Facepunch announces Arcade, a very different kind of arcade game

News
By published

My experience with arcade games comprises a few goes on Time Crisis, Bust-a-Move or House of the Dead while holidaying at the seaside, but I'm assured by the plot of Tron that arcade gaming was once a pretty big thing. Short of a time machine or a sudden windfall of cash, it might be hard to recreate that bygone era, but thanks to Facepunch there's a chance of it living on in virtual form. The Garry's Mod/Rust developers have just announced their next prototype, named Arcade . Arcade is a game about being in an arcade, with a novel multiplayer mode and potential VR support.

The most interesting part, however, is talk of a multiplayer mode that will may allow players to "design their own arcades, then host them online so that other players can visit". The ability for players to create their own games is mentioned as a possibility, and along with potential VR support, there are some neat ideas behind Facepunch's latest prototype.

It is just that, however—a prototype—so there's always the chance that some or none of these ideas will make it in, or that Arcade will never be turned into a full game. It's one to keep an eye on though over the next few months, along with Facepunch's other recently revealed prototype, Deuce .

Tom Sykes
Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.