We're excited to announce that a Trombone Champ update is coming soon, which will allow the game to be played in 10 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean!
This update is a lot larger than the usual ones, because adding support for multiple languages means adjusting every single piece of text in the game. This is also why it's been a while since we've posted an update here! It's time-consuming work that requires a lot of testing.
While we finish up this update, we'd like to take a moment to discuss it in (perhaps too much) detail!
Update Size
Unfortunately, since almost every single piece of GUI has been adjusted and all of the track assets have been restructured, this update will be around 500mb. This is a bummer, since people playing in English shouldn't see that many changes. Apologies for the inconvenience, but this is unavoidable!
Additionally, this is definitely one of those updates that will destroy most existing mods when it comes out. As usual, check for mod updates - and if you need to, you'll be able to opt-in to the previous, un-localized version of the game using Steam's "Betas" tab.
About the Localization Work
The vast majority of localization was done by Keywords Studios. They've done a tremendous amount of work... all of the GUI, all 50 cards, and the metadata for every base track has been localized! That's more content than you'd think, especially now that the game ships with almost 60 tracks!
Keywords Studio's work was mostly aimed at the Nintendo Switch™ version of the game, so there are a lot of very small text fields specific to PC that we had to add and adjust ourselves using online tools, such as graphical settings, some button language, etc. We took care to double-check these for accuracy, but it's difficult to ensure that every single piece of text is perfect in every single language. When the update comes out, we will make a thread in the Steam Discussion page dedicated to mistranslations - so if you see anything that's mistranslated or awkwardly translated, don't hesitate to mention in there! Luckily, it's very fast & easy for us to adjust / correct text problems.
Benefit: Restructured Track Assets
One of the most challenging parts of getting localization working was adjusting how track metadata is saved and loaded. In the previous version of the game, all of the track metadata (track titles, descriptions, artists, genres, etc.) were kept in one enormous file. Needless to say, adding ten languages to this already large and messy file wasn't a great idea.
Ultimately, rather than hack together a quick and ugly solution, we decided to significantly rework how the game loads track assets. The new system is much cleaner and actually makes sense! Each track simply has a folder, and this folder contains everything the track needs: metadata files in various languages, the track's level data, the sample audio clip, etc. Previously, these files were scattered all over the place.
Even though normal gamers shouldn't notice that the data has been restructured, this restructuring comes with a bunch of benefits:
Half of the work we'd eventually need to do to get an official level editor working has been done, thanks to this updated structure.
Likewise, half of the work needed to eventually get content loaded via Steam Workshop should also be done thanks to this restructuring.
If you're the type of person who likes to tinker, it should be much easier to dig into the game's files and mess around (just don't complain to us if you break the game).
As the game grows in size, it should be much easier to add songs to all versions of the game.
Visual Changes
If you're playing the game in English, the new version should look & feel almost identical to the previous version. However, since we needed to adjust basically every single piece of GUI, we've made some tiny improvements and polished up a number of items throughout the user interface. Some of these updates are things already present in the Nintendo Switch™ version of the game.
Notably, the "Tromboner Cards" look a little different - previously, each of these was a single PNG with the text baked into the image. In order to get these to display in ten languages, we had to break them up: the text is now rendered in-engine. One benefit of this is that we're able to make a much nicer "golden" effect!
PC & Nintendo Switch™
If you have the Nintendo Switch™ version of the game, you might have noticed that it already supports localization. So why did it take so long to come to PC?...
To make a long story short, we had to split the Nintendo Switch™ and PC versions into separate projects - and stupidly, we did this before beginning localization. So, we essentially had to do all of the localization work twice over.
Fortunately, since we've already done this work for Nintendo Switch™, we were able to do it much more quickly this time. Also, of course, we were able to re-use huge chunks of code to speed up the process even further.
Bonus Update: Score Changing
This update also changes how scoring works: short notes are worth a bit more and long notes are worth a bit less. Also, notes that consist of multiple "slides" are now treated as one note, rather than being broken up into a bunch of individual segments.
