An unannounced update?? Wha-a-a-a-t?

We decided to put out an update with some of the smaller bits and bobs we’ve been fixing since 0.8.1 so you can enjoy them NOW!

This update includes: Level Editor Improvements, Bug Fixes, and “Now Playing” interfaces!

Level Editor Improvements

Custom Colors!

Now you can re-style any re-skinnable level item with the new Custom Color picker!

The Corner Wedge

Unassuming yet powerful, the Corner Wedge is perfect for smoothing out the sharp edges of level elements.

Resize it, and it still looks good. Wow!

And it comes in 10 sleek styles!

The Light Pillar

It’s light, in that it is lighter than the dark pillar. And it emits light.

Pretty!

Bug Smashing

We smashed a bunch of bugs!

• Head kills now require 3 or more head voxels to be damaged. Shave carefully!
• Arrows you JUST deflected should not hit your body after deflection — and, conversely, arrows that already hit you should not be deflected). Your death should feel normal! (We’re still hunting down one more edge case of this, but should happen way less often. Holler if you see it!)
  

  Quality Assurance

• Player movement while on overlapping moving platforms should work better!
• Swinging forwards with block arrows should now always block arrows in front of you.
• Free Clones at the beginning of the first plays of challenges should now be properly gifted! <3 <3 <3
• Author names for workshop items should now consistently show up.
• The Level Editor Inspector now SCROLLS! So you can now have a ton of trigger zones and be able to use them when configuring moving platforms.
• Mousewheel scrolling the level editor zoom is faster!
• Mousewheel scrolling for the Level Editor Library now works and feels good! And doesn’t zoom the level in and out!
• Ctrl + D to duplicate does not pan the level editor to the left anymore.
• Restarting an endless playtest when you have upgrade points will now re-spawn you in the upgrade room (so you can use your points!)
• You can now type decimal numbers 0.___ in the Level Editor’s Scale fields without it annoyingly putting 0.01 when you type 0.
• Have a ton of levels? The level list for the challenge creation screen now has a scroll bar!

Find a new bug or the recurrence of one we thought we fixed?! Upset we didn’t fix the one that is bugging YOU? Send it along to us! We’ll make sure it’s in our bug tracker, prioritized relative to everything else we want to add to / improve in the game, and Erik and I may even get around to SMASHING IT!

Now Playing

It used to be impossible to tell what workshop endless level you were playing, let alone rate or unsubscribe from them quickly.

Now you can just check the TV:

Open the Escape Menu…

Beat the challenge:

Or just wait for the insta-voter to slide out after you beat the level! (Vote quickly using your keyboard!)

So efficient!

Subscribe to a bunch of endless levels and challenges to try it all out, and share your opinion on workshop levels!

http://steamcommunity.com/app/597170/workshop/

What’s next??

We wanted to get this mini-update out ASAP so you can start playing with it all now, but this is not all we’ve been working on. The next major update launches on June 25.

And we’re posting a preview of it… very soon! Watch out for it!

The Cats’ Arenas by Deside

WOW! In the two short weeks since we launched the Level Editor and Steam Workshop integration, FELLOW CREATIVE HUMANS created over 1,000 challenges and 1,000 endless levels!! Many even took the new enemy wait and move platform trigger elements from last Friday and made mind-blowing contraptions.

In the Clone Drone Steam Workshop, you’ll now find beautiful creations:

The Dark Knight by FrafMonster

Mini-Bow Challenge by SiggiSuffkopp

Level Pack 1 by Random Commander

Unique gameplay challenges:

The Gauntlet by DarkEmperor118

Ring of Fire Challenge by VastLite

And some simply all-around fun, well-crafted challenges!

The Factory by Pudding (with an ENEMY KILLING MACHINE)

The Cats’ Arenas by Deside

The Lava Temple by Silva (with a BOSS BATTLE!)

Wanna play some awesome new challenges and endless levels?

• Pick some challenges and levels to play from the workshop!!
• Having trouble choosing?! We collected some lists of challenges you can quickly subscribe to:
  • Just plain FUN challenges
    
  • BEAUTIFUL challenges
  • BRUTALLY difficult challenges
  • Challenges with funky gameplay (fire floor jumper?! conveyor lava dodge??)  and ones that are just cool hacks (an automatic robot killing farm??).
• Wanna be a hero? Mine for gold in the NEW ITEMS list and provide kind words of encouragement and positive feedback to creators just getting started!!

And when you try levels, don’t forget to:

• Rate and comment on the challenges in the workshop! Let your fellow humans know what you liked about what they made!
• Use Photo Mode to take beautiful screenshots! (capture and upload your screenshot by hitting F12 in Steam). You can then upload the screenshots and send the links to the creator! It’s so fun to see people playing your creations!!

Made or found a level or challenge you’re really excited about?

Share it here! I’d love to take a look!

What’s next?!

We’ll continue to improve the level editor going forward, including making some improvements in our next small update (especially since we’re using it to make levels too, now!).

And we have some some pretttttt-ty exciting non-level-editor things in the works, so stay tuned!

It has been a week since the Level Editor was released!
The workshop now has 1500 items in it. Wow!

Update time!

Today we’re releasing a small update reacting to feedback from all the wonderful people making levels!

It fixes a ton of bugs and introduces some fun new features.

Trigger Zones!

Now you can make enemies not blindly rush at you as soon as you exit the elevator.
Make them wait until you reach them before activating.

Moving Platforms – Very Configurable!

You want to do cool stuff with Moving Platforms? Now you can!
By combining moving platforms with  trigger zones you can make all kinds of wonderful things.
Elevators, traps, doors, sinking pillars, self-assembling levels, hyper-mazes! You tell us.

If the number of settings seem overwhelming it’s because SO IS YOUR POWER!!!!
The default settings just move it back and forth, just like before!

New Challenge: They Wait

To showcase what is possible with the new update we made a neat 5-level challenge, released via workshop!
The death robots are waiting for you, human!

Dialogue Randomizer

Need inspiration for what level to make? Press the little random button!

Tags, tags, tags!

Levels uploaded from this update will be tagged with their commentator description.
Now it is easy to find all levels with cats!

Other changes!

• Primitives folder renamed to Basics
• Ramp added to Basics folder! Magically looks good when you scale it.
• Tool keyboard shortcuts changed: d,m,r,s —> 1,2,3,4
• Return to Level Editor – No need to go via main menu after play testing!
• Bug fixes – We fixed a ton of bugs! Yay!

Now what?

We’re going to make one more update in the next couple of weeks to get even more awesome features into the Level Editor!

Let us know if you have ideas for improving the Level Editor in the forums or jump into one of Erik’s twitch streams to see the next update being created live before your eyes!

Also: CHECK OUT ALL THE WORKSHOP LEVELS!!! 😀
Rate the ones you like and leave a comment for the creators!

FELLOW HUMANS. The time has come. We must now use our creative minds to construct arena challenges!

Now YOU can make levels!

Drag stuff around!

Make objects really big or small, or rotate them all upside-down-like.

Click Play, and test your level! You’ll have to beat it before publishing to the Workshop!

Configure your arena traps for maximum fun.

And now you can make challenges, and upload them to the Steam Workshop!

And when you’re playing the game, you can now choose from a cornucopia of fun challenges and levels on the Steam Workshop!

Subscribe to a challenge and… VOILA!

And any Endless levels you subscribe to will show up while you’re playing Endless mode. Configure that with this handy new Settings dropdown:

Also… a new thing!

What’s this? It’s a moving platform! Put some in your level!!

More improvements & guides coming!

We’re really excited to see what you make! We’re preparing more updates to the level editor, and plan on putting together tutorials and making it easier to get started with. We think it’s gonna be… awesome!

In the mean time, check out this awesome How to Use the Level Editor guide by Captain Thore!

FAQ

I’m playing the itch.io version (or Steam can’t connect), can I still use the editor?

Yes! You can build levels and challenges, but can’t publish them (or download items from the Workshop) unless you have Steam running!

How do you move stuff around?

Use the tools at the top of the screen. There are two moving tools, one that lets you drag it magically around, and another that lets you drag it along its X / Y / Z axes.

How do I delete levels, folders, objects in the game?

Select the thing you want to delete, and press the Delete key on your keyboard!

Can I place as many enemies as I want?

You can place up to 20 enemies. In most levels we’ve made, we try to keep it below 15. With more than 20 enemies the game gets laggy!

I found a bug, what shall I do with it?

Send it along to [email protected]! We’ll be working on improving the level over the next few weeks!

Hey human, do YOU have a cool idea for a level?
A Maze? Sawblades and lava? The Crazy Duck Challenge??

Soon YOU can make it, and share it with other humans!

We’re hard at working making an ass-kicking Level Editor, that makes it easy and fun to put together Clone Drone levels.

Some highlights include:

• Steam Workshop Integration – Easily find, rate and upload levels!
• Make Challenges – Why make one level, when you can make several and put them together into an awesome Challenge? Choose what upgrades the player starts with and what is restricted!
• Choose your enemies – Test your skills against any combination of enemies you can imagine!

The first version of the Level Editor launches on May 5th!
We look forward to seeing what you do with it!

First things first. We’ve put a teeny tiny fix update (0.7.2)! This update:

• Makes Photo Mode Music toggle on and off perfectly! It now makes us giggle every time we toggle it.
• Fixes a crash some people have seen when performing said toggling.
• Adds two things you Big-time Twitch Streamers out there: emote vocalizations for certain Twitch streamers’ subscribers, and a new note about enabling slow mode to avoid being throttled.

Some Awesome Photo Mode Photos!

Humans, your creativity amazes us!! In the 3 days since we released Photo Mode, we have been blown away by the awesome shots our wonderful community members have taken.

Let’s look at some of them! See more on Steam Community Screenshots, the Itch Forums, and the Discord chat!

From the Steam Community Screenshots:

The #RoboSelfie (thanks NoScope!)

Spidertron Deconstructed (thanks Dr. Greenman The Mad Scientist!)

A very nature-photography-style photo. Note the player killing it in the background. (thanks ShAzZ!)

From the Community Discord:

What happened here? DEATH! (thanks Dope Arcane!)

Spidertron… where’d your eyes go? (thanks VattHammer!)

Mid-air-duck-strike (thanks iosephusalbert!)

Off you go! (thanks Teewoo!)

From the Itch.io Forums

A cinematic jump (thanks mincpower!)

There are so many more awesome ones we wanted to include, but alas blog posts can only be so long (I’m impressed you’re still reading)!

Check out the rest of the awesome Photo Mode screenshots, and make & post your own so we can see them too!

• The Steam Community Screenshots section
• The Itch forums
• The community Discord chat

Human, there is a new update! If you have the game already, update now and give it a shot! If not, get it on Steam or Itch now!

Introducing…

Kick Bots! They kick… other bots!

The deceptively adorable kick bots run around kicking you into other enemies’ swords, lava, and jump pads… that lead to more lava.

While they may appear at first glance too under-equipped to cause real harm, after a couple of kick-dips in the lava you may start to approach them more carefully.

And you will encounter these deadly bots in…

The Kick Only Challenge – Look ma, no hands!

Using only your powerful feet, kick your way through 10 levels filled with spikes, fire jets, conveyor belts, lava and sawblades that will make quick work of your enemies (… or you).

You look so happy with both hands free!

And beating this challenge will unlock…

Power Kicks – Kick enemies into each other!

Just in time for bot-kicking season, the power kick upgrade both increases the intensity of your kick AND makes it knock back other enemies. And them, in turn, other enemies… I think you see where we’re going with this. Line up a few robots and let them show you their best three stooges impression!

And you can capture your own THIS IS SPARTAAA moment using…

Photo Mode: Take beautiful pictures of your trail of carnage!

Inspired by the wonderful YouTuber MattShea (who knows a thing or two about videogame photography!), photo mode lets you pause the game’s action at any moment, pan around freely, and frame the perfect shot.

Once you’ve got your shot lined up, you can take a screenshot (F12 if you are using Steam, see this guide if you’re using itch) and, hey, why not share your artistic creation with the world?!

We’d love to see your awesome photo-screenshots in:

• The Steam Community Screenshots section
• The Itch forums (guide here)
• The community Discord chat

Robo-tography Tips:

1. Press Tab to freeze time and toggle photo mode on and off.
2. Press ` (backtick) to wait for the next death to auto-trigger photo mode.
3. Use your scrollwheel to control the depth-of-field. Experiment with how this affects your shot’s framing.
4. When time is frozen, left clicking will step time forward.
5. Think like a photographer: is the framing of the elements in the shot balanced? Can you include the characters’ faces to make it a more emotional photo? Can a viewer tell what is happening when they first look at this shot?

And EVEN. MORE. OTHER. STUFF.

In addition to those bigger things, we’ve continued improving the game’s stability (& check out our new troubleshooting guides), and made a few handy tweaks:

Flame Breath: Overhauled to be more useful!

While flame breath used to require a full 4-bars of energy to use, it now only requires 1 bar, and lets you stop breathing fire at any time without losing more energy. More control — more POWER!!

Twitch Spawn Settings – Min difficulty tier for each enemy.

Twitch audiences aren’t always all !clones and Encouragement Cube!s. Now you can avoid getting crushed on level 1 bronze by hammer3s, spidertron6000s and jetpack2s, with these handy dandy new settings:

And speaking of feature description transitions…

NOW YOU CAN KICK SPIDER-TRONS!!!!!!

Watch out for the spider bombs!

Have fun, and let us know what you think!! And share your amazing photo mode screenshots with everyone!

The first update since the Steam launch is small, but nice, like a partially damaged robot foot!

Here are some cool new features to look forward to:

• The Kick Only Challenge!
• Photo Mode: Take beautiful pictures of your robot carnage!
• Flame Breath: Overhauled to be more useful!
• Kick Bots!
• Power Kicks – Kick enemies into eachother!
• Twitch Spawn Settings – Min difficulty tier for each enemy.
• YOU CAN KICK SPIDER-TRONS!!!!!!

Yeeeeaaahh!!! The update goes live this Friday, March 31:st.

WE ARE LIVE ON STEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

We are super excited to be there!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/597170

Did you buy the game on itch.io?

Don’t email us about it! 😀
Go read this guide for how to get your Steam key:

https://itch.io/t/67604/how-to-get-a-steam-key-from-your-itchio-purchase-wont-install-until-316

What’s new in Update 0.6??

With that out of the way, Update 0.6 is here!
There are two major new features: Challenges and Fire!

Challenges

Challenges is a new game mode that presents you with difficult tasks.
If you complete them you are given an awesome Trophy, a Steam Achievement and sometimes New Upgrades!

The Inferno Challenge

10 very difficult levels introducing the Mark 4 fire enemies, fire traps and lava!!!
Expect to be set on fire and die repeatedly. 🙂

Unlocks: Flame Breath!!!

The Random Upgrade Challenge

It’s Upgrade Bot’s construction day! 🎉 🎂  🎉
Celebrate by letting it choose your upgrades!
A nice trophy, and the happiness of Upgrade Bot is your only reward. <3

Bow / Hammer Only Challenges

Inspired by REAL HUMANS on youtube, these challenges restrict your arsenal to a single weapon.

What’s your reward for completing them? FIRE UPGRADES!!! >:D

Jetpack: NERFED! and also UNNERFED!

Two major changes happened to the jetpack:

• Nerf: The hammer now swings normally even when jetpacking. You can thank MattShea for highlighting the extreme OPness of the previous version.
• Un-nerf: The jetpack now stops moving the second you let go of the key. This turns out to be very powerful, enabling you to dart forward in short bursts that you can time with your swings!!!

In the right hands this change could be even more deadly than the new fire upgrades!

Endless Mode has a bunch of new levels!

Harvested from the Inferno Challenge, Endless Mode now has many things that are ON FIRE!

FAQ

Hey so I bought the game on itch…

Read this guide!!!

How do you use Fire Breath?

Get the upgrade, then press F to activate it!
We forgot to make a tutorial. 😛

What do I do now???

• Go play the Update! 😀
• Write a Steam review!
• Tell all your friends to get the game!

Thanks everyone for your love and support throughout this amazing journey.
We have many more updates in store for you.

Steam Early Access arrives on March 16th!!!!

Great news, human!
Clone Drone in the Danger Zone will launch on Steam Early Access on March 16th.

FAQ: How much will it cost?

The launch price will be $15.

FAQ: If I already bought it on itch, do I get a free Steam key??

Yes! When it becomes available on Steam we will give everyone who already bought it a free key.

FAQ: Will you continue to sell it on Itch?

Yes! Itch is an awesome platform and we’ll continue to release updates there.
It’s possible we’ll add fancy features that only work on Steam (like achievements), but if you don’t care about that you can continue to play on itch.

FAQ: Why Early Access? When will the game be finished?

We’re launching the game into Early Access to communicate the following:

We’re going to update this game a lot!

We could focus on quickly wrapping up Story Mode since it’s the most obviously non-finished thing, but that doesn’t necessarily add the most fun new gameplay each update. The story will continue, but mixed in with other things!

Over the coming months, expect to see a lot of updates adding new Enemies, Abilities, Story Chapters, Twitch Weirdness, Levels, Game Modes and more!

New Update – IT’S ON FIRE!

What is better than cutting up robots? ALSO SETTING THEM ON FIRE!!!
Fire spreads quickly between voxels, increasing the chance that a glancing blow will turn fatal!

The fire update launches with the Steam Release.

New Game Mode: Challenges

We’re launching an exciting new Game Mode with this update!
Challenges provide interesting sets of levels with a clear objective attached!

• The Inferno Challenge will provide 10 new levels that will set you and your enemies ON FIRE!
• Endless Weapon Challenges – We’ve already seen great YouTubers do it. Now the game adds official support for tackling Endless Mode with many upgrades (sword included) disabled.
• Unlock Abilities – Defeating some challenges will add powerful new abilities to the Upgrade Tree!
• A fresh way to deliver new levels – We’ve been adding more Endless Levels ever since we launched that game mode! With Challenges, you’ll no longer need to grind through Endless levels to discover sweet new levels to try each update. (Well, you still can if you want—they’ll be added there, too!)

Stay informed!

We still have a ton of stuff to build for the update! Follow the progress:

• On Twitter or Facebook – Many gifs will be posted as new things are made. 🙂
• On Twitch – We’ve had a ton of fun building new levels with the help of a live audience! Follow us to get notified when we go live!
• There’s a Newsletter for big announcements!
• Talk to fellow humans: on the Itch forums, Steam Greenlight Page or the Discord Chat!