 What's up everybody, I'm the Mangus, you were awesome and I was once again lucky enough to playtest Project Stamina. This is the project attempting to create a spiritual successor to Gigantic, a game that died well before it's time. The team at Project Stamina are building from the ground up, using their own intellectual property, designing their own characters and maps, and using the opportunity to fix some of Gigantic's problems. I've been tracking and testing this game for a while now, and they just released their monthly updates, so today we're going to take a look at what the team has been up to. I also want to let you know that on July 31st, the team will be having a special informal livestream commemorating the day the servers died, where they plan to watch some Gigantic clips and reminisce about the old days. The twitch will be linked in the video description below. If you enjoy my content, please leave a like and subscribe for more if you want to. Before we dive into the updates, I want to let you know that the footage you see here is of a pre-alpha test version of the game. It looks great and runs extremely smooth, but they still have a ways to go before it's alpha ready. Some of the gameplay changes since I last tested include sound effects for Mitanni, and smoothed out areas of the map where we used to get stuck sometimes. Something I've mentioned before is that Project Stamina will use a system-generated UI instead of relying on art assets. This will lower system requirements while providing a dynamic user interface. However, Unreal's UMG, the tool that allows for this type of UI, does not work well unless you're going with simple rectangles. They are using the Unreal Engine to create their game which opens an enormous amount of possibilities, but also introduces some unique challenges. It's like working with Photoshop instead of MS Paint. You can do a ton more with Photoshop, but learning how to use it is much more difficult than just dicking around with paint. Their UI isn't currently as sleek as they would like it to be, but they're working on it. Here's a picture of the current planned UI which isn't where they want it to be yet, but it is clean and serviceable. They are still focusing on optimizing code for what they have now before adding new features. They are taking the slow and steady approach to make sure that they aren't piling on new problems on top of old ones. It's a slower process, but it will benefit everyone in the end. We'll get a better optimized game with faster download and install times. They get easier development and patching. They are also attempting to improve the feel of the game. Next, they're going to understand that a vast majority of the player base are going to be old gigantic fans, so they want the movement to feel similar. They also mentioned the addition of interactable content in the game like these shrines and offerings which I've shown in the past. Much of the 2D art projects have been put on low priority for now until they can improve their skills with Unreal's UI designer. The efforts they've been making on this front are the game's announced trailer and they ain't going to show that stuff until the big reveal. They assure us that the art team is working hard, but they can't really show us their efforts just yet. They also mentioned that they are working on some new emotes, which you may not think is anything to be excited about if you've never seen the Matani sippy cup of moat which is like the cutest shit ever. Big news from the 3D art department, Geist has been rigged and he doesn't have his animations yet, however he's a floaty boy so no need to animate footwork. Hopefully we'll see him in the game soon as he is quickly becoming a fan favorite. They completed a universal humanoid rig which will streamline the process for adding in humanoid heroes like Akka. This should be a big step towards getting more heroes added to the game quicker. I know many people prefer more monsters heroes, but having the universal humanoid rig means that time that would have gone into human rigging can now be spent on more bestial characters so I think this is a win in both directions. They brought up a problem with a workflow bottleneck that they run into with animations, however they also announced their solution. They've been able to provide a paid contract to Potato their 3D art lead so that he could focus on project stamina instead of freelance projects. This was made possible by the fans of project stamina who have been contributing to their Patreon. Resurrecting a game is a labor of love, but love doesn't put food on the table. Most of the people working on project stamina do so on this side. Being able to pay their 3D art lead combined with a volunteer switch to full time from Trex, the tech director, will be a huge improvement for the development as a whole. I normally don't like to sit here and try to sell you guys some stuff, but the project stamina Patreon I think is well worth the investment if you believe in this game. For a dollar a month you not only support the game, but you get access to a variety of posts and updates. Informative articles written usually by Mr. Fancy Pants, the producer, and you get to weigh in on the development of certain aspects of the game through polls. They are obviously putting that money to good use. Sure you can use that dollar to feed some starving kids somewhere, but that kid ain't gonna bring back your favorite game now are they? I'm kidding fuck, feed the kid and feed the project if you feel all bad about yourself. Speaking of helping to create the game, the community created character code named Cake, community architected kit experience, has their character art finished, the lore outlined, and most of the abilities in place. Now they are on to designing the ultimate ability. They've also been at work creating some new maps and have added someone who originally worked long gigantic to their roster as a level designer and consultant. I suppose they'll be joining Trenatus on some new map designs. They also recently consulted with a behavioral psychologist that recently wrote a paper on how mental models are used to facilitate competitive gameplay in League of Legends. The consultation went well giving projects them a few ideas on how to better bring people into the game and keep them playing, but also validated many of the great decisions they had already made. They continue to work on world building and narrative development. They have the history of Nevermarsh and more details about Geistun and they are currently working on the story of Infinity, a city on a floating island where some of the maps will be located. The fan base for Project Stamina continues to grow on all social media fronts, Patreon is giving them some money to work with and they are still looking at potential investors. It's still a little too early in the development cycle for them to attract any solid offers however they have sparked some interest. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I've played a lot of alpha content recently and even though Project Stamina is pre-alpha, they still hold the lead in gameplay fluidity and responsiveness in my opinion. The roster is small and many options are missing, but the base they are working from is extremely solid. Unlike the Paragon remakes, Project Stamina has had to work from the ground up, without access to premade assets. I think they've made the most of it. Using this opportunity to express their own creativity, allow the fans to collaborate on character development and improve upon core gameplay to create their own insanely fun game that will still encapsulate the spirit of Gigantic. For now this is the Mangoo setting off, you guys have a good one. Mangoo!