We have some unfortunate news about the future of our game. After two Betas and nearly a year in Early Access, we have made the very difficult decision to sunset Video Horror Society. We know this game means so much to so many of you, so we want to take a moment to explain our reasoning behind this difficult decision.

We are transitioning to peer-to-peer matchmaking and over the next three months we will be ending live services so that we can focus on other projects. On September 8th 2023, we will be removing Video Horror Society from Steam and Epic and shutting down the game completely.

We really hate goodbyes. Video Horror Society has been an absolute joy for us to work on, and we know you’ve seen our team’s passion in every aspect of this project. Unfortunately, we have not found the commercial success that we need to cover costs to keep the game running.

As part of this process, we are removing our DLCs, Fanbux bundles, and Founder’s Packs from stores, and we will be adding Flux purchase options for any teens, monsters, cosmetics, or items that did not previously have them. Existing Fanbux balances will still be able to be spent, and we will still have a full store rotation of content so you can keep earning and spending your flux in peer-to-peer games.

We are so proud of the game our talented team has created and the incredible community that we’ve built around it. We want to thank you all for all the support, feedback, GG’s, and memes that you’ve provided on this journey. We are beyond grateful for the kind and inclusive community that has helped us make Video Horror Society into what it is.

Thank you.

- Hellbent Games

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Bot Improvements
- The Doll Master bot is now able to use its powers.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where using a vault point in the Upper Lounge of The Eviscerator map could cause a player to get stuck.
- Fixed an issue where purchasers of the Ruffles the Clowm costume weren't being given the Ruffles the Clowm hair piece.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a crash issue with ragdoll effects when the Anomaly used Disperse or Mimicry.
- Updated the Anomaly Scream animation to animate its full body.
- The "Heart on a String" monster cosmetic will now become transparent when it flies in front of the first person camera to keep it from obscuring gameplay.
- Fixed an issue where the Emote Wheel and Sticker Wheel would not fill properly when the Anomaly copied the appearance of a teen with no stickers or emotes equipped.
- Fixed an issue where emote props and effects would not hide properly when an Anomaly using teen emotes canceled Mimicry.

Anomaly
- The Anomaly’s hearing now comes back gradually over the full duration of Disperse (rather than the hearing remaining unchanged throughout).
(Design Note: Disperse has gone over a few iterations to find the right balance for it. Based on additional feedback from players and analytics data, we’ve decided to adjust the hearing amount to a place in-between the previous hotfix and the release version.)
- While Mimicking, the visual effect of submerging when using Disperse has been improved.
- The lore text from the Anomaly III: Mother of All Fears movie has been revealed.

Monster
- Monsters now recover from an attack 30% faster when they sabotage a vending machine, smash a Dooma, or hit a seasonal event object.
- Added off-screen indicators and made the highlighted station icons easier to see when using the monster perk Demonic.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where ending Disperse early would cause the Disperse cooldown timer to reset.
- Fixed an issue where the Anomaly’s effects would not be visible to teens towards the end of Disperse while equipping the ‘First Commune’ or ‘Total Meltdown’ costumes.
- Fixed an issue where the RC Flyer beam would shoot through walls when targeting an Anomaly’s Mimic.
- Fixed an issue where monsters could sometimes get stuck in an animation loop when using a Plague.
- Fixed an issue where Mimic chroma, Splitter clones, and Anomaly Scour effects were visible to teen spectrals.
- Fixed an issue where the Emote wheel would not update properly for the Anomaly player when taking the form of different teen players using Mimicry.
- Fixed an issue where Outpost K would not appear under Map statistics.
- Hid the non-functional Win Condition option when playing Survival Mode in Private Screening.
- Fixed an issue where the currently selected character would appear behind the End of Round score screen.
- Fixed an issue where canceling a revival attempt from a teen bot would cause them to stop working properly.
- Fixed some additional cases where bounty Flux for playing as teen was not being awarded.

Known Issues
- The Anomaly ‘First Commune’ costume is not currently hiding equipped gear correctly.

