Hey pilots!

Today we are making a major update, not bringing any new content (compared to the last update), but greatly improving the quality of life of the game.

Exoblast therefore goes to 1.2.0.

Thanks to you, our team has fixed a good number of bugs, including a blocking bug preventing connection to the game. Thank you for reporting all these errors via Discord where you form a great community! For those who would like to join, here is the link: Discord

We also took the opportunity to update the database.

We remind you that access to the Season 2 tournament ends in two weeks, bringing together the highest ranked players in Ranked mode. We will give you more details very soon.

To your ships, pilots, it's time to reach new heights and prove what you are capable of.

Hello to you, pilots!

Exoblast 1.1 is finally available and brings a lot of new content, as promised in our Public Trello.

Here is Exoblast 1.1:

• New progression system
  
• Visual improvements
  
• A reworked ranked mode
  
• New settings
  
• Added servers and bugfix
  

• Rewards will be given to you at each level, from level 1 to level 50.
  
• Unique challenges will appear and renew on a daily basis, allowing you to unlock a new customization element with each success, until you have unlocked them all.
  
• Simple daily quests to complete will be offered to unlock experience points.
  
• More complicated weekly quests to complete will be offered to you to obtain pilot skins (12 new skins).
  
• Steam Achievements have been added and reward you with customization items upon successful completion.
  

• There are now placement matches (10) before you start tryharding to climb the ranks!
  
• The gap between divisions has been revised, it will take you less time to change divisions.
  
• Matchmaking has been reworked to run against an opponent that is closer to your level.
  
• We are adding a leaderboard to see where you stand against your opponents, showing your closest opponents as well as the top 10 in the world.
  

• Portuguese translation.
  
• Russian translation.
  

Hello, pilots!

Thanks to all your feedback, we added and modified some elements, gameplay, balancing and progression. Lets start with the new stuff.

[h2]Emotes in game[/h2]

Many of you want a better way to communicate with the opponent than wiggling. A chat system does not necessarily seem wise, we prefer to add a wheel of emotes to share a fun moment with your opponent.

More emotes will be added in the future and you will be able to customize your emote wheel as you want. You can use them with 1/2/3/4 on the keyboard or with the D-pad on your controller.
Emotes will be unlockable by playing the game and reaching certain levels or by achieving challenges.

[h2]Progression System[/h2]

At the launch of Exoblast, we made all the ships, pilots and game mode available from the beginning. This has caused you three problems:

Congratulations, pilots!

You fought with a lot of fervor, but the targets were incredibly powerful.
You who have defeated the streamers, come claim your skins, you deserve them.
To tell us which pack you prefer (between Vampire and Unicorn), join our Discord: https://discord.gg/2mMTMRxaCb

Other events are planned, such as the tournament end of season 1 scheduled for May and streamed on the channel of Mister MV. The selected players will be the 24 best in the ranked mode.


So this concluded the first edition of WANTED event, enjoy your brand new ships

Hello, Pilots!
We are aware that some of you are experiencing server's issues and lags and this post will explain what our plans are and why, hopefully youll get some answers.

First of all, we are very thankful for all the positive reviews and the growing community.
What an exciting time for us! (also very stressful)

[h2]Lets start with the servers (lags).[/h2]
At the moment we only have 2 regions, Europe and North America, servers are respectively in the north of France and in Canada, you can choose which servers you want to play on from the Settings menu.

And so, all the players in Asia, Oceania, Center and South America, not forgetting Russia, have a high ping, we are aware of that and it is very frustrating.

We are very sorry about that, adding servers is something we want to do and are working on, but not to forget that servers are a non-negligible cost so we have to choose carefully.

Also, adding servers will split the queues : yes it will reduce your ping, but if you find no-one to play against, thats also a problem.

Today we plan to add 2 server regions (one server for each), one in Asia (not precisely defined where) and one in Brazil. From all the feedback weve got, this should fix the majority of player lag.
If after the update you are still having lag, please make sure to reach out, either on Twitter, Discord, Facebook, Twitch, or through the Steam community. We spend a lot of time reading all of your concerns, feedback and questions.

Today, if you are in Europe, your ping should be less than 100, same as if you are in the USA/Canada.
From what we have seen, most of you play with a 20-30ms ping or less and servers rarely get overloaded, so if there is high ping, its more an issue about internet speed, wifi, or others settings, but we are very concerned by it and will gladly help you finding a way to improve it.

