The lobby is live

Bachiki Landing is the new shared pre-match space. A tropical island layout with an NPC who handles the match queue, plus training dummies you can hit between matches.

From lobby to arena

Ready checks fire on both clients and take you straight into the arena once both players accept. A loading screen handles the handoff, with per-location backdrop art that gives the transition some weight.

One systems layer, two regions

The lobby and the arena share the same systems for abilities, buffs, and rendering. Anything we change in combat lands in both places without a second implementation. That paid off the first time we balanced an ability and the training dummy reacted correctly without any extra work.

For players who like to mess around between matches, the lobby tucks a small jumping puzzle into the southwest ruins. It started as a way to test movement against complex collision, but players keep speedrunning it.