Hello humans!

Our previous update tweaked some subtle stuff around physics that led to a decrease in character movement speed for some players.

We just updated the "maximum allowed timestep" to strike a better balance between maintaining a consistent framerate while making sure the physics simulation is not too dependent on the visual framerate.

Let us know if you notice anything different!

Cheers,
Erik

Hello Humans!

We just released a little Patch that fixes a wide variety of bugs and add a few improvements to the game. Read more about the details in the second half of this blog post!


Since many of you are curious, let's talk about what are plans are for the future!

In the immediate future, we're going to be focusing on expanding the capabilities of the Level Editor, creating a new type of level that takes place completely outside of the Arena!

Levels that quickly leave the arena to have a fantastic adventure elsewhere is a pretty common scenario among the more elaborate levels created by the community!



We're really excited to see what everyone makes when this constraint is removed. We'll also be looking into things like checkpoints, saving progress etc. to let you make things that are similar in structure to our own Story Mode levels.

If this makes you at all excited, join us on Twitch where we'll be streaming the building of this feature! :)

The other side of our Level Editor focus is that we'll be looking into ways of supporting more official Level Editing Competitions, and find cool ways to highlight high quality workshop content that stands out from the crowd.

We really enjoy the energy of people coming together to make cool stuff, and want to set up systems that facilitate that happening on a regular basis.

Next competition coming up will be for Halloween, but don't start making your levels yet. We'll likely make this one lean on our new format taking place outside of the Arena. :)

In parallel to new feature development we are investigating ways to make our servers more performant and more reliable. This is a huge undertaking that involves overhauling how pretty much everything works in terms of hosting and matchmaking, so it might take a while, and comes with a healthy does of uncertainty in terms of specific outcomes.

Nevertheless this is something we feel could be better in the game right now, and we have some promising investigations in the works. More info about that when we have it!

At some point in the next few months we'll start exploring what games we're making next! We'll still be working on some Clone Drone things at the same time, but if you see us start to work on weird things that have no robots or laser swords, this might be what's happening. ;)

It's maybe a bit early to talk about the specifics of this, but let's just say we are addicted to game modes and have plans to explore more of them!

What kind of game modes??? We'll likely experiment with more than one type to see what ends up being fun. Let us know what you'd be excited about in the comments!



ok, so that was a lot of info about the future. What did we do in the last few weeks?
We made this patch that just went out! (1.0.0.24)

So right after launch you had a lot of feedback on the Emperor, especially on Insane difficulty!

For our immediate hotfix we didn't change the Emperor at all, but with this one we took the time to improve the fight in the following ways:

• Jump damage: No longer active at the start of the jump! No longer active directly after he lands.
  
• Shockwave attack: Decreased the radius slightly, and increased the cooldown before next use.
  
• Imperial Armor Bots: No longer give armor or shoot down arrows while they're being constructed!

In addition to these changes, we also changed the amount of energy you have when mind transferred into robots! Both spear1 and sword1 now have 2 energy bars instead of 1, which makes confronting difficult enemies slightly less impossible with them. It also increases the tempo for both Chapter 4 and 5, so overall we think it's a pretty fun change!



A focus for this release was to increase performance across the board. While many of these changes might be primarily felt in our console patches that also went out today, you might feel the improvements in the Steam version as well.

Do you enjoy having Gyro on all the time? We've added a setting to allow you to always turn your controller to turn the camera, as opposed to it only being active when using the bow.

• Music cutting out! We fixed the music sometimes cutting out when a lot of sounds were playing at once.
  
• Fixed a crash from your laser raptor friend lasering things in the central corridor of Chapter 5.
  
• The Emperor can now jump on jump pads without getting stuck
  
• Removed energy bar from end of chapter 3 cutscene.
  
• First Emperor confrontation in Chapter 5 now correctly resets your mind transfers.
  
• Chapter 5 Insane achievement: We had some reports of it not unlocking for people, and made the way we do that a bit more reliable.
  
• Fixed spectator mode not allowing you to switch character when using controller!
  
• Emperor skin had a bug where the legs would not fall off when cut in multiplayer. Fixed that!

And there you have it! The next few months are going to be a lot of fun.
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Cheers,
Erik + team

Hello Humans!

It has been one month since the release of Clone Drone in the Danger Zone and the Doborog team are really happy that so many of you are playing! It's been a very busy month for us.

Early next week we’re releasing another small update on all platforms that:

• fixes a bunch of bugs
  
• improves performance on consoles
  
• adds some useful controller gyro functionality for all weapons on PS4 and Switch
  
• tweaks the Emperor fight to feel better based on your feedback

More details next week when the patch goes live!

Fun fact - together you all played so much multiplayer that we used over 75,000 hours of our game servers! This unprecedented number of hours caused a glitch with our server provider causing all servers to turn off, but we since fixed it and they upped the global server limit in response, and everyone should be able to connect now!

You can watch a quick description of our plans on our TikTok! Up next, we’re excited to expand what you can do with the Level Editor and the first stage of that is allowing you to create maps that work outside of the arena!

Another focus of the team is improving multiplayer server reliability and performance and have some exciting things in the works there.

We even have plans to add more fun fights and maps to the game for free after all that. Follow us on Twitter, TikTok, Reddit or Discord to hear about the latest updates, and watch Erik stream development live on Twitch!

Last week we had some fun feeding the entire script of Commentatron and Analysis-Bot to a powerful AI system, so it can now automatically answer ANY QUESTION in the voices of the commentators (it does a surprisingly realistic job!). What would you ask them? https://www.tiktok.com/@doborog/video/6998905758117072134



If you're looking for a quick free game to try, check out Berlock Bromes! We made this game in
a week and now you can download it for free: https://doborog.itch.io/berlock-bromes




---

Have fun in the Arena!

Josh, Doborog Community Manager

Hello Humans!

The launch of Clone Drone in the Danger Zone has blown our minds... there are now 300,000 people who have bought the game!

Thank you to everyone who has played the game, whether you are in single player facing the challenges or trying to be the Last Bot Standing in Multiplayer! There have been some really fun videos too — watch CaptainSauce play some of the amazing custom levels from the Steam Workshop!




All your feedback has been really helpful too! We've already improved the final Emperor boss fight on Insane difficulty thanks to you — keep the notes coming!



Our next long-term goal is investigating multiplayer server scaling issues (we found a fix last night that might have resolved that, let us know if you can't find a server!), general multiplayer lag and ping, and more game optimizations for lower-end devices (especially consoles). Some of these may take a while so please be patient with us while we work on it. In the meantime we will still be fixing bugs and sharing all the amazing things you create.

For instance, take a look at this awesome Clone Drone Lego made by u/knux400 on r/CloneDrone


See the full Lego arena here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CloneDrone/comments/owoojn/clone_drone_in_the_lego_zone/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Good luck in the Arena,
Josh - Community Manager

Hello human!

We just launched a little patch (1.0.0.6) that makes the final Story Mode battle a little bit less unreasonable on Insane Difficulty! :)

Here is what it used to be like:


Every time you died you would re-spawn as a spear1 unit.
With the patch, you will now re-spawn as whatever enemy type you entered the bridge with.

The Emperor is just as difficult. You still have no mind transfers available. But now you have a chance of entering the final battle as something other than what could arguably be called the weakest unit in the game! :D

To the 0.8% of players who managed the heroic feat of defeating the emperor as a spear1, well done! It is still possible to defeat the Emperor as a mark 1 robot. All you have to do is not die at all before reaching him! :)

A lot of you reached out to us expressing frustration with the previous difficulty, and we really appreciate all the feedback we've received from the launch so far, both good and bad!

Keep letting us know what you think of the game, as more bug fixes and adjustments will be coming!

Thanks for helping us make this a great launch!
/ Erik

Hello Humans!

Clone Drone in the Danger Zone has left Early Access with Chapter 5 completing the story mode! You can now buy the full version of the game on the Steam Store Page.



We have achieved so many amazing things as a game and community these past 4 years thanks to your support!

• Overwhelmingly Positive Steam Reviews
  
• Over 33,000 Steam Workshop creations
  
• Incredible Steam Workshop Level Competitions
  
• One Massive community Last Bot Standing tournament
  
• Millions of views on Youtube, Twitch and Tiktok
  
• Over 260,000 of your human minds transferred into far more comfortable robot bodies!

Thank you to everyone who has played the game and helped us spread the word in Reddit posts, YouTube videos, TikToks and Tweets!



Now that the game is released you will be able to play multiplayer crossplay with your friends on Xbox, Switch and Playstation.

If you are a more experienced Clone Drone community member, please be kind and patient to new players and use your pro-gamer skills to help them while they are learning!

If you would like to join the community and talk about the new Chapter 5 join us here! https://discord.gg/doborog

Happy Robot Smashing!
Josh - Community Manager on behalf of the whole Doborog Team

Hello Humans!

Thank you everyone for creating and sharing your levels. I had a really hard time picking winners because everyone worked so hard and made some incredible levels.

If you've not played all the competition levels they are all really fun and you can subscribe to them on the workshop through this collection:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2545995788
OR watch Josh play the levels here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1091519491

These are the winners of each category! Their reward is a unique emote "Good luck, have fun!". We will unlock the emotes for winners tomorrow (Tuesday) and voters who commented on workshop levels by Friday.

As a bonus, anyone who has won an Award or Honourable Mention can claim a code for FREE access to a Voxel Art video course! It's by Zach Soares who worked on Clone Drone! To get your free code, message Josh on Discord, Steam or email josh@doborog.com
https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/1404-introduction-to-voxel-art-for-character-design


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1762230045
The floor is lava! This is a really well made challenge because it's not too hard, and not too easy. The variety of ways the levels use jumping is fun!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2542836320

Creating a Space Station that looks so convincing and has so many hidden secrets is very impressive.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2547498330

There is a fully animated fight scene in this level! AROGOK used the camera to great effect and it even made me feel sad.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2526804865

This is a really cool spaceship and you've got to blow it up by reaching the top of the tower!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2541522545

This level looks like a really well decorated arena but once the launch happens it becomes even more epic than that!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2530996264

What happens when we have to release the game on consoles but they're 200ft. in the air? Guess we've got to launch someone up there! This animation has so many clever jokes and animations in it. My favourite part is the epic anime fight scene where the screen goes black and white!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548996925

Gorakh's level got the most votes from the community. Build a spaceship to save humanity from an asteroid... or not? Apparently you're all more hungry for lunch than launch! Congratulations to Omega and Stickthemaster2013 who came second and third in the vote.

