Cuddle up with your loved worms - maybe drink hot cocoa, listen to some festive music - and enjoy WORMHOLE for 30% off over the holidays. Sending you all the love in our cold worm hearts, Pocket Moon Games <3

Were thrilled to announce that WORMHOLE will be featured in TGAGWCAGA 2024The Game Awards for Games Who Can't Afford the Game Awards! This one-of-a-kind indie showcase is streaming this Friday, December 13th! TGAGWCAGA highlights incredible indie games that truly deserve more attention while also poking a little fun at the exclusivity of The Game Awards. TGAGWCAGA 2024 Friday, December 13th 5:00 PM UTC / 6:00 PM CET / 12:00 PM ET Watch the stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrLRWxntgg Well also be part of the TGAGWCAGA Steam Event running from December 13th to December 22nd, featuring tons of amazing indie gamesincluding ours!

CONTENT CREATION MENU

• Green screen option for game background
• More content creation options/tools in the works!
• Extras > Content Creation

BONUS STAGES

• UFO in the same line as a *stunned* UFO will stop moving as well
• Prevents that annoying move stall issue!

LEADERBOARD

• Added stage name to Marathon leaderboard entries

OTHER FIXES

• Fixed rare bug where porter perk boxes weren't updating collisions on spawn, causing the worm to collide with the box before it's ready
• Fixed some graphics setting toggles not working properly
• Fixed WHOA NELLY perk showing up via porter instead of just in level 1 perk shop
• Fixed end screen not showing the proper worm you used if you just unlocked a new one
• Potentially fixed render issue with particle system (more experimentation needed for this one)
• Changed Juice icon to be less suggestive *(you all had your fun)*

STEAM FUNCTIONALITY

STEAM RECORDING

• Integrated Steam Timeline API to show special events / clips on the Steam Recording timeline
• See here for more details

STEAM RICH PRESENCE

• Let's your buddies know how bad you're doing
• Shows current game mode, ability, stage, score, and time
• See here for more details

STUFF YOU'LL FEEL (Design)

SECTOR MAP

• Sector Variants on the map now each roll their own perk table
• Changes decision making / expands perk choices / varies runs more

WORMHOLES

• Wormholes now telegraph where they are going to go before they pop in!
• Obstructed wormhole telegraphs will flash to indicate the worm needs to MOVE

STAGES

• 7a-1: Fixed two separate stardust trails getting spawned as one
• 12B-1: Shifted walls down-left to give worm spawn point some breathing room

INPUT

• Worm no longer allows dangerous directional input right out of spawn
• Greater fail proofing for u-turn buffered input
• Improved claw perfect chomp input consistency

STAR TRAILS

• Dots now show up immediately upon spawning, allowing for instant collection without sync issues
• Animation in effect still plays, but collection is no longer tied to it
• Better edge case handling to hopefully allow you to get more Supernovas
• Looser autopiloting, ensuring you can't be forced into collisions
• Removed initial latching lock that stalled input
• Disengaging from auto trails is more intuitive, requiring you to hold the direction you want to break into rather than a double tap (this often lead to confusion / accidental disengagement)
• Yeehaw Specific: Trigger a full reload when completing a stardust trail

BONUS STAGE(s)

• Fixed alien spawn/movement desync on bonus stages (using the scripted game director)
• Added Wormhole switching to bonus stages

GAMEPLAY SETTINGS

• CROSSHAIR
  • Shows a crosshair for worms that "shoot" things. (Yeehaw and claw)
  • Defaults: ON
• GRID
  • Shows a dotted grid on game screen.
  • Defaults: OFF
• TURBO CHOMP
  • Repeats chomp input while button is held.
  • Replaced "Turbo", is better suited for accessible play / works with "Directions Only" control scheme
  • Defaults: OFF

PERKS

• Removed BAG OF WORMHOLDING perk, as the sector map perk implementation doesn't need this anymore (you will be missed!)

STUFF YOU'LL SEE (Visuals)

I'M BITING YOU I'M BITING YOU I'M BITING YOU

• Added biting animations to all worms!

GAME FINALE

• Even more polish
• It's so cool guys
• Beat the game

END GAME SCREEN

• Shows all stardust collected instead of just stardust trail completion (big number look cooler)
• Added worm head next to score stat
• Added hourglass icon to time stat

GRAPHICS SETTINGS

• Updated "Graphics Cost" text to "Performance Cost"
• FRAME WOBBLE
  • Makes frame dynamically wobble with game action.
  • Defaults: ON
• BACKGROUND STARS
  • Shows stars and star effects on the game screen.
  • Defaults: ON

OTHER VISUALS

• Cooler wormhole pop-in/out effects
• Cooler stardust collection effects
• Yeehaw cowboy worm tilts their hat back when shooting
• Changed Juice perk icon to help with confusion between it and the Molasses perk

STUFF YOU'LL HEAR (Audio)

PERK VO

• Voice over audio announcements for each perk collected.

