Ready to take part in the latest playtest for the Project Sparrow rework!? We'll be running a playtest on Saturday, June 15th 7:00PM - 11:00PM BST. See below for more information on how to access the rework and see what's new.
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: <https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/nanite-virtualized-geometry-in-unreal-engine?application_version=5.0>
- Lumen: <https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/lumen-technical-details-in-unreal-engine?application_version=5.0>
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