These are levels that stood out, or came close to winning an award. They didn't win an award but we love these levels too!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2535374021
A close second for the Most Creative Mechanic Award. Nikioto4242 used a mod to let you summon robots with the F button! It's a unique challenge because that's the only attack you have!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2344313718
Look at the incredible art from !ShockDrive! Flattering the Community Managers by making their profile pictures in the game was a good way to end up on this list!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549715445
This would be a really good endless level. Lots of interesting places to fight and it's really well decorated. Just make sure you don't get lost behind Doborog's desk!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2385812776
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548497063
Fantorna and ALEX2014_16 have basically made brand new chapters of Story mode with cool animations, fights and drama! Great use of the voice lines!

We hope you enjoy playing and making levels on the workshop! We can't wait to see all the things you will make after launch!

Congratulations winners!

Josh, Community Manager

Thank you to everyone who has created a level for this, we really appreciate all the creativity on display.

All of the levels that have been submitted to the competition are in this collection:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2545995788
We have noticed that some people have tried to submit levels but gave us an invalid link so if you don't see your level in this list then please contact us in the comments or on Discord. https://discord.gg/doborog

We are currently playing through all the levels that you have submitted to the competition to decide which levels will get awards. So can you!
The Community Award will go to the level that the community decides is the favourite! Follow these easy steps to vote:

1. Play as many of the levels as you can from this collection.
   
2. Give the levels you like a thumbs up!
   
3. If you want an excusive emote, leave a comment underneath the levels you play to give positive feedback to the creator! Please remember, if your comment is unpleasant or rude then you will not recieve an emote.
   
4. Wait until the 19th when we announce the winners!

Once the competition is finished, we will look through all of the comments underneath the levels in the competition. Anyone who has commented will get the exclusive emote "Everyone is a winner when you have fun!". If you have posted an inappropriate comment then we will not give you the emote.

If you want to see the levels played on stream, make sure to watch twitch.tv/gamingftl this weekend!

Best of luck to everyone who entered!

Start voting!

Josh

Hello Humans!

Thank you everyone who has been making levels to enter in to the LAUNCH Competition! Some community members have asked for more time. That's why we have changed the dates that the Competition ends!





When your level is ready please go to this form and put the link to the Steam Workshop at this link.

SUBMISSIONS HERE:
https://inj5jehpdl0.typeform.com/to/y0i1H7dg

Happy Level Editing!
Josh

Hello Humans!

We are announcing the Clone Drone in the Danger Zone Level Editor Competition!

Enter the competition for a chance to win an exclusive emote and the admiration of the whole community!


Because the game is coming out on July 27th, we thought this was appropriate.


The theme for the competition is Launch! That means anything to do with releasing Clone Drone, jumping, bouncing, spaceships blasting off, or whatever you can imagine is allowed.

The level MUST BE UPLOADED AS A CHALLENGE. We won’t play the level if you upload it as an Endless Mode level. You can find how to upload it to the Steam Workshop as a Challenge Mode level here https://support.doborog.com/l/en/clone-drone/uploading-levels-to-the-steam-workshop#uploading_a_challenge.

We also reserve the right to remove any levels we decide are inappropriate from the competition.

Anyone! You will need to own Clone Drone in the Danger Zone and be able to create and add levels to the Steam Workshop.
Submissions will close at Midnight on Monday July 5th. Please use this form https://inj5jehpdl0.typeform.com/to/y0i1H7dg to send us your level so we can easily find it. Once you have completed that form, you are done and the level will be considered for a prize!
We will play them and you will be able to watch that happen on twitch.tv/gamingftl after submissions close. Once we have played them all we will pick our favourites in the following categories:

• Most Creative Mechanic
  
• Most Beautiful
  
• Best use of Animation
  
• Best use of Vertical Space
  
• Most Epic Launch
  
• Funniest Level

We will also create a list of levels for the community to vote on. The Community Prize will go to the level that gets the most votes from all of you!

Once the submissions have closed, we will put a short list of levels in a collection for everyone to play. Once you have played them all you can vote for your favourite. We will post a form with all of the levels which you can use to vote!

“Good luck, have fun!”
There will be a special emote for the winners of the prize! “Good luck and have fun” will only go to winners picked by Doborog and the winner of the Community Prize. The only way to get it is through competitions like this!

That’s not all, anyone that votes in the Community Prize will receive the “Everyone is a winner when you have fun!” Emote!

We hope that you will all enjoy creating levels and are excited to see what you build.

Happy editing!
Josh