Beyond Hanwell News & Patch Notes

Fixed reverb issues that would cause overly loud audio that occurs when kicking some doors.
Steam Deck changes, optimised Steam Deck settings are applied at launch to comply with Valve guidelines. Verification should hopefully follow.
New Location - Resident Baths, just a small location I was working on a while ago that was never fully completed. It's still an interesting place to enter, grab a special weapon, some ammo and maybe some little bonus inventory.
Added dead zone on controller input. Eliminating drift when playing with a controller.

Fixed reverb issues that would cause overly loud audio that occurs when kicking some doors.
Steam Deck changes, optimised Steam Deck settings are applied at launch to comply with Valve guidelines. Verification should hopefully follow.
New Location - Resident Baths, just a small location I was working on a while ago that was never fully completed. It's still an interesting place to enter, grab a special weapon, some ammo and maybe some little bonus inventory.
Added dead zone on controller input. Eliminating drift when playing with a controller.

Added low memory overhead option. This new setting will enable the main hub map, Westminster to be streamed in over 12 seconds. I noticed a huge memory spike when transitioning to Westminster that could occasionally lead to an out of memory crash on systems with less RAM or VRAM. The map is the same, it's just been chopped up into small chunks that are loaded in sequentially, memory is flushed between each chunk to ensure the loading system isn't getting overwhelmed when clearing old and loading new data in for gameplay. I recommend leaving this off if you can, it will cause a 12 second load screen every time you enter Westminster, but it will help if you ever get hard crashes due to running out of system memory. It also lessens the impact of page file transfer, which can lead to massive slowdown for a minute or so on level loads.

Fixed mannequins waking too early in the Theatre.
Added drop prompt to inventory when using KB&M.
Lots of memory optimisations throughout the game.

I'll be checking the boards over the next few days to be sure I didn't introduce new bugs with my changes, so please report if you find anything! Thank you! Nathan

We just released the soundtrack for purchase, 100% of revenue from music sales go directly to Jamie, so if you like the music, and appreciate a good score, please consider picking it up. Thanks!

Message James Elsey

Thank you everyone for the amazing reception to the game and some lovely comments that have been coming through for the music! The Hanwell game’s hold a special place in my heart, given the original was my first ever credited game Soundtrack. So to have the opportunity to come back to this world and compose for a sequel was a fun challenge. Particular highlights include working with an incredible Vocalist Shila Vikström, recording a unique electro-acoustic Horror instrument ‘The Esoteric Machine’ and finding interesting and creepy ways to bring back themes and melodies from the original. The OST is now released to coincide with 1.0 launch, with 18 tracks and several options for however you prefer to listen to your music; via Steam or direct from my Artist page on Bandcamp for downloads. Or otherwise all of the major Streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon etc) so you can add to your Playlists. All profits will go straight to me, the Composer and I’m so grateful for your support and passion for this game. Keep it spooky! 🖤 James Elsey

Fixed "Fatal Error" issue on some systems.
Chainsaw and Cursed Weapons sound effects now fade out as they should when stowed.

Fixed cancelling use in the inventory also dropping the item when playing on a controller. Added more checkpoints to the hospital. Fixed a bug that would prevent Dinky, Minxy and the Duke not taking damage with melee.

Major Changes

New Game+ - Start a new game, straight to Westminster with all you're upgrades and inventory. Available after completing the main game.
Non-essential items can now be dropped from the inventory. Just right click and drag outside the inventory area to drop an item, dropped items can be retrieved again.
Headbob is back, I disabled head bobbing before launching due to bugs caused in the latest version of UE5, it is now back. It is on by default but can be disabled in the settings.
Removed sprint delay when not using the quick turn feature.
Added attack homing options for radius and distance. This helps you tailor the combat to your specific play style, if you are quick with a mouse you can set the radius lower but if you are not so quick or using a controller, you might set it higher.

New Locations

Clayfield Auditorium - Enter the Clayfield Auditorium Circus and face the challenges that the ringmaster has in store.
Squalid House
Little Minster
Ministry of Truth - Shhh! Watch out for Sleepers, terrifying instakill enemies that sleep until disturbed. Perhaps the scariest location in the whole game!
Sleeper Train - Triggered after a few tube rides.
No. 1 Haven Meadow
No. 12 Haven Meadow

New Testing Grounds Locations

Palace of Westminster
Royal Hallamshire

New Enemy

Sleeper, don't get too close, and be quiet! Sleepers are extremely dangerous, hit this from afar with your gun, or run away.

