Dome Keeper News

[h3]Hello Keepers,
[/h3]it's been a while since "A Keeper's Duty" hit, and as we lined out before, our current development focus is on multiplayer. It is progressing well, but we know it needs a lot of time. Refactoring a game from singleplayer to multiplayer is generally not recommended because it is a vast undertaking. Usually you plan and code for multiplayer from the start, or omit it completely. We'll do it anyway!

Since this will take time, we've been thinking a lot about if and how we can still do something interesting. The glorious answer is MODDING.

We want to push this a bit and help as much as we can to enable people to make cool mods. Mods are amazing because they can offer things that are outside of the design of "core Dome Keeper". They can do totally new things or expand what is there, be silly, hardcore challenging or simply fun.



[h3]Renewed shall be modding that was broken[/h3]
This year we ported Dome Keeper from Godot 3 to Godot 4. Godot is the engine we use. This was a big undertaking done for three reasons, being multiplayer, console ports and future proofing the project. With that switch, the way the game can be modded did change too, and thus most mods broke.
We hired Ste from our community to lead the effort of making modding work for Godot 4 for Dome keeper. He is a cornerstone of our community and a key person in the Godot modloader project (shoutout to Kana too the perfect fit to champion modding.

The result: modding is back, yay!


[h3]Leading the pack[/h3]
Already we have some great mods, some new and some ported. We made a cool trailer to showcase some of them - take a look at it below!

The stars of that show are of course the cool people making the mods. By the way, join our Discord if you want to make mods or know more about it. Everyone is helpful there and as devs we are happy to support where we can.

https://youtu.be/iJCV2MjXJYc
[h3]Mod Jam[/h3]
Dome Keeper originated in a 3 day game jam, Ludum Dare 48. What could be more fitting than making a jam for creating cool mods for Dome Keeper?!

With that in mind we are so excited to announce that we'll be doing an official Dome Keeper Mod Jam in January. The idea of this is to dedicate a few days to making new Dome Keeper mods, expand existing mods or simply port old mods. As devs we'll focus our attention during the event to support the modders - advice, solutions, patches and possibly even coding or art support.

Praise is good and all, but we'll also have some prizes for anyone that would like to submit their mod to be reviewed by the team. We'll be giving out awards too! We'll share more details about the mod jam soon, including dates and prizes, so please stay tuned (did i mention joining the discord?)


[h3]Mod Support[/h3]

One final thing to mention is that we have a new Dome Keeper Let's Play dropping on the Raw Fury YouTube channel here later today at 17:30CET. This one will be all about how to install and make the most of mods, along with showing some of the recent ones added to Dome Keeper. So if you've never tried using mods in Dome Keeper before but have always wanted to, then please check it out!

That's it for now!

[h3]Have fun :)[/h3]

Hey Keepers,

We just wanted to let you know that today we’ve released a brand new demo on Steam for Dome Keeper, so if you or a friend are yet to try out the game - then you can now, for free!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650980/Dome_Keeper_Demo/

[h3]Relic Hunt
[/h3]In the demo you can play Relic Hunt, where you land on a world and start digging in order to find an ancient artifact, whilst also defending your dome from waves of attacking monsters! The demo version includes medium-sized maps with a choice of two primary gadgets - and there’s also a choice of a few difficulty settings too. Try the default ‘Brutal’ setting to get the core Dome Keeper experience, or play on ‘Normal’ if you want a slightly more relaxed time.



[h3]Guild Assignments
[/h3]Once you’ve played Relic Hunt you can also try out two Guild Assignments, which provide unique challenges that add a little extra spice to a run. ‘Iron Contribution’ tasks you with delivering a large quantity of resources to the Keeper’s Guild, while ‘Swiss Cheese’ changes the environment to add more caves whilst simultaneously making rocks tougher to dig through!