Seasonal Event
- Added a colorful glow to unsearched Egg Baskets to make them easier to see.
- Updated art and effects for smashed Bad Eggs.

Audio
- Modified the audio loop of Dooma to differentiate from an energizing Enigma.

Anomaly
- The cooldown of Disperse was increased to 17 seconds (from 15 seconds).
- While Dispersed, the Anomaly now has its hearing for the full duration rather than only towards the end of Disperse.
- Increased the Mimic’s run speed to 101% of teen run speed (up from 98%).
- Reworked the benefit of the Malign mutation to increase Mimicry duration by 20% (was reducing Mimicry cooldown by 10%).
- The downside of the Splitter mutation reduces Mimicry duration by 15% (down from 20%).
- Running while Mimicking will now cause the remaining duration to deplete 15% faster (down from 40%).

Deathwire
- The lockout timer for Beam Matrix after hitting a teen has been reduced to 3.5 seconds (from 6 seconds).

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a crash that occurred if the Anomaly used the Mimicry power with the Splitter mutation after a teen had disconnected.
- Fixed an issue where the Anomaly’s Mimic could be given pickups from other teens.
- Fixed an issue where an Anomaly that was damaged as a Mimic would sometimes cause the Mimic damage indicator to briefly appear in the Stigma panel the next time they used Mimicry.
- Fixed an issue where teens using the RC Flyer or Infernal Eye could see the auras of other teens while the Anomaly was scouring.
- Fixed an issue where the Anomaly would move farther forward than intended when vaulting, resulting in them sometimes getting stuck.
- Fixed an issue where teens attacking the Anomaly’s Mimic with the Shock Sphere would get nudged away from them.
- Fixed an issue where the intended speed penalty for teens with the Gooped status was not being applied.
- Fixed an issue where the names of the Anomaly’s perks were inadvertently reverted to their preview names.
- Fixed an issue where hitting a vending machine, Dooma, or a seasonal object is counted as a missed attack causing monsters to gain the recovery rate benefit of the Ruthless perk.
- Fixed an issue where bounty Flux rewards for playing as a teen were not being awarded properly.
- Fixed an issue where some players that had purchased the Team Wolf movie bundle were no longer seeing these movies available for rent.
- Fixed some layout issues with the Survival Mode end of match screen.

Deep beneath the ice at the Canaka Outpost an alien enemy is thawing... And it’s hungry...
Expand your monster roster with our most spine chilling monstrosity yet. The shapeshifting Anomaly introduces an all new paranoia-inducing playstyle that will have your foes shaking in their snow boots... TRUST NO ONE.

• After focusing for 1 second, the Anomaly will Disperse for a maximum of 2.6 seconds. An active Disperse can be ended early by using the Power again after 1.6 seconds.
  
• While Dispersed, the Anomaly cannot see or be seen by teens and moves 100% faster.
  
• When Disperse ends, all teens within 5 meters of the Anomaly will be Gooped, slowing movement and preventing most actions for 1.8 seconds.
  
• Disperse has a cooldown of 15 seconds and cannot be used for 3 seconds after hitting a teen. The range of this effect is diminished if Disperse is ended early.

Mutation - Ripple
+ When you use Disperse, an after-image of teens within 8 meters is shown to you for 4 seconds.
- The focus time required to use Disperse is increased by 20%
Mutation - Gooper
+ The distance at which teens will be Gooped when emerging from Disperse is increased by 20%
- Disperse can no longer be ended early
Mutation - Elusive
+ If Disperse is used while Mimicking, the cooldown to use Disperse again is reduced by 50%
- If Disperse is used while not Mimicking, the cooldown to use Disperse again is increased by 20%

• After focusing for 1.5 seconds, the Anomaly will gain the Mimicking status, taking on the likeness of a random active teen with 98% of a teen’s run speed for 14 seconds or until canceled by attacking or activating the Power again.
  
