Hello! GM Lars here, bringing an important and exciting message from GM Meiji.

# Tidbits on Dec. 6th 3.7 Update

As we always do, we want to share news on major system changes that will happen with the upcoming patch. Bugfixes and balance adjustments will be shared with a [Patch Note] nearer to the patch date. Images included in this post, as usual, are works in progress. Please use them only as references!

<Building Steam>

We shared the news that the Steam version will be released in the last Tidbits, but circumstances arose that prevented us from doing that. But this time, we have surmounted all obstacles and we are sure the Steam beta service will commence with this patch.

Black Survival for Steam will be in beta stage. There will be flaws and mistakes, so we ask you to please be understanding!

Black Survival for Steam will launch as an Early Access title. It is free to download and in-game purchases work the same was as they do on the mobile version.

Steam players will share the server with mobile players.

Steam players will be able to use both keyboard and gamepad.

The Steam version is still imperfect. The reason we chose to launch it as an Early Access title is because we want to share the project with the fans and work on completing it with your feedback.

<Conclusion of Season 3>

We have had a lot of things happen during Season 3 of Black Survival. With this patch, Season 3 will come to an end. The highest rank you’ve achieved in Season 3 will be recorded and you may receive a reward for it when Season 4 begins!

Black Survival will have about a month of Pre-Season after 3.7. In Pre-Season, you can certainly play in ranked games — but Pre-Season score will not be recorded.

<New Character — Sua>

Sua will soon join the experiments on Lumia Island. A preview will go up anytime now! Sua’s New Character Package will be available until the patch following 3.7.

<New Skins — Lovestruck Leon & Detective Aya>

We can’t forget about them. New Skins for Leon and Aya will be revealed with this patch!

<Skill Sound>

Sound is a critical element in creating the right atmosphere for a game. Last few updates have focused on this aspect. With this patch, we will reveal Skill Sound — the part of the sound overhaul project we’ve spent the most time on!

From now on, Adriana will say a pithy one-liner when she uses Arson. When she uses Blaze, you will hear the flames she just set on the enemy. (Sadly, Skill Lines in English will have to wait for a short while.)

(Dr. Thomas’s area restriction announcements will be pushed back to after the areas have become restricted. Please excuse the confusion we’ve caused!)

<Survivor Counter>

Now, Black Survival will tell you how many Test Subjects remain alive on Lumia Island. You can keep track of the game flow more easily this way! (We are not sure why it took us so long to implement this feature…)

<Game Result UI>

The game result screen looks a lot better now. Tada!

<Matchmaking Improvement>

We have touched up the matching algorithm so that highest-ranking players do not have to wait forever to find a match.

# Future Goals (Post-January)

<Beginning of Season 4: 4.0 on Jan. 10th>

After a month of Pre-Season, we will commence Season 4 of Black Survival in January of 2018. Depending on Apple’s app review schedule over the holiday season, the date may change.

We do not plan on making sweeping gameplay changes like we did with Season 3. However, we will still do things that shake up the game. As for game design goals of Season 4, please let us put together our words better, so that we can share them in a later post.

<Black Survival — in China>

Currently, Black Survival is officially not in service in China. But pirated copies have been going around and they have attracted quite a lot of new fans. We’ve been talking with an official Chinese partner for 3 months now. Our conversations forbade us from sharing too much information, so we are sorry that we could not share more. However, what we can say are as follow:

The Chinese service of Black Survival will begin near the beginning of next year. It will be launched after a period of Closed Beta Testing.

The Chinese service of Black Survival will run on a separate server and we will not be able to play with Chinese players any longer (this was required by Chinese laws.)

The Chinese service of Black Survival will use the exact same version as the global service. We hope to encourage worldwide communication and competition via tournaments and so on.

<And So On>

In the last Tidbits, we have hinted at a lot of things in <Massive Changes for Season 4>. Everyone has been working hard for them, but there is quite a lot put on our table and we may not be able to synchronize everything with the release of Season 4. Some may be implemented a month or two later! The Lobby’s UI will be renovated to suit a more modern sensibility, the game will be further optimized, and players will get to beat Daily Quests. Skin Fragments come after these.

<Team Mode> is still going through internal testing. After several office matches, we are now leaning toward 3 vs. 3 or 4 vs. 4 instead of Duos. In Duos, there are many teams and the synergy to be found in a team match isn’t so drastic. However, pitting two teams of many against each other seems to expanding the strategic horizon of Black Survival. But Team Mode has been a long-time project of ours and there are many variables, both known and unknown. We will make sure to update our progress as frequently as we can.

As usual, the Future Goals are works in progress and subject to change. We appreciate your feedback!

Thank you!