Bits & Bops news & patch notes

Welcome to our first major update for Bits & Bops!

Last patch we soft-launched our Steam Workshop integration, and we've had lots of great testing and feedback from our community. This patch brings a handful of new features for the jukebox, including the ability to import mixtapes from places other than Steam Workshop, and the ability to sort your list so it's easier to find what you're looking for.

To celebrate the 1.0 launch of the custom mixtape player, we're hosting a mixtape competition with guest judges DaftHusky and MCMDesigns! If you're interested in joining the competition (or you just want to get access to the editor to make custom mixtapes), join our Discord server for details!

We've also added a couple of bonus achievements that you can earn for trying out our new features. A few players pointed out that these achievements went live before you were able to earn them in game, and this caused a bit of confusion. Sorry about that! We'll be a lot more careful about this in the future.

As always, we're continuing to take on feedback and prioritise features and fixes, so please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep doing our best to address them. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox. Thanks for playing!

Game updates

• The game now has two bonus achievements for finding the speed challenge and custom mixtapes

• You can now import .bop files into the jukebox

• The jukebox now has several sorting options accessible from the left menu

• Custom mixtape preview music can now be disabled from the Modifiers menu

• Custom mixtapes without a dedicated thumbnail will now use a default image

• The Home/End keys can now be used to scroll to the start/end of the jukebox

• The jukebox can now be accessed early from the shop by pressing Ctrl+Shift+J

• Bop now has dedicated dialogue for exiting an endless game without clearing it

Bug fixes

• Subscribing to incompatible mixtapes no longer breaks the jukebox

• The Perfect Tracker now correctly toggles on and off in the jukebox

• Mixtapes containing errors now return to the jukebox instead of quitting the game

• Custom mixtape thumbnails now layer correctly in the jukebox UI

• The loading text in the jukebox is now correctly read by the screen reader

• Pressing Confirm and Cancel at the same time no longer breaks the achievement case

Editor changes

• Scene transitions now have surprise/sustain flags to control cue sounds before/after the cut

• Inputs outside the active game are now hit automatically

• Inputs close to camera cuts are now shifted to the new game sooner

• More events have been added to control Steady Bears visuals

• The cues in Snakedown now respond correctly to BPM changes

• A compatibility warning is now displayed when uploading a mixtape from the alpha channel

• The mixtapes that require the legacy loading path for correct sync are more accurately detected

• A warning is displayed for older mixtapes that will be upgraded to use the new audio loading path

• The upload message now warns if the mixtape music preview is not set

• Binary fields in the editor can now be cleared with right click

• Using Shift+Enter in text fields no longer breaks the editor layout

• Setting the BPM to 0 when using certain minigames no longer freezes the game

• Quitting the editor via the operating system with dirty editor state no longer loops indefinitely

Welcome back for more patch notes!

This release brings a whole new feature: Steam Workshop integration! Once you've finished the main game and seen the credits, you'll now unlock a new area in the shop. Head over to our Steam Workshop, subscribe to any custom mixtapes that catch your eye, and they will be loaded directly into the game!

As always, we're continuing to take on feedback and prioritise features and fixes, so please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep doing our best to address them. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox. Thanks for playing!

Game updates

• Finishing the game now unlocks the workshop!

Bug fixes

• The Perfect Tracker is no longer selectable before it is unlocked

• The TTS message that reads when the screen reader is disabled has been restored

• The screen reader now accurately narrates options under the "Other" tab

• The Molecano and Globetrotters disks now render correctly in the Spanish (Latin America) translation

Editor changes

• Mixtapes using MP3 files now respect LAME --nogap metadata

• Mixtapes made with older versions of the editor will now retain their original sync

• The hold animation in Pop-Up Kitchen can now be overlapped

• The maximum timeline length has been increased to 16384 (please use responsibly)

Welcome back for more patch notes!

This release brings some new languages, a collection of bug fixes, and some groundwork for a new feature! If you want to be involved as we continue to develop Bits & Bops, please consider joining our Discord server.

Our major news for this release: the game is now available in both French and Italian! We'll be working on more translations over time, so if your language is not yet available, we want to hear from you so we know which languages to prioritise. We also have many dedicated language channels in our Discord server where you can chat with your fellow community members!

As always, we're continuing to take on feedback and prioritise features and fixes, so please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep doing our best to address them. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox. Thanks for playing!

Game updates

• Bits & Bops is now fully playable in French!

• Bits & Bops is now fully playable in Italian!

• Some title font character accents have been updated in Portuguese

Bug fixes

• The tutorial circle for secondary buttons now moves at the correct speed

• The tutorial circle now additionally indicates release timing for held inputs

• The game is now supports more ASIO-compatible drivers

• The game no longer crashes with particular poorly-behaved ASIO drivers

• The game will no longer save your audio device selection if it causes a crash

• The perfect tracker no longer appears in the calibration scene

• Disco's arm no longer becomes detached when tossing her coin

• One of Rory's dialogue lines is no longer missing an apostrophe in German

• Debug shortcuts are now harder to unintentionally trigger

Editor changes

• More audio formats are now supported in custom mixtapes

• Custom mixtapes can now specify their playback offset

• Custom mixtapes can now specify their difficulty

• Custom mixtapes can now specify endpoints for preview music

• Custom mixtapes can now specify their display BPM range

• Custom mixtapes can now contain internal notes

• Many resizable events now correctly handle a length of zero

• Stopping playback now stops narration (if enabled)

• Properties now revert to their default values when cleared

• The end gag in Flow Worms is no longer unintentionally triggered on a particular beat

• The CRT screen in the convenience store in President Bird now layers behind fades

Welcome back for more patch notes!

This release brings a highly-requested feature. For those of you chasing high scores, we've added a setting on the community computer that will show whether you're on track to get a Perfect! To unlock it, you'll need to score Amazing on every level, and Perfect on at least one level, then it should arrive in your mail. The setting is off by default to retain the suspense of the results screen when you don't quite know whether you hit everything, but you can freely turn it on and off once you've unlocked it.

Also, the game is now available in Spanish (Spain)! This is in addition to our existing Spanish (Latin America) translation. We'll continue to work on more translations over time, so please be patient if your language is not yet available. We also have many dedicated language channels in our Discord server where you can chat with your fellow community members!

As always, we're continuing to take on feedback and prioritise features and fixes, so please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep doing our best to address them. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox. Thanks for playing!

Game updates

• You can now unlock an icon to show whether you're on track to get a Perfect

• Bits & Bops is now fully playable in Spanish (Spain)!

