Well, this has been a long time coming. Scraps is released, finished, done! I'll continue to support major bug fixes or issues if they come up for at least the next six months, as detailed in my previous post here. That post covers everything about this release already, so I'll use this post to look back at some Scraps history.

1.0 Changelog

- Added two new Melee mode maps: Desert Road and Cold Hill
- Added gold/silver/bronze/spiked Kickstarter reward items
- Added icons next to player label for Kickstarter backers at Knight and Master And Commander level
- Added free repair time at the build screen after Gauntlet Final to the point where it should always provide full repairs
- Had to clear existing local Gauntlet leaderboard scores due to code changes. Sorry!
- Added slight randomness to the vehicle's position after an automatic flip over
- Vehicle flip action now checks to make sure it won't be teleporting through a wall
- Flipping your vehicle while inside a building no longer teleports you to the roof

Bug fixes:

- Physics objects (crates, barrels) now interpolate their position, don't look jittery
- AI is now less confused by buildings
- Fixed collision bugs on Gauntlet Earth retaining walls
- Fixed container lid not showing up on Build screen
- Fixed evac pad ramp sticking out of terrain on Test Map
- Fixed Medium Cannon and Medium Cannon Turret invisible polygons on the base

And now a bit of a look back.

2012

Scraps development begins.

In these early screenshots from December 2012 you can see the basic layout of the Test Map already in place, as well as some placeholder part models and a primitive version of the small chassis (sporting a nice final version of the wheel model!). The guns require power and don't generate heat.

I took these screenshots to start a DevLog on TIGSource and on the Unity forums, where I described the game as "Like Kerbal Space Program except the spaceships are vehicles and they fight." I let people download a super early "builder demo" where they could try building and driving their own vehicles.

2013

It’s early 2013 and some more of the models are done. You can build and test but there’s no sound and the weapons keep hitting your own vehicle when they fire. Luckily there’s no damage yet either.

Later in the year I produced this simple trailer, when I later re-did again with updated graphics for the Scraps Kickstarter campaign (December 2013).

I was also beginning to work on multiplayer support.

2014

Multiplayer was a big job, but in September I had it stable enough to try out a real LAN game with a couple of other players.

That’s an extremely early version of the Sandy Bridge map. Dust Bowl was also in at that point, but I picked the smaller map since this was a three-player game.

Not long after that I showed Scraps at PAX Australia.

The AI was also coming along; the only thing in Scraps that I contracted out apart from one nice piece of art. Although any work on AI since the original version has been mine.

2015

Scraps went through the Steam Greenlight process (which no longer exists), and got its official release on Steam Early Access in July 2015, with multiplayer (LAN or Internet) and AI for singleplayer melee.

But by the end of 2015 I was seeing that Scraps really needed another singleplayer mode of some sort to make it a worthwhile purchase, given the very low playerbase in multiplayer and the limits of the AI melee mode.

2016

I started working on Gauntlet mode, another major undertaking.

Too major, really. Scraps had been going on for too long already and wasn’t really getting sales anymore. I couldn’t justify working on it full time any longer, and 2016 was the year I got other, full time work. Scraps became a project I worked on in any remaining free time I had, which slowed down development further.

2017-2019

I kept chugging through getting Gauntlet done. I also refactored some parts of the game, as I’d grown in ability as a programmer over time and some old bits were really showing their age.

In December 2019 I finally released the first version of Gauntlet that was publicly playable, which included the Landing Point, Earth, Water, and Transition worlds.

2020

I added a release that included Gauntlet Wind, and finally the complete version of Gauntlet. And now here we are.

Check out the two new Melee maps that come in this release as well.

Thanks so much for your patience. I hope you have fun with my game.