DevGround Episode 3 is now ready for you to catch up with Deathground's developments! In this month’s episode, we delve a little deeper into the Greenhouse map, see some behind-the-scenes of the Brachiosaurus coming to life, and give a little extra insight into the latest character updates, including lore-specific primary loadout items and more. Ready? Hit play!

Chapter breakdown:
0:00 Welcome back!
0:11 Oh hello, Future Games Show
0:54 Early Access!?
1:37 Dipping the lights...
2:35 Bringing the Brachiosaurus to life
3:17 Ping! Look over there!
3:43 Hiding vs. Healing
4:32 Using the Tranquilliser Rifle
5:01 Playable Character Options...

Cheers for tuning in! As always, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord[www.discord.gg] or watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok[www.tiktok.com]. Don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com] and X/Twitter too. We're still working out Threads[www.threads.net] and Bluesky[bsky.app] but hey, we'll see you there too.

And in case you missed it, you can watch our new gameplay teaser trailer below!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1200770/Deathground/

In case you missed our announcement at the end of DevGround Episode 2, Deathground's DevLog, the game is going to be featured in the Future Games Show later today!

The Spring Showcase will start at 1pm PT, 4pm ET, 8pm GMT and 9pm CET, and will be broadcast on Twitch, YouTube, X, Facebook, TikTok, GamesRadar, Steam, Epic Game Store, PC Gamer, IGN, GameSpot, BiliBili and more. It will be hosted by actors Nolan North (Nathan Drake, Uncharted Series) and Jennifer English (Shadowheart, Baldur’s Gate 3). To make sure you get the ping when the show starts, you can set a reminder to watch!

We hope you enjoy the show later, we'll be hanging out in Discord[discord.gg] throughout the broadcast. Come and join us there!

In the meantime, you can watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok[www.tiktok.com], find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com] and X/Twitter too. We're still working out Threads[www.threads.net] and Bluesky[bsky.app] but hey, we'll see you there too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1200770/Deathground/

DevGround Episode 2 is now ready for you to catch up with Deathground's developments! As well as answering some community questions from last month's DevLog, in this month’s episode, we're sneaking into the Agricultural Facility to get a glimpse of the Greenhouse map and more. Plus, a little extra insight into the latest Dino AI tricks and character updates, and make sure to stay tuned until the end for a special announcement...

Ready? Hit play!

Thanks for watching and we hope you enjoy the show next week!

As always, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord[www.discord.gg] or watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok[www.tiktok.com]. Don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com] and X/Twitter too. We're still working out Threads[www.threads.net] and Bluesky[bsky.app] but hey, we'll see you there too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1200770/Deathground/

We've wanted to make more visual and engaging content for some time to help keep you in the loop. We hope this makes it easier to get your Deathground fill! We're switching it up to do monthly public DevLogs to replace written and sometimes lengthy updates.

DevGround Episode 1 is here, hit play and enjoy catching up with Deathground's development in less than 5 minutes!

For any of our Kickstarter backers, don't forget to read the latest update {LINK REMOVED}here for the announcement!

We hope you liked this new style of content as a way to digest updates faster and easier. This is only the start, let us know what you'd like to see more of.

As always, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord[www.discord.gg] or watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok[www.tiktok.com]. Don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com] 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://store.steampowered.com/app/1200770/Deathground/

The holiday season is quickly approaching! Thanks to every single one of you who's been following the game with interest, sharing it with friends and leaving such positive comments or interesting gameplay suggestions on here, our Discord and across socials. We hugely appreciate it all and it's incredibly motivating and exciting to see - it's not long now until we can share more and more!

It's been a rollercoaster of a year in the industry and for our game and studio but we've overcome lots of tough challenges and done everything we can to get the game in the best shape it's been. Especially in this latter part of 2024 with launching the first major rounds of Kickstarter Backer Testing and thanks to our talented and dedicated team working around the clock. I hope this is evident in our most recent and frequent Steam updates and it all builds a great foundation for next year!

We're looking forward to getting more and more gamers in on the action with Beta testing and potential wider testing so do let us know if you'd be interested in that. Here's a little teaser of what's to come...

But until then, whichever way you choose to spend the festive season, we hope you have an amazing time and wish you a Happy New Year.

Thanks everyone, until next year!

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[www.discord.gg] or watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok[www.tiktok.com]. Don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com] 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://store.steampowered.com/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[www.discord.gg] or watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok[www.tiktok.com]. Don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com] 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://store.steampowered.com/app/1200770/Deathground/

Remember that WIP teaser we showed you last month, of a Compy feeling threatened? The one where they jumped up and started attacking the player at the face and neck out of self-defence? Well, here it is fully rendered and in first-person!

Despite their adorable size and fluffy feathers, getting up close and personal with the Compy, or any dinosaur for that matter, is a bad choice!

As well as the dinosaurs, our lead Animator, Beate has also been creating and hooking up player movement animations such as the slide mechanic. Pretty perfect for part of your dramatic escape, sliding into cover areas like vents or drop-down spaces. We hope you enjoy sliding your way in and out of danger!

Player slide animation WIP

Dash and slide under natural cover in the jungle or dramatically enter a building, your choice!

Internal monologue while testing the slide mechanicA reminder to our Kickstarter backers who have pledged for the private Alpha access reward, please check your updates! You'll soon be getting your hands on a 'pre-alpha' build, playtesting missions and mechanics to help us refine Deathground. Starting with the Mission Command map!

