https://secondhalf.games/news/2026-08-28-fsh-69
Happy Friday! We all knew this number was coming, so I need you all to be a good audience and exercise some responsible readership and not giggle too loudly.
Closed alpha playtesting continues, and we'd love to have you join us! See our Discord for more!
View game pageLast time, vandals defaced Florida IX and the player character got some fresh kneepads.
This week, I've been instructed to take you all through a workplace-mandated MEANWHILE IN SECTOR 80 Safety Brief Retrospective.
In other words: "What not to do if you're a killer robot with lasers for hands".
Are you all paying attention?
I don't actually care if you are. My contract says I have to run this brief at least once a year. Some of it is pretty rusty, but if you pretend to listen, I'll keep pretending to teach.
A History of Violence
Big tip: it's very important that you take immediate and appropriate action when you open a door and don't like what you see.
In an early build of MS80, the player did not have a root power core part (that wouldn't happen until we watched Pacific Rim as a team, which has caused irreparable damage). Despite this, enemy targeting AI still aimed for centre of mass.
As everything on the player connected to one single torso socket — a decent shot from an enemy on a player who wasn't taking evasive action could fry you instantly. Combined with a somewhat haphazard approach to balancing weapons voltage, well...
And that was the weakest laser in the game at the time!
When Mr Laser Is Live, Mr Laser Is Not Your Friend
Okay, this one is kind of our own fault really. There was a time where we had a thing about clipping and camera movement and aiming, and it all didn't quite line up as snappy as we needed it to.
If you ran around and then turned too quickly, your own laser hand could still be in your own torso. Firing it went about as well as you might expect. This happened embarrassingly often.
And that's why we don't use those animations anymore!
ElectroDOOM
We've all seen the videos. A guy's got some sketchy looking electrical circuitry in front of him and touches it with a metal tool and it explodes and he makes a funny noise but he's fine.
We all get a big laugh, he gets 22 million views, we've learned a bit more about mains electricity and everyone is happy.
Turns out: plugging in two batteries of different voltage into the same circuit results in A VIOLENT, DEADLY EXPLOSION. This is especially bad news if your entire body is literally an electrical circuit.
VOLUME WARNING.
We didn't have any explosion VFX at the time, so use your imagination.
Looking Ahead
No new content being shown off in this edition — we've all been too busy carrying out essential tasks for stability and meeting some deadlines! Steam Next Fest signup is due soon, and that's been our main priority. A proper announcement will follow!
In other news, Lilith's making a fun new revolverator tool. Jack continues UI work. Laura has completely overhauled all game key art. All things to come back and see next week!