Dark Roll: Free Kick Challenge news & patch notes

It's been a year folks! And there's no better way to celebrate than with a little update!

Beast orb has been added to the game.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/549eaed5f05de0984fcfd7ecd0eab7b8bd2b3c91.png It's good. Really good. To get it, you have to unlock at least 15 other achievements in the game. Or you could get the Premium Supporter Pack...

UNLOCK ALL THE ORBS!

PREMIUM SKINS AND FEATURES!

DLC IS NOW 75% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1329100/Dark_Roll_Free_Kick_Challenge__Premium_Supporter_Pack/

Hello everyone! It's been a while, but I haven't been slacking around! I'm working on a new game, a turn based online platformer called J-Jump Arena!

Wishlist now! Don't miss the release!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1949970/ It'll take me some more time to develop, but right now you can visit the Steam Store page to learn more about the game. Just click the banner above. Don't forget to wishlist! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/0b08da7b0144e8faf9a97578a5cd4991f606622a.gif

Premium Supporter Pack is 50% OFF for a limited time! The DLC instantly unlocks all of the orbs, gives you 60 premium skins you can wear with any orb, and a handful of other cool features! Click below to learn more! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1329100/Dark_Roll_Free_Kick_Challenge__Premium_Supporter_Pack/

New Arena - Warehouse

First indoors arena has been added to the roster of available arenas! It will be available in online matches as well as single player modes. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/664a72d2c87052cd2c54c9fd3e7e56efabfaf7e7.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/7ef6a66eb8e537bfb6949b0a414c0c8ed9e41323.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/4b3862d0d77c00d4fe0c8143c35c35454df47a6e.png

The title says it all. Premium Supporter Pack is 50% OFF for a limited time! The DLC grants you instant access to all of the orbs, 60 premium skins you can wear with any orb, and a handful of other cool features! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1329100/Dark_Roll_Free_Kick_Challenge__Premium_Supporter_Pack/

Rugy Ball mode added for private matches.

Some of you may remember the rugby ball from a community event that took place a while ago. Now the rugby ball has been added as an optional mode for private matches! If you didn't get a chance to try it out, you should! There's a brand new collectible for playing this mode, too! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/be2011e133fff4b1b2fcdb7e7e0989ddde5f2ff0.png

Penalty Shootout shot difficulty added for private matches.

When choosing the shot difficulty for a private match, players can now pick "Penalty Shootout", which makes all of the shots to be taken from the penalty spot.

Play special Community Matches before November 2nd to unlock unique items!

Halloween Community Match Rules:

• Players play with Pathogen Z orb.
• Penalty shootout.

Play 10 games to unlock:

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/f0901e545e34dab8153efd6a7aa21f0b145728ea.png

For a limited time, Premium Supporter Pack is 25% off!

Celebrate Halloween with 3 new Premium Skins!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/0a78f6f9eaf073779014c685277e8ff23aab159f.png{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/5e187802a9419b47379a9ed5473db4bd169d71fd.png{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/f6b4278bd7ffd774b6805ede081684620ae483b1.png https://store.steampowered.com/app/1329100/ For buying the Premium Supporter Pack DLC you get the following benefits:

• Get a head start and instantly unlock all 26 orbs.
• 60 premium skins that can be worn on any orb.
• See your opponent's rank at the beginning of the match.
• Access to Rank History Chart, which shows your last 100 matches and how close/far you are from ranking up/down.
• Option to select your preferred arena, and another one to avoid rainy weather.
• Possiblity to ban your supporters from attending the match. (Those little cheerfull orbs that jump so happily when you score, won't be there if you ban them.)
• Fancy premium frame and title for your in-game profile picture.

Other fixes/changes

"Underdog" achievement fix

Obsidian orb is now easier to unlock. The number of players with higher rank to win against has been brought down from 50 to 20.

Improved net collision

The collision of the ball with the net has been slightly improved to work better in online games.

Premium Supporter Pack's price has been reduced from $13.99 to...

$9.99*

By buying the DLC you:

• Directly support the hard working solo developer of the game :)
• Instantly unlock all of the orbs available in the game
• Obtain 50+ stylish Premium Skins that can be worn on any orb
• Get access to Rank History Chart where you can tell how close/far you are from ranking up/down
• See your opponent's rank at the beginning of the match
• Get a fancy frame and a "Premium Supporter" title for your ingame profile
• Have an option to pick your preferred arena
• More features to be added in future...