[h2]A bit of informations about the rollback netcode[/h2]
A lot of players are asking us to implement the rollback netcode and we understand why.
It seems important to us to give a bit of explanation about what it is and how this will change in terms of feeling and gameplay, but also to explain how we plan to solve this.


During the early-access we have tried to implement prediction/reconciliation.
It is not rollback but it takes some principles from it.
It was working and good for beginners, but the feeling was not great for competition.

Rollback can give some weird feeling for your opponent in a high ping situation, and what happens today from players complaining about lag (for the vast majority), is that they do have a high ping.
So except if we decided to use a P2P solution (without an authoritative server), there is no counter to high ping.
Here is a complete article explaining what Rollback is and how it impact the gameplay, I cant explain better than this (or then read some PHd about P2P games and rollback, but this is not the point here): https://gamerant.com/rollback-netcode-explained/

As competitive players, we know how frustrating the lag is and how unacceptable it is to lose a match because of lag.

So here is our plan.

• First, bringing new servers that will reduce the lag, from 200 or 400 you should go under 100 which is more acceptable.
  
• Then, we will re-implement the prediction/reconciliation algorithms weve made during early-access, and it will be activable as an option in the settings, this will reduce your lag input but could cause some weird feeling, so as an option, youll be free to activate it.
  
• Third, add an extra option to blend the lag and prediction, which could contribute to reducing the lag feeling and the gap between reality. We want to try this but are unsure of the result.
  
• And last, we are going to improve the general netcode in the server, moving to a new stack, that should make the game faster and improve for everyone, including players who have no lags today.
  

Hello Pilot!
Many of you joined us during the last week, we are so happy about it.
A lot of feedback has been sent back to us, mostly around the ranked game mode and the newbros accessibility.


Without waiting anymore, here are the Changelogs:

• Tutorial ! If you havent played it yet, you will get it, no worry, you can skip it (thats a first version that we will improve in the future)
  
• Default ship is now becoming the Destroyer
  
• Destroyers minimal firepower have been slightly reduced, a bigger balance update will be done soon (mostly focused on pilots and others ships)
  
• Various languages mistakes fixed
  
• VS IA gamemode is now the default mode for level 1 players
  
• A popup appears to warn a level 1 player when he tries to join online matchmaking
  
• ELO ranking have been improved/changed (player with ELO have got their ELO calculated accordingly, no loss have been seen)
  
• Matchmaking modification to get it more precise and more balanced in between the players level (waiting slightly longer)
  
• Readycheck auto-cancel bug have been fixed if the queue is left
  
• IA training level start at level 5
  
• The server with the less ping is defined as the lowest one
  
• Bug with command spam during training/queue is now fixed
  
• Bug about the winners name on the endgame screen is now fixed
  
• Bug on the replay button of a local game is now fixed
  
• You cant join anymore a game where youve been kicked from
  
• VFX of the goal have been improved
  
• Reward part of the endgame screen have been visually improved
  

The first event of the season is here!

Find streamers Mister MV and Shisheyu on Exoblast and battle them as they broadcast your matches on Twitch.
As a reward for defeating both targets, we will give you a free skin pack of your choice. The pack will be delivered after the event which will last from February 1 to February 6, 2022.



We wanted to create an event that was out of the ordinary and that would allow streamers to play with their community. The WANTED format is therefore the perfect mix of fun and challenge, all while remaining in our universe.

If you like the format, we will organize other editions of the WANTED event, potentially with other streamers that you can suggest to us.
More events are coming up, so get ready!

Will you be strong enough for the challenge, pilots?

Exoblast Season 1 starts today!

In addition to creating occasional events, we wanted the Exoblast community to be able to invest in the game and be rewarded for it: this is why we have introduced seasons in ranked mode.

The first season will therefore last from February 1 to May 1, three months. We will be able to modify the duration of the next seasons depending on your feedback on this one.

At the end of the season, the top 24 players will be invited to a tournament rebroadcast on Mister MV's Twitch channel with rewards for all players who participated.

Other off-season tournaments are being considered and will be defined as a special event.

We can't wait to bring together the best of pilots, so join the arena and show us what you're capable of!

Glad to see you, pilots!
First things first, we wanted to say thank you.
You have been a really supportive community for a year and half now. Without you, this game would not be what it is today. The many hours of reading your feedback, discussing the possibilities with you, all support you have given us, we have translated into Exoblast.

