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.

[ 2022-06-02 15:33:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Exoblast 1.1 is here!

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

Exoblast 1.1 challenges you!

Most gamers who enjoyed Exoblast didn't stick around for several reasons; one of the main ones being due to the lack of unlockables. We have therefore added more than 120 customization elements to unlock in a variety of ways:

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.

A progress screen has been added so you can track the completion of your Challenges, Daily and Weekly Quests, and Steam Achievements. A timer is there and tells you when the quests are renewed.

A customization screen has been added, where you can change your avatars, titles, borders and emotes.

Exoblast ever more beautiful!

All customization items that you and your opponent have equipped will now be visible in the game history and in the end of match screen.

Between the rounds now appears the pilots of the one who won the round with the skin he has chosen.

There is now a ball accumulation bar that represents the accumulated velocity on the ball, displayed at the bottom of the screen.

Your progress bar progress is now easier to understand. Finally, we added new animations for the progress bar, when you change rank and when you level up.

A fairer ranked mode!

We quickly realized that there were some issues with our ranked mode. We listened to you and did what was necessary to create a ranked mode that better represents your level:

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.

We were overly optimistic about our first ranking system and cancellingthe Season 1 tournament. As an apology, we're giving you exclusive avatars and borders to show off your place at the end of the season. For Season 2, ranking will be done more smoothly and fairly thanks to the new ranked mode. The conclusion of this season will be in 2 months (June 14), a shorter but more interesting period, with a tournament organized by Dreamirl at the end of which brings together the 16 best players of Exoblast with rewardsat stake! Whether you fight for rewards or glory, be prepared, pilots!

New settings, new languages!

We have added new settings to meet your expectations. You can now change the video quality of the game to improve its performance for less capable devices. A new parameter much requested by the community has been added: the rebind of buttons! The option is available for keyboard and gamepad. The community helped us a lot! Here are two new translations of the game for you:

Portuguese translation.
Russian translation.

Thank you again for your help. If your language still hasn't been translated, we'd love to hear from you! You can talk about it directly with us via our Community Discord.

Added server and bugfix!

We acquired a new server located in Brazil. As said in our previous patchnotes, servers are a significant cost, and it is thanks to your support that we can continue to fund them. If our community is strong enough in other regions of the world, we can add new servers. We have fixed many bugs, and we want to address in particular a bug where the ping displayed during your games did not correspond to your real ping. Now you will see your real ping. Thank you all for your support and your many feedbacks, we continue to improve Exoblast and want to make its community live as much as possible. It's time to board your ship and join the arena, pilots!

[ 2022-04-14 13:57:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patchnote 1.0.3

Hello, pilots!

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

Emotes in game

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.

Progression System

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

You could play against experienced opponents who take away the pleasure of smooth discovery.

Once the gameplay was in hand, you had no real reason to take levels.

A guided discovery of the game was missing. [/olist] So weve added a first progression system that will make you play against AI at level 1, before unlocking the online mode at level 2 and the ranked mode at level 6. The same goes for the ships: you will unlock them from level 3 to level 5 depending on the difficulty of taking control of them. As we just said before, emotes and other things will be unlockable through leveling and achievements in the future.

A necessary balancing

You quickly found the most outperforming character and ship combos. This allowed us to see that these combos were too strong and became omnipresent. We have therefore done a balancing that should completely disrupt the meta and hopefully make almost all combos viable.

Statistical Changes

We removed the fire rate which was the same for all ships.
We added the shield size. All ships have their shield sizes reduced to 80% (except the Hovership which stays at 100%).

Pilot Balance

Rikito : Aggression duration > 3s to 1.5s Rikito profited too much from his aggressiveness which created a snowball effect very hard to counter.
Nisha : Adrenaline > 2% to 3% Nisha is the least used character. Increasing her adrenaline, we hope you will feel a real usefulness to her kit.

