We’re working hard on Chapter 4!
Here is another little preview of what we’re doing.

Warning: Mild spoilers below.

Animation System!

Do you enjoy DRAMA??? Prepare for a very dramatic story chapter, built on the foundations of our brand new Animation System.
When Chapter 4 launches you’ll be able to create animations directly in the Level Editor.

Swap bodies with your killer!

A fun thing we’re exploring is the ability to transfer your mind into whoever killed you.
This will be a thing both in Chapter 4, as well as in a brand new Endless Challenge.

Initial testing suggests this is really fun! 😀

Next Last Bot Standing playtest: Feb 15

Do you love making levels? We’re holding another playtest session for Last Bot Standing levels on Feb 15th, 10am PST.
No theme this time so make whatever you want!

The most awesome levels will be added to the main level pool.
Don’t forget to peek at our awesome guide for making fun levels!

When is Chapter 4 out??

We’re aiming to release it in March sometime. 🙂
More info when we know more!

This past weekend we held another Last Bot Standing playtest, it was a lot of fun! Thanks everyone who came to the stream to play test the levels.

In the spirit of the season, we’ve added FOUR new maps to the Last Bot Standing rotation today, and may add one more over the holidays pending a couple of small level tweaks.

We mentioned for last playtest that our level themes are just suggestions to inspire those who don’t have an idea to start with, so you’ll see non-METAL-CHRISTMAS-themed maps sprinkled in we think you will still enjoy! So if you have an idea for our next Last Bot Standing playtest, no need to wait for the next theme, you can start building now!

New levels live now!

Santa’s Arena (Christmas Special!!) by Mr. Aurash

Ho-ho-ho-ly mother of Christmas decorations! Lots of nice Christmas touches throughout this map. Grab a gift from on top of one of the gifts. The combat area is cozier than most maps, so watch your back!

The Otherworld (Violetite) by BinaryPanic8347

If you like lore, you’re going to love this level’s background story. This level’s unique layout and stylish jump pads make for a fresh new environment to battle in. Watch your step and survive the harvest!

Christmas In Town Square by Dr. Peppermint

This level has so much character and hilarious elements, we really want to add it to the rotation, so we’re circling back with a few tweaks needed to get it ready for prime time. There were many deaths during the playtest caused by gawking in awe of the hilarious level elements.

And in the corner, what is this?! A gift, for me, from Doborog?!?! Aww, you shouldn’t have.

Ironwake’s Fortress (LBS) by BinaryPanic8347

You really don’t see enough laser-sword-robots hanging around castles these days. This blast from the past level sports a dangerous courtyard surrounded by places enemies could jump down from. This results in a very different feeling combat experience.

May be Added Soon!

Christmas: Dust2 by BuH4eCTeP

I mean, doesn’t the name here say it all? (radio) GIFT HAS BEEN PLANTED.

Ho! Ho! Ho-norable Mentions

There were a bunch of other fun METAL CHRISTMAS-themed levels we had fun playing on Saturday! These levels were very close to being included as well, and deserve to be mentioned:

• Santa’s Lair by Sir Kotok – awesome Christmas decoration!
• DannyBot & Clones Salvaging Co. by fencing_vogel – featuring some mega compound-traps that are really fun to destroy your robot body with
• Long Live Metal Christmas by niekalexander – this level’s layout elements call to mind pixel art and voxel games like Minecraft. Beautiful work!
• Christmas Fight: Day Version by Sir Kotok – includes a fun factory to battle on!

Thanks everyone for making such cool levels and participating in the event!

Next Playtest: in a month, theme TBD!

These playtest events have been a ton of fun, so we’re gonna keep doing them! Some have asked that we give a bit more time between playtests, so we’ll be doing the next one in about a month. We’ll announce the next theme in an upcoming blog post, so watch for it!

What’s next: Chapter 4, Controller Support, and Multiplayer Regions!

