...
Browse GamesSteam news
Full Steam announcements and update articles for this title.
Just a small bug fix that was bothering some people. Sorry about that, folks! Completely missed this during development (and bug reports afterwards).
The spawning and despawning of Vaults and Glyph Sparks no longer cancel a currently active Absent Minded buff.
Just a small update today, addressing a few minor issues that have been brought to my attention since the launch of the big update earlier this month.
The Keypad vault puzzle can now be completed using keyboard numeric keys (Numpad + number row).
"Decode Glyphs" puzzle now has a speed up button for if the right glyphs aren't appearing for you.
City Builder parts are no longer incorrectly capped at 2.1 billion.
Vaults can now be deconstructed if they're in the way and you don't want to complete the minigame.
It's now more obvious when you make an error in the Glyphs vault puzzle, and a short lockout prevents you from making multiple errors in a row.
Multiple Glitch Sparks can be present in the world at the same time, reducing the need to hunt for them obsessively.
Time between Glitch Spark spawns still increases as you activate more of them, but the time increase has been reduced.
As promised, here's the next update in the Widget Inc. universe. While the previous updates mostly focused on late game progression, this one is more tailored to new players. So if you've been waiting to jump in, or start a new save file, now's the time!
Full update notes are at the bottom of this post, but here's what you need to know:
All across the world, the sands have been shifting in response to increased seismic activity. As a result, vaults of ancient technology have been emerging from deep within the earth. Hack the puzzle lock that keeps the vault sealed, and claim its contents for yourself!
The destabilizing energy of the Glitched Frame has continued to wreak havoc on the planet - to your benefit, perhaps? Glitch Sparks now spawn intermittently across the world. Interact with them to reset your entropy and fill up your Glitched Widget storage, or discover the location of the Glitched Frame if you haven't done so already.
Of course, I haven't forgotten about the long-term players, either. A whole bunch of new Prestige nodes have been added to spice up your future runs.
Aside from the new nodes that improve the Vaults, a new "Void" terrain type has been added to give access to a true sandbox world. There is also the new Interplanetary Cosmodrome prestige node, that will allow your old save games to contribute to your current one.
Once again, I had a lot of fun coming up with new ideas to spice up the existing gameplay. Hopefully, it'll be enough to keep you satisfied until the launch of my next game, Kingdom Inc! Check it out, in case you haven't played the free demo yet!
Added:
Vaults now appear intermittently on the world map. Keep an eye open! Each Vault is guarded by a puzzle lock that must be hacked in order to gain access to the resources locked inside.
A whole bunch of new prestige nodes to improve the usefulness of Vaults even further.
New "Extermination Protocol" glitch ability (prestige node). This ability instantly kills all surface Troglodytes and repairs the damage they caused.
Glitch Sparks now appear infrequently all over the world. This spark of glitched energy will help you find the Glitched Frame (if you haven't already), and reset your Entropy to zero. Be careful: Using Glitch Sparks will reduce their future spawn rate, making them most suitable for speeding up the early game.
New Interplanetary Cosmodrome prestige node. Now, the Launch Facilities that you leave behind on your previous planet still contribute to your rocket productivity multiplier.
Added a small screen shake effect for earthquake effects that were already in the game (cave spawn, napalm, tunnel borer).
New "Buy available Tech" button, to purchase the first available Tech upgrade (automatically unlocked after first Prestige).
New "Refund Points" button in the Prestige menu.
Troglodyte Mobs now drop a bunch of Widgets as loot when you squash them by hand.
New "Void" terrain type for the Planet Selector and Terraformer (Prestige unlock). Useful for if you want to create a truly organized factory!
Warehouses on the world map now show an icon for the selected storage tier.
11 new achievements for the content added in this patch.
Fixed:
Loading a saved game while already having a save game loaded once again works properly.
Loading a saved game that starts in a Frame that has been deleted no longer shows a black screen.
Prestige tree nodes no longer activate when the mouse cursor is over other UI elements.
Caves should spawn more regularly, especially at higher Prestige levels.
Changed:
Glitched Widget locator trail no longer shows up if you're in a cave. Instead, it'll wait until you leave the cave so you can actually track down the Glitched Frame.
Reshuffled the Prestige tree a bit to make room for the new Vault additions (visual only).
Activated abilities are no longer shown if they are not relevant in the current context (ie. clicking them would result in an "invalid target" message).
Cave generation is now enabled by default (can still be disabled while prestiging).
Troglodytes no longer spawn while you're at Tier 1.
Troglodytes have a reduced spawn rate while you're below Tier 6.
Troglodytes have a reduced spawn rate if you haven't prestiged yet.
