Hello everyone! Since the last update, I've been working on a new game mode for Polymino called Junk Attack. It's a versus mode for 2-4 players where you earn powerups which can either help you, or hinder your opponents. It's going to take a lot of playtesting to get the balance of this mode right. So, if you want to play the latest versions of Junk Attack before they're publicly available and get your name in the credits, join Polymino's Discord server, where we'll be organizing head-to-head playtesting with Steam Remote Play! In the meantime, here's a sneak peak at what's to come:
The first thing that sticks out is probably the weird-looking junk pieces on the board. Some powerups in Junk Attack apply an effect to a junk piece on either your board (for positive effects) or other players' boards (for negative effects), such as junk which can only be destroyed by bombs, or junk which is immune to bombs. The next major change you can see in the screenshot is the addition of a junk queue to the HUD. In Classic Mode, you can only see the next junk piece which is about to drop; in Junk Attack you get to see the next four! This also creates opportunities for more powerups, which will be discussed later. You probably also noticed that players 1 and 2 have different layouts for their HUD. Each player can choose the layout they prefer in Junk Attack. The last thing I want to point out is the meter in each player's HUD. Junk Attack will have a wide variety of settings so you can customize it to your liking, and the most important setting is the one which selects how powerups are earned. The option selected in the above screenshot is called the Attack Meter. Actions such as making matches, destroying junk and using the quick-drop button will fill your meter. Once you've filled one of the three segments, you can use the bomb button to trigger a powerup. There are actually two variants of the Attack Meter: in the first, the powerup triggered is always random. In the second, players will be able to equip a specific powerup for each level of their Attack Meter before the game starts. For games where powerups are random, there's a menu which allows you to select which powerups are enabled, letting you fine-tune the balance of your games. This menu also allows us to see the entire list of powerups which are currently in the game:
Here's a quick rundown of each powerup in the list:

• Greyout: make your opponent's board black-and-white for a limited time, making it difficult to form matches.
• Speed up: temporarily increase your opponent's difficulty level.
• Hide junk queue: hide your opponent's junk queue for a limited time.
• Bomb-only junk: this one was in the previous screenshot. It makes a random junk piece in each opponent's board invincible to everything except bombs.
• Bomb-immune junk: another one from the previous screenshot. This one makes a random piece in each opponent's board immune to bombs.
• Gray junk to colored junk: turn all gray junk into junk of random colors for your opponents.
• Turn junk gray: turns all junk gray on your own board.
• Turn junk one color: turns all junk into one color for your opponents.
• Large junk pieces: replace all junk in your opponent's queue with very large pieces.
• Small junk pieces: replace all junk in your own queue with very small pieces.
• Junk ink bombs: for a limited time, all junk destroyed by your opponents will splatter ink on nearby blocks, making it hard to see their color.
• Exploding junk: for a limited time, all junk destroyed by you will explode, destroying nearby blocks and junk.
• Junk transfer: removes a junk piece from your board and places it in each opponent's board.