Bug fixes

• The timing circle now consistently appears in all tutorials

• Selecting the clock no longer reverts record player speed changes

• Window titles on the community computer no longer overflow the title bar in some languages

Editor changes

• Editor input is now blocked when the game preview is full screen

• The moles in Molecano now animate correctly after a freeze event

• The moles can no longer bop before landing in a freeze

• The camera panning event in Firework Festival is now resizable

• Several unsupported zero-length events now have dedicated error messages

• All errors related to events are now displayed consistently

• The metronome now plays to the end of the timeline when enabled

• Scrolling is now more consistent across operating systems

• Mixtapes can now specify endpoints for preview music

Welcome back for more patch notes!

This release brings yet more improvements and bug fixes. We're continuing taking on feedback and prioritising features and fixes, so please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep doing our best to address them. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox.

On the gameplay front, we've made an update to the tutorial input display overlay to better indicate the intended timing for minigames that don't already have strong visual cues. Our intention is to help beginner players who are having a hard time interpreting some of the audio cues. If this proves to be useful, we'll also look at working this into an interactive tutorial phase to ensure players have understood the timing before letting them attempt it unassisted. Please share your feedback on this change in our Discord server or Steam discussion board if you find it useful, or if you're still struggling to understand something.

This release also brings two big updates for Polish players:

Firstly, you can now play Bits & Bops in Polish! The game should automatically match the language of your Steam client, or you can change the setting via Steam or in-game. We also have a Polish channel in our Discord server where you can give feedback and interact with fellow Polish players.

Secondly, we're adjusting the price of the game (and soundtrack) in Polish złoty. When setting the price for Bits & Bops, as most developers do, we set the price in USD and relied on Valve's recommended regional pricing. In general, as we're not experts in this area, we're inclined to trust Valve's judgement. However, due to the change in exchange rate since regional prices were last updated in 2022, we're adjusting the price as a one-off fix in line with many other independent developers. If and when Valve update their regional pricing again in future, we anticipate this change in exchange rate will be reflected, and we'll likely take their updated recommendation.

One final update on pricing: we're trialing a change to our Bits & Bops + Soundtrack bundle which will allow you to access the 10% discount on one of the items even if you've already purchased the other (whereas you were previously required to purchase both together). We'll be keeping an eye on this over the next little while, so if you enjoyed the game and were thinking of picking up the soundtrack to support us, now is a great time!

Game updates

• The tutorial input display now additionally shows a timing circle

• Bits & Bops is now fully playable in Polish!

Bug fixes

• The credits sequence triggers properly after completing Final Mixtape (broken in 1.6.0, hotfixed in 1.6.1)

• The "Almost" animation when braking in Molecano no longer has an unintenionally doubled frame

• The video player buttons on the computer no longer show through the screensaver

• The file select text no longer disappears in some circumstances when changing the language

• The screen reader is now consistently re-checked when settings are reset to default

Accessibility improvements

• There are now options to control screen shake and rotation (in addition to flashing)

• There is now an option for macOS speech rate in preferences.json

Editor changes

• Molecano now has an expanded ruleset to consistently handle non-aligned cues

• Molecano now has an expanded selection of events to control visual effects

• The Molecano moles have new sprites for braking with a hot background

• Mouse clicks on the gameplay preview are no longer passed to the menus underneath

• The editor no longer rejects music files with certain filename patterns

• The editor now caps playback rate to a more reasonable range

• The editor no longer crashes in some circumstances when changing playback rate

• The hitbox for the timeline now registers clicks more accurately

Welcome back for more patch notes!

This release brings some more improvements and bug fixes. We're continuing taking on feedback and prioritising features and fixes, so please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep doing our best to address them. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox.

Since many players were missing the new feature with the record player, we've given Bit some extra dialogue in her post-game speech to hint that the record player speeds have some relation to the minigames. We've also changed the record player to revert to normal speed when an incompatible level is selected as an extra hint that something didn't work. We want this feature to stay somewhat hidden, but we'll continue to tweak it to make it more intuitive for the people who go looking for it.

On the gameplay side, we heard from players that they had difficulty placing the start of a charge cue in President Bird. We've added a subtle layer to the beginning to give it a little more impact, without drastically altering the feel of the level. We'll be keeping an eye on this change to see if something else is necessary. You can also expect some other sound tweaks in future updates.

As a bit of technical housekeeping, we have also increased the system requirements on the Steam store page from 2GB to 4GB. While the game itself typically does not use more than 2GB of memory, this did not account for the memory consumed by the operating system, which was causing issues for some players with lower-end systems. If you are experiencing issues and your computer is close to the minimum requirements, try closing other applications before launching Bits & Bops. Applications like web browsers can consume significant amounts of memory, which can cause out-of-memory errors on lower-end systems.

Finally, the game is now available in Spanish (Latin America)! We also have a separate Spanish (Spain) translation underway, which we expect will be available later this month. We'll continue to work on more translations over time, so please be patient if your language is not yet available. We also have many dedicated language channels in our Discord server where you can chat with your fellow community members!

Game updates

• Bit now remarks on the record player at the end of her post-game speech

• There is now a subtle additional sound at the start of a held note in President Bird

• The white arrows are now shown every time a new game is available in the game corner

• The hand in the tutorial overlay now moves more smoothly in Steady Bears

• The record player speed now reverts to normal when selecting a game that does not accept the speed change

• The flashes in Molecano now scale with BPM

• Bits & Bops is now fully playable in Spanish (Latin America)!

Bug fixes

• Progression can no longer be broken by forcibly quitting the game before returning to the store

• The clock no longer occasionally gets stuck (which happened particularly often at low frame rates)

• The spilled tea effect in Octeaparty now stays attached to the cup at high speeds

• Inputs are no longer able to be processed while a mixtape is still loading

• The first lava geyser in Molecano now makes a sound

• The fan translations are again no longer loaded by default

Accessibility improvements

• The record labels have been localised for all supported languages

Editor changes

• The marchers in Globe Trotters no longer continue flipping indefinitely

• More granular events have been added for Molecano

• Marching games are now playable without an end event

• Marching games now function correctly when restarted after stopping

• Marching games started early in the mixtape no longer cause input to stay locked

• The charge sound in President Bird no longer loops indefinitely in certain circumstances

• The editor now automatically reopens your last loaded mixtape

• The minigame event templates are now displayed in game order

• Mixtapes are now marked as dirty when an event is deleted

• Animations now play correctly when the start beat is changed during playback

• Mixtapes missing certain metadata no longer cause issues when opened

• The editor's maximum beat has been increased from 1024 to 4096

Internal changes

• Exported .bop files now include the version of the game they were created with

• Further logging has been added to track down the freezing issue

Happy new year, and welcome back for more patch notes!

It's been just under a month since we launched! Thank you so much to everyone who has bought the game and supported us so far. As we've said in previous updates, we're still taking on feedback and prioritising features and fixes. Please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep doing our best to address them. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox.

