Steam version Closed Beta news - Obsidian Conflict mod for Half-Life 2

The road was really rocky, and it seemed it wouldn't ever arrive, but we have finally in our hands a version stable enough, for the closed beta to begin.

In the case someone missed our previous article, here’s a recap on what are the goals of the closed beta:

• Expose any exploits or critical bugs that were overlooked during the internal testing, and fix them
• Restore the community-driven infrastructure of servers, public bug reporting, our official map database, and more.
• Generate updated wiki, tutorial & guide information for modders and server operators for the new version.
• Provide us with a larger pool of players to draw input from, as we work on the balance and polish of our content, leading up to the public release
  

While we are beginning to select the first candidates from a closed pool, there are three tester roles, which can be applied to by the public freely:

• Server Admins:
  With a focus towards current OC 1.35 server admins, we want anyone interested to host, on having access into the new Steam version, so they can start preparing their servers and at the same time, give us feedback about potential issues and improvements needed
  
  
• Translators:
  While OC always had a Japanese translation, we would like to expand the number of languages offered, especially now that we are on Steam. Users who are already present in our community, and that have already translated for other mods, will be favoured. Due to the sheer number of strings, it is recommended to work with another or as a team, per each language. For a list of current languages and who are working on them, please check our Trello
  
  
• Community Modders:
  With a great interest towards mappers, we want any “battle-hardened” modder to participate in, so they can tell us how they are finding the new version. Those familiar with creating stuff for the mod, will be favoured, as they might know what to do, to adapt old community maps for the Steam version if they want to. And if they can lend us a hand by writing / updating the Wiki and guides, even better!

We don’t have a fixed range of dates of how long should last the beta, and when the preparatives for the release should begin. Hopefully, we will not face many issues during it, so on the worst case scenario, it doesn’t take us longer than half a year to actually begin the final countdown towards the release.

Unfortunately, not everything is good news: Early this year, we had to say goodbye to KittopiaCreator, as he retired from Source modding, due to several real life issues affecting him. We are thankful for his great work done on the mod, and we wish him the best of luck in life.

This meant that our development speed decreased even more, although thankfully he completed his tasks before leaving, so we weren’t impacted much by his leave.

However, this could complicate things at a later time for the release. As a such, we are especially seeking new programmers to aid us with tweaking and solving issues found during the beta. Of course, we also have other open positions, like level designers or 2D artists. And one time contributors are accepted as well.

Interested? Head over to our application form page!

We hope that things goes smoothly from here, so we will keep all of you communicated about the progress through our Discord server and the Steam store page. With luck, we shall release this year!

Happy Pride month!