it is finally time to bring back Pixel Tennis with its biggest update yet!
These are the highlights:
3D Character Models
Say farewell to the derpy pill-shaped avatars and welcome Kuro and Lea as the new playable characters. The VRoid Studio based models are animated and offer the ability to switch between various outfits and hairstyles.
- Pixel Tennis Kuro and Lea.png (29.29 KiB) Viewed 235 times
New Court: Isle
Pixel Tennis now has 50% more courts than ever (3 instead of 2)! Feel the virtual sand beneath your feet and the tropical breeze as you play against friends or opponents from around the world.
- Pixel Tennis Court Isle.jpg (137.82 KiB) Viewed 235 times
Steam
The game is silently sneaking to the official Steam Store.
In addition to that, you can now use your Steam account to play instead of the previously mandatory Pixel Tennis account. If you already registered here, you can link both after logging in with the latter.
I guess, Pixel Tennis can be classified as an actual game now, huh?
There standalone/installer version and the .apk for Android devices remain available, if you prefer them.
- Pixel Tennis on Android and Steam Deck.jpg (227.61 KiB) Viewed 224 times
Mutators
Every match can be spiced up with different gameplay mutators. Do you like special shots? Make them more frequent. Do you think, smashes are too weak? Enable Hyper Smasher. Is the game too slow for you? Set speed mode. Do you want havok? Enable all of them at the same time and sprinkle some curve shots to it!
Please note, that a match will not be counted towards your ranking, if too many mutators are active. This is indicated in the rooms settings overview.
PvP with character progression can be difficult topic to balance, so Pixel Tennis also offers specific settings for introducing newcomers to the game. With the "No special shots" and "Equal stats", you can level the playing field by factoring out character specific attributes and gear.
- Pixel Tennis Mutators.png (35.49 KiB) Viewed 235 times
Items
Some gear comes with an attribute "Refineable X". This means, that you can merge two identical copies of an item to make it stronger. Refining has a 100% success rate, but the mighty gods of Pixel Tennis will decide, which attribute (STR, STA, DEX, WIL) gets boosted.
When choosing between items, there are two types of players. The ones, that want to their equipment to have the absolute best attributes and the ones, that are primarily looking for style. But why not aiming for both?
Style Change is the feature, that comes to the rescue. Similar to refinements, you can merge two items. In this case, you can keep the power of one item while enjoying the look of the other!
- Pixel Tennis Item Refine.png (16.23 KiB) Viewed 235 times
By the way - not every item is available in the ingame shop. Some are only given out as random rewards or for completing specific hidden tasks. If you participated in previous test runs, you should be greeted with one special item on your next login
Veteran players
...can keep their previous progress (experience, stats, gold and items). Some items, primarily pill faces, are not available anymore and were automatically sold for 2/3 of the original buying price.
To all the previous gratis Wing of Memory hoarders out there - yes, this means you Widukind, Zoe and Bloodlust - I see your plan
. As the attributes reset item has a buying/selling price again, I removed any excessive quantity from your existing inventories. No free gold for you!This is a playtest
There were lots of changes between the previous playtest version and this one. None of them could be tested in a larger scale multiplayer capacity. So expect things to break or to catch fire during launch, but this is fine.
- Pixel Tennis I Want You!.png (26.82 KiB) Viewed 235 times
This playtest is not only a way for you to experience the brand new update, but also a way to gather your opinion on the game. Pixel Tennis still has rough edges and I want to improve it with your feedback! If you have suggestions or found bugs, please reach out to me via the forums or any other communication channel where you saw me.
See you on the court!