Release Date! And what to expect? news - Can Punter mod for Half-Life 2

Hi all! It's been a couple of months of radio silence. Sorry about that! After a long amount of on and off work, I'm happy to finally reveal Can Punter's release date: August 12th, 2022, around 6PM EDT. Why around? I might need a couple more hours before hand to make sure everything is ready, truth be told!

If that's all you needed to hear, then this article is done for you! But if you need to know more... what should you expect from Can Punter's full release?

What to expect - The Game

The actual "game" portion of Can Punter has stayed mostly the same. You'll notice small things have been added or moved around in the apartment. The majority of changes here have been invisible background additions to help smooth out the process of playing Can Punter.

First off, difficulty now properly works as you'd expect it to. There's a helpful notification any time you change your difficulty to help assure you that it is working. Additionally, the can will now glow somewhat after it has been left idle for some time, to help you out when it goes into a dark corner somewhere. Beyond selectable difficulties, some parts of the apartment have been smoothed out or brightened. You can't get the can stuck under a number of furniture pieces anymore, avoiding the more unsatisfying way of losing.

Additionally, for those who really like to play this part of the game, I'll be implementing a highscore feature that'll let you track your progress. You'll be able to view your highscore on the main menu!

What to expect - The Endings

The full release of Can Punter will have about double the endings the demo had. Some of these endings don't necessarily end the game, but are diversions away from other primary paths. A lot of the pre-existing endings in Can Punter have been reworked and remixed to better fit their theming and now feel closer to final.

Some endings require you to find previous materials in other endings, others are fun easter eggs that I don't even expect people to find. I hope you have fun finding them all! In total, I'd expect every player to experience most of Can Punter within a couple of hours.

What to expect - Everything else

I've put together a lot of randomized "fun" events for the main game that I hope you enjoy seeing! They're mostly extremely silly, you can see the above image in one and another involving a haunted paint can.

Relating to "fun", the first time you run the game, you will not receive one of these randomized events, in hopes of giving each player a standard experience of the game. If you want to get right in, you can start a new game as soon as you start your first and roll for the randomized event.

Ending off

I'm really excited for everyone to get their hands on Can Punter! I've been putting as much work as possible in between my college classes. I think you'll like what I have to offer!

To end off, here's a poster that VeryCoordinatedMoths (Twitter) put together for me, which you can find in Can Punter as a random event! See you next month!