It seems the scrapped game "Rising Thunder" has come out of the junkyard and reinvented itself, as the robot-themed brawling game has been released on the PC as a free game.

Developer and publisher Radiant Entertainment has released the source code for "Rising Thunder." This means that come January, the game will be free-to-play and open-source, with a lot of people being able to modify it as they see fit. As such, the game will be a lot more open to new and improved player changes, which will then be accessible to everyone.

"Rising Thunder: Community Edition" will be the new title of the game, and it will be released next month when it is ready. This new version will be a more fleshed-out and improved iteration of the final alpha build of the game, which was previously made available for the community to test. There will also be some additional refinement in the new version such as quality of life enhancements and offline local play, which means players will be able to fight their friends as robots using either controllers or keyboards.

The developers making the game free also does not mean they are abandoning it since they will also be dedicating basic servers for the online matchmaking capability of the game. Like the base game, the online capability of "Rising Thunder" will also be free for players to modify via code.

They have also assured the community that the game will stay free, and they plan to keep it so perpetually. Right now, they are working on something different and moving on to other projects but will still continue support for the free game.

It can be recalled that "Rising Thunder" was one of the most-anticipated indie games back in 2015. However, the game was cancelled after the indie company, led by former Capcom community manager Seth Killian, was acquired by Riot Games. 

"Rising Thunder: Community Edition" is expected to arrive sometime next month.