Closed Beta

The **Closed Beta** for *The Blackout Club (game)* was from August 17, 2018 to October 29, 2018.

## Description

Question LLC held the Closed Beta for *The Blackout Club (game)* on PC through Steam in late summer and fall 2018 to test early builds of the game. The events of most of the closed beta were held under an NDA/embargo preventing players from sharing details or content from the game. Special sections of the TBC Discord server were configured to house speculation and discussion of material from the beta and have since become common channels in the community (e.g. *#spoilers-and-speculation*). Players were able to report bugs during their game using an in-game bug reporter (the same one used today).

The list of active dates for the Closed Beta:

**1st Beta Weekend**: August 17-19, 2018
**2nd Beta Weekend**: September 28-30, 2018
**Mid-Week Test**: October 2-3, 2018
**Continuous Testing**: October 9-29, 2019 (except Sundays)
### Map and Objectives

During the closed beta, the game consisted of several objectives (e.g. *Steal The Cryptograms*, *Stealing Fire*, and *To Carry A Tune*). Lower East Hoadly and Lower West Hoadly were accessible on the surface; the region now known as Old Growth (Region) was inaccessible but known as "Middle Hoadly". Middle Hoadly featured more residential housing, a playground (the same one in Old Growth today), and an underground sewer system. This region was eventually overhauled in one of the first Early Access updates though still not released until *The Blackout Club (game)*'s 1.0 Launch. Rooms like 920 Observation, Instrument Supply, Cryptogram Library, and New Growth existed in the beta. Host Conditioning was accessible during the first beta weekend on some rare cases but the room design was completely overhauled before being officially released in Early Access.

A unique feature to the first beta weekend was the gates in the Maze. Now used to lock off portions of the Maze that are unavailable due to host level or as map barrier, the first closed beta weekend saw the game's procedural mission generation putting up random gates throughout the Maze between missions. In one mission, players would be able to access a room via a certain tunnel, but in the next mission that tunnel may be locked off and players would need to find a new route. While sounding fun in theory, some players became overwhelmed and frustrated to find the few paths they knew in and out of the Maze locations to be blocked off, particularly when the Shape was chasing them into a now-discovered dead-end

Pajama Sleepers did not exist until later in the beta period. The temporary Sleeper dialogue in the Closed Beta was voiced by one of the developers.

### Enhanced Horror

*Main article:* How To Play: Enhanced Horror System
Enhanced Horror began making brief appearances towards the end of the Closed Beta, but not under the "Enhanced Horror" title known today. Player Interactions with the Voices were unannounced and came as great surprise to players who would often be taken to The Moon. Due to the NDA for most of the beta, interactions were not able to be recorded and shared until the final week.

The Wiki currently contains **1 Closed Beta Interactions**.

### The Prologue

*Main article:* The Prologue
The first beta weekend contained a very simple, greyboxed tutorial that attempted to teach players the basics of *The Blackout Club (game)*. It showed players what Sleepers, Lucids, and the Shape looked and behaved like in a museum-esque fashion; players did not engage with enemies directly. The Shape, for example, was contained behind a wall of shelves where the player could peek through. This initial tutorial taught players the basics of stealth they would need and other mechanics like closing your eyes.

### Rituals

   *Main article:* How To Play: Rituals
Players could submit rituals through the Hideout throughout the Closed Beta. Some player rituals from the closed beta are still in circulation as Recalled Dreams today. Players received Light of Rebellions but also a now-defunct item, "The Bucket of Truth".

Originally there existed just a single sleeping bag in the ritual space in the Hideout in the center of the room, but this was changed during Early Access to include 4 sleeping bags where players would wake up.

The first Hideout Broadcast of the game occurred during the Closed Beta with DANCE-FOR-US.

### Stalker

*Main article:* The Stalker
The Stalker was playable during the very first beta weekend before being taken away offline for fixes and adjustments to the mode.

The mode's focus has remained largely the same since the first beta weekend stalkers: players would be tasked with recording The Blackout Club (Group) members, which would alert nearby Sleepers and Lucids and eventually bring The Shape out to begin suppressing kids. Unlike the current method that uses Dossiers to award players the chance to play as Stalker, Reward Crates were used before the existence of the Wardrobe to deliver rewards at the completion of each mission. In the first beta weekend, players would occasionally get a coin to play as Stalker rather than a wardrobe item. This system was later replaced with dossiers when Stalker made their return in Early Access Update 5 in January 2019.

### Text Messages

The menus in TBC originally contained a sub-menu where players could look at the text messages the Club would send them about their objectives in the particular mission. This was eventually removed due to a lack of use from players in favor of keeping the messages appearing on-screen. The visual design of the text messages was originally quite simple, only changing after

## Updates

The list of major update announcements from the Closed Beta:

* Beta Changelog 1 - September 26, 2018
* Beta Announcement - September 27, 2018
* Beta Announcement - October 5, 2018
* Beta Changelog 2 - October 9, 2018
* Beta Announcement - October 23, 2018
* Beta Announcement - October 29, 2018
* Beta Announcement - October 30, 2018

## References

1. ↑ Patches (04 May 2018), TBC Official Discord. Link. Image.
2. ↑ Patches (August 20 through October 28 2018), TBC Official Discord.
3. ↑ Nullspeak (17 March 2020), TBC Official Discord. Link. Image.
4. ↑ Patches (21 September 2018), TBC Official Discord. Link. Image.