In 2350, decades of seemingly endless war have worn down the solar system, and peace hangs by a thread. To promote peace and enhance communication among the most powerful factions, every year the Solar Council brings together representatives from each faction to discuss politics behind closed doors. During these talks, heroes, referred to as “champions” in-game, compete in front of roaring crowds to claim honor for their individual ethnic groups at the Steel Circus championships.

The only rule? Get the ball into the opposing team’s goal by any means necessary.

Control one of several heroes and compete in online multiplayer matches with the objective of scoring by shooting the ball into the opposing goal by any means. Each champion has a different skill set with two special skills. Characters range from support roles with buffs and heals to brawling powerhouses. Mastering these abilities is the difference between decent and great players. Since each power is designed around teamplay, strategic cooperation with partners is crucial to claiming the final victory.

Three character types round out the field: Strikers, Enforcers, and Specialists. Strikers, known for their speed and agility are best for offensive play while avoiding engagements wherever possible to line up the perfect shot. Enforcers are the brute force of any well-balanced team, engaging opponents and disabling them temporarily, enabling the rest of the team to score. Specialists are the wildcards of the field: clever and creative, they create chaos on the field, block Strikers from goals and neutralize Enforcers before they can react.

Each character features special moves that can turn the tides towards victory. Lochlan, a Scottish lord from the United States of Europe, buffs his team’s speed while hampering his opponents’ by playing his powered bagpipes. A sneaky robot from the Ceres Worker’s Union known as Cap-x02 can transform into a projectile-launching turret capable of stunning the opposition. Schröder, the mysterious spokesperson of Saturn Enterprises, is capable of altering physical matter in order to evade traps and confuse opponents who swear he sometimes appears of out nowhere.

Publisher Oasis Games and developer Iron Mountain Interactive announced the addition of a new hero, Galena, and new gameplay features with today’s update for their competitive team sports game, Steel Circus.

Galena, the new hero introduced today, specializes in disrupting opponents to give her team members an advantage. A descendant of the first human born on Mars and heir to the most powerful family on the planet, she’s a great disrupter—but she has no ability to permanently damage opponents or knock them out. In addition to representing Mars in the arena she’s acting vice president of the Mars terraforming program, which gives her direct access to cutting edge technology to constantly improve her arena suit.

Galena has two skills:

• Discontinuity: Galena shoots a shockwave in a straight line to disrupt her opponents’ skills. Players hit by Discontinuity cannot use any of their skills for a short amount of time.
• Vortex: Galena throws an imploding charge creating a vortex that sucks opponents towards its center. Champions in range of the vortex are held in place for a few seconds.

The small team at Iron Mountain Interactive has been iterating rapidly to add new features, balance gameplay, and listen to the player community at every step—which is critical for success in a skill-based, competitive online title. Along with the new hero and associated content including skins, spray tags, and emotes, Steel Circus is adding multiple new features based on player feedback through the Early Access program. These include the highly anticipated addition of punishment for players who leave a match, new matchmaking system, and performance optimization. Coming this week, AI player backfill will be available to replace disconnected players in a match, AI bot play will be added to the tutorial, and match placement will match new players with new players for their first five matches to let them learn the ropes before facing tougher competition.

The new content comes on the heels of recent quality of life additions requested directly by players:

• Custom lobbies
• Team voice chat to allow teams to better coordinate.
• Player backfill and voice chat in lobby
• New playfield for each arena
• Faster player progression

With today’s update, seven champions are now available, each with their own distinct skills and role. Developer Iron Mountain Interactive will continue to release regular updates, introducing new champions, arenas, customizations, and balancing adjustments.

Steel Circus is free-to-play and now available on Steam Early Access.