We hope you have a fun time with the demo and feel free to leave a review on the store page here! You can also follow us on Twitter and Bluesky, or join our Discord, to stay up to date with all things Dome Keeper.

Thanks for the support as always, fellow Keepers!

[h2]Hey Keepers,[/h2]
It's been a while since "A Keeper's Duty" released and we've been closely watching the feedback. We incorporated this into some improvements and a lot of balance changes.

[h2]Prestige[/h2]
Because of the big changes to balance, we are starting season 7 for prestige now. Please keep in mind the warning about fairness that you see ingame: People who use exploits to gain the highest scores (top 100) will get banned. Don't worry about accidental use - the cases that are bannable are excessive and very structured with the exploit usage.
Some parts of cheat detection are automated, sometimes i go over it manually and delete scores and possibly ban people. If you want to appeal for a ban, contact me. But i don't have time for a "ok i cheated but now i will stop" scenarios, as this is time that i don't spend making the game better for everyone.

[h2]Modding[/h2]
With the port to Godot 4, the ways the game can be modded changed a lot engine side and that required a lot of work on our end. Modding is now supported properly again, with improvements to the modding popup ensuring compatibility. We have some plans to push modding a bit in the future. One part of that is making a more mod-friendly modding EULA. If you are a modder and have an example of a EULA you like, please share.

[h2]Future Plans[/h2]
Don't expect exciting content in the near future. As explained with the last update, we don't have any content lined up now. Our efforts will go into two things now: multiplayer and consoles. We can't confirm any consoles yet and don't have a date for multiplayer. Just know that we are on it, it's our focus now.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
Here is what's new for v4.1.0:
[h3]Additions, Improvements and Changes[/h3]

• started season 7 for prestige after vast balance changes
  
• massively improved performance. Also added option to render game at half resolution, which looks very similar but should run much faster.
  
• improved modding and made it compatible with v4 of Dome. You'll now get info in the modding popup about mods being incompatible due to not being updated to the latest version.
  
• added restart button to pause menu
  
• Anti Stall should work properly now
  
• drones don't bug out when resources are unreachable
  
• added overcharge tutorial
  
• improved visual clarity of tesla reticle
  
• brightness setting now works again
  
• fixed cases of extractor and converter pushing resources out of the map
  
• shredder now shreds faster when there are a lot of resources
  
• improved map generation for chambers, as sometimes they were placed too far from their ideal place, heavily affecting the runs difficulty
  
• chambers are a light source now too and can be seen through the vignette
  
• a ton of other bugfixes
  

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• Engineer: changed Power Drill a bit. Slightly lower speedup than before, and the hardness mechanics is changed by simply buffing drill against hard rocks instead of treating the hard rock all as medium density rock.
  
• Assessor: Split has lower cooldown again. Spheres also get a global speed buff with the supplement.
  
• One way Teleporter: cooldown from 20s -> 5s. It now can also teleport items, gadgets and supplements.
  
• Laser: DPS increase, last stage 180 -> 210
  
• Tesla: changed base damage being higher early and lower late, last stage 180 -> 155. Slightly reduced quick shot strength and orb stun strength.
  
• Artillery: increased stun size of deafening blast a bit
  
• Repellent: Growth time 1.5 cycles initially, going to 0.9 with upgrades.
  
• Orchard: Growth time going to 0.9 cycles with upgrades. Increased buff strength and duration.
  
• Droneyard: Slightly higher upgrade cost. Slightly fewer battle drones overall.
  
• Furnace: increased wave delay, decreased how long resources last in burning.
  
• Spire: added supplement that slows down monster projectiles globally by 40%
  
• Chainsaw: increased damage, last stage 65 -> 80. Also fixed speed upgrade not doing anything.
  
• Drillbert: buffed drill strength. Drillbert won't get scared anymore during battles, if you have the supplement.
  
• Mushroom: Added upgrade to automatically consume mushrooms on flyby. Added upgrade to make mushrooms grow quicker in the dome.
  
