Shockbyte Success Story: HumanitZ Launch and Community

HumanitZ's global multiplayer release date into Early Access on Steam on September 18th of 2023 marked a massive milestone for both companies, setting the groundwork for massive collaborative worldwide releases. With this release, a consistent and thriving community found it's new home in the desolate post-apocalyptical landscape of HumanitZ, whereas Shockbyte grew internally to better meet game developer studio needs.

How Handshakes Are Made

Shockbyte has been in contact with many game development studios over the years helping with server hosting and launching development servers to support internal testing on a by-need basis. There's never been any cost to this; Shockbyte has always wanted to support developers at our core and educating the industry on the opportunity of POGs, also known as "Player Owned Game servers", has always been the primary focus.

Into the picture stepped an up-and-coming survival crafting title, also associated with Freedom Games at the time, although this time developed by Wunder Entertainment. Combining elements of many other modern multiplayer survival games, Lost Isle would become Shockbyte's first collaborative experience. After having a great experience (and still working with them to this day) the Wunder Entertainment team recommended Shockbyte to Freedom Games, who passed the message to Yodubzz Studios prior to their release of HumanitZ.

Shockbyte Supports Pre-Launch

After introductions were made, Shockbyte was able to immediately get to work with the Freedom Games team and Yodubzz Studios to start limit testing server capabilities for HumanitZ. Yozza, the Lead Game Designer on HumanitZ exclaimed excitedly,

WE JUST TESTED THE SERVER AND IT WORKED!!!

A small celebration amongst a sea of many upcoming hurdles, but one that spells greatness for an incredible collaboration to come. Shockbyte and the Yodubzz team would then work tirelessly to assure a great multiplayer experience would be available to all players on HumanitZ's Early Access Steam launch.

With the title having a large shared fanbase with many other similar titles, both teams prepared eagerly to support players multiplayer experiences to the highest quality. Shockbyte also provides dedicated official server support for players, allowing anyone to immediately hop in and try the game in multiplayer without purchasing their own server first either.

HumanitZ's Early Access Launch Success

HumanitZ and Shockbyte paired to create the perfect collaborative combo for players, with both the option to immediately play a handful of region-specific official HumanitZ servers hosted by Shockbyte, or to host a dedicated HumanitZ server of their own! With plenty of customizable options and zombie-loving gamers flooding from across Steam, HumanitZ quickly rose to it's all-time high player-count of 1.5k and plenty of servers running on release. With an exciting journey ahead, this day marked a massive success for Yodubzz Studios.

In these early days Shockbyte took massive steps to assure great service for the HumanitZ team and their community, scaling both our physical and internal infrastructure to accommodate players needs. Not only was HumanitZ a brand new title with unique needs and technical accommodations, but players have unique playstyles and worlds they wish to create with their multiplayer servers. This experience was enlightening, providing valuable insights into effectively accommodating the needs of game developers (and communities) on launch.

LIVEOPs - Ongoing Server Support

Not only is HumanitZ an early access title with ongoing updates and continual additions to the baseline game, but the best part about the inclusion of it's POGs multiplayer style is Shockbyte's coverage of all-things multiplayer support. From in-game dedicated servers to player-owned community hubs, Shockbyte is able to provide ongoing reliable support to the players of HumanitZ to guarantee a lagless and enjoyable gaming experience for years to come.

As time progresses, players can anticipate frequent updates, providing them with fresh incentives to revisit HumanitZ and embark on new adventures with their friends. With Shockbyte servers, players can rely on automatic updates, ensuring they always have access to the latest version of multiplayer, allowing them to dive straight back into the heart-pounding last-day-of-survival action with friends.