Once we've collated feedback and iterated the levels, it'll be onto Beta testing and beyond. This may or may not include more public playtests. So, keep an eye out for that if you'd be interested!

Although we’re maintaining beast mode for Alpha testing, we will still aim to keep you updated on our progress throughout. Even if it’s a light, bitesize update like this one. Please stay patient with us, we’re a small team now with plenty to work on. Thanks for your ongoing support!

As always, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord[www.discord.gg]. And don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com], X/Twitter and TikTok[www.tiktok.com] too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1200770/Deathground/

Thank you to everyone who joined our roundtable discussion in Discord[www.discord.gg] last month, to talk about Compy attacking behaviours. Our animator, Beate, loved reading through all of your ideas and has been busy working on these agile terrors. Check out our cheeky, chompy Compy, with a look at their agile pouncing. As if to go in for a bite at, what would be, ankle and calf height!

Jump, bite, disengage, repeat!A lot of our community on Discord[www.discord.gg] gave us the impression that, when attacked by a Compy, gamers would want to feel that rush of sudden overwhelm. How could a creature so small, deal so much anxiety?! Especially when these little creatures are targeting soft areas of the human body, like the eyes and face. They might look cute, but we'll say it again, don't try and pet them!

If not friend, why friend-shaped?In-game, it’s really important to us that you feel immersed in a tense environment both visually and audibly. With the raptors being the main dinosaur that’ll come up against, our Audio Director has been enjoying giving these personalities some monstrous flavour. Here’s a little tease of what they sound like right now.

Raptor SFX: Sniff, curious, call, roar, attack, pain and death.What do you think? Watch it again and this time, try closing your eyes when you listen. Imagine you’re in a dark hiding spot and can’t see where the raptor is, but you hear it call out to fellow raptors!

For those who already liked the sound of the Raptor before, don’t worry, we’ll still be using that audio work. We’re going to utilise the previous sound versions for the juvenile raptors instead.

Deathground’s juvenile and adult Utahraptor, side by side. "Hey Pop, I'm hungry!"Graham has been busy building high-quality construction kits for all character and environmental sounds that you’ll hear in Deathground. To give you a better chance of reacting before things get too hairy, he’s building the soundscape in a way that’ll help inform you what is happening around you, particularly with the dinosaurs' behaviour.

“No doubt, you’ll get very familiar with our dinosaur tones over time. We need to use an efficient pool of SFX assets for different actions and movements to make sure each dinosaur has a unique tone. So, as soon as you hear something coming, whether that’s by it's breath or the weight of a footstep, you’ll start to recognise which species is approaching.” - Graham, Audio Director.

For any nervous players, feel free to start studying the raptor now!

Q: What mammals and/or birds do you think helped create the raptor SFX?

Internally, we've been enjoying playtesting multiplayer with 4 players now that we've got our 4th player slot added. We're looking forward to seeing what you and your squads get up to in the future!

Advik and Donald patiently waiting in the elevator for Dakota to join them. Always such a graceful landing.

We know you’ve been patiently waiting for Deathground to release or asking for the release date. We will be starting Alpha playtesting soon with our Kickstarter backers, after this period we’ll have a better idea of the roadmap ahead. Thank you for sticking with us!

As always, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord[www.discord.gg]. And don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com], X/Twitter and TikTok[www.tiktok.com] too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1200770/Deathground/

Adding a 4th player slot was the final stretch goal of our Kickstarter campaign but we didn’t reach that funding mark. After talking to our backers and reflecting on our own development ambitions, we felt it would add a lot of value to the game. After some base implementation and testing, it felt possible!

New character? Who dis

We always knew that we wanted to add it in at some point, perhaps in a post-launch update. Perhaps…now?!

Due to the various development hurdles we've endured and overcome (i.e. the loss of publisher support, downsizing to a small team), we had to frustratingly rebuild some elements during that descope period too. But we took that window of opportunity to factor in additional mechanics. Such as the extra player slot! We feel it'll add a lot to the game as well as be a gift to players for your ongoing support and for the delays. Before, we hardly had any breathing room to explore further ideas or take on external feedback. Now, with full creative control back in our court and a small dedicated team, it's quicker to produce gameplay and content.

It’s a good achievement for our reduced team and it’s a sign of things to come as we can start playing around with ideas from the community and see what sticks! It’s also great news for the 4th friend in your gaming circle who didn’t make the cut when you told them it was a 1-3 player game.

Technically speaking, adding a 4th player slot isn't extremely complex, but everything that comes along with it is costly. A new character model, balancing 4 players during gameplay, increasing pick-up items and objectives, lore, audio, matchmaking and UI, etc., adds up in time and effort.

Nothing says “learn from my mistakes” more than a blood-soaked ID card...

Thanks for your support during this challenging dev timeline. If you're a Kickstarter backer, please go to the latest Kickstarter update for details on testing. While there may be opportunities for the wider community to help us with playtesting, we will be honouring our Kickstarter backers who pledged for private Alpha/Beta testing access first. We shall let you know if we need more hands on deck!

We really appreciate your continued support, comments and sharing of the game during this time. Please keep it up and we hope that the additional player slot, character and gameplay possibilities are already getting you excited!

TL;DR Now, you’ll be able to play and attempt to survive in Deathground together as a group of 4 rather than just 3, if you want!

One more cryptic lore-drop for the road…

We’ll be introducing the mysterious 4th playable character in another update soon! As always, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord[www.discord.gg]. And don’t forget, you can find and follow us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com], X/Twitter and TikTok[www.tiktok.com] too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1200770/Deathground/