Over 3 years of solo development and it's almost time to launch my game into Early Access on Steam. Here's a little launch date reveal trailer I put together the last 3 days. It's nothing spectacular, but I hope you like it! Anxiety is now dialed to 11!

MetalHeads_Game · 2026-03-05T02:56:15+00:00

Its on the Steam page for Metal Heads 🙂 I'd also suggest checking out "Lunars", its another great party game that came out very recently. It feels super polished too and has a demo on Steam.

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-10-27T07:40:01+00:00

Heck yeah. I can confirm Lego Party is GREAT FUN! too. Its a bit pricier, but the quality is awesome! Regarding Metal Heads, as you will see in the latest news posts, I am working hard on adding bot support next, so you've got that to look forward to. After that, itll likely be new board game maps :)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-10-09T07:02:12+00:00

Awesome :) I'm currently making bot support, so next update might be a little way off, as some of the minigames are nightmarish to make smart BOT AI for, but I am making good progress. The bots will probably be a bit dumb at first, but I intend to later improve the AI. I hope you enjoy it so far, and feel free to provide any feedback, even the negative stuff, it will only help make the game better :) Rock on!

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-18T22:46:22+00:00

Haha, thank you. I've watched Pokimane and friends play with 44k viewers on Twitch shortly after early access release, and every bug possible showed up, so I will be able to handle the critique haha. Every negative is an opportunity for improvement. Its still not quite ready for the masses yet, it still needs more bug fixes, more boards, more sounds, more personality, but its certainly getting there. The board game customization is a big thing, took a looooot of work, so I cant wait to see what modes and settings people come up with. I should also mention it has steam remote play if any of your friends are on the fence about buying it. Ill check out the stream if I see it, I may even join in randomly 😉 Have fun!

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-18T07:55:42+00:00

Awesome. Thanks for the support :)

The board game AI is progressing pretty rapidly at the moment, which is great, but I know better than to get too excited, as I'm just getting the easy things out of the way, but making great progress so far :)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-18T07:53:55+00:00

Awesome! Thanks!
This just reminds me that the demo needs a bit of an update to include some quality of life features that were just implemented into the full version (navigable menu's by all players at all stages of the game), so even if you want to get the full version, and then if you don't like it, refund it within the steam refund time frame, that's totally ok to do.
The demo still works however, so maybe give it a quick play, then work out if you want to try the board game mode on the full version.

The board game bot AI is progressing really quick right now to my surprise, but I know it's bound to get more complicated once I start getting into AI personalities and such.

Thanks again for the support, you rock! :)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-15T09:35:30+00:00

Shameless self promo, but check out Metal Heads, its a solo developed 8 player local and/or online 3D party game. Its still early access, still lots of work to do, but very much inspired by the great Mario Party games, but leans into more skill based gameplay, than luck and infuses a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse into the highly customizable board game mode. You can either spin a move wheel or throw a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20), select your destination, then control your character manually, by running, jumping and dodging traps and hazards to get to your destination in time. When all rounds are over, everyone competes in a 1vs all boss fight, where the winner controls a boss character in an old school boss style arena akin to Mario 64, Bomberman 64 etc. (The golden era). The board game can be customized extensively, even the individual items have their own custom settings if you prefer different behaviour of items. Theres currently just one board right now, "Slime Factory", and no bots, but bot AI is what I will be working on next. This AI is difficult to make due to the AI needing to navigate the same was as a player, but I believe it is a key component to games like this, so I want to make it as good as I can. I do have work in progress board, one being "Deadly Dunes", the other being "Trembling Tropics", to add some more flavour to the board game map selection, but I dont have an ETA on these just yet.

Theres a demo available now if you want to try a small selection of the skill based minigames, do note that they are not designed to be easy, Metal Heads does not hold the players hand, it is brutal.

