Trombone Champ News

Howdy! We just pushed 1.17 live, which adds two new tracks, a handful of improvements and optimizations, and more.

Don't forget: if something about this update messes up your game, you can revert to the previous version (1.16) by right clicking the game, clicking Properties, going to Betas, and choosing the "last_update" beta branch.

Here are the updates:

• New tracks: "Arirang" and "Night on Bald Mountain." It took quite a bit of work to find a usable recording of "Night on Bald Mountain," beatmatch it, and edit it down into something actually playable... but we're very happy with the results! It's one of the most iconic classical pieces of all time and we're glad to have it join the game...
  
• Improved visual effect that triggers when "Champ Mode" activates.
  
• Added two new secret achievements...
  
• Tracks now attempt to resync at fixed intervals rather than resync being tied to tempo.
  
• Significant optimizations to the display of lyrics.
  
• Ability to toggle Motion Blur added to Graphics menu.
  
• Other bugfixes and optimizations.
  

The new "Champ Mode" effect actually comes from the Nintendo Switch version of the game. On the Switch, the "light bloom" post-processing effect was causing the framerate to dip slightly, so we made a custom graphic and animation. After looking at both versions for a while, we realized that the Switch's effect is actually a lot nicer than the one on PC, which only used the bloom. (The PC version still has the light bloom, but it's been toned down quite a bit...)

A lot of the updates we made might be invisible to most users, but should slightly improve performance & possibly solve weird issues that can pop up with long, intense custom-tracks.

What's next for PC?... here's what we're working on:

• With the addition of Korean, we're finally finished with localization on Nintendo Switch™, so we can start moving all of that over to PC. This is a big chunk of work, but since we've already done it on Switch, we're comfortable handling it!
  
• We've started really digging into Steam Workshop integration! The trickiest part of Workshop integration is that users need to be able to create and submit content from the standalone game itself. We're beginning this process by starting work on a nice in-game level editor. We already have a level editor in the game - this is what we use to make the new songs - but it's horrendously janky and not really usable by the public. So, we're doing our best to take the existing level editor and make it actually usable. Since we actually want the level editor to be nice, this will probably take a while, and we don't expect Workshop integration to be functional until 2024. However, we may have a level editor available for testing purposes before then...
  

Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for your patience!

-Holy Wow Studios

Hello everyone! We just pushed 1.16 live, which adds two new tracks and a handful of improvements...

(Note: This update DOES make some pretty significant changes to game logic, such as how the game calculates elapsed time. It also makes some minor adjustments to how notes are displayed. Therefore, this update probably will break a handful of mods.)

Don't forget: if something about this update messes up your game, you can revert to the previous version (1.15) by right clicking the game, clicking Properties, going to Betas, and choosing the "last_update" beta branch.

Here are the updates:

• New tracks: "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" and "Jasmine Flower (Mo Li Hua)!"
  
• Time calculation should now be more accurate, which should help some users in a bunch of ways. If you've been using "Time-Locked" mode rather than "Smooth Scrolling" mode due to weird issues, it may be time to give smooth scrolling another shot.
• Mouse smoothing should now be framerate-independent.
  
• More framerate options added to Settings menu.
  
• Various minor GUI tweaks and improvements.
  
• Other bugfixes and optimizations.
  

As mentioned in our previous update post: one big update coming down the pipeline is localization. We have one more language we plan to add to the Nintendo Switch™ version ASAP, and then we'll be able to move all of the supported languages over to PC. The nice thing about doing this on PC after the Nintendo Switch™ version is that, by the time we move it over, we'll be much more confident about the quality + accuracy of all of the language, and already worked out all of the difficult kinks.

Future updates will also likely continue to increase the accuracy of calculations, as this update did for timing. This update fixes floating point errors that we never expected to pop up in regards to level generation, but there are a few other parts of the game that may be prone to floating point errors if the game is stretched enough with custom content or extremely high framerates. We hope to address those ASAP!

Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for your patience!

-Holy Wow Studios

Hello everyone! We just pushed 1.15 live, which adds two new tracks and a handful of improvements...

• New tracks: "House of the Rising Sun" and "Hino Nacional Brasileiro!"
  
• Added a very small bar that shows elapsed time, so you can see how much time remains at a glance.
  
• Adjusted scoring so that slides are slightly more lenient, depending on the intensity of the slide.
  
• For new users, the default target framerate is now 120, which should lead to smoother scrolling for most users.
  
• The delay before playing a song preview clip is slightly extended when you first enter the Track Select screen.
  
• Small bugfixes and optimizations.
  

We really like the little time bar thing - it's great being able to see the elapsed time at a glance! Previously, it took a second to actually read the numbers and figure out how much of the track was left. Now, you can immediately tell that you're 25%, 50%, or 75% through.

Don't forget: if something about this update messes up your game, you can revert to the previous version (1.14E) by choosing the last_update beta branch.

Here's our plan for continued updates:

• Adding a 3 more languages to Nintendo Switch version. As soon as all of these are done, it's time to bring the entire localization package to PC. We'd also like to add new songs to celebrate each of the new languages.
  
• More tracks, bugfixes, and optimizations.
  
• Controls: we're really into the idea of making an "official" schematic for a 3d-printable Trombone Champ controller. If we end up creating one, we'll make sure it's officially supported by the base game out-of-the-box, which means adjusting the Controls menu.
  

We hope you enjoy the update! Thank you for your continued patience!

-Holy Wow Studios

For the next 21 days only, you can order a Horn Lord plushie from Makeship! We need 200 orders for this campaign to go into production, so please help us out!

Please note: all money raised by Holy Wow Studios from this Makeship campaign will be donated to the Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC). We recently lost a cat adopted from a NYC shelter who served as our loyal supervisor during the development of Trombone Champ. NYC shelters are at currently at critical capacity and need your help, so please join our campaign today!

Order a plushie here: https://www.makeship.com/products/trombone-champ-plush

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thank you for your support, and stay tuned for more Trombone Champ updates! We've been extremely busy patching, updating, and supporting the Nintendo Switch™ version since it released this month, but we have fun stuff coming down the pipeline for Mac & PC very soon...

Version 1.14 is live! This update mostly adds some nice quality-of-life features, but also adds the new track "Down By the Riverside!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq1_IwlR-B8

Please note: as always, some of the changes here may require users to update their mods!

Scoring has changed very slightly! We added new code that should make it much easier to play short, fast notes without "missing the gap." However, this means that a lot of tracks will suddenly get a bit easier, so we adjusted a few other variables very slightly in order to balance things out.

Full changelog:

• New track: "Down by the Riverside!"
  
• Scoring tweak: The game is more lenient in regards to "missing the gap" between notes. This change should be very noticeable in some tracks, such as "Hava Nagila."
  
• Scoring tweak: Each frame you miss a note now counts slightly more (value raised from 0.20 to 0.22), making gameplay slightly more difficult.
  
• Scoring tweak: Threshold to achieve any rank above F has been raised 1.5%, making achieving an S slightly more difficult. Getting an "S" shouldn't be that easy!
  
• New Settings: In the Settings menu, you can now configure which keyboard keys play the trombone. We recommend turning off all of the keys you don't use!
  
• New Settings: In the Settings menu, you can now adjust backing track volume.
  
• New Settings: In the Settings menu, you can now disable mouse clicks for tooting the trombone (this was in the last version but we forgot to add it to the announcement).
  
• Two new patterns added to Trombone Customizer, including the checkerboard ska thing.
  
• Adjusted input code so that a "gap" will be registered when switching between two keyboard keys during 1 frame. Previously, if you alternated keys quickly, there was a chance that a gap would not register.
  

Don't forget... if this update breaks your game for any reason, you can roll back to previous versions by right clicking the game in Steam, choosing "Properties," and going to the "Betas" tab.

• Default: The main branch, using the newest version. Please use this if you can!
  
• *Last_Update (NEW BRANCH): Use the LAST update rather than the newest one. Currently, this means you will get 1.13 instead of 1.14.
  
• Previous_Version: Uses a significantly older version of the game, currently 1.096A.
  

Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your patience!

-Holy Wow Studios