Patch Notes: 1.7.3B
================
Added Crossplay under Settings
Removed invite requirement for Private Lobbies
Made lobbies discoverable during character selection (instead of Level 1)
Updated intro splash screen with $uprDee artwork

What is Crossplay?
Crossplay allows you to play the game online with other players that are playing on the Epic Games Store version of ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove!

How do I enable Crossplay?
From the Main Menu go to Settings -> Online Settings -> Epic Crossplay, and change it to "On". Then link your Epic Game Store account.

I don't have an Epic account, can I still use the Crossplay?
An Epic Games Store account is required to use the Crossplay feature.

Can I set up a private lobby for only my friends to join?
Yes! When selecting an Online game, choose "Friends Only" to make a private lobby. Your friend can filter the online lobby list to easily see your lobby.

My friend and I are both on Steam, why can't we see the online Lobby?
Make sure you both have the Crossplay setting On or Off. If one player has Crossplay enabled, but the other doesn't, you won't be able to matchmake.

Changing the Setting doesn't seem to be working?
If you have changed the setting recently please restart the game for the changes to take effect.

Will Crossplay work with the console versions of the game?
There are no plans to incorporate crossplay on the console versions at this time.

Also to celebrate our 31st Anniversary ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is now 80% off on all platforms. Tell a homey!

yo! What’s up Earthlings? Hope you’re all having a funky fresh start to 2022!! Well.. if not, we definitely got something funky fresh comin’atcha today!

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of ToeJam & Earl we reached out to our homies at Limited Run and they came up with a bunch of really cool ideas we know y’all are gonna love.

Available now for preorder from Limited Run’s website you can grab this totally awesome stuff:
- A commemorative classic case[limitedrungames.com] with artwork inspired by the original Earthling concept art complete with retro cart and full Back in the Groove soundtrack on CD for the first time!
- A 30th Anniversary themed Hat[limitedrungames.com], T-shirt[limitedrungames.com] and Hoodie[limitedrungames.com] to keep you looking fresh all year long!
- Trading Cards[limitedrungames.com] with exclusive artwork featuring comics our fans submitted captions for!
- and a jammin’ SKATEBOARD[limitedrungames.com]!

“But what about games? We wanna play more ToeJam & Earl games!”
Huh.. who said that? Well fear not random voices from within the void!

Coming at y’all live and directly from Game Decks is the new ToeJam & Earl Tabletop Remix[limitedrungames.com] game! This nifty pocket sized adventure comes jam packed with a modular build-your-own board system that can be different every time you play!! The big dawgs over at Game Decks truly did an amazing job taking ToeJam & Earl’s roguelike elements and transforming them into this awesome tabletop game!

Also here is a quick recap of updates from last year:
-Still in the Groove Update Launched on PS4
-Caption Contest Winners[www.facebook.com]
-The original ToeJam & Earl is now available on Nintendo Switch Online!

With that, we conclude our 30th Anniversary Celebration of ToeJam & Earl!
“Wasn’t your 30th Anniversary last year?!” There’s that voice again…

Technically ToeJam & Earl released on the Mega Drive in Japan in 1992 (with much funkier box art) so it’s our 30th Anniversary again. That’s right, we’re so cool, we get TWO 30th Anniversaries!!

We hope you had fun celebrating 30th years of funk with us!

-TJ&E

yoyo! sup Earthlings? It's been a while, didja miss us? d'aww we missed you too!


I know some of y'all read that title and are already saying "what? HUH? C'mon out with it!" Well long story short, we are considering making new ToeJam & Earl games.

Does this mean that there are definitely new ToeJam & Earl games coming? No, it doesn't. But this will be extremely useful in deciding what we do next with ToeJam & Earl games in the future.

So click here[forms.gle] to take our 30th Anniversary survey and help decide what part of the universe ToeJam & Earl wind up in next!

https://forms.gle/G63z7SEEX7doX6hv8

Yes, we can also hear you right now. "Wait, is that all you're doing to celebrate your 30th Anniversary?" Well.. no, I was getting to that next. Hold your presents homey.


