Project Sparrow
Rework Playtest 3 - Matchmaking & Parties
What is this playtest focussing on?
For this test, our goal is to make sure the matchmaking is working correctly with parties. So bring your friends, party up and queue some games!
How do I access the rework?
Matchmaking queues will only be open from Saturday, August 10th 8:00PM - 9:00PM BST.
Right click Project Sparrow in your steam library > go to properties > betas > then in the 'Beta Participation' dropdown, select 'rework - rework'.
Note: If you want to swap between playing the live version of the game and the rework, you'll have to come back here and change from 'rework - rework' to 'none'.
Patch Notes for this test:
Maps:
- New map 'Eversong'. This is just a blockout, so let us know what you think of it so far and how the layout is!
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a bug with the death camera not locking onto the player that killed you
- Fixed a bug where the smoke arrow wouldn't activate if hitting a player
- Fixed a bug where smoke arrows didn't show in replays
- Fixed a bug where the loadout wasn't closing when the round started
- Fixed minute issues with grapple cancelling
- Fixed a bug where you couldn't use grapple whilst sliding/crouching
New Features:
- New tutorial level that will show for the first time you open the game, also available in the menu (x) I recommend this for every player!
General Gameplay:
- Added a waiting for players phase before the match begins
- Added a short delay when pressing the same key to cancel the grapple to avoid mis press
- Increased climb speed from 500 > 600
- Small changes to climb to push you more over ledges
- Kick cooldown lowered from 8s > 1s
- Kick now only useable when meleeing whilst in the air (falling/jumping etc)
- Kick knockback reduced from 1600 > 800
- Kick knockback height reduced 700 > 350
- Reduced kick stun time from 0.5s to 0.25s
- Added ammo, the default ammo is 12
- Default 'R' key is now Reload, Kick removed from keybinds
- Reload can be cancelled the same way drawing your bow can be cancelled, it won't complete the reload
- Reloading takes 1.5 seconds
- New ammo counter UI near the crosshair to show your ammo count, will flash when nearly empty
- Only normal arrows will consume ammo, so arrow types and Powershot will not consume ammo
New Arrow Types:
- Lightning: This will spawn a bolt of lightning every second for 6 seconds, if you are in the area of effect, you will be stunned for a short time
- Fire: Similar to the old fire! Improved fx and clarity. Spawns a fire area of effect that deals damage over time
UI/UX:
- Friends list now sorted alphabetically
- Friends list style updated
- Able to invite friends to your party from the friends list
- Minor UI bug fixes
- Parties should now be available
- Now able to queue matchmaking as a party
- Loadout will no longer swap your abilities back to their defaults when opening the loadout
- Mouse now centers when entering the menu
- Fixed matchmaking ready notify sound not playing
Rework Playtest 2 - Matchmaking
What is this playtest focussing on?
For this test, our primary goal is to make sure the matchmaking is working correctly. Putting players in the correct games depending on their region. Games may end abruptly, but please re-queue when you can!
How do I access the rework?
Matchmaking queues will only be open from Saturday, July 6th 8:00PM - 10:00PM BST.
Right click Project Sparrow in your steam library > go to properties > betas > then in the 'Beta Participation' dropdown, select 'rework - rework'.
Note: If you want to swap between playing the live version of the game and the rework, you'll have to come back here and change from 'rework - rework' to 'none'.
