State of the Game 2020 by the Project Director for Killing Floor 2

Shodan/ Dicembre 10, 2020/ Killing Floor 2

Killing Floor 2: State Of The Game 2020

As 2020 soon draws to a close, it’s important to once again look back at the year to see where the game has been and look ahead to the future for what comes next. This past year has certainly been a challenge for everyone in the world, so right at the start I would like to send a heartfelt thanks to our entire community that has grown and supported us throughout the year. Your commitment to Killing Floor 2 is what enables us to do what we do and pushes us to go on.

This year we added the Epic Games Store to the fold for KF2, which added millions of new owners to the community to experience the special carnage that is Killing Floor. We’re floored (no pun intended) by that many new fans over 5 years after Early Access launch, which brings the total to nearly 30 million people who own a Killing Floor game over the years of the franchise.

Being that this was the first year we partnered with Saber Interactive, we needed to solve unique challenges required to make compelling Killing Floor 2 content while at the same time working across time zones and entirely remotely to develop, playtest, and tune everything we made together. In that context, I’m extremely grateful to the team for being able to adapt to the circumstances while still being able to deliver the usual complement of robust seasonal updates on schedule and up to the high quality standards we hold for ourselves. Congratulations once again, to my Saber colleagues.

Here are the major highlights from the year:
Today’s Killing Floor 2
Game Updates

  • Neon Nightmares – March 24th, 2020
  • Perilous Plunder- June 8th. 2020
  • Infernal Insurrection – September 29th, 2020
  • Christmas Crackdown – December 8th, 2020

New Platform:

  • Epic Games Store



Maps

  • Biolapse
  • Desolation
  • Hellmark Station
  • Elysium

Seasonal Zed Variants

  • Summer and Halloween – Matriarch

Weapons

  • Compound Bow (Sharpshooter)
  • HRG Incendiary Rifle (Firebug)
  • Single & Dual Glock 18 (Gunslinger)
  • Blunderbuss (Demolitionist / Support)
  • HRG Kaboomstick (Demolitionist)
  • HRG Telauncher (Berserker)
  • Mine Reconstructor (Field Medic)
  • Minigun (Commando)
  • HRG Scorcher (Firebug)
  • HRG Arc Generator (Survivalist)
  • Frost Fang (Support/Berserker)
  • HRG Vampire (Field Medic)

Quality of Life Improvements:

  • Cross Friend Play between Epic Game Store and Steam
  • Implemented Vivox Voice Chat for PC.
  • Skip Trader Vote Improvements
  • Healing UI Improvements
  • Boss Stomp adjustment
  • Underslung Reload UI
  • Controller Switch Weapon Adjustment
  • Backend Status UI Indicator
  • Store UI Filtering
  • Better Controller Deadzone and Acceleration Sliders
  • Gear Menu Flow improvement
  • In-game discount UI Improvements

New Music

  • “Reboot” by Rocky Gray
  • “Space Pirates” by Rocky Gray
  • “Legend” by Rocky Gray
  • “Pumpkinhead” by Rocky Gray
  • “Wonderland” by Rocky Gray
  • “Slay Bells” by Rocky Gray

What Lies Ahead
With the growth and success of Killing Floor 2 in 2020, we’re happy to announce the game will continue to be supported for its 6th Year of Post-Release Seasonal updates filled to the brim with the weapons, maps, events, and quality of life improvements you’ve come to expect. We’ll once again be partnering with Saber Interactive throughout the year to deliver a similar level of content and features to what you experienced in 2020. We think you’ll be excited to see what all we have in store!

As what has become an annual tradition, we also have a new State of the Game survey ready, so you the community, can let us know your thoughts about the current state of Killing Floor 2. Your feedback is invaluable in helping better direct our developers’ quality of life priorities to keep the game balanced and fun. The weapon and perk tunes that we implemented over the past year was derived primarily from last year’s feedback. Here’s the link for where you can submit your feedback and suggestions. The survey will be up until the end of the year for you to fill out. Thanks in advance for your time.

State of the Game Survey[forms.gle]

Additional Weapons – Our time honored tradition of creating exciting and unique weapons across multiple perks will be in full force. These will come in a variety of realistic favorites, sci-fi experimentations, and jerry-rigged prototypes that Killing Floor’s arsenal is renowned for. We’ll continue to generate new HRG weapons to provide free weapon content to our users to present new gameplay options and functionality within the core meta. As for what’s in store first, I can’t divulge too much but you might want to invest in some ear muffs and brush up on your Newtonian theories.

Additional Maps – A key focus will again be to bring in the creative diversity on offer within our community created maps, elevate them to official status, and apply the careful optimization, clean up, and improvements to keep it in alignment with the high standards we have for all official content. As for a wholly new official map, we’ve planned something that should be out of this world for next year.

Major Events – Seasonal events are foundational to our quarterly updates in which we’ll be looking to expand on existing themes with new twists thrown in for good measure.

Quality of Life Additions – User experience tuning and adjustments are an important pillar of every Killing Floor 2 update alongside new content and experiences. We rely heavily on our surveys, forums, and community interactions to see what requests float to the top. From there, we’ll analyze what’s possible with the resources, systems, and time we have available to implement that community feedback. While not everything will be possible for the team, we’ll do our best to outline the rationale for each decision and how we prioritize our focus within our efforts.

Bugs – Every update comes with a myriad of fixes for both new and existing content. We’ll continue to work towards having a more polished and stable experience with every update. As a reminder, the best way to bring bugs to our attention is through our official forums which are available here:

Official Tripwire KF2 Forums[forums.tripwireinteractive.com]

Continued Polish & Refinement – We’ve been pleased and impressed to see what Tripwire and Saber have been able to accomplish together in these unprecedented times and going forward we’ll be looking to improve and grow in our relationship to maintain a high quality and push ourselves to greater heights.

Community Interaction – As always we want to hear from you and interact with our community on a regular basis. We’ll be accessible and broadcasting what’s coming with our forums and social media channels where we’ll keep you posted whenever new content drops, any known issues we’re aware of, and what new items we’re working on that we’re ready to share.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/KillingFloorGame
Twitter – https://twitter.com/KillingFloor
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/killingfloorgame/
Discord – https://discord.gg/aBERH3T7

The community’s involvement and commitment to Killing Floor 2 after all these years has been astounding and is the engine that drives our success. We’re delighted to continue to be able to expand and grow these games and keep the player base thriving for as long as we’re able to. Killing Floor 2 has a bright future ahead for 2021 and we hope you’re as excited as we are to get your hands on it.

See you all on the Killing Floor.

Regards,
David Amata
Product Director
Tripwire Interactive