Pizza Bandit News

[h2]Bandits, [/h2][h2]The wait is over—Pizza Bandit is officially live in Early Access! 🎉[/h2][p]Grab your crew, blast through hordes of Reapers, and cook up chaos to fund your dream pizzeria. Early Access is just the first slice, and with your feedback we’ll keep adding new missions, gear, and surprises all the way to 1.0 (with consoles joining the feast next year).[/p][h3]👉 If you’re playing, please leave us a review—it helps more than you can imagine.
[/h3][h3]👉 Join the community on Discord to share feedback, memes, and pizza.[/h3][h3][/h3][p]Stay hungry—the ovens are just heating up. 🔥[/p]

[h2]Hey Bandits,[/h2][p]The ovens are hot and the portals are humming—Early Access is just the beginning. We’ve got a lot on the menu, so here’s your first look at what’s coming down the pipeline.[/p][p]---[/p][h3]1️⃣ Restricted Timeline – Black Bounty[/h3][p]The Black Bounty Finder is finally open. This warp station leads to the Restricted Timeline, a sealed parallel world where reality itself has gone rotten.[/p]

• [p]Black Contracts: High-risk, high-reward missions.[/p]
• [p]Exclusive Bosses & Missions: Face Dread Time Reapers and horrors found nowhere else.[/p]
• [p]Twisted Locations: Familiar maps, but darker and deadlier.[/p]

[p]---[/p][h3]2️⃣ New Gear, New Arsenal, New Playstyles[/h3][p]Your pizza cutter won’t cut it forever. The battlefield’s heating up, and so is your arsenal:[/p]

• [p]🍍 Pineapple Bombs: Sweet, explosive chaos.[/p]
• [p]🍕 Dough Traps: Sticky sabotage for enemy slows.[/p]
• [p]🔥 Flamethrower: The most requested weapon finally arrives.[/p]
• [p]⚙️ Fresh Gear: Items that completely reshape your playstyle.[/p]

[p]---[/p][h3]3️⃣ Hell’s Kitchen – Burn and Survive[/h3][p]Step into the ultimate survival challenge: Hell’s Kitchen.[/p]

• [p]Endless waves of Time Reapers, escalating into Dread-class assaults.[/p]
• [p]Brutal modifiers and shifting conditions—no two runs are the same.[/p]
• [p]Escape to claim your spot in the Hall of Bandits, with exclusive rewards for top survivors.[/p]

[p]---[/p][h3]4️⃣ Frequent Updates Along the Way[/h3][p]Between these bigger content drops, we’ll keep things fresh with:[/p]

• [p]Quality-of-life improvements[/p]
• [p]Bug and balance fixes[/p]
• [p]Performance tweaks[/p]
• [p]New cosmetics and customization options[/p]

[p]Your feedback will guide us every step of the way.[/p][p]---[/p][h3]5️⃣ Console Launch with 1.0[/h3][p]The dream doesn’t stop at PC. When Pizza Bandit hits 1.0 next year, we’re planning a simultaneous launch on consoles so more Bandits around the world can join the feast.[/p][p]We’re not announcing exact platforms yet, but the ovens are warming.[/p][p]---[/p][h3]🔮 The Road Ahead[/h3][p]Early Access is just the first slice. With your help, we’ll refine, expand, and perfect Pizza Bandit into a full-course experience worthy of its grand opening.[/p][p]Stay hungry, Bandits. The best slices are still in the oven.[/p][h3]---[/h3][h3]👉 Join the community on Discord and help us shape the future of Pizza Bandit.[/h3][p]---[/p]

[p]We’re one week away from the Pizza Bandit Early Access launch on August 25th @ 10AM PT—but you don’t have to wait to see the chaos unfold.[/p][p]Today we’ve teamed up with two legends of gaming entertainment for a special pre-launch event:[/p][h3]🎮 Kinda Funny vs. Giant Bomb 🎮[/h3]

• [p]Two teams enter, only one walks away with the ultimate bragging rights[/p]
• [p]Inside the game, they’ll be blasting Reapers and racing through missions[/p]
• [p]Outside the game, each player must run into the kitchen and make a real pizza before tagging back in![/p]
• [p]Expect frantic firefights, flying toppings, and plenty of laughs[/p]