New Weapons

Special Weapons, special weapons can be found in the world, usually locked behind a small challenge and can be collected more than once.
Cursed Sacrificial Dagger
Cursed Radiant Cross
Mace of Flames and it's blueprint for crafting.
Zombie Knife
Frying Pan - The frying pan is back! Anybody who played Welcome to Hanwell might remember the stupidly overpowered Frying Pan, well it's back, and just as stupid and silly as ever.

New Items

Flare - Can be dropped to light up an area for a set time.
SAMPLE-42 - Deadly manufactured virus.
Smoke Bomb - Fills an area with smoke that will block the line of sight of enemies.
Pistol Torch Attachment - Permanently upgrades the pistol with a light source, it isn't as bright as the main torch, but it will help in a dark room full of Anomalies.

Changes and bug fixes

Added options for subtitle size.
Attack homing will no longer be triggered on a friendly Dinky.
Dinky will now travel with you between locations.
Added scrolling to the blueprint selection paper.
Glowsticks now last 3 times longer.
Fixed an issue with clearing Hotel Great Western when you have a bigger bag than the one available in the location.
Glowsticks now activate even when the animation is interrupted.
Improved performance in Westminster on Steam Deck.
Cleaned up some holes in meshes when running on Steam Deck or in DirectX 11.
Enhanced gunshot sounds - Both the pistol and the shotgun firing sounds have had a makeover, making them sound more punchy and powerful.
Reworked the tutorials, tutorial messages are now less intrusive.
Fixed up some audio issues with reload sounds not being spatialised.
Added settings to disable FOV and Vignette effects when sprinting.
Added more checkpoints in the Theatre.
Added settings to increase the player walk speed by 33%.
Added settings to turn off the aiming walk speed modifier.
Added settings to adjust the amount the look sensitivity is affected when attacking with melee weapons.
Reduced the hit radius of the interaction trace, and increased it's distance.
Adjusted the detection range of certain pickups for more reliable prompt "E" or "A" prompt display.
Increased the amount of ammo when picking up ammo boxes on Normal difficulty.
Changes to the Stalker AI to stop them blocking doors if they finish stalking without waking.

Cloud saves should now sync correctly.

Added a Return to Westminster button in the pause menu, this will load your backup save and return you to your last save point in Westminster.
Added Objectives to Livingstone Manor
Inventory Management - You can now re-arrange your inventory. Do this by holding down the right mouse button, and dragging your item to a different slot. On controllers this is mapped to the jump button. Y by default, or whatever you mapped it to if using a custom remap.
New Special Cursed Radiant Cross weapon found in the woods. - I'll be adding more special one off items to the open world over the next, just little unique bits to make exploration more rewarding.
Fixed torch battery consume issues with low battery.

Livingstone Manor now clears as it should.

Major Changes

As requested. Added Story Difficulty Mode, playing on this difficulty level will make the combat and survival elements of the game much more forgiving. - Important Note! Because of the new difficulty tier, you're saved difficulty will have decreased by 1. So if you were on Normal, you will now be on Easy, be sure to check and change this to your preferred level.
Testing Grounds - New arcade style game mode available after completing the main game. Set your parameters and fight a never ending wave of Anomalies. Only St Pauls is currently available, but I'll add more with each update!
Added support for Intel's XeSS upscaling technology.
Experimental Steam Deck Support, first time run on Steam Deck will automatically set optimal settings, and fixed the "Requires C++" dialogue issue. Note: Steam Deck still has quirks, there are lots of visual anomalies (broken looking meshes, for example on the hospital) and Westminster performance is a little slow in places, but all playable. I'll be working to fix these in the coming days.
Can now carry more crafting materials by default, this can be further increased by finding the bags and increasing inventory size.
Added Controller Remapping - Another popular request and it's now in. Not extensively tested so please let me know if you run into issues with this.

New Locations

Livingstone Manor - Explore the home of an eccentric billionaire Mataus Livingstone, Duke of Westminster, crazed with an obsession of doll making.
ATF Camp - Exterior location found in Westminster
Greywood Chapel - Exterior location found in Westminster

New Anomalies

Flaming Duke of Westminster
Dinky
Minxy

New Weapons and Blueprints

Dinky, craft an anomalous doll to fight on your side for a short time.
Themed weapon, Sacrificial Dagger in Livingstone Manor

Small Changes and Bug Fixes

Cleaned up the side location clearance code. Hopefully solving the "Cleared" markers once and for all!
Doubled the torch battery life.
FSR Quality Mode Changes - Because FSR quality mode selection isn't setting the resolution scale as it should (I think this is a bug with the current UE5 implementation of the FSR Plugin), I've enabled manual setting of Resolution Scale with FSR, this will give you fine tune control over the internal resolution when using FSR in place of the usual quality modes.
Fixed movement input remaining when pausing the game.