[h2]This is not over yet![/h2]
We want to continue Exoblast's development, add content, improve features, add modes, develop a competitive scenes among the community, organise tournaments and events.
We also want to release the game on other devices, like smartphones or consoles, which will take time.
For now, we need your help to push Exoblast's community forward. May you be someone competitive, a streamer, casual gamer or just curious, give us your opinion on the game, bring out your friends and keep giving us your feedback.
A game without gamers is worthless, you are the key component of Exoblast.

[h2]New menu and navigation![/h2]
As we promised, we made brand new menus, easy to navigate with both mouse and controller. It was a really hard process to figure out how to make it fluent for you to go through.
We hope you all like it!



[h2]New GOAL animation![/h2]
To improve the feeling you get when you land a ball in your opponent's goal, we made a brand new animation that cannot be missed.



[h2]Data wipe![/h2]
Until now the game was in early access, datas evolved a lot and it is not relevant to keep the old data.
To start anew with a competitive season and to give you the best experience for old and new players, we wiped the data so everyone will start from the same level..

[h2]DLCs for ship's skins and announcers! (to support us)[/h2]
Here is a really important subject we need to talk about.
While developping Exoblast, we considered many possibilities about the business model. At first, we wanted it to be free to play because it felt pretty common to do so.
But, because of the game's evolution, we decided to remove what was F2P to become entirely free, so no one is left appart in the matchmaking.
However the creation and maintenance of a game is onerous and needs a form of revenue, so we would like to propose skin DLCs for sale tu support the development team and the data fees.

These DLC packs will not change gameplay in any way and are completely optional.
They give you skins for all your ships, as well as the visual customization of the announcers that are in the game (Goal, Smash Shield, X5, X10, Max Speed and Destroyed).

From now on, you can destroy your opponents with style. Let's see how it looks!

[h3]When unicorns beat the ship out of you![/h3]




[h3]You don't like cute stuff and prefer deadly scary demons?[/h3]




Well, the Vampire pack and the Unicorn pack are available on steam this week!

[h2]Season 1 and tournaments![/h2]
We want to encourage you to go on rankedmode and become the very best pilot.
At the end of the first season, we will organize a tournament starring the 24 best players who reached the top of the tower. The tournament will be broadcasted on Twitch by MisterMV, and everyone will receive gifts.
You have from February 1st to May 1st to rank yourself! We will anounce the pilots who reached top 24 during May's first week, along with the tournament date.

[h2]What's next![/h2]
To your controller, we have a first event where you can win DLC skins we talked just before.
The WANTED event will take place from the 1st of February to the 6th of February.
Take down two french streamers, Mister MV and Shisheyu, while they stream to get a free skin pack! Every details are explained on our Discord server : https://discord.gg/udndb6NS3T



Thank you again for your support.
See you in the arena, pilots!

Version 0.9 Back to Basics is here!

[h2]Welcome back, Pilot![/h2]

We're glad to see you back. A lot has changed since the last time you were here.
You may be confused by the drastic decisions we have made, but we will explain them to you.

Exoblast is now rolling from version 0.5 to 0.9 because we changed a lot of things and what we wanted for the game, to focus on the main experience of Exoblast instant fun and simplicity.
Enjoy the game, online or offline with friends, forget about farming and progression and focus on mastery.

The development of Exoblast has been going on for almost three years. After trying many things, we found what was the most important and how to exploit it properly. The number one feature of Exoblast is the simplicity. By adding crafting, farming, and progression, the game was more complex without being more fun.

At first, we wanted Exoblast to be a Free To Play, we decided it is now completely free.
Removing everything related to progression allows us to give fair matches between new and old players. Now only skill will make a difference.

In order to support the game and the devs, we decided to create purchasable packs, soon available. Those packs will give ship Skins and will support the game and its becoming, thanks to you.

[h2]Removed features[/h2]

-The customization of ships is removed.
The balance was hard and a lot of unfair matchup was possible because of the variety and freedom of the feature. By pushing back fixed ships, we have a better control of the balance and experience.
The modularity was also a big limitation for artists.

-The Forge is removed, not required as customization and farming are removed.
-Currencies, the shop button, and inventory are removed.

[h2]New features[/h2]

- This update comes with 6 different ships, all of them are playable and do not require any unlock. They are all different to let you choose your play style. We can't wait for you to get your hands on these ships with their unique designs and gameplays!



- The interface during gameplay has been completely reworked and display more interesting information on the screen.



The in-game version is a pre 1.0 version. Improvements on the menus will be released for the version 1.0 pretty soon.

Thanks for your patience Pilot! See you in the arenas.

