You want to create a new moustache, level, announcer pack, robot wheel, particle effect, or audio track for Disco Dodgeball? This guide can help you get started and tell you what's currently possible or planned.

In general, the workshop is divided into two sections, with different items allowed and different ways to distribute the content.

These are free items with no curation - just subscribe to download them. Players can rate them though so good stuff will float to the top. In general, these will be items that only affect your local copy. There will also be very specific file / folder structure requirements so the game can correctly interpret the data.

• Spotify Playlists
  
• Bot Names
  
• Original songs
  
• Text Translations (coming soon)
  
• Announcer Packs (coming soon)

Since these require manual coding to have the game handle them automatically, the available items will expand over time based on my capabilities and the kinds of content that the community most wants to share. For instance, I'd love to enable things like HUD skins, game modes, levels, powerup icons, and KO type descriptions that can be instantly downloaded and demoed by players.

Once you have subscribed to an item, the game will integrate automatically. See the categories below for information on how to activate a specific item. Files will be downloaded to [Steam Install Directory]\Steam Library\steamapps\workshop\content\270450\[workshop item ID] if you need to inspect them for testing.

These are items that are voted on by the community. Every now and then I'll approve a set of items and add them to the game (usually based on community votes, but also at my own discretion). I will usually add them as in-game purchases directly from the Item Store (http://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/270450/), and/or have them show up as random item drops, and/or have them be sellable and tradeable on the community market. Creators will get a revenue cut if the items are bought or sold on the Item Store, but due to technical limitations, item authors will not receive a cut if sold on the Community (p2p) Market.

The following types of items can be submitted as Curated items:

• Robot Wheels (3D)
  
• Robot Bodies (3D)
  
• Robot Heads (3D)
  
• Robot Hats (3D)
  
• Dodgeball Skins (3D)
  
• Robot Faces / Moustaches (2D)
  
• Robot Glasses (2D)
  
• On Fire Particle FX
  
• Ball Trail Particle FX
  
• Sound Effect Packs

Some items like VO packs make sense in both categories - I'll leave it up to the item creator whether they want free access or want to sell it as DLC (or perhaps both). I suppose it should also be possible to also take a piece of free community content and turn it into a purchasable item or DLC pack if it's popular enough and the creator wants to make money off their work. A lot of this is still being worked out and may change based on input from the community.

Note that all submitted content MUST be original and contain no copyrighted content. Items that contain copyrighted content will be removed from the workshop and the submitter may be banned from contributing!

The Workshop is currently in beta mode, meaning it's not publicly visible.

You'll need to join the ddWorkshop Steam Group to be able to view, vote on, and subscribe to items. You may also want to subscribe to that group's forum to receive alerts when new discussions are posted.

Once you have joined, here is the link to browse the workshop: http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/270450/workshop/

You can browse by tag using the menu on the right-hand side.

In order to submit an item to the Workshop, you'll need to create it and configure it within Disco Dodgeball.

Once the game is open, navigate to Options / Workshop. When you're ready to create your first item, hit 'New Item' in the left-hand column. You'll see a page like this:


Ready-to-use items are free items that other players can download immediately. This includes things like Bot Names, original songs, announcer packs and Spotify playlist links. In general these are things that only affect a player's local copy - nothing that affects other players.

Curated items are submitted to a review queue that other players can vote on, and then the developer will review, potentially accept the item, and then integrate it into the game. This includes things like decals, robot hats, bodies, wheels, sunglasses, throw particle, FX, etc. If accepted into the game, the item will also be added to the Disco Dodgeball item store and you will earn a cut of revenue from direct purchases. The item will also generally be added as a random item drop, and thus can be sold on the Steam Marketplace between players (although this does not generate revenue for the author).


Whichever type of content you choose, the upload process is the same. After you've created an item, you'll see this screen:


Type: You must choose the type of item you are submitting. The types available are determined by whether you created a Ready-To-Use item or a Curated item. These affect how the items are filtered in the public Workshop view.

Visibility: You can set the item to Public, Private, or Friends Only.

Title: The name of the item that appears in the public workshop or within the game.

Preview Image File: A full path to a .jpg, .png, or .gif file that will appear as the item's icon within the public workshop.

Content Folder: A full path to a folder that contains (exclusively) your item's necessary files. For some ready-to-use items, that folder may contain a single text file. For more complicated items like 3D models, that folder may contain several textures and meshes.

