LuxBonce: the closed beta build

Six days after the first entry, LuxBonce has a closed beta build for Linux and Windows 11. It is invite-only, for adults, and sign-in works with Google (Facebook is switched off until it is really implemented). This post is a tour of what changed, with real screenshots, and of what still isn't good.

A match in the Valley arena: sunny pixel-art countryside with a windmill, a red Comet tank on the left and an olive Bulwark on the right, and the new HUD around them. The Valley arena. Clouds drift, the windmill turns, flags and grass lean with the wind of the match.

Eight tanks, four of them locked

There are now eight mobiles. NOVA, BULWARK, COMET and AURORA are open from the start. RANGER, JUGGERNAUT, MIRAGE and TITAN unlock at online levels 11, 31, 51 and 71, so climbing the ladder gives you something new to drive. The server checks the unlock; the client is never trusted.

The eight tanks side by side, with black silhouettes underneath to show that no two share a shape. All eight, with their silhouettes below. Early feedback was that NOVA and AURORA looked almost the same, so I redrew both, and made "can you tell them apart in solid black?" a test for every new tank.

The designs are inspired by real tanks (a Leopard 2 here, a Challenger 2 there) but pushed toward the chunky, characterful sprites of Metal Slug rather than a faithful model. The pixel art is drawn by scripts, not painted by hand, and the barrel now rises and falls with your aim angle.

A ladder of 100 levels

Every online match gives XP. Levels 1 to 100 are grouped into ten ranks, from Recruit to Legend, each with its own emblem. Solo mode against the CPU is now a separate, local "practice" profile: its XP, credits and upgrades never carry over to online play, so nobody can farm the CPU and show up online with a stronger tank.

The main menu now shows the tank you will take into battle.

Reading the screen

The HUD got the Metal Slug treatment: thick outlined letters that stay readable over any sky, big numbers for angle, power and wind, and the aim and power bar pinned to the bottom of the screen. The last three seconds of a turn now flash a big countdown and a red vignette, because a quiet timer is a missed shot.

The HUD in the last three seconds of a turn: a large 3 in the middle of the screen and a red pulse around the edges. Three seconds left.

A few smaller things came from the same round of playtests: the ultimate is always on R on PC, Esc asks before leaving a match, and when a tank dies the camera zooms in on the wreck and then runs across the map to the winner before the results appear.

The terrain has rules now, too. A tank can't climb a wall, and a crater deep enough will trap it. It can still aim and fire, and a blast that lowers the rim sets it free.

A match in a desert city arena at golden hour, with skyscrapers, a stone arch and a red tank aiming at a teal one. The desert city arena.

Players can export or delete their data from inside the game, and the privacy policy and terms are public on this site (see the LuxBonce project page). The next entries will be about what the first testers break.