• While Mimicking, the Anomaly’s Tension Track will be hidden from teens and the Anomaly’s aura-reading effects and Danger Sense will not function.
  
• Running while Mimicking will cause the remaining duration to deplete 40% faster.
  
• Weapon damage taken while Mimicking will not apply directly to the Stigmas, allowing the Anomaly to use Disperse to escape. Should the Mimic be destroyed by a weapon the Anomaly will Flinch, unable to perform most actions for 1.5 seconds.
  
• Mimicry has a cooldown of 40 seconds.

Mutation - Malign
+ The cooldown of Mimicry is reduced by 10%
- While using Mimicry, the Mimic will always appear to be Injured, regardless of the health state of the copied teen.
Mutation - Splitter
+ When Mimicry is used, an additional mimic is created that will run in the direction you are facing. This mimic will instantly vanish upon hitting a solid object or when damaged by a weapon.
- Mimicking duration is reduced by 20%.
Mutation - Infectious
+ If the Anomaly injures a teen within 1.5 seconds of Mimicry ending, the teen will suffer the Busted status for 60 seconds.
- The focusing time required to use Mimicry is increased by 25%

• After focusing for 1.5 seconds, the Anomaly will enter a Scouring state for up to 15 seconds. While Scouring, the Anomaly sinks partially into the floor, becomes Blinded, and has their movement speed reduced to 8% of base movement speed.
  
• While Scouring, all active teens will start to become Exposed to the Anomaly over 6.5 seconds, starting with those farthest away. Additionally, the cooldowns of the Disperse and Mimicry Powers will recover 300% faster.
  
• Scour has a cooldown of 32 seconds.

Mutation - Seething
+While Scouring, the Anomaly will gain 1% Rage every second.
- While Scouring, the cooldowns of the Disperse and Mimicry powers will recover only 80% faster.
Mutation - Startling
+ While an unarmed teen is Exposed by Scour and for 2 seconds afterwards they will be Jammed.
- While an armed teen is Exposed by Scour and for 2 seconds afterwards, their movement speed is increased by 15%.
Mutation - Slinking
+ While Scouring your movement speed is 35% of base movement speed.
- The auras of teens now disappear immediately after Scour is canceled.

With the release of The Anomaly comes our newest map! The site of The Anomaly’s crash landing on Earth, Outpost K, is now available FREE for ALL players!
Hear the arctic winds whip through frozen ice fields at Canaka’s most dangerous station. Investigate the tunnels beneath the ice but don’t dig too deep, you never know what you might uncover. Is that -40 degree blizzard giving you the chills? No. You’re being watched.

Battle wave after wave of monsters in our new Survival Game Mode where The Beyond fights back! You and up to four teens faceoff against bot opponents in fast-paced waves.

Survival mode starts off like a regular teen match: craft weapons, heal up, and work together to take down the monster. But Survival Mode moves fast! Bot monsters spawn in at lower heath with only 1 or 2 stigmas remaining - take them out quick and carry your weapons over to the next round.

Each wave of monsters is stronger than the last: learn to fight off hordes of dolls and multiple monsters all at once! Remember, it only takes one survivor to take the whole team to the next wave! How long can you survive?

Spring has sprung and it's time to get hop-hop-hoppy! Hunt for Good Eggs and Bad Eggs in our first ever VH-Eggstravanza! Gather up your basket and contribute to the community egg collection to earn creepy cool community rewards that will put some spring in your step.

We hid a dozen painted eggs around every map for you to find. Monsters can smash 6 Bad Eggs for bonus points every round! Teens can dig through festive baskets for 6 Good Eggs and bonus points of their own! Put 'em all together for big community prizes! Well? Hop to it!

Beginner Bot Matches
- As part of our efforts to improve the new player experience, when queuing alone new players will be matched with training bots in their first few matchmaking games as teen and monster to give them the opportunity to learn the rules and mechanics of the game in a less competitive setting. Note that some features are disabled in these matches, such as seasonal events, certain maps, and certain monsters, to keep things simple.