Patch Notes:
For a full list of patch notes, please see the first post here
- New matchmaking provider
- Swapped servers to our previous provider we used in closed testing
- Matchmaking regions
- Removed sprint keybinds from settings (it's an old keybind that doesn't exist anymore)
- Set the default movement ability to dash instead of roll
- Reduced kick stun duration from 1s to 0.5s
- Fixed some UI visuals
- Added a new camera status text for when you are stunned
- Fixed match result screen not showing the final score and if it was a victory or defeat
- Fixed ping not showing the correct value on the scoreboard
- Fixed a bug where the death camera would snap to a new killer instead of staying on the player that killed you
- Fixed a bug where the killcam would show the wrong player who killed you if a new player died before you saw the killcam
- Fixed a bug where team colors in the killfeed were wrong
- Fixed a bug where team colors whilst spectating or watching a replay were wrong
- Added a disconnect icon on the scoreboard and the scoring display (names at the top) for when a player is disconnected
- Fixed a bug where players weren't being removed from the scoreboard if they have left the game
- Fixed a bug where the grapple wouldn't work but still go on cooldown if looking directly upwards
- Fixed a bug where the grapple would attach to players (this is currently unintended)
- Slightly lowered volume when swapping between different arrow types
- Slightly increased grapple speed
- Fixed a bug where you could see your own damage text and hitmarkers when spectating another player or watching a replay
- Tightened some collision on Kings Rest
- Fixed a bug where the damage numbers and kill effects would spawn at 0,0,0 world location when killing someone with kick or powershot
- Powershot damage reduced from 250 > 200
- Powershot now has knockback, if the player hits a wall it does 50 extra damage
- Powershot stun time is .5s (same as kick)
Rework Patch Notes & Upcoming Playtest Date!
How do I access the rework?
Matchmaking queues will only be open from Saturday, June 15th 7:00PM - 11:00PM BST.
Right click Project Sparrow in your steam library > go to properties > betas > then in the 'Beta Participation' dropdown, select 'rework - rework'.
Note: If you want to swap between playing the live version of the game and the rework, you'll have to come back here and change from 'rework - rework' to 'none'.
Patch Notes:
You can skip to the bottom for a TLDR!
Comments:
Why rework the game? Project Sparrow was initially a game I wanted to get out as fast as I could so I could use it as a portfolio piece for applying for jobs in the game industry. I did not expect so many people would come to love and enjoy the game as much as I did! So thank you so much. Unfortunately I made the mistake of rushing the game out, which in turn led to a lot of badly coded systems, in short, it's extremely hard to keep working on the project. This is one of the primary reasons for starting the project from scratch, I'll touch on some others shortly. Now I have bought my brother on board after the games initial release, and we have been working on the re-write/rework since late 2022.
Netcode:
We have completely re-written the game from the ground up on Unreal Engine 5. Initially we were going to get completely custom art and animations, but we decided to go with netcode. Art and animations can always be replaced later. We're using a state of the art netcode solution from SnapNet, this enables us to have complete backwards reconciliation, smooth spectating, replays, killcams, play of the games, disconnect/reconnect protection, better connections and much more. I felt the community really deserves this new tech. It's an indie devs dream have this level of netcode, so thank you guys so much! We hope you like it :D
We will be starting with backwards reconciliation of 150ms. This means if you melee/kick or use any hitscan type ability, you will always hit the player unless you are over 150ms. We're also experimenting with using interpolated projectiles, so you shouldn't be getting any no-regs for now. Anything you see in game is what everyone else sees, we aren't faking projectiles like in most games. We may change this in the future but this is how it works now.
Perspective:
So what are the other changes apart from netcode? The biggest one is going to be the change from third person to first person, we are trying this out to see what people think. I personally love the change but please let me know your thoughts. This isn't to say we are never going to add third person back into the game (we most likely will at a later date). We just want to see how everything plays out and what the general feedback around it is.
Maps:
We're going to be introducing new maps, and re-imagining old ones. (such as kings rest, and the old arena map).
Movement:
Sprint and walk have been removed, there is now one base move speed, with crouch being the old walk speed. We've moved the default movement ability keybind (dash/roll) to Left Shift by default. Base movement speed has been altered, you'll now feel faster when strafing. This should make A/D fights feel better, along with now being able to wallclimb. Slide is now physics based and should respond properly when moving down/uphill. You'll start sliding faster when you're going downhill, and the distance you slide uphill will depend on your speed going into the slide. Wallbounces should now feel more accurate and easier to hit.
