Live, Die, Re-Meat in the Next Meat Lab Playtest for Co-op Roguelite Shooter, SWAPMEAT, Running from July 17-23

Independent developer One More Game today revealed the dates for its next Meat Lab playtest for SWAPMEAT, the co-op roguelite third-person shooter where you swap body parts with the alien weirdos you fight to steal their abilities. Meat Lab 6 runs from July 17 at 10 a.m. PT through July 23 at 5 p.m. PT. 

Players can sign up at  playSWAPMEAT.com, and those who refer three friends will get guaranteed access for their entire squad (while supplies last). Participants will have exclusive access to the latest updates which reflects delightfully squishy – and surprisingly deep – meat-swapping gameplay mechanics. SWAPMEAT is in development for PC, macOS, and Linux via Steam and will launch in 2025. Aspiring Meat Scientists are encouraged to add the game to their Steam Wishlist today.

This latest playtest aims to establish the quality mark for a complete Solar System and its accompanying boss while refining several key underlying systems, including the HUD, tutorial, and more. Existing and new players will get to enjoy and experience a host of meaty gameplay goodness. Meat Lab 6  reflects feedback from the community and previous playtests, alongside the developers creative vision and wacky minds. 

Updates and improvements in the Meat Lab 6 build include:

• Revamped First-Time User Experience

  • A tutorial designed to teach new Meat Scientists the basic mechanics and a prologue that introduces the wonderfully weird world of SWAPMEAT and its inhabitants, including Hunters, Smart Meat, and the legendary Carl Rangus himself.

• Updated Elemental Condition and Damage System

  • Enemies will now have a damage threshold applied for each Elemental Damage type, which will cause the base Condition to be applied to the target for the given Element. Mutations and Items can contribute to the effectiveness of these Conditions or cause them to chain into new ones or trigger additional effects.

    • Fire → Burning

    • Electric → Electrified

    • Slime → Slimed

    • Kinetic → Staggered

    • Ice → Chilled

• Reimagined Mutations

  • Players will now choose only three Mutations during a run, with a total of 15 build-defining choices. Mutations will grant the player access to different items in their item pool during a run and change or add new elemental conditions and triggers to their build.

• Streamlined Boss Encounters

  • The Solar System 1 boss encounter with Franken Beans has been reworked with less restrictive mechanics and new attacks to provide increased player freedom. 

  • The boss for Solar System 2 has been given an official name, "Monday Night Midterms", and has received various gameplay changes and graphical updates to the arena.

• Refreshed HUD

  • The HUD has been further updated with many elements receiving a shiny new coat of polish.

  • The UX of these elements has also been improved, including a new compass, objective tracker, and character / terminal interaction menus, to name a few.

• New Equipment Type — Flair

  • Equipment that grants the player passive bonuses to help them on their next run. These fancy new doodads can be unlocked in the ship and equipped in the loadout screen.

• Significant Balancing and Quality-of-Life Updates

  • Over 20 new items have been added to the upgrade pool, and many existing items have been reworked or had their stats adjusted to reflect the updated Elemental Damage & Condition System and Mutation changes.

  • Weapons have had their damage values rebalanced to compensate for the increased power in Elemental Damage & Conditions.

For the full Meat Lab 6 update, check out the official patch notes on Discord. 

The latest playtest will continue to further improve and enhance SWAPMEAT's offerings and experience to its carnivorous community as One More Game is committed to creating a game that iterates and addresses the tastes of its players. With each playtest comes great insight and new learnings that help to make the game one step closer to getting served up for release to Meat Lovers everywhere. 

Join the One More Game team on Twitch for a special live developer stream showcasing the beefy new content in Meat Lab 6 on Friday, July 18, starting at 4 p.m. PT.

About SWAPMEAT:
In SWAPMEAT, players step into the boots of Meat Scientists working for the multi-galactic corporation Rangus Meats. Your mission? Raid the weirdest worlds in the cosmos, engage in exhilarating third-person combat, harvest DNA samples from the locals, and extract the planets' meat cores. Whether solo or with a four-player co-op squad, you'll battle alien weirdos and beefy bosses for their meaty trophies. As you loot body parts – from heads and legs to torsos – you'll enhance your character with game-changing abilities, switching up playstyles on the fly using Rangus Meats' patented Smart Meat technology.

Find out more about SWAPMEAT and sign up for this and future Meat Labs on the game's official website, join the discussion on Discord, and follow the game on BlueSky, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

For more information on One More Game, visit their official company website.

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About One More Game

Founded by veteran developers behind genre-defining franchises like Warcraft, Diablo, League of Legends, and Guild Wars, One More Game is on a mission to help players have more fun. Started in 2019 by Patrick Wyatt and Jamie Stormbreaker, the Seattle-based (but fully remote) studio believes that involving players early in the development process is paramount to creating ground-breaking games. One More Game is currently developing SWAPMEAT, a roguelite third-person shooter where you raid the weirdest worlds and angriest aliens in the universe...for their meat. The title has won awards including the 'Creative Overkill' award at the 2024 devcom Indie Awards and most recently indieRift's 'Best Roguelike' award at PAX East 2025. To learn more, visit www.onemoregame.com.