Anomaly and Outpost K
- The Anomaly monster and the Outpost K map are now out of Preview mode and available in matchmaking! Note that they have had many changes since their Preview versions. The Anomaly can be purchased through Flux in the in-game store or through Steam and Epic!

Teens
- The teen player cards on the HUD will show new status icons when teens are disrupted or when they are searching objects.
- Teens can now revive other teens from the prone state while disrupted by the monster scream.
(Designer’s Note: This change is to give teens a chance to recover from a game state where multiple nearby teammates are down and the monster hits keep coming, allowing for rescues even in such a dire situation.)
- The speed at which teens lose life while prone has been reduced by 20%.
- Teens now crawl 5% faster while prone.
- Luma now respawns around the map more quickly after being collected by a teen’s spectral.
- Teens that take a 5th hit from the monster will now be Busted for 60 seconds. The 6th hit will result in being Busted for the remainder of the match, as before.
- When a monster highlights a station using the Demonic perk, teens crafting at that station will now see the Exposed status on them.

Pickups
- When the Walkie Talkie is switched on, the pickup icon will now change color and intensity when the camera is pointing in the direction of the monster.

Dooma
- Dooma energy orbs will now spawn periodically during a match. In addition to hitting teens as before, monsters can also gain progress towards fetching their next plague by finding and smashing these energy orbs!

Controls
- When playing Anomaly on Controller, the default buttons to Disperse from Mimic and Leave Mimic have moved to keep them from overlapping with normal teen movement controls. Additionally these particular bindings can be reassigned in the controller config menu.

Audio
- New music pieces now play during the end of a match.

Bots
- Improvements have been made to the WART and DeathWire bots and the use of their powers.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed cases where players could sometimes hear the audio of other players performing actions after they had finished performing them.
- Fixed an issue where the Timeshift Rage effect appeared very bright while armored as WART, or when wearing certain cosmetics.
- Fixed an issue where the Timeshift Rage effect wouldn't appear on lower settings.
- Fixed an issue where input when entering a Private Screening Lobby code could inadvertently modify other settings, such as region or character selection.
- Improved shader precaching to reduce the likelihood of frame rate drops when playing certain game effects for the first time.
- Fixed the audio for the Werewolf emote Fido Flip to be easier to hear.

Bug Fixes- Fixed an issue where the monster prizes Mouse Trap and Late Fees were not functioning properly.
- Fixed an issue where an incorrect wait time show for certain actions, such as claiming the Daily Drop and exchanging a Forgotten Film.
- Fixed an issue where occasionally sound cues would not play when a character was nearby but off camera.
- Fixed some issues with teen bots healing at medkit stations, and Rift interaction.

- Fixed an issue where teen players that joined a matchmaking lobby were unable to change their selected teen character.
- Fixed an issue where the Danger Sense sub-menu would remain stuck on after visiting it once when going to the Options screen.
- Made some fixes to bot pathing on Graveyard map and monster patrol routes.
- Fixed several issues with menu navigation on Options screen and Game Mode screen region selection.

- Hosted Private Screenings are now persistent across multiple matches. All participants will return to the private lobby at the conclusion of a match, retaining match settings and loadout changes.
- Experimental teen and monster AI Bot support has been added to Private Screening. Any player slot in the private lobby can be filled with a bot instead of a human player. We hope you enjoy trying out this feature, but note that this feature is still early in development and the bots have pathing and decision making issues. Additionally, the Doll Master and Deathwire monster bots have not been taught to use their powers yet.
- Spectator support for up to 2 spectator players has been added to Private Screening. Spectator players may swap between teen and monster perspectives.
- The Anomaly monster and Ice Station map have been removed from the Private Screening preview mode while we finish working on them in preparation for their official launch.
- A new preview map has been added to Private Screening: the spooky and atmospheric Graveyard! Please note as a preview map it is still in development and is missing sounds and polish that will be added prior to its full release.

- The hints provided during loading screens have been overhauled to provide new information for helping players learn the game, grouped into topics.