While many bugs have been fixed, there a couple of rare but important ones we're still trying to track down. If you're not being awarded Perfect stickers when you think you should be, or if your game is hanging or the display is freezing for long periods of time, we want to hear from you. Every log file we get from an affected user gets us one step closer to fixing these bugs for good, so when you encounter one of these issues, please tell us in the #bug-reports channel of our Discord server, or email us at [email protected].

We're continuing to make minor adjustments to Pantry Parade and Steady Bears to try to gradually make them easier for new players without drastically changing the character of the minigames. This patch we've increased the Almost windows by the same factor that we increased the Hit windows a few patches ago, with the intention of making it less likely players will both bonk the character in front of them and be bonked by the character behind them. While the scoring system does not punish for this twice, this should make it less likely you'll have your rhythm thrown off by it.

We've also adjusted the tutorials again to cut earlier if you have hit no sets in the first loop. While the intention was to give players more time to settle in, we heard from some players who simply weren't getting the inputs and required the demonstration again. As a compromise, the tutorial will only interrupt you if you haven't hit a single set in the first loop of the music. Otherwise, the tutorials are unchanged for now.

For Steady Bears in particular, we've added a subtle bop animation to the bears in the bird's-eye view shots of the ice rink. While this shot was intended to function as a visual distraction, we've seen that it is unnecessarily punishing in a minigame that many players are already struggling with, so we've added this animation to help you keep time if you were relying on that visual tell to know where the beat lands. And besides, we think it looks a little nicer, too!

Finally, the game is now available in German! We'll continue to work on more translations over time, so please be patient if your language is not yet available. We also have many dedicated language channels in our Discord server where you can chat with your fellow community members!

Game updates

• The bears now bop in the bird's-eye view of Steady Bears

• Pantry Parade and Steady Bears now have increased Almost windows to reduce yo-yoing

• Pantry Parade and Steady Bears now cut their tutorials earlier if no sets have been hit

• An extra interaction with the heaped sugar cubes gag has been added to Octeaparty

• Bits & Bops is now fully playable in German!

Bug fixes

• Failing a stage is recorded correctly again, re-enabling skipping minigames (broken in 1.4.0, hotfixed in 1.4.1)

• The keyboard and mouse are actually separated in endless games (broken in 1.4.0, hotfixed in 1.4.1)

• Extra brake inputs without animations are no longer scored as misses in Moleacano

• Deleted save files no longer sometimes return after relaunching the game

• The fan translations are no longer loaded by default (broken in 1.4.0)

• The background in the Steady Bears tutorial no longer skips backwards in certain places

• The tutorial input display no longer snaps to neutral at the end of the Steady Bears tutorial demonstrations

• Unpausing no longer counts as an input in "One button" mode

• BPM changes in Blacksmith are no longer processed while paused

• Endless games no longer exhibit strange behaviour on restart in some cases

• Localisation and camera fading bugs have been fixed in several uncommon error screens

• The guest book now generates pages slightly quicker (but still causes frame drops for now)

Accessibility improvements

• The endless games now have TTS descriptions (including optionally during gameplay)

• The game now uses the language of your Steam client by default

• Speech is now interrupted when a file is selected from the file select menu

• The version number on the main menu is now localised and read by the screen reader

Editor changes

• The object limit for many minigames has been increased

• The editor now has a playback rate option for more precise testing

• Custom mixtapes now support more metadata fields

• Empty values are now displayed more intuitively

• Long property values no longer break the alignment of other fields

• Rich tags and control characters are now handled correctly in more cases

• Custom mixtapes without music are now playable outside the editor again

Demo changes

• All relevant changes since release have also been applied to the demo

• The promotional cards and opening screen now say that the game is available for purchase

• There is now a dedicated error message for mixtapes containing minigames outside the four available in the demo

Internal changes

• Log messages have been added for all misses (to help us understand why some Perfect stickers aren't being awarded)

• Log messages have been added for large frame drops (to help us track down the cause of the freezing)

Welcome back for more patch notes!

As with previous patches, we're still taking on feedback and prioritising features and fixes. Please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep working through them into the new year. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox.

You can now have up to three save slots! If you want to let your little brother try the game out on your computer, or you just want to be able to play the game from scratch, you can now do that without manually copying save files around; just pick a new slot from the menu at the start of the game.

Many people were having trouble with Molecano, mostly due to the tutorial not consistently punishing extra inputs when players were tapping on every beat instead of every second beat. While the game generally doesn't punish inputs while grounded, we've added a small window around when you're about to be launched that will put the mole into the flail state, and hopefully help players to learn the rules properly before advancing from the tutorial. We'll be keeping an eye on this change, and potentially making further adjustments if this doesn't have the desired effect, so please let us know if you're still having trouble.

We also heard from a lot of people who were confused about the Maestro achievement in Symphony. We've made a small update to tint the conductor's swoosh effect blue if you're still on track to earn the achievement, so that people can more easily tell when they've missed and need to start again.

We've also fixed several compatibility issues with the native Linux build. The game requires some X11 features to run correctly, so an error message will now be displayed to Wayland users advising them to add "env -u WAYLAND_DISPLAY %command%" to the game's launch options in Steam in order to force the game to run with XWayland. We've also enabled the Windows build of the custom engine to run under Proton, though note that we generally don't advise using Proton at all except as a last resort, and we're happy to troubleshoot issues with the native Linux build in our Discord server.

Finally, we've made some internal updates to the record player. We're quite sure this shouldn't affect anything else in the game, so there's no need to worry about that. To be honest, I'm not sure why we would even bother to mention it here in the first place...

Game updates

• The record player has been updated for no reason in particular

• You can now have up to three separate save slots for your save data

• Molecano's tutorial and gameplay have been updated to better teach the rules and punish incorrect inputs

• The swoosh effect in Symphony is now tinted blue if you're on track for the Maestro achievement

• Multiplayer games now treat the keyboard and mouse as separate controllers

• The description of the Fallback engine setting has been updated to better explain its shortcomings

Bug fixes

• Bop's gameplay demo no longer awards a sticker on mixtapes

• Several movement discontinuities have been fixed in appearances of Steady Bears in mixtapes, but please report it if you are still seeing errors

• The ordering of the game corner pins now matches the minigames' order of appearance

• Changing the engine in the settings menu now does not save until the change is confirmed

• Navigating down from the record player tabs now always goes to the first entry

• The custom engine now initialises correctly under Proton (but we still advise running the native Linux build instead)

• The dedicated default settings for the Steam Deck are no longer applied when running under Proton

• The game now detects initialisation errors caused by Wayland and provides instructions to fix them

• The last dialogue box in the Snakedown tutorial no longer plays an extra dialogue sound

Accessibility improvements

• The keyboard shortcut to toggle the screen reader has been changed to Ctrl+Shift+A (as Win+Shift+A was not working on Windows 11)

• Paragraphs of text should now have pauses between them for more speech backends

Editor changes

• The snap value has been reworked to be more intuitive

• Many stages have been adjusted to function more intuitively at variable speeds

• Several stages will no longer process events intended for their mixtape variants and vice versa

Thanks for playing Bits & Bops!

