Clone Drone in the Danger Zone · published
Hello Humans!
Today we have TWO of our team talking about their work on the new King of the Hill mode. The Commentators are busy and have a brand new job! Meanwhile, we're thinking about how to make the maps as fun as possible.
King of the Hill is the first team-based PvP mode in Danger Zone! In the lobby, players are divided into two teams with familiar captains: Commentatron and Analysis-Bot. There is an elevated zone in the middle of the map called “the hill.” The commentators push their human players to conquer the hill by any means necessary. The team that spends the most time on the hill uncontested wins the match. The losing team, uh, explodes. And that’s King of the Hill!
The idea of the commentators being team captains came from Erik. It was a great idea! I generally write the commentators as being united by their shared disgust of humans and delight in seeing them slaughtered, but every so often I have them needle each other. They spend their entire lives talking only to one another in a tiny room. I imagine that would get irksome after a while. So the idea of them finally being outright rivals was intriguing and let me explore their dynamic even more.
Of course, they both want their team to win. So they’re pointing out how well their team is doing and mocking their opponent. Neither wants to suffer the indignity of watching their humans explode! Their egos are on the line. Analysis-Bot thinks he should be the sole commentator. In his mind, Commentatron is dead weight. Commentatron questions the value of his partner’s so-called “analysis.” But even as rivals, they always agree that humans are generally gross. Even the ones on their own team.
I relate more to Commentatron, a straight-laced professional who likes the occasional pun and finds himself collaborating with over-the-top personalities. But Analysis-Bot, who has a big ego and can be shockingly mean, is more fun to write. I’ll say Analysis-Bot, but if I had to get robot beers with one, I’d definitely pick Commentatron.
Co-op is fun. Team modes are basically Co-op but against better enemies. I imagine players will also be a lot more risky and willing to try new strategies, since it’s not a big deal if you die compared to LBS.
In LBS, there are many hot spots around the map for players to have mini, unstructured battles in (mainly, the upgrade drops and final zones), but not always a central point. In team based modes there’s usually a central objective area that funnels everyone in. The battles are also much more structured, usually having two clear sides that need to be decently balanced so each team has a fair chance.
In most other games you just point at the enemy and click to deal damage. Clone Drone in the Danger Zone mainly features melee weapons, kicking, and some slow moving projectiles. This works great with more verticality and hazards that you need to avoid and can try to knock your opponents into.
More casual team based games like Team Fortress 2, where the focus is less on the individual players’ ability to kill as many opponents as possible, and more on having fun and doing cool things. Also games like Deadlock that have many things for the player to do during the round, other than just fighting players.
Thanks for reading! Next week we'll have Scarlett, our Server Engineer discussing how the coming update will support multiplayer and matchmaking.
Good luck in the Danger Zone!
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