ScrapWings (Steam Next Fest June 2025 Demo)
- Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza
- Jun 11
- 6 min read
Pirate Hunting, Scrap Hoarding, Free Roaming
Steam Next Fest June 2025 edition is here! As always this celebration of upcoming games is a wonderful place for even the most casual player to poke around and see what is currently in development. While browsing the Flight sub-genre, it just so happens that a game I had been watching for a time is now featured in the festival.
ScrapWings by AmadeusCraft describes itself as "a classic arcade airplane game. Craft equipment for your ship by recycling scrap metal and take on the space pirate fleet." According to the ongoing video devlog series from the solo developer, the visuals of the game are inspired by the Borderlands series with gameplay inspired by the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series.
While an exact date that development started is not clear, the first devlog on YouTube was posted on January 31st, 2025 with a link to the original Itch.io demo for the game. The Steam version of the demo was uploaded on April 15th, 2025, making it the most up to date build as of the time of this writing.
Besides its visuals, the two-things that caught my attention about ScrapWings a few weeks ago was the system to gather materials and craft items and what are described as 'exploration zones' between missions.
The demo available during Steam Next Fest June 2025 edition is in an alpha demo with the tutorial and first mission in the game available, along with a portion of the first planet open for exploration. There is plenty to be improved upon at this stage in development, which is fair for this type of build.
Flight Model
100% arcade. While the flight model is very accessible and the controls are straightforward, there are some minor intricacies to learn.
While it is possible to stall the aircraft by trying to climb vertically at full throttle, generally the flight model is pretty forgiving. Only hard collisions with terrain cause massive damage while letting the player's aircraft bounce off of whatever obstacle it hit. When in combat against enemies, the player's aircraft will recoil heavily while in flight, if hit by high caliber weapons like cannons. At times spinning the aircraft like a top, but recovery is still possible.
The landing gear automatically deploys once the aircraft drops below a certain speed. While landing just about anywhere on flat land is possible, the aircraft is rather unstable while it is on the ground. Not all controls are dampened or restricted. Players can input yaw to rotate the aircraft while it is on the ground, but they are also able to apply full roll, flipping the aircraft upside down and potentially destroying themselves. It would be nice to both restrict the unnecessary controls, but also find ways to lessen then intensity of inputs while on land.
Using the default controls, throttle control is not a continuous setting. Thrust will only stay increased with the player moving the right thumbstick forward or backward and holding it constantly at the desired position. Setting the throttle to zero then quickly performing a loop is a maneuver that can easily be repeated, but it does take some time to recover from a stall. It is possible to attempt to pull out of a high energy maneuver with too much pitch, not letting the aircraft be able to gain enough speed to recover, causing a crash.
Home Base
This is the center of player operations both in free roam and for mission selection. The Home Base is made up of:
Runway: players can select a story mission to take on or enter the free roam "Explore Outside" function.
Training Station: provides interactive in-game tutorials with a diorama like flight simulator. Players learn how to use their aircraft here.
Crafting Station: Scrap that is collected during free roam can be used to craft equipment like weapons and fuel tanks. New aircraft cannot be constructed in the demo at this time.
Equipment Station: Items that are crafted by players are equipped to their aircraft here.
When going into the Exploration Zones players takeoff from inside of the base using its mountain cavern runway. While cool in concept, players must be careful while taking off and landing in the constricted quarters that naturally come with a mountain base. Outside of the Home Base is the large scrapping machine with three churning metal scrappers awaiting the payloads players find.
Scrap Metal
This is a rather unusual concept for a flight game. According to this alpha demo, rather than relying on in-game credits to have players purchase parts from a shop, packages of scrap metal can be found across the land. Occasionally players will see what seem to be small comets entering the atmosphere, but they are actually containers of scrap falling from orbit.
Currently there is no story related explanation as to where they are coming from, but you cannot help but assume there must be some type of intergalactic travel route high above with massive ships dumping their unneeded materials as they pass by.
In the player's user interface, these scrap packages appear as cog wheel icons at a distance, but are large box containers when seen up close. Players use their onboard hook system to grab these containers. When activated the camera shifts to a view beneath the fuselage with a bracket showing degrees beneath the aircraft at which the hook can be fired. When launched the hook fire forward like a spear, attempting to attach to the object it was fired at.
Ironically, once the hook attaches to the scrap container, how rapidly it is attached to the aircraft with no measure to restrict the object's movement makes collecting scrap one of the most dangerous tasks in the game. At both high speeds and low speeds. I genuinely had my aircraft destroyed more by containers aggressively whipping upward into my aircraft while transporting them than I did by enemy action.
While sometimes frustrating, this also seems easy enough to resolve by finding a way to restrict the range of motion of these containers when being towed in flight or possibly making the process of hooking these objects a type of set animation where the box is retracted to the bottom of the aircraft and held securely without it on a rope freely swinging.
To recycle scrap, players fly them over to the recycle facility built into the side of the mountain base. The towed scrap containers must manually be dropped into one of the three very large rolling shredder receptacles to be added to the player inventory for crafting items in the Home Base. And yes, for those curious, I did fly into the shredder to see what would happen. It was not a great outcome for the aircraft! Currently there is no limit as to how much scrap can be recovered.
Exploration
These free roam type areas are the primary means to both find scrap, but also partake in side events like timed air races. These races give players medals for competing the courses at certain speeds. Otherwise players are free to wander the map to take in the sights. There are already a few interesting structures that seem like they could be used for potential side quests. There is a decent amount of territory available even in the demo. I am curious as to how this large space will be utilized.
The only game that comes to mind that had similar intent in this regard is Macross 30: Singing Voice Connecting the Galaxy (2013). This game had semi-open world maps with many towns, caves and other areas for side quests. Players gather items, credits, new main story missions and more. A similar setup could work for ScrapWings depending on how the story will be developed.
Missions
Selected from the Main Base, missions have set objectives and - thus far - focus on direct combat with Pirates. Who they are and what they are up to has not been explained yet, but it is clear that they are well established. In mission one the player is tasked with attacking a rather large base complete with multiple turret defenses and flights of fighters patrolling the airspace. With only three lives per mission attempt, players are tasked with intercepting waves of Pirate transports attempting to deliver cargo to their base.
While the smaller fighters fall from the sky on fire when shot down, the transports can be destroyed section by section. Often shattering into pieces when defeated. Accidentally running into these pieces can potentially damage the player.
Being destroyed three times causes a mission failure. Completing the mission gives points during the mission result screen. At this time those points are yet to be utilized for anything.
Looking Forward
I believe that the core concept of ScrapWings could be pretty interesting if AmadeusCraft corrects the potential issue with how unavoidably hazardous towing scrap metal can be, while expanding on what is possible in the Exploration Zones. While there is sure to be an overarching story that the missions could focus on and give solid rewards for completing, there are few flight games that have effectively used the open world concept. That could be a cornerstone for this game long-term.
Connect with 'ScrapWings'
About the Writer
Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. [Read Staff Profile]
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