Steam News22 February 20251y ago

First Year Anniversary and new Beta Testing

Hey all! We're so happy to be celebrating the first year since 502's Arcade was released! First of all, thanks for supporting the game!

In this update2

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Full 502's Arcade update

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Repeated intro

Hey all!

What changed

0 fixes5 additions2 changes1 removal

Gameplay
Balance
Compatibility
Server

addedContinuesAfter hearing a lot of your feedback about the game, we decided to introduce a new mechanic into all the games to make it more approachable to different types of players but at the same time avoid disrupting people that play it competitively on the leaderboards.

addedContinuesWe made our best effort to keep it simple and as close to an arcade experience as possible, so the new feature works like this:

addedContinuesIn all games, instead of automatically losing when you reach a game over condition, you will be prompted with a new option to continue your gameplay session for that specific game. You can continue your game up to 3 times before actually reaching the game over screen.

changedContinuesTo maintain a balance on the already existing leaderboards, and still reward your mastery within each game, using a continue will halve your score. This way you can still explore even further into the games and gain more experience, to the point where you probably won't need the continues to get to certain points every time.

addedPlaytestingAfter some months developing the feature, we feel like it's already in a state where we feel comfortable sharing it with you all, that said, we want to make sure the feature is in it's best state possible, so we're uploading a new Beta branch for the game called `openbeta` where you can play this new feature.

removedPlaytestingAs this is still an experimental feature and build and might still contain some bugs, we disabled the Steam features on this branch so we don't mess up the leaderboards and your achievements so don't worry if you're not able to access either of those during your testing. You'll see

502's Arcade changes

addedAfter hearing a lot of your feedback about the game, we decided to introduce a new mechanic into all the games to make it more approachable to different types of players but at the same time avoid disrupting people that play it competitively on the leaderboards.

addedWe made our best effort to keep it simple and as close to an arcade experience as possible, so the new feature works like this:

addedIn all games, instead of automatically losing when you reach a game over condition, you will be prompted with a new option to continue your gameplay session for that specific game. You can continue your game up to 3 times before actually reaching the game over screen.

changedTo maintain a balance on the already existing leaderboards, and still reward your mastery within each game, using a continue will halve your score. This way you can still explore even further into the games and gain more experience, to the point where you probably won't need the continues to get to certain points every time.

addedAfter some months developing the feature, we feel like it's already in a state where we feel comfortable sharing it with you all, that said, we want to make sure the feature is in it's best state possible, so we're uploading a new Beta branch for the game called `openbeta` where you can play this new feature.

We're so happy to be celebrating the first year since 502's Arcade was released!

First of all, thanks for supporting the game! Regardless if you bought it day one or if you just bought it on the last sale, we appreciate that you're part of our community!

To celebrate this milestone we would like to share some news!

Continues

After hearing a lot of your feedback about the game, we decided to introduce a new mechanic into all the games to make it more approachable to different types of players but at the same time avoid disrupting people that play it competitively on the leaderboards.

We made our best effort to keep it simple and as close to an arcade experience as possible, so the new feature works like this:

In all games, instead of automatically losing when you reach a game over condition, you will be prompted with a new option to continue your gameplay session for that specific game. You can continue your game up to 3 times before actually reaching the game over screen.
This prompt is completely optional, if you choose not to use it, you will be taken to the game over screen, your high score will be saved in the leaderboards, etc... just like how it worked before.
To maintain a balance on the already existing leaderboards, and still reward your mastery within each game, using a continue will halve your score. This way you can still explore even further into the games and gain more experience, to the point where you probably won't need the continues to get to certain points every time.

Playtesting

After some months developing the feature, we feel like it's already in a state where we feel comfortable sharing it with you all, that said, we want to make sure the feature is in it's best state possible, so we're uploading a new Beta branch for the game called `openbeta` where you can play this new feature.

As this is still an experimental feature and build and might still contain some bugs, we disabled the Steam features on this branch so we don't mess up the leaderboards and your achievements so don't worry if you're not able to access either of those during your testing. You'll see

To enter in to the Steam Beta:

Right Click on 502's Arcade in your Steam Library.
Click "Properties..."
Click "Betas"
Select "openbeta - Experimental or unreleased features and content" in the drop down menu.

Your feedback means a lot to us and getting this update right is really important, so if you have any comments or questions you can go to this discussions thread or to our new discord server for the game.

We already extended a little bit with this post, so again, thank you for all your support and we hope you keep having fun with the game!

Source

Steam News / 22 February 2025

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