On October 15th the first ToeJam & Earl game will officially be 30 years old! Wow time flies!! Come hang out while we play the original game with Greg Johnson, ask questions and share your stories!

twitch.tv/ToeJamAndEarl

During the stream we will be going over the survey results, announcing new merch we have coming, doing tons of giveaways and of course celebrating the 30th Anniversary!

Here's a sneak peek of something very cool we can't wait to show y'all. Make sure you tune into the livestream October 15th to see the full image!



Earlier this year we launched the Still in the Groove update on Steam and Nintendo Switch. After that we changed gears and released the iiRcade port of the game. We are still committed to bringing the Still in the Groove update to PS4 and will hopefully have that ready soon. As always thank you all for your patience!


Well that's all for now Earthlings! Please be sure to take the survey[forms.gle] and tune in to our livestream[twitch.tv] on October 15th to celebrate ToeJam & Earl's 30th Anniversary with us!


See you there!

We're back with a funky fresh update! This time bringing all our fans over on Nintendo Switch 'Still in the Groove' that released on Steam. Quick reminder, this update contains the most community requested features including:

• A new Fixed World with MUCH larger maps handcrafted by the designer of the original 1991 game Greg Johnson.
  
• New present combos to deal with the crazy Earthlings.
  
• Unlockable 'Power Hats' hidden throughout the game with awesome effects.
  
• Tons of optimization and balance improvements for a more funky experience!
  
• Patch notes here: {LINK REMOVED}http://bit.ly/SwitchPatchNotes

To celebrate we are dropping a mondo sized trailer and sale, check it out!

Also the game is now on sale on Steam and {LINK REMOVED}Nintendo Switch for $5!


That's right! This year, ToeJam & Earl turn 30. Make sure you're following us on Facebook and Twitter to see what presents we have waiting for you!!

Make sure you're following us on Facebook[www.facebook.com] and Twitter to see what presents we have waiting for you!!

Special Funky Shoutout Time!
We wanna give a couple of shoutouts to our homies Justin and Ryan for the opportunity to share our trailer with IGN.

Also please a give follow to our homies Dee and Patrick who helped create the trailer. Dee created all the new artwork you're seeing for Still in the Groove and the 30th Anniversary, and Patrick is our friend from the ToeJam & Earl Cookbook team who edited and animated our trailer.


And as always, thank YOU, our fans for your continued patience and support. We can't wait to see y'all getting funky and enjoying the new update! PS4 and Xbox One versions are up next!

-ToeJam, Earl and the homies at HumaNature Studios

1.7.1-G [Steam branch: DEFAULT]
============================================================
Fix loading saves on Endless files
Fix Host seeing Water while Client was seeing empty space in Networked games
Fix Earthlings disappearing when returning from Secret Level
Fix intended distribution rules from Still in the Groove Update

sup y'all!?

Today we are releasing a quick update to Back in the Groove containing some fixes that we addressed while working on the Switch build.

Thanks to everyone who reported the Endless World save games not loading, this patch should fix that issue. If your save continues to infinitely load then please start a new game and be sure to follow up if the issue persists after that.

One change we'd like to address is the intended distribution rules from the Still in the Groove Update.
Part of the Still in the Groove Update was intended to reduce the number of Earthlings and bushes/trees on all levels, especially in the early game. This change never made it's way through and is now fully working as intended.

What you should notice is much less Earthlings in the early game which will ramp up more as the levels progress. By around Levels 10-15 it should feel similar to the amount of Earthlings prepatch but the numbers have been reduced across ALL levels while still maintaining the difficulty of the late game.

Let us know what y'all think. In the meantime we will be focusing on the Switch update.

Thanks for playing!!

by Matt Andrews

Hey all, just wanted to do a quick check in and say THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the positive feedback regarding the Still in the Groove update. We are so glad to hear everyone is enjoying all the new changes!!