Note: Squalid House was supposed to be included in this update, but I got carried away with the mansion, specifically, the addition of a Dinky timed ally was a last minute idea and took me a very long time. Squalid House will be added soon.

Locked the Hanwell Bypass until you have all ID cards. This update seems larger than it's content because it also comes with the ground work for tomorrows big 0.75 content update. Please note, that means it comes with the new Story difficulty mode. Because of the new difficulty tier, you're saved difficulty will have decreased by 1. So if you were on Normal, you will now be on Easy, be sure to check and change this to your preferred level. See you all tommorow! Because it could ruin your experience and allow you to do the end before the beginning, this was a rushed update, so as ever, if I broke anything, please let me know and I'll get right on a fix.

Hi everybody! Firstly I want to thank everybody who believed in the game enough to take the risk on arly Access, I understand it has a bad reputation these days and the feedback it has generated has been invaluable. I want to lay down the plan for this month's updates. Please note these are plans that can change with very little notice, life can sometimes get in the way, but I have largely managed to stick to my deadlines so far and hope I can continue to do so. Towards the end of the month I should have most of the missing side content finished, this includes:

1.0 Update Slated for Thursday 26th September

Houses in Haven Meadow
Circus (Clayfield Auditorium)
Ministry of Truth
Little Minster
Broken Underground Train - Initiated at random fast travel event.
Swimming Baths
New Game+

Post 1.0 Updates

After 1.0 I'll be starting work on localization, I'll be introducing new languages in line with how popular the language is with players. I'll also continue the usual small changes and fixes as required. For the Early Access launch, in return for the valuable feedback that would come with it, I priced the game at a 30% markdown of it's intended price. For this reason, the 1.0 update will come with a price increase on September 26, the price will be going from: $17.99 USD / £14.99 GBP / €17.49 EUR to $24.99 USD / £20.99 GBP / €24.50 EUR I believe this to be a fair price for the game, but I am happy to take feedback on this. Note, 1.0 does not mean updates will stop. Rather it just means the game is content complete and considered "finished" enough to remove the Early Access tag. I quote the word "finished" because a game is never truly finished, it can be tweaked and changed forever. I will continue to make quality of life changes and additions for as long as the game will benefit from it.

Fixed some map icon issues when cleared.
Fixed a bug that would cause the torch to become unusable after using a battery.
Fixed the rotation axis of the Ferris Wheel in Anomaly Park. (I think, this one is random so I hope my changes fixed it)
Fixed a bug that would trigger already triggered checkpoints.
Added 5 seconds of invincibility on load and health is no longer saved to avoid getting into an infinite death loop.
Some random crafting materials can now be found in safe houses.
Added tutorial for perfect block.
Added tutorial to clarify health regeneration.
Reworked the failsafe in Twitchys to ensure you cannot get soft locked if he doesn't drop the key. If this happens, just restart checkpoint and the door will unlock.
Added a 1024 Texture Streaming Pool Size option, this is experimental to see if I can solve some GPU crash issues on certain AMD Cards. If you have experienced GPU crashes, please try using this setting and let me know if it helps.
As a massive Easter Egg, you can now find the Test Map, the map I used to test everything which includes all upgrades, weapons, enemies and every system in the game. It's very hard to find but I put it in to make testing easier for myself. I thought I'd mention it here for anyone that likes an easter egg challenge, just be aware entering this location could completely screw up your save, so tread lightly :D.

Fixed a bug that would cause the torch to flicker and dim with full battery.

Major Changes

Reworked the torch, the torch will no longer die completely, rather when the battery gets low it will just dim and flicker, the battery will also last much longer. To balance this, batteries are now slightly less common, and more likely to be used in crafting.

New Content

Makeshift Melee Weapons can now be created at Workbenches from crafting materials. Makeshift weapons are much more powerful than almost any weapons that can be found (except special weapons dropped by certain bosses) but will wear slightly faster for it's class.

New Locations

Anomaly Park

Restore power to Anomaly Park and enter to discover it's secrets.

The Amazing Adventures of Twitchy

Explore a long forgotten haunted house attraction in the heart of Anomaly Park.

New Anomalies

Twitchy

Fight Twitchy in Twitchy's Amazing Adventure in Anomaly Park.

Animal-Tronics

Fight Twitchy's minions in Anomaly Park.

New Weapons

3 new Blueprints to discover that grant the ability to create 3 of the new makeshift weapons. Maceball Bat, Axe the Awful and Bolty Pickaxe.
1 New regular blueprint to discover, Tricksters Dynamite.
New themed juggler weapon found in Anomaly Park.

