If you haven’t heard, the team here at Xaviant is working on a big new update called The Culling: Origins. The goal of the update is to take the game back to its roots. The look and feel will be very close to the Day 1 version, but we’ll be keeping the bug fixes, improved art content, and performance optimizations that were solid steps forward. Along with this update, The Culling will also become free-to-play. We’ve been looking closely at the Day 1 Reference build and also reviewing all the changes we made made way back in the day. We know the game wasn’t perfect on Day 1, but we also recognize that on the whole, our changes took things in the wrong direction. As confident as we are in our abilities, we also need a process where we can make improvements and additions without jeopardizing what made the game so special in the first place. Some of those changes will be coming with the release of the Origins update, so we need to open up lines of communication right away. Right away as in right now. We don’t want any surprises and we feel it’s important to give all of you an opportunity to weigh in with your opinions and ideas. Let’s be real: Even with better communication, we’re bound to make mistakes. With that in mind, we want to assure you that when we do put a foot wrong, we’ll be listening to feedback and we won’t be too proud to roll back a change that isn’t working. Our goal with our Dev Diary posts leading to Origins is to cover the major aspects of the game. If we’re planning to make changes that deviate from Day 1, we’ll explain the problem we’re trying to solve and the plan we’ve put together. We’ll give you the opportunity to weigh in on each topic. Before we start tackling big topics, we want to outline our approach. These are some internal rules we’ve been making for ourselves:

• When it comes to the mechanics, rules, and timing of melee combat, you can’t change anything without forcing everyone to relearn the game. Leave Day 1 alone.
• Many systems were a lot more fun on Day 1. Only change what you have to. That includes Perks, Airdrops, Economy, Looting, and more.
• Sometimes small changes have a bigger impact than you expect, so be careful and don’t fix something that isn’t broken.
• The game features lots of highly lethal items, i.e. explosives, firearms, Stun Guns, etc. Finding a balance between high lethality (which can be a lot of fun) and easy accessibility (i.e. Stun Guns in cheap airdrops or Dynamite in Green Crates) is a tough proposition. Careful tuning is key. No dramatic changes.
• On Day 1, the look and feel of the game was more sinister. Let’s get away from the brighter sci-fi look we introduced with The Big House and get back to The Culling.
• The pacing and freedom offered in Day 1 was a lot of fun. Don’t force players to follow a specific path through a match and allow for gameplay creativity.

With that out of the way, we’d like to engage you all on a specific topic: Health Station Tethering.
On Day 1, you could initiate healing with a Health Station and maintain healing during a fight. This isn’t something we originally intended, but some players enjoy the dynamics of fighting around health stations in the Day 1 version. In the live build, this behavior has been changed. You have to face the Health Station in order to heal and your healing is interrupted when you perform combat actions. Since the Day 1 behavior wasn’t something we originally wanted and we don’t think it communicates well (it’s hard to tell who is being healed or how to interrupt them), our current plan is to maintain the live version and remove the tether. What do you think? Please click the following link to fill out the survey. The Culling Survey: Should Health Stations Maintain Healing In Combat? Thank you for taking the time to contribute to the success of The Culling: Origins. We’re excited to share more with you soon. Until next time, We’ll see you on the island!

[ 2018-08-08 12:29:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

As a contestant in the deadly game of The Culling, you must explore, scavenge items, craft weapons, and build traps that will enable you to slay your fellow contestants and emerge victorious before the end of the round. Only with cunning, skill, and a little luck will you be able to prevail and survive the match.

Unlike add-on modes in open-world survival games, The Culling redefines the battle royale genre by providing a tightly focused stand-alone experience that delivers incredible thrills and endless story-worthy moments.

Features at Early Access Launch

Game Modes

The core of The Culling is an online 16-player battle royale, played solo or in teams of two. Matches last approximately 20 minutes, with deadly poison gas slowly constricting the arena in the final stages. The winning player (or team) is the last left alive.


With no respawning on death, you have to make every action count. Play too cautiously and you won’t be prepared for the final clash at the end of the match, too aggressively and you might not make it past the first few minutes.

Weapons and Combat

The Culling focuses heavily on melee combat. Use jabs, charged swings, blocks, and shoves in a system that’s simple learn, but requires practice to truly master.