*Please check the price in Your steam store as it slightly varies all around the world. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1329100/Dark_Roll_Free_Kick_Challenge__Premium_Supporter_Pack/

New Orb - Meraldium

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/99ee4f6cc6e09cbd0148d90272673b16f92cb2a0.png A brand new orb is here to join the roster! Welcome Meraldium. To unlock it players have to get a new achievement - "Power of Friendship", by playing against 5 different Steam friends. Bigger, faster and jumps higher than the Dragon orb, which makes it better in defense. Provides less power, however it's swerve can make up for it with tricky curved shots. Premium Supporter Pack owners get an instant access to the orb. And a handful of other cool features too! Seriosuly you should have a look if you haven't yet. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1329100/Dark_Roll_Free_Kick_Challenge__Premium_Supporter_Pack/

New Premium Skins

2 new premium skins were added for Premium Supporters. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/07a75acb95f1d008eef2c9315c70225c963f425c.png{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/f04f57ba3da494112aa7e6e5440f87e94d27d192.png

Play special Community Matches before September 27th to unlock unique items!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/be2011e133fff4b1b2fcdb7e7e0989ddde5f2ff0.png

Leather Community Match Rules:

• Players play with Leather orb.
• Rugby ball instead of a Soccer ball.

Play 20 games to unlock:

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/05e54b41fe24adcd7a9d01a288b3464939bd1ad7.png

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/05e54b41fe24adcd7a9d01a288b3464939bd1ad7.png

Leather Community Weekend

September 24th-27th, 2021

Starting 09:00am PST / 05:00pm GMT, join the game this friday for exclusive experience and unlock unique items! Such as:

• Special skin for Leather orb
• "Leatherworker" profile title
• Profile frame
• Profile banner

This is our first Community Weekend, with hopefully more to come! The idea is to turn things more fun by changing up the rules! Forget the soccer ball! Get on the game this weekend to play matches with...

A RUGBY BALL

Players will have to play 20 Community Matches to obtain the unlockable items listed above. Community matches will be available separately. Ranked Games and Friendly Matches will work normally. What do you think about the idea? Don't hesitate to share your opinion in comments!

Version 1.07 is here!

Rank History Chart

Premium Supporter Pack owners can now view a chart with the history of their rank over last 100 played ranked matches. This also allows players to see how close/far they are from ranking up/down. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/09808f544a07a7072be6cd8c86e7f52676d2fde8.png Keep in mind that matches before this update haven't been tracked and won't be shown on the chart. "Rank History Chart" button is located next to "View Match History" button.

"One to be Feared" achievement fix (Alien orb)

To unlock the achievement now the player has to win 10 games in a row, instead of 20.

2 New Premium Skins

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/15184731d573ce5b9142e35f378e6de700f869de.png{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/461609b9b11352f2aad22615c0fd29e3f7bcd01b.png

Other fixes & changes

• Fixed an issue where the skins from Equality Skin Pack wouldn't load if the player didn't own the Premium Supporter Pack.
• Sound of heavy rain has been turned down.

Update 1.06 is here!

New Orb - Obsidian

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/b55d8617bf35ccb60627a249e518c0844a19a07e.png Please welcome Obsidian as a 26th orb to join the roster! To get it, you have to unlock a brand new achievement - "Underdog", by winning with 50 players that have rank higher than Yours. For those who already reached Master rank, beating fellow Masters will be enough. As this is a new statistic, it wasn't being tracked before and everyone will have to do it from scratch. While not very fast, it has reasonable jumping height and enormous power. It's small swerve allows scoring goals with powerful straight shots. Premium Supporter Pack owners get an instant access to the orb.

Premium Supporter Pack

3 new premium skins were added for Premium Supporters. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/5ef881ef646278600b7aa6154d5e039e28b0c225.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/d29bddb7c595c1865bd4a3dfc16fe7d14fe0c904.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37926613/e87c77b879eab497e873eefa7aae1504ccf71241.png

Quick Chat

Following commands have been added to Quick Chat:

• Let's roll!
• Sorry
• To the moon!
• #$*%!

Ranked Multiplayer Mode

Players who disconnect from the game while winning will no longer lose rank points, and their opponents won't get any as well. The match will also not appear in online matches history - as if it never happened.

Anti Cheating Measures

If you've unlocked the orbs using any sort of Steam Achievement Unlocker, be prepared to lose your orbs, as the game now double checks if the requirements for obtaining an orb were completed.

Premium Supporter Pack

• 5 new premium skins added.
• Premium Supporters now have an option to see opponent's rank at the beginning of the match.
• Premium Supporters now have an option to select a preferred arena. Chosen arena will be picked when they're the host in online multiplayer matches, and in all single player modes besides challenges.
• Premium Supporters can now set an option to avoid rainy weather. Works same as the option above.
• Premium Supporters can now ban their supporters from attending their game. (Those cheerfull little orbs that jump so happily when you score won't come to your games if you set this option.)

Options listed above can be changed in "Premium Hub". The button to access the hub is located in Main Menu at the bottom of the screen, under the Premium Supporter Icon.

New Orb - Granite

Please welcome Granite as the first orb to be added since the game was released. To unlock it You need to score 200 goals in online ranked matches. Premium Supporter Pack owners get instant access. With high acceleration and quite a size, it can provide deadly powershots. Keep in mind it's not meant to be "better" than the current orbs.

Friendly matches

It's now possible to play a friendly online multiplayer match, to test out various orbs without worrying about your rank. When looking for an opponent, the game will attempt to connect with anyone available, not taking rank into consideration.

Private matches - shot difficulty

Players can now pick the difficulty of the shot for their private matches, all the way from "Baby" to "Master", or let the game calculate the shot's difficulty based on their rank - as it does in ranked mode.

Ranked Multiplayer changes

• For Master rank, Player's rank points are now visible in square brackets next to the rank's name.
• Rank points capacity has been changed from 5000 to 99999.
• Winning against someone with much higher number of Rank Points gets you less Rank Points than before.
• Masters with Rank Points above 5000 will gradually gain less Rank Points for their wins.
• Losing in a penalty shootout makes you lose 25% less Rank Points than you normally would.

Bug fixes & minor changes

• Fixed an issue where Your opponent's orb wasn't visible on the final match screen, when they won.
• Fixed an issue where wet/dry materials for orbs were not loading as they should in online matches.
• Fixed a glitch where the player could jump twice as high when pressing both gamepad and keyboard "jump" key at the same time.
• Fixed a typo in description of challenge #77.
• Fixed an issue where a collectible for buying Premium Supporter Pack wouldn't show.

Player blocking

Since more cheaters tend to appear in the game, an option to block players is now available. To block someone, enter "Multiplayer" menu, and click "Blocked Players". There you'll see recent opponents from your current gaming session (people you've played against since turning on the game), and can block up to 5 players from matching up with in Ranked Multiplayer mode. Additionally, clicking on the player's profile picture will take you to their Steam profile. If you wish to report them, providing the link to their Steam profile can be really useful in identifying unfair players. Please keep in mind there's no "team" making this game, I'm a solo hobbyist dev, trying his best to keep things in order. This is a quick solution to the problem as more fixes and ways to deal with cheaters will be implemented in future.

Dragon orb balancing fix

Due to balancing issues with how overwpowered the Dragon orb has been, it undergone some changes. Now it's a little smaller, jumps slightly less higher and is noticably slower. That said it still remains one of the best - if not the very best orb in the game.

More Quick Chat Commands

5 new Quick Chat commands joined the roste:

• Ouch!
• How!?
• Nice try
• Close one
• Haha

Server Capacity Limit

The server can contain up to 1000 players. Premium Supporter Pack owners have priority to join before other users. Please keep in mind that right now the average player count is far from the limit, and if the game keeps growing the limit of the server will be increased.

Networking fixes

Some improvements were made and the game should have less issues connecting to the server now.

Improved Matchmaking

When playing online ranked matches, the game will now attempt to find someone near your skill level first. It may result in longer wait times for high-ranked players but will be more fair to the newcomers, and healthy for the game in the long run.

Quick Chat

Version 1.02 brings us Quick Chat! While playing online, hold your right mouse button and drag your mouse over what you'd like to say, then release. I decided against allowing users to type whatever they wish to limit possibilities of harassment. Additionally, it's possible to turn off the chat in the Settings.

Slower deranking

When you lose a match against an opponent with much lower rank, your rank won't be affected as severely as before.

New Premium Skins

5 new skins were added for the Premium Supporter Pack owners.

Option to hide avatars

There's now an option in Settings to hide avatars/display pictures of players from appearing in Your game.

Networking improvements

Some optimization and improvements were made to improve the overall online gameplay.

Multiplayer Leaderboards

Multiplayer leaderboards are now available to every player, not just those who own Premium Supporter Pack. After deep consideration, I decided it will be healthier for Dark Roll: Free Kick Challenge in the long run. While I understand this may upset some players who bought the Premium Supporter Pack, I can only promise that you won't regret the purchase, as I plan to add more content for the Premium Supporter Pack owners in future.

Online Match History

Online Match History has been reworked and no longer displays profile pictures and names of your opponents. The main focus point is now on the orbs that were chosen for the match, as well as the rank of the players. Avatars and names of players are still going to be visible during the match.

Achievement fix for unlocking the Alien and the Rock orb

Due to many people having problem with stats counting properly, achievement to unlock the Alien orb has been changed to winning 20 games in a row. To unlock the Rock orb, now the player has to win 75 ranked matches.

Dark Roll: Free Kick Challenge will be available next thursday, that is on

5th of august 2021

at around 10:00 AM PDT / 05:00 PM GMT. The game will be entirely FREE TO PLAY, with an optional Premium Supporter Pack to buy and support the development of the game, as well as any future projects I'll work on. You can read up on what you get for buying Premium Supporter Pack here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1329100/Dark_Roll_Free_Kick_Challenge__Premium_Supporter_Pack/ If you haven't seen the trailer yet, now is your chance to get hyped up for those challenging 1 on 1 online pvp matches and many difficult single player challenges: