0.1.2253

17 Jul 2026Developer post

Mitts 0.1.2253

Headlined by a brand new 5v5 game mode, a much livelier lobby, and a filled-out arena.

Pick Mode in the lobby to play full 5v5 hockey — two defensemen (LD/RD) join your three forwards on each side, and bots play real position-appropriate hockey in the new mode, not just 3v3 roles with two extra bodies on the ice.
Bot defensemen actually play like defensemen — walking the blue line for a shot lane in the offensive zone, holding a real five-man zone coverage in your own end, running a proper 5-man breakout, and reading the rush as a genuine defensive pair instead of chasing the puck around.
Faceoff formations, the lobby roster grid, and the scoreboard all got 5v5-aware layouts — defensemen get their own row and position badges (LD/RD, LW/RW) alongside the familiar 3v3 look, which is unchanged if you stick with it.
3v3 remains the default and plays exactly as before — 5v5 is an added option, not a replacement.

The lobby background is a real, live 3D arena instead of a static image — the actual rink, stands, and crowd, with a camera slowly drifting around the bowl. The crowd's colors shift live as your team color votes resolve.
Your roster now sits on the bench — every occupied slot (human or bot) gets a seated player model dressed in your team's actual kit, visible behind the lobby menu.
New "Fill with Bots" button instantly tops up every empty slot at once.
The lobby's settings layout was reorganized into a cleaner, more balanced tray, with the visibility selector (Offline/Friends/Public) moved to its own header row.

Added a full upper deck and an outer building shell to the arena — wide camera shots, replays, and the lobby backdrop used to show the crowd bowl ending abruptly with nothing behind it; now the arena reads as a complete building from every angle.

Substantial performance work on bot decision-making, especially with a full 5v5 roster on the ice — bots now spread their thinking across ticks instead of a whole roster recalculating on the same frame, which was producing periodic frame-rate spikes.
Fixed defensemen and points nervously pacing back and forth along the blue line instead of holding a steady position.
General positioning and race-to-the-spot reads across the whole bot team are now calibrated against real skating physics instead of an approximated model, which should read as generally sharper, more decisive bot movement.

Network protocol updated (5v5 mode selection) — everyone needs this build to play together.