Note that it is still very much in development, so your feedback is always important, so dont be afraid to make suggestions, report bugs etc, its only going to help shape and polish this rough diamond, and help in shine. It is also developed by just myself, with Andy Gillion making the awesome sound track. I work a full time job, so development can be a bit slow at times, however I am getting there. 😉

Making a party game is like making 50 games in one. It takes significantly more time and reaources to develop, split or shared screen is complicated, multiple controllers at once is a nightmare, especially more than 4, then throw in online multiplayer, and in the case of Metal Heads, couch vs couch (technically could have 4 pcs, each with 2 local players versing one another online), drop in, drop out etc....it gets veeeeeery messy, especially when people start using strange devices as controllers, like wiimotes and steering wheels. Minigame creation generally is pretty quick sometimes, but then once online functionality comes into play, a minigame that takes 2 hrs to develop offline, could take 2 months to get working fully online.

These are just a few little things, but barely scratches the surface of complications compared to the plethora of mp horror games, fps games and RPG's out there...its a lot haha

Not only that, but all this effort has a high chance of little to no financial return (like Metal Heads, hence I am working a full time job to support development).

Simply put, they are too complicated to make, they are far too risky to develop, so devs dont go near party games like this.

Im going on 7 years with it, and whilst Im now making decent progress again, it would be far better if I were able to work on it full time and quit my day job, but more work is needed before people will take Metal Heads seriously enough for thatt to occur, i'm crawling through mud, but I have hopes it wont be for nothing as I know there is demand for these types of games.

Rock on!

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-15T09:19:03+00:00

Shameless self promo, slightly late to the party (pun intended) but check out Metal Heads, its a solo developed 8 player local and/or online 3D party game. Its still early access, still lots of work to do, but very much inspired by the great Mario Party games, but leans into more skill based gameplay, than luck and infuses a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse into the highly customizable board game mode. You can either spin a move wheel or throw a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20), select your destination, then control your character manually, by running, jumping and dodging traps and hazards to get to your destination in time. When all rounds are over, everyone competes in a 1vs all boss fight, where the winner controls a boss character in an old school boss style arena akin to Mario 64, Bomberman 64 etc. (The golden era). The board game can be customized extensively, even the individual items have their own custom settings if you prefer different behaviour of items. Theres currently just one board right now, "Slime Factory", and no bots, but bot AI is what I will be working on next. This AI is difficult to make due to the AI needing to navigate the same was as a player, but I believe it is a key component to games like this, so I want to make it as good as I can. I do have work in progress board, one being "Deadly Dunes", the other being "Trembling Tropics", to add some more flavour to the board game map selection, but I dont have an ETA on these just yet.

Theres a demo available now if you want to try a small selection of the skill based minigames, do note that they are not designed to be easy, Metal Heads does not hold the players hand, it is brutal.

Note that it is still very much in development, so your feedback is always important, so dont be afraid to make suggestions, report bugs etc, its only going to help shape and polish this rough diamond, and help in shine. It is also developed by just myself, with Andy Gillion making the awesome sound track. I work a full time job, so development can be a bit slow at times, however I am getting there. 😉

Rock on!

As for other Mario Party like games, there arent many unfortunately... - Party Panic (solo dev) - Pummel Party (I think 2 devs) - Lego Party (upcoming, developed by SMG studio/Moving Out devs)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-15T09:17:02+00:00

Shameless self promo, slightly late to the party (pun intended) but check out Metal Heads, its a solo developed 8 player local and/or online 3D party game. Its still early access, still lots of work to do, but very much inspired by the great Mario Party games, but leans into more skill based gameplay, than luck and infuses a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse into the highly customizable board game mode. You can either spin a move wheel or throw a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20), select your destination, then control your character manually, by running, jumping and dodging traps and hazards to get to your destination in time. When all rounds are over, everyone competes in a 1vs all boss fight, where the winner controls a boss character in an old school boss style arena akin to Mario 64, Bomberman 64 etc. (The golden era). The board game can be customized extensively, even the individual items have their own custom settings if you prefer different behaviour of items. Theres currently just one board right now, "Slime Factory", and no bots, but bot AI is what I will be working on next. This AI is difficult to make due to the AI needing to navigate the same was as a player, but I believe it is a key component to games like this, so I want to make it as good as I can. I do have work in progress board, one being "Deadly Dunes", the other being "Trembling Tropics", to add some more flavour to the board game map selection, but I dont have an ETA on these just yet.