As a result of this, the maximum scores for every track are increasing! If you're competing with your friends on the Steam Leaderboards, you'll want to replay the tracks you really care about!
The Future of Trombone Champ
We plan to continue to update Trombone Champ for the foreseeable future! However, once this update goes live, we will finally be close to having a version to which we can say: "if we were to disappear from the face of the Earth, we would be ok with where this game left off."
As mentioned earlier, the next "large" update will likely be centered around an official level editor, which then will lead into Steam Workshop integration (unless we hit any unforeseen roadblocks).
Of course, in addition to "large" updates we have planned, we also plan to add more tracks and continue improving the game in incremental ways!
We hope to release this update very soon, and are already working on new content for the updates beyond that. Thank you for your patience as we finish up!!!
-Holy Wow Studios
1.19 Brings Two New Tracks and Other Good Stuff Too
Hi everyone! Welcome to 2024! A number of things caused us to slow down over the holidays, but we're back with a pretty nice update.
Don't forget: if something about this update messes up your game, you can revert to the previous version (1.181) by right clicking the game, clicking Properties, going to Betas, and choosing the "last_update" beta branch. But for the love of God, please change back to the newest version whenever you can.
New Stuff
New Tracks: "Habanera (from Carmen)" and "Trombone Skyze (Nasty Mix)!" Habanera is a nice medium-difficulty track, while "Trombone Skyze (Nasty Mix)" is much more difficult. Since the game is getting older and its players are getting better, we'd like to offer more difficult tracks in future updates.
New Feature: You can now have the option to "dance" manually by moving the mouse left and right. This is cosmetic only, but really fun in "Free Improvisation" mode. You really feel like you're in control of the character with this enabled! You can toggle this option on and off in the character select screen, above the "Jubilant / Estudious" toggle.
New Feature: Added ability to skip the initial logos using the externalparams.json file, which is in the same location as your save files and settings. Since this screen contains an epilepsy warning, we really don't want you to skip this stuff! This is why the setting is hidden in an external file rather than in settings.
The tiny combo counter near your cursor now counts up past ten, so you can always see your current combo. This is really nice, since previously it was impossible to track your current combo unless it was also your highest combo. The large counter that appears near the "Perfecto! / Nasty! / etc" text still maxes out at 10x, to indicate that anything past 10 doesn't affect scoring.
The small explosion effect that appears when a note finishes now looks much better. The previous effect bugged us for months - we made it pretty quickly during the post-launch update frenzy, and it could have used a little more love.
Input code tweaked so that pressing multiple keys no longer mutes the trombone. If you prefer the previous system, there's a new "multiple keys mute" option in Settings -> Controls. Many people have asked for this!
If mouse smoothing is set to zero, there is now no smoothing whatsoever. Previously, there was still a very small amount of smoothing, even if smoothing was set to zero. With the new code, frame-perfect movements should be possible.
Note lines are now more visible in Free Improvisation mode, which should help you play melodies.
Above: much-nicer bursts when notes complete, and the counter goes beyond ten!
Fixes
The breath meter now pauses correctly when gameplay is paused.
Breath now recovers twice as quickly in Turbo Mode.
Added missing sound effect when getting "Perfect" on a track.
Adjusted the volume of a few sound effects that were too dang loud.
Other small bugfixes and optimizations.
What's next?... We've mentioned this in earlier posts, but we have two large goals we'd like to leap on in 2024: localization + a level editor. Both of these are already in progress and we hope to share updates soon!
Thank you for your patience and happy tooting!
-Holy Wow
1.181A Hotfix for Two Small Bugs
Hi everyone - if you're wondering what today's tiny Trombone Champ update does:
Most important: Fixes the new accessibility setting that enables / disables the "edge rainbow" that appears during Champ mode. This wasn't saving right in 1.18 and would always default to "on." It should work as designed now!
