Hello community,

Starting with the June Sandbox Update, we are implementing a new TEST BRANCH for The Long Dark. This reflects the fact that we have a huge diversity of players on a variety of hardware configurations, and as a small studio we just can’t test them all!

The idea here is to provide an early version of the next update, about a week or so before we’d like to launch it officially in the Release branch (i.e. where you are currently getting it), so that we get some extra time to find bugs, crashes, and any other issues before it goes lives for the rest of our community.

>>> IF YOU DO NOT OPT-IN TO THE TEST BRANCH, YOU WILL NOT GET IT. I.e. You will not get the Test Branch build "by accident". This should help keep spoilers to a minimum.

>>> The Test Branch will go live FRIDAY, JUNE 17th, at 1PM PST.

>>> The June Update will be migrated from the Test Branch to the Release Branch as soon as it is ready. We anticipate this will happen mid next week, but this is a HOPE and not a PROMISE.

Some details. READ THESE CAREFULLY:

* The Test Branch is for STEAM ONLY. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
* The Test Branch is full of SPOILERS. If you don’t want to see what’s in the next update, stay out of the Test Branch and all its discussions.
* The Test Branch is a tool for us to find issues with Work In Progress features. We’re primarily looking for feedback on bugs, crashes, and any major balancing issues.
* When reporting on bugs or issues, please use the appropriate TEST BRANCH sub-forums on Steam and in our Official Community. DO NOT DISCUSS TEST BRANCH FEATURES outside the Test Branch sub-forums. Those posts will be moved or deleted.
* When reporting on bugs or issues, please use the suggested templates. This will help the development team filter the feedback, eliminate duplicates, and in general ensure we can act on the feedback in a more timely fashion.

Our hope is that this new Test Branch process will allow us to ensure we can continue to put out stable Sandbox updates well into the future.

We’re very hopeful that the people who choose to opt-in to this Test Branch will approach this as a way to help ensure the updates are as smooth and stable as possible, and not use the Test Branch discussion as a forum to lobby for or against certain features or content.

As always, The Long Dark is a community-informed, not community-driven, project. We look forward to enlisting your help in identifying whatever issues we’ve missed in our own internal testing!

For more details, please check out the TEST BRANCH discussion forums [SPOILERS!] Please note this discussion is locked to anyone who doesn't own The Long Dark in their Steam library: http://steamcommunity.com/app/305620/discussions/8/

Thank you!

The Hinterland Team