Hello there, Pilot [/ b]!

Our team encountered a few [b]recurring issues that didn't prevent you from fighting in the arena, but which could get annoying in the long run.

In addition, a few [b] balancing [/ b] keys were needed.

Here is the file of [b] correction [/ b]:

- fixed the number of shield icons when gaining and losing a shield at the same time
- fix infinite skill animation when it triggers when the ship is blown up
- fix desynchronization of the number of Suns which caused craft errors
- balancing end-of-game stats
- added double tap and smash stats
- balancing of experience points gained for the first levels

Thanks for your feedback, Pilots! See you again in [b] the arena [/ b]!

Bulk bugfix

Pilot! We are very happy with the welcome you have given to Exoblast 0.5.1.

You have completed your mission and reported all the bugs you encountered in the field, directly in our database on Discord.

Thanks to you, we have identified and eliminated these nuisances:

- Modules unlocked at level 4 could not be selected
- Leveling up after level 5 produced an error
- In the hangar tutorial, the preset selection remained in the foreground
- We could access the hangar from the custom screen without having the required level
- Keyboard or gamepad navigation did not work well in the forge
- The crafting of the angel reactor was causing an error
- Some mod stats were incorrectly rounded in the ship edit screen
- Finding a match at the same time as going to training hid the accept button
- Discord bot that sends a message when a player joins the queue. It also indicates the number of online players in it


Return to the arena, Pilot! You have free rein!

Future is here
Glad to find you in one piece, Pilot!

It is with great joy that I report to you on the progress of the Exoblast project.

Here are a few changes, some of which are obvious, though others are more about altering how you feel and how you play.

Let me introduce you to the Exoblast revolution:

-Exoblast gets freshened up
-Music, maestro
-Let's progress together
-New gameplay features
-A little comfort

[h2]Exoblast gets freshen up![/h2]
We decided to improve all the visuals to give it a highly mediatized sports game look that is more in line with Exoblast's lore. In addition, the animations have been revised, reworked or have been completely changed.

Announcers have replaced the victory and defeat animations, as well as the start of the game.
These same announcers activate during events like shield smash, maximum speed reached, explosion of ships, combo without missing the ball and when a point is scored.




Now, when activating your pilot's main skill, an animation will be visible on the ship.

Effects have been added to the maps to make them more alive.
For example, we have a fog, a shine effect to make the essential more attractive and various modifications have visually evolved the game.

In short we now have:

-a white ball with a bounce effect when it receives a projectile or hits a wall. The impacts of the ball on the walls have been reworked. Impacts of the projectile on the ball have been added.
-projectile loadings have been added. Projectiles have been reworked and they fall apart smoothly.

-shields more visible on all maps with animation on the ship when a shield breaks.
-the ship explosions have been improved.
-The inhibitor's electric arc has been improved, as well as its destruction.
-the scores area has been reviewed.
-colors have been brought to the forge materials in order to make them distinct resources and understand the difference in material scarcity.

Be ready, Pilot! You will not believe your eyes !

[h2]Music, maestro![/h2]
Sound effects are something that we haven't touched on much since the creation of Exoblast.
We've added new sounds to make the get improve the game experience.
You will also be able to enjoy new musics from LukHash that we have added when browsing the menus and during your matches.

Turn up the volume, Pilot!

[h2]Let's progress together![/h2]
With the release of Exoblast 0.4, we have played the game more than ever and we realized one major issue: the essence of Exoblast is to build a ship so you can play the way that suits you, the way that looks like YOU.

However, despite the attempt to increase the resources gained, the module recipes were too demanding. So we redid the recipes.

On the other hand, you will now have a steady progression which will give you access to more modules and resources for the Forge at each level.

The rewards will be issued as follows:

lvl 2 = new preset, hangar unlocked
lvl 3 = pilot choice unlocked
lvl 4 = module offered, ship edition unlocked
lvl 5 = resources offered, forge unlocked

[h2]New gameplay features![/h2]
We decided to rework Rikito's skills, being too similar to Nisha's. Rikito will now have maximum power boosts instead of speed.

The explosions of the ships no longer propel the ball straight ahead but in the angle where the ball struck the ship. Also, the more HP you have, the stronger the ball will be returned.

Some modules have been balanced.

[h2]A few more little comfort![/h2]
Now the modules you pass are hovered over to improve your navigation in the Ship Editor. Additionally, a visual has been added to show the part of your ship that you have selected.