If you missed our last update post, Erik has been building a brand new weapon and enemy for Story Mode Chapter 4. Watch for another post in the not too distant future on a neat level editing tool he’s adding to make the chapter even more dynamic than the others.

Brian‘s been adding controller support to the game and UI, and some say it might feel even better than playing with a mouse + keyboard (sacrilege!). That will be shipped alongside a change to our multiplayer system to support more regions to hopefully improve pings for those of you in US-West and possibly other regions.

Watch for our next update, and have a very happy holidays & new year! <3

We’re currently hard at work on Chapter 4!
Here’s a little peek at where things are at. 🙂

The Spear!

The game gets its third melee weapon: The Spear!

Paired with a shield, it focuses on precise stabs with a solid defensive barrier.
Here is what happens if you put it in the hands of some high level enemy bots:

Note: All spear, shield and enemy models are temporary placeholders.

Battlecruiser art exploration!

Gary has been exploring what the hallways of the robot Battlecruiser might look like!

Below are some high definition mockups that will likely mutate and change as we figure out how to break them down into reusable level elements:

Chapter 4 is going to be pretty. 😀

What’s next??

Most of the work still lies ahead of us. We’re still in the planning and exploration stages, but we’ll likely move on to level design in January and start putting the chapter together!

It’s too early to tell exactly when this thing launches, but we’re aiming for sometime around February / March.

In the mean time, join us tomorrow as we play test Metal Christmas levels from the workshop. And watch for a mini-update in the next couple of weeks related to controller support and server regions!

The second Last Bot Standing playtest is over, bringing us six fresh new levels!
Thanks to everyone who participated!

Next event is Saturday Dec 15th with the theme Metal Christmas!

Here is why these levels were a blast to play, and are now available:

Clone Drone In The Giant Kitchen Zone (Tapok_Bobra)

Simple and fun! Everybody liked this level when we played it.
Jump around in a kitchen, like a little ant with a giant laser sword trying to kill the other ants instead of collaborating on whatever it is ants do with them!

Clone Drone in the Kid Zone (Pretzl)

Yay! What a fun level! With some beautiful toys and playful upgrade drop scenarios, the Kid Zone made us feel childlike joy. 🙂

Glorious Space Light! (Silva 01)

The light shines brightly in space! Really cool level with a lot of vertical jump pad action.

Prison Escape (Lionbreaker08)

Probably the level with the most innovative mechanics and theme of everything we played!
Experience the chaos of spawning in a prison full of murderous robots. If you survive the first few seconds the rest of the level is also really neat!

Smelting Factory (Dr.Peppermint)

Don’t smelt, little human! Running around this level is a ton of fun. The upgrade drops had some really unique configurations, giving this level a good balance between danger from hazards and your fellow contestants.

The Cathedral (BinaryPanic)

Epic and beautiful, this level lets you die inside a glorious cathedral. Inspiring use of light and shadow!

Honorable Mentions

These levels were very close to being included, and deserve to be mentioned:

• Neon Baths (fencing_vogel) – Pretty and fun to play! We decided not to include it due to the lack of clarity around the neon blue things actually concealing lava.
• Beacon in the ocean (Sir Kotok) – This level was super cool, but also suffered from lava that did not look like lava. Perhaps we should add color variants to lava… 🙂
• Dragon Ball Super Tournament of Power Arena (Destroyed) (Silva 01) – This level was really good looking, but a really hard to get to Final Zone made us reluctant to add it.

Thanks everyone for making such cool levels and participating in the event!

Next Playtest: Metal Christmas!!!

These playtest events have been a ton of fun, so we’re gonna keep doing them!

The next theme is: Metal Christmas!
We want to see levels that capture that holiday spirit of cutting up your festive friends, and letting their robot bodies rain down upon you like snow!

Join us on Saturday Dec 15th, at 10am PST!

Chapter 4?????

