ZONERS

Released: Aug 2, 2022
Platforms
Last updated: 13 Sep 2026, 08:21 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

16 Dec 2024Developer post
v0.71 Patch Notes
ZONERS v0.71 Patch Notes FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY Fixed issue in cup where Tournament final stage would not be Stardom Stadium as intended Attempted to fix crash at the end of some mid match instant replays Fixed issue with spin on some Super moves (Urnest, Rhapsody) Crabhamm
ZONERS v0.71 Patch Notes
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Fixed issue in cup where Tournament final stage would not be Stardom Stadium as intended
Attempted to fix crash at the end of some mid match instant replays
Fixed issue with spin on some Super moves (Urnest, Rhapsody)
Crabhammers Hyper move max duration reduced from 360 frames to 300 frames
Crabhammers Hyper move duration reduces by 10 frames every time the flippers connect
Crabhammers Ball gravity direction set correctly
MENUS

Fixed crash when creating a new profile
Fixed issue with Xbox Series S/X controllers being able to join multiple times in multiplayer
Original post
09 Dec 2024Developer post
Movie Night - v0.7 Replay Cinema Added
Heya everyone, v0.7 is here and with it comes the addition of the Replay Cinema. This room, accessible from the Museum Gallery was previously inaccessible, but now it's open for business. At the end of any Match Maker match you'll have the option to save a replay of the entire ma
Heya everyone,
v0.7 is here and with it comes the addition of the Replay Cinema. This room, accessible from the Museum Gallery was previously inaccessible, but now it's open for business.
At the end of any Match Maker match you'll have the option to save a replay of the entire match. Once saved you can view this match with the same controls as when you watch back instant replays after a Zone Break!
Not content to just make the replay menu a normal menu, just like the rest of the game I completely overscoped and turned it into a cinema. You'll even get curtains close when you pause during the playback, and quiting the replay will take you back to the cinema in one nice smooth transition.
There's also a bunch of fixes for a some other stuff that I noticed over the last month and a bit, and I'm experimenting with some minor gameplay balance tweaks.
And so with this update, I now only have one more major feature to add to the game. This one will take a little while as it's quite a lot of work. Plus the holiday season beckons and there is other stuff I must do this month as a result. So sit tight, and I'll get this feature added early next year, followed by some sound work and just a ton of fixes for things I'm sure I've managed to miss up until now.
Peace & Love,
Paris x
ZONERS v0.7 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Added the ability to save Match Maker matches as fully viewable replays from the now unlocked Cinema inside the Museum Gallery
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Reduced player hit pause after hitting a ball with a melee by 50%
Doing a projectile during the end lag of a melee that has connected with a ball or projectile now reduces that projectile moves buffer frames to 1
Reduced all characters projectile moves buffer, active and end lag frame lengths by approximately 25% on average
Improved replays in general
Fixed bug where going from the Parry Advanced Tutorial to the Clashes Advanced Tutorial wouldn't load the opponent character
MENUS

Fixed bug with Jan the Janitor in the museum gallery where they would get stuck in one of the non-idle animations
Updated museum gallery paintings menu to include spot for Dum-E painting
Renamed the Museum Gallery's "The Gallery" menu to "Vault"
Fixed bug where Crabhammers' Hyper Move name wouldn't display correctly during activation
Fixed issue with colour picker in player profile settings not working as intended at all after 2v2 was added to the game
MISC

Fixed issue with Xbox Series S/X controllers being detected twice when connected
Original post
07 Nov 2024Developer post
Dum-E Springs into the Game! - Zoners v0.6
Hello lovely people, Paris here with a major game update. You read the title, you saw the picture, that's right, there's a new playable character to unlock in Zoners! INTRODUCING DUM-E... AGAIN? Most of you would have encountered Dum-E when you used them during the games Basic an
Hello lovely people,
Paris here with a major game update. You read the title, you saw the picture, that's right, there's a new playable character to unlock in Zoners!
INTRODUCING DUM-E... AGAIN?
Most of you would have encountered Dum-E when you used them during the games Basic and Advanced tutorials instead of one of the cast. In that mode, they had a very simple moveset designed to be easily used and understood by beginner players.
And that moveset still exists... HOWEVER, once you've unlocked Dum-E for use in ALL modes, they won't play quite the same.
MOVESET ROULETTE
When you play as Dum-E in a Match Maker match or the Zoners Cup campaign, every single match your moveset will be randomised between all 9 playable characters. I'm not just talking about getting a single characters moves, I mean each individual one is randomised!
For example, you might have Piro's Melee, Bzzt's Projectile, Ringressa's Super, Gluup's Hyper & Princess' Spin properties. You won't know what you've got until you start using it, only for everything to randomised the next character you face. This also includes Dum-E's original moveset in the randomisation, just for extra fun. You might be completely overpowered, or struggling to make it all gel, but that's half the fun!
SO. MUCH. WORK.
Being a 2D sprite based game, this required a LOT of forethought and execution in order to get functional. Some of the groundwork was laid for this last year when I completely rewrote how the moves were written and referenced. However, this gimmick makes Dum-E a real wild card that adds something unique to the cast you can't get from any of the others.
STORY TIME
And let's not forget they have their own story and ending in the cup too!
CONCLUSIONS
Really glad to have this character properly playable in the game at last. If you want to know how to unlock Dum-E, read the patch notes below for the full details.
There's also the usual smattering of fixes and tweaks, so make sure to see if any issues you had are covered.
Hoping to get the next update out before the end of this month if everything goes to plan, so keep your eyes peeled.
Peace & Love
Paris
ZONERS v0.6 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS
New playable character Dum-E is now unlockable. Dum-E is the training dummy character you use during the tutorials, and they are out for revenge! However, unlike their training mode form, the fully playable version of Dum-E has a unique gimmick. Every new match their Melee, Projectile, Super, Hyper and Spin type each individually get randomised to one of the 9 playable characters moves. You might be overpowered, or underpowered, who knows?! They also have their own cup storyline and a surprising ending screen.
Unlock them from the shop via one of the following methods: Play a complete match on the Hologram House stage in Match Maker mode 10 times OR Complete the cup with all characters on any difficulty
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Fixed crash when projectiles that aren't the players destroy in the tutorials
Fixed bug where King battle would only do same move
Dum-E colours for various effects and UI changed
MENUS

Controls overview and "Player Ready" now displays in 2v2 Match Maker matches as well for up to 4 players
When backing out of the Jukebox in the Gallery you can no longer go out of the gallery before the transition animation has played
Fixed multiple bugs when using keyboard to name a new custom match template
Hall of Fame colours collected stat now updates correctly
Hall of Fame various misc stats updated to reflect game additions
MISC