The button to accept the match is now on the right, which makes more sense compared to the rest of the menus.

The player who leaves or abandons a game no longer receives any resources and loses points in ranked mode.

Shields and their icons have been moved to be more visible.

Lots of bugs have been fixed.


You know what you have to do: reach the top of the tower, Pilots!

It is time to show the rest of the world who you are.

Exoblast 0.4.10

With the release of 0.4 a lot of changes happened, and with those changes some unexpected bugs.

We quickly fixed these bugs in a few patches, leading us to 0.4.7.

To our great pleasure, it is also in these times that the community has grown and that more and more tests and feedback have reached us.

We have therefore decided to correct some bugs and improve some minor features in order to satisfy our community through updates 0.4.8 to 0.4.10.

These last two updates include:

-More rewards
-A training screen
-Ergonomy optimized in the forge
-Firing trigger
-Bug fixes


[h2]Obtain the rewards you deserve![/h2]

One of the main feedback we felt during livestreams was the fact we did not progress easily, so we could not craft ships. This feeling was realy annoying as the crafting part is one if not the most important aspect of the game.
To temporary counter this feeling, we boosted the number of ressources we win at the end of each game.

This system will be remade and the player will get more feedbacks as he obtains a level and progress in the game.

[h2]Something to keep you prepared![/h2]

Sometimes, as their is not much player in every mode yet, the awaiting to find an opponent can be frustrating. We decided to add a training mode while you are waiting to keep your hands warm so you are ready when your opponent is preparing to face you.

[h2]Be at ease while crafting![/h2]

We added some buttons and clickable areas so the Forge menu and the techtree feel more easy to use.
These menu will be remade later to match their purpose.

[h2]Fire with the trigger![/h2]
The last feedback we wanted to respond to was the possibility to fire with the trigger.
As it is an easy thing to fix we made it possible right away!

[h2]Minor bug fixes [/h2]

We fixed some bugs regarding the forge, region selection for servers and Custom mode.
Other minor bugs were fixed.



Update 0.5 will be released on time and we can't wait to show it to you.

To your ships, pilots! See you in the arena!

A jump to 0.4!
Pilot, a lot has changed since you were last here.

This latest update, big on content, has improved the game and is the best version to date, both visually, ergonomically and in terms of balancing.

Here's the list of modifications on our new update :

• Changing the name of the game
  
• Ranked mode
  
• Speed has been increased
  
• Total balance rework
  
• New endgame screen
  
• Tutorial is back
  
• New visuals and animations
  
• Added lore for characters
  
• Ergonomics improvements
  
• Bug fixes
  

The 0.3 update (one of the biggest updates), mostly focused on the visual sides, on the creation of the forge and the integration of the modules.

On release, some bugs appeared (as usual), but with your help and your feedback, we were able to fix most of them.

Here come the 0.3.5, which ads a lot of corrections and various things.

Highlights of the update:

• FX in game
  
• Modules lock
  
• Gamepad restored
  
• Bug fix 0.3
  
• Ping of servers
  

• The ball is now yellow
  
• Ball apparition in the middle of the arena
  
• Projectiles explosion when touching the ball
  
• Projectiles destruction when going on the enemy side
  
• There are sparks when the ball collides on the side of the arena
  
• Animation disappearance/appearance of the inhibitor
  
• The shield of the ship changed, also an indicator showing the number of shields is visible
  

• It is now possible to change the enemy preset on local mode
  
• The music did not run properly when it had to
  
• The Custom Game Mode was not running properly
  
• There could be errors when changing game modes
  
• The server selection wasn't working properly
  
• The versus screen was not blocking the navigation
  
• "Rikito", the pilot, was often bugged when combined with certain ships, making him way to strong
  
• Bug on the navigation in the settings screen
  
• AI hp was not up to date
  
• Sometimes, the music was working when the game was minimized, but not when it was open
  

Challengers! Thank you for your patience. The 0.3 update is here!

It took way more time than expected; We truly apologize about it and we have a good reason.

Dedicated to make the best game we could, we asked many different Pixel-Artist for their feedback and advice for improvements.
Then CamilleUnknown (a famous Twitch Pixel-Artist ndlr) joined us. It was unexpected, and the cost of development was high.

We decided to make, again (yes), the complete rework of the game artwork.
And we all think it is for the best.
[previewyoutube=8e5pRF7cgA4;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

If you cant wait to try it out just go grab that latest version and start playing now!

