Get ready to take nostalgia and turn the chaos up to eleven! Independent Finnish studio Part Time Monkey (alongside co-developers Unstable Entity and Nitroyale) has officially announced DIRTNAP, a fast-paced, real-time take on classic 2D arena shooters like Worms, Liero, and Soldat.
Mark your calendars: DIRTNAP will launch in Steam Early Access for Windows and Linux on 28 August 2026, and you can add it to your Steam wishlist right now!
What is DIRTNAP?
Imagine the total map destruction of classic turn-based tactics games, but remove the wait. DIRTNAP is a frenetic 1–10 player arena shooter where the environment itself isn’t just cover—it’s your primary weapon.
Every pixel of the battlefield can be blown away, dug through, or incinerated. As you carve up the earth, dynamic fluids like lava, water, and mud flow realistically into the newly created tunnels and craters, creating constantly shifting battlegrounds and deadly traps.
“We are three Finnish developers who grew up on Liero, Soldat, Molez and Worms, and we wanted that same ‘the whole map is a weapon’ feeling in realtime,” says Tuomas Erikoinen of Part Time Monkey.
Key Features to Expect at Launch:
- Pixel-by-Pixel Destruction: Fully destructible terrain paired with interactive fluid simulation for water, lava, and mud. Watch fire spread, stalactites drop, and dynamic weather alter the landscape!
- 1 to 10 Player Mayhem: Support for online multiplayer via Steam, local split-screen couch co-op, and LAN. Short on friends? Fill any empty slot with intelligent bots.
- 7 Playable “Dirtlings”: Choose your character based on game-changing abilities—crawl walls as the Ant, dig through indestructible rock as the Bear, swing around with web hooks as the Spider, or go invisible as the Chameleon.
- Over 30 Explosive Weapons: Lock and load with classic rifles, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, airstrikes, and the iconic banana bomb.
- 5 Game Modes: Battle it out across Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Battle Royale, and a 4-round Tournament mode featuring mid-match upgrades.
- 4 Unique Biomes: Fight across Dunes, Permafrost, Mudlands, and Volcanic caverns, each presenting distinct environmental hazards.
- Cross-Platform Support: Ready to run natively on both Windows and Linux PC setups.
Why Early Access?
The developers want the community to play a direct role in shaping the game’s future. Early Access will serve as a collaborative sandbox to balance weapons, fine-tune physics, and decide which new characters, biomes, and modes get built next.
If you are a fan of 90s/2000s retro arena combat or games like Noita and Duck Game, this is definitely one to keep on your radar.
Head over to Steam today to hit that Wishlist button ahead of the 28 August 2026 launch!
Find out more here
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