For general feedback about the game.
Steam SupportVisit the support site for any issues you may be having with the game or Steam.
Just a quick heads up: our exhibition match with pros and pubbers is going to begin shortly. If we're being honest, we're 10% excited, 90% terrified. You should also be terrified, because our usual MO is to take notes of everything that happens during a match, then make changes to the game in bitter, small-minded retaliation. If Dave Riller can't kill someone because they're hiding behind a wall? Guess what? That wall's toast in tomorrow's patch. And if I get killed by too many Scouts, then there'll be no more Scouts, in any game, ever. Double jumps will be a fond memory in your grandad's head. Trust us on this. We have connections at Nintendo. Mario will develop a sudden desire to wear lead weighted boots.
Head over to the ETF2L page to see how you can watch the fun.
Since our recent TF2maps.net Art Pass Contest, our level designers have gone back to their default state at the TF2 offices, which is to say, doing nothing, taking naps, eating lunch, and complaining. This has become a bit of a poison pill for the rest of the TF2 team, all of whom possess strong opinions about working (against it), naps (pro), lunches (very pro) and complaining (big fans).
As part of the fallout, this morning the writing team refused to do their work for the month, which was to write today's blog post and name some hats. At first we weren't terribly concerned—partly because most of the team wasn't even aware the game had writing in it, but mostly because everybody here, unlike the writers, knows how to perform a skill AND write words. (Here's a pro-tip for you youngsters: Build your career on a skill that isn't something five-year-olds can do.)
But then someone pointed out that, even though writing's incredibly easy work, it's still technically work. So we reached into our comprehensive bag of solutions, and pulled out our well-worn one-trick pony: Community Contest Time!
Fans have been mailing us for some time now, asking for a contest that didn't involve modeling or level design. So now they get their wish. That's right: you'll be competing over who can describe hats the best. Introducing the first ever
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You probably thought we were done for the day too, but we've barely started this blog post. The fine folks over at Team 17 are about to release Worms Reloaded this week. Being massive fans of their work, all the way back to the original Alien Breed, we thought it'd be fun to do something with them. So, we approached them and politely asked if we could include an iconic element of their game in TF2. The conversation was going swimmingly until they said that the best item to use would be the Holy Hand Grenade. We shuffled our feet and nervously explained that some soon-to-be-fired idiot had removed all of TF2's grenades.
But luckily, we were saved by our own shoddy workmanship. While we removed grenades from the game during early development, we left two of them dangling on the front of the Soldier as a teasing reminder of what once was. So, to celebrate the release, we're going to give a nifty Soldier visual update to anyone who buys Worms Reloaded before Thursday, September 2nd, allowing him to sport two Holy Hand Grenades and a new Soldier helmet. Here's what it looks like in-game:
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Finally, a couple of quick competitive notes:
The fine folks over at ETF2L have launched their Highlander Community Challenge, and we're excited to be a part of it. We'll be giving out in-game medals to everyone who participates, so if you've got some friends who should stop wasting their gaming time and get to the work earning virtual goods (for you), now's the time.
Ubercharged.net has put up their most recent Interview with a Community Item Creator, Larolaro. We love reading these, because it's often the case that we get the best feedback when the community talks to itself, instead of when it's talking to us.We ask for feedback on our tools all the time, and everyone's much too nice to tell us directly that they're like a "beautiful ornate chair with a spike carved into the seat". Also, Hackett mentioned to us that he's trying to get in contact with other Community Item creators, so if you've made something that we've shipped, and want to create more colorful analogies for describing our toolset, then contact him on the UC forums.