There are 24 melee weapons in the form of blades, axes, bludgeons, and spears. There are multiple tiers of weapons, which deal different levels of damage, from the lowly crafted stone knife to the mighty Katana. Different weapons types also apply different wounds, which factors into combat strategy. All melee weapons can be thrown, adding the potential for ranged combat in any encounter.

There is also a variety of ranged weapons, including bows, blowguns, and even highly-coveted firearms. A gun isn’t a guaranteed kill, however, as ammunition is in short supply and ranged players can be disarmed by melee strikes if they don’t keep their distance.

Traps

Players who thrive on outwitting their enemies can sample from a collection of traps in the form of snares, mines, remote-detonated explosives, caltrops, and punji sticks. Matches are fast-paced, so sneaky players must lay their traps in hot spots (such as near an airdrop landing pad) or use themselves as bait to lure opponents in.

Items

A wide range of utility items is at your disposal, with everything from backpacks to smoke bombs, run speed stims to stun guns, player tracking devices to bandages. You start each match empty-handed, so you must explore to survive. Inventory space is extremely limited, forcing you to think carefully about how you intend to play and what you want to carry.

Crafting

The Culling utilizes a unique crafting system that is very simple to use (no bulky UI-heavy inventory management) but still offers a wide range of recipes. Players can craft rudimentary weapons, a wide range of traps, and a handful of useful items, including bandages, satchels, and even body armor.

Perks

Each contestant chooses 3 perks before the start of a match. There are dozens of perks available, and they range from combat bonuses (increase the duration of bleed wounds you apply with blade weapons) to crafting skills (reduce your trap placement time), to general utility (begin the match with a tracking device in your inventory).


All of the perks are available to all players from the start with no unlocking required. You can use perks to define and enhance your personal play style, whether it be focused on ranged, melee, or trap-based strategy. Advanced players will find helpful synergies between their perk load-out and their airdrop selection.

Airdrops

Players select a personal airdrop to call in during the match. Air drops are deadly care packages containing a predefined variety of weapons, traps and items. Be careful, because calling in an airdrop draws attention to you and can be stolen by other players (especially if they manage to shoot it out of the sky before it arrives).


New airdrops are unlocked by opening the container, so finding a random airdrop during a match or stealing another player’s airdrop will unlock it in your list.

Game Show Events

The Culling is the most popular game show in the history of the world, and for good reason. The show’s producers have devised events that take place at random during the match. If you choose to participate in these events, the rewards can improve your chances of winning, but don’t be surprised when other players arrive to challenge you.

FUNC

Flexible Universal Nano-Compound, or FUNC, serves as the primary in-game currency. You spend FUNC to craft, call in personal airdrops, and open certain types of item chests. FUNC is gained through combat and exploration.

Character Customization

Players start the game with a variety of hairstyles, tops, pants, and skin tones at their disposal. Through playing matches, new customization items can be unlocked. There are over 100 items available to unlock, with many more planned.

Audio

The Culling places a heavy gameplay emphasis on audio. Making noise by sprinting through the jungle crafting items, slamming doors, and engaging in combat will draw the attention of other players far and wide.


Using audio cues to locate opponents and using the crouch mode to conceal your movements add tremendously to the game’s suspense and immersion.

Map Exploration

The Culling ships with one map set on a tropical island. The map size has been carefully tuned to provide just enough space for 16 contestants, but also to ensure than no one is safe for long. The map is populated with landmarks, buildings (full of lockers and crates containing items), hidden caches, and hazards.


Many of these elements are random, meaning map knowledge is important, but offers no guarantees. When the match starts, you can choose to immediately set about crafting some basic survival tools, or sprint to the nearest building in the hopes that it will contain valuable items.

Tutorials and Offline Training Mode

The Culling can be intimidating for new players, so we’ve included basic and advanced tutorials that will help you learn all of the game’s mechanics.

If you’re still not ready to face players online, there is an offline practice mode against basic AI-controlled bots that will allow you to practice in a low-pressure situation.

Steam Items

No contestant leaves a match of The Culling empty-handed. Cosmetic items (hats, hair styles, shirts, and pants) are awarded at the end of each round, with rarer items rewarded for better performance. These items are tradeable on the Steam Market.