The first Troglodyte Mob that spawns now gives a status message warning.
Troglodyte Mob and individual Troglodytes have a larger hitbox to make them easier to squash while moving.
Hi everyone!
I'm back at it again, working on a new patch for Widget Inc.
So far, most updates have focused on Prestige and other endgame mechanics - so I felt it was time to give the new player experience some much deserved love as well. So if you're looking to pick the game up for the first time, or are thinking about starting a new save file, it might be worth waiting a little while longer!
Strange rumblings have been shaking the ground beneath your feet for a while now. At first, the Troglodytes appeared - strange, primitive humans that sought to destroy everything you've built. But now, the tremors have started uncovering even more remnants of an ancient civilization. And this time, you will be able to reap the rewards a lot more directly.
Along with the new Vaults which should seriously speed up the early game, there's also a host of other changes: New Prestige unlocks, new achievements, and a bunch of other little tweaks designed to improve the early game experience. And for the ultra-long-game players: A little something called Interplanetary Cosmodrome. Whatever could that be...?
Stay tuned! If all goes well, and nothing explodes along the way, Patch 1.4.5 should be ready for release in early June.
A few days ago, I released the demo for my next upcoming solo project: Kingdom Inc.
It's not a direct sequel to Widget, but I do think that the "incremental automation" gameplay loop gives a lot of the same feeling, that satisfying addicting loop of automating the manual hard work and lazily reaping the rewards in the end. Why not give it a try while waiting for the next Widget Inc. patch?
Download the demo, try it out, and let me know what you think!
Hi all,
It's that time again! I've been saving up a few months of bug fixes, incremental improvements and new toys to play with. Most of the new stuff is focused on end-game progression, but there are also some new additions to the Artifact system introduced in the last big patch. I hope you'll check them out!
Added new "Tunnel Borer" Prestige node. This new frame will allow you to dig a new tunnel to a cave that was previously destroyed with napalm.
Added new "Artifact Science Center" Prestige node. This new frame will perform experiments on your donated duplicate artifacts, removing the duplicates from your collection but providing additional bonus productivity to your rocket launches.
Added new "Subterranean Storage" Prestige node. This new frame can only be placed in caves, and provides an additional 1% item storage capacity (calculated after all other bonuses are applied).
Added new "Deepest Caverns" infinite Prestige node that further improves the storage benefits provided by Subterranean Storage.
Added new "Peace and Quiet" Prestige node that allows you to build regular overworld frames in a cave, with a 20% productivity bonus.
Added new "Close to the Source" Prestige node that increases productivity of Iron Mines, Copper Mines and Helium Extractors by 100% when built in a cave (while maintaining regular placement bonus).
Added new "Simplified Fluid Dynamics" Prestige node that increases Rocket Fuel crafting speed and productivity by 40%.
Added new "Aggressive Recycling" Prestige node that increases productivity of Recyclers, as well as select which item you would like the recyclers to recover.
Added four new achievements that deal with caves and science.
Added a new overview of total costs in the Construction window.
Added an option to change the Autosave frequency (or disable autosaves by sliding it all the way left).
Fixed "Launch x rockets in a single career" achievements not tracking properly. You'll need to launch a rocket for the internal counter to catch up, then it should be fine.
Fixed the "Acient Legacy" achievement not tracking properly, this should be fixed by launching and exiting the game if you meet the requirements.
Fixed the background grid "giving up" and disappearing at a certain distance from the center of the map.
Right-mouse-button map movement in a cave no longer leaves the cave to return to the overworld.
Frames created by the Mitosis ability do not give any "refund" when deconstructed.
Copy and Deconstruct modes no longer activate in the background while typing in a text box.
Prevented the Artifact Collection count in the top bar from overlapping the inventory item count in some cases / resolutions.
Fixed some issues with text-translations showing as an "@" code instead of the proper text.
Just some small bug fixes and tweaks!
Fixed the "Absent Minded" ability being removed by spawning Troglodytes.
Fixed Troglodytes being able to spawn on top of Dig Sites and Excavators, even though there is an adjacent Fortress.
Changed Fortresses to extinguish fires on top of killing troglodytes.
Fixed Artifact Collection productivity not being displayed correctly in the tooltip of the Omega Launch Facility.
Changed Artifact Collection productivity calculation to be multiplicative, not additive. This should be a big boost in productivity in the endgame with many sources of productivity overlapping and boosting eachother.
Hi all,
Another quick patch to address a common complaint: "Caves are in the way of my precious symmetry!"
