Hello all, it has been another exciting month of development work on Northminster. Our progress tracker to the first closed beta version of Northminster is being ticked off at a very impressive rate. We expect the first CLOSED beta version of the game to be released in the next couple of months. This will include selected individuals from each sector of the group.

Summary of Progress

• Medical system
• Fire hose / hydrant system
• Blokeston bank heist
• Bug fixes
• Building gaps beginning to be filled.

Medical System

This has been a project that has been spoken about for a long long time which has now finally seen some development. This is a ginormous project which gives the London Ambulance Service use of a wide variety of medical equipment which dynamically interact with player-inputted vitals and different injuries and medical conditions. This will unlock new depths for medical roleplay never before seen, providing rich and dynamic opportunities for LAS.

Due to the sheer size of this project, although much progress has been made, there is still a lot to do for this.

Fire hose & hydrant system

This system includes the hose dynamics for the London Fire Brigade. This includes the attachment of a hydrant to the fire engine for a water source, the use of different water modes (jet, spray, etc) with different ranges and the ability to deploy a variable amount of foam through the hose. This comes with a neat GUI to control the hose and see how much water and foam is used from the fire engine to allow for a dynamic firefighting experience.

Along with this, the hose mechanics have been focused on. This means the hose will interact dynamically with the ground and bend in a realistic style. This prevents the issues of unrealistic looking hoses as there have been in our prior games.

Blokeston Bank Heist

For criminals in organised crime groups, they will be able to complete OCG-specific heists. These are GTA style and can have multiple players for heists. These heists require “prep” missions to acquire certain pieces of equipment relevant to the heist. These missions do not need to be completed in the same session of the heist itself, and equipment can be collected, stockpiled and sold to other gangs wishing to do the heist. Perhaps an OCG will find its niche sourcing prep equipment and selling them illegally?

This heist is also diverse in ways to approach it, with different devices and equipment leading a different version of the heist with different drawbacks and benefits, along with a variety of locations involved in the heist.

There are many other features to the heist, however you can discover these when you play the game!

Building Progress

Our lovely new Senior Developer, Rob_Bancs, has taken charge of building for Northminster. He has been making astounding progress himself and is in the process of hiring new builders over the coming days. There are some great candidates to help maintain the quality of building for Northminster.

An Important Note…

Whilst the closed beta of the game is on the horizon, this period of testing will be used to fix the many expected bugs, refine the game and add more depth to the game whilst adding smaller details. Once this period of refinement has been completed, we can look at an open beta version of the game for you all to play. Thank you, as always, for your patience. Stay tuned for Northminster in the big 2026!