Abilities:
New abilities! We've added an ultimate slot that you will be able to use, this works similar to hero shooters, where it builds up over time, doing damage/objectives will effect how fast it becomes available. The 2 ultimates you can choose from are Powershot and Shadowform.
- Powershot is a charged up shot over 1.5s, which will dealing huge damage to players.
- Shadowform will increase your characters move and climb speed for 12s, and reset your cooldowns on use.
We've changed dash to now be omnidirectional, so you can make some amazing juke plays. And have added a new movement ability called roll. This is part of the new movement slot, you can swap out to use either roll or dash.
Grapple is a new utility ability, and is currently the only usable one.
Special Arrow Types:
We're going to slowly add these back to the game, some may be reworked (like the shadow arrow) and some might not make it. But for now we just have the smoke arrow.
Attributes:
We've added a new attribute called Shields. This will be a separate stat that lives on top of your health. You can see this indicated in game through the shield icon. We will be experimenting with 50 shields. So you now have 200health and 50 shields at the start of a round.
Graphics and Settings:
We've enabled the latest Unreal Engine 5 tech, Lumen (Global Illumination) and Nanite. You can read more about them here:
- Nanite:
- Lumen:
These will be defaulted to ON, but you can turn them off at any time in the settings menu. We've added some additional support for color blind modes, more performance stats and an FOV slider.
We'll also be adding the last AI upscalers, DLSS, FSR and XeSS in an upcoming update.
Gamemodes:
We haven't changed much in terms of game modes, we only have the arena mode for now, but will be experimenting with more in the future. We have slightly changed arena to incorporate round winning kill replays and killcams. Along with a smoother death experience, so the camera follows the dead player, just to make it easier to see where you died from!
Camera Effects:
We've added some new effects for when you are low health, taking damage and when you are in the zone! Just to make it easier to see/feel what's happening to your character.
Animations:
New animation rig for first person arms, we will continue to improve these as we go. We have some new third person animations too but many of these are placeholder.
Anticheat:
We're aware of the growing concern revolving anti cheat, we have decided to remove Easy Anti Cheat from the game, and will be using a new server sided AI anti-cheat instead. As always you'll be able to report people through discord (and in-game soon.)
Servers, Matchmaking:
We're going to be testing out a new server provider, which should help increase boot times so you don't have to wait as long to get into a match when one is found! We're testing different matchmaking solutions, so please let us know how it feels as we progress. Parties will not be available during the first playtest, sorry for the inconvenience!
Skins and other cosmetics:
Due to us reworking the project from the ground up and using new art, unfortunately the skins from the old version of the game won't work. We feel the best way to give back to those of you that have purchased anything from the store will be to convert your purchases into the equivalent amount of currency, so t hat you can choose from new cosmetics that we add.
TLDR:
- Rebuilt from the ground up with state of the art netcode on unreal engine 5
- Replays
- Killcams / Round Winning Kills / Play of the Game
- New perspective, first person
- Smooth and accurate spectating
- Disconnect protection
- Backwards re-conciliation up to 150ms
- Re-imagined maps (Currently just Kings Rest)
- Sprint removed, base movement speed increased, faster A/D speed
- Now able to wallclimb
- New physics based slide
- Improved wallbounce accuracy and ease of use
- 2 Ultimate abilities to choose from (Powershot and Shadowform)
- Special arrow types are coming, we just have smoke for now
- Re-imagined dash and new roll ability for the new movement ability slot
- New utility ability 'Grapple'
- New shield stat attribute
- Latest UE5 tech, Nanite and Lumen (Global Illumination)
- Gamemode improvements
- New camera effects (low health etc)
- Server side AI based anti-cheat (moving away from Easy Anti Cheat)
- Info on skins and what will happen with them
As always, everyone is welcome to join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Hd8bNd4PTD
Developer Update | Rework First Look, Movement, Combat and More!
Rework progress update
A few quick updates on how the rework is coming along!
Originally we were going to get original custom art and models, but we decided to prioritise better netcode for the longevity of the game.