Tip: you can easily copy the folder path in Windows by opening the folder and then clicking into the header bar:



Change Notes: Optional text that is publicly visible on the workshop that explains what changed in the latest version of the item.

Then hit 'Update'. You may be prompted to sign a legal agreement in order to publish your item, and may need to enter financial information if publishing a Curated item (because some items, if accepted into the game, may generate revenue for you).

Note if you are simply updating the title or visibility, you don't need to re-enter the preview image or content folder paths. You only need to fill these out if you are actually modifying the item's contents or preview image.

Once published, you can click 'view on workshop' to view the item. You can change a few more things here: you can add a longer description, you can link to a YouTube video showing off the item or audio content you created, and you can add more images.

There is currently no way to delete an item once it is created. You can set it to Private though.

It's helpful to be able to test out your 2D and 3D content in-game so you can make sure it looks good and also to create screenshots and videos that demonstrate your item in use. So I created a very basic Unity scene you can use to try out new customization items.

It contains a robot model you can drive around, swap in textures, create new particle effects, etc. It will require some basic knowledge of Unity. If you are an experienced Unity user or feeling particularly ambitious you could also build full levels in the sandbox and submit them as curated items.

Also note: the Workshop submit tools are not complete just yet, but I'm hoping to make them available over the weekend. For now you can get started creating moustaches, glasses, ball throw effects, hats, wheels, bodies, and levels, and then submit them later. I'll very soon provide more detailed information on all the types of content I'm hoping to accept.


Download Unity 5 (free): http://unity3d.com/get-unity Note: you must have at least Unity 5.0.1 to use the sandbox, older versions are not compatible.

Download DodgeSandbox.zip from my server: http://www.82apps.com/DiscoDodgeball/downloads/DodgeSandbox.zip

• Unzip DodgeSandbox.zip.
  
• Open and create a new project in Unity.
  
• On top toolbar, go to Assets / Import Package / Custom Package
  
• Select DodgeSandbox.unitypackage from the unzipped DodgeSandox folder
  
• Hit 'Import' in the small window that pops up

When assets are done importing, in the Project file browser double-click on Assets / main.scene to load the default arena containing the robot.

Locate InputManager.asset, ProjectSettings.asset, DynamicsManager and TagManager.asset within the unizpped DodgeSandbox folder. Move them all into the ProjectSettings folder (in Windows Explorer, will be in the parent folder to the Assets folder) and replace the other files that are there.

You're now loaded! You can hit 'play' at the top to drive the robot around. There's a README file in Assets with some helpful instructions.



If you locate the DodgeBot object in the scene hierarchy, you can expand it to view all of its components. The image below shows how you can navigate to the various face components:


In the example above, you could change the moustache texture by selecting the Moustache component, and in the inspector window on the right find the 'FaceMoustache' material component, click on the 'Select' button in its details, and pick a new texture from the window that appears.


Alternatively, you could just navigate in the project window to Assets / Materials / Robot / FaceMoustache and edit the texture that way.

To load in new textures, simply drag and drop new .png files into your Assets folder. It's helpful to keep them organized, for instance under Assets / Textures / Face, but it's not required.



If you're creating a simple 2D object like a moustache or glasses, you only need to submit your .png asset. You do not need to export an entire unity package.

However if you are creating a complex 3D object that contains materials and meshes, you need to export your object in prefab form within a unity package file.

To export your item as a unity package:

• Organize all of your item's content (meshes, textures) within a uniquely named folder under Assets. e.g. "Assets / MyRobotHat". It is ok to have subfolders within your item folder - in particular, Materials may generally be located in something like "Assets / MyRobotHat / Materials" but it is not critical.
  
• Make sure your object exists as a prefab, and that prefab exists within your item folder as well.
  
• To make a prefab: right click on your item folder and choose 'Create...Prefab'. This creates an new object with a small white cube as its icon. Then drag your custom, fully-assembed item from the scene and drop it onto the empty prefab item. The prefab icon will then turn blue to indicate it has been assigned. Rename as necessary.
  
• Select the prefab in the Project view (not the scene view).
  
  
  
  
• On the top menu, choose 'Assets / Export Package'. If you have selected your prefab correctly, only the necessary materials and meshes will be visible in this window. If you did not select your prefab, it will attempt to export every item in the project which makes it very difficult to import. This is how it should look, give or take whatever assets you happened to use in your item:
  
  
  
• Hit 'Export'
  
• Provide a name and save as a unitypackage in an empty folder.
  
• That folder, containing the single unitypackage, will be what you submit to the workshop as the content folder.
  
