March 2026 Development Update

Steam post imageAquarius

A planet with an extremely high volume of water and an unknown depth. Researchers from Quartz Station estimate that the oceans of Aquarius go as deep as 300,000 feet. The water pressure at that depth goes as high as 120,000 PSI, and no man-made vessel has been able to reach the bottom.

One of the final planets planned for the 1.0 release, Aquarius, has finally been implemented into the game. Fighting underwater will impact mobility and--the deeper you go--visibility as well. But there are a lot of things you can find in the vastness of the ocean...

March 2026 Development Update

With that out of the way, welcome back to another development update. I've been quiet since December because a LOT of things have happened. I'm going to go over everything in this development update.

State of the Project

I've talked a bit in the past about the game's struggles with finding a publisher, marketing, funding, etc. As of last month, one of those things is no longer a concern. SCAVENGER ZERO has been funded and will be released later this year. I will be giving a specific date in the very near future, alongside a release date trailer. The game will release without a publisher as a wholly independent project.

Now, prior to this, I was planning on doing a Kickstarter for the game. This Kickstarter will still happen in the future to help raise additional funds for things like voice acting and additional combat tracks, and to allow people to obtain the pledge rewards I had already planned out over the last few months.

... Also yes, the game has a bit of voice acting now. I look forward to sharing some of it soon. There might even be a little bit of it in the release date trailer, who knows?

Reworked Lighting

Something you might notice from the screenshots above is that the game looks different. I recently created a custom lighting shader to allow for significantly increased detail.

The biggest change from the old lighting system is that the new one has colored rim lights. The outline of the sprites will be highlighted and tinted based on nearby light sources.

This makes the biggest difference in scenes with a lot of dynamic, moving lights such as the underground club/bar and the strip, with all of it's neon signs.

Expanded Worldbuilding

And speaking of the strip, you might notice a bit more detail around there.

I've added more advertisements to the electronic billboards, and more posters on the walls advertising different stations, factions, and concepts. On certain days, events will occur on The Strip such as the aftermath of an FTCM attack on the government headquarters shown above.

Also, as seen in today's daily social media post, I've added dialogue to background NPCs. As you're walking around, they'll say a thing or two. And that's not all...

There's a new system known as the Star Map. It allows you to freely look around the map of the solar system. Hovering over a planet or a space station will give you a detailed description, including which factions control it, the history of the planet, and more. I aim to make this Star Map dynamic, changing based on the outcome of The Obsidian War.

Additional Customization

I've recently added a lot of new options for customization; both for the mech AND the pilot.

On the mech side, a number of new parts have been added over the last few months and the player's arsenal of weapons has been expanded. Instead of carrying up to three handheld weapons, they can now carry four; three guns and a dedicated melee weapon slot.

A few new melee weapons have been added, such as a spear, a sword, and a scythe. A few more are in the works. This menu is still heavily WIP, so please excuse text and icons clipping.

On the pilot side of things, there are new jackets, new accessories, new eye options, new hairstyles, new shirts, and more. Some of these cosmetic items can be found hidden around the game's hub world, only accessible after you reach a certain status with factions. I won't spoil where these cosmetics are hidden, but I'm hoping they will encourage exploration of the hub world.

Achievements

Over the last few days I've been doing a LOT of work on the game's achievements. I'm adding new achievements and also making unique icons for each achievement in the game. These new icons are a lot more detailed and varied. Here's a preview of some of the non-spoilery ones.

Ongoing Optimization Work

I've made a significant an effort to optimize the HELL out of the game going into 2026. I refactored a lot of core systems throughout February; including items, enemy path finding, level generation, projectiles, and more. The end result of these changes is a roughly 40-50 FPS boost. The game still has a few stutters and low frame rate moments during EXTREME scenarios--such as S+ rank missions-- but I'll continue doing my best to improve it.

Soundtrack Update

The game's OST is almost complete. We've completed tracks for almost every unique mission in the game. At the moment the OST is over 70 tracks long and runs about 4 hours. It uses a combination of lo-fi for calm moments, and heavy metal for battles.

Here's a brief preview of the Day 15 boss theme. The full track is a little bit over 6 minutes long and is still heavily WIP!

More New Items

To compliment the recent changes to the player's loadout, I've added some new items to encourage more unique playstyles.

Here’s one of them: the Bloody Gauntlet. It makes your melee attacks restore health.

I want to add more of these “specific damage type does (thing)” items to the game. Picking something like this up could make the player go, “Huh, maybe I should use melee weapons more often.” Picking something like “laser weapons inflict burning status” could make them use more laser weapons. The point is, it will make each individual run feel a bit more different and encourage experimentation with the player’s arsenal a bit more.

Conclusion

For once, I'm looking forward to the next few months. Information about the game's release date, a press kit, and a few other things will be released over the next couple weeks. Stay tuned.