Following hot on the heels of last month’s highly anticipated matchmaking overhaul, indie MOBA Awesomenauts is ready for its next big update. On December 14th, Ronimo Games will release the Awesomenauts 3.4: Prime Time update. The new update will add a couple features promised in the original campaign, most notably a live spectator mode.
Awesomenauts: Starstorm raised $345,834 on Kickstarter back in 2013. Substantially more than the $125,000 Ronimo was seeking, plus an extra $61,930 on Paypal. Not too terrible for an expansion to a game that had already been out for nearly a year. The bonus for backers being that they could jump right into the game as new content slowly worked its way in. This seems to have been both a blessing and a curse for the game’s community.
While many fans remain supportive there have been rumbling of discontent over Ronimo’s handling of additional content. Particularly back in March when they released another expansion, Awesomenauts: Overdrive, before completing the features promised for Starstorm. Having so many characters and features competing for attention makes it hard to know where the dev’s time is being spent. A fact which some backers are quick to call them out on.
Stepping-Up The Spectator Game
In addition to a reworked spectator mode, the new update will also give players a visually reworked Clunk character and the new Overdrive-Naut Max Focus. The spectator mode will finally allow players to watch any live game as well as select replays, while in-game.
Ronimo is also releasing their backer reward, digital art book next week. Backers who pledged $50 or more during the campaign will receive an email with a download link for their art book.
Awesomenauts maintains a “mostly positive” Steam rating. Hopefully, the new update will help assure fans that their trust was well deserved.