And just so there is no confusion, we are currently working on Story Mode Chapter 4.
Keep your eyes out for some early weapon exploration footage in an upcoming blog post! 🙂

Thanks everyone who participated in our first Workshop Playtest event!
We played through a whooping 39 levels, and had a ton of fun!

Here are the 9 levels that will be added to the official Last Bot Standing rotation until the next playtest:

Abyss Realm (by hollowedcommander)

Hollowedcommander creates a visually striking experience in the darkness of the abyss!
Don’t step across the red lines!

Pirate Battle! (by MrCoconut)

Calling all pirates!
Just kidding, pirates can’t play multiplayer, or access this super fun level. 🙂
When the cannons fired I knew we needed to add it.

Mother Tree (by Enderspoons)

The atmosphere of Mother Tree is really cool!
You can practically feel the damp fog condensing on your metal face as you jump across its branches.

Green Plain Ruins (by Lionbreaker08)

It may look simple, but as soon as we tried it everyone had a ton of fun!
Cleverly framed upgrade drops make this level really entertaining.

Hall of Laser Tag (by VastLite)

Like a hall of mirrors that suddenly appears in an action film, the hall of laser tag takes you on a trip! The view from the upgrade boxes is great!

Forest in the Mountains (by Sir Kotok)

A cozy valley full of trees and ramps!
Jumping among the foliage is a lot of fun.

Space Arena (by BuH4eCTeP)

Experience the intense blue of the Space Arena!
A great place to die!

Space Royale (by Combat Robot)

Space Royale offers a cool take on the interior of a space ship!
A good warmup for Chapter 4. 🙂

The Molten Wheel (by BinaryPanic8347™)

There was something really cool about this level. The wheel feels solid and the fight for upgrade drops is fun!

There are of course a ton of other cool levels in the workshop that we didn’t add this time around. You can find them under the Last Bot Standing tag!

Next Playtest in two weeks: Glorious Light!

We’re doing this again!!!
Next playtest takes place Fri Nov 30 at 10am PST

Theme: Glorious Light
We want to see glorious levels, that shine with light!
What exactly that means is up to you. 🙂

Participate simply by uploading your Last Bot Standing level to the workshop, and don’t forget to check out our helpful guide if you haven’t yet!

We are about to try something new!

Tomorrow we’ll be holding a live play test of the coolest looking Last Bot Standing levels in the workshop!

Based on your feedback we’ll then add the very strongest levels to the game for a limited time.

Playtest time: 10am PST – Saturday Nov 17

Here’s how to participate:

• Play the game! – During the playtest we’re overriding the current level globally for all players. It should make for an entertaining time. 🙂
• Watch the stream! – We’ll be streaming live at twitch.tv/doborog! Hang out and tell us what you think of each level!
• Make a level! – Make a cool Last Bot Standing level and maybe we’ll try it!

Wondering how to make a great level? Check out our new guide!
It has a wealth of information for all skill levels!

What do you think makes for a great Last Bot Standing level?
Let us know in the comments! 🙂

We just released a cheeky update!

Introducing…

The Laser Challenge!

Surprise! We were fixing a laser bug this update, so we figured, why not make a challenge that uses it! Practice your laser skills with 10 fresh laser-forward levels.

Will you earn the new laser challenge trophy?

Last Bot Standing Workshop levels!

Some of you were asking if you could make and play your own Last Bot Standing multiplayer levels. Now you can!!

With a single click, your work in progress level is on a dedicated multiplayer server and ready to play-test. We now wish this was in every game’s level editor!

Once you’re happy with your level, upload it to the Steam Workshop. People can then use your levels in…

Private Last Bot Standing matches!

Create your own private Last Bot Standing matches with up to 15 of your closest friends. Download some new levels from the workshop and try them out!

Don’t have any friends to try out new level with? Join our…

Live Community-Created Level Play Tests!

You may notice a new countdown at the top of the game.