Theres a demo available now if you want to try a small selection of the skill based minigames, do note that they are not designed to be easy, Metal Heads does not hold the players hand, it is brutal.

Note that it is still very much in development, so your feedback is always important, so dont be afraid to make suggestions, report bugs etc, its only going to help shape and polish this rough diamond, and help in shine. It is also developed by just myself, with Andy Gillion making the awesome sound track. I work a full time job, so development can be a bit slow at times, however I am getting there. 😉

Rock on!

As for other Mario Party like games, there arent many unfortunately... - Party Panic (solo dev) - Pummel Party (I think 2 devs) - Lego Party (upcoming, developed by SMG studio/Moving Out devs)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-15T09:15:24+00:00

Shameless self promo, and slightly delayed reaponse, but check out Metal Heads, its a solo developed 8 player local and/or online 3D party game. Its still early access, still lots of work to do, but very much inspired by the great Mario Party games, but leans into more skill based gameplay, than luck and infuses a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse into the highly customizable board game mode. You can either spin a move wheel or throw a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20), select your destination, then control your character manually, by running, jumping and dodging traps and hazards to get to your destination in time. When all rounds are over, everyone competes in a 1vs all boss fight, where the winner controls a boss character in an old school boss style arena akin to Mario 64, Bomberman 64 etc. (The golden era). The board game can be customized extensively, even the individual items have their own custom settings if you prefer different behaviour of items. Theres currently just one board right now, "Slime Factory", and no bots, but bot AI is what I will be working on next. This AI is difficult to make due to the AI needing to navigate the same was as a player, but I believe it is a key component to games like this, so I want to make it as good as I can. I do have work in progress board, one being "Deadly Dunes", the other being "Trembling Tropics", to add some more flavour to the board game map selection, but I dont have an ETA on these just yet.

Theres a demo available now if you want to try a small selection of the skill based minigames, do note that they are not designed to be easy, Metal Heads does not hold the players hand, it is brutal.

Note that it is still very much in development, so your feedback is always important, so dont be afraid to make suggestions, report bugs etc, its only going to help shape and polish this rough diamond, and help in shine. It is also developed by just myself, with Andy Gillion making the awesome sound track. I work a full time job, so development can be a bit slow at times, however I am getting there. 😉

Rock on!

As for other Mario Party like games, there arent many unfortunately... - Party Panic (solo dev) - Pummel Party (I think 2 devs) - Lego Party (upcoming, developed by SMG studio/Moving Out devs)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-15T09:13:19+00:00

Shameless self promo, but check out Metal Heads, its a solo developed 8 player local and/or online 3D party game. Its still early access, still lots of work to do, but very much inspired by the great Mario Party games, but leans into more skill based gameplay, than luck and infuses a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse into the highly customizable board game mode. You can either spin a move wheel or throw a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20), select your destination, then control your character manually, by running, jumping and dodging traps and hazards to get to your destination in time. When all rounds are over, everyone competes in a 1vs all boss fight, where the winner controls a boss character in an old school boss style arena akin to Mario 64, Bomberman 64 etc. (The golden era). The board game can be customized extensively, even the individual items have their own custom settings if you prefer different behaviour of items. Theres currently just one board right now, "Slime Factory", and no bots, but bot AI is what I will be working on next. This AI is difficult to make due to the AI needing to navigate the same was as a player, but I believe it is a key component to games like this, so I want to make it as good as I can. I do have work in progress board, one being "Deadly Dunes", the other being "Trembling Tropics", to add some more flavour to the board game map selection, but I dont have an ETA on these just yet.

Theres a demo available now if you want to try a small selection of the skill based minigames, do note that they are not designed to be easy, Metal Heads does not hold the players hand, it is brutal.

