Hello everyone!

This week we wanted to post an update on the status of the wide scale release of our engine test. If you missed the initial announcement on the mailing list, the engine test is a runnable version of the engine designed to help us tune the performance, compatibility, and networking prior to the release of the Natural Selection 2 alpha. In addition to helping us smooth out any problems, anyone that's downloaded the Spark Level Editor can see their creations in game, and aspiring mod makers can experiment with the included Lua code.

After the announcement of the engine test a month ago, we started testing with a small group of people outside the company, and (not unexpectedly) we discovered some critical issues that needed to be addressed. For the past month we've been working on improving network reliability, optimizing the Lua interface and tightening up the graphics. Now that these problems are almost resolved, we're planning on releasing the engine test to everyone that's pre-ordered (either edition) on April 9th.

Since this is a test, we expect there will be some more bumps in the road, but we know you're all excited to start exploring the world of Natural Selection 2, and we're excited to share it with you!