Heres the full details of what has been done, what has been delayed to the next update (0.4) and added to the 0.3:

[h2]Overall UI and UX.[/h2]
First of all you will notice the big change of the in-game art. This means also a full polish of the UI and UX, if some minor components are not yet perfect for us, we will continue to improve every single aspect of every screen.
We added some animations in the UI and also some shaders to make it feel glitchy and alive.


[h2]The New Design of the Ships[/h2]
As we said before, we have been working on a modular ship system for so long, it was really hard to make recognizable modules and keeping uniformity among them.

So we completely changed how it was, and now modules are all standalones items floating in the air.
They will be recognisable from their dedicated position see below.


And ships are now animated !



Ok now you probably need answers to a certain question... how many modules are available ?
72!

Yes you are now able to craft and play with 72 modules. This gives you 12 possibilities for each type of module but remember, the ship design system is limited with 10 points.
You need at least 4 modules, max 6, to make the best ship ever. So be wise and find the perfect combination that matches your own playstyle.


Also dont forget the pilots skills that can create awesome synergies with those modules.

[h2]Introducing the Crafting System[/h2]
New modules means a new way of progression through the game, and what was more obvious than making a crafting system with blueprints?
Weve been talking about it, but haven't been able to be more detailed about it, as our ideas werent yet mapped out.

Let me introduce the forge screen.


This new screen allows you to craft different things in the game:

• Higher-tier resources (we will talk about that in the rewards section)
  
• Modules
  
• Skinned modules
  

• Green squares: means you already own it in at least 1 skin version
  
• Orange squares: means the tech is unlocked, and you can craft it (if the forge is high-level enough)
  
• Red squares: means that tech is locked, and youll have to craft every blueprint that is connected with an orange wire.
  

Hello fellow challengers!
First of all happy new year to you! Hopefully better than 2020.

After 2 months of radio silence we can finally say... its here !

Well, not yet... but close enough!

So first of all, you want some preview, dont you?


Everything is not yet perfect, but as you can see there are a lot of changes pretty much everywhere, so lets start getting into all the details.

The Hangar has been totally reworked to fit the needs of the new gameplay.


Create a preset, choose a pilot, edit the ship, and give it a fancy name to remember it.
After that, you only have to choose the preset before playing. It allows different playstyles without needing to reselect the pilot all the time.

Also, the Hangar now has an editor screen in which you can edit your preset by selecting each module of your ship.

Every module has to be discovered, earned, or crafted through the Forge.
Sadly, that screen and the Tech-tree are the last screens that still require some heavy work so we wont show them today.

Every screen has some modifications, so we cant add a screenshot of every modification as it will be a lot to show for some minor stuff.
Lets focus on what changes the most!

[h2]Gameplay Changes[/h2]
As you can guess, we worked a lot on this new modular system, and it brings some huge changes to the gameplay.


The ships now have a Hull, which gave it a health point system (HP).
Now, when the ball hits your ship, the ship loses some HP and is destroyed only if the HP reaches 0.

The shield is still a feature in the game, and some ships will rely more on the hull than shields, and vice-versa.
The Shield will bounce the ball, while the Hull just makes a small bump.


Hull increase the HP of the ship, so it is more resistant to ball collisions.
Every ship has a minimum of 100 HP even without a Hull.
But by default ships don't have a Shield, this depends on the choice you make about which modules you are using, so lets talk about that.



As you can see on the screen you can add up to 6 modules, but only 4 are mandatory to make a ship valid and playable.

• Reactor: this is the core of your ship, it gives the base power and main statistics
  
• Thrusters: it affects how the ship moves and the speed that it moves
  
• Battery: it is what holds power generated by the reactor. It allows for better shields or projectiles. Think about this like the mana of your ship (kind of)
  
• Weapon: this defines how the ship shoots, the fire mode, fire rate, etc..
  
• Hull (optional): the hull determines the amount of HP, with no hull your ship will have 100HP
  
• Shield (optional): it works as it did before - this module determines the amount of shields, the power and can change the shape of the shields
  

Finally some "dev news"
Many of you asked how game development was going and what are we working on (and when it'll be live).

After a daily meeting, you can check the update "plan" on the Trello.

[h2]First big change, complete art rework[/h2]

We weren't happy with the overall look of the game and the menus, so we are completely reworking the art in the whole game, from zero (and this is nearly finished by the way).

It is more consistent, full Pixel-Art with less hesitation.

This means new UIs, Pilots, Ships and Arenas with new FXs everywhere!