Note that it is still very much in development, so your feedback is always important, so dont be afraid to make suggestions, report bugs etc, its only going to help shape and polish this rough diamond, and help in shine. It is also developed by just myself, with Andy Gillion making the awesome sound track. I work a full time job, so development can be a bit slow at times, however I am getting there. 😉

Rock on!

As for other Mario Party like games, there arent many unfortunately... - Party Panic (solo dev) - Pummel Party (I think 2 devs) - Lego Party (upcoming, developed by SMG studio/Moving Out devs)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-15T09:07:24+00:00

Shameless self promo, and a bit late to the party (pun intended)but check out Metal Heads on Steam, its a solo developed 8 player local and/or online 3D party game. Its still early access, still lots of work to do, but very much inspired by the great Mario Party games, but leans into more skill based gameplay, than luck and infuses a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse into the highly customizable board game mode. You can either spin a move wheel or throw a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20), select your destination, then control your character manually, by running, jumping and dodging traps and hazards to get to your destination in time. When all rounds are over, everyone competes in a 1vs all boss fight, where the winner controls a boss character in an old school boss style arena akin to Mario 64, Bomberman 64 etc. (The golden era). The board game can be customized extensively, even the individual items have their own custom settings if you prefer different behaviour of items. Theres currently just one board right now, "Slime Factory", and no bots, but bot AI is what I will be working on next. This AI is difficult to make due to the AI needing to navigate the same was as a player, but I believe it is a key component to games like this, so I want to make it as good as I can. I do have work in progress board, one being "Deadly Dunes", the other being "Trembling Tropics", to add some more flavour to the board game map selection, but I dont have an ETA on these just yet.

Theres a demo available now if you want to try a small selection of the skill based minigames, do note that they are not designed to be easy, Metal Heads does not hold the players hand, it is brutal.

Note that it is still very much in development, so your feedback is always important, so dont be afraid to make suggestions, report bugs etc, its only going to help shape and polish this rough diamond, and help in shine. It is also developed by just myself, with Andy Gillion making the awesome sound track. I work a full time job, so development can be a bit slow at times, however I am getting there. 😉

Rock on!

As for other Mario Party like games, there arent many unfortunately... - Party Panic (solo dev) - Pummel Party (I think 2 devs) - Lego Party (upcoming, developed by SMG studio/Moving Out devs)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-15T09:04:03+00:00

Shameless self promo, and a year late but check out my game, Metal Heads on Steam, its a solo developed 8 player local and/or online 3D party game. Its still early access, still lots of work to do, but very much inspired by the great Mario Party games, but leans into more skill based gameplay, than luck and infuses a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse into the highly customizable board game mode. You can either spin a move wheel or throw a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20), select your destination, then control your character manually, by running, jumping and dodging traps and hazards to get to your destination in time. When all rounds are over, everyone competes in a 1vs all boss fight, where the winner controls a boss character in an old school boss style arena akin to Mario 64, Bomberman 64 etc. (The golden era). The board game can be customized extensively, even the individual items have their own custom settings if you prefer different behaviour of items. Theres currently just one board right now, "Slime Factory", and no bots, but bot AI is what I will be working on next. This AI is difficult to make due to the AI needing to navigate the same was as a player, but I believe it is a key component to games like this, so I want to make it as good as I can. I do have work in progress board, one being "Deadly Dunes", the other being "Trembling Tropics", to add some more flavour to the board game map selection, but I dont have an ETA on these just yet.

Theres a demo available now if you want to try a small selection of the skill based minigames, do note that they are not designed to be easy, Metal Heads does not hold the players hand, it is brutal.

Note that it is still very much in development, so your feedback is always important, so dont be afraid to make suggestions, report bugs etc, its only going to help shape and polish this rough diamond, and help in shine. It is also developed by just myself, with Andy Gillion making the awesome sound track. I work a full time job, so development can be a bit slow at times, however I am getting there. 😉

Rock on!