Welcome back for more patch notes!

We’re continuing to listen to feedback, and we’ve been prioritising the most important features and fixes. We still have more to do, so please keep reporting issues or suggestions when you have them. We’re most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox.

Many players were reporting that they struggled to understand Octeaparty’s tutorial, but found that the level itself was quite intuitive. To address this, we’ve added a dedicated 5/4 version of the tutorial music, which has a similar feel to the level itself, and provides a much more natural framing of the cues when you first encounter them.

Pantry Parade continued to be a stumbling block for new players, so we’ve made some further adjustments aimed at helping people to understand the rhythms and stick to the beat when the visuals are taken away. The NPC ants now have step and lift sound effects which consistently play throughout the level. The lift sound that was previously attached to the player releasing the button has been removed, as most new players were unaware this was even a mechanic, and we felt it was not important enough to cover in the tutorial.

Finally, the game is now available in Cantonese! We’ll be working on more translations over time, so please be patient if your language is not yet available. We also have many dedicated language channels in our Discord server where you can chat with your fellow community members!

Game updates

• Octeaparty now has a dedicated 5/4 tutorial theme

• Pantry Parade’s audio has been reworked to help players better keep time

• The game is now available in Cantonese

Bug fixes

• The game now properly supports mono audio output devices

• The clock no longer gets stuck when “One button” is enabled

• The game no longer gradually increases in memory usage when idle in the shop

• The handwriting on the floppy disks in Traditional Chinese is no longer missing some characters

• Your partner’s concerned state in Steady Bears no longer carries across appearances in mixtapes

• An errant sliver of a grape is no longer briefly visible in one of the Pantry Parade scenes

Accessibility improvements

• When playing the game in Traditional Chinese, the safety video now offers you a choice of Traditional Chinese translation

• Any other changes tagged \ in 1.1.0 are now available in Portuguese \

Thanks for playing Bits & Bops!

Welcome to our second proper set of patch notes for Bits & Bops!

We’ve been continuing to listen to feedback from players, and making adjustments to address the most common issues people are running into. We’re still not done, so please keep reporting issues or suggestions when you have them. We’re most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox.

We’ve made a small audio cue update to Steady Bears to help prevent players accidentally faceplanting right at the beginning of the tutorials, and also generally smooth out transitions into the minigame when it appears in mixtapes. On the public beta channel, we have a further draft change to help people get back on beat after the off-beat steps, but we’re continuing to take feedback on that from players before deciding whether we want to include that change in the main build. If you’re still struggling with Steady Bears, please try the build on the beta channel and let us know if that helps you feel the rhythms more clearly.

We are also keeping an eye on Pantry Parade, but have not yet made any further changes to the level since widening the timing windows in the last patch. We have some ideas for potential changes, but we’re also interested in feedback from players who are still struggling with this level.

We’ve noticed a lot of people getting stuck in the game progression, and found that this had multiple causes. In some cases the unlocks weren’t working correctly, and in others people were simply being confused by the store layout. To address both of these, we’ve added some UI arrows to indicate when a new area is available that you haven’t seen yet, and we’ve also added some safety catches to the code to double-check that levels are unlocked when they should be. If you still think things aren’t unlocking correctly for you, please let us know so we can look into it further.

We’ve also had numerous reports of things not working correctly when Settings > Other > Schedule hits is set to On. While we generally advise fixing your latency where possible, we understand that some players have no choice but to use high latency setups (for example, if they only own Bluetooth headphones). We have fixed a selection of bugs relating to this setting, but there are likely more, so please report them when you see them, and mention that you are using “Schedule hits” to help us track down the issue more quickly.

Finally, we noticed that some people who broke the community computer instinctively went to the counter to ask Bop (or Bit) for help. Accordingly, we’ve given both characters dedicated dialogue lines for this.

Game updates

• Steady Bears now has a new cue which plays between the count-in and first step

• Meet & Tweet now has a sound for missing an input in Sky Mixtape

• You can now type “cinema” on the computer to unlock all videos

• Bit & Bop now have dedicated dialogue lines when the computer is broken

• The UI now has some basic navigation arrows to help players find new areas

• The calibration threshold now allows for even more negative readings

• The safety video now relaxes its tighter timing windows to normal levels after the first failure

Bug fixes

• Globe Trotters is no longer synced 20ms later than other minigames

• The game audio no longer stutters in menus on Linux (including the Steam Deck)

• The Clock is now playable when “Schedule hits” is enabled

• The first input in Sweet Tooth is no longer blocked when “Schedule hits” is enabled

• The player's bop in Steady Bears now plays correctly when “Schedule hits” is enabled

• Bit’s scoreboard challenge lines can no longer be accidentally triggered on your first playthrough of the game

• Bop’s demo should no longer award a sticker (but please report this if you’re still seeing it)

• Achievements for opened mail are re-synced to the Steam client upon entering the store

• Pausing a video and pressing the power button or leaving the computer no longer hangs the game

• Lounge characters with BPM-synced animations no longer interfere with video playback on the computer

• The computer power button now hides the blue screen on the lounge view of the computer

• The Blacksmith item glow sprites now properly match their associated items

• The link to tweet about us on the computer is no longer missing a word

• Fan translations will no longer be auto-selected for users with the associated system language \

Accessibility improvements

• The safety video now asks if you want to enable narration during gameplay when using a screen reader

• The intro and outro cutscenes now have screen reader narration

• Any other changes tagged \ in 1.1.0 are now available in Chinese, Japanese and Korean

Thanks for playing Bits & Bops!

Welcome to our first proper set of patch notes for Bits & Bops!

We've been listening to feedback from players, and we're trying very hard to address subjective issues as well as crashes and other bugs preventing people from progressing. We still have a long list to go, and we'll continue pushing out patches to address these over the coming days and weeks before we go on Christmas break.

We’ve noticed some players being brick-walled by Pantry Parade and Steady Bears, which was not our intention. As an immediate fix, we’ve relaxed the hit window in those games to smooth out the overall difficulty curve of the game. Longer term, we would like to invest some time into improving the cues and feedback given in those minigames to help players better keep time, at which point we may tighten the windows back up to their normal size.

We’re also aware of confusion in President Bird owing to the lack of audio response to indicate an “almost” input at the start of a hold note. We’ve added an extra sound layer to address this in the short-term, but we may rework this mechanically at a later stage to further improve clarity.

