Steel Century Groove news & patch notes

I'm currently in the testing phase for the next update for Steel Century Groove and am ready to open it up to players before it goes live. I'd love to get your feedback and hear about any bugs you encounter. This update introduces the ability to import .osz or .osu files, allowing you to have more manual control of custom music charts. You can create Steel Century Groove specific charts that precisely identify each stem, or you can import an already-made chart designed for osu!, osu!mania, osu!taiko, etc. and the game will use that as a guide to improve its automatic charting. You can customize all this in the Fine Tune menu for each track, but the defaults are set up such that you can just download a .osz (such as from here), drop it in like any other song, and start playing! The update also introduces a new Monument Arena level with destructible skyscrapers, playable in Arcade Mode, endgame modes, and the Cassie Spectacular boss battle. And of course, lots of other improvements, polish, and bug fixes. To opt-in to the beta branch, find the game in your library, right click or select the gear icon, choose "Properties...", select "Game Versions & Betas", then choose the option "public_beta".

Instructions for .osu/.osz import

.osz (easiest):

For those of you who hate reading... introducing: ARCADE MODE!

Skip the story and dive directly into Steel Century Groove's fast-paced, strategic rhythm battles. Complete objectives, purchase upgrades, chase high scores, then challenge the ultra-difficult upper ranks of Endless Mode. But don't worry, those playing in Story Mode won't be left behind. The update also brings the High Scores, Shop, and Quickplay features to the endgame Haus Infinity area.

🎉 To celebrate the new update, Steel Century Groove will be 25% off from April 30th to May 7th at 10AM PDT! 🎉

Check out the update trailer here:

Thank you to everyone who's played the game and left feedback or reported bugs! And especially those who helped test this update on the beta branch. The next update, 1.7, will be going to into development soon with the big planned feature being the ability to import custom charts for players who want full control of the the beat mapping. Keep an eye out for that on the beta branch in the future!

Full patch notes for version 1.6:

Gameplay

• Added a new Arcade Mode that allows players to play battles without playing through the story. This is an independent mode that runs on its own save and has its own progression and objectives for acquiring, leveling, and equipping Tenzerks.

• Added a score feature to Arcade Mode and endgame Haus Infinity battles that measures your performance in battle and assigns you a numerical and star rating. High scores can be obtained on an overall basis, on a track-by-track basis, and for a specific Tenzerk.

• Added a new Quickplay Mode in the endgame Haus Infinity and in Arcade Mode. This allows you to jump into battles that scale in difficulty with your team and can earn you Mods, Paints, and Simchips.

• Added a shop, available in the endgame Haus Infinity area or in Arcade Mode, where you can purchase Mods, Tenzerks, and Paints for Simchips.

• Added a new opponent difficulty option to Practice Mode (formerly Freeplay), rematches, and Quickplay battles that allows you to tune the difficulty of the battle.

• Added several bosses to Practice Mode (formerly Freeplay) and the new Quickplay Mode.

• Added a Novox Grunt opponent in endgame Practice/Quickplay mode and in Arcade Mode. This is mostly a just-for-fun reskin of the Discordion (damage) opponent Tenzerk.

• In Practice Mode and Rematches, players can now further tweak the difficulty.

• Changed endless mode to always be very hard difficulty and the added challenge level to the Acclaim bar in battle. Evened out the +Acclaim% for the early difficulties to compensate.

• Players can now earn Pilot Levels in the Haus Infinity Endgame even in modes where they do not make Rhymery/Phantiverse posts.

• Reduced the cost of purchasing a lead Tenzerk in the Haus Infinity endgame shop to 10 Simchips.

• The Paragon Levels feature now requires you to obtain and max level all lead and replica Tenzerks to unlock it. If you have already purchased Paragon Levels but do not meet this requirement, you will be grandfathered in and still be able to use the feature.

• Adjusted the ending top down shooter minigame to make it less oppressive if the player moves quickly through the posting phase. Increased follower HP for the later followers that substitute in.

• Added a default Simchips reward if you already have the reward that would otherwise have been in a chest in the world, which is now possible because you can purchase items in the endgame shop.

• Slightly reduced average destructible respawn time.

• Reduced the duration of the Lockdown opponent ability by 1 turns and increased its cooldown by 4 turns.

