Risk of Rain in one of those inspiring indie projects that we're seeing more and more of these days. Made by two students from the University of Washington, funded by a Kickstarter based around improving their small game, and now updated in the midst of both developers working on their degrees. Somehow this small 2D action platformer has found impressive success, and so it comes as no surprise that folk are excited about the game's upcoming patch.
As is always the case with game development, small and large, things don't always go as planned. In an update released just recently it was confirmed that the upcoming patch will not in fact include the Arena mode that was part of the game's initial stretch goals on Kickstarter. In fact, Arena mode will never be coming. That's not really due to development issues, however, because the game already features the type of content Arena mode promised. It's just not called Arena.
That doesn't mean the devs at Hopoo are just sitting on their laurels. Keep in mind that they've already detailed an extensive rework of the game, porting it from GameMaker 8 to GameMaker Studio. This by itself will allow the game to come to Linux and Mac, prepare it for release on PlayStation platforms, improve performance dramatically and also provide a solid foundation for adding further content in the future. It's a big deal, but now Hopoo has additional plans for the patch.
The patch won't include Arena, but it will include two entirely new classes and ten entirely new items. Yeah, you know, just some stuff they've had sitting on a hard drive somewhere. Expect the patch "soon".
Risk of Rain is currently available on PC for around $9.99. It's a cooperative title featuring tons of 2D action and platforming with randomly spawned enemies and permadeath. What else could you ask for?
The game is good value in any case. I managed to put nearly 20 hours into it before I stopped playing. Might put a few more in if I can get at least one of the new classes.