We recently did a very small closed test with a couple of people, just to test that the rework actually works! And we're happy to announce it was quite successful :D
We're getting closer and closer to a version that we think is ready for y'all to play. A lot will be different as we progress through the development of the rework. We'll be testing new weapons, abilities, maps and a lot more. Hopefully with your feedback we can really push the limits on where the game is heading in the future!
We can't confirm a date just yet, I've learnt it's incredibly difficult to put a date on things in game development. So for now we'll just say, we want to get it in your hand as soon as we can, hopefully sooner rather than later!
We'll be cleaning up the discord, adding and removing some channels whilst we prepare for the rework too! So you'll be seeing some changes over the coming weeks. Join the Discord here
Happy holidays and stay safe! đ đ
With all that said, here's a small preview of the first map that will be available to play when the rework goes live for testing! (still a work in progress!)
The rework is almost here... Let's recap and learn what's coming!
Initially the game was a prototype to help my find a job in the games industry, after seeing how much people love the game I've decided to put everything I have back into the game. We've been reworking the game from the ground up to support a multitude of new features and integrations, including: replays, spectating, movement, gameplay, netcode and server tickrate.
We'll be slowly ramping up the pace of updates and communication again as we progress towards a stable game build.
I apologise for how long this is taking, but I really feel it's best for the game in the long run! Thanks everyone for the continued support â¤ď¸
For those of you that are trying to play the game with extremely long matchmaking queues, I really recommend looking to find games through the Discord server until we can get the rework out. You can post in the #looking-to-play channel and ping your region to find other players to play against!
Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/Hd8bNd4PTD
Quick update and happy new year!
Just a quick update, I'm still actively developing the rework of the game. It's taking longer than I hoped, but everything is being setup so much better than before. I appreciate all your patience and I hope to get it in your hands soon!
You'll also be seeing the return of dev logs, and a lot more when we're ready to go.
Cheers!
Development Update
I've learnt so much over the past 3-4 years. Trial and error has been great but also led me to implementations that are not very scalable or adaptable. Whilst the game is still in its alpha stage, I figured this would be the best time to make these changes to further help the longevity of the game.
The game currently isn't up to my standards in terms of bugs and polish. When the next patch is ready, I'll throw it up on the PTR for you guys to test!
Thanks to everyone who's bought or supported the game so far! <3
Patch 0.3.5
[x] Fixed freecam and playerview keybinds not working whilst being a global spectator
[x] After death youâll now spectate your death location for 3 seconds before automatically going to the next player, you can press your âPrimary Fireâ key to go to the next player instantly as always
[x] Updated utility cooldown descriptions in the loadout screen
[x] Fixed a bug where the charge bar wasnât shown in first person
[x] Fixed a bug where the kill feed and elimination text wouldnât show when experiencing internet problems
[x] Fixed a bug where the bow string wasnât showing since the last engine update
[x] Potentially fixed a bug that sometimes caused your dash to be âeatenâ when using dash and wallbounce at the same time
[x] First person wallbounce trace reworked (now comes from the camera when in first person mode)
[x] Increased kick hitbox when in first person mode
[x] Arrows are now updated in spectator mode when spectating a player
[x] Spectator improvements made when swapping between players
[x] New shadow trail VFX that linger behind the player for 3 seconds teleporting
[x] New death effect showing the player in a death animation/ragdoll that disintegrates
[x] Damage numbers should now be shown for spectators
Patch 0.3.4
- Fixed a bug where you couldn't sprint out of a toggled crouch (with auto sprint disabled)
- Fixed a bug where you were unable to start a custom game
- Spectating in third person should now feel a lot smoother
- Spectating in FPP should now have the correct view and be smoother
- Spectate through specific players as a global spectator with keys 1-6
- New keybind âSwap Perspectiveâ which allows you to swap between first and third person. This keybind will only work in matchmaking, listen servers or in the training range
- Increased uphill slide from 0.2s > 0.3s