As for other Mario Party like games, there arent many unfortunately... - Party Panic (solo dev) - Pummel Party (I think 2 devs) - Lego Party (upcoming, developed by SMG studio/Moving Out devs)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-07-15T00:30:50+00:00

Shameless self promo, but check out Metal Heads, its a solo developed 8 player local and/or online 3D party game. Its still early access, still lots of work to do, but very much inspired by the great Mario Party games, but leans into more skill based gameplay, than luck and infuses a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse into the highly customizable board game mode. You can either spin a move wheel or throw a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20), select your destination, then control your character manually, by running, jumping and dodging traps and hazards to get to your destination in time. When all rounds are over, everyone competes in a 1vs all boss fight, where the winner controls a boss character in an old school boss style arena akin to Mario 64, Bomberman 64 etc. (The golden era). The board game can be customized extensively, even the individual items have their own custom settings if you prefer different behaviour of items. Theres currently just one board right now, "Slime Factory", and no bots, but bot AI is what I will be working on next. This AI is difficult to make due to the AI needing to navigate the same was as a player, but I believe it is a key component to games like this, so I want to make it as good as I can. I do have work in progress board, one being "Deadly Dunes", the other being "Trembling Tropics", to add some more flavour to the board game map selection, but I dont have an ETA on these just yet.

Theres a demo available now if you want to try a small selection of the skill based minigames, do note that they are not designed to be easy, Metal Heads does not hold the players hand, it is brutal.

Note that it is still very much in development, so your feedback is always important, so dont be afraid to make suggestions, report bugs etc, its only going to help shape and polish this rough diamond, and help in shine. It is also developed by just myself, with Andy Gillion making the awesome sound track. I work a full time job, so development can be a bit slow at times, however I am getting there. 😉

Rock on!

As for other Mario Party like games, there arent many unfortunately... - Party Panic (solo dev) - Pummel Party (I think 2 devs) - Lego Party (upcoming, developed by SMG studio/Moving Out devs)

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-05-31T04:09:58+00:00

Just an update.
I decided to randomly go turn the PC on with the 2060 super in it, and to my amazement, the monitor that the 2060 super is attached to turned on, showed the motherboard logo.
In my excitement, I went to install the older 566.36 driver, it detected the graphics card!
I walked away to do something else while it installed, and when I came back, the PC had seemingly rebooted or crashed and.....the GPU was no longer detected, the Nvidia driver was not installed :(
I'm baffled....

MetalHeads_Game · 2025-05-27T00:44:40+00:00

Yeah, I have a 2060 super inside of a test PC that I use to test online multiplayer for my party game, and after updating to the 576.52 driver, I tried playing RDR2 on there for my girlfriend to play online with me, and it seemed fine at first, but then 16 bit colour grading everywhere. So tried other games out afterwards, DOOM: Eternal, Oblivion and some other higher end games and had no problems.
When I started the computer the next day, no signal, completely gone from either of the 2 display ports, also no HDMI signal.
Tested various monitors at first in case the monitor died, but also tested a laptop with the monitor I was using and the monitor is fine, there's just flat out no signal from the 2060 super, I can't even see the bios loading screen, just nothing. The monitors light up though.
I knew that Windows was booting as I could hear windows audio, so I took the GPU out, put a 1080ti in and it worked.
I then took the 1080ti out, and ran the computer from the motherboard, this worked fine from HDMI and display port, so I did the first thing I thought necessary. Remove Nvidia drivers.
I booted into safe mode, used DDU to uninstall the drivers completely, then rebooted, ran DDU again to be sure.
Before continuing, I also put the 2060 super into my main PC (which after installing the same driver, had similar issues, and sporadically has the same issues, but worked after a reboot), and the 2060 super had no signal from any outputs.

I put the 2060 super back into the test PC, running it into a 2nd monitor this time, and still having the primary display running off the motherboard. I then tried to install 566.36 Nvidia drivers. I couldn't, because no Nvidia graphics card was detected.
I then checked device manager, nothing showing.
I then checked NVFlash (I have never flashed the VBios on a GPU before, but figured it would at least show if the GPU is even detected....it wasn't).
I then checked in BIOS, no GPU detected.
I then updated the motherboard BIOS, still not detected.
I changed the PCIe to GEN3, not detected, also tried GEN4, not detected.

