Well god damn. It's been a while huh? It's been, what? 4 months since the release of Beatstown Brawl Volume 1? While the mod hasn't exactly "taken off" I'm still super proud of the project we released all those months ago, and am still working on it. Though, we aren't quite doing 2.0 yet.

For those who don't know, the next update is Beatsown Brawl 1.5: Intermission! And in this article I will talk about what'll be in the update, who we got to help on it, and what'll be the future of the mod beyond it.

What even IS Intermission?

Intermission is the 1.5 Update for Beatstown Brawl. It's main focus is to iron out all of the little nagging issues with the first release and make it feel like a more complete experience. We have changed multiple aspects of the UI, added more accessibility options (including reworked mechanics), we are redoing the cutscenes to look a bit more stylized and visually interesting, and we are adding in a bunch of bonus content!

What bonus content? Well, besides one off bonus stuff like Instrumental charts and covers, we are also adding in an X-Remix of the last song, Inferno. There will be multiple bonus songs featuring the X Characters, one of which being said remix. This is our take on erect remixes, while also giving it a bit of story relevance!

And who knows? Maybe you'll get a tease of 2.0 in there?

Who are you getting to help you on this?

We have expanded our team to include more artists and musicians since last time! We got quite a few working on some of these songs! I'm not gonna reveal everybody, but the people who I've announced elsewhere include my good friend Wisplock, who composed the game over theme, Zerohpoint, who is most recognized as the Co-Director for Friday Night Troubleshootin', and is making the songs for Ember, and, as a guest composer Quincy Pringle, the composer for the Indie game Other: Her Loving Embrace! He's helping with the reworked Gallery theme, and he did some incredible work on it!

In terms of art, Neatochao is coming back for some of the sprites, but some more (most of them being for 2.0) are being done by DastardlyDeacon, who is most known for his work on the D-Sides mod! We also have our very own GF Voice Actor, Starry Pancakes, doing the new cutscene art! The sketches sent look super neat so far, and I can't wait for y'all to see it.

Where does it go from here?

So, you're probably wondering where the mod is going to go from here. First of all, we do not have a release date yet for this update, but we HOPE that it doesn't take too long. If i wanted to target a window, then I hope we can get it out by Fall, but don't be surprised if we have to delay that.

The good news is though, is that most of the resources I've allocated for 1.5 are either also working on or have already worked on stuff for 2.0! So that means 2.0 will not take NEARLY as long, because a fair amount of stuff is already being worked on for it. I can not guarantee that the full scope of this mod will ever be finished, but I hope that I can at least get the Main Story done. Which will be an update after 2.0.

So yeah, thank you for checking out this update! Sorry it's been so long! Follow the mod's twitter page for smaller, but more consistent updates: https://twitter.com/BeatstownBrawl

See you guys soon!