Dome Keeper News

Dear Keepers,

We know how much you love defense strategy, so this Rawcember we’ve carefully prepared a special present just for you - you can now get both Dome Keeper and Kingdom Two Crowns as a bundle, or separately at a discount!💜

We hope that you will enjoy the other game, if you have already played one of them, or give a chance to both. This is a wonderful opportunity to test your strategy & defense skills and immerse yourself into unfamiliar but fascinating realms under the spice of the similar goal - in each game you must protect your base from the waves of enemies but to do that you have to explore and conquer unknown territories, find resources and manage your time. We’re game developers which means that we’re big believers - and we’d like to believe that if you loved one of the titles, you’ll also enjoy the other one!

🎁Check out the bundle here - https://bit.ly/3sY1EtK


👑👑Kingdom Two Crowns info & discount:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/701160/Kingdom_Two_Crowns/

👽Dome Keeper info & discount:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637320/Dome_Keeper/

Follow us on social media to never miss any updates!💜

Kingdom: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Discord
Dome Keeper: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Discord

[h3]Hey Keepers,[/h3]
we understand there were a lot of troubles with the gamepad with the recent patch. I think it was mainly due to twin stick controls being activated by default, changing up how the Assessor plays without telling you explicitly about it, or having tutorials that are specific to the current way of input. That was one reason i was delaying mouse support for so long, as suddenly the situation is much more complicated, having basically 4 ways of input:

• keyboard only
  
• keyboard and mouse
  
• one stick gamepad
  
• twin stick gamepad
  

It wasn't a good idea to turn this on by default because of this. This patch turns it off for everyone again, because there also has been some confusion around changing the setting. Sorry for the inconvenience for everyone who needs to activate it again because they want to use it.

Just as info: if you want to play the assessor with twin stick, you have to hold the right stick into the direction you want to shoot. Then you press LB to actually shoot a sphere. If you don't aim first, no sphere will be shot and bundles will be stationary. In the single stick mode, you automatically aim into the direction you are moving.

[h3] Changelog V3.1.1[/h3]

fixed some gamepads not working in menus anymore
twin stick is now disabled by default and also set to disabled for every player, as a lot of people had difficulties with it. If you want to play with twin stick, you have to activate it again. Sorry for the invonvenience!
• fixed the battle popup also showing mouse key hint if mouse was not enabled in battle, but enabled in menus
  

[h3] Changelog V3.1.2[/h3]

fixed d-pad not working for aiming when using single stick controls with gamepad

Thank you all for your patience and bug reports! We do our best to quickly resolve all issues we can find and clarify any misunderstandings. It is really helpful to get this feedback, as then we can also take care that it is better explained ingame in the first place.

I always like to share small bits with these news. Here you can see a concept for a world that we have and might bring it to the game one day (not a promise though, we also have a lot of other exciting stuff). You can see these tall things in the background? These are actually creatures and they should be animated, walking around in the background.

[h3]Merry Christmas![/h3]

December is here, Keepers, and it’s time to get festive! The star at the top of the tree that is this merry update is mouse support. We know that there are many of you out there who prefer a combination of mouse and keyboard as you play, so this gift is for you! You can configure the controls in the options for a perfect fit. Way better than knit socks, right? How are they always the wrong size, and so itchy? Anyway, moving on.

Our next set of gifts are for all of you who enjoy seasonal events as much as we do: we brought Christmas cheer to the dome! Not only have we given the main title music a festive makeover, we’ve also added a brand new skin for the Assessor as well as a special pet, and these can only be unwrapped for the duration of December. Remember to make sure that you have seasonal content enabled in the options!

We’ve also made some small tweaks and added sounds for the pets, to make sure you are welcomed back to the dome properly. 🐈 Read the changelog below for a full list!


[h3]What you need to know[/h3]
Due to the vast changes to the input system, we strongly suggest resetting the key bindings to the default. You'll find many new input options in the menu with which you can adjust the game to your liking, for example playing only the Assessor with mouse but domes with keyboard.
We also added twin stick controls to gamepads, which are active by default. With that you can, for example as an Assessor, shoot spheres and bundles in any direction you want, irrespective of where you are moving. Just use the right stick to aim and shoot with the shoulder buttons. You can also adjust directional snapping, so it gets much easier to shoot in straight lines (especially upwards!). The move indicator helps you understand the snapping better, and see where you are aiming towards.
However, you can also configure everything to be the same way it was before the update - it is up to your preference.

