Announcing: Project Scrapper's first content update!
There's been a lot of radio silence for Project Scrapper, and I hope the wait has been worth it, as I am now announcing Project Scrapper's first content update. There is a lot of new features to look forward to, and today, I'm going to be talking through what to expect. Before I do, thank you to everybody that has tried out Project Scrapper and doubly so to those who gave, give or will give any feedback.
New Maps
Spaceship
Scrapper bots will continue their zero-gravity analysis by flying across the stars in a spaceship. A large map, players can manipulate the spaceship's course using the levers in the upper and lower control rooms. Warning: manual spaceship piloting will cause untethered objects to accelerate accordingly, possibly dangerously so. The spaceship is also equipped with two airlocks to the left and right. Take care when accessing the airlocks' contents to ensure that other test participants do not initiate the ejection sequence.
Ball Pit
Scrapper bots will test their navigation, stealth and environmental detection abilities in the ball pits, a series of four conjoined rooms. Participants can dive into the eponymous ball pits, being submerged and obscured as a result, though the balls will shift as players and objects move about. Participants will also only be able to view the room they are currently located within. If you are searching for another participant, be sure to stay hot on their tail as you can quickly lose sight of each other. Will you take advantage of the balls' cover? Maybe set up an ambush? And as you move, can you quickly identify your target before being accosted?
New Game Mode and Combining Game Modes
Intrusion
Collection is about gathering as many tokens as possible in your own collection area. Intrusion is about the opposite, placing as many tokens as possible in opposing participants' collection areas. Each test participant will start with 5 points. Should an intrusion token (the aesthetic inverse to a collection token) be placed in a participant's area, that token will explode after a brief delay, deducting a point from the associated participant. Should a player hit 0 points, they are eliminated. Last player with any points remaining wins the rounds
Combining Game Modes
Players are now able to choose to combine game modes. During the lobby setup when selecting the game mode, a new "Combine Game Modes" option is available. The lobby host will be able to select as few as 1 game mode up to as many as all of the game modes. While playing with multiple modes, any player that completes any of the selected modes wins that round. If Scrapmatch is included, you win if you're the last one standing, if Hat Stack is included, be the first to have 50 hat points, and so on. Determine for yourself exactly how complicated or simple you want each game to play out.
Other Features
Lobby Settings
Lobby hosts will now see an additional button to configure the lobby's finer details such as physics settings. Hosts will be able to increase or decrease player movement speed, jump height, player gravity and/or world gravity. There is also a new random playlist feature for both maps and modes. Hosts can configure which maps and modes they want to appear when the setting for each is set to random, so if you want some variety between rounds, but there's a few maps or modes that you don't really vibe with, you can exclude them from potential randomization selection. This also includes the new combined game modes feature, so if you like randomization and Scrapmatch, you can add Scrapmatch + Collection, Scrapmatch + Hat Stack, etc. to your randomization playlist to scratch that itch.
Online Character Customization
Character customization was previously only available to local play as a quick addition to allow players to tell each other apart (since Project Scrapper currently only uses players' Steam names to identify them in games). After taking some time to iron out the feature's technical aspects, players will now be able to customize their Scrapper bots while playing online.
Additional Character Customization
In addition, new character customization options have been added.
Astronaut helmet (to prepare you for your continued space exploration)
Banana hat
Clown
Crown
Gnome
Kitty ears
Monocle
Viking hat
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
And of course, there's been a few bugs that have been identified and fixed during the development process for this content. More detailed bug notes will be coming soon.
So there's a somewhat brief overview of everything to expect with this upcoming patch. There is a tentative release date of July 23rd should testing and final polishing stay on track.
Hope to see you all then!