You may have noticed a few hotfixes rolling out since then. We have been addressing some issues that many of our fans have found to ensure that once we move over to patching consoles we are as bug free as possible. We have rolled out our last update and HOPEFULLY no more major bugs will pop up.

If you are experiencing this bug, it means that one of the changes we made during our hotfixes was applied to your run and the save file may have become corrupted. Please make a new save file and reach out to us if the issue continues by leaving a comment. We apologize for the Total Bummer.

We have heard feedback that the Promotions sometimes feel too random and not rewarding enough to help deal with the Earthlings. We are now incorporating one free stat boost with each Promotion rank. Players will still get the 3 random stat boosts each time they promote, but we have added an extra guaranteed stat.

Here are the stats you get with each Promotion
Dufus: +Inventory Size
Cabbage: +Present Skill
Poindexter: +Life Bar (EXTRA LIFE)
Peanut: +Search Skill
Dude: +Speed
Dawg: +Luck
Playa: +Inventory Size (EXTRA LIFE)
Homey: +Speed
Blingmaster: +Luck
Rapmaster: +Life Bar
Spinmaster: +Present Skill (EXTRA LIFE)
Cool Cat: +Search Skill
Funkmeister: +Speed
Funklord: +Life Bar (TWO EXTRA LIVES)

With that we are off to updating the game for consoles. Thanks again to everyone who helped report an issue and gave us feedback!

Stay funky friends!

Robin Towle-Fecso
@robin2jumpstart

Been a minute. I think we missed a couple of holidays, a New Year and maybe a baby shower. Sorry about that. But we are BACK STILL IN THE GROOVE, yo!

Last year we opened the 1.7.0 Update Beta to collect feedback. It's been tough but we are finally ready to show off what we've been working so long on. The Earl sized change we made this time is the new BIGGER Fixed World maps. These maps were handcrafted by the OG funklord Greg Johnson.

While playtesting the maps Greg kept coming up with new ideas and tweaks to make the gameplay more fun!

So first, we heard the feedback about Earthlings being too frustrating and adjusted their behavior to make them a lil more funky to deal with. If you enjoyed the previous Earthling difficulty make sure to check out the Extreme World where the Earthlings are much harder.

Players also didn't like when Power Hats were instantly granted after stepping off an Elevator. Power Hats are now hidden on the map in bushes that sparkle! When you shake a sparkling bush the Power Hat will fly around for a bit before landing. Players can find up to 2 Power Hats per level. So make the most of them while you have them!

Present Stacking synergies are a feature we introduced in 1.6.0 where using certain presents together will make some funky new effects.
There are 3 hidden present synergies that will cause something cool or funny to happen.
Can you find the secret present combinations that unlock them?
We will give you a clue: the presents need to be AMPED.

So just to recap:

Full Patch Notes
1.7.1 [Still in the Groove Update]

[[u]Map Changes[/u]]
All new Fixed World with much larger maps
Removed the smaller maps that would appear on Level 8 and Level 19 in Fixed/Random/Endless Worlds (these smaller maps still appear in Extreme as a 'pit stop' to farm up)

[[u]Earthling Changes[/u]]
Reduced Earthling density by ~50% across all levels in Fixed/Random Worlds
Reduced Bush/Tree density by ~40% across all levels in Fixed/Random Worlds
Reduced Earthling speed and notice range
Earthlings now have a random chance of dropping aggro if a player is under water
Increase chance of Earthlings dropping aggro if the player gets too far
Earthlings will now chase you to the edge of the map and edges of water/ice
Earthlings can now walk down revealed secret paths
Mailbox Monsters will stay off secret paths
Man In Black will no longer chase if you have no presents
Fix Ghandi not providing his safety if another Ghandi was nearby
Various fixes for Earthling pathfinding in Networked games