- Several new challenges have been added to teen’s procedurally generated Forgotten Films.
- The challenge “Hit a teen within 20 seconds after transforming into the monster.” has had the time window increased to 30 seconds.

- Danger Sense customization has been added to the Game tab of the Options menu. This submenu allows you to turn the indicator on/off independent of the reticle, as well as alter the Danger Sense indicator size and color to your liking.
- The Torment points awarded for the Doll Master scoring events “Jump Attack” and “Doll Attack” have been slightly increased.

- Over the course of 5 minutes after the Book of the Dead lockbox spawns, the distance at which a dead spectral can hear the whispering coming from the lockbox will gradually increase to make it easier to find.
- Teens that are uninjured and inside a locker will no longer make any breathing sounds the monster can hear.

- When a monster takes damage from a Cursed Sword or Raygun from a distance beyond 14 meters, the slowing effect applied to the monster will be lessened, up to a 50% reduction at 30 meters or further.

- Added sounds to many previously silent monster emotes.
- Added the missing batteries to the boom box in the teen emote “Say it with Love” so it now plays music!
- New animation poses have been added for teens while they are wearing bulky outfits to prevent geometry crashing.

- Fixed an issue where player names would not appear when the camera was centered on an ally equipped with a Shock Sphere.
- Fixed an issue where monsters would sometimes be briefly unable to be damaged by weapons while vaulting.
- Fixed an issue where a delay could sometimes occur between when a Cross light beam hit the monster and it would be slowed and damaged by it.
- Fixed an issue where the Raygun would sometimes stop firing if the player rapidly pressed and released the fire button and then held the button down.
- Fixed an issue where Raygun shots would sometimes play an impact confirmation sound but deal no damage to the monster in high latency situations.
- Fixed an issue where the effects of the monster being wounded or stunned by certain weapon mods (e.g. Angelic Fury) would cause that effect to persist for future stuns or wounds.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes the RC Flyer beam effect would continue to play briefly after the Flyer was destroyed by a monster attack.
- Improved collision detection for Holy Slingshot grenades aimed at thinner parts of a monster’s body.
- Fixed an issue where the Energize Progress Bar on the weapon HUD would not accurately display the amount of progress made at low amounts of energy.
- Fixed some areas where a possessed Doll could fall out of the map after being possessed by the Doll Master.
- Fixed an issue where player’s account portraits would not display next to their name on the end of round score screen.
- Fixed the ‘leave match’ modal message for Private Screening to no longer mention saved progress (progression is turned off in Private Screening).
- Fixed an issue where a double press Ping (alert Ping) was not counting towards the “Ping a location on the map.” or “Ping the monster.” challenges.
- Fixed an issue where a teen player pressing the Ping button several times rapidly could cause the Ping marker to flicker on and off.
- Fixed an issue where the Luma that spawns while playing the Teen Tutorial would sometimes not be visible.
- Fixed an issue where players could sometimes see multiple of the same type of prize box icon on the Prize Box opening screen.
- Fixed an issue where Weapon skins being previewed were not being reverted back to the equipped skin after exiting the Styles menu.
- Fixed an issue on the Weapons screen where the weapon's title descriptor would not always match the currently selected skin and mod combination.
- Fixed an issue on the Weapons screen where the weapon's title descriptor would display incorrectly after switching between weapons/stigmas several times.
- Fixed an issue where the Weapon Skin panel displayed incorrectly when the player had unowned weapon skins.
- Fixed an issue where players could sometimes equip more perks at once than they had perk slots unlocked.
- Fixed an issue where the Map Stats were missing from the Stats screen.
- Fixed an issue where the currently selected Region or Faction could be changed while inputting a Private Screening lobby code.
- Fixed a bug where a tip that taught the monster about the sound from a failed crafting skill check would appear even if the teen perk Silent Shadow prevented the sound from happening.

- Once in a matchmaking lobby, teen players will be unable to switch which teen they currently have selected.