We've also seen some people interpret Bit's post-game remark that "we're not expecting any more minigames to arrive any time soon" to mean that we're not planning to push any content updates for the game. While we're not promising anything at this stage, and our short-term focus will be on fixing issues players are experiencing with existing content, it certainly wasn't our intention to definitively rule out further content updates, so we've updated this line to better reflect that.

In other news, we have now updated the Steam soundtrack metadata to include the full track names and lengths. This was previously spoilered so that we could set the store page live before launch without giving away any of the minigames, and updating this was a manual process.

One last note: as a matter of practicality, where we make changes to dialogue, the English version will likely be one step ahead of the translations, at least in these early stages while we are trying to rapidly push out fixes and adjustments to address the biggest problems players are having. Once our cadence slows to a more normal pace, we will do our best to ensure that all supported languages are fully translated in every version.

Game updates

• Pantry Parade and Steady Bears (in their tutorials and their main games) now have more lenient hit windows (mixtapes are currently unchanged)

• Pantry Parade, Steady Bears and Globe Trotters now allow more time before re-demonstrating the required inputs in their tutorials

• Getting an “almost” judgement when starting a hold in President Bird now has an associated sound effect to communicate that you’ve missed

• Input is now locked for the transition between Pantry Parade and Molecano in Final Mixtape to avoid pedantically punishing an extra step at the point of the cut

• Bit’s post-game speech has been slightly reworded \

• The Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) and Japanese translations have received minor quality updates

Bug fixes

• The treasure chest in Snakedown no longer has an extra lid when the charmer wakes up

• The forged items in Blacksmith now properly line up with the thought bubbles

• The “No Thanks” section in the credits now properly lines up with the corresponding achievements

• The guest book now fills out completely after playing a level

• Fan translations will no longer be auto-selected for users with the associated system language

Accessibility improvements

• The screen reader now announces whose turn it is to start in Blacksmith (ordinarily communicated visually by the thought bubbles) \

• Dialogue with questions attached now play a separate sound when the screen reader is enabled to prevent accidental skipping of questions

If you would like to be the first to try new changes, you can opt in to the Steam beta channel via the game settings in your Steam client. We are very active in our Discord server and on the Steam community forums, and we greatly appreciate anyone who takes the time to report problems and work through the troubleshooting process with us.

Thanks for playing Bits & Bops!

We’re so happy to see everyone enjoying Bits & Bops! We’ve been working extremely hard to help everyone who needed support, but we’re only a small team, so if you’ve reached out to us and not heard back, please feel free to ask again.

Here’s what we’ve been up to!

Shortly after launch, we pushed some small changes in version 1.0.1:

• For players with specific rare configurations, the game no longer crashes when trying to start the main game

• The drum roll cue in President Bird no longer plays persistently for an extended time for some players

As people played through the game and reported issues, we identified a number of other things that were hindering progress through the main game, so we’ve just now pushed some more changes in version 1.0.2:

• Some players were experiencing severe audio crackling when the “Strict buffer” setting was enabled. To address this, we are trialing a change that disables this setting by default. If the game has been running fine for you, or if you want to try to get the lowest possible audio latency, we recommend you manually turn this back on via Settings > Audio > Strict buffer > On

• Some players were confused about how to progress past Symphony, so we’ve significantly shortened the length of time you need to play the minigame, and also made the skip reminder play any time you quit an endless game

We’ve also been made aware that the fan translations from the demo are unintentionally being loaded and used by the game for languages which don’t yet have an official translation. This is causing confusion, since the main menu is translated, but the vast majority of the rest of the game is not. To simplify this, we’ll be disabling the fan translations in a future build.

From here, we’re planning to focus on the highest priority fixes and quality improvements that are being requested by players on the Steam community forums and in our Discord server. Once we’re comfortable the game is in a good place, we can start prioritising our longer list of feature requests from our community.

Thank you so much for your support!

Bits & Bops is live right now on Steam!

Thank you so much for your patience, we really hope you enjoy the game!

If you’re looking for something extra, we also have these bundles available:

Bits & Bops + Soundtrack Bundle

Get the game plus the entire OST!

Bits & Bops + UNBEATABLE Bundle

Get the game plus UNBEATABLE, which also launched today!

Tempo Lab + 7th Beat Bundle

Pick up the entire catalogue of 7th Beat Games, including Rhythm Doctor and A Dance of Fire and Ice, both games we absolutely adore!

Thanks again and have fun!

- Tempo Lab

A very special Bits & Bops announcement will air during the Wholesome Snack Showcase on December 9th at 12pm PT! You won't want to miss it!

Click the "Notify me" button in the bottom left corner of the Wholesome Snack YouTube video to get a reminder.

See you there!

Welcome back for more patch notes!

We're already one month into Q4, and we're still working hard to bring you the full version of Bits & Bops by the end of the year! This release of the demo is mostly small updates and bug fixes that we've been patching along the way. We've also reverted the One Button setting to be off by default, as this is the way we expect most players will want to play Bits & Bops at release. If you run into any issues, please report them to us in our Discord server!

You can now also play the Bits & Bops demo in:

• Ukranian - thanks to erulairy!

We've also had substantial updates to many of our fan translations:

• Chinese - thanks to Kirbysfan!

• Polish - thanks to Maksymilian Król!

• Portuguese - thanks to Ghostabo and teu!

Special thanks to all the translators!

Updates

• One Button mode is now disabled by default (but you can re-enable it via Settings > Other > One Button)

• The game now prioritises showing mouse buttons when the player is using a mouse

Bugs fixed

• We've updated our version of Unity to address the recent Unity security advisory

• Looped music now loops in the correct spot again

• The accessibility shortcut can no longer be broken by changing key bindings

• Enabling scheduled hits no longer causes all Flipper Snapper photos to have popped balls

• Scheduled hit sounds can no longer carry over between tutorial phases

• The game no longer crashes if a loaded custom mixtape is renamed or deleted

• Meet & Tweet can now make use of more bouncing bop heads in custom mixtapes

• Custom mixtapes using B-Bot now correctly mute the bop sound when it is not the first minigame

• Custom mixtapes can now control the B-Bot stage backlight alpha independently of the stage grid

• Less common types of MP3 files are now handled correctly in custom mixtapes

As always, you can discuss the latest changes in our Discord server. See you there!

Welcome back for more patch notes!

This release contains a collection of small fixes and updates based on feedback from our wonderful community in our Discord server! Most notably we've added some new cues to B-Bot to make the spin move easier to identify, and we've squashed a ton of bugs. We've also enabled "One button" mode by default to smooth out the experience for new players, but you can switch back to the regular mode in the Settings menu under the "Other" tab.

We've also had substantial updates to many of our fan translations:

• German - thanks to Lucas Waldhauer!

• Japanese - thanks to shiomichu!

• Korean - thanks to Big Jaekuk!

• Portuguese - thanks to Ghostabo!

• Spanish - thanks to valentinmacc!

• Vietnamese - thanks to Đào Đức Trung!

Special thanks to all the translators!

Updates

• The B-Bot spin move now uses a record scratch audio cue

• "One button" mode is now enabled by default

• The new "Preview tutorials" setting will demonstrate the required actions in all tutorials ahead of time instead of waiting for failure

• Input in B-Bot is now locked while the curtains are closed

• Unused settings are now hidden when an ASIO-compatible audio device is selected

• macOS builds are now signed and notarized where needed

• Custom mixtapes can now be created without music

• The character switches in Flipper Snapper customs are now more flexible

• The camera position and bouncing ball in Meet & Tweet customs is now more flexible

Bugs fixed

• The game no longer hangs randomly during scene transitions on macOS

• The game no longer crashes when using old audio devices on Windows

• The game now gracefully handles more audio device errors on Windows

• The game now gracefully handles ASIO-compatible audio devices that do not specify a sample rate on Windows

• Most keyboard keys are now bindable on macOS

• TTS now functions correctly under the Steam Runtime (thanks huantian!)

• The accessibility shortcut now works even when its keys are unbound

• New audio device settings strings are now localised

• Mouse input is now properly blocked when the Steam overlay is open

• The photos at the end of Flipper Snapper show the popped beach ball (again)

• The seal in Flipper Snapper customs now more accurately switches between head and tail

• Flipper Snapper ball animation correction is now applied to custom mixtapes

• Hammer Time customs no longer allow multiple nails on the same beat

• B-Bot now bops more consistently in custom mixtapes

• Multiple general performance and stability fixes

As always, you can discuss the latest changes in our Discord server. See you there!

Welcome back for more patch notes! This release brings our biggest demo update yet - we've added a whole new level for Steam Next Fest! You can now see your favorite dancing trio from the trailer in B-Bot & the Fly Girls! Please download the demo to try it out, and leave your feedback in the #demo-feedback channel of our Discord server!

We've also had substantial updates to many of our fan translations:

• Chinese - thanks to Kirbysfan!

• Korean - thanks to Big Jaekuk!

• Polish - thanks to Maksymilian Król!

• Russian - thanks to hydrosu!

• Spanish - thanks to Valentin!

• Vietnamese - thanks to Trung!

Special thanks to all the translators!

Features added

• B-Bot & the Fly Girls has been added to the public demo!

• The custom engine now supports most ASIO-compatible audio drivers (must be selected in Settings > Audio > Device)

Updates

• The default keyboard bindings now use J and K to accommodate 2-button games

• The menus have been updated to accommodate the new level and make it easier to wishlist the game

• The mouse cursor is now only hidden when the game has focus

• The type of displayed keys or buttons now updates more frequently when switching input devices

• The screen reader on macOS now matches the speech rate specified in system preferences

• The screen reader now differentiates between the two types of perfect judgements

• The wording of the credits board has been updated to reflect that the Kickstarter has ended (oops!)

• The pacing of scene transitions has been adjusted

Bugs fixed

• The game now handles 5.1 audio configurations on Windows

• The game no longer crashes on launch on macOS if VoiceOver has never been enabled

• Many missing keys on macOS are now bindable

• Audio device selection now works correctly on Linux and macOS

• Audio devices are now still selectable if audio fails to initialise

• Audio should no longer fail to initialise for some users when another application is playing audio

• The pause board no longer flashes up when the pause button is pressed during scene load

• The sound effect for the third photo in Flipper Snapper now correctly plays when scheduled hits is enabled

• The photo of the stolen hotdog in Flipper Snapper now accurately reflects the scene when scheduled hits is enabled

• Adjust the position of multiple sprites in Meet & Tweet to match intended layout

As always, you can discuss the latest changes in our Discord server. See you there!

• German - thanks to Drowzee!

• Chinese - thanks to Kirbysfan!
• Danish - thanks to Rapandrasmus!
• Korean - thanks to Big Jaekuk!
• Portuguese - thanks to Ghostabo and teu!
• Spanish - thanks to Valentin!
• Vietnamese - thanks to Trung!

Features added

• Hit sounds can be pre-scheduled to enable latency calibration via the Settings menu
• Gameplay can now be paused using the Quit button (typically Start or Escape)
• Levels can now be restarted from the Pause menu
• Input is now rebindable via the Settings menu
• Keys and buttons are now displayed using glyphs appropriate for your input device
• After failing a tutorial, the game demonstrates the correct timing

Updates

• Mouse input is now enabled by default in menus to enable WASD + left click menu navigation
• The "Hit X more!" text in Flipper Snapper no longer flashes on hit
• Tutorials will now cut earlier if the player hasn't successfully hit any cues
• Fading audio in and out now uses a more natural-sounding curve
• Error screens now ignore input for a short time to make them harder to accidentally dismiss
• Cursor locking is now configurable via the Settings menu
• The screen reader now consistently provides instructions to re-enable TTS when disabled
• The game will now automatically enable TTS if VoiceOver is enabled on macOS
• The game no longer automatically switches players to the Fallback engine on failure to initialise audio
• Autoplay can now be toggled from stage select via the Ctrl+A shortcut
• Mixtapes will no longer implicitly fade out if an explicit "end" block is used
• Error screens will now be read by TTS when it is enabled
• The game will now default to the user's locale for translation files for unsupported languages
• The in-game Discord links will now direct Thai users to the Thai channel
• The shared mode buffer size description setting no longer advises that it shouldn't be changed
• Switching to exclusive mode audio now requires confirmation to acknowledge potential side effects
• The custom engine now correctly handles more output formats, including the DualSense controller speaker
• The game now has generally faster and more consistent load times between scenes

Bugs fixed

• The ocean sound volume in Flipper Snapper is now controlled by the Sfx setting (instead of the Music setting)
• The Flipper Snapper bubbling animation no longer leaves the last animation frame visible
• The mixtape unlock animation no longer plays when the file picker is cancelled
• Flash events in mixtapes can now be used in conjunction with the implicit ending fade out
• Audio no longer crackles when fading in or out on some devices
• Focus is now correctly lost and regained when clicking outside the window on macOS
• TTS no longer fails to read some dynamic menu items
• A rare TTS error no longer interferes with the game on macOS
• The screen reader is now correctly turned off when resetting all settings to default
• Flipper Snapper boat events for custom mixtapes now have a flag to check their lengths match the animation
• The fourth shelf and cabinet covers in stage select are now correctly aligned
• The game no longer uses the default font for some glyphs in some languages
• The game's title bar now correctly shows "Bits & Bops" on macOS
• Mouse input no longer fails after the first input on some Linux systems
• The game should generally run smoothly on more systems as a result of internal optimisations
• The game now generally outputs fewer warnings and errors under normal operation

• Polish - thanks to Watercats!