Playing 2v2 with 3 or 4 human players counts those additional players character uses to milestones
One of the Stardom Stadium stage unlock in shop requirements has been reduced from completing the cup with every character to completing it with 4 characters
Condenced save files into one "save.ini" file, excluding "options.ini". You will lose any current suspended cup progress and saved custom match templates from any previous updates as a result of this change the first time you boot the game, everything else should carry over and work as normal.
Original post
07 Oct 2024Developer post
New Intro, FX, Music, Animations & Logos - v0.5
Hello my lovelies, First update in a while huh? I'm sure all 90 of you had me in your mind this whole time haha. I'm kidding of course, but hey, I'm ready to see this through now. Not a huge update today, but some enjoyable additions... New Intro I finally got round to creating/i
Hello my lovelies,
First update in a while huh? I'm sure all 90 of you had me in your mind this whole time haha. I'm kidding of course, but hey, I'm ready to see this through now. Not a huge update today, but some enjoyable additions...
New Intro
I finally got round to creating/implementing the last of the assets needed to create the brand new intro sequence. I'm pretty proud of it if I'm honest. Another one of my unnecessary flourishes I guess, but it helps better set the tone and point of the game!
New Logos
My old individual and collective logos felt severely out of date considering all the changes I've been through. So I refreshed them to something that will now stick :)
New Ref Animations
The match ref now has a few new animations in and out of matches just to add a touch more personality to this helpful character(s)
New Sting Text Animations
When you score a Zone Break the old messy text is gone and a new full screen effect happens. On top of this there's also a new slomo text sting display for Extra Time and Sudden Death, just to add a bit more dramatic flair to your proceedings.
New Ambient Stage Particles
All stages now have new unique ambient particles on them to add a touch of extra atmosphere
New Music
A new song plays when you get the milestone notifications.
What's Next?
Well I'm on the finishing straight now. This update is a bunch of fixes and some smaller mostly aesthetic additions, but I've already put quite a few hours into the next update. That one will add a whole new character to play as!
After that there are two major game additions to get implemented: Reply saving and viewing in the gallery cinema, and the tons of in game collectable trading cards to collect and view (complete with additional lore!)
After after after that... It's getting the remaining missing sounds done and implemented, all the audio levels balanced (I'm aware they are all over the place currently), and then just a thorough bug fixing session.
Until next time...
Peace & Love
Paris x
ZONERS v0.5 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Brand New Intro animation
Updated Paris Stalker & all in indie logos
REF the Referee has new animations in and out of matches
New match sting text animations for Zone Breaks, Extra Time & Sudden Death
New unique ambient stage particles added to every stage
Added music for when milestone and unlock notifications play
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Fixed issue where Piro's projectile would not be the right colour when playing with alternative colour palettes
Fixed issue where characters would be drawn upside down when electricuted by Bzzt
Crabhammers Hyper move ball gravity changes should now correctly revert when it ends, including if multiple of the same move are active
Applied a general fix where some character's supers or hypers would not deactivate sometimes after a Round End. In some cases this would make the move untriggerable in future rounds
Fixed crash when a gamepad got disconnected during a match and the game tried to pause for the disconnected player
Character aiming and sprite rotation is now influenced by gamespeed
Fixed issue where character sprite rotationg/scale would be incorrect during some specific hit pause contexts
MENUS

Fixed bug with bonus money for milestones when multiple milestones are triggered at once
Fixed bug on first time playing when using keyboard input and selecting to view tutorial for the first time from the notification prompt
Reset everyone's music collection to set the music data to be correct from now on with updated list
Fixed bug in Museum Gift Shop where the very last possible item in a category would not be visible
When selecting the Special Items category in the Museum Gift Shop, your selection will always start at the top of the available list of items
Fixed bug in Academy when going back from Zoners Cup registration where the tab menu buttons would be wrong
When returnting to Academy from a tutorial, the song display text now draws over the tutorial menu
Fixed bug where Options menu would draw incorrectly if when accessing it from the Plaza and a milestone notification had appeared in the room beforehand
Fixed position of menu REF when returning from Match Maker to Plaza
Dialogue boxes now extended if max sentence length is too close to box width
Fixed issue with loading Dum-E's pause screen moveset during tutorials and Crabhammers in all scenarios
MISC

Optimised hit/explosion particle fx and improved colour behaviour
Fixed missing text for Dum-E training character's Hyper move
Fixed bug where match countdown start sound would play when king grants wish
Fixed issue where if you started a Zoners Cup after playing Match Maker with player 2 using a palette colour other than the default one, the first CPU opponent would have the wrong colour
Added missing music Artist credit in Intro sequence
Original post
15 Apr 2024Developer post
Time to Get Moving & Scoring!
Hey everyone, Dropping a hefty patch size wise this time (around 63mb). There's a metric ton of fixes, many of which are all thanks to bug reporting by the key art creator who created the gorgeous character hyper move portraits and most of the titlescreen art. Improved Bonus Game
Hey everyone,
Dropping a hefty patch size wise this time (around 63mb). There's a metric ton of fixes, many of which are all thanks to bug reporting by the key art creator who created the gorgeous character hyper move portraits and most of the titlescreen art.
Improved Bonus Games
But that's not all, we've got revamped versions of all 3 bonus games, They are SO much more fun now. Totally worth unlocking them for freeplay in the Academy. They pay for themselves quite literally!
Secret Tips
I've added a bunch of Pro tips to certain screen transitions. These often bring up secret techniques or mechanics the game doesn't teach in the tutorial. There's 23 of them, so get reading. But if you're done with them and don't want to press 'A' to proceed anymore, you can turn these off in the options menu.
Just go to Options -> Game -> set 'Show Tips' to off
Pause Screen Move Sets
Now when you pause the game, in most circumstances, you'll be shown the pausing player's move set! Along with the move name, input and a short animation of it in use, you'll also get a brief description of how it works. Super useful when you're getting used to a new character's quirks, especially when you've gathered friends together :)
Actually, most of the bulk of this patch download size wise is from this, as all the little move animations had to be image sequences to avoid platform compatibility issues and poor quality later down the line. I think it was worth it though as they go a long way to making the game more understandable.
You can see what this looks like in the video linked below.
Twitter Post With Video of New Pausescreen Movesets
Conclusions
As I said, there is TONS of fixes as well. Some of these are pretty major, so have a read through the patch notes if you're curious.
My list of things left before v1.0 keeps slowly shrinking. A lot of the remaining elements are quite time consuming, but I'm determined to get them done.
If you encounter any bugs or crashes please let me know so I can fix them!! Every time someone shares one in detail, I often track it down and fix it.
I think next I might finally get round to adding in the new intro sequence I've had the assets for for a while. This will also mean I can update my splashscreen logos to better reflect the person I am today and the goals I have. It'll be personally satisfying as well as really making that intro POP. First impressions amirite? Haha.
Well until next time amigos,
Peace & Love,
Paris x
ZONERS v0.45 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Character moveset information is now visible when pausing the game. The information displayed will be dependent on which player paused the game. These have move names, a simple explanation and an accompanying animation
One of 23 game tips are now displayed in some screen transitions. These tips mostly cover gameplay and some tell you things the game didn't tell you before! The game will wait for your input before carrying on. You can turn these off completely in the options menu.
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Bonus Games (All) - Current combo is displayed on holofield and not just in the top right
Ring Rally - Targets now move constantly, and gets faster every 5 hits
Ring Rally - New objects added to the back of your side of the court that slows the ball and drop its power level when the ball bounces into it
Ring Rally - Scoring revised from (20*combo) for normal and (20*combo)+200 for bonus to (50*combo) for normal and (100*combo) for bonus
Ring Rally - Attempted to fix issue where the ball could hit the ring target multiple times in one collision when it hit the edge from sharp up or down angles
Sphere Smasher - You now get double points when hyper state balls blow up the bubbles
Sphere Smasher - Bubble reset timers reduced from 10 seconds to 9 seconds
Target Takedown - Changed combo system to be hitting consecutive targets within a time limit. This time limit is represented by a draining meter on the field and gets shorter the higher the combo.
Target Takedown - Bonus coloured targets now only give 2x points rather than 3x
Target Takedown - Base points per target changed from 5 to 10
Target Takedown - Added 4 new types of target waves and changed the wave randomisation to a bag system rather than pure rng
Target Takedown - Changed the explosive target sprites to a bomb like sprite and the target sprites to... targets!
Target Takedown - Explosive targets no longer count towards a wave clear
Target Takedown - Fixed issue where some projectiles like Gluup's would get stuck bouncing on the Projectile Bouncers in some instances
Urnest - Fixed crash that could trigger when Urnest's Super connects with a hitbox that has just finished hitting a ball
Urnest - Fixed bug on The Clawcade when possessing the ball with Urnest's Hyper move and touching a stage hazard bumper would cause it to get stuck
Rhapsody - All notes in her projectile can now hit targets in the Target Takedown bonus game
Rhapsody - Fixed issue where characters that were in the daze state from Rhapsody's Super when instant replay starts would still be stunned afterwards
Crabhammers - Fixed issue where Crabhammers' Hyper move mech would still be visible after an instant replay
Crabhammers - When using Crabhammers' Hyper move and the ball was at 0 speed, the ball will now fall towards the Player rather than getting stuck bouncing up and down vertically
Crabhammers - Hyper move active portion reduced from 8 seconds down to 6 seconds
Fixed issue where players or AI would move during instant replay match transitions
Attempted to fix issue where ball would move whilst still in the reset state after a Zone Break
Attempted to fix issue where round wouldn't start and player would be softlocked
MENUS