• Resource Packer: 5s longer recharge by default. Upgrades now also make the packs shrink more. Added supplement that brings cooldown to 1.5s
  
• Shockwave: More expensive, slightly less damage and stun strength. Supplement cooldown addition 5s -> 8s and +1 stun strength
  
• Lift: now also speeds up the keeper when going downward inside it
  
• Missiles: Damage increased, last stage 200 -> 250
  
• Gadget Chambers in prestige don't go quite as deep
  
• Mineral Tree grows much faster
  

Thank you for playing
[h2]Update[/h2]
I just pushed a hotfix:

• fixed a lot of prestige runs ending up on the cheater board erroneously
  
• fixed stage not showing up properly that explains if there is an issue connecting to steam and thus the game can't run
  
• fixed mods not showing up properly on Mac
  
• fixed bug that would cause some mods to not load completely
  

[h2]Hey Keepers,[/h2]
today is a special day, because we celebrate the two year anniversary of releasing Dome Keeper. Not only that, but we also just hit 1.000.000 players, which is an insane milestone we could not have dreamt of back in April 2021 when we made a small game in 3 days for Ludum Dare 48.
Back then we were hobbyists, just following our passion while working full time jobs. By all means, Dome Keeper has been a life-changing experience for us. You, the players and our awesome community are at the heart of that. From the first larger playtest in September 2021, over the many updates and patches toward the release of “A Keeper’s Duty”, you’ve played a crucial role in making a fun game. Thank you!


Let’s celebrate together! The lovely Jarvs is back and we’ll do a stream today at 17:30 CEST over on YouTube and Twitch. We’ll hang out, chat with you and play the game. I’m most excited to share an awesome thing though, reveal in the stream. It’s not inside Dome Keeper, no new content or plans, but still something super cool game related. Join us and let’s celebrate!

We'll start with one thing we are so happy about. At Gamescom 2023 we gave away Drillbert plushies to people who drew Drillbert. The result was a vast amount of amazing drawings. The breadth of what we see here is simply fantastic, we love it! Check out the full collection via the link below.

https://drillberts.bippinbits.com/


I’m a bit sentimental looking back on all of these. With each update we not only added new content, but also worked to improve the balance and fix a lot of bugs. There were plenty of hotfixes and patches in between, but these were the most important updates:

[h3]Release[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3307354336740716276

[h3]Halloween Update[/h3]
bringing the cosmetic skeleton suit and pet.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3409813763388467185

[h3]The Assessor[/h3]
brings in the second keeper, complete with its own full OST.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3428955345103485749

[h3]Caves & Critters[/h3]
added caves into the mines as well as small creatures living there, bringing a bit of variety to the underground experience.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3496511138517853772

[h3]Hard pressed[/h3]
adding the scarab and stab monsters, the Miner mode for prestige and a own world background for prestige.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3649634951896445163

[h3]Springloaded[/h3]
bringing 3 new gadgets with Spire, Autocannon, Prospection Meter.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3668782792567448910

[h3]Drillbert Mode[/h3]
announced as April Fools, while doing a switcheroo and actually adding Drillbert mode to the game!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/6384455987842263498

[h3]Re-Assessor[/h3]
reworking the Assessor and changing the mechanics significantly. The old Assessor was definitely an “aquired taste” and the new one proved much more fun.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3716076292751694859

[h3]Mod Support[/h3]
enabling Steamworkshop mods. Raffa in our team made the first mod as an example, the Hydra Launcher.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3649653272173229011

[h3]Double Dome[/h3]
adding Tesla and Artillery dome to the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3731852209660535303

[h3]Merry Christmouse[/h3]
adding mouse support to the game, a much requested feature. Also came with a christmas skin for the assessor.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/3869217710016267898

[h3]Lunar New Year[/h3]
adding a new cave with a special pet.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/4062878364658405866

[h3]A Keeper’s Duty[/h3]
adding Guild Assignments, the Droneyard, 11 new gadgets, Supplements for gadgets and weapons, a new world and 5 new monsters. It’s a bit crazy to list this, maybe it shows how huge that update was comparatively.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1637320/announcements/detail/4396159337027279925

As you can see, we progressively made larger and larger patches that naturally needed a bit longer to develop. To be honest, the pace was sometimes a bit grueling, but it was also so exciting and fun to see you all get hyped and play the game a lot. Very motivating!


