The hand-drawn multiplayer twin-stick shooter Scribbled Arena will be available on Steam Early Access on May 10, 2017, according to a press release.
Scribbled Arena is a twin-stick shooter for 2-10 players where they battle in tanks in a top-down arena. Each tank has unique primary and secondary abilities. Players can duke it out across over 20 different battlefields. A trailer showcasing some gameplay was released alongside the announcement of the Early Access launch date:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWoOUC9YQdU
The game cites early games such as Atari's Combat as inspiration for the gameplay, although Scribbled Arena is noticeably faster in overall pacing. The game is being developed by Apar Games based out of Mumbai, India, and it was nominated for several gaming awards in the region.
As for why the game is going into Early Access, the developer states on the Steam Store Page that they would like to open it up to a wider audience for greater feedback and more testing. The developers expect that the game should be in Early Access for no longer than six months, and in that time they hope to add more tanks, levels, and additional features to the game. Although the developers have a solid roadmap for how they would like the game to progress, they've also stated that they want to factor in suggestions & feedback from the community to ultimately make a better game.
In the meantime, if you'd like to add the game to your Steam wishlist you can head on over to its Steam Store page. Scribbled Arena will launch on Steam Early Access on May 10, 2017. The game's price has yet to be announced.
Quick Take
Man, I played the heck outta Combat when I was younger (even though I grew up long after the Atari 2600 came out). This game seems like it'll be pretty neat so long as it isn't too costly.What do you think of Scribbled Arena? Are you a fan of twin-stick shooters in general? What do you think of this particular game's art style? Let us know in the comments below!