Jong: Happy holidays! I hope your year has been filled with nothing but joy. While the world celebrates, Team PengPong has been spending a wonderful end-of-year battling the temptation of just one more fix and dealing with exploding bugs instead of exploding jackpots.
Since the rest of the team is out enjoying well-deserved breaks with family and friends, I’m holding down the fort alone in the office! Rather than a formal report, I’m here to share some personal thoughts and our future direction in a more casual way.
For the Demo 2 version coming this February, we’ve shifted our focus. Instead of just piling on new features, we’re prioritizing fixing the core issues that disrupt the "game feel" and expanding the sheer volume of content. Here’s a little teaser of what’s changing!
(1) Two New Weapons are in the Works
While many of you enjoy the Power Player Puck, Recoil Jones, and Snapedge Alpha, we’ve felt a growing curiosity about new weapons from those we met at offline exhibitions and Demo 1 players. Since I'm bringing this up now, there's a very high chance they’ll be in the Demo 2 update! I can't share the full concepts yet, but here are some hints. Our artist will show off the designs in the next devlog!
Weapon 1 Hint: Low attack power, but you start with two of the same weapon. We noticed players loved the "dual-weapon" feel from certain Hyper Capacities. We’re designing a weapon that inherently uses two objects. Fun fact: the team got inspired while watching Zootopia together!
Weapon 2 Hint: This weapon utilizes the [Toasty!] and [Salty!] status effects. We want to support players who want to build around status ailments. By introducing a weapon that leans into specific "builds," we believe the game will become much more diverse. This one is a bit behind Weapon 1 in development, so we’ll see if it makes the February cut.
(2) A New Stage is Coming
Peng, having cleared out the monsters of deep space, is headed to a new environment: an Amusement Park. We’re leaning harder into "Bullet Heaven" design here. We’re moving away from simple square maps to dynamic shapes with "Bumpers" and other pinball-inspired obstacles. We’ll keep polishing this until we’re satisfied and will share it on the Steam Community first!
Our mission is to make a game that people truly love. In 2025, we held 4 Focus Group Tests and 5 exhibitions across East Asia to hear your feedback. This will continue next year. In March, we’ll run our 5th FGT based on Demo 2. And while 2025 was focused on East Asia, my personal goal for 2026 is to meet players in North America and Europe at events like PAX or gamescom! (And maybe hit a real roulette table while I'm there—just kidding... mostly.)
We’ll work hard so that by this time next year, you’ll be spending your holidays happily with PengPong!
All the best, Team PengPong