Features added

• The Ctrl+M shortcut to load custom mixtapes now also works on the stage select screen
• The custom engine on Windows now uses low latency shared mode audio by default if your audio device driver supports it

Updates

• Flipper Snapper photos no longer incur excessive performance penalties when they are first shown and while they remain on screen
• Many internal optimisations should result in more stable frame rates, lower power consumption and lower load times on all devices
• On Windows, clicking the mouse in the client area to regain focus is now processed as a valid input

Bugs fixed

• When using the default audio output device on Windows, the game will now automatically switch when the device changes (e.g. when headphones are plugged in)
• More keys (e.g. W/A/S/D/F/J) are now correctly handled on Linux
• When using the Fallback engine, volume changes now correctly apply to the in-game sounds
• Audio devices with more than 2 output channels are now handled correctly in more cases
• Animations no longer desync at the beginning of mixtapes
• Input is no longer locked in some cases for mixtapes that rely on implicit first game selection
• The save file is no longer able to become corrupted in cases of power loss or BSOD
• Custom mixtapes that show flashes on beat 0 will now have the starting flash colour extended to the first drawn frame
• Custom mixtapes that specify an explicit end beat will now cause audio to stop deterministically (independent of frame rate)
• The background clouds Flipper Snapper now loop properly in long custom mixtapes
• The sample mixtape no longer includes a meaningless duplicate flash event

• Vietnamese - thanks to Đào Đức Trung!

Features added

• The accessibility settings now include a "Narrate gameplay" option to enable additional narration during levels
• The custom audio engine now has a "Strict buffer" setting which can be disabled for compatibility with non-conforming output devices
• Linux now has basic screen reader support if spd-say is available (apt-get install speech-dispatcher)

Updates

• Loading mixtapes now uses the native OS file picker, which is also accessible to screen readers
• Shortcuts on the disclaimer screen now also accept Shift in place of Ctrl
• The mouse cursor is only locked to the screen on valid mouse input
• The screen reader now describes more details on the title screen, stage select, tutorials and judgement screens
• The default Windows screen reader implementation now supports modern voices and configuration settings
• The Windows build now detects more running screen readers in addition to NVDA
• The default locale for Spanish has been changed to es-MX (from es-US)
• The X button can now be used in addition to the A button on controllers
• The custom audio engine now supports a wider range of audio formats to be compatible with more sound cards
• The custom audio engine now attempts to match your native device format for optimal speed and latency

Bugs fixed

• The Japanese translation was mistakenly omitted and is now included in all builds
• Bubble pop events in Meet & Tweet are now consistently handled before bubble appear events
• The game no longer freezes in some cases on Linux when the audio device is in a bad state
• The custom audio engine now recovers from more invalid device state errors
• Screen reader pacing is now more consistent on non-Windows platforms
• Level names now use translated names in stage select if available
• The keyboard shortcut to enable accessibility (Shift+Win+A) now works reliably and is available on macOS (as Shift+Command+A)
• The game no longer crashes on Windows if text-to-speech fails to initialise
• The "sound check" text no longer disappears after changing language
• The modifier key for disclaimer screen shortcuts no longer sticks on macOS
• The "Screen flash" option now also disables the camera shutter on the Flipper Snapper title screen
• Clicking the mouse no longer interrupts the current screen reader dialogue
• Overlapping nails in Hammer Time customs now use consistent layering

• Japanese - thanks to shiomichu!
• Russian - thanks to Lisenokk!
• French - thanks to Temulgeh and Romaing!
• Italian - thanks to Feder-28!

Features added

• The game now supports narration with text-to-speech for blind and visually impaired users
• Custom mixtapes can now be loaded by pressing Ctrl+M on the disclaimer screen
• In-game volume controls now use a more natural-sounding curve
• Linux and macOS users can now explicitly select their audio output device in settings
• The mouse cursor is now locked to the screen during gameplay
• The in-game Discord link now points to the Polish channel if your system language is Polish

Updates

• The kiss sound effect in Flipper Snapper now more closely matches the judgement timing
• Many fan translations have received updates from the contributors and our community
• The default game volume has been lowered for new players (but can still be increased in settings)
• The wren is now able to giggle for the last input of Meet & Tweet
• The Hammer Time "Cool" judgement text now ends with a full stop instead of an exclamation mark
• The custom engine now makes use of SSE2 instructions on Linux and macOS
• The bundled version of SDL2 has been updated to 2.30.0
• The included version of miniaudio on Linux and macOS has been updated to 0.11.21

Bugs fixed

• The custom engine is now enabled by default on macOS
• The "Want more?" CD now animates in with the others on first play
• Photos taken in the Flipper Snapper tutorial now match the tutorial background
• The hammer no longer gets stuck if held at the end of the Hammer Time tutorial
• The in-game Discord link now points to the Chinese channel if your system language is Traditional Chinese
• Translations now use the correct title font on error screens
• The custom engine no longer preferences installed versions of SDL2 in /usr/local/lib over the bundled version
• The custom engine no longer fails to load SDL2 on macOS for some users
• Transitioning to the main menu from the splash screen can now be done with any button or key
• Unused audio settings are no longer present on macOS
• All randomised effects no longer exclude one of the choices for the first selection

Internal changes

• Custom mixtapes with a large number of BPM changes no longer cause frame drops on some machines
• The camera now fades out consistently when quitting custom mixtapes
• Some missed judgement lines are now included in translation files
• The bubble animation in Flipper Snapper now scales with song BPM
• Reduce likelihood of block desync at beginning of Hammer Time in custom mixtapes
• Blocks used in Hammer Time outro animation in custom mixtapes are always the correct length
• Hit nails in Hammer Time can no longer become stuck on screen
• The exercise_2 bubble in Meet & Tweet customs now shows the correct sprite
• The canary's perch shadow in Meet & Tweet now scales with song BPM
• The sound effects and animations of speech bubbles in Meet & Tweet customs now match the main game
• Custom mixtapes no longer fail to load if open in another program
• Translation files now allow arbitrary grammar for the translator credit in the disclaimer screen
• Translation files can now specify a scaling factor for settings tab labels
• Translation files can now specify the separator used between option names and values
• Translation files can now specify the length at which audio device names are truncated
• Text bounds and overflow settings have been updated on multiple screens
• Decimals in numbers now use a locale appropriate for the chosen translation
• Where possible, valid content is used from invalid translation files
• Translation filenames are no longer required to match a list of known language names
• Judgement messages triggered by custom mixtapes can no longer bleed into the main game
• Several inconsequential warnings and errors no longer appear in the log file

• Korean - thanks to Big Jaekuk!
• Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) - thanks to Kirbysfan!
• Portuguese (Brazillian) - thanks to Ghostabo and teu!
• Spanish - thanks to valentinmacc!
• Danish - thanks to Rapandrasmus!