Well, who am I to dictate how the game is played? A new frame has been added to Tier 3. The Napalm Charge can be placed next to the offending Cave and, once fed enough Oil to get it started, will burn the cave and its devious inhabitants off your map. However, be aware that it will not come back! Caves are a limited spawn, so you'll always be a cave short (or two, or ten). Plan accordingly!
Cheers,
Tom
Just a small patch that fixes some issues that cropped up due to the recent "What Lurks Below" patch:
Reduced the productivity bonus granted by Artifacts (especially for higher-tier artifacts, lower-tier unaffected).
Troglodytes can no longer spawn on Dig Sites if they have a Fortress adjacent.
Changed the "Ancient Legacy" achievement to now require 100 Prestige, as the previous iteration is now no longer achievable.
Fixed the build cost calculation of Fortresses not resetting properly.
Hey everyone, it's been a while! Time for some new content, I'd say. Let's start with the simple stuff.
Better late than never. Steam Trading Cards and the associated rewards have been added, in case you wanted to spam Widget emoticons or spruce up your Steam profile with a rocket launch background. From what I can tell, cards should automatically be granted if you already have enough playtime to unlock them.
And then, the more substantial part of this update: Something is shaking beneath your feet! The construction of your planet-spanning factory is waking up some old enemies and driving them from their subterranean hideouts into the sunlight.
Unsightly creatures, if you ask me. And what's even worse, they're making a break for your Frames! If you don't act now, they will wreak havoc on your production!
Thankfully, not all is lost. The invaders are easily dealt with by building a few Fortresses to guard your factory. And those caves look promising!
And why should you seek out the underground hideout of these Troglodytes? Very simple: Artifacts!
Artifacts are a newly added collection system that should keep you busy for a while. These remnants of ancient Widget experiments provide a great deal of insight into their development, and you will gain an ever-increasing bonus to Rocket productivity for every unique Artifact collected.
And to top it all off, new Prestige upgrades have been added that can be fed an infinite amount of points. That way, the massively increased Rocket productivity isn't going to waste!
That's it! Hope you'll have as much fun zapping Troglodytes and collecting Artifacts as I had adding them to the game. I really believe it adds a nice new dynamic to the game, but let me know what you think!
Cheers,
Tom
Hi all,
Since the emergency patch at the beginning of the month, Steam Deck controls have been partially unusable. And it wasn't even my fault, Unity seems to have introduced some undocumented changes in their "New Input" system that messed with Steam Deck specifically (and possibly Linux in general).
So, after a partial shift back to the "Old Input" system, it works again. The march of progress, I guess.
Sorry for the delay and inconvenience!
Hi all! Today's update is just a small patch to fix some bugs that were reported since the Prestige update.
Fixed Quarry frame causing crashes and memory consumption issues on desert worlds.
Fixed furnaces not working at full efficiency (especially with high speed multiplier).
Terraforming no longer possible while Terraformer is under construction.
Fixed incorrect placement bonus for Widget Particle frame placed on Morphic terrain.
Lava is now considered impassable terrain.
Prevented Glitched Widgets (and other items) from spilling over their intended maximum limits due to overeager Leveler frames.
New prestige node: Buffer Overflow; significantly increases storage space for Glitched Widgets.
Added \ as a hotkey for the Auto-Upgrade button.
Auto-Upgrade now starts disabled after Ascension. It will auto-enable once you research the Tier 2 milestone.
Welcome back!
It's hard to believe that it's been over six months since the release of Widget Inc. Since then, I've received a lot of feedback and suggestions to improve the game, and one thing that keeps coming up is the wish for better endgame system that really transforms the experience for subsequent runs.
Well, the wait is over, and the Prestige update is here! After launching your first rocket (or several, if you're looking for a good head start) you can now move into the Prestige system. Here, you can spend the points that you earn from your rocket launches on strong, gameplay-altering effects.
Notable highlights include the Terraforming system that'll allow you to change the terrain that you build your factory on, a list of new planet types to discover, and powerful new abilities to expand on your chosen playstyle. And, of course, there are many more interesting effects to discover!
Additionally, several changes have been made to improve the rest of the post-Prestige game. The cost of frames and tech upgrades no longer increases as your Prestige improves, which should make the experience feel less unfair. Glitched Widgets (along with the new Terraforming system) no longer scale with the Prestige multiplier, which should make them feel like a more deliberate addition to your gameplay.
Best of luck, and let me know what you think!
Cheers,
Tom
Leaping Turtle
About
This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for Widget Inc., sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main Widget Inc. statistics page.
Articles link back to Steam for full changelogs. SteamScope refreshes news entries as new posts are published to the game's Steam hub.