We’re going to get everyone together and test out some of the latest Steam Workshop levels on a Twitch stream together. The first one will be at Saturday November 17th at 10am PST. Load up your game then to try the community-created levels we’re testing!

Win Counting – Unlock sweet transport bots!

What’s better than ultimately futile human combat? Memorable ultimately futile human combat!

Now when you win a public match with more than 5 players in it, your new Win Counter will go up. Once you reach a certain number of wins, your Transport Bot will automatically be upgraded to a new, more intimidating model.

You may notice this includes macho garbage bots with mustaches. Are you happy, cogitoergosum?! Look what you’ve made us do.

A New Level!

As part of testing the new ability to play-test Last Bot Standing workshop levels, we’ve added a new map to the public Last Bot Standing rotation called Rising Tide.

As lava rises up, the level’s combat surface grows progressively smaller. Kill your opponents before you drown in lava!

Other Cool Stuff!

• We added a Setting to select an override region for matchmaking. Hope this helps those of you who were having trouble pinging regions, or couldn’t find enough matches in your own region. Let us know!
• We added a news widget so you can see what our latest updates have been (like… this one!!) You may also notice some cute little buttons right below there, including one to some Clone Drone merch from Design By Humans. Fresh.
  

Coming up next!

There’s so much we want to do next, we’re going to parallelize the next bit of development!

• Erik will begin work on Chapter FOURRRRRRRR! No firm release date for it yet, but we will share info once we start in on it! We’re make sure to share some teasers along the way. We’ve got some fun plans for it!!
• Brian will continue upgrading our multiplayer server and matchmaking system to support a US-West region!

Don’t forget to come join our play test on Saturday November 17th at 10am PST! Add it to your calendar, and see you next update!

What a fun week! We’re finding Last Bot Standing is so much fun with full 15-player matches! If you haven’t seen it yet, update your game & come play, or check out this fun video from Draegast!

Thanks everyone who shared ideas & concerns with us this week, it really helped us prioritize! We did a bit of planning after this release about what we’ll be working on next, we hope you will like it!

Here’s what we’re planning:

1. Address the most pressing issues with Last Bot Standing!
2. Make Sure Last Bot Standing stays fresh while we add……
3. Chapter 444444444444444444!!!!!!!!!!

Address the most pressing issues with Last Bot Standing

Start taking direct Submissions of Last Bot Standing levels, trying some of them out on live streams! More details on how that will work, soon. 🙂

Add US-West Support! To do that, we’ll be switching up how we manage our dedicated servers. That will ALSO give us the opportunity to re-evaluate what regions we have. The goal will be to minimize player pings without splitting people into games that are too small!

Laser Improvements! Currently the laser sometimes damages things that are below the beam — we didn’t have time to fix that for release, but we’re gonna fix it now!

Though it’s kind of cool…

Make Sure Last Bot Standing stays fresh

Your Wins will Matter! We will start keeping track of wins, and display them in cool ways in the game 🙂
More Variety! Aside from including some Workshop-created levels (see above), we’ll be doing some fun stuff that makes the game even more different to play at times.

& then… Chapter 4444444444444444444444!!

Obviously no spoilers but, it’s gonna be coooooool! More details closer to starting it 🙂

Shower in garbage, human!

Unless, of course, you get smashed to bits in Last Bot Standing, the brand new game mode for Clone Drone in the Danger Zone.

Join as 15 human minds trapped in shiny robot bodies fight to the death!
Claim the powerful upgrade drops falling from the sky, but be warned; There are not enough for all humans.

Inform your fellow humans that you will soon shower in their garbage remains. Update your game now, and come fight!

Update your game this Friday at 2pm PST (countdown / convert to your timezone), and come play!

New Game Mode Details

The new game mode will be called Last Bot Standing.

Confirmed:

• Ceremonial garbage bots
• 15 players per match
• Shower in a rain of garbage
• 5-10 minutes per play session
• Ride fire-breathing raptors

See you Friday!