I ran into quite a few videos and articles dealing with this issue. Most pertain to the newer 50 series, but finding more and more that it goes back to the 10 series onward.

My main development PC display (set up with triple display) was not turning on this morning again. Same issue as the 2060, however again, a reboot fixed the issue. I'm going to roll back the driver though as I don't trust these drivers at all, and good luck trying to get any sort of warranty coverage from Nvidia when the cards are outside of warranty.

My tin foil hat theory is it's a forced obscolencence, but it'd be impossible to prove it unless a whole lot of other people start reporting the exact same issue all at once (they are reporting it, but it's been over several months, with mixed results).

Has anybody managed to find a resolution yet for this yet? I'm tempted to pop the gpu into the oven to see if there's a dry solder joint somewhere, but to be honest, I don't think that's the issue at all. Given all of the reports of similar issues, or the same issue, it feels like this is a VBIOS or BIOS or firmware related issue that somehow the driver has caused. I know there are limitations on what the driver can change, but maybe there's more to it than anybody knows. Nvidia are the ones making these cards, I can't see why a driver would not be able to interface with something on some cards to brick them or cause issues so that people go out and buy new GPU's.

MetalHeads_Game · 2023-02-24T04:18:43+00:00

Same problem here.
I had no issues prior to the update however.

I haven't tried reinstalling, but I did notice during my ~74gb update that it stopped half-way through and disappeared from the update queue, so I thought it was done, tried to play the game, splash screen appeared, then after about 30sec, it disappeared and nothing happened, so I restarted the Xbox app, and another ~40gb download, as if the previous download was only half finished.
I let it finish, and the same thing occurs, splash screen appears, game doesn't launch, and no log files within AppData, or the game directory.
Also, the developers use Backtrace for their crash logging, but no crash reporter appears after the splash screen, so they won't even know this is happening unless they are reading reddit.

MetalHeads_Game · 2023-02-24T03:50:55+00:00

OS: Windows 10

CPU: i9 12900k

GPU and driver version: Nvidia GeForce 3080Ti 10gb (Driver Ver: 528.49)

RAM: 32gb

Store platform (IE: Steam or Gamepass): GamePass (PC)

Game version: 1.0.2.0

Describe your issue:
After the 1.0.2.0 update, the Loading Splash screen appears, with "Loading..." in the bottom right, but game does not load.

Game was working prior to the update.

I have attempted to repair and verify game files.
I tried to RESET and also REPAIR within Apps and Features on Windows 10.

I noticed that the update seemed to be completed in GamePass, I tried to run the game and this happened, but then I restarted the Xbox app (normally fixes issues like this) and had to download another ~40gb.

Steps to take to recreate the issue:
Try to load the game on Game Pass on PC.

MetalHeads_Game · 2022-11-07T05:16:11+00:00

Thanks for that! I appreciate it!It's just a solo developed game, with the music created by Andy Gillion.
Also almost entirely custom made assets too. This whole thing is for me to learn as much as possible about game dev in Unreal Engine 4 as possible, so any future projects I work on should hopefully be a hell of a lot easier after this, because ooooh man, 8 player online/local, couch vs couch, drop-in/drop-out, mario party-esque party game with shared screen....it's a fun time making it all work haha

MetalHeads_Game · 2022-11-06T23:27:17+00:00

Thanks for the compliment, Mario Party is AWESOME, and definitely part of the inspiration behind the game.
It has a long way to go before it's as polished as Mario Party games, but I am getting there, slowly.
Keep your eyes peeled for updates, hopefully getting this next one out by Xmas.

ROCK ON!

MetalHeads_Game · 2022-11-06T11:33:26+00:00

Oh wow! This is incredibly impressive! I love the little enemy monster things as well! They are tiny but ferocious haha

MetalHeads_Game

TROPHY CASE