• See 'Submitting' above for instructions on actually uploading the folder & its files.

Following these conventions will make the item much easier to import and include into the official game and is very much appreciated!

- Anything with a different material should be on a different mesh. This is particularly important for materials that need to be tinted dynamically to match a player's team color, and anything that glows.

- Try to keep your vertex count below 1000. Disco Dodgeball models in general are not inspected up close so a lower-poly count approach is best to maximize performance and loading times.

- Name your meshes and materials appropriately

- Do not export from blender, just move the *.blend file into the Unity Assets folder of the sandbox.

- Check the import settings of your mesh

- Adjust rotation and scale - from within Unity or Blender.

You can upload a .txt file containing a new set of bot names as a ready-for-use item that others can download and integrate immediately. For now, these will only affect singleplayer modes.

• Create a new .txt file (using an application like Notepad)
  
• Type in a list of bot names. Names must be separated by commas. It's ok if they're on separate lines. It's best if they're not too long, as they may get truncated in-game.
  
• Save the .txt file into a new blank folder. (This will be your Content Folder during the upload process)
  
• In the in-game Workshop panel, select or create a new Ready-To-Use item, select the type "Bot Names", and follow the standard upload instructions described in the Submitting Items section of this guide.

• Subscribe to the item in the Steam Workshop
  
• Close the game and re-open if you already had it running
  
• Go to Options / Workshop
  
• Click on 'Bot Names' underneath 'Subscribed Items' in the left-side column
  
• Select the desired Bot Name script from the dropdown
  
• Start a new singleplayer game and you'll see the bot names replaced with the custom names.

You can use this feature to share your favorite external music playlists with other players.

Currently, only Spotify playlist sharing is supported.

• Open Spotify
  
• Find the playlist you want to share
  
• Right-click on the playlist and choose 'copy Spotify URI' (see image below)
  
• Open a new .txt file in an application like Notepad
  
• Paste in the Spotify URI
  
• Save the .txt file in a new blank folder (this will be your Content Folder during upload process)
  
• Follow the instructions in the 'Submitting Content' section of this guide.

• Subscribe to the item in the public Steam Workshop
  
• Close and re-open Disco Dodgeball if it was already running
  
• Navigate to Workshop / Dashboard / Subscribed Items / Playlists
  
• Select your desired playlist in the drop-down that appears
  
• Spotify will open to the playlist link

Announcer packs are collections of short voice samples that are played at specific moments in the game, like performing a special KO event or winning the match.

They are ready-to-use items that you can upload at any time and other players can immediately subscribe to them.

Once subscribing to an announcer pack, players select which announcer they want within Options / Audio.


A folder of audio files in format .wav or .ogg that correspond to the file naming conventions specified below. It will look like this:



It's a good idea to have a link to a video on your item's Workshop page that plays a sample of your clips so potential subscribers can preview the pack you've created.

You can optionally have multiple variations for each game trigger. In this case name them as such: catch_01.wav, catch_02.wav, etc. The critical thing is that the base string ("catch") matches the specification below. In game, when a voice sample is triggered, one of the variants will be picked at random.

Developer reserves the right to remove offensive content.

It's important to remove any sections of silence before each clip. i.e. the voice should begin exactly at the beginning of each file. Otherwise, it may interfere with the timing of clips played during the game.

KO Types Each of these KO Types should be represented. Note that .wav extension is specified below but they can be .ogg as well.

• catch.wav
  
• ricochet.wav
  
• midair.wav
  
• longdistance.wav
  
• quickdraw.wav
  
• ninja.wav
  
• midaircatch.wav
  
• backfire.wav
  
• denied.wav
  
• godlike.wav
  
• hotpotato.wav
  
• airstrike.wav
  
• duckhunt.wav
  
• topgun.wav
  
• dunk.wav
  
• flyingsquirrel.wav
  
• zombie.wav
  
• avenge.wav
  
• alleyoop.wav
  
• helicopter.wav

Fast Kills

When a player scores multiple KOs in a short succession. Note that you can actually have more versions than these, as long as it follows the format 'fastkillsX' where X is the number of KOs. e.g. fastkills6 is valid and will be played if a player KOs 6 players rapidly.

• fastkills3.wav (e.g. "Rampage")
  
• fastkills4.wav (e.g. "Massacre")
  
• fastkills5.wav (e.g. "Unstoppable")

Kill Streaks

Feel free to use your own terminology for these. Again, you can support longer streaks than what is displayed here as long as the file name matches the format 'killstreakX' where X is the number of KOs. e.g. killstreak10 is valid.

Note that killstreak5 is valid, but often won't be played because that's the default trigger for becoming On Fire and that audio clip takes precedence.

• killstreak2 (e.g. "Double Kill")
  
• killstreak3 (e.g. "Triple Kill")
  
• killstreak4 (e.g. "Mega Kill")
  
• killstreak6 (e.g. "Dominating")
  
• killstreak7 (e.g. "Monster Kill")
  
• killstreak8 (e.g. "Ultra Kill")
  
• killstreak9 (e.g. "Redonkulous")

Other Game Events

• score.wav
  
• assist.wav
  
• multikill.wav
  
• onfire.wav ("On Fire" - when you get a 5 killstreak)
  
• extinguish.wav
  
• yougotcaught.wav
  
• matchwon.wav
  
• matchlost.wav
  
• matchover.wav
  
• roundwon.wav
  
• roundlost.wav
  
• roundover.wav
  
• suddendeath.wav (When only two players are left in an elimination match)
  
• matchpoint.wav (When one team is one point away from winning)
  
• levelup.wav (When the player levels up)
  
• tensecondsleft.wav (When a timed match is almost over)

Taunts
Your announcer pack should have at least 15 laughs / taunts / quips that get randomly played whenever a KO type is normal. But the more the better! (The default announcer pack has 30.) They can be anything you want that you think players will enjoy. Use the format:

• taunt_01.wav
  
• taunt_02.wav
  
• etc.

2D Cosmetic items fall under the 'Curated Item' category. You submit some screenshots of your item, along with the source .png file, and other players can vote on whether they want it in the game. I'll take the highest-quality and best-voted items, add them to the game, and depending on the item type you could receive a cut of the revenue the item generates.

Types of 2D content you can submit:

• Glasses
  
• Moustaches
  
• Mouths
  
• Eyes
  
• Decals

If you want a template of the bot face, here it is: www.82apps.com/DiscoDodgeball/images/facetemplate.png (256x256 png)


All you need to do to submit is:
- Use the source .png as your preview image (or take an in-game screenshot using the sandbox)
- An otherwise blank folder containing your .png (This is the 'Content Folder')

Then follow the steps described in the 'Submitting Content' section.

You can upload *original* songs as a Ready-To-Use item. You absolutely, 100% must own the copyright or have license to distribute the song and any samples contained within. There is a zero-tolerance policy for uploading unauthorized copyrighted audio tracks and doing so will result in an immediate and permanent workshop ban.

If you are a musician and want your original song in the game, awesome! Once players subscribe to your song (and restart the game) it will be seamlessly added to their in-game soundtrack.

The song file must be in .ogg format or it won't play. To convert your song to .ogg:

- Download VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html (It's free, open source and has no adware)
- Open VLC and click Media / Convert
- Add your song to the File Selection window
- Click the arrow next to convert / save
- Choose 'convert'
- In the Settings panel, choose "Audio - Vorbis (OGG)" in the Profile drop-down
- Give you song a name that ends in .ogg

Then, place that file into a blank folder. That blank folder will be your Content Folder.

Follow the standard upload instructions specified in this guide. Basically: Go to options / workshop, create a new Ready-To-Use item, add a title, paste in a link to a folder that only contains your song in .ogg format, and hit Update.

Once it's live on the Workshop, it's highly recommended you go to that page and include a link in the description to your song on a site like Soundcloud. Even better, link a YouTube video that other people can use to directly preview the song.

It is possible to create entire levels within the Unity editor. The construction process will be much easier with a few plugins from the Asset Store: Specifically ProGrids for grid snapping, Prototype (free) for creating objects and manipulating their vertices, or its more expensive cousin ProBuilder which gives you better control over materials and UVs.

Alternatively, you can create models in a 3D modeling program like Blender and then import them into Unity.

New: I'm now accepting Level Concepts as workshop submissions. This means you only need to create an illustration (any format) or a very primitive 3D model prototype (in whatever modeling tool you prefer, including Google Sketchup) - whatever does a good job of explaining the layout of the level. I tend to have to do a lot of work to import levels on my end anyways, so I may as well open the doors to players that don't want to model a full level but have a good concept for what a level would be. Then if I like the concept, I'll use the tools on my end to create it and add it as a level.

Note that while Levels are curated, they aren't purchaseable, so there's no current way for workshop creators to earn revenue from levels they make.