Changed the default starting position when entering the Academy Career menu to be on the Zoners Cup
Fixed loading of bonus games from the free play bonus games menu
Fixed issue where Target Takedown and Sphere Smasher were the wrong way round on the Bonus screen menu
Removed highscore display during character select in bonus free play menu that was showing cup highscore
Fixed issue where bonus game name wouldn't display when loading bonus game from free play bonus game menu
Stopped issue where quickly entering and exiting the bonus games menu in the Academy could cause the looping sound of Sock spinning to stack up and never end
Fixed issue where exiting career menu when Puppet hadn't returned to original position and re-entering would cause unintended behaviour
Fixed bar tab menu when going back from zoners cup registration to career general menu
Fixed issue where some menus wouldn't let you back out correctly under certain circumstances
MISC

Fixed major issue where data wasn't being saved
Added Dum-E Hyper Move key art and animation
Added new energy strike effect when performing hyper moves
Fixed issue where SFX volume affects music and sfx
Fixed issue where match intro music would be affected by sfx volume rather than music volume
Fixed issue where ball clash sound wouldn't be stopped if instant replay was ended during clash
Stage specific sfx are now effected by the SFX volume
Fixed issue where the holofield graphic for a Clash would be scaled incorrectly for one player
Attemped to fix bug where sometimes music wouldn't play between rounds/matches until a Hyper move or Zone Break happened
Original post
26 Mar 2024Developer post
ZONERS v0.44.1 Patch Notes
- Fixed crashes during cup dialogue with certain characters - Fixed issue with Gluup's projectile explosions in Target Takedown bonus game
24 Mar 2024Developer post
VFX For Days - v0.44 Out Now
Greetings everyone! Today's update is a pretty exciting one. We've got tons of fixes and changes, a brand new tutorial & probably best of all a whole host of new FX work that makes matches in ZONERS even more satisfying. VFX Every character now has brand new hit fx for all of
Greetings everyone!
Today's update is a pretty exciting one. We've got tons of fixes and changes, a brand new tutorial & probably best of all a whole host of new FX work that makes matches in ZONERS even more satisfying.
VFX
Every character now has brand new hit fx for all of their moves and a ton of moves have received additional animations like projectiles ending etc. These FX made in conjunction with Gabriel Lima have added a ton of impact and personality and finally remove some of the last match placeholder assets visually
New comic book style text effects appear alongside various actions in matches! These are exciting colourful additions that again add even more visual spectacle. I'll be allowing players to turn these off in a future update
These images genuinely don't do the new VFX justice or the breadth of the improvements. So you'll just have to jump in and see how they are!
New Tutorial
The Basic Tutorial has been completely redesigned and is way clearer and more in depth on all of the game's core systems and rules.
Before I didn't really explain the goal system or some of the details, and during testing I kept witnessing the same confusion and difficulty. I believe this was a big hurdle to people enjoying the game, and it felt kind of cheap compared to a lot of the rest of the package.
Across the whole game I've also introduced new control sprites for gamepad facebuttons that make the whole thing much clearer. I'm hoping the onboarding for the game is much smoother for people now :)
Other Stuff
There's also loads of other smaller stuff, like balancing and bug fixes. With the new FX the King boss match at the end of the higher cup difficulties is even crazier. That's if you're good enough to get there of course ;)
Well check out the full patch notes below for a full list of what's shaking in v0.44. We genuinely are starting to get there aren't we? Let's do this thing!
Love & Peace
Paris
ZONERS v0.44 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Brand new melee and shot hit FX for every character, including King boss battle
New mid hit melee FX in 3 flavours (slash, blunt and magic)
New comic book style sound texts added to tons of match actions
Updated/Removed/Added new to the Holofield text gfx (such as Block, Super, Hyper)
Completely reimagined Basic tutorial that much more completely and clearly explains how the game works
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Piro Hyper active period increased from 60 frames to 75 frames
Ringressa shot now fires for its full duration but ends quicker when making contact with another player or ball
Ringressa shot is now more accurate length and slightly stronger
Ringressa shot has new effects at its end
Ringressa shot should now be cleared if round ends whilst one is in the middle of firing
Gluup projectile has destroy FX
Gluup Daze animation was missing, has been readded
Urnest projectile has new particle system attached
Rhapsody Projectiles and Super have destroy FX
Rhapsody Hyper shockwaves fixed issue where ball wouldn't be hit by last shockwave
Rhapsody Hyper shockwaves travel 42% further
Crabhammers bumpers and pieces now have hit and destroy fx
Princess projectile now has destroy fx
Dum-E Super now creates a cluster explosion effect for 60 frames where it stops and the life timer for each explosion is very slightly randomised making it more like a shotgun
Dum-E Hyper has been changed so that rather than dashing forwards with the punch, they now throw the giant boxing glove punch ahead of them on their spring arm as a disjointed hitbox
King Tennis projectile attack sprite updated
King Tennis projectile no longer gets smaller during rally
All King projectiles now have destroy FX
King's Spear attack has been fixed so it collides with player again but also there's more time to react between it appearing and flying across the screen
Fixed display of damage values to king when Hi-Res fonts are turned on in the options
When deflecting projectiles the effected character will now skip to the end of their melee animation
Stopped parries working on balls during match breaks (e.g during match start countdown)
Changed Clash graphics to appear on top and not on the back holofield to make sure info can be seen
Fixed Hologram House stage displaying in the wrong version when doing the tutorial.
Fixed drawing of the goal points when using hi-res fonts
Fixed drawing of aiming reticle when using KB+M controls during tutorials
Edited the Melee & Projectile Spin Advanced Tutorials so you can no longer move or dash to make it clearer how to play
Fixed issue with Clawcade bumpers not always "triggering" when ball bounces off them
Goal shields now reset at the start of every round rather than wait for a timer
MENUS

