Progress Update: 07/07/2016

More weapons & overheat mechanic

Teagun: Teapot that fires health to heal teammates



Scone mine Launcher: Drops timed, explosive scone mines



Slime cannon: Fires short-range volley of slime that slows down enemy movement



Auto stake launcher: Fires a stream of rapid-fire stakes



Scatter cannon: Powerful, short range shot the splits into 3 smaller, angled bullets

As we mentioned in the last update, we’ve been working through the feedback given during our closed network test. Adding variety across multiple playthroughs being the main issue we really wanted to work on before our early access launch. Adding single run power ups & items into the mix helped, but we felt that the fairly limited weapon selection was the area that needed the most work.Early in development, we realized that an ammo system wasn’t the right fit for the game, given its frantic pace and high enemy count. Adding an overheat mechanic seemed like the best middle ground, and has been something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. Initially, it was something we intended to tackle once the game was in early access, but as we roughed out a version to test in game, we learned that it drastically changed the ebb and flow of the game, opening up a much needed layer of depth to the way that weapons functioned. We also felt like it would be far too big of a mechanical change to add down the line for this reason.As we started rebalancing the existing weapons to account for the new overheat mechanic, it became clear that we needed a larger variety of weapons in order to get a better feel for overall overheat balance and timing across different weapon types. This also allowed us to add a couple of weapons with more unique support properties and behaviors. Some example weapons:These additions have essentially doubled the number of weapons in the game, which means that we’ve been able to create much greater variety in terms of choice and strategy as you’re now forced to switch between weapons more often as weapons cool, and be much more adaptable overall.Between the extra weapons, their unique overheat properties, collectible power ups, and permanent relic abilities, we’re now much happier with the level of variety across runs, and feel that we have a much stronger foundation to build upon once we hit early access.As always, thank you all so much for all of your patience and encouragement as we continue to work towards our early access launch. We’re getting very close to nailing down a release date we’re happy with, and can’t wait to finally share it with you all!Cheers,Craig