• The Dualdrive Tenzerk now also gains XP when an Instruction Disk is upgraded.

• Moved the "Knee Up" dance step out of the starting move set to instead unlock at a later level.

UI

• Added more information about Tenzerk level ups that happened during battle to the victory and defeat screens, even when you do not need to make a Rhymery/Phantiverse post.

• Added a label to make it more clear when the game is asking you to submit a reply in dialogue.

• When any custom music is enabled, added a label under the Setup Custom Music button in the in-game menu to help make it more clear how many tracks of each type are enabled.

• Added a new UI to track your Simchips while inside the endgame version of Haus Infinity.

• Added details about disabling built-in tracks to the Setup Custom Music help menu.

• Renamed Freeplay Mode to Practice Mode.

• Made 3D UI rotation with the right gamepad stick more consistent across screens.

• The cutout area around the cursor in battles now also affects the black background behind the Moves bar.

• Updated UI animations on the Choose a Tenzerk menu.

Audio

• Adjusted UI audio across the Tenzerk screen and others.

• Improved the music muting in the custom music and music selection menus to only apply when previewing a track.

• Small increase to the default volume of hit sounds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed overlapping music when previewing built-in tracks from the main menu.

• Fixed an issue where sometimes you couldn't navigate replica Tenzerk level bonuses with a gamepad.

• Fixed an issue where players could escape the world bounds in the Appalachian Scar area.

• Fixed overlapping text in the Practice Mode (formerly Freeplay) menu.

• Fixed destructibles being destroyed slightly too early during Tenzerk call down animations.

• Fixed an issue where the menu background could clip into the previewed Tenzerk on the Choose a Tenzerk menu.

• Fixed an issue where the previewed Tenzerk could spin with the mouse as you were selecting it on the Choose a Tenzerk menu.

• Fixed issue where sometimes destructibles would not be fully spawned in before the battle loading screen would disappear.

• Fixed an issue where L4-V4CH could display the wrong name on its level bonuses.

• Built-in tracks that you have disabled will no longer be chosen even if the game has saved them as the track to use for a particular pilot after being defeated.

• Fixed the description for the level 9 bonus on the Pettalion, which incorrectly read 25 turns instead of 20.

• Fixed overlap with Add XP button and Simchip display on the Tenzerk Stats & Levels screen.

• Fixed incorrect "Preview Track" prompt showing up with the gamepad on the music selection screen, even though tracks are automatically previewed on this screen.

• Fixed an issue where the Fortifer opponent Tenzerk's head shield would display incorrectly in UI menus.

• Fixed a spot where players could fall off the stairs near the roller coaster in Rainica Park.

• Fixed an issue where only one paragon levels button would grey out if you used up your last Simchip on mouse and keyboard.

• Fixed an issue where you could initiate dialogue by mashing the talk button after starting a rematch.

• Fixed an issue where buttons could have too small of a hitbox after they had been previously grayed out.

I'm currently in the testing phase for the next update for Steel Century Groove and I'm opening it up to players to try out before it goes live.

This update features the all-new ARCADE MODE, which lets you jump directly into battles without playing through the story. Arcade Mode has its own separate progression, objectives, and methods for obtaining, leveling, and equipping your Tenzerks. It also features a new score mechanic that will evaluate your performance in battles and give you a numerical and star rating. You can push for high scores on an overall, track-by-track, or Tenzerk-by-Tenzerk basis. This score mechanic, along with the new shop and quickplay mode, is available to story players in the endgame Haus Infinity area. Of course, the update also includes a bunch of bug fixes and other improvements that you can read about in the full patch notes below. To opt-in to the beta branch, find the game in your library, right click or select the gear icon, choose "Properties...", select "Game Versions & Betas", then choose the option "public_beta".

The full patch notes and more instructions can be found on this forum thread. Give it a try and let me know if you find any issues!

20% Off From March 19 - 26 at 10 AM PST!

If you haven't already jumped in, now's a great time to pick up the game. The championship is yours to win!

Thanks for playing and leaving your feedback and bug reports! I hope everyone is enjoying the new 1.5 update so far.

• Fixed an issue where music files with non-english characters/Unicode characters in the file name or path could show up as length 0:00 (too short) in the Custom Music menu. You should now be able to play these songs. If you had imported a song on the 1.5.0 version that had this issue, you should be able to play it on the new build, but you might need to remove the folder and re-add it to see the proper length and artist/album information on the Track Selection menu. Sorry for the inconvenience.

