Worbital Development Blog

Just like that, another year has passed. How has it been for you? Us TJR folk have remained mostly under the radar. Much like the year before, 2021 has been busy with subcontracting and working to keep Team Jolly Roger going into the future. We are hopeful that a new TJR-original game project is just over the horizon and that the folks in our community will be as excited as we are to see what it will be.

Once again, we are moving into the new year with optimism and wish you happy holidays! The pandemic is still raging on, so stay safe and take good care of those around you. And remember to have fun as much as you can! ☃️🎆

Meanwhile, Steam (as well as Nintendo eShop, Xbox and PlayStation Store) are having their seasonal sale in the upcoming weeks. It’s a great chance to try some of our games you haven’t gotten a chance to play yet 👀 https://store.steampowered.com/app/761910/Worbital/ 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/650220/Interplanetary_Enhanced_Edition/

Wow, 2020 - what a year! All kinds of things have been happening around the world, but here at TJR it has been quiet, which you’ve probably noticed. 

Over the past year, we had to switch almost entirely to outsourcing work to keep the studio going. This has been our job for the better part of 2020. We are still uncertain as to what the next year will bring, but we are looking forward to getting into a new TJR project as soon as we are able to. We hope you’ll stick around for it! In the meantime, we want to thank you for staying with us and to welcome all the new players that have been joining our community recently - we hope that you’ll have a good time with us. 

The clock is ticking away, counting down the last days of 2019. Holidays are right on the horizon! 

We are immensely grateful to all of you for playing and cheering Worbital (as well as our other games: Interplanetary, Mushroom Crusher Extreme) on through this year. We kicked 2019 off with launching Worbital on Steam. Although we were very excited about letting our game out into the world, the launch wasn’t as spectacular as we hoped for. Still, we did our best to support Worbital, and hoping to continue doing so in 2020. We’re also happy to welcome the lovers of cosmic chaos who joined us on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch! Thank you all for joining us, for sticking around, for being patient. As we are heading into the new year (new decade really, wow!), we will continue working to get more players into Worbital and will be looking forward to any exciting new projects 2020s will bring.

From all of TJR, wherever in the world you are, whatever your reasons are to be jolly this season: Happy Holidays! And Happy 2020!

Jubilation! As announced last week, Worbital is now available for PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. At the moment, cross-platform multiplayer works for PC and Switch players. 

Earlier this week, we released an update for the PC version, including some new weapons and fixes. Right now, Worbital is available to play for free on Steam, until October 20th 1:00pm PT.

There are a lot of new players joining Worbital this weekend and we’re thrilled to welcome all of you! Our official Discord server is open for everyone looking for a match or just to chat about Worbital, life, and stuff… Come on in: https://discord.gg/teamjollyroger  You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Here comes the much anticipated fourth Worbital content update! And boy, do we have some stuff for you.

First and foremost, we did our best to fix the most essential bugs and issues that have been reported over the last months. Network issues, weapon bugs, visuals, balance - we fixed a whole bunch. Hopefully, this will make matches a lot smoother for many players.

Second - and most exciting, we added new weapons! Each of the factions gets one: Partycle Ball (Celestials), Bouncer (Lucid) and Waste Missile (Terrene).

See the full changelog for today’s update at the end of this announcement.

Consoles & Free Steam Weekend

As we’ve announced earlier, this Friday we are launching Worbital on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. At launch, cross-platform multiplayer will be functional for PC and Switch players. We’re also continuing work to connect players from the other platforms as well. The more the merrier!

In order to add yet more action for the coming days, Worbital has been approved for a free weekend on Steam! This will undoubtedly bring about a swarm of new players, in addition to the console folk. Gather your friends for some planet-busting action, starting Oct. 17th at 10:00am, lasting until Oct. 20th 1:00pm (PT). That’s about it. What do you think of the new weapons? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter, Facebook or on our official Discord server.

Happy blasting!

Worbital 1.10.6638 - October 16th, 2019

Features

New Weapons 

Waste Missile (Terrene): Chuck your hazardous waste into space! Causes a toxic cloud on impact and temporarily prevents building on the damaged sector. 

Bouncer (Lucid): Generates a thick cloud of concentrantrated toxic sludge that bounces back projectiles that hit it.

Partycle Ball (Celestials): A very cool, celebratory laser show!

Fixes

Mist Dispersion should no longer occasionally trigger its smokescreen or flash freeze multiple times 

Sub-Zero Drone and Solaronite Gun flares shot through the ice sun in Fire & Ice no longer award the achievement "The Ice Age!" 

Solaronite gun now uses proper fragments when shooting through the normal sun 

Fixed an edge case where game would freeze when match rules disabled planet derailment and planets with a moon get destroyed, which would cause the moons to derail 

Fixed multiple issues related to controller disconnecting 

Fixed issues with AI’s usage of Gun Gun, Lasers and other timing-critical weapons 

Fixed the AI to better take the planet movement into account when targeting Wave Cannon 

Fixed controller disconnect not returning to the correct state if dialogue screen was open 

Fixed controller navigation issues in the main menu 

Fixed issues caused by two players joining a match at the same time 

Fixed issues caused by players disconnecting during loading screen 

Fixed autosizing of various input fields and popups 

Fixes to cosmetics menu functionality 

Minor fixes to local play input handling 

Major AI performance optimizations 

Gravity calculation optimizations 

Major performance improvements 

Various minor bug fixes 

Minor text fixes

Adjustments

Added additional particle effects to planet damage 

Added a new highlight to planet selection UI when new planets are colonized 

World Rammer now applies a short planet speed boost when hitting a planet that's already derailed 

Adjusted and disabled many controller vibration triggers for better compatibility 

Adjusted camera speeds to be snappier on controller

Balance

Easy AI is now easier 

Impossible AI is now slightly more impossible 

Increased Chaos Engine chance to derail and rerail, while decreasing boost chance 

Decreased player planet soil endurance 

Increased Spreadcannon charge time 

Increased Shotcannon charge time

Increased Celestials Orbit Boost charge time 

Decreased Nuclear Plant cooldown multiplier 

Decreased level 3 Coilgun fragment damage 

Decreased Celestials Spike HP 

Increased Celestials Spike core damage 

Decreased Burst Missiles build limit 

Plasma Cannon targeting can now be angled 

Decreased Plasma Cannon soil damage 

Increased Shield Defense charge time 

Increased Gravimetric Shield charge time 

Increased Fragmenter fragment soil damage 

Decreased Fragmenter HP 

Increased Glacier charge time 

Increased Glacier freeze aoe 

Increased Glacier structure damage 

Increased Glacier core damage 

Increased Celestial Solaronite Gun build duration 

Increased Celestial Solaronite Gun cooldown 

Increased Celestial Solaronite Gun structure damage 

Increased Celestial Solaronite Gun flare amount 

Decreased Celestial Solaronite Gun flare structure damage 

Decreased Celestial Solaronite Gun flare soil damage 

Decreased Celestial Solaronite Gun flare lifespan 

Increased Gatling Cannon soil damage 

Decreased Gun Gun build duration 

Increased Gun Gun's range 

Increased Flamethrower range 

Decreased Sