Dudelings: Arcade Sportsball just received a major update (codenamed "2nd Base") featuring a massive collection of new content, fixes, and improvements to help you get your sport on!

So what's new?

Where do we even start?

Presentation

The first thing you might've noticed is the brand new CRT filter! When designing the art for the game, we had always imagined it as a Super Nintendo title. This filter lends a bit more authenticity to the design (in that kind of simulacra way). But if a CRT Filter isn't your style, you can turn it off in Settings → CRT Filter.

The rest of the screenshots in this article lack the CRT Filter because the filter doesn't play nicely with JPEG compression

Then, we've added a whole bunch of new jersey designs to the game. Jerseys have always been purely cosmetic (meaning they have no impact on the gameplay), so we decided to move them to the Settings menu. Your jersey selection will persist across game sessions and you can even change them mid-match!

New Announcers

2nd Base features the voice talent of some familiar… er… voices. YouTube sensations "FanTheDeck" and "NerdNest" have stepped up to fill the Announcer role! Select either announcer pack in Settings → Announcer Voice and enjoy the dulcet narration of some of your favorite YouTubers.

Thanks again to NerdNest and FanTheDeck for joining the Dudelings cast!

New Arenas

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2nd Base features two new arenas. First, is the Gym which is modeled after the high school I went to. The Gym arena sports a wooden floor, bleachers, tall ceilings, and a mix of spectators (presumably your relatives).

These folks react to your match in real time and they all seem to have great team spirit!

Then, there's the mysterious Destination which, for legal reasons, is a large, crystalline asteroid that has nothing to do with any other IPs. How do you unlock Destination? That's up to you to find out!

New Game Mode

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2nd Base introduces a new (and exceptionally fun) game mode that we're calling "Pins." The play field is littered with a symmetrical series of pins: six for each team. Hit the ball into your opponent's pins to knock 'em down. Once all six of their pins are down, you earn a point and their pins are reset. But watch out, because yours won't reset until they score a point on you!

New Rules

Dudelings has always had the option to customize your match rules. But 2nd Base introduces a brand new and exciting victory condition: Timed Matches. Don't worry, the traditional way to play Dudelings—with a fixed Match Point—is still available. However, Timed Matches bring a whole new kind of frenzy to the game.

And if there's a tie when the time's up, the game will head into Overtime where the rules change to SUDDEN DEATH! The next player to score wins!

Now, Match Points haven't gone anywhere. In fact, they're still the default rule for most game types. However, an interesting change we've made is to how rules are applied.

With this update, each Game Mode (Classic, Hoop, etc.) has its own default ruleset! For example, Pin games default to 5 match points, rather than the usual 10. Volley now defaults to a 3 minute Timed Match. And Hoop now uses the Bowling Ball by default!

Of course, you can change any of these yourself. Meaning Volley can be a Match Point game, Classic can be a Timed Match, etc. And you can tweak the other rules (like which pickups are allowed to spawn) just as before.

Speaking of which…

New Pickups

There are two new Pickups that come with 2nd Base. The first is Switchup. When your ball touches a Switchup coin, it will flip to the other team's possession!

Then, there's the Black Hole which works like a portal to another dimension! When a ball touches this pickup, it will disappear for a moment before being teleported to a random position on the map! And stay frosty as the ball will maintain its momentum as it exits the Black Hole!

Steam Integration

For our Steam players, we've added new Steam integrations into this update! 2nd Base now has Online Play facilitated by Steam's Remote Play Together. There's a button prompt to start an RPT session in the "Player Setup" menu.

We've also added Steam Achievements to 2nd Base! In order to get Steam Achievements working, though, we also needed a way to track your stats. And that's why 2nd Base now incorporates a Stats panel on the Main Menu. (Note that the Stats panel is available to all players, not just our Steam customers!)

We've also enabled Steam Cloud Saves which will back up your settings and your stats across devices!

Balancing & More

We've also taken the opportunity to balance the game, refine the controls, update the physics of the balls, and improve the player experience. (We've fixed a longstanding bug with popover menus closing their parent modal window.) And whole lot more!

You can check out the absolutely MASSIVE changelog for the game here. And make sure you subscribe to our email newsletter where we do giveaways, show off behind the scenes stuff, and drop previews of our in-development work!

Start Playing

If you already own the game on Steam, you can opt into the public beta and just start playing. If you have the game on Itch you'll need to download the latest update when it releases July 23rd. And if don't own the game yet, get it on Steam or through Itch.io!