A big new update for Steel Century Groove is out now!

This patch contains a bunch of quality of life UI improvements, particularly focused on custom music. Some of the highlights are: enabling/disabling individual built-in tracks, mixing/matching custom music with built in music, a custom music menu UX redesign, a new universal setting to make battles last until the end of the song, and an option to hide your replica Tenzerks.

It also adjusts the UI to make sure the text is all big enough on big screens and the Steam Deck, meaning that the game is now officially Steam Deck Verified!

Please note: the default has changed for how custom music is shuffled with built-in music for battles. Before, if any custom music was enabled, all built-in music would be disabled. Now, they will be shuffled together, but you can go the Built-In Soundtrack section at the top of the custom music and disable any or all of the tracks to no longer be played in shuffle.

Thank you to everyone who's played the game and left feedback or reported bugs! And especially those who helped test this update on the beta branch. I'm currently hard at work on the next update, 1.6, which will add an Arcade Mode that lets you jump directly into the rhythm game without playing through the story. Look out for that on the beta branch in a few weeks.

Here's the full patch notes for version 1.5:

Gameplay

• Added a "No Gameplay" Win Condition for Freeplay/Rematch battles where you can just watch the Tenzerks dance without needing to hit any notes.

• Added a overall option in the settings to make battles last until the end of the song. This will also allow you to fill up a second bar after you win, and to press a button to end the battle early after winning.

• Made it more clear where to go next to get to the endgame content in Haus Infinity after completing the game post-credits.

• When repeating a challenge level you've already beaten in Endless mode, a random song will now be picked rather than using a consistent song for that level.

• Ms. Magnets now automatically engages the player.

• Slightly increased the brightness of dark cave areas.

UI

• Added a description box to explain the options on the Freeplay/Rematch menu.

• Added a new user interface design for the custom music menu and music selection menu, with pagination and better performance on large music libraries.

• Added a prompt to let you know that you can cancel the custom music menu's scan folder operation

• Added new shuffle options for custom music only or built-in music only to the music selection menu.

• Added options for mouse & keyboard users to sort tracks by columns to the custom music menu and music selection menu.

• Added the ability to enable and disable built-in tracks in the custom music menu. By default, battles will now shuffle a mix of custom and built-in music, but you can return to the old behavior by turning off all built-in songs in the custom music menu.

• Improved the speed of the custom music menu's refresh/scan folders operation.

• Increased the font size on some menus to make them more readable on the Steam Deck

• On the steam deck, the default custom music folder will not be used anymore (the one in AppData), since it's confusing to find. If you were using this folder, you can add it back using "Add Folder".

• Renamed the "Paints" menu to "Styles" and added a "Hide Replicas" option (specified on your lead Tenzerk)

• The custom music menu now ignores hidden files (files ending with mp3/ogg/wav but starting with a period)

• Updated the image for the "Official Lover" achievement (this applies to all branches/versions of the game)

• Tweaked the size of icons on the opponent upcoming moves list

• Added a better default location for the Add Folder button on the Steam Deck or Linux/Proton. Unfortunately, there are still some issues with navigating this emulated file widget, and it's best to use the sidebar for navigation.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck if they opened the menu and saved while on the Upgrade Chip menu in Haus Infinity (during the New District City story). If you have a broken save, this update will also allow you to proceed.

• Fixed an issue where endgame paragon levels could sometimes fail to save.

• Fixed an issue where the endgame Tenzerk purchase menu would charge you Simchips even if you declined the confirmation popup.

• Custom music tracks that fail to generate any notes from the analysis process will now be deselected and marked as failed in the menu.

• Fixed a crash when try to analyze custom music on a system with certain python global environment variables set.

• Fixed a rare crash when leaving a battle.

• Fixed an issue in the custom music menu where enable/disable all wouldn't work properly when a folder had invalid custom tracks.

• Fixed an issue where sometimes beat pips wouldn't show up for the Aedonix Tenzerk when the song had very few non-beat notes.

• Fixed an issue where the save/safe travel buttons would be temporarily disabled after returning from the options or custom music menu.

• Fixed collision issues with the spotlights in Haus Infinity and with mushrooms in the cave areas.

• Fixed issues where gamepad input could fail when using multiple gamepads

• Fixed an issue where the music selection screen would display incorrect text when the track had no artist

• Fixed an issue where pressing and holding B on in the in-game menu would cause it open and close rapidly.

I'm currently in the testing phase for the next update for Steel Century Groove and I wanted to open it up to players to try out before it goes live. This update contains a bunch of quality of life UI improvements, particularly focused on custom music. Some of the highlights are: enabling/disabling individual built-in tracks, mixing/matching custom music with built in music, a custom music menu UX redesign, a new universal setting to make battles last until the end of the song, and an option to hide your replica Tenzerks. To opt-in to the beta branch, find the game in your library, right click or select the gear icon, choose "Properties...", select "Game Versions & Betas", then choose the option "public_beta".

The full patch notes and more instructions can be found on this forum thread. Give it a try and let me know if you find any issues!

Thanks for playing and leaving your feedback and bug reports! I hope everyone is enjoying the game so far. This build focuses on fixes and UI/UX improvements to the calibration section of the options menu. More work on this, and other music related QoL improvements are still in the works!

• Fixed an issue where the Audio Latency option would be not be respected in some cases. Because this issue could cause some players to have calibrated excessively high values, this build will reset your calibration values and you will need to set them up again. Very sorry for the inconvenience and for this bug!

• The calibration menu now allows selecting any number for latency, including negatives.

• Number pickers in Calibration and Custom Music Fine Tuning can now be pressed and held to speed them up. I'm hoping to add keyboard typing input to these in the future, but hopefully this will make it easier for now.

• The calibration menu now shows your current hit offset in milliseconds for the session if no calibration settings had been applied.

• Added additional instructions to the calibration menu and renamed some of the auto-configure options

• The Auto Calibrate Video tester now takes less input to return a value and includes a progress bar.

• Hit sounds now automatically turn off if the audio latency is above 150ms.

• Battle music is now loaded in full rather than streamed, which may help some systems with sync issues at the cost of a little bit more memory usage.

Thanks for playing and leaving your feedback and bug reports! I hope everyone is enjoying the game so far.

• Fixed an issue where the rewards popup after re-completing an Endless Mode challenge level with repeatable rewards would reference the highest completed level instead of the currently completed level.

• Fixed an issue where cargo containers from Sub Francisco could spawn at the entrance to Rainica Park if you ran back to Rainica Park from Sub Francisco during a single session.

• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck by the elevated kiosks in New District City.

• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck by First Pilot Timmie in the cave in Rainica Park.

• Fixed an issue where the camera could clip into the ceiling when battling Rhymery Star Justin on the Tricoastal Express.

Thanks for playing and leaving your feedback and bug reports! I hope everyone is enjoying the game so far.

• Fixed an issue where completing an endless mode level with repeatable rewards (30+) could reset your progress back down to that level. Please note: there is still a known issue where the popup on re-completing a challenge past level 30 displays the wrong number for which challenge mode level you have just completed.

• Fixed an issue where you could fall in a hole in the Mall of Records car park.

• Fixed two spots in Rainica Park where the player could escape from the world bounds. One by the train station and the other by the large Novox skull.

• Fixed an issue where you could fall off one of the moving platforms around the cave off the side of the Pacific Seawall.

• Fixed a rare issue where Love Miwa or other bosses' disruptors could not be destroyed.

• Fixed an issue where chests would not count as opened if you entered a battle immediately after opening them.

• Added Special Interact 1 & 2 to the keybindings menu and renamed some keybinds to be more clear whether they are for Battle or World gameplay. Special Interact 1 & 2 are used for the Magnoomba minigame and for rematching Pilots.

• Added written clues to the statue puzzle in Luna Marin Paradise for when Lavatch is not available to give them.

• Fixed a typo in the conversation with Professor Varma in Luna Marin Paradise.

• Fixed an issue where the minigame HUD could become stuck on screen after exiting to the main menu from the carnival minigames in Rainica Park. Please note: there is still a known issue where the tickets UI can sometimes become stuck up or read as X when exiting to the main menu during this section of the game. You can fix this by fully exiting and relaunching the game.

• Fixed an issue where a Novox battle could become stuck if the music ended without having won or lost the battle.

• Small tweaks to color temperature in some social capture scenes.

• Fixed camera blurriness on the elevator cutscene traveling between New District City and the Mall of Records.

• Increased the cooldown of the Adagion replica Tenzerk's Slomo move to 40 turns. The level 2 bonus now gives 40% Crit Rate rather than setting your Crit Rate to 100%. The level 5 bonus cooldown reduction is reduced from 8 to 5 turns. (Sorry to release this now if you have been enjoying the more powerful Adagion. This change was queued up but just barely missed the launch day.)

The day is finally here. Steel Century Groove is OUT NOW!

I'm so excited for everyone to get the chance to play this game that I've spent years obsessing over. I hope you all enjoy the journey across the Elder States, with all the surprises and battles along the way, and when it's over, I can't wait to see all the ways you push the systems to their limits with your endgame builds!

Thank you all so much for supporting this project from the earliest release of Midnight to now. If you get the time to leave a review, even if you change it later, that makes a huge difference for small indie developers. Reaching 10 reviews as quickly as possible can be make or break for a game like this!

Check out the launch trailer here:

Launch day is coming soon (January 28th) and this update is intended to get some last minute testing on the near-final game code. I hope everyone is looking forward to the full release as much as I am!

The biggest new demo features are the additional options (including playing the full song) on rematches, the improved destructibles and crowds, new dance animations, and a new song, No Time by Nurnberg Productions.

Patch Notes

These notes only cover changes to features that affect the demo. Lots more features and improvements are coming exclusively to the full game!

Let me know if you run into any issues on the new version. And if something you were hoping for isn't here, don't worry; there will be more updates coming after launch. Either way, I'd love to hear your feedback, which you can leave via the in-game form, the Steam forums, or just as a comment on this post.

UI

• Added additional options when rematching pilots to allow controlling the battle length and to set the win condition to End of Music, allowing you to play the whole song, similar to what's available in Freeplay mode.

• The pop up at the end of the demo now contains the game's release date: January 28th 2026!

• Updated dialogue UI animation to be a little more 3D.

• Added replica Tenzerks to the in-battle menu so you can see their mods/level/moves during a battle.

• The music selection screen is now sorted by artist name.

• Added an option for changing difficulty in the options menu when you have a save file loaded. Previously this was only available in the character customization menu.

• Added new pronoun options for She/They and He/They. This one goes out to all the haters! Keep it up and you never know what pronouns I might add next.

• Added an on-screen warning UI when you do not have all available mods equipped for your current lead/replica Tenzerks.

• Increased the size of Acclaim/Damage numbers slightly.

• Adjusted lead Tenzerk portrait positioning to fit better on the UI where there are many different Tenzerks unlocked.

• Navigation tweaks for the Tenzerk menu.

• Added a confirmation to the Return to Main Menu and Fast Travel to Town options.

• Added extra text that clarifies when music vocals are muted in Streamer Mode.

• Added a setting to adjust the intensity of screen shake in battle

Music

• Added a new song for the Bon Donatello boss fight, No Time by Nurnberg Productions.

• Removed the double time sections from Woven in Dusk and added it as regular non-boss song.

• Added new vocals for the songs Temptation and Woven in Dusk, now featuring Logan Justine and Jamie Wiltshire respectively. When hiring musicians directly I always include a no-AI clause, and when purchasing the rights to pre-created tracks, I only acquire tracks that are labeled as not having used AI music or vocals. However, I saw some player concern about the vocals on Woven in Dusk and started to have my own concerns about Temptation, so to be absolutely sure, I went ahead and had new vocals recorded for these songs.

• Added a new victory jingle and sound effect

• Added new music for the BATTLE TOUR intro

• Improvements to beat and sustain placements on some songs.

• Removed the song Eye by Philip Rice. This was taken out as part of adding more original/exclusive songs in the full game and rebalancing the ratio of original/exclusive to Creative Commons songs on the soundtrack. But if you liked this one, it's available here.

• Improvements to custom music where too many sustains and too many short stems would be generated.

• Reduced the volume of song previews on the music selection screen.

Gameplay

• Increased the length of battles across the game, especially in the early-game.

• Tuning to the XP gain rates of each Tenzerk.

• Tuning to Acclaim gain and other move numbers across all Tenzerks.

• In Endless Mode, at high challenge levels, opponent's cooldowns are increased.