[h3]Changelog[/h3]

• Added support for mouse controls, configurable and re-bindable via Options
  
• Added twin stick support for gamepad
  
• Added various Christmas themed bits:
  
  • New unlockable pet and skin for the Assessor (find a gift chamber and win the run to unlock them)
    
  • New themed title music
    
  • Snow weather happening across all maps
    
  • Drillbert skin
    
  • As always you can turn all this off via options
• Added sounds for pets when you return to dome
  
• Improved snow weather effect
  
• Assessor spheres now also play resource-dependent sounds
  
• Assessor bundle moves twice as fast when using bundle guidance
  
• Made some parts of the game easier to mod by making dictionaries variables instead of constants

That’s all for this time, Keepers. We hope that this update will get you into the holiday spirit as much as making it did for us.🎄
As always: please let us know if you experience any issues through the official Discord server: Bippinbits - Dome Keeper

[h3]Greetings, Keepers! [/h3]

It's that time of the year again, friends: Steam Awards season is here! If you’ve enjoyed Dome Keeper you probably know we've been hard at work this past year and released [h3]7 major updates for free as well as 23 patches.[/h3] We are not done yet and love to work on the game and see y'all get excited for the hot new stuff!
We’d be absolutely thrilled if you would nominate the game in the Labour of Love category. You can nominate us either by using the box at the top of this news post, or by visiting our Steam Store page!

Second, we’d like to take this opportunity to also let you all know that Dome Keeper is part of the Steam Autumn Sale! During this sale you can get Dome Keeper at 50% off, so this is a great time to mining suit up and get into the dome if you haven’t already or to get the game for a friend. Christmas is coming up, after all!

And if you already do have the game, why not get yourself a little pre-christmas treat? The Soundtrack is currently at 30% off, and the Gear Packs are both on sale at 10%, so make sure to grab them now!

That’s all from us this time. As always, we thank you all for your continued feedback and support and we invite you all to join us on the Official Bippinbits - Dome Keeper Discord Server to chat about all things Dome keeper.

[h3]Hey Keepers,[/h3]
time for another mini-patch! I recently saw that some players would get very frustrated because their scores got removed. They could not see why and did not reach anyone as our channels are all in english, so naturally it was a unpleasant situation for them. Imagine playing hundreds of hours to get in a really good prestige run, only to have it deleted out of the blue - sucks!
The reason for the deletion was, that the runs used what we consider exploits. The problem was, that I never communicated properly what was acceptable for a prestige run and what was not. Because of this, I cleared the list of people banned from competing for prestige, and added a big section that explains this a bit. The section goes like this

[h3]Fair Competition (prestige only)[/h3]
We love to see you prestige players compete for the highest scores and find better and better strategies. We want to keep this a fair and fun competition, so it is important that everyone plays on equal terms.

Please understand that your runs might be flagged as inadmissible or might get deleted, if it seems like you are using cheat tools or exploits.
We define exploits as anything that provides you a tangible benefit in your prestige run that is not intended through normal gameplay means. This includes things like savegame editing or viewing, excessive reloading, using mods that are not whitelisted or intentional and repeated use of bugs.
You might get permanently barred from competing on the usual leaderboards, if your run appears to have made significant use of cheats or exploits.

If you are unsure about whether something is considered illegal, please ask on our Discord or via e-mail at [email protected]. You can always appeal to us, if you got flagged wrongly.

Have fun!

So, everyone is cleared again, but blatant cheating or excessive use of exploits will get you banned from normal competition quickly and decisively.
Please not that this only affects prestige runs, and only the highest scores. If you want to speedrun the game, you are absolutely free to do so.

[h3]Being Political[/h3]
There is another topic that can be a bit touchy, but i want to discuss. Dome Keeper is a simple and fun game. It does not try to sell you any world views, opinions or politics. It is open to interpretation of course, which is part of the fun!
I very much like this part about Dome Keeper, that we can come together despite possibly conflicting world views, and enjoy a game and each others company. Because of this, I take care to keep very divisive topics and politics to a minimum, also on the Discord server. Recently I learned that using flags in a game, even if it is only for language selection, does make a political statement too. I do not want that for Dome, even if I as a private person have a opinion (on some things at least). Because of this, I removed the flags from the game and instead each language is now written in its own words, instead of all of them being in english.
I fear that not making a statement is also making a statement, but in this way I think we can have the least friction in and around Dome Keeper. So many things in todays world are dividing people and political or ideological views penetrate so many areas in our lives. My hope is that we can still have some places that are free of it, where we just can come together to have some fun, as that's an universally human thing.

Edit: thank you @poharani for linking this website in the comments. It also sheds some light on why languages and flags of countries are two different things: https://www.flagsarenotlanguages.com/blog/why-flags-do-not-represent-language/


[h3] Changelog V3.0.2[/h3]

• removed flags from language select
  
• language names are now in their respective language, instead of all being in english
  
• cleared known cheaters list
  
• added a long panel about fairness, rules and exploits when you start a run in prestige mode while you also got pro mode unlocked
  
• fixed auto repair not working during the final relic hunt battle
  
• fixed shield's last stand not preventing the start of the relic bomb
  
• whitelisteda mod for prestige (Among Tick - AshAxolotl
  

This is an actual dome, situated in Stockholm - the Avicii Arena. Looks unreal, doesn't it? Definitely larger than our 1-person domes! Photo from the lovely Jakob K.

[h3]Thank you and a happy Halloween![/h3]

PS: i pushed another sneaky build fixing a broken font and making the fairness popup closeable, as some people found it distracting (including myself).