Hi Mechanics!
It's just about time for another update! We can report that we've made some great progress this month, with plenty of exciting stuff to share with you.
First Steps in Multiplayer!
Humans. Homo sapiens. Social animals by nature, most of us enjoy the joy-inducing benefits of friendship. Do you have a friend? Imagine that friend. Imagine gathering scrap with your friend. Then imagine building amazing vehicles with your friend and driving on a scrap hunting adventure together exploring the world with your Very! Own! Friend! We just had to make that happen, which is why we've been working double hard on the multiplayer feature of Scrap Mechanic. It's not fully cooked yet, but we're getting there. Here is a screenshot from our most recent multiplayer test session. Should really have called it a multiplayer troll session though. It was a lot of fun!
Infecting the Enemy AI with Actual Rage...
Gustav and Alex have been working on the enemy AI and have made some superb progress on their navigation. Even if you build an especially tricksy structure, we're obviously twisted enough to want your enemy to still find a path to reach you, unsettle you and delight in watching you attempt to adjust your lifestyle to accommodate pain, confusion and moderate despair. We're looking forward to seeing if you'll be able to outsmart our AI.
Connect Tool Tweaks
We've re-designed the connect tool by making it more thick and bulky so that it fits our art direction better. This tool is really important when building moving creations, letting you hook everything up, like engines and bearings for example.
Turning Over a New Leaf
This month has been all about leaves. We've added so many new terrain props that you could easily assemble them into a truly wonderful salad, but in the absence of digital vinaigrette, we've decided to plant these fantastic flowers and bushes instead. Sitting pretty in the ground, they're now doing a great job of making the world look more beautiful while we keep stepping up the hard visual work to include fields - home to these giant corn plants!
Thinking Outside the Box
We've added a bunch of new fruit and veg crates that you'll be able to use and build with. We're pretty pleased with how they're looking, and we feel like they really fit the world nicely. Some of the team have had dreams about being able to build cars out of cucumber boxes, and whilst we're delighted to have made this a reality, we're worried about where their thoughts are taking them at night. Don't forget to build your own cucumber box car at the earliest opportunity!
Beautiful Main Menu
We're entering the last phase of getting the main menu all done and dusted. The groundbreaking features 'Create New Game', and 'Continue Saved Game' are now in place, and we're waiting for the award nominations in the mail. The settings are all where they should be and it's now possible to quit the game without using the task manager. Yeah, we know. We'll get you a picture once it's all 100% done. Brace yourself for one beautiful menu!
Introduction Video
If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter you might already have seen our latest video introducing the Gas Engine and the Driver's Seat.
If you have any requests or suggestions, feel free to contact us via Facebook or Twitter We love hearing from all you future Mechanics!