[p]📺 Watch the stream: Watch Here [/p][p]🕤 Starting Time: 9:30 AM PT – Today![/p][hr][/hr][h3]🚀 Early Access Launches Next Week[/h3]

• [p]📅 August 25th @ 10AM PT[/p]
• [p]🍕Pizza Bandit on Steam[/p]
• [p]💬 PJoin our Discord[/p]

[p]Don’t miss this special sneak peek before launch day. Grab a slice, tune in, and get ready for the mayhem! 🍕💥[/p]

[h2]🚀 Early Access Launches August 25th @ 10AM PT![/h2][p]The countdown is nearly over. In just a few days, you’ll be blasting Time Reapers, baking pizzas under pressure, and building your dream pizzeria—together.[/p][p]But before the doors swing open, we’ve got one last dev update to share.[/p][hr][/hr][h3]🛠️ A Quick Look Back[/h3][p]We started this journey in 2023, thinking we’d be able to launch the game by 2024. Like all good pies, it took longer in the oven.[/p][p]With a small team of six—mostly programmers—we began with whatever we could grab from the Unreal Store. It wasn’t until six months in that we finally found art support and began shaping the look and identity of Pizza Bandit. The game has changed a lot since then, and every change has pushed it closer to the game we always wanted to make.[/p][p]For the past two months, we’ve been in overdrive—polishing systems, recording VO, and locking in our final feature set. The build is currently under review (nerves = high), but here’s what we’ve been working on since our last update:[/p][hr][/hr][h3]🎙️ VO Recording: Locked and Loaded[/h3][p]We heard your feedback on the temp VO in the demo—and we agreed. So we hit the studio with our full cast, and they absolutely delivered.[/p][p]Led by Chris Borders, amazing VO director behind Gears of War, we finally nailed the tone we always wanted: punchy, sarcastic, character-driven.[/p][p]Here’s what to expect:[/p]

• [p]🎭 Full personality across the board. Malik’s got bite, and mission handler Finn no longer sounds like a bored robot.[/p]
• [p]🎧 Pop culture nods hidden throughout the dialogue—you’ll know them when you hear them (and hopefully laugh like we did during recording).[/p]
• [p]🔊 Boss missions now feature more unique sound design to bring enemies to life (before you take theirs).[/p]

[hr][/hr][h3]🏆 Bandit Records: Your Legend Starts Here[/h3][p]Introducing Bandit Records—our in-game achievement system that tracks your wildest moments and most chaotic plays. Some of them even show up on your Steam profile.[/p][p]A few favorites:[/p]

• [p]Oops – Accidentally damage your teammate.[/p]
• [p]Catch This – Kill a Reaper by throwing food, drinks… or maybe a tuna.[/p]
• [p]Death from Delivery – Drop a Pizza Pod on an enemy’s head.[/p]

[p]Whether you're chasing bragging rights or just causing mayhem, we’ll be watching. 👀[/p][hr][/hr][h3]💀 Reinforced Enemies: Beefed Up and Battle-Ready[/h3][p]Crank up the difficulty, and you’ll start facing Reinforced Time Reapers—beasts wearing scavenged armor from broken timelines.[/p][p]What makes them scary:[/p]

• [p]🛡️ Frontal damage won't cut it. You’ll need to break their armor first—or hit them where it hurts.[/p]
• [p]⚔️ Some weapons work better than others, and yes, that includes explosives.[/p]
• [p]👀 Visual cues make them easy to spot—if a floating head with a football helmet is charging at you with a fire bomb, prepare accordingly.[/p][p][/p]

[p]They hit harder, last longer, and turn the battlefield into a puzzle. Good luck.[/p][hr][/hr][h2]💬 We’re Just Getting Started[/h2][p]This wraps up our devlogs before Early Access, but it’s only the beginning of the journey. Your feedback will be critical in shaping what comes next.[/p][p]Join the conversation here:[/p]

• [p]💬 Discord[/p]
• [p]🌐 Bluesky[/p]
• [p]🐦 Twitter/X[/p]
• [p]🎵 TikTok[/p]
• [p]📷 Instagram[/p]
• [p]📺 YouTube[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]📅 Once more for the folks in the back...[/h2][p]Grab your crew. Lock in your loadouts. Fire up the oven.
Pizza Bandit is almost open for business.[/p][p]— Team JofSoft[/p]

With our Early Access release date now official (!!!), we wanted to take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come — especially when it comes to one of the most important parts of the game’s identity:
The Time Reapers.

Let’s talk about what they are, how they’ve evolved, and the journey we’ve taken to get them looking and feeling just right.

[h2]🕳️ What Are Time Reapers?[/h2]In the world of Pizza Bandit, Time Reapers are the keepers of the space-time continuum. Every time Malik jumps into a mission through time travel, he’s breaking natural laws — and the longer he stays, the more Time Reapers start to manifest.

Originally imagined as higher alien entities protecting the universe from irresponsible time-travelers, Time Reapers evolved as our lore deepened. We began introducing the idea of zombified humans who were caught in fractured timelines — distorted humanoids partially entangled with metal.

Now, they serve as both gameplay threats and reminding you what you'll become if you get stuck in any of you rmissions.

[h2]🧰 How We Build: From Prototype to Personality[/h2]As an indie team working with limited resources, our development process has always been about building the gameplay first, then layering on visuals as we grow. And we are one of those studio with less luck on the art talents. Somehow in 2024, we were able to pull in a close friend in who's been nothing but amazing.

In the early stages, we used placeholder and store-bought assets to test mechanics and experiment quickly. It helped us focus on pacing, combat feel, and mission design while we defined the tone of the world. If you were at PAX West in 2023, you would've seen this build that we put together in four month.

Once those systems were in place, we gradually began replacing temporary elements with original art and models created in-house. One of the biggest areas of transformation?
→ The Time Reapers and our character model.

While not every single placeholder will be gone by Early Access, we’re committed to replacing them one by one. The work is ongoing, but we’re proud of how far we’ve already come — and we’re excited to show you what’s next.

[h2]💀 Reimagining the Time Reapers
[/h2]Here are some of the Time Reapers we’ve recently upgraded — and the thinking behind their designs:

[h3]Frankie (Type A & B)
[/h3]Fast. Fragile. Freaky. Frankies are the first Time Reapers you meet — and they come in two forms:
• Type A – Upright, frantic runners

• Type B – Crawlers that make it difficult to aim especially when they are dashing towards you. They used to be generic grunts. Now they look like malformed reanimates caught mid-snap from one timeline to another.
[h3]Ignifera
[/h3]Originally a basic enemy with fire range attack, we completely redesigned her to embody decay, molten energy, and otherworldly elegance. Her glowing veins and gas pipe connenting to each hand create a unique silhouette. [h3]Stipula[/h3]The original Stipula was little more than a turret disguised as a meat lump. Now, it’s a grotesque stationary showcasing exaggerated entanglement between meat, human form and metal.
[h3]Hemicraft
[/h3]You haven’t seen this one in action yet — but you will. Hemicraft is our first flying Reaper, and we wanted it to be both uncanny and irritating. Its new model now looks like something cobbled together in a lab and left to rot mid-air. My personal favorite in terms of visual, but I just know I'll hate this one the most when playing the game.

[h2]🧢 Character Model: Malik’s Evolution[/h2]
We’ve also given our protagonist the glow-up he deserves. Early builds of Malik were built from prototyping kits — but now he’s got personality, swagger, and gear that fits the tone of the world. We also added layers of customization to help players stand out in multiplayer, while still keeping Malik central to the story.

[h2]🔭 What’s Next[/h2]
As we roll into Early Access and toward 1.0 release, we will:
• Continued visual upgrades
• More original monster designs
• A steady replacement of any remaining placeholders

Thanks for sticking with us on this journey. We’ve come a long way from our first prototype, and it’s only getting better from here.

Want to see more or share your thoughts on Time Reapers? Join us on Discord — we’d love to hear what monsters you want to fight next 👹

– JofSoft Team