• Fixed an issue where damage would crit at a fixed 5%/50% crit rate/crit bonus. Damage now crits using half of your Tenzerk's crit rate/bonus.

• Adjusted the number of fans and likes gained at each Pilot Level.

• Added a floating text warning when you trigger a cooldown while affected by the Empix's Long Cooldowns debuff.

• Adjusted how the Sabotage stat works so that extremely high values will not have as severe an effect or potentially cause opponents to damage themselves.

• Added an extra room in the Nor Sentryville Museum.

Art/Visuals

• Improvements to choreography during gameplay sections, allowing for more natural moves while still keeping as much connection as possible between the placement of the notes and the animations chosen.

• Tenzerk footsteps now leave cracks and jagged rocks on the ground.

• Added additional foot animations and dance moves.

• Improvements to visual clarity of Rhymery post photos.

• Updated lighting of nighttime battles.

• Reduced the number of trails from the Aedonix's Flourish move to improve visual clarity and performance.

• Improved/changed some Tenzerk paint sets.

• Updated museum battle arena fog and lighting.

• Reduced the dark intensity of the Aedonix's solo effect.

• Added new VFX for some opponent moves.

• Added additional destructibles to all battle arenas, particularly new tall destructibles that can be destroyed by arm motions.

• Powerful Tenzerk moves now create shockwaves that can destroy destructible objects.

• Improved crowd NPCs so that they can now spawn more consistently and run away during battles.

• Lighting adjustments across the game.

• Added an additional eye customization option.

Audio

• Added additional audio of opponent moves.

• Fixed missing/incorrect navigation sounds on the Tenzerk menu.

Bug Fixes

• CPU and GPU performance improvements, especially in heavy battle scenarios.

• Fixed an issue where non-english characters would appear incorrectly when scrolled off screen on the music selection or custom music UI.

• Fixed an issue where the game would not save immediately when confirming a save after manually loading an older save file and then saving.

• Fixed an issue where the mouse cursor could get stuck on screen after playing a battle in Freeplay mode.

• Fixed an issue where the UI cutout effect around the battle cursor could be sized inconsistently.

• Fixed an issue where the Aedonix's grace notes could sometimes appear inconsistently.

• Fixed a spot where the player could get stuck by the kitchen table in their home.

• Fixed issues where non-continuous stems could occasionally be generated in battle.

• Fixed an issue where the player response dialogue UI would allow making a choice too early with the gamepad.

• Fixed issues with opponent pilots who would be framed incorrectly by the black bars when approaching them.

• Smoothed out the audio when looping a song, and fixed issues where an excessive amount of time with no gameplay could occur after a loop.

• Factory Worker Sanya now has a proper Rhymery username.

• Fixed an issue where the Empix's chain VFX could disappear when changing battle arenas or disconnect when playing at low framerates.

• Fixed an issue where the Interact UI prompt could get stuck on screen occasionally.

• Fixed overly bright water in the forest battle arena level at night.

• Fixe an issue where the transition VFX on a music loop would only play halfway.

• Fixed an issue where the player's Tenzerk could T-pose if affected by a boss Malfunction at the time that the music loops.

• Fixed an issue where the last saved time wouldn't update after a manual save.

• Fixed clipping issues with the dark background of some popup windows.

• Fixed issues where the camera could be too slow to catch up to the player while sprinting up stairs.

• Fixed an issue where the arena transition effect could get temporarily stuck on screen if you won or lost a battle while it was active.

• Fixed an issue where certain NPCs, like the player's mom, could appear with different face customizations in different scenes.

• Fixed an issue where the Sentilon's drones did not respect the paints applied to the Sentilon itself.

• Fixed incorrect UI/VFX animations when switching rapidly between menus.

• Fixed issues with click sounds that would play excessively.

Steel Century Groove is releasing in just two weeks, on January 28th! The full game is a huge RPG, many times the size of the demo, featuring all-new Tenzerks, a big world to explore, and ultra-challenging endgame content to keep you busy long after you've finished the story.

I've been playing the game non-stop lately and having tons of fun even after hundreds and hundreds of hours. I can't wait for everyone to experience the surprises coming in the story, and then to check out all your broken endgame builds and personal records!

💃 At launch, Steel Century Groove will cost $17.99 (10% off) 🕺

Make sure to grab the game while it's on sale, before it goes back to the full price of $19.99 without the launch discount.

Add the game to your wishlist now, so you can get an email as soon as it's available!

And if you haven't played the demo yet, give it a shot, then transfer your saves to the full game when it launches.

In other news, there should be two more singles from the game releasing on streaming platforms ahead of the launch, Let Me by Arooh (January 16th) and Tearing Me Apart by Weet. (January 22nd)! I'm hoping to also drop a larger album with most of the original battle music around the time of the full game launch. Stay tuned!

If you want to listen to something right away, the first single from the game, Pain by Weet., is available here.

Thanks so much for playing the Steel Century Groove Demo and leaving your comments, feedback, and reviews! It's all been incredibly helpful and continues to make the game better.

Starting October 13th, Steel Century Groove will be participating in Steam Next Fest! This update is releasing now to make sure everything is stable and bug-free, but please do come back and play during the festival. It makes a huge difference for indie developers to have more people playing the demo while it's ongoing.

And there will be plenty to do! This update allows you to load your previously completed demo saves, adds a new Freeplay Mode, and introduces a preview of the endgame challenge Endless Mode! To play these new modes, load up your save and follow the in-game instructions to speak to the Goggle Guys at their pop-up on the outskirts of Nor Sentryville.

There's also a short new quest featuring some familiar faces from Steel Century Groove: Midnight! The quest starts in the bottom-left corner of the Nor Sentryville park, and will continue in the full game.

Last but not least, to celebrate the start of Next Fest, the first single from the game, Pain by Weet., will be dropping on all streaming platforms on October 13th!

Patch Notes

Gameplay

• The Goggle Guys from Steel Century Groove: Midnight have opened a new pop-up on the outskirts of Nor Sentryville. Speak to them to experience Freeplay and Endless Mode.

• Added a new side quest, starting from the corner of the park in Nor Sentryville, featuring some familiar faces from Steel Century Groove: Midnight.

• You can now press B on the gamepad or Left Shift on the keyboard to sprint!

• Replica Tenzerks can now gain XP and level up, unlocking new passives.

• Tenzerk level is now capped at 5 for the demo

• Added a Win Condition option to Freeplay Mode that allows you to continue battling until the music is over.

• Adjusted the intensity of force feedback effects throughout the game and added a new option in the options menu to control them. These effects can feel very different depending on your gamepad, so you may want to raise or lower their intensity.

• Adjusted the scalings on the Fuel Injector and Inverse Ignition Coil mods for the Voltace.

• The Single Use Ignition mod for the Aedonix now applies a buff, rather than increasing Acclaim gained from a single use of Impact.

• Fixed an issue where the Sentilon would not gain XP for combining AI with Genetic Algorithm.

• Slightly reduced the Aedonix's XP gain.

• The Aedonix's Meltdown counterplay is now based on ! Important moves, rather than Buffs or Debuffs.

• Slightly increased the length of non-boss battles.

• Small improvements to the underlying accuracy of note hit judgements (the difference is one or two frames at most).

• Added a tutorial for how to move your character after character creation. Increased visibility of the front door exit from your house and added an extra line to the player's Mom to help clarify where you need to go.

Music

• Added a new song: Jump Everybody by DRIFALL, which is now used for the intro performance by Wreckless in Story Mode. This song will be unlocked for all players, even if you've already played the intro previously.

• Tracks from the built-in soundtrack can now be unlocked even while using custom music.

• Updated the Custom Music help screen to indicate that you can use songs in WAV, MP3, or OGG.

• Very minor improvements to beat alignment across all built-in songs.

UI

• Improved the automatic latency calibration process and added it to its own options tab.

• Tips now appear when loading into battle or when defeated. These can be turned off in the options menu.

• The victory screen now shows how long the battle took and your overall accuracy.

• Added a new UI that appears when you receive a new replica Tenzerk explaining their special move and level up bonuses.

• Replica Tenzerk moves now use an octagon shape to more easily differentiate them from your lead Tenzerk's moves.

• Increased gamepad navigation speed throughout all menus.

• Fixed issues with HUD displays getting rotated excessively or cut off on ultrawide monitors.

• Fixed various bugs that allowed you to use a gamepad to open the pause menu while other UI modals were already open.

Art/Visuals

• Opponents now have more visual variety in their replica Tenzerks.

• Reduced the size of all note hit VFX.