Fixes a small issue where users can get 1 less card than they're supposed to when building multiple cards at once.
Adds the weird comma in the confusing name "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."
Please forgive us, and have a great holiday season!
-Holy Wow Studios
1.18 Brings Two New Holiday Tracks & Other Improvements!
Hi everyone - we just made 1.18 live, which adds two new holiday songs and a number of other improvements!
We'd originally planned for this to be a tiny update that only added some holiday content, but we ended up adding a handful of other small QoL improvements as well...
Don't forget: if something about this update messes up your game, you can revert to the previous version (1.17) by right clicking the game, clicking Properties, going to Betas, and choosing the "last_update" beta branch.
Here's what's new:
New tracks: "O Christmas Tree" and "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."
A special graphic now displays when you "Perfect" a song (never breaking combo). You also get more toots!
Added option to turn off the "edge rainbow" during Champ mode in the Accessibility menu.
Added a small window to the pause screen that shows some easy-to-miss controls.
The option to turn off menu music has been added to the Settings menu. Previously, this was only available via the tiny buttons in the screen corners.
Timing / latency adjustment should now be consistent when choosing Practice Mode & Turbo Mode.
Small "New High Score" icon now appears under your score during gameplay when you beat your previous score.
You can now build multiple cards at once if you have enough turds... wow!!!
When turding a card, you now see how many turds you've received.
Adjusted amount of turds you get when turding golden cards. Now, you receive 375 turds per golden card, but there's also a chance for a big jackpot!
Fixed some lyrics in in "Hino Nacional Brasileiro."
Other bugfixes and optimizations.
After this update, we will likely slow down on small updates and instead focus on the bigger things we've mentioned earlier: localization and a level editor so that we can ultimately build Workshop integration into the game. We also have so much other stuff we're working on... busy, busy, busy...
We hope you all have a wonderful, happy holidays, and thank you for your continued support as we enter 2024!!!
Thank you!!! -Holy Wow
1.17 Brings Two New Tracks & Even More Improvements
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
1.16 Brings Two New Tracks & Under-the-Hood Improvements!
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
Update 1.15 brings two new tracks and other improvements!
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
Trombone Champ "Horn Lord" Plushies Available for a Limited Time!
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!
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...
Update 1.14 brings "Down By the Riverside" and other improvements!
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
Update v1.13 Brings a Trombone Customizer, New Track, and More!
Version 1.13 is live! This update adds the ability to customize a trombone after beating the game, plus a new track: "The Barber of Seville!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUxSWFbnGBs
Some of the changes here may require users to update their mods! The custom trombone required tweaking how textures are applied to the trombone model, and the update to the song graphs may conflict with mods that load custom songs and create their own graphs.
Full changelog:
Added the ability to customize a trombone after beating the game.
New track: "The Barber of Seville!"
Song graphs are no longer completely random and reflect the track's difficulty.
The breath meter now goes down slower when Practice Mode is enabled.
Very, very slightly adjusted the value of a variable related to CHAMP meter gain.
Various minor optimizations and bugfixes.
We're also adding a new branch in Steam that users can opt into. If you right-click the game in Steam, go to Properties, and click the Betas branch, you should see the following options:
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 1.12 instead of 1.13. You might want to use this if an update suddenly breaks a mod that's critical for your use, and the mod does not have an update available.
Previous_Version: Uses a significantly older version of the game, currently 1.096A. This branch should probably be renamed, but you can't rename branches in Steam and some users are currently using this one :-(
Betatesting: Around a week or two before pushing an update live, we aim to have the update available here so people can test it out. If there's not an update in the pipeline, this will be the same as the default branch.
Apologies for the slowdown in updates... we're working on something big that we're excited to share soon! You'll know it when you see it! We also finished up a big chunk of work that should allow us to update Trombone Champ with more regularity.
Stay tuned for more, and thank you for your patience!