[h2]Second big change, modular ships![/h2]

We are changing the "ship system" to a modular ship system: you craft your ship with modules.

What does it mean?
You now have to craft modules from resources you will gather by playing.
Then chose a cockpit, wings, thrusters, battery and a weapon.

Each module has different properties and statistics and can drastically change the gameplay of the ship.

A quick preview of what the modular system will be

This setup will now define the ships and the limit will be based on an "energy consumption system" for each module.

And because we think its gonna be fun, you can choose only a few modules to play with your ship (no weapon at all will be possible).

The skinning system will now work "by module".

If this is the main feature of the next big update, we will also bring:
server regions
gamepad navigation
a new progression (now "player level" will be useful)
many bugfix + minor improvements here and there
and... the ranked mode !

[h2]Third big change, the ranked mode![/h2]
It is still not completely defined yet, but it'll be locked to new players.
We want this mode to make you climb the floors of the giant tower of Pongarena, and arenas will change along your rank.

The ranked mode will be explained in a next update post so please keep following!


An ongoing concept art of The tower of Pongarena

[h3]Whats next?[/h3]
This new modular system gave us a lot of ideas which are planned for 2021

So when will it be live? We don't know yet but we target it before the end of the year.

Ah and we should have new servers starting tonight, which should bring WAY BETTER performances
Join us for the Dev Challenge on the Twitch channel.

All feedback and suggestions are welcome, let us know what you have in mind

And before leaving each other, here is a teaser of the new design

Dear pilots! Version 0.2.0 is coming soon!
Lately we have been extremely busy. We had to think about a lot of things for the rest of the game while working on the feedback from the players - that's why this update will arrive late.

So here is the list of the improvements of this patch (currently planned) :

• Controller integration : It is now possible to navigate in the menus with the controller!
  
• New server : It was about time! A US server will be deployed, with more smoothness and less lag for North American players.
  
• Server choice: We decided that it was better to let the players choose the server on which they play - you will be able to change the server on the selection screen.
  
• MacOS is now supported.
  

• English translation corrected
  
• Pilot powers (shield recharging)
  

• Preparation of the ranked mode, design of the environment and rewards, management of the matchmaking via player classification.
  
• Adding a single-player campaign mode. We can't say more right now were taking inspiration from things we like in other games ;)
  
• Redesign of the ships, laser cutting ! We'd like to add the possibility to create your own ship by combining different parts in unique combinations. It's all up to you!
  
• Modification of the hangar screen, we'll have to change everything to turn it into a real workshop!
  
• Complete redesign of all screens and menus, as we didn't think it was intuitive / user-friendly enough.
  

Weve got some unexpected issues and had to delay it a bit, but the 0.1 update is here.
In this first big update we wanted to add some game changers, this brings the pilots.
We also focused a lot on the comfort while playing the game, In Game Menu, and Fullscreen mode and some readability on the UI.

The special unplanned feature is the arena size, this should let you and us experiment to plan the future of Pongarena.

Please keep reading the patch-note for full details.
The next big update is already ongoing and will bring more visual and options than gameplay but should make the game way more enjoyable.

Still wondering what we are working on?
Dont miss our open public board on Trello.

Thanks for playing the game!


[h2]Pilots[/h2]
Three highly skilled pilots are making an entrance: welcome Nisha, Rikito and Kalak!
Discover their stories and their special talents.
Choose your pilot to enhance your ships strengths or to compensate for your ships weaknesses.
What Ship/Pilot combo will you play?
Please note that the pilots are currently only available in Online and Custom modes.

[h2]Fullscreen mode[/h2]
You were a lot to ask for this feature so we made it! You can now press Alt + Enter or F11 to enter fullscreen mode.
Your feedback is always welcome, thank you for helping us make Pongarena a better game!

[h2]In game menu[/h2]
Want to pause the game in local mode to scratch your neck while fighting lvl 6 AI?
What about increasing the volume to listen to LukHashs music?
Or maybe you have to go and want to surrender the game
KEEP CALM, the in game menu is finally here to answer all your needs!

[h2]Arena sizes[/h2]
We are planning to add new arenas to the game in the future. We have some ideas like adding obstacles, force fields or random events to the arena.
In this update you can now change the size of the arena in the Custom and Local modes.
We hope you like the feature and let us know on Discord which sizes are your favorites and why!

[h2]Arena tweak[/h2]
The inhibitors and the force field of your opponent are now disabled when you destroy his ship.