MARATHON MUSIC SHUFFLE

• In marathon mode music tracks are played on shuffle instead of one song on loop.

THAN'S BACKEND (Code)

• Scripted game director to allow finer controls / timing for things that need it (ie. bonus stages)
• Claw gameplay has been tightened to have more consistent timings / better collision detection
• Marathon mode no longer halts energy / critter spawning on each stage increase
• Better critter spawn distribution (prevents excess clumping)
• Added retry limit to critter spawning so they don't try spawning forever / lockup up the system
• Introduced seeding into weighted random class
• Game no longer freezes when losing focus, instead just pauses the game
• Porter chopper sound no longer starts too early

Lil bug fixes

• Fixed some entities resuming time during unpause countdown / level end
• Fixed sorting on "Marathon Stages Unlocked" banner
• Fixed star trails registering grid spaces before they are fully ready (previously caused issues if collecting before spawn task finished)

Its official! WORMHOLE is now Steam Deck Verified. Now you can finally officially play it on your Steam Deck officially. If you have been waiting for this to get WORMHOLE, now's the time! If you already have it, why not leave us a review to let us know what you think! As always, we can be contacted here, on our community Discord server, or via email (info@pocketmoon.games) with any questions, comments, or concerns. See you on the leaderboards!

Stuff you'll see (Visuals)

• Leaderboard entries that were game wins now have a lil star flair next to their placement
• Time Bonus popup is more prevalent
• Cleaner gameplay entrance
  • Removed unnecessary UI sounds on enter
  • Combo bar sliiiiiiides in all smooth like
• Updated game finale to be more GRAND

Stuff you'll feel (Design)

Combo Rebalancing

• Before this update combo scoring was calculated linearly as `score = combo * 100`. This essentially meant that 2 small combos (ie, 2x25) were worth the same as 1 large combo (ie. 50).
• Now it uses a more complicated function: comboScore = (1 - cos((combo * PI)/(2 * maxComboNumber{100})) * maxComboScore{20000}
  You can see a visual of this here.
• If this freaks you out, all you need to know is that larger combos are now rewarded more heavily than multiple smaller combos.

Time Bonus Rebalancing

• Before this update time bonuses were very simple, complete the stage under 30 seconds you get 5000 points, under 60 seconds you get 1000 points
• Now it's calculated using a linear function timeBonus = min(maxTimeBonus{10000}, maxTimeBonus{10000} - (seconds - startTimeBonus{10}) * step{200}
  You can see a visual of this here.
• Simply put:
  • Under 10 seconds = 10 000
  • After 10 seconds = -200 points per second
  • (So at 30 seconds = 6000, at 60 seconds = 0)

Claw BUFF

• Claw now also drops scatter bombs on BITE action while reeling in

Two new Gameplay Settings

• Simple Walls
  • Makes walls blank (avoids distracting patterns)
• Slow Wormholes
  • Makes travelling through wormholes WAAAY slower

And then some...

• Made porters a bit more patient in end game instead of nopeing out immediately
• Bumped bottom stardust trails on Zone 1-1 down one unit for better symmetry

Than's Backend (Code)

• Made stage hashing no longer generate every change in order to retain leaderboard identifier
• You can now pause and exit the game finale without breaking your run
• Lot of lil bug fixes
  • Fixed bug where "CHOMP" button prompt was visible in pause screen / stage outro
  • Fixed bug where some rumble effects would still go off even when config specifies no rumble
  • Fixed bug where stardust trail score popup values (display only) would leaks into later score popups
  • Fixed bug where stardust autopiloting was restricting movement in dangerous moments (this has been causing a lot of end game deaths)
  • Fixed bug where directional input mode was not allowing forward eat actions while navigating stardust trail
  • Fixed bug where entities being held by worm were not being destroyed on zone completion
  • Fixed bug where porters would navigate off stage if travelling wormholes near the edges
  • Fixed bug where Sector Select minimap was improperly highlighting the last sector visited
  • Fixed issue on low end platforms where countdown (3 2 1) would be inconsistently timed

Eat 'em all.

Just in time for Next Fest, leaderboards are now live in the WORMHOLE demo! Compete against your friends and players globally to have the highest scores in Regular and Marathon modes! Scores submit automatically upon completing a run, so you can focus on jumping back in and setting a new personal best. We're very excited to be participating in our first ever Steam festival, so please help us make it a memorable one! We look forward to seeing you all beat our high scores!
Please contact us here on Steam or via our email if you encounter any issues with scores submitting.