Features added

• The game will now default to your system language if a translation is available for it (or you can select a language in the settings)
• The in-game Discord link now redirects users to the language channel that matches their system language (if there is one)
• Some text has been updated for simplicity and consistency

Bugs fixed

• The custom engine no longer fails to load on some macOS systems
• Failure to load the custom engine now redirects users to the generic error screen
• The "Hit X more!" text fades out consistently in all tutorials
• All tutorials are now consistently skippable
• The "Want more?" card no longer produces a minor audio glitch when selected

Internal changes

• Hammer Time mixtapes can now use more blocks before they start disappearing

Features added

• The custom engine is now available on macOS
• The external links have been updated for those looking for more content and ways to support us
• The frame rate cap can now be set to triple your refresh rate (but leaving VSync on is usually better)
• The demo expiry message now shows instructions for updating the game
• Some judgement stickers have received a visual update (let us know what you think!)
• The dialogue prompt triangle now has a new texture
• Debug logs contain more detail to assist in troubleshooting issues

Bugs fixed

• The custom engine can now be loaded from paths containing non-English characters
• The custom engine can now be loaded on particularly old versions of Windows 7
• The frame rate option can now be navigated backwards (instead of always moving forwards)
• Steamworks libraries are no longer included in non-Steam builds

Internal changes

• All colour flash/fade events are now fully supported
• The long cat zoom event in Hammer Time has been replaced by multiple shorter events
• Custom mixtapes now support .wav format audio files

Features added

• New SDL2 input backend natively supports many different controllers
• You can now switch between the Custom and Fallback engines without exiting the game (now in the "Other" settings tab)
• Settings which are not applied instantly now force a reload or revert
• Tutorials with long sequences now loop to give you more time to hit three patterns

Bugs fixed

• Extended keybindings (e.g. WASD for navigation) now work in the Fallback engine
• The 32-bit Windows build no longer crashes on startup
• Audio resampling no longer crashes on Linux
• The Flipper Snapper tutorial now shows the correct photo when the camera is pointed downwards
• The player speech bubble in Meet & Tweet now immediately stops jiggling on successful input
• The dialogue sound no longer stutters at the beginning of tutorials

Internal changes

• Custom levels now support MP3 files
• The player speech bubble in Meet & Tweet can no longer find its way into other scenes
• The lyrics event in the sample Meet & Tweet custom level now correctly enables the lyrics
• Events in the sample Hammer Time custom level now correctly specify their length
• The correct bubble is shown for extra inputs at the end of Meet & Tweet custom levels
• Blocks in some Hammer Time custom levels no longer disappear
• All custom level files now identify themselves as originating from Bits & Bops

Features added

• All failures to initialise the custom engine now show an appropriate error message on startup
• The custom engine now supports more output formats on Windows (i.e. works with more software/hardware)
• The custom engine now runs on older versions of Linux (with glibc >= 2.15)
• The fallback engine now begins playing audio sooner at the beginning of stages

Bugs fixed

• Letter keys (e.g. WASD) are now handled properly in the fallback engine
• The custom engine no longer crashes on Windows if certain speakers/headphones are disconnected
• The fallback engine no longer stops playing music under some circumstances when settings are changed
• The fallback engine now automatically corrects music desync near the beginning of stages
• The safety catch that puts players on the fallback engine no longer applies on the generic error screen

Internal changes

• Custom levels now load properly on Linux
• Finishing a custom level will now place you back on the menu with the option to replay it
• The Flipper Snapper character switch event now has a toggle to apply immediately
• There is now an event to clear Flipper Snapper's ball popped state
• The option to hide the lyrics in Meet & Tweet now actually hides the lyrics
• The ambient ocean sound now only plays in custom levels that exclusively use Flipper Snapper
• Custom event properties now use more human-readable key names
• Custom levels no longer briefly flash the wrong minigame on startup
• Pressing buttons within a small window at the beginning of a custom level no longer breaks input
• The included custom file containing all Bits & Bops events now specifies a BPM for applications that require it
• All included custom files specify an empty properties object for applications that require it
• The custom level parser now supports newer versions of the file format

Features added

• A catchy new jingle has been added for the Perfect judgement
• The penalty for mashing has been reduced significantly, allowing players to freestyle when the mood strikes
• Players can now use J, F and Right Shift as alternative input keys
• The custom engine now supports multiple hot-pluggable controllers
• The game now warns Linux users who run the Windows build under Proton/Wine

Bugs fixed

• The Linux custom engine now initialises correctly when no controller is connected
• Mouse input has been restored for all minigames (but remains disabled in menus)
• The Linux custom engine gracefully disables mouse input if the user's window manager blocks it
• When using multiple keys in Hammer Time, the hammer now lifts only when the most recently pressed key is released
• The photos in Flipper Snapper now more accurately reflect the scene in more situations with incorrect inputs

Internal changes

• Custom levels now support switching games, toggling input, fading out and ending early
• Custom levels can now be autoplayed by pressing Ctrl+A on the disclaimer screen
• Multiple special stage events can now be used more than once without restriction
• The left end of long blocks in Hammer Time remains connected to the rest in more cases
• Extremely long blocks in Hammer Time will now keep moving for longer

Major updates

• The custom engine is now available on Linux (including Steam Deck)!

Features added

• The music and SFX volume can now be changed from the settings menu
• The settings menu now uses a consistent font

Bugs fixed

• The fallback engine now desyncs less often on slow machines
• Bop and Bit now have their shadows on the title screen

Internal changes

• All stages support BPM changes
• The birds in Meet & Tweet still bop when the "end pose" event isn't used
• Flipper Snapper correctly handles multiple "pan down" events

Updates

• Sounds are now scheduled more accurately when using the Fallback engine
• Mulitple controllers are now supported with the Fallback engine (including external controllers on Steam Deck)
• Menu navigation using D-pad is now supported on Linux (tested on Steam Deck)
• Setting descriptions now more accurately reflect the engine and device you're using
• Mouse clicks are no longer accepted as confirmation in menus (but are still accepted in-game)

Bug fixes

• The cat's stolen hotdog and seal's popped beach ball now appear in any extra photos taken
• Photos taken at the end of Flipper Snapper no longer get stuck on screen
• There is no longer a thin green line at the bottom of the screen in Meet & Tweet
• Failing a tutorial no longer has a small chance to send you to the judgement screen
• Corrupted save files are now correctly backed up for troubleshooting and possible recovery

Updates

• On macOS, the game now falls back on OpenGL if Metal is not available (fixes black screen issue)
• Canary's two hit effects are now more easily distinguishable
• Wren's three tweet animation is now smoother
• Hammer Time tutorial now has a surface for the blocks to sit on
• The fade out at the end of the Hammer Time tutorial now matches the other stages
• All result photos now have a consistent colouring
• Website CD now has an exclamation mark for extra enthusiasm!