Shady Job Playtest

Shady Job’s public playtests are over. GAZE IN GAMES wrapped them on August 31, 2026, in the Steam news post that also locked the September 10, 2026 Steam PC date. If you are hunting a Request Access button this week, you are late in a useful way: the next honest session is the paid unlock, not another invite lottery. This recap exists so launch crews can steal what testers already paid for in falls, collapses, and escaped bags.

For the calendar, read the Shady Job release date page. For named builds, stay on Shady Job patch notes. This article is the wave history and the practical takeaways. It does not invent a 1.2 changelog or a secret Discord key.

How the test got loud

GAZE IN GAMES announced Shady Job on July 9, 2026, with the trailer. Automaton covered the reveal the next day and noted Japanese UI on the Steam page. Dexerto’s July 15 piece framed the pitch for a wider audience: up to four construction workers, a mafia disposal job, and a body bag that is not done moving. Early press still listed a short July 24–25 window because that is what the studio had said in public before Playtest 1.0 went live as a week-long wave.

Demand outran the signup form. The studio reported more than 20,000 playtest requests in three days. Sign-ups were briefly closed so a small team could actually run the test. Dexerto quoted the developers saying they were thinking about closing requests “for now (but not forever)” because managing that many participants would be a challenge. That pause was load control, not a cancelled game.

Playtest 1.0 — July 24 to July 31, 2026

Playtest 1.0 went live on July 24, 2026, and ran until July 31. The studio posted that the first wave was on, that new players would be invited in waves with set testing periods, and that this first phase ended in seven days. Access was granted randomly by Steam. Checking the email on the Steam account mattered more than refreshing the store page.

Invite rules were strict and boring in the way Steam tests always are:

• You could invite up to three friends.
• Steam’s policy required those friends to have been on your list for more than 30 days.
• If you did not get a key in wave one, the studio said more waves would follow.

Party-finding was left to comments under the post and to “our Discord server.” This wiki will not paste a Discord invite. If you still want that community, start from the official Steam page and the links hub rather than a random code in chat. After a session, testers were asked to fill a survey from a link in the main menu and after finishing a run. The studio treated that form as the actual deliverable, not clip farming.

The 1.0 post also nicknamed the cargo “Punchy Bag.” That matches the store copy: the bag struggles, escapes, breaks structures, and gets more aggressive if you handle it roughly. Read the body bag guide before you decide that yeeting it up a shaft is a speedrun tech.

Playtest 1.1 — second wave around August 1

Playtest 1.1 went live around August 1, 2026, as the second invite wave. Access was still random via Steam, with the same “check your email” instruction and a promise of later waves if you missed this round. Public posts did not ship a named content headline the way 1.3 later did. Treat 1.1 as capacity and iteration, not as a documented Level 2 drop.

Between 1.1 and 1.3 the studio kept inviting people in successive waves. This wiki will not invent a Playtest 1.2 patch ID or a bullet list of undocumented tweaks. If a future Steam news post names 1.2, the patch notes page will cite that post. Until then, the named public milestones are 1.0, 1.1, and 1.3.

Playtest 1.3, Wave 4 — August 14, Level 2

On August 14, 2026, Wave 4 went live under the title Shady Job Playtest 1.3. The headline was simple: LEVEL 2 IS HERE. That is the only named content addition in the public test history. It is also why launch conversations should assume more than a single climb. The walkthrough is the place for route notes; this recap only records that testers were asked to run a second level before the program closed.

Playtests then ran through the rest of August and ended on August 31, 2026. The wrap post is the same one that confirmed September 10. There is no listed Wave 5 after that date.

What testers learned that still matters on September 10

Three lessons show up in almost every useful recap, and they map onto systems the store already describes. They are not patch numbers.

Bag aggression. The bag is cargo with opinions. Rough handling makes it meaner. Dropping it, slamming it through windows, or using it as a battering ram can turn a clean carry into a ledge fight. One player should own the bag the way the roles tier list and squad planner suggest, while someone else watches for escapes. The body bag page is the long version of that rule.

Building collapse. Paths are unstable on purpose. One bad block can delete the whole structure, and the bag is happy to help. Builders should think in short, testable spans, not cathedral bridges. Cranes and platforms exist to gain height without stacking a death tower. Destructible walls are shortcuts and also new holes. The building guide is the place to practice that caution before launch night.

Plunger rescue. The Plunger Gun is not only a gimmick grapple. Testers used it to climb unfinished steel, to yank the bag off a bad ledge, and to pull a falling teammate back before the physics joke became a reset. If your four-stack has no designated rescuer, you will learn this the hard way. Start with the Plunger Gun page and the controls overview.

Co-op friction was the other quiet lesson. Steam listed online sessions only. Friend invites needed a 30-day friends-list relationship during the test, which wrecked last-minute pickup groups. Launch day uses the live game’s own invite flow, but the habit still helps: lock a squad before you queue, use the co-op guide, and do not assume split-screen on the couch.

What the playtest is not

It is not a demo you can opt into this week. It is not a review copy of the September 10 build. Systems can still change between the last test and unlock. Treat tester memory as a briefing, then verify against Getting Started and the launch checklist once the live client is in your library.

It is also not HELLMART. Same studio, different product. Playtest chatter about Shady Job should stay on this bag, this site, and this plunger.

If you played every wave, thank you for the surveys; the studio said they mattered. If you never got an email, you did not fail a hidden skill check. Steam’s random invites were the gate, and that gate is shut. Wishlist the store page from the links hub, then spend the next week on roles and routes instead of refreshing an expired request form.

Carry those three habits into September 10: respect the bag, build like the floor can vanish, and keep a plunger on rescue duty. The live job can still surprise you, but those rules are the part of Playtest 1.0–1.3 that is worth keeping after the invites died.