[[u]Power Hat Changes[/u]]
Power Hats will no longer be automatically gifted to players when stepping off the Elevator
Power Hats must be found on the level by searching bushes and trees
Power Hats sparkle while hiding
Power Hats will fly around like flying presents when found, they will land after a short time
Power Hats now provide 100XP when picked up
Power Hat weights adjusted to make some hats more rare and some more common
Removed hitbox offset while wearing Hat of Sure Walking

[[u]Balance[/u]]
Ship Pieces now reward correct XP when picked up
Remove level cap on presents in all modes. (This means you can find ALL presents from the beginning of the game)
Button/Coin Meter chains are maximum 4 presses
Speed up animation when pressing button/feeding coin meter
Removed forcing the player into position when feeding Coin Meters/pressing Buttons
Removed forcing the player into position when speaking to a friendly Earthling
Adjustments to camera while falling down levels
Present timer now pauses when falling
All inputs disabled while falling (prevents players opening presents and teleporting)
Added XP Notification to bottom left of HUD
Adjusted XP Bar Colors to hopefully be more noticeable to new players
Removed multiplayer only presents from showing in single player games

[[u]Fixes[/u]]
Many under the hood improvements to memory usage
Speed up Elevator streaming to next level
Fix movies not playing on Linux version
Fix No Ship Piece on Level 25 in rare cases
Fix issue where players could go beyond Level 25 when an Endless save was active
Fix everything bunched up on Funkotron in Endless
Fix Lamont showing up on Level 28 of Endless
Fix Sushi not always providing heal
Fix Torch breaking present timer
Fix PlayerStates (like Cupid effect) breaking present timer
Fix 'Jump To' invulnerability exploit
Fix Elf spawning infinitely from a bush
Fix FPS Cap not remembering every time you load the game

Also a SUPER huge shoutout to our homey $uprDee for making the promo artwork for this update! If you haven't checked out his ToeJam & Earl comics make sure you're following him to see more funky fun!

----> https://twitter.com/Suprdee2 <----

To celebrate our retro SEGA Genesis Cartridge[www.ebay.com] charity auction going live, we are opening up the 1.7.0 Beta to everyone on Steam with the new Fixed World maps inspired by the level design of the first game. That means bigger maps to explore with more secret paths!

To Access:

• Right Click ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove in your Steam Library
  
• Select Properties
  
• Click the 'Betas' Tab
  
• Use pull down menu to select 1.7.0-beta

Full patch notes at the bottom of this post!


That's right! We also wanted to drop a heads up that the ToeJam & Earl Custom SEGA Genesis Cart Charity Auction by Mid49.com is now up. The auction will only run for one week, so don't miss out!! Here's the link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-ToeJam-Earl-Elevator-Cartridge-with-Display-Stand-1991/143783658185


Yeah us too, funny how ToeJam & Earl always does that right? Tons of weird and funky foods in there. Oh hey, if you're interested in learning how to cook those delicious edible treats, why not check out our friends on Kickstarter who are trying to fund a ToeJam & Earl themed cookbook! They just broke $20K!! AWESOME!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/funkyfreshfoods/toejam-and-earls-funky-fresh-foods-of-funkotron-cookbook