Since the release of “A Keeper’s Duty” we received a ton of balancing feedback. We also saw some new exploits for prestige, and how a countermeasure wasn’t effective.
Right now we are working on a patch that aims to improve balance across the whole game. Many bugs will be fixed and it will also take better care of a few exploits.

With the big balance changes, we’ll start season 7 for prestige. I’ll also clean the leaderboards of season 6 of any obviously cheated runs.

We are also hard at work to bring back full mod support, that broke due to the engine upgrade from Godot 3 to Godot 4. The way many mods worked simply was not supported with Godot 4 anymore, and we are working on workarounds and new ways of modding so we can see more cool mods in the future.


The next big thing for Dome Keeper is MULTIPLAYER. It is by far the most requested feature and finally after adding content for two years, it is time for multiplayer. A Keeper’s Duty was our last big content update, at least for now, and we’ll finish development of Dome Keeper with a bang, i hope.

So how does the multiplayer development look like?
We can differentiate two parts here: split screen local multiplayer and online multiplayer across two or more machines.
The very first test for local coop back in Dome Romantik times.

Local multiplayer is relatively easy to do. It needs a huge refactoring in the code base, but it’s doable. I already implemented local coop last year. It’s playable, but needs a lot of tuning.

The challenge with online multiplayer is much greater, as the game is so far not built to support that. That means rethinking the whole game on a technical level. Usually developers decide at the beginning of a project for or against multiplayer, as such major changes get increasingly harder over time (often prohibitively hard). We still want to take a stab at it and see if we can get it done.

This also means it will get quiet on the development side at least for the rest of this year. We got some implementation to do!
This is also a big reason we want to fully enable and foster mods - more on that in the future.

So how will multiplayer look like exactly? Well, we'll share details in the future. We got plenty of feedback over the past years and lots of our own ideas too. That should be a lot of fun!


Ok, to wrap this up, here are some fun facts!

Fun Facts

• Drillbert was originally planned to be a tunnel digging machine similar to what you see in real life. Anne had the great idea of making it into a likeable animal instead. In the code it is still called “Drillbot” though.
  
• Dome Keeper’s jam version was called “Dome Romantik”, as a pun on “Dorfromantik”, which was very popular back then (and still is a great game from super nice devs).
  
• the biggest influences on Dome Keeper are Kingdom and Into the Breach. Most people expect games like Motherload or Steamworld Dig here, but i never had played them before making Dome.
  
• Dome Keeper inspired some other devs to make related games, like the recently released Feed the Deep. We are really happy about that and see it as a big compliment.
  
• There are 320 upgrades in Dome Keeper, with 35 supplements inside 37 tech trees.
  
• in june 2021 we celebrated the big milestone of having 100 people on our discord, for which anne made a special graphic. Later our composer Cameron got into the habit of making celebratory tracks for the next discord member milestones.
  
• i wrote a post-mortem of the game jam version of Dome Keeper
  
• As April fools in 2022 we announced to rename to “Dome Romantic” and switch direction more into a “The Sims meets Space Mining”. It said
  Build your bachelor dome and get to work in the mines of alien planets. Improve your mining skills, get elegant furniture and expand your dome. When everything's spiffy, invite your hot neighbor over for dinner, because it gets lonely fast in the domes. Don't forget to buy some curtains first, it's a glass dome after all.

[h2]So thank you for (with development time) 3 years of making us happy game devs! See you soon :)[/h2]