Oh boy, the launch of our public beta is so close! Horrifyingly close, in fact. Say you’re a well-stacked “babe” in a slasher movie, and you bend over to pick up the handbag that inexplicably fumbled out of your grasp, and when you stand up again HOLY CRAP HE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU! And there are scars all over his face, and he’s smelling your hair and crying.

That’s how close.

But... it’s too late now, there’s nowhere to run, and your preposterous bosoms would have slowed you down anyway. Give in and accept, for the Beta is here right now and you are already in its thrall.

The Escapist Magazine is running an http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/interviews/ids/5664-Indie-Developers-Showcase">Indie Developer Showcase which you should keep an eye on, because in approximately 24 hours they will be running a feature on none other than Beatnik Games! It’s pretty much going to be the essential Beatnik Companion of 2009 and by way of honouring their grand gesture, we have made Plain Sight open to all!

Anyone that’s not made it to the closed beta so far, now’s your chance! Anyone that’s never even bothered so far, now’s your chance! Don’t delay, download right now! Who knows when we could have a sudden change of heart and whisk the whole thing away and tear up the website and just quit.

Let me tell you: any day now.

SECOND IMPORTANT EDIT: With such a heavy load our master server is a tad unstable. We're doing what we can to fix this however (over the next 8 hours) if you get a 'master server not found' error don't worry, this is just a temporary glitch. Everything will be back up and running asap.

IMPORTANT EDIT January 21st (6:00pm GMT / 10:00am PST)
We have made some improvements to the build since yesterday. This includes a dramatic chop in the file size to a third of what it used to be, which should make you happy!

If you downloaded the game before this edit, you will need to do so again, uninstall the previous version and reinstall this new one.

Sorry! we'll have proper patching working for the next update so this isn't necessary again.

A new internal beta build of Plain Sight beta is up and it’s 1000% better.

Oh yes, you heard me. ONE THOUSAND PERCENT BETTER. This is not a random figure plucked from the air. It is true. It is science. It is our new networking.

Other great stuff included; a new map (as seen below) which we’ve called ‘Little Bang’, game customization, re-worked blocking and attacking and a bunch of bug fixes -it’s all super awesome.



Oh, what’s that? You’re not on the beta? Well, dry up those tears, that’s not going to be the case for much longer. Those kind folks at the Escapist are featuring our humble little Plain Sight on their 'Indie Games Showcase' next week. To celebrate this we’re going to be launching a totally free (no sign up required) version of Plain Sight. This will be the “open beta” we spoke of many moons ago. It’ll go on for the rest of January (and perhaps a bit of February) at which point we’ll pull the plug and you’ll have to wait a few weeks for the demo.



If you’ve put your name down for the beta (or you’re a registered member) we’ll email you will full details.

Greetings, beatlings! We're working pretty much flat out to get something new and wonderful up for you guys very soon. But somehow we found the time to lay down this tasty wallpaper for your visual consumption!



It's available in four sizes, so choose wisely! If you desire a wacky custom size then throw in a comment and I'll see what I can do.

1920x1200 (widescreen)
1680x1050 (widescreen)
1280x1024 (tft)
1024x768 (crt)

A new year has begun, and feverish work on Plain Sight has once again resumed! On the art front, we've been working on new level designs for you all to make zoomy spinny robotic trails in. Here's one, now:



It's so new, we don't even have a name for it yet! If you come up with a good one, let us know. Actually, let us know if it's a bad one. It's got to be better than Upside Town (sorry Robin I like it really)



Points go for puns. We love puns.

As you've probably guessed, the Beatnik crew is taking some well earned R&R over the Christmas break. "Stuff" is still going on behind the scenes however it's being done at a much more leisurely pace.

To keep you all in the loop, before the next release we’d really like to improve the networking performance of the game. This isn’t something that we can guarantee will be done within a certain time frame so please bear with us, an update will eventually arrive!

In other news, we’re very happy to announce that Plain Sight will be published on Steam. All the paper work was finished up prior to Christmas so it’s now official, you’ll find Plain Sight nestling alongside other great indie games such as World of Goo and Audio Surf. Oh yes, whilst on the subject of Steam, feel free to join the Plain Sight Steam Group. We’re all on it and, so far, it’s proven to be the easiest way to get in contact with us individually...

Hope you all have a great new years eve - get drunk!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Check out the above Christmas card Declan sent us – it rocks!

To celebrate a (rather minor) update we’ve let a new influx of people into the beta test. Hurrah! Keep an eye on your email inbox for confirmation..

Also, for the beta testers, check out our events calendar for scheduled Plain Sight mash-ups.

Hope you all have a great day!

[EDITORS NOTE: due to our rubbish website CMS (and my inability to untick the 'send as HTML box') all the emails were sent with no formatting -how unprofessional! Well, what do you expect for 21:20 on christmas eve?! Anyway, I resent it and the build is up... ]

Behold! A brand spanking new trailer for your visual consumption. It's very much in the same vein as the old trailer, but with new footage, and a swinging new jazz soundtrack from those fine purveyors of filthy swing Top Shelf Jazz.



Tell your friends, and post it on your website. We don't mind. In fact we actively encourage it!

Hello world.

Firstly, a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s taken part in our pre-beta trial. Especially thanks to those who’ve found show-stopping fun-killing bugs. Don’t worry, they shall be fixed very soon; In the meantime, please keep posting your feedback. If you don’t tell us what sucks, we can’t fix it!

This week the office buzzword is “performance”. By the beta launch all you’ll need is a 486 and a 14.4 modem. That’s it, amazing! You see, we’ve harnessed the power of unicorn dust (also known as dandruff) so now every computer in the world should play the game just fine*. Happiness!

*Mr Bump says this isn’t true.

Whilst we stare blankly at our computer monitors, waiting for our lunch-time takeaway to be delivered, we can reflect upon the good things in life.



Like wireframe skulls, T-Rex monsters,
M.Bisons new twitter account


... and the iminant launch of the pre-beta


Oh, you lucky kittens. Hand plucked from our friends and forums to enjoy the wonders of Plain Sight a whole week prior to the beta launch. What joys and bugs you shall discover.