Small Changes and Bug Fixes

Crafting ammo no longer gives you a random amount, you get 10 shots for each box crafted.
Added more crafting materials to the world.
Fixed some main locations not showing as cleared when complete.
Fixed pathfinding in the Hanwell Maintenance Tunnel.
Fixed some Anomalies not being alerted of the player when they take damage.
Fixed some guide icons not displaying when they should.
Added failsafe triggers for achievements in case of bugged achievement events.
Added a failsafe against entering Expenco, collecting the fuel but not using it in the generator, leaving and using it elsewhere then returning to no fuel and no way to start the generator.

Fixed a bug that would prevent you from activating the lift in Hanwell. This brings the game back from it's reverted state and into 0.4.5 so new features are back such as perfect block. I'm halfway through 0.5 too so this hotfix comes with the new torch system, which was supposed to come in 0.5. The torch will now dim and flicker instead of becoming unusable when the battery is low.

I've had to revert to the previous build, 0.4.4 due to a game breaking bug introduced in 0.4.5. I'm working on getting this fixed now and will have done it by tonight. Apologies to all and thank you for the patience.

Major Changes

Perfect Block

If you block at just the right moment as an enemy attack lands, you will execute a perfect block, stunning the enemy for a moment and allowing you to get an easy couple of shots on it, this works especially well if you follow up with a perfect combo. During this stun period, enemies will take slightly more damage. Note that some bosses are immune to this for the sake of the difficulty curve.

Small Changes and Bug Fixes

Map icons are no longer covered by weather effects. Note the weather will still cover the drone map when extremely foggy or in an Anomalous storm, but the icons will remain clear. This is by design as would be expected if using a drone in real life.
Fixed a bug that would cause EastForge Surplus to be inaccessible if you added fuel to the generator, left and then re-entered Expenco Hall without picking up the IR Goggles.
Fixed a bug that would cause the forklift sound effect to loop endlessly in EastForge.
Fixed an exploit that would allow you to jump into the crypt in St Pauls without first solving the puzzle.
Fixed an exploit that would allow you to trap King William V and endlessly stomp without taking damage.
Fixed a bug with some of the info boards that would lock the players movement and cause strange behaviour when interacting after the fact.

Note, I know some people have requested I break up the pak files for smaller patching, but this is introducing very horrible stuttering when wandering Westminster, until I can solve this issue, I'll need to stick with the IO Store and single pak file. I'll be pushing non essential updates to the default branch less often to balance this. However, if you have about 30-40gb free space on your SSD, this shouldn't be an issue.

Rebalanced The Speaker boss fight on Easy Difficulty.
Lowered the volume of the death sound.
Increased the amount of ammo that can be carried, can be further increased by finding backpacks that increase inventory space.
Batteries now auto-consume when the torch runs out.
Repositioned out of place books in St Pauls.
Added music to the end of The Palace of Westminster.
Fixed some collision issues in the Palace of Westminster.
Moved the speakers in The New Lyceum to prevent access to the stage before beating The Grand Stalker.
Rebalanced the music in The New Lyceum and fixed sync issues.
Added a backup save, which will return you to your last save in Westminster as a failsafe in case of issues in new locations coming in 0.5.

Minor revision with the following changes:

Switched boss fight weapons to respawn when player dies.
Fixed the combat music playing after enemies are defeated in St Pauls.
Fixed dim screens in The Palace of Westminster.
Fixed some check marks not showing up after completing certain side locations.

This will be the last small update (except any bug reports that I will fix as they come in) until next week. I'm aiming to have the first major update, 0.5 out next Friday (7th September) with a bunch new content such as new blueprints, weapons and locations.

Fixed a bug that would cause you to become stuck if entering Steel Arts Software more than once.

This will be the last update from me tonight, just another revision to fix up a few things and add some requested features.

Added a checkmark on cleared locations in the drone map. (Unfortunately this won't trigger retroactively for older saves, but it is purely cosmetic and won't affect your gameplay experience.)
Added Zoom Remap Setting.
Fixed missing collision on pallets in the Underground.
Fixed a bug that would cause an infinite load screen when accessing a previously cleared main location.

Thank you all who have played so far and thanks for your patience as I ironed out some initial bugs. I'll be back to it tomorrow! Now I'm off to sleep. Thanks again! Nathan

Fixed a nasty bug that would push you back to the main menu when trying to enter North House Media and corrupt your save. If you were affected by this bug your save will be automatically recovered and you will launch into the building you were trying to enter when you hit continue.

Thank You!

