• Yury the Yeti’s Perk “Chill, Dude” should now work correctly with Ice as well as Snow.
  
• Vander Graaf’s “Ball to the Wall” Perk should now alter the Ball Lightning weapon.
  
• Kira-chan’s “Thrills for Days” Perk no longer incorrectly alters the damage mechanics for the Katty Launcher.
  
• Trondson’s “Fire Lamps” Perk has been updated to make it clearer this adds the “Burning” effect.
  
• Doc Eliza’s “It’s Alive! Alive!” Perk has been updated to make it clearer how this affects her healing.

• Poison Bush now correctly counts as a Building Blocks for the Daily Challenges.
  
• Gift Wrapped Large Bomb Block Skin no longer has its name in all upper case.
  
• The following Blocks should now use their correct names when awarding Dust from Bounty Blocks:
  
  • Tunnelling Torpedo
    
  • Orbital Strike Beacon
    
  • Bounce Pad
    
  • Bricks
    
  • Speed Block
    
  • Marid's Boon
    
  • Miasma Mine
    
  • Lil' Buddy
    
  • Ninja Shrine
    
  • Tiki Head
    
  • Popstar Portal
    
  • Kreepy in the Box
    
  • Ammo Crate
  
  
• Large Bomb description has been updated, as there’s now a more powerful bomb than it.

• Vander Graaf’s Hero tips have had a typographical error corrected.
  
• Trondson has had a small number of initial Hero tips added. Got more tips you think would be good for players new to Trondson? Leave us a suggestion!

• Only tools will do damage to the Block Buster.
  
• Tools now do the same amount of damage to the Block Buster as they do to objectives.
  
• Block Buster hit points have been reduced to off-set the lower rate at which damage is dealt to it.

• Trondson
  Sonic Staff ammunition regeneration rate has been reduced from 20 to 15.
  
• Vander Graaf
  Lightning Cage Active Ability damage per second has been reduced from 2 every 0.1 seconds, to 2 every 0.15 seconds.
  
• Astarella
  Saucer Launcher clip size reduced from 6 to 5.
  
• Yury the Yeti
  Snowball clip size increased from 5 to 6.
  
• Tony Turetto
  Glue Gun slow against enemy Heroes doubled from 1 second to 2 seconds.
  
• Sweet Science
  Graviton Stance reload time slightly increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds.

• Time taken to return to your own spawn point after pushing the “B” key has been reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.

Bounty Blocks

• Heroes
  
• Hero Skins
  
• Blocks
  
• Block Skins
  
• Block Dust, which allows you to upgrade blocks (more on that below).

Block Progression

New Hero: Trondson

New Blocks

New Skins

• The Santa's Kreepy Helper skin for Kreepy the Clown is available in the Shop.
  
• The Fashion Collier skin for Trondson is available in the Shop.
  
• A skin for the Nuke Bomb Block can be found in Bounty Blocks.
  
• A skin for the Large Bomb Block can be found in Bounty Blocks

Perk Removal

• Yury N Ice
  
• Multi-Tasker
  
• Deep Grav Wells
  
• Djinn’s Bounty
  
• Wasn’t Me
  
• Lil’ Buddy Boost
  
• Tiki Terror
  
• Portal Party
  
• What’s in the Box
  
• Tesla Tough Guy
  
• Sneaky Trapper
  
• The Runs
  
• C4 You Know It

• Wider – Increases the radius of Tony’s “Better, Faster, Stronger” Active Ability to allow it a better chance of affecting team mates.
  
• Hunter’s Sense – Increases the area affected by Nigel’s “Spot Prey” Active Ability, allowing it to detect more objects or Heroes.
  
• Idoru – Increases the area affected by Kira’s J-Pop Star Active Ability, making it more likely to help out teammates.
  
• Ball to the Wall – Increases Vander’s Ball Lighting ammunition pool.
  
• Shadow Lizard – Increase the speed at which O.P. can climb walls.
  
• No One Lives Forever – Increases the clip size and ammunition pool for Astarella’s P.P.P.
  
• Static Disruption – Increases the time that devices are disabled by Sweet Science’s Active Ability.
  
• Djinn’s Jinx – Increases the length of time that Dream Genie’s Active Ability lasts for.
  
