Mods & Game Updates
Hello! Often, when we release Trombone Champ updates that add new functionality, we receive a bunch of technical support emails about the game not loading songs, displaying a black screen, etc. 99% of the time, these issues are caused by having old versions of mods that need to be updated.
Thankfully, we've been working closely with the modding community to make sure that mod updates are available when Trombone Champ updates go live. And recently, modders have started recommending user-friendly mod managers, which make it much easier to install mods and receive critical updates for them.
We sometimes say "update your mods" when we push updates, but thought it might be a good idea to talk about mods in more detail!
[h3]Mods & Trombone Champ Compatibility[/h3]
Let's start with the basics: talking about how Trombone Champ's mods work. In short, they work by injecting code into the game's scripts, and sometimes replacing blocks of code in the game's scripts. Generally, the oldest mods for Trombone Champ would replace very large chunks of the game's code, while newer mods replace less code. Because of this, newer mods are less likely to cause game-breaking issues than older mods.
Because of how Trombone Champ mods work, any change to the base game - even very, very small ones - can result in the game locking up or crashing if mods are running.
On the dev side, we do all we can to prevent this from happening: to give a specific example, we've adjusted where we sometimes add new code in the Gameplay scene in order to lessen mod conflicts. Code that we would have normally added to one function might get dropped into another, if we know that the first function is heavily modified by mods.
Even with these precautions, any new elements or functionality—for example, in the newest update, the little "Max" star that now appears next to your combo multiplier when you reach 10x, the timer that appears when you unpause the game, etc—can sometimes require mods to be updated. It doesn't matter how small the change is: even a single new line of code can cause the game to lock up if, by chance, a mod references or changes the block of code where that line appears.
"Well," you may ask, "why didn't you include some sort of mod browser in the base game, that would allow the base game to support mods in a way that doesn't affect the standard code?" If we had any idea the game would be actually become popular, we would have! The game's success took us by surprise, to say the least... and by the time we started to think seriously about stuff like building out a level editor and allowing users to create and load custom tracks, the amazing community surrounding the game had already created thousands of tracks with technical capabilities far beyond what we'd ever imagined...
[h3]Working with the Modding Community[/h3]
For quite a while, we've been working closely with the modding community: we try our best to share Trombone Champ updates with mod makers a week or more in advance, so the modders can test the game's updates and see if any changes in the base game require their mods to be updated.
Because of this, modders usually have mod updates ready as soon as the updates go live. For example, when we updated the game from v1.10 to v1.11, modders knew exactly when we would push the update to Steam (3:00pm EST) and had their mod updates ready minutes later! Amazing!
However, having mod updates available is only one piece of the puzzle; users need to actually get the updated mods! Luckily, the mod users now have a nice solution in the form of mod managers.
[h3]Using Mod Managers[/h3]
It's a pain having to update mods by hand, so most of the modding community highly recommends using a third party mod manager application to download, use, and update mods. There are lots of benefits to using a mod manager application rather than installing them manually:
If you have any questions surrounding modding, there's an active Trombone Champ Modding Discord server, which you can find here. Again, please note that this is completely community-created and managed.
We've made a lot of changes to Trombone Champ since launch, and we plan to make a lot more. Some of the updates we'd like to eventually make will introduce much bigger changes to the Track Select screen, Gameplay screen, and more. So, the sooner you move your mods over to some sort of mod manager that makes them easier to update, the easier things will be in the future as the game continues to evolve!
[h3]Running Previous Versions of the Game[/h3]
If you have some custom mods that you absolutely need for some reason, and these mods break the game after an update, you can also choose to use an older version of Trombone Champ. This is not recommended unless absolutely necessary, as you'll miss out on the quality of life features, newest tracks, and bugfixes we're constantly patching into the game.
However, should the need arise: you can right click Trombone Champ in Steam, choose Properties, click Betas, and then choose the "previous_version" option in the dropdown. After clicking OK, Steam will redownload the previous version of the game. We generally update the previous_version branch after every large, significant update.
Make sure to check in on whatever issues you're having and opt back into the main branch as soon as fixes are available!
[h3]Deleting Old Mods[/h3]
If you have old mods installed, and want to move to using a mod manager, we recommend making sure you've deleted old versions of mods first.
Please note that, if you want to delete mods, uninstalling and reinstalling Trombone Champ through Steam probably won't do the trick. This is because Steam only manages files that are shipped with the base game, and doesn't touch files that have been added to a game's install folder. So, if you uninstall a game through Steam, all of the old mod files will probably still remain in the install folder.
If you want to completely clean an old Trombone Champ install, we recommend right clicking the game in Steam, clicking "Properties," and clicking "Browse Local Files" to see the folder where the game is installed. Uninstall the game through Steam, and then check the folder to see if anything is left over. You should be able to safely delete any files and/or subfolders left in the install folder. If you have a lot of custom tracks that you'd like to keep, make sure to copy those out of the Trombone Champ install folder before deleting everything!
Also, please note that your save files and settings are kept in a separate folder, so you don't need to worry about losing your progress when you uninstall the game or delete stuff in the install folder.
[h3]In Conclusion[/h3]
Thanks for supporting Trombone Champ and reading this whole post! Wow, this was a long one! In summary:
We'd also like to thank the modding community for their amazing work. We never expected the game to have such a robust modding scene, and it's been amazing seeing the stuff everyone's been creating!
Happy tooting!
-Dan of Holy Wow
Thankfully, we've been working closely with the modding community to make sure that mod updates are available when Trombone Champ updates go live. And recently, modders have started recommending user-friendly mod managers, which make it much easier to install mods and receive critical updates for them.
We sometimes say "update your mods" when we push updates, but thought it might be a good idea to talk about mods in more detail!
[h3]Mods & Trombone Champ Compatibility[/h3]
Let's start with the basics: talking about how Trombone Champ's mods work. In short, they work by injecting code into the game's scripts, and sometimes replacing blocks of code in the game's scripts. Generally, the oldest mods for Trombone Champ would replace very large chunks of the game's code, while newer mods replace less code. Because of this, newer mods are less likely to cause game-breaking issues than older mods.
Because of how Trombone Champ mods work, any change to the base game - even very, very small ones - can result in the game locking up or crashing if mods are running.
On the dev side, we do all we can to prevent this from happening: to give a specific example, we've adjusted where we sometimes add new code in the Gameplay scene in order to lessen mod conflicts. Code that we would have normally added to one function might get dropped into another, if we know that the first function is heavily modified by mods.
Even with these precautions, any new elements or functionality—for example, in the newest update, the little "Max" star that now appears next to your combo multiplier when you reach 10x, the timer that appears when you unpause the game, etc—can sometimes require mods to be updated. It doesn't matter how small the change is: even a single new line of code can cause the game to lock up if, by chance, a mod references or changes the block of code where that line appears.
"Well," you may ask, "why didn't you include some sort of mod browser in the base game, that would allow the base game to support mods in a way that doesn't affect the standard code?" If we had any idea the game would be actually become popular, we would have! The game's success took us by surprise, to say the least... and by the time we started to think seriously about stuff like building out a level editor and allowing users to create and load custom tracks, the amazing community surrounding the game had already created thousands of tracks with technical capabilities far beyond what we'd ever imagined...
[h3]Working with the Modding Community[/h3]
For quite a while, we've been working closely with the modding community: we try our best to share Trombone Champ updates with mod makers a week or more in advance, so the modders can test the game's updates and see if any changes in the base game require their mods to be updated.
Because of this, modders usually have mod updates ready as soon as the updates go live. For example, when we updated the game from v1.10 to v1.11, modders knew exactly when we would push the update to Steam (3:00pm EST) and had their mod updates ready minutes later! Amazing!
However, having mod updates available is only one piece of the puzzle; users need to actually get the updated mods! Luckily, the mod users now have a nice solution in the form of mod managers.
[h3]Using Mod Managers[/h3]
It's a pain having to update mods by hand, so most of the modding community highly recommends using a third party mod manager application to download, use, and update mods. There are lots of benefits to using a mod manager application rather than installing them manually:
- Mod updates get pushed automatically, so you should never need to worry about mods breaking when the game gets updated.
- You can easily see which mods are installed, which are available, and add/remove them with just a click.
- It's safer: you don't need to worry about breaking the game by installing mods wrong, or downloading malicious content by accident.
If you have any questions surrounding modding, there's an active Trombone Champ Modding Discord server, which you can find here. Again, please note that this is completely community-created and managed.
We've made a lot of changes to Trombone Champ since launch, and we plan to make a lot more. Some of the updates we'd like to eventually make will introduce much bigger changes to the Track Select screen, Gameplay screen, and more. So, the sooner you move your mods over to some sort of mod manager that makes them easier to update, the easier things will be in the future as the game continues to evolve!
[h3]Running Previous Versions of the Game[/h3]
If you have some custom mods that you absolutely need for some reason, and these mods break the game after an update, you can also choose to use an older version of Trombone Champ. This is not recommended unless absolutely necessary, as you'll miss out on the quality of life features, newest tracks, and bugfixes we're constantly patching into the game.
However, should the need arise: you can right click Trombone Champ in Steam, choose Properties, click Betas, and then choose the "previous_version" option in the dropdown. After clicking OK, Steam will redownload the previous version of the game. We generally update the previous_version branch after every large, significant update.
Make sure to check in on whatever issues you're having and opt back into the main branch as soon as fixes are available!
[h3]Deleting Old Mods[/h3]
If you have old mods installed, and want to move to using a mod manager, we recommend making sure you've deleted old versions of mods first.
Please note that, if you want to delete mods, uninstalling and reinstalling Trombone Champ through Steam probably won't do the trick. This is because Steam only manages files that are shipped with the base game, and doesn't touch files that have been added to a game's install folder. So, if you uninstall a game through Steam, all of the old mod files will probably still remain in the install folder.
If you want to completely clean an old Trombone Champ install, we recommend right clicking the game in Steam, clicking "Properties," and clicking "Browse Local Files" to see the folder where the game is installed. Uninstall the game through Steam, and then check the folder to see if anything is left over. You should be able to safely delete any files and/or subfolders left in the install folder. If you have a lot of custom tracks that you'd like to keep, make sure to copy those out of the Trombone Champ install folder before deleting everything!
Also, please note that your save files and settings are kept in a separate folder, so you don't need to worry about losing your progress when you uninstall the game or delete stuff in the install folder.
[h3]In Conclusion[/h3]
Thanks for supporting Trombone Champ and reading this whole post! Wow, this was a long one! In summary:
- If you installed mods in the past and your game is busted, you almost definitely need to update your mods
- If you're not using a mod manager, we recommend trying one out, as it will make things easier as the game continues to be updated.
- We try our best to update the game in a method that doesn't break critical mods, but large updates will probably break some mods anyways.
We'd also like to thank the modding community for their amazing work. We never expected the game to have such a robust modding scene, and it's been amazing seeing the stuff everyone's been creating!
Happy tooting!
-Dan of Holy Wow