Thank you everyone that has taken part in our Early Access phase so far! We've had a few issues reported and I've pushed multiple updates to address them, I've been keeping a close eye on the Discussion Board and getting out fixes quickly. I hope the teething issues are mostly ironed out by now. I'll be updating constantly over the next few days, making sure any bug fixes or feature requests are in quickly, so please if you have anything to report, it is a massive help to report it via the Early Access Discussion Page. I promise I will read them all and take action quickly. Content updates should start rolling out next week.

Reviews

It's always a bummer when you dip into a Mixed rating, but I appreciate all feedback and will address the issues immediately if you didn't recommend Beyond Hanwell. If you are enjoying it, or if you like where it is going, please leave us a recommended review, at this early stage, reviews are the single most important metric for the game, a single review is so powerful it can sway the rating one way or another. Thanks again, keep the reports coming and I'll keep the updates coming. Nathan

This revision includes the following chages:

Added a block to the window in Anomaly Park.
Added a exposure compensation (brightness) slider.
Added a sensitivity slider for the modifier when sprinting.
Fixed a bug that would cause a dummy load screen to show when continuing, but no save file is found.
Fixed a bug that would cause weapons to randomly drop when loading into a new area.
Fixed an issue with mouse sensitivity that would cause sensitivity to drop at high framerates.

Fixed the bug that would cause infinate load screen when trying to access an Early Access flagged location.

Fixed a minor bug that would cause the final mission to re-register each time you enter Westminster. Added an exit prompt to the Drone Map.

In just under 24 hours, Beyond Hanwell will be in Early Access and available to all! This is a nerve wracking, but exciting time! I'll be hitting the release button at 00:00 British Summer Time August 26, so 4pm PDT on August 25 or 7pm Eastern Time on the same day, so if you're in the US, keep an eye out on Sunday afternoon/evening! If you are thinking about picking it up in Early Access or keeping an eye out for 1.0, we can't thank each and every one of you that followed or wishlisted! The response has been overwhelming. It's been a long road getting to this point, and I'm sure there is a bit to go, but I can't wait to see what you get up to in Westminster. Thank you! Nathan

I wanted to bring the demo in line with the full games current state for the Early Access launch next month. This should provide a good benchmark to test the game on your hardware and be sure the settings and features are in line with what you expect, to be sure you can make an informed decision if you are considering purchasing the full game. It is mainly quality of life improvements and performance optimization.

All new menus with full controller support.
Options to tweak how the game plays such mouse smoothing and quick turn can now be disabled or enabled as preferred.
Added difficulty modifier settings.
Added Audio Settings (currently, Overall, Music and UI settings are available, I'm working to add in game world sounds to this menu which will be in the EA launch of Beyond Hanwell).
Added support for Nvidia DLSS super resolution and frame generation.
The game will now try to check, and allow selection of any resolution your monitor supports, potentially opening up support for ultrawide, but I have no monitor to test this on, I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who can check this!
Added FOV slider.
Moved to Unreal Engine's new Enhanced Input system, and fixed previous bugs with Key Rebinding.
Many many tweaks over the months to improve performance.

Thank you all for the incredible support and reception to the demo! Please check out the full game if you enjoyed it.

I wanted to quickly post an update on the status of Beyond Hanwell. I've regrettably had to make the decision to delay the Early Access launch by two weeks. This is down to a few unfortunate events happening in my personal life, since I am the sole developer currently working on Beyond Hanwell, when this happens development takes a hit and I have to rearrange my schedule accordingly. However, a few too many events have caught me off guard and eaten up one too many of my work days. I've been condensing work to manage this recently but it has gotten to the point that to condense any more would mean stripping content, which is not something I'm happy to do. Even for Early Access. I want to release the game in a polished, enjoyable state and use Early Access to refine an already good game. An extra two weeks will give me the time to finish the content I have planned and make sure it releases in a good state. Thanks to everyone for your support! I can't wait to get Beyond Hanwell into your hands! Nathan

Beyond Hanwell news & patch notes

Beyond Hanwell news & patch notes

Message James Elsey

Major Changes

New Locations

New Testing Grounds Locations

New Enemy

New Weapons

New Items

Changes and bug fixes

Major Changes

New Locations

New Anomalies

New Weapons and Blueprints

Small Changes and Bug Fixes

1.0 Update Slated for Thursday 26th September

Post 1.0 Updates

Major Changes

New Content

New Locations

Anomaly Park

The Amazing Adventures of Twitchy

New Anomalies

Twitchy

Animal-Tronics

New Weapons

Small Changes and Bug Fixes

Major Changes

Perfect Block

Small Changes and Bug Fixes

Thank You!

Reviews

Steam news for Beyond Hanwell