thank you for joining us for the 60th edition of our biweekly development briefing, September 22, 2023!

Today, we have some important details to cover in the form of a Public Service Announcement regarding the game’s ongoing development process, and technical reasons for a lack of public build updates as our many departments work effectively towards delivering you all the 1.0 version of the game.

In this process we will describe avoiding development crunch, maintaining efficiency, and a technical perspective that represents the challenges our currently rapid and all-enveloping development progress presents for releasing incremental public updates.

It’s all about forward momentum rather than perpetual Early Access, and we will see this project through to meet you all at its many future successes and a mature, complete stage. We are incredibly pleased with the progress we’ve made so far, and although we’re sorry about the absence of recent incremental public build updates, we appreciate you all continuing to stick with us so that these exciting game changes can be released together once 1.0 eventually arrives.

(Note: The term “incremental update” refers to a public build that is released as an update in-between major milestone development versions of the game. These public builds contrast with development builds of the game, which are not yet released)

As we discuss examples that illustrate this development topic, you will also find substantial new work-in-progress content throughout this briefing!

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Read the full briefing here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/6843838379406308519