Ships Balance

Bee : Health points increased > 25hp to 50hp. The Bee has a nervous gameplay, but gets destroyed by bullets not being powerful. We want to slightly reduce the punitive aspect of its kit.
Hovership : Shield return power > 75% to 150% Projectiles speed > 300 to 208 Charging speed > 2.7 to 3.1 The Hovership was a decent ship, but it struggled too much to send powerful bullets. From now on, the ship will be able to rely on smash shields to send ultra-fast bullets.
Devonian : Shield deflection power > 50% to 75%
Destroyer : Maximum Power > 6 to 6.5
Pretorian : Move speed > 302 to 292 Recovery of projectiles > 65% to 60% The Pretorian/Rikito combo was widely used. So we nerfed the ship so that it can be countered while remaining viable.

Bug fixes and features

the timer stops at the last set point and no longer after the victory animation.
Joystick navigation on the readycheck has been removed to avoid missclicks.
Accents are now filtered on the End Game screen.
The custom popup translation is now fixed.

Thank you for your feedback!

Constructive criticism is really useful to us, whether positive or negative, so thank you for sharing your feelings with us! Positive reviews allow us to expand the community and thus improve the game accordingly. For those who dont know yet, we are very active on Discord so join us! https://discord.gg/2mMTMRxaCb See you in the arena, pilots!

[ 2022-02-10 15:03:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

End of the WANTED event, come claim your skins!

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

[ 2022-02-09 18:15:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

About Servers and lags

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)

Lets start with the servers (lags).

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.

A bit of informations about the rollback netcode

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.

We do not want to implement a full rollback for many reasons. The first one is the cost of development, we cant assume it today and it youll be a lie to say lets go, while we have some affordable solution that does work. Also, full rollback with high ping (keeping an authoritative server) would make unfair matches for matches with high and low ping, and it would be even more frustrating for everyone (seeing the shot teleporting, or the ship teleporting, also it is a cheat exploit used in some games). The best we can do today is adding servers. As the community keeps growing and supporting the game, we might in the future have the budget to plan on a P2P with an authoritative server (checking and validating whats happening), that will be safe and fast. But for now, it is not possible. Giving you more inputs here, the more you play Exoblast and the more you will be able to predict what is happening in the fight, and the more you will be able to compete even with high ping. Unlike other games, Exoblast is completely playable with a good anticipation and skill, but this requires some training, as an example, some dev members and community players are playing from the EU on NA servers (with a ping from 100 to 200) and still able to win a lot of games. We know how different it is from fighting games, but Exoblast does not have that many frames to read and only 3 inputs to play. Just give us some time to update the game and improve all of that. With your feedback and our hard work we can find the solution . As a small indie team, we are doing our best efforts to bring new servers and a netcode update in the next patch, with a new balance and some new features we are excited about. While waiting this new update, if you want to experiment the game without lags (and by that I mean if you are far from the servers we plan to add), our advice is to play using the Local Mode (which is Offline) and there you can set up the AIs you want, the side you want, etc Its not the perfect solution you want now, but you can train and learn all the ships, and trust us, if you beat the AI level 8 you will be rocking the ranked mode once servers will be close enough for you to play Enough talking, back to work. Thank for your time and understanding

[ 2022-02-08 16:29:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.0.2 - Ranked Elo fix, some balance and tutorial is back !

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

If its not already the case, we invite you to join us on our Discord server, to find opponents and participate in the bug chases. Come join our growing community ! Also, we invite you to leave a positive review on the Steam page, it greatly helps us and give the game a bigger visibility to get more players which mean more opponents to fight. Exoblast works only with his community support and we all thank you for being part of it ! The next patch will follow soon, we hope it will fulfill your attempts.

[ 2022-02-07 18:10:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

WANTED event - Season 1 begins!

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!

[ 2022-02-01 15:20:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Exoblast 1.0

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.

This is not over yet!

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.

New menu and navigation!

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!

New GOAL animation!

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.

Data wipe!

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..

DLCs for ship's skins and announcers! (to support us)

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!

When unicorns beat the ship out of you!

You don't like cute stuff and prefer deadly scary demons?

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

Season 1 and tournaments!

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.

What's next!

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!

[ 2022-01-31 16:45:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

0.9 "Back to Basics" Update

Version 0.9 Back to Basics is here!

Welcome back, Pilot!

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.

Removed features

-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.

New features

- 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.

[ 2021-10-19 11:57:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Exoblast 0.5.2

Hello there, Pilot [/ b]! Our team encountered a few 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 balancing [/ b] keys were needed. Here is the file of 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 the arena [/ b]!

[ 2021-07-23 15:29:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Exoblast 0.5.1

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!

[ 2021-07-16 13:57:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Exoblast 0.5

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

Exoblast gets freshen up!

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 !

Music, maestro!

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!

Let's progress together!

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

New gameplay features!

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.

A few more little comfort!

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.

[ 2021-07-14 08:25:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

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

Obtain the rewards you deserve!

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.

Something to keep you prepared!

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.

Be at ease while crafting!

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.

Fire with the trigger!

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!

Minor bug fixes

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!

[ 2021-06-30 12:55:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Exoblast 0.4 is out!

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

Pongarena becomes Exoblast!

The concept behind Pongarena was created in a really short time more than ten years ago. Today, a dozen of people are dedicated to make the game better and the means invested are obviously multiplied by ten. In order to avoid possible legal problems, we prefer to change the name which is in line with a new era for the project. So make some noise for Exoblast!

The ranked mode, plus ultra!

A new mode is now available for you to play. Chose the ranked mode and start to climb the tower to brag by defeating your opponents. Designed to reward the most relentless players, this mode will allow you to have a visible progression with a rank going from bronze to challenger (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond and challenger). At the end of each battle, you will have your win/loss history visible as well as your progression in this mode.

It's time to break the meta and impose your custom ship and playstyle!

Speed has been increased, unleash your power!

In the last few updates, the game became slower, almost boring at some points. The speed restriction is now removed! The ball speed is faster from the beginning of the game, and the evolution of the ball speed is also increased! We changed some components and rules to make the game more dynamic and fun while trying to keep under control.

Work on your reflexes pilots, your opponent won't be kind with you.

Balancing the game

Balancing a game is never an easy thing, specifically when you add a lot of components to craft ships with a lot of freedom. And so, we added new ship's presets when you start the game. You now begin the game with a balanced composition, allowing you to compete with ship types unlocked later in the game. This balancing allows you to focus on your performance and not the farming. We are still working a lot on new balance to improve everything, and the next patch will probably bring some modifications, but we think this is a good way to start and new players won't be disadvantaged when fighting online

New endgame screen

When the game ends, you can now see a lot of informations on the game, you, and your opponent. You will be able to see the statistics of the game in the form of a high score, the number of materials unlocked in order to create the modules, the suns points and experience and finally the ships (allies/enemies) with their statistics.

A good way to look at this data, compare your ships and adapt to come back stronger!

A tutorial for everyone!

From now on, a tutorial has been added to welcome new players and to explain the features that arrived in 0.3 for old players. The previous tutorial was not enough so we completely reworked it and added informations on other screens. You will have a gameplay tutorial that will start when you first connect, as well as a tutorial for each screen (main menu, hangar, pilot selection, ship editor, forge and techtree). Once you finish the gameplay tutorial, you will receive experience and resources as a reward. Each tutorial can be skipped, however we do not recommend it if this is your first time playing the game.

Enjoy the game!

A lot of new visuals !

We added two new arenas in the game. They represent the Bronze and Silver arenas of the ranked mode but are not yet anchored as such until update 0.5. Once the Gold, Platinum and Diamond arenas are integrated, the first two arenas will be anchored to the corresponding ranks.

Six new skins have been added and are applicable in the forge when you craft a new module. You can find pigments by winning online games (quick or ranked), those are consumable materials.

Win/Loss" and "3,2,1 Go" animations have been added to improve the game's fluidity and visuals.

- A new slider has been added - A background image was added - The ship explosion animation has been modified

Let me tell you a story

When you select a character, the lore of the character is written. The evolution of the universe is a topic we would like to address in future updates.

Crafting and ergonomics changes, bug fixes!

The module ingredient list's and recipes have been changed to be more logical and match the progression of the forge. Quantity indicators have been added to make it more understandable. Some elements have been added to make the menus more ergonomic: - Added a screen asking if you want to save your changes in the hangar - You can click on the pilot on the Pilot Screen to go faster - A scroll bar has been added on several interfaces - A button to confirm the launch of a game has been added Joystick controls have been modified to improve the menu navigation. - The "Genkidama bug" that prevented you from releasing your shot has been fixed - The ball loading animation has been corrected - Several minor bug fixes Welcome back, pilots!

[ 2021-06-17 17:17:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

0.3.5 Stability and tweaking update !

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

Character's skills

Characters skills status is now visible in game. The skill glows in game when it is effective inside the squared icons. For every skill that is evloving during the match, the number corresponding to the current state on each skill is visible and explicit (for instance using battery skill's of Kalak).

Progress and balance in the game

Thanks to your feedback, the modules have been balanced and updated. Moreover, in the 0.3, we intentionally gave everyone every ships in the game so you could test them and give your feedback the quickest way possible. Now, you will start the game with only 11 modules and you will have to win resources playing. Then use them to craft new modules in the forge. The balance of the game is not perfect yet, and we will work on the progression in the game, starting now.

New operating systems[/3] The game and updates are now available on MAC and Linux. Please report any troubles you find about a compatibility or running issue!

Gamepad navigation

Joystick (or keyboard) navigation was a big topic, we made a first version that didn't work very well and turned it off. From 0.3.5, gamepad and keyboard navigation should be possible on all screens! We are still improving the navigation to make it faster, in particular with shortcuts.

Special effects

On the 0.3, as it was a heavy update, we did not have time to focus on special effects. in this version, we are getting closer to the final version in terms of special effects, but we keep working on them. Here is the list of what has change :

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

Server selection

When you choose a server, the ping is now visible to help you choose. Also you can now see the region and the ping at the bottom of the screen. We are still identifying lag problems, so if you encounter any problem, please show your ping during the bugs.

BUG FIX

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

Let's talk about the 0.4

You are a lot to ask for it, the 0.4 will be focused on the ranked mode! Of course other things are planned too, like a system of success, a better progression and a whole tutorial. The list is not exhaustive, the ranked mode is a huge task taking a lot of resources, but we are so hyped about it (hopefully you too). See you soon in the arenas!

[ 2021-04-08 17:42:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

0.3 is out!

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:

Overall UI and UX.

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.

The New Design of the Ships

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.

Introducing the Crafting System

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

To craft a blueprint, you need resources that you can earn or craft in many ways and a specific amount of Suns.

Why do I have to use Suns for crafting? you may ask. Legit question. We do not want a beginner to come in the game, get a pack of resources (or being lucky with the loot) and craft high tier modules without playing. It would not be fair to other players and could also bring game balance troubles. Also, to unlock skins for modules, youll have to craft them and then apply that skin to a module ! Be aware that your forge has a level, from 1 to 5. Each level of the forge will unlock a new slot which will allow you to create more advanced blueprints. The upgrade of the forge costs Suns and specific resources for the same reason we decided to limit the craft of blueprints. Lets now talk about the progression.

This is the TechTree of Pongarena 0.3. On this screen you have 3 important types of information.

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.

The TechTree also allows you to see details of every single module in the game. For now we think it is not useful to make a module unknown (and you cant see it) but this might change in the future.

The New Mode: VS AI

A big deal previously was the AI system : the AI was locally computed on your computer and you were able to choose a pilot + ship for the AI. We want an AI thatll evolve with you and always give you a fair challenge with fair rewards. In the 0.3 we are just introducing the mechanic but you can still choose the level AI. In the future we want the AI to automatically change the ship and the level, according to your true level. Also, the AI is using a standard pilot today, but this will change along the coming updates.

Please note that you can still choose the AI you want to fight in the local mode (you can also choose AI versus AI which is super fun to sit and watch).

New Settings Servers Selector

As we said many times, more servers are coming. Its not a simple deal; in fact many games and indie games are facing this problem at some point. We wanted to make something solid in the long term. But we also wanted to keep one big community and not split players by regions/countries. So now, when you first launch the game, youll have to choose servers you agree to play on. You can pick a favorite which will be used for matchmaking. But if no one is available in your favorite area, then someone will be matched following your preferences.

If it sounds a bit tricky to you, just keep one server, and if you are waiting too much, go back to the screen and add some more servers. For the 0.3 launch we have only 2 regions: US (8 servers) and EU (8 servers). We will add servers/regions to meet the community evolution. Servers cost a lot of money, so we cant just set up a server for one player. Bring many friends and we will give you the servers

Rewards and Inventory

Finally, rewards and inventory. As weve been adding crafts with blueprints using resources and skins, an inventory screen was required. It is accessible from the forge screen and is very simple for now, it just lists every resource (and skins) you own.

We will change this screen if we feel it is helpful, adding maybe some features or link into it. About the rewards, every time you play a game online (versus AI or Online) youll loot Suns and XP as it was before, but also some resources. The quantity depends on a lot of parameters so fight well and youll be rewarded. Later, when the shop is back, it will be possible to get resources from the shop with Suns or Dreampoints. We are also working on new features to give you various ways to grab resources, but for now you will have to play!

Whats Next?

Yes its already time to talk about whats coming next. The last time we said the ranked mode will be in the 0.3. Considering all that work weve done; we had to put it aside and finish the 0.3 version. So the main content of the 0.4 version will be the ranked mode. Of course thats not the only thing, but we are not sure about the other points. For now, we are awaiting your feedback on version 0.3. Please join us on the streams, on Discord, on the Steam group, let us know your opinion and come fight us!

[ 2021-03-11 19:52:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog - The next big update 0.3 is almost ready

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!

Gameplay Changes

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

Limitations, control, meta?

To limit the power of the ships we added a energy consumption system (you can see it on the previous gif). Each module costs a defined amount of points. This will be used to balance the game. A ship can handle 10 points, so basically, if you want all 6 modules on your ship at the same time, you will be able to use 4 modules with a cost of 2 points, and 2 modules with a cost of 1 point. If you want a super-powerful-insane shot power (like the Aztec), you will have to use a 6 points weapon module, and dedicate the 4 points to reactor, thrusters and battery. No shield, no hull, as it was before.

Balance will be easier to handle and will mostly depend on your playstyle and skill.

Ranked Mode

We know most of you asked for it - the ranked mode is still not done and thats why we cant release it yet. Here are the ranks icons

And we can share with you some of the arenas weve created. Each rank as a different arena!

It will work like most of the games out there - ranks are bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond and challenger.

So, When is it Live Then?

As we need to finish some features and debug most of this new stuff, we will release the 0.3 version in a beta-branch on Steam. The servers of the beta-branch will be online only during streaming events held once a week, every Wednesday. If it sounds pretty harsh, and we sincerely apologize about it, we want the maximum of players at the same time, while we are working, this allows us to check the servers, bugs, and fix the maximum of things in the fastest way possible. But please dont mind, this won't last forever. And once the game is stable, it will go live! Of course we need the maximum of players to help us stress test, crash servers, and get feedback. If everything goes as planned, this will start next Wednesday, the January 27th around 3PM GMT.

[ 2021-01-23 15:18:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog - the next big update

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.

First big change, complete art rework

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!

Second big change, modular ships!

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 !

Third big change, the ranked mode!

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

Whats next?

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

[ 2020-11-17 19:38:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Delay on 0.2.0 Update

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.

Bug hunting season is always open (your feedback really helps us) :

English translation corrected
Pilot powers (shield recharging)

What we are Currently working on (it won't necessarily be in this next version, though) :

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.