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

• we removed the vs screen when tutorial starts
  
• when you already are in custom game, you cant create a different custom game anymore
  
• fixed what was causing a small delay when changing mode when you are in custom
  
• fix server ticks if server is under too much load
  

• you can now start the tutorial from home -> settings menu
  
• ship stats are now easier to read
  
• new font to improve readability
  
• we added player names in game
  

Here is the new version 0.0.4 bringing some small features and bug fixes.
We focused on major critical bugs and improvements requested by the players.
The in game menu brings the ability to leave a game or change the settings while playing (adding a menu accessible with escape).
It will pause the game in "local mode" but not in "online" modes.

We also added the possibility to replay the tutorial, from the settings menu.

In this update there are also some interfaces fixes, like the AI settings in the "Local Mode" screen, but we also changed the font, moving some text/components...


On the other side, the 0.1.0 version is coming on the beta branch in a few more days and should be on the "default branch" around the 15th of August.
This major update brings Pilots and servers regions selector.
You can still play against players from all around the world but also deselect servers with a big ping.

We will announce the beta branch update only on the Discord server, please not that this branch is a different server, smaller, so you won't have the same account/progression and it can be wiped at any time.

Don't forget you can see and follow the planning here https://trello.com/b/LqWYfZtE/pongarena-early-access

Many thanks to all the players who are helping and playing every day.
Big up to one player who reached the maximum level on his ship already!

Details of the patchnote:
Features:
- escape menu in game to leave or change options
- ability to replay the tutorial

Others:
- typos Fixes
- changed the font of the game, hard to read for some players


Bug Fixes:
- "blackscreen" for some very specific setups
- some servers improvements
- tutorial: sometimes unable to shoot using space bar
- item description in shop overlapping with title sometimes
- custom mode, cannot change the ship/skin
- shield and ship can break at the same time
- remove buttons "+" on the top bar, causing an issue for a feature not ready yet
- gamepad works only when playing on the right side in "online" modes
- no rewards when using "replay" button in "local" mode

Hello!

Pongarenas Early Access is now available!

Challenge your friends and join the Pongarena Comunity on Discord.

[h2]Early Access? What does that mean?[/h2]
It means you can already play but that the game development is still in progress.
This is not the final release and we are still working on new features, tweaks and bug fixes.

[h2]Can I help?[/h2]
Sure! You can help in many ways:

• Give feedback
  
• Report bugs
  
• Suggest new features
  

Hold your breath, Pongarena goes into Early Access the 22th of July, but we are already planning a better "day one".

During the last month, the team has been fixing bugs, testing, tweaking, and adding features.

Today we are "ready" to include more beta testers in our program.
If you want to be involved in the creation process, if you want your feedback to be noted and to see how it affect the game, it's time to roll in and join one of our servers, Discord or Overtone.

[h3]Why making a beta before the "official Early Access release day".[/h3]
An Early Access without bugs sounds impossible, but even so we want our game to be as stable as possible.
And to do that we need your help to stress test our servers and features.

For us the Early Access is a way to improve the game with the power of a growing community, not putting on the table something unstable and unfixed.


[h3]What is your Early Access updates schedule?[/h3]
We plan to release a build every 2 weeks.

The new release goes first on the "beta" branch, and 2 weeks later this build comes to master (default branch).
And every 2 releases: features, contents, or other new things will be added to the game.

So basically, 2 times a month you can expect a bug-fix release, and every months a "bigger" features/contents build.

During "crazy weeks" we will release some new game modes or completely OP stats, just to see how it goes and how much you like it or not, this will be live for a limited time.

Those tests will be announced before it goes live.

[h3]How can I be included in the process[/h3]
Join one of our servers and express yourself in the right channel.

For now we have a "feedback" and a "bug-reports" channels on Discord.
A public Trello Board where you can see all the known bugs.

For ideas and suggestions, we will use polls and will organize some "big scale testing" with our testers.

We also stream the development process from time to time on our Twitch channel.
Come say hello and drop your questions.

[h3]Is it possible to join the beta tester program after the 22th?[/h3]
Yup, feel free to join the Discord or Overtone servers whenever you want and bring your friends.
It's also a place to find others players to fight.

[h3]How is the current state of the game development so far?[/h3]
For now the game is pretty stable and we are looking to make as many fixes as possible.
The pilots feature is nearly complete but require some polish and debug, it is not testable yet.
We only have European servers at the moment, but US servers are coming before the 22th.


The dev-team is looking forward to play against you
Come challenge us, you might win some cool things if you win