1.7.0 [Still in the Groove Update]
============================================================
Fixed movies not playing on Linux version
Speed up Elevator streaming to next level
All new Fixed World with much larger maps
Removed the very small maps that would appear on Level 8 and Level 19 in Fixed+Random
Reduced Earthling density by around 65% across all levels in Fixed+Random
Reduced Bush/Tree density by around 50% across all levels in Fixed+Random
All Earthlings will now chase you to the very edge of the map, edges of water/ice and can now walk down revealed secret paths
Remove ‘level cap’ on presents in all modes. This means you can find ALL presents from the beginning of the game
Many under the hood improvements to memory usage
Fixed an issue where players could go beyond Level 25 when an Endless save was active
Fix everything bunched up on Funkotron in Endless
Fix No Ship Piece on Level 25 in rare cases
Fix Lamont showing up on Level 28 of Endless
Optimized all assets in the game
Adjustments to camera while falling down levels
Present timer now pauses when falling
All inputs disabled while falling (prevents players opening presents and teleporting)
Fix Torch breaking present timer
Fix other PlayerStates (like Cupid effect) breaking present timer
Fix 'Jump To' invulnerability exploit
Removed multiplayer presents from showing in single player games
Fixed an issue where Elf could spawn infinitely from a bush
Removed hit box offset on Hat of Sure Walking
Added XP Notification to bottom left of HUD
Adjusted XP Bar Colors to hopefully be more noticeable to new players
Fix the amount of XP rewarded for picking up a ship piece
Fixed FPS Cap not remembering every time you load the game
Added 100 FPS Cap option
Man In Black will no longer chase if you have no presents
Tornado is now more aggressive once player gets in range
Earthlings now have a random chance of dropping aggro when players are under water
Button/Coin Meter chains are maximum 4 presses
Speed up animation when pressing button/feeding coin meter
Removed forcing the player into position when feeding Coin Meters/pressing Buttons
Removed forcing the player into position when speaking to a friendly Earthling
Various fixes for Earthling pathfinding in Networked and Endless
Fix Sushi not always providing heal
Mailbox Monsters will stay off secret paths
Fix Ghandi not providing his safety is another Ghandi was nearby
Power Hats will no longer be automatically gifted to player when stepping off the Elevator
Power Hats must be found on the level by searching bushes and trees
Power Hats now sparkle when they are nearby
Power Hats now provide XP when picked up
Hat of Breaking no longer makes all presents broken
Hat of Breaking now makes present blow up sometimes when you drop them
Hat of Breaking now prevents damage from Broken Presents
Hat of Breaking now blows up all nearby Earthlings when a present breaks on the player

Artwork by SmokeySpew from Discord

We appreciate everyone that hopped back into the game to test the new update for us. In case you missed it we rolled out a pretty big update in beta form and gathered some feedback. We have now released another update which makes the 1.6.1 version complete. We will begin testing and rolling the update out to consoles shortly. Here are the notes for the final additions:

Build: 1.6.1J [Steam default branch]
=========================================================
Reimport German Text
Fix Amped Tomatoes
Fix little seams around some hills
Players will now prioritize shaking objects or speaking to friendly Earthlings over using an active present (prevents teleporting/shooting while trying to shake)
Unrestricted the present pool on Levels 2-4 that weren’t unrestricted last time
Make Elf harder to catch
Fix Present Timer occasionally not showing when opening a present
New Funk-Fu + Spring Shoes synergy
Fixes to Funk-Fu + Rocket Skates
Fix Spring Shoes + Hitops not providing the proper movement speed
Players can now press the ‘Cancel’ button to fast forward through animations that play when picking up the Ship Piece and when Promoting
Players can now search while using Tomatoes, Slingshot and Funk-Fu

This is of course all combined with our previous big update to deliver the complete 1.6.1 experience. Have you been enjoying the new present synergies? No one has contacted us about finding the hidden synergies yet so they must be hidden pretty well. Remember to contact us if you find them!

Thank you for all your help making the Steam sale all it could be! We hope many new homies are enjoying the game. Just a reminder the 75% Off “Stay Home, Stay Funky” Sales start hitting consoles this week:

Xbox One - Live NOW until April 20th
Switch - Live NOW until April 20th
PlayStation 4 - 4/29/20 - 5/13/20
Steam - COMPLETED!

We just wanted to shoot a reminder that Greg’s new card game Outta Our Shells has just entered the last 24 hours of the campaign and he is pushing hard to reach the stretch goal to add artwork to the cards. Here is a little preview of that:

If you haven’t stopped by yet please check it out. Even if you could spread the word that would definitely help get him closer to adding these super cute pictures!

https://bitly.com/OuttaOurShells

As always, stay safe and stay funky!

-ToeJam & Earl