Thanks for your support and see you soon in the arena.

[ 2020-10-15 08:48:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

0.1 UPDATE

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!

Pilots

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.

Fullscreen mode

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!

In game menu

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!

Arena sizes

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!

Arena tweak

The inhibitors and the force field of your opponent are now disabled when you destroy his ship.

Bug fixes

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

Bug hunt is always open! We do our best stomping them fast whenever you report one.

UI changes

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

[ 2020-08-24 14:22:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Pongarena update 0.0.4

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

[ 2020-07-31 18:45:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

PONGARENA EARLY ACCESS

Hello! Pongarenas Early Access is now available! Challenge your friends and join the Pongarena Comunity on Discord.

Early Access? What does that mean?

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.

Can I help?

Sure! You can help in many ways:

Give feedback
Report bugs
Suggest new features

Find dedicated channels on Discord.

Is the Early Access accessible to everyone?

Yes, just download the game on Steam.

Is there a beta program I can join?

Yes, more information here.

[ 2020-07-22 16:37:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Join our beta tester program

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.

Why making a beta before the "official Early Access release day".

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.

What is your Early Access updates schedule?

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.

How can I be included in the process

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.

Is it possible to join the beta tester program after the 22th?

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.

How is the current state of the game development so far?

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

[ 2020-07-08 21:37:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Pongarena

Dreamirl Developer

Dreamirl Publisher

2020-07-22 Release

Indie F2P Singleplayer Multiplayer Tags

Game News Posts: 23

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🕹️ Partial Controller Support

Mostly Positive (314 reviews)

https://pongarena.io

Steam Store

Public Linux Depots:

Pongarena Linux [282.99 M]

Pongarena is a versus arcade game in a Cyberpunk universe.
Choose a pilot, your spaceship, and fight against players from all around the world in many game modes, reach the top of the Space Tower in ranked mode or stand down to the ground, in the darkness of the city ISKIA.

Between a Pong and a shooting game, not forgetting the popular arcade “Air Hockey”, Pongarena is really easy to play, but hard to master!

Play for free now and challenge your friends in the arena!

Game modes:

Online “quick”: play against random players
Local: fight against the AI or a friend on the same computer
Customized: create your game with the settings you want, and invite anyone to join you
Training: fight against an AI that is adapting to you, to make you a better fighter
Ranked: reach the top of the Space Tower, qualifying you fight after fight, and reach the top ranking

Choose your pilot:

In Pongarena you are free to choose your pilot, each of them has unique talents and will influence the way you play.
Some pilots are a better match with some ships, create your own combinations to outmatch your opponents.

Your ship, your rules:

Do you prefer a fast and aggressive gamestyle? Or you tend to be more defensive?
Or maybe, you prefer to use all the available power to crush your opponent?

Each ship has a different gameplay, and between each extremes you will find more balanced ones for those who want to be careful.

Overclock your ship:

You found your favorite but it has some weaknesses? Or you want to make a specific thing stronger?
Use chipsets to boost a specific statistic of your ship, you can use up to 3 different chipsets at the same time to get your secret sauce.

Musical universe

All the game is rythmed by the original creations of LukHash.
He defines his music as a “fusion of the numeric 8 bits sounds combined to a sophisticated electronic music, with modern sounds, and an aesthetic from the 80’s”.
Discover one of his last album “Better Than Reality” in Pongarena.

Want to support the composer? You can buy the album on our Steam page.

Twitch events, contests and streaming

Join our community on Discord and Twitch.
Stay updated about the game development progress and come watch us write some magic code.

Win nice perks during the ongoing events and contests in which you might find yourself in a live battle versus Pongarena devs!

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu
Processor: Intel Core 2Memory: 2048 MB RAMNetwork: Broadband Internet connectionStorage: 250 MB available space
Memory: 2048 MB RAMNetwork: Broadband Internet connectionStorage: 250 MB available space
Storage: 250 MB available space