Today, Trombone Champ has been updated to 1.25E, one of the biggest updates in a long time! Mainly, this update adds the ability to play custom tracks without any mods & officially adds an in-game level editor.
[h5]Note: mod compatibility with 1.25[/h5]
As always, we've had this update available as a beta for a few weeks so that the community can get a head start on updating their tools. However, this update is much bigger than most: to natively support custom maps, we had to rewrite a lot of the code that handles how songs are loaded, how high scores are saved, how song data is managed, etc. There are a lot of changes under the hood! So, a lot of community-made tools are likely to be broken, and others may not be fully updated on day one.
[h5]"My game is busted, what do I do?"[/h5]
If you rely on mods that are broken by this update, you can load the previous version of the game by right-clicking the game in Steam, going to Properties, choosing Betas, and then choosing the "last_update" beta branch.
However, each update after this one will require the changes that 1.25 implements, so please check your mods for updates and hop on the newest version as soon as you can!
[h5]"I already play custom tracks... do I need this update at all?..."[/h5]
If you're already using community-made tools to load custom maps, this update probably won't help you out much! You'll probably want to continue using the game the way you already have been; or, maybe, temporarily rolling back to the previous update (see the note above).
But if you're a new player, have never installed mods, or only lightly dabbled in them, then this update should make playing with custom content much easier and we highly recommend sticking with 1.25.
Anyways, let's walk through all of the new stuff that 1.25 brings...
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[h2]
New Stuff in 1.25[/h2]
[h3]1. New Stuff: Custom Tracks & Collections[/h3]
The biggest change is that the game now natively supports custom maps, which you can manage through "collections." Simply drop custom tracks into the specified folders and they'll appear as collections in the Track Select screen!
If you put your tracks into subfolders, each subfolder of tracks will appear as a separate collection. You can even add jpg thumbnails and edit the collection names and descriptions with json!
We've made a video explaining how to load custom tracks here:
https://youtu.be/MoK1du9WPpw
"What types of custom maps are supported?"
- Any custom track with a png, jpg, or mp4 background should work.
- At the moment, custom tracks with 3D backgrounds built in Unity are not supported. The track should still load, but without the background. We MAY support these in the future, but at the moment, you'll need mods to get them working.
"Where do I get custom tracks?"
- The next major update will add Steam Workshop, which will probably be the easiest way to upload & browse community-made custom tracks. Until then we really can't recommend a specific resource!! You're free to search for and share tracks on your own, but make sure you're using music files that you have legal rights to use (public domain, royalty free, music you make yourself, etc).
[h3]2. New Stuff: Favorites![/h3]
With the addition of collections, we're guessing that users will be interacting with many many more tracks than the number that comes with the base game. Therefore, we've added the ability to "favorite" tracks! Every track has a little heart button that you can click to add the track to your favorites. Then, you can play them all in your Favorites collection!
[h3]3. New Stuff: The Tootmaker Released![/h3]
The built in track editor, which we call "The Tootmaker," has officially been released! It's been added right to the home screen. We're thrilled to finally have this as an official part of the game. Taking a song you love and turning it into a custom track — for any rhythm game, not just Trombone Champ — is a spiritually-enriching experience. Give it a shot!
It's easy to export and play tracks you make with the Tootmaker! When you're finished working on a track, simply click the "Package" button. The Tootmaker will copy all of your track files into a new folder, renaming them if necessary.
If you "package" your track into the default folder, your track will immediately appear in the "My Tootmaker Tracks" collection. But you can also package your track into another folder, like one on your desktop, so you can easily share it with your friends (if, of course, you have legal rights to use the music)!
Also, you can also use the Tootmaker to make tracks for
Trombone Champ: Unflattened, the VR port of the game!.
[h3]4. New Stuff: "Rhapsody in Blue!"[/h3]
This update also adds one new track: "Rhapsody in Blue!" We're beyond excited to have this song in the game. Trombone Champ is made in NY, and somehow there's never been a song that more perfectly captures "new york energy" than this one.
With its time changes, long runtime, and multiple sections, this track probably took longer to make than any other. We hope you enjoy it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFy8Wfmxgd4
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[h2]
What's Next for Trombone Champ[/h2]
Trombone Champ is a few years old and we're finally at the point where it's beginning to feel "mostly complete." Here's what we plan to do next:
- We're certain that we'll find a handful of bugs and quirks now that the game natively supports custom tracks. So, first and foremost, we'll be keeping an eye on things and looking for anything that needs patching!
We also need to make the Nintendo Switch version of this update! The Nintendo Switch will not have custom maps or a level editor, but it will get Rhapsody in Blue & other improvements.
- Our next step for PC & Mac is Steam Workshop integration. The game now loads tracks in a pretty smart way: you can basically specify any folder and the game can load all of the tracks in that folder. So, we think Steam Workshop may be pretty easy to implement at this point. Conversely, it would have been nearly impossible to get it working without all of the updates made in 1.25.
- After that, we'd like to revisit input. We'd love to have nice controller support, mainly so we can get the game working as smoothly as possible on the Steam Deck. Trombone Champ does work on the Steam Deck, but it doesn't control nearly as nicely as it could. (The game was released at a time when the Steam Deck was heavily backordered — we weren't able to get one until much later!)
- We're working on some cool secret stuff that we can't share yet! At the moment, we're not even sure how much of this stuff will pan out!
- After that, we're probably done in terms of significant updates, but we'll still continue to support the game, fix bugs, and add new tracks. By the time we reach this point, our time will be better spent on new projects & games! We're going nuts and can't work exclusively on a comedy trombone game forever!
We hope you enjoy 1.25! This one took a lot of work, but it transforms the game into something with the potential to be a creative tool rather than something you simply consume, which is very important to us. Thank you for your continued support!!
Forever in your service,
Holy Wow Studios 
