Here’s a long overdue update on Space Junk! I’ve added a grapple hook to the game — once I tweak it to my liking, I intend for it to be a main mode of transportation for players in stealth mode (who are otherwise relatively immobile). It will take up an equipment slot, however. Grappling another player will temporarily short circuit their mech and send them helplessly tumbling around in space.

Well, not entirely helpless: while they can’t move or aim normally, their mech isn’t entirely shut down — they can still aim within the bounds of their view (notice the crosshair isn’t centered — it can move freely). So there’s still a good chance of destroying an enemy while in this state as long as they aren’t behind you. Players will also enter this state when critically damaged but not outright destroyed — this is essentially Space Junk’s equivalent to Call of Duty’s Last Stand. After a bit, your mech will auto repair your controls and a bit of health. You’ll probably want to then find a safe place and heal up.

In Space Junk, space is crowded — it can be a bit difficult to see things. There will be a number of visual aids to help out. Here you can see the flag icons, so it’ll be easy to hunt down someone who stole your flag (Oh, yeah — I’ve added a Capture the Flag gameplay mode). Some of these visual aids, including this one, aren’t available to stealthed teamates.

I’ve made a number of other small additions to the game since the last update, including: network interpolation (to smooth out movement of players while over a network), a speed boost key to give yourself a quick push, and better particle effects for bullet impacts. Since the last update, I’ve also playtested the game over the internet. With the core elements of the game functioning, I’m now concentrating on some of the more entertaining features. Hopefully sometime this summer it’ll be ready for some alpha testing among friends.