• Visual improvements to note hit VFX and the gameplay line.

• Added a few new player hair options.

• Straightened out the railings in the Marion Town Recycling Plant

• Updated some of the faces and customization options for early-game pilots

Audio

• Improved audio scheduling for Tenzerk footstep sounds to make sure they align with the beat.

• Improved audio playback of hit sounds to help them align better with the music. By default, they are now scheduled/delayed to play at the correct time when you hit a note early. You can change this setting in the Options menu.

• Added UI sound effects to various places throughout the game where they were missing.

• Fixed an issue where the counterplay sound effect would not play when getting a burst of attention from the Aedonix's Meltdown move.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Dualdrive Fabricate toast popup could sometimes be hidden incorrectly when the cursor passed by.

• Fixed a bug where the game could get stuck following a winning Acclaim trail to the top bar at the end of a battle.

• Fixed a bug where the chromatic aberration effect could get stuck on screen if the battle ended while it was active.

• Fixed a variety of issues where the player could get stuck against objects in the environment. Reduced jitter when running into obstacles.

• Fixed a bug where extra, incorrect mods could appear at the end of the mods list in some circumstances.

Thanks for playing! If you run into any problems with this update or have more feedback, please send over a report via the in-game UI, comment on this update, or post it on the Steam discussion boards. I read everything!

Steel Century Groove has an official release date and it's January 28th 2026! Check out the new trailer for the announcement:

Make sure to add the game to your wishlist, and then get ready for release by playing the free demo so you can transfer your saves when the full game launches!

Thanks for playing and leaving your feedback and bug reports! I hope everyone is enjoying the demo so far.

• Fixed a crash that could occur on the music selection screen or at the start of battle while analyzing custom music in the background

• Fixed a crash that could occur when returning to the main menu

• Fixed a crash when analyzing music files using less common formats such 24-bit audio

• Fixed an issue where music would not loop properly when using custom songs with an abrupt ending.

• Slightly increased the length of "short" and "medium" length battles. These occur most often at the start of each area.

• The malfunction UI in the Bon Donatello boss battle now correctly refers to "Moves" instead of "Abilities"

• Moved Docent Hilde, who players could walk behind to skip a battle.

• Fixed an issue where the mods screen would auto-select a locked slot when opening it while all slots were full.

• Gamepad focus now starts on the correct item ("Shuffle All" rather than the Shuffle header) on the music selection screen

• Increased the cooldown of Bon Donatello's Malfunction ability by 6 turns on Easy, 5 on Medium, 3 on Hard, and 1 on Very Hard.

• The NPC on the Nor Sentryville Institute ramp is no longer invisible.

• Slightly reorganized credits and added a missing PR contributor.

Thanks for playing and leaving your feedback and bug reports! I hope everyone is enjoying the demo so far.

• Fixed a rare crash when calculating gameplay splines.

• Fixed a collision issue where the player could jump up to the next floor in the Marion Town Recycling Plant.

• Fixed an issue where Plant Worker Duslin could spot and challenge the player even when the player was not up on their level.

• Fixed collision issues with rocks and leaf sprouts in Marion Town

• Fixed an issue where the player could walk through the large vases in the front of the Nor Sentryville Institute.

• The game no longer generates an unnecessary log file in the Saved/SelectorLogs folder in AppData.

As part of Wholesome Games Steam Celebration, the all new demo is available now!

Download it here:

Starting in your cozy hometown, take the first steps on your Steel Century Groove journey. Fix up a broken mech and then hit the road to pursue your dreams of winning the Tenzerk Championship.

Or dive into Demo Mode, skipping the early story and jumping directly into the full gameplay. Either way, you'll be able to continue the story from there and then transfer your save to the full game when it releases.

I hope you have as much fun playing the demo as I've had making it!

The demo will feature the first hour or so from the game and you'll be able to transfer your save to the main game once it releases.

You'll start out in the cozy Marion Town, collecting junk parts from friends and family in order to fix up a broken Tenzerk. After a run in with your rival and the local professor, you'll pick a starter and set out on the road towards Nor Sentryville, where you'll explore a Tenzerk museum and face off against the first Principal Pilot boss.

I can't wait for you all to play it!

Dig into the lore in the museum in Nor Sentryville:

Watch out for the boss's Malfunction abilities: