Greetings! You may have noticed the playtest button that quietly appeared on the store page and be wondering what that’s for. In this update I will tell you all about it, but first, a bit of history: With TOXICANT I set out to make game that wasn’t just another zombie shooter. Instead, I wanted to focus on more on evasion, and much of the design is based around this (tunnels, stealth buffs/debuffs, stamina, etc.). At the time I was heavily inspired by games like Outlast and Alien: Isolation—games where you often need to run or hide instead of fight your way out. As a result, the original version of TOXICANT contains no guns, only makeshift melee weapons and mining equipment. While I stand by this decision, and I still think it’s a unique experience, I know it’s not a playstyle that everyone wants. Sometimes you just want to blast everything in your way, and who am I decide that you can only play this game hiding in the corner, cowering in fear? To that end, I present the Rampage! update. This update adds the following: [list] [*]A new shotgun item in the main game mode. Ammo is extremely limited, so you’ll still need to play the game largely as originally intended, but it will most certainly get you out of a bind more than any other weapon. [*]A new game mode: Rampage! mode, unlocked by finding the shotgun in the main game mode. In this mode you spawn with a fully loaded shotgun, and the level generation logic has been altered to for a more action-oriented experience (fewer tunnels, more enemies, more ammo spawns, etc.). While ammo is still scarce, you can generally play this mode closer to a traditional zombie shooter. [/list] [previewyoutube=JPeun3Jz_jg;full][/previewyoutube] Those who are accepted into the playtest will get full access to the game for a limited time—I will do my best to communicate how long each playtest round will be ahead of time so there are no surprises. Feedback will be accepted in one of two ways: [list] [*]A dedicated Steam forum (to be created at the start of the playtest) [*]The official [url=https://discord.com/invite/cosmocat]Cosmocat Discord[/url] [/list] I can’t promise I will be able to accept everyone, but I will keep adding participants until I get enough feedback and I’m confident the release will be a success. I don’t have a planned start date yet but I’m hoping for sometime in February. See you in the mines! Adam