Updated all instances where face button controls are displayed to show controller specific sprites (Nintendo, Xbox & Playstation) and not just generic unmarked diamond buttons
Updated most holofield text fx with a new style
Fixed audio ducking of character themes during cup dialogue emote sfx so it happens again
Slightly brightened the blue text highlight that can appear in textboxes
Fixed issue when quitting the cup in the middle of the King match battle and trying to do the training
Fixed crash when setting a specific profile's automatic assist set ups in the profile options menu
MISC

Font for Hyper Move name displays changed to brand new one
Hyper move portraits and names now display in instant replays too
Fixed a bunch of crashes that happened during instant replays
Original post
29 Feb 2024Developer post
v0.43 Patch Notes - Tournie Unlock & Alt Stage
ADDITIONS Can now select Hologame House alternate version that appears in the Bonus Games as a stage variant. No gameplay differences Added "Tournament Unlock" button to the Options menu, under game settings. This unlocks all character colours and stages but disables saving until
ADDITIONS

Can now select Hologame House alternate version that appears in the Bonus Games as a stage variant. No gameplay differences
Added "Tournament Unlock" button to the Options menu, under game settings. This unlocks all character colours and stages but disables saving until resetting the game
FIXES & CHANGES
MENUS

Fixed dynamic music shifting in 2v2 mode
Updated the ball power colour for level 4 in the custom match settings to reflect changes to colour spectrum from last year
MISC

Fixed the background displays on Hologram House to match the character palette swaps
Fixed display of Hyper move names when starting a Hyper move with Hi-Res fonts turned on
Original post
27 Feb 2024Developer post
v0.42 Patch Notes
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY Made it so the rhythm of fx and triggering of sfx for each character's melee when connecting with a ball is unique to each character Updated the melee mid hit sfx for each character so it's unique Fixed issue where playing a hazardless match maker mat
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Made it so the rhythm of fx and triggering of sfx for each character's melee when connecting with a ball is unique to each character
Updated the melee mid hit sfx for each character so it's unique
Fixed issue where playing a hazardless match maker match before playing a cup would make cup stages be hazardless
MENUS

Fixed issue where the default left shift key for left spin on keyboard and mouse controls wouldn't display sprite in various locations unless manually set by the player
MISC

Fixed issue when playing on widescreen resolutions such as 21:9 where the right side of the screens display would be covered incorrectly
Fixed various issues during a number of circumstances where black bars drawn to account for resolutions that aren't 16:9 would not cover all elements properly or would be drawn incorrectly
Original post
21 Feb 2024Developer post
v0.40.1 & v0.41 patch notes
MENUS Fixed crash when trying to open the options menu after a single player match of some description (cup, training etc) Fixed textbox sizing and dynamic line length coding for character textboxes when using the hi-res fonts so that line are correctly placed and new ones made i
MENUS

Fixed crash when trying to open the options menu after a single player match of some description (cup, training etc)
Fixed textbox sizing and dynamic line length coding for character textboxes when using the hi-res fonts so that line are correctly placed and new ones made in a similar manner to the original pixel fonts
Fixed display of the input keyboard when using the Hi-Res fonts options, where before the lettes would be abnormally large and make it impossible to discern
Fixed display of other text elements when input/changing a name in profile menu with hi-res fonts turned on
MISC

Fixed crash when starting a new game and it creating a new save file
Fixed issue with game display when any size that isn't a standard width ratio. The game should now display correctly on all aspect ratios, even with multiple monitors
Fixed issue where you couldn't drag around the windowed mode window when the last input was keyboard and mouse
Original post
19 Feb 2024Developer post
It's Good To Talk - v0.4 Out Now!
Greetings ladies, aliens and all in between, It's time for v0.4 and with it we finally add all the additional plaza staff menu interactions and a couple of extra achievements are now unlockable. It's Good To Talk Now when you choose to chat to any of the menu characters you'll ge
Greetings ladies, aliens and all in between,
It's time for v0.4 and with it we finally add all the additional plaza staff menu interactions and a couple of extra achievements are now unlockable.
It's Good To Talk
Now when you choose to chat to any of the menu characters you'll get a new menu with a whole load of new dialogue options to choose from! As you complete the cup with more characters you'll also unlock more dialogue for each of them.
This dialogue is not only neat flavour text, some of it has some additional information and opinions of the other characters. I've also made this text all work better than it did before in both display and interaction. Nice!
Achieving Greatness
There's also two of the hidden achievements now unveiled and ready to unlock. One of them, "The Hidden Chest" is especially difficult and will require you reading dialogue to maybe solve a puzzle. "A puzzle?! In ZONERS?" Yeah, just a small one. I'm curious if anyone will solve it!
What's Next?
Probably fixing up the Bonus Games so they are more balanced and fun is next on the agenda. I'm also going to maybe take a look at redoing the Basic Training so it's much more engaging and makes a lot more sense.
Love & Peace,
Paris

ZONERS v0.40 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Added many new dialogues for all the plaza menu characters. There is now multiple dialogues from the start and more will unlock as you complete the cup with more characters. This means there's a minimum of 8 new dialogues to see for Cent, Gossloth, Jan and Sock & Puppet
Achievement "Chatterbox" is now unlockable by seeing all the staff character's dialogues
Achievement "The Hidden Chest" is now unlockable
FIXES & CHANGES
MENUS

When hovering on the "Chat" option on the bar tab menus, a pointer will display on the character you'll be chatting to
When you select the "Chat" option from the bar tab menu, a new menu will appear that will let you select which dialogue you wish to view
When chatting to any character in the menus, their textboxes will behave the same way as when viewing pre-match dialogue in the cup, allowing you to speed up the text and proceed as normal
When chatting to any character in the menus they will now all have emotes display when appropriate
Jan & Gossloth now have new non-talking idles when chatting
Slightly adjusted behaviour of voices and animations when talking to plaza staff
The Bonus Games option in the Academy registration is now selectable even if none of the bonus games have been unlocked by the player yet
A secret has been added to one of the menus tied to the new achievement...
Changed the display of locked bonus games slightly so the name of the game is still readable
Original post
14 Feb 2024Developer post
18 New Stage Variants - v0.39
Howdy all, Today I bring unto you 18 new stage variants to mess about with in Match Maker mode! What Are Stage Variants? You may remember when selecting stages that you could choose between hazardless and Type Alpha. With this patch, we introduce Type Beta and Type Gamma to all t
Howdy all,
Today I bring unto you 18 new stage variants to mess about with in Match Maker mode!
What Are Stage Variants?
You may remember when selecting stages that you could choose between hazardless and Type Alpha. With this patch, we introduce Type Beta and Type Gamma to all the stages with hazards/gimmicks. These change the layout, timing, size or movement of the various gimmicks, as well as sometimes goal sizes, to create new scenarios to mess around on.
For example... Rememeber the cool portal stuff on Ring Research? Well in Type Gamma the entire ceiling and floor is a portal, making for absolutely wild plays.
The following screenshots show Alpha, Beta & Gamma on The Clawcade as an easy to see example:
There's also a few small tweaks and fixes to some of the stages to improve how they play. Full patch notes below!
What Am I Up To?
Believe it or not, I spent most of January's dev time seeing how feasible getting a simple online implementation into ZONERS would be using Steam's API. I got something extremely rudimentary working and may continue working on it in the future to add to the public build at some point, but have decided to focus on getting some of the other bits done first so that the rest of the game's content and polish can be rounded off as intended.
In order to maintain my sanity after years of working on ZONERS to... 76 sales... I've also begun putting a few hours into prototyping new game ideas so I can hit the ground running when ZONERS is done.
In many ways, ZONERS is more feature rich and detailed than many complete indie multiplayer games already, but there's still a sizeable amount of things on my list that I'd love to get in the game before I call it quits. If I was working full time on the game, it'd probably only need a few months of focused work, but I increasingly get less and less dev time and so it's taking a while to finish off. Bit by bit, piece by piece, it's getting there!
Peace & Love,
Paris
ZONERS v0.39 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Added 2 additional stage variants to 9 of the 11 stages (Circle Circuit through to Stardom Stadium). These are available in Match Maker without any unlocking required. When selecting your stage and choosing between hazardless and type alpha, you now have types beta and gamma as selectable! These take the existing hazard gimmicks from type alpha and change their layouts, frequencies or behaviours to create new scenarios to play on. In some cases the sizes of the goals various states will also be altered. Enjoy the 18 new stage scenarios this brings and find your favourites.
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Circle Circuit - changed direction of wheel arrows for type Alpha
Circle Circuit - made it so projectiles are now effected by the wheels again
Plazzma Penthouse - ball cannot be repelled by the magnet sides beyond a certain angle up or down to stop the ball getting stuck bouncing too vertically
Ring Research - Type Alpha Portals made larger and now have a simple idle animation
The Clawcade - Bumper collision masks tightened
The Clawcade - Way players interact with bumpers fixed and improved
Stardom Stadium - Fixed inconsistent delay between sides
Fixed crash that could happen when playing a 1vs1 after a 2vs2
MENUS

When selecting a stage variant in the stage select screen, a new view of the variant is displayed over the galaxy map on the background screen
Fixed the menu guide REF's opening dialogue in Match Maker, Academy & Museum Lobby
Fixed bug introduced in last patch that made you unable to go back the right way when selecting the AI opponents in match maker
MISC

Haunted Hangout - Fixed spectators sprites so that they have glow as originally intended
The Clawcade - Fixed crab bumper display and animation during instant replays
Original post
04 Feb 2024Developer post
ZONERS v0.38 Patch Notes
ZONERS v0.38 Patch Notes FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY You can now perform Blocks on stationary balls Fixed issue where ball would sometimes appear to jump randomly to another incorrect position when hit with the final part of a melee in some angled circumstances (more noticeable
ZONERS v0.38 Patch Notes
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

You can now perform Blocks on stationary balls
Fixed issue where ball would sometimes appear to jump randomly to another incorrect position when hit with the final part of a melee in some angled circumstances (more noticeable at non-standard sizes)
Attempted to fix issue where ball would sometimes not complete being hit by a melee move if hit during the early parts of the active phase just on the edge of a character's range (more noticeable at non-standard sizes)
Attempted to fix issue where players would become unable to block the ball after a zone break in some circumstances
Speed clamp when electric status is applied to a player has been lowered
Adjusted AI behaviour regarding dodging projectiles such that it should be less likely to get stuck in a loop or dodge projectiles that are not necessary to dodge
Bzzt projectile buffer reduced from 14 ->10 frames, projectile active reduced from 10->8 frames, and projectile endlag reduced from 14-10 frames
Bzzt projectile electric status time inflictions increased from 15->30 frames for normal and 30->60 frames for charged
Gluup normal projectile end of life explosions can no longer be deflected
Gluup Super ends after a set amount of explosions when connected with ball as originally intended
Gluup Super doesn't do it's combo explosions if destroyed by another projectile
Gluup Super no longer causes unintended hitpause during collision with ball that made it very hard to respond to
Urnest Super gets cleared by other super's and hypers properly
Urnest Super is now always "physical" during all phases as intended
Urnest Super catches opponents during outward movement properly
Urnest Super attempted to fix game sometimes getting "stuck" during certain interactions with this move. Please report specific circumstances if you encounter this again
MENUS

Fixed crash when completing cup with any character that isn't Piro caused by unintended corruption of character completion list. If your list is corrupted, it will be reset upon next starting the game
Bar menu current selection has added animation
MISC

Slightly Optimised instant replay system
Original post
06 Jan 2024Developer post
ZONERS v0.37.1 Patch Notes
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY Fixed crash when completing the Parry tutorial in advanced training and proceeding to the next training MENUS Updated sound during cup ending sequence to have a crowd and make the "See you next time/You're a true champion" happen when the results scre
03 Jan 2024Developer post
Power Ups & Credits - v0.37 Out Now!
Happy New Year! Let's start it with a small bang by dropping the next ZONERS update. The main additions this time are an updated Cup Credits sequence & new power ups option in the custom match settings! POWER UPS You can now customise your match settings to allow for power up
Happy New Year!
Let's start it with a small bang by dropping the next ZONERS update. The main additions this time are an updated Cup Credits sequence & new power ups option in the custom match settings!
POWER UPS
You can now customise your match settings to allow for power ups to randomly spawn during matches with a wide variety of effects! Check out the patch notes below for more details on how this works.
CREDITS
I've updated the credits assets with new artwork from Gabriel, showing a new celebration screen prior to the interactive credits which also now save your highscore!
WHAT'S NEXT?
The next update should include a bunch of Stage Variants to select in Match Maker mode. These will be variations on existing stages that have hazards that change the layout or functioning of the hazards to create even MORE more options!
CONCLUSIONS
So a relatively small update this time, but one that still adds yet another new way to play the game. Here's to a new year and the one in which ZONERS will reach v1.0?!
Peace & Love,
Paris
[ZONERS v0.37 PATCH NOTES]
ADDITIONS

Added Power Ups option to the custom match options. This can be set to Off, Rare, Normal or Frantic frequencies and you can also alter the types of power ups that appear (All, Good, Bad, Always Random). When turned on, Power Up bubbles will randomly spawn in the field and bounce around. If a player touches it a temporary effect will trigger based on the icon. Effects currently include: Player Grow, Player Shrink, Move Faster, Move Slower, Add Zone Meter, Reduce Zone Meter, Electrocuted, Dazed, Frozen, Goals Smaller, Goals Larger, Goals Recharge, Goal Shields Destroy, Random
Credits sequence now has winner with trophy & crowd leading into updated credits scroll with all new final assets
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Your highscore for the credits sequence is now saved and also viewable in the hall of fame data
If the ball is not near you, you no longer move slightly in the direction you are pushing when a melee switches from buffer to charge/active phase. This is to create more consistency when trying to position yourself ahead of time, especially in non-typical match scenarios
Fixed issue where characters that were larger than the default scale from custom match settings could get stuck on the centre line when moving from stand still
Decreased the vertical size of Piro's melee hitbox
MENUS

Fixed issue with some custom match settings not saving and loading correctly
Fixed display of Character with most Wins/Losses in the Hall of Fame Character Stats page
MISC

Character sprites face right way during daze and electric status effects
Stun smoke no longer produced during freeze status effect
Player status effects now play back correctly during instant replays
Original post
17 Dec 2023Developer post
ZONERS v0.36 - New Match Types, Character Art & More!
Howdy all, Phew, what a mad couple of months it has been for me. Both physically and mentally a lot to tackle, but I'm doing well. I hope you've all had a good holiday season thus far. Well, it's about time I fixed a bunch of things as well as introduce some new ways to play and
Howdy all,
Phew, what a mad couple of months it has been for me. Both physically and mentally a lot to tackle, but I'm doing well. I hope you've all had a good holiday season thus far.
Well, it's about time I fixed a bunch of things as well as introduce some new ways to play and delicious new artwork!
NEW MATCH TYPES
There's now THREE new ways to play ZONERS in Match Maker! When you go to make a custom match ruleset, select the Match Type button and flick through the options to try these out.
Block Break: Break your opponents regenerating blocks to score the points shown on them
Defender: Try and break all of your opponents blocks before they break yours!
Bomb Pass: The ball is now a bomb and will explode after a random amount of time has passed. Try to keep it on your opponent's side of the field. This one is particularly chaotic with multiple balls.
I've also made the Zone Breaker match type unlocked from the start. Full details on these new game types are in the Patch Notes below.
New Artwork
Amazing new art work of the characters by the End Card artist Kevin Butler has been put to good use for an amazing new title screen and lovely animations when triggering hyper moves. I've also used these to update all the Steam capsule assets etc. I think these encapsulate the flashy quality of the game nicely!
What's Next?
The next update should come sometime in January. I'm hoping to add the update new updated Credits assets I've just received & a new Power Ups custom match option that will spawn random power ups during the middle of the match for even more unnecessary chaos!
Further Ahead...
Looking further ahead, I think it's time I accept that some of the content I was hoping to get into v1.0 might need to be pushed back to free post launch content if the game does OK sales wise. Development has taken much longer than I initially anticipated, and this is ignoring the huge amounts of time I devoted before EA launch.
My life has changed dramatically in some ways, whilst also being stuck. I absolutely refuse to leave the game in an incomplete state, and I hope you can see from recent updates how much you can mess about with it as I continue to expand the ways you can play. I'll keep you all updated on the new targets when they get locked in, but I think the most likely thing that will be pushed back are some of the additional characters due to the sheer amount of work each one adds.
Conclusion
Well, there's a lot more in this update than I talked about above, so make sure to read through the patch notes.
Have a great holiday period, however you do it, and I look forward to absolutely smashing the rest of this game out in the new year for you!
Peace & Love,
Paris
ZONERS v0.36 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Added new Block Break match type to custom match settings - A column of blocks sits at the back of each player's side of the field. Hitting an opponents block with a ball scores you the amount of points on the block. The middle block scores the highest and the ones closest to the edges the least. Blocks disappear after being hit but respawn in line with the goal shield times
Added new Defender match type to custom match settings - 15 blocks in 3 columns of 5 sit at the back of each player's side of the field (in default settings). Every time a block is hit by a ball it's destroyed for good, reducing your total by 1. If all of a player's blocks are destroyed they lose. Try to be the last one standing!
Added Bomb Pass match type to custom match settings - The ball is a bomb! Once hit, a timer will be set and it'll begin counting down. If the bomb hits a back wall, 3 seconds are taken off its timer. If it's on your opponent's side when it explodes you'll score a point! First to a score of your choosing wins
A brand new titlescreen has been added
New animated character portraits based on the new titlescreen art displays when triggering hyper moves

FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Piro shot no longer shrinks over lifetime and life span changed from 60 to 75 frames
Fixed Clawcade crash introduced after changes for 2v2
Updated ball gravity to be effected by custom ball speeds
Fixed ball gravity variables getting messed up after Crabhammers hyper move
During instant replays, the ball now correctly shows the effects and sounds for scoring a goal every time
Fixed issue in clash tutorial where doing a melee straight after winning a clash would count towards the objective
During King match, when King does Pet Turret and Shield move, sfx now play when the shield takes damage
When using keyboard and mouse controls, the mouse cursor updates position to follow character's speed during active portion of melee move
Fixed issue where game would freeze when completing matches of 2 rounds or more with infinite time
Improved AI's ability to respond to attacks from close to the middle point
Fixed bug where if you dashed the same frame you started the active part of a melee your hitbox would still be active
When playing with more than 1 ball active and the multi balls are started again, all balls will set off with the same speed as intended
MENUS

Zone Breaker match type is now unlocked to use from the start and associated unlock milestones have been replaced with bonus money
When changing match type a description of the match type is shown at the bottom
When changing match type some settings update to a default value for that match type
When choosing whether to load or save a template, the name of the template no longer is visible
When saving a new template a new digital keyboard is displayed for name input with a gamepad
Max template name length has been increased from 10 to 15 characters
Fixed text scroll display in CSS when choosing mode other than Time or Score
Updated the profile name input to a virtual keyboard for gamepads that matches the one used in custom match template name inputting
Improved the "Outline Playfield" accessibility option
Fixed issue introduced in last patch where you couldn't choose your profile in the Academy menus properly
Fixed issue introduced in last patch where you couldn't navigate or leave the cup registration menus
Fixed crash during cup dialogue introduced from last patch
Fixed crash introduced in last patch that happened on some menu transitions
Fixed crash when retrying Clash Tutorial
Fixed crash in shop when buying certain character colours and going from the bottom to the top of the list
Fixed Special Items menu from having a blank spot at the bottom
Removed achievements associated with unlocking additional match types
MISC

Urnest now does a silhouette like every other character on Core Castle stage during the background transition
Princess' last colour palette cloak effect altered slightly
Princess' cloak effect now properly displays on alternative palettes for her moves and end of match victory
King's theme now correctly stops playing if you skip the pre-match dialogue
Tons of small other fixes
Original post
30 Nov 2023Developer post
Quick Update
Hey everyone, just a quick note from me, I'm aware there are some issues with the current build and have managed to fix most of them on my end already. Unfortunately, I updated the engine before posting a newer build and it broke some things which has delayed the fixes. It is com
17 Oct 2023Developer post
ZONERS Goes 2v2!
Hey all, Phase 2 has officially begun, and the first update is a doozy. I introduce to you the totally chaotic, probably completely unbalanced and unfair 2v2 to the match maker. Play with any combination of human and AI players in teams of two. To accommodate this mode I had to c
Hey all,
Phase 2 has officially begun, and the first update is a doozy. I introduce to you the totally chaotic, probably completely unbalanced and unfair 2v2 to the match maker. Play with any combination of human and AI players in teams of two.
To accommodate this mode I had to completely change how a whole boat load of inputs and variables are captured, but I think it's been totally worth it. Even just playing with CPUs I've had a great time.
Speaking of which, you might have noticed the last few updates the AI was a bit broken (as in barely functioned). This patch makes it a lot more reasonable again thankfully as well as a few of the usual tweaks and fixes. Full patch notes below!
Peace & Love,
Paris
[ZONERS v0.35 Patch Notes]
ADDITIONS

2v2 mode is now selectable in Match Make mode! Play with 4 players or any mix of human and cpu opponents. After everyone has selected characters and a stage, you'll be able to pick a team in any combination of two you desire
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Bzzt - Reduced the distance the ball or projectiles with spin applied travel before their sharp angle turn
Ringressa - shot can now be deflected by melees again and now under every circumstance as normal
Rhapsody - Altered spin values slightly so it's a slower turn but at earlier distances
Fixed issue with AI where it wouldn't release it's melee moves
Fixed issue with AI where it would try and projectile when ball is moving towards it rather than away
Fixed issue with AI where it would be able to aim backwards when on the left side of the field
Lots of other small AI tweaks to generally try to improve behaviour
King cup match hp reduced from 150 to 125 on Super Rank and 250 to 175 on Hyper Rank
Fixed bug with default keyboard controls for spin being wrong
MENUS

Changed how the underlying controller detection works to accommodate 4 player
Characters now bob in the match transition animation
Original post
04 Oct 2023Developer post
The End of Phase 1 is here! - ZONERS v0.34
Greetings all, v0.34 Today v0.34 of ZONERS goes live and with it we officially reach the end of Phase 1 of Early Access development. This is a smaller patch focused on animating the training mode character (Dum-E), adding two new advanced tutorial missions and tweaking/fixing a f
Greetings all,
v0.34
Today v0.34 of ZONERS goes live and with it we officially reach the end of Phase 1 of Early Access development. This is a smaller patch focused on animating the training mode character (Dum-E), adding two new advanced tutorial missions and tweaking/fixing a few gameplay and other issues.
Dum-E will become fully unlockable and playable at some point in the future, complete with a very unique gimmick that you can't see in the training mode! But you'll have to wait for this, as their gimmick is effected by the other characters... ooo the mystery!
UPDATED ROADMAP
So with Phase 1 complete, it's time to update the road map to better reflect the current status of the game and goals going forward. If you take a look at the image below, you'll see a number of things have been moved around, combined and even added.
As always, these are subject to change. Currently the only thing taken away from v1.0 is the Trials, which I am now aiming to add after launch, provided there is enough demand. In this same vein, it is quite possible 1 or 2 of those extra characters in Phase 3 get pushed to post launch too. We will have to see how fast development goes on the remaining tasks.
For now, the focus is on adding new ways to play with Stage Variants, a special 2v2 mode & New Match types, as well as generally improving the other aspects of what's in the game to make everything as intuitive and clear as possible.
INCREASED PRICE DELAY
It's a constant point of deliberation in my own mind whether the price should actually go up as the game becomes more feature rich and complete. Looking at the state of the game, I've decided the price of the game will NOT be going up until the end of Phase 2. At this point, the game will be really quite polished, with a lot of fun to be had, and the final Phase being some pretty hefty additions that round the entire package out. I feel like this is a fair tradeoff.
Well I best get cracking on with Phase 2. As mentioned in previous posts, this isn't going to be such a long dev time to get complete relative to both the content and personal issues I had during Phase 1. But do expect the same undulations in terms of larger patches and smaller ones as I work to increase the game's options and modes of play, and make the whole thing from start to finish feel extremely polished.
Peace & Love
Paris
V0.34 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Dum-E's Idle, Move, Melee, Shoot, Super, Hyper, Hit, Stun, Wallstun, Quick Recover, Electric & Daze animations added
Added Parry & Clash Advanced Tutorials
Added Disable Melees & Disable Projectiles options to custom match settings
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Fixed bug with Ringressa's projectile where dashing through it would cause it to get removed instantly
Ringressa projectile laser now has a fading effect after completing so it doesn't instantly visually disappear
Ringressa projectile laser now updates visual distance properly depending on whats its path & calculates this in a more optimised manner
Fixed bug where when exiting a match during Crabhammers' Hyper move the ball gravity would not be reset
Dum-E base moveset Super move adjusted to have narrower spread, faster projectile speeds and shooter life span, making it more similar to a shotgun
Drawing in a Clash no longer stuns both players, it just knocks them back
Fixed issue where any situation with a ball gravity modifier would not account for pauses/slow downs in game speed
Fixed bug in main tutorial where holding the Super move before releasing it would trigger multiple "ticks"
Fixed crash in Ball Aura Advanced Tutorial when ball hit the projectiles
Fixed bug where currently selected Advanced tutorial rank requirements were dependent on the one you started with if you chose "Next Training" at the end
Fixed crash at start of King boss match
Fixed and improved darken background accessibility setting and updated the default value. Your profiles will need to be remade after this patch
Improved & optimised desaturate background accessibility setting
MENUS

In the custom match settings screen, moved the Disable Supers and Disable Hypers buttons to the Player category
Fixed bug on advance tutorial select when holding the analogue in a direction that would stop the cursor from moving
MISC

Updated the way character draw angles are handled when going from a moving to a idle state
Original post
26 Sep 2023Developer post
ZONERS v0.33 Out Now - Princesses, Parries & New Clashes
Greetings all! Today I bring to you v0.33 and along with it some exciting new changes. But first, Princess now has all of her animations and has been tweaked and balanced to improve her overall gameplay. Now the power she wields is much more evident! With this, all 8 of the base
Greetings all!
Today I bring to you v0.33 and along with it some exciting new changes. But first, Princess now has all of her animations and has been tweaked and balanced to improve her overall gameplay. Now the power she wields is much more evident! With this, all 8 of the base playable characters are now animated! Exciting stuff. This means we're finally drawing to a close on the end of phase 1 of the Early Access development, and more polish and content related goodies will start to be developed. More on that later.
Next let's talk about two of the bigger changes/additions to the core gameplay...
New Parry System
You might remember that parrys in ZONERS were what happened when you dashed into a ball, and if you dashed the moment a ball was touching you you'd do a perfect parry. Well no more! Perfect Parries have been completely removed from the game, and what were once called a Parry are now called Blocks (with accompanying in game graphics).
This change isn't just to remove something though, it is accompanied by a new mechanic which are the new Parry. Pressing the melee button the moment a ball is touching you will cause you to immediately return it in your chosen direction. This is a powerful but high risk move, especially at high speeds. This change was made to give the game more depth but also make the naming and behaviours more intuitive.
New Clash System
In ZONERS, when players melee a ball at the same time they enter a Clash state. Before this was resolved by both players mashing buttons as fast as they could. But this introduced some design balance issues as well as accessibility problems for a chunk of players. So after much though I redesigned the clash system to require one single, well timed press. Here's how it works:

Players enter a clash state
Graphics show up telling them to wait
After a randomly decided amount of time, the graphics change to "PRESS NOW!"
Whoever presses the button first wins the clash
If a player presses the button too early they automatically concede the clash there and then
But these aren't the only changes made to the game. In fact, there's been quite a lot of fixes and tweaks that should improve your experience overall. Scroll to the bottom for the full patch notes, but one example is there is now no longer an arbritrary limit on the number of projectiles you can throw!
What's Next?
So there should be one more patch and Phase 2 of Early Access dev will begin. This patch will animate the character you use in the training facilities and update the training modules to include the new Parry and Clash mechanics and make any appropriate alterations to existing ones.
Things will get pretty exciting pretty quickly after that. My extra artists will be producing lots of new assets, new content will be coming to the game in the form of match types and stage variants, and general game presentation will continue to improve, with many other things yet to be revealed. I'll update the roadmap at the end of phase 1 to convey the current state of the game and the new road ahead, as I continue to carefully consider what additions are worth my time for v1.0.
Peace & Love,
Paris
ZONERS v0.33 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS

Princess' Move, Melee, Shoot, Projectile, Super, Hyper, hit, Stun, Wallstun, Electric, Daze & Recovery animations added
A new action has replaced the old Parrys (which are now known as Blocks). To perform this new Parry you press the melee button exactly at the moment that a ball is in a small area in front of you and travelling towards your side of the field. Instead of doing a melee you will automatically do a Parry causing the ball to gain some power & aura and immeditately deflecting it in the direction your aiming with minimal pause. This move is risky as if you miss the parry you might miss also meleeing the ball if it's travelling fast, and you have less time to aim. However, due to it's very quick turnaround, it can be a deadly surprise, especially on balls in a hyper state!
FIXES & CHANGES
GAMEPLAY

Piro's projectile lifetime reduced from 90 frames to 60 frames
Piro's projectile now has a minimum size of 25%
Bzzt's projectile now has a limited life span of 30 frames (excluding deflections)
Bzzt's super can now hurt the king
Ringressa's projectile now leaves a small visual effect where it was firing during despawn to make where the laser was clearer
Gluup's Super no longer has the unintended effect of maxing out a contacted ball's level and no longer sometimes bounces during the explosion sequence
When Urnest applies spin to melee moves the amount the speed of the ball is modified is increased from 0.8x to 1.5x
Urnest's projectile deceleration decreased
Urnest's Projectile doesn't decrease speed whilst spinning and if it contacts a ball will knock the ball in the target direction
When Urnest's projectile grabs a ball on its return, Urnest will now do the new parry on the ball on contact
Rhapsody's spin amount lowered so it happens over a slightly longer period of time
Princess Melee drawing is now correct on both sides of the field
Fixed crash with Princess' Melee
Princess Projectile is slightly larger and more visibly changes between hold and move states.
Princess projectile now only bounces before it holds position
Princess projectile now knocks ball in final spin direction when it connects with a ball during the spin
Princess Super now indicates the direction the ball will be travelling after the rewind
Princess Super now also stores the hyper state and remaining time of said state of balls when activated
Princess Super adds 30 frames of hitstun to any balls in a Hyper state when the rewind happens making it less effective as a counter to opponents hyper moves
Hitting a ball after triggering Princess' Hyper now consistently will make the ball go into hyper speed
Princess' Hyper no longer causes vibrations the entire length of the time stop
During Princess Hyper time stop, she now draws in the correct place and updated FX for the inverse effect
Princess' spin on balls holds in place for a shorter amount of time
Normal character projectiles are no longer arbritrarily limited to 1 per character. Using Ringressa's when one is already active will cause it to end early. Urnest's still behaves like a yoyo. Crabhammers will despawn any existing bumpers when using his
Most projectile speeds have been decreased by roughly 10-20%
Most character moveset lengths have been increased by 1-10 frames
By holding the Super button down, Piro, Gluup, Urnest & Rhapsody's Supers can now be held for up to 30 frames before releasing, giving you time to aim them if you wish
Perfect Parries (dash the moment a ball touches you) removed from the game
What were known as Parries are now known as Blocks & have a new holofield graphic showing this
Removed the small hitstun that was applied to a ball when contacting one during the buffer part of the melee
Updated spawn position of Block holofield gfx text
Clash system has been changed from requiring button mashing to a single press. This makes it more accessible and each clash less predictable as just being the fastest masher was! Indicators on screen tell you to wait until a random invisible threshold is reached. Whoever presses the button faster wins. If you press too early you lose. If neither player presses in time then it's a draw. Think of it like a quick draw
Losing a clash now gives you 30 frames of hitstun first, then a reduced stun period of 30 frames (from 40 frames) and knocks you back with less speed
New clash holofield images to indicate various statuses and some small changes to the fx
Timer for ball being in hyper mode increased from 120 to 240 frames and hyper timer will always be a minimum of 60 frames left after contact with a melee
Adjusted the speed boost when ball has an aura so the max is slightly lower but the minimum it slows down to before the aura ends is 25% of final speed rather than 0%
Slightly decreased ball deceleration
Updated the way ball movement collision is handled so it can't go "through" certain objects in certain states at high speeds
Default round length changed from 120 seconds to 90 seconds
Fixed bug with move speed gravity during a stunned state not accounting for altered game speeds like hitpause or slomo
Fixed a bug where players that are in a hitstun state that contact a ball were having their direction of stun state altered
Fixed issue with auto melee assist not working
Adjusted AI melee behaviour, notably charging
Adjusted AI projectile behaviour to account for changes to projectiles
Adjusted AI clash behaviour
Fixed error in code that caused the AI's increased odds for super and hyper moves at higher AI levels to be flipped
Fixed crash during bonus games related to changes to slow motion goal changes from previous update
Fixed issue where the first bit of damage against the king would show up small
When King is defeated the background changes to original grid pattern so it's easier to see & more of the left over king objects are cleaned up
MENUS

Fixed bug in Match Maker when going back from arena select to the css before the arena select has faded in completely that the alpha values for the css would not be correct
All emotes during dialogue now have outlines to help them stand out more
Emotes during cup dialogue now have relative spawn positions based on each character's sprite. For example the "shout" emote will always spawn on the characters face co-ordinates
Removed "shot no" custom match option
Made "Ready" button stand out a little more in the custom match settings
Hidden the current mode settings in the bottom left when selecting custom match settings
Textbox coloured rim now properly appears on bottom edge
Fixed outline drawing on REF in the Gallery menu
Added outline to Zoners emblem medal during some transitions
MISC

Fixed visual bug where dashing into an edge of your play side would cause a massive distortion ripple
Fixed way tracked player distance is tracked so moving directly into a wall no longer counts as moving
Very slightly changed 1 line of dialogue of Princess with King based on feedback from representative group
White part of ball trail is longer to match more closely the coloured part
Fixed Ringressa's key art colouring on a part of it for palette swaps
Fixed very small part of Gluup's 10th palette
Fixed Gluup's colour palette main colours being the wrong way round on a couple of palettes
Updated Princess' colour palettes
Fixed bug with Ring Research background getting stuck with the crystals in their "pink" state
Original post