• It’s Alive! Alive! – Increases the healing provided by Doc Eliza’s Miracle Cure Active Ability.
  
• Rolling Wild – Allows Roly Poly Fat Fat to move while her Active Ability is in use, but at a reduced rate.
  
• Psycho Circus – Increases the duration of Kreepy’s Killer Klown Active Ability.
  
• Yury ‘N Ice – Increases the radius of Yury’s Avalanche Active Ability to allow the snow to cover a wider area.

In Other News

• Aiming at the Block Buster Boost should no longer show the “do not attack” warning crosshair.
  
• Block Buster Boost should no longer be layered behind the skybox.
  
• Devices should now only show their health as changing when they are actively taking damage, instead of the next time you look at them after they’ve taken damage while you’re elsewhere on the map.
  
• Switching between Heroes on the ‘Your Heroes’ screen in the Profile section of the menus no longer causes RAM usage to continually increase.
  
• Vander Graaf’s Tesla Coils can only be charged one at a time, instead of multiple with a single shot.
  
• Objective (Base and Cube) hitboxes have been improved to better match the visuals of them.
  
• Vander Graaf’s Tesla Coils no longer infinitely charge themselves when placed in specific arrangements.
  
• Audio for Kira-chan’s Active Ability correctly stops when the final objective is destroyed.
  
• Buffs granted by Heal Stations and Ammo Crates at the maximum map height are no longer retained after leaving the area of the Blocks.
  
• The Hero you last played will now correctly be saved as the default for the next match.
  
• Falling Blocks should no longer cancel building.
  
• An exploit--where players could use perks and blocks from a different hero via a glitch on the profile page--has been fixed.
  
• A non-functional stat section of the menus has been disabled.

What does this mean?

Community driven approach

Let’s get started!

Arenas

Balancing

• Uncharged dash attack damage against Heroes reduced from 20 to 15.
  
• Charged dash attack damage against Heroes increased from 20 to 30.
  
• Uncharged dash attack damage against Blocks reduced from 30 to 25.
  
• Charged dash attack area of effect damage against Blocks reduced from 60 to 45.
  
• Charged dash attack now has 10 direct damage to the Block that it in the centre of the area hit.

• Width of arc reduced from 132 to 120 degrees.

• Damage to Heroes reduced from 19 to 17.
  
• Self damage when firing increased from 9 to 10.

• Cost of placing a Crate increased from 2 to 3.

• Hit points reduced from 25 to 20.
  
• Toughness (damage resistance) reduced from 4 to 3.

Steam Sale - Huge Discount of up to 66%

Winter Skin Event

Change Hero Loadout Before a Match 

• Go to the “Your Heroes” section of the “Profile” page in the menus.
• Select the Hero you would like to alter.
  
• Select the Skin you would like to use.
  
• Click on the “Edit” button below the Perks section and set the Perks you would like to use.
  
• Click on the “Edit” button below the Blocks and set the Blocks you would like to use when playing this Hero.

Match Quitting System

Player Card

• Go to the “Emblems” section of the “Profile” page in the game menus.
• Click on the first badge you would like to equip and display on your Player Card
  
• Click on the second badge you would like to equip
  
• Click on the third badge you would like to equip
  
• Clicking on a fourth badge will remove the first badge you equipped before adding the new one to the Player Card.

Brand New Hero Skins

Steam Halloween Sale

Pumpkin Arena

HERO SELECTION

BALANCING

1ST PRIZE

Overall a well-designed map with a great variety of terrain, open areas and enclosed spaces. The creator has provided the player with multiple routes to choose from with the possibility of creating, even more, using the destructible environment, creating a varied experience each time the Arena is played. Blocks, devices, and decor items have been used well in this Arena to create some interesting elements. The trees are particularly well designed. The first playthroughs we witnessed were very positive and enjoyed by all. Playing the Arena we enjoyed what seemed like increasing difficulty for attack (1st base open, 2nd more enclosed but multiple obvious ways in, 3rd a Fortress.

Alpha stuck to the brief creating his interpretation of the theme 'Summer Vacation' we love that the progression through the Arena tells a story and this is reflected in the description provided for the submission. It was a great bonus to see Alpha approaching v0x to provide some of their now celebrated BNL art to add to the Arena thumbnail, which was a very nice touch. Playtesting was noted from an early stage and feedback was taken on board to fine tune elements of the Arena and has resulted in great gameplay experience. The design rules & guidelines were well observed to create what we feel was overall a deserving winner of the contest.

There are a few areas of improvement required but nothing major and the Arena performs well. Beach Bash is certainly a strong candidate to be added to the game.

2ND PRIZE

An absolutely stunning looking Arena that turned every judge's head! We all agreed it was a very ambitious and creative interpretation of the theme and if the judging criteria were on looks alone, Cruise Boat would have surely won. Judes noted that the creator must have previous experience and of course we enlightened them of Sano's previous submissions, which have been getting stronger and stronger. The Spawn exits are well thought out and naturally lead you to where you need to go to locate the objectives. An interesting and thematic way of getting back out of the water should you fall off has been thought about with the combination of lifeboats and anchor to the rear of the boat. Sculpting has been used to a very high standard creating some lovely pieces that could have easily used the pre-made decor items, but Sano's skill has allowed him to make a large Arena that performs very well.

So why did Cruise Boat not come 1st? Well, we felt that based on gameplay we couldn't award first. As mentioned it's an ambitious build and keeping to the boat footprint was a massive challenge to allow the objectives to be placed in a manner that really worked for the Arena. We didn't necessarily think it was a matter of simply dropping a cube but how to pull the attackers off a straight line dash (this was what largely happened in the observed playtesting). This is no easy task and we can tell that Sano has attempted to do what he could with the current setup to slow attackers down and break up the critical path. After discussing the alternatives at some rather significant lengths we believe that it may best to add an extra element to the Arena such as an island, sea creature or dock to each side of the boat to allow you to move one of the objectives out to the side and break up the straight line critical path. We looked at other ideas keeping to the boat alone, but we felt it would compromise the aesthetics too much. ​

Other than the above there are only a few areas that we feel would require a tweak such as leading attackers away from the enemy spawn stairs (feels like the way to go from 1st to 2nd) and generally the route down to the 2nd that doesn't encourage fall damage. Cruise Boat is certainly a strong candidate to be added to the game.

3RD PRIZE

Blocky Resort was a much smaller Arena than the other submissions, but it really packed a punch! ​​​Triangle really delivered what is becoming his trademark style with this Vacation themed mini beauty. The simple clean lines crafted a slick look that was very eye pleasing to the judges. A lot of strong playable spaces were created despite the smaller scale and absolutely none of it was wasted. Despite some judges wanting to see that 3rd objective, it was agreed that it was indeed a better decision to use 2 rather than cramming a 3rd in artificially where it may have in reality nothing more to add.

The Arena is very easy to read, which was a strong point, we only had one small bit of feedback about some of the paths leading to what seemed to be a 'secret door', which was in fact just a wall. this was just before you enter the Cube building from no man's land. Easily rectified by ending these paths earlier pointing out to sea, which leads players to the sides where the side playable area would then also be visible. We noted that the various gameplay gathered for this Arena showed a pretty diverse number of ways to play the Arena, but largely played pretty fast. Gameplay very much seems to depend on strength of defence. We did have the largest amount of conflict revolving around whether or not there should be some natural way of getting back up to the higher level on the Cube. It is easy to build a secure way up & some believe it was in order to slow attack and help defence as larger staircases/ramps are harder to defend naturally, but others found it confusing.

Again there was a ​debate about the objectives being arranged in a straight line (despite the path being broken up) as it did mean that it was a quick dash for the attackers to take the Base very quickly in many games. We are unsure how much this will impact things and could require further testing and potential experiments with layouts.

Other than the above the spawn was really the only other main area we had feedback for as we felt that the spawn could be further improved by opening another door that faces towards the Cube/enemy side of the map so:

It would spawn players facing immediately in the direction that they are going to need to move to build defences / discover the Cube for new players
It would allow you to discover the other exits from spawn to your side
Gives a better angle to survey your Cube and natural defences

Blocky Resort while missing out on 1st/2nd due to the others having slightly stronger aesthetics or gameplay it is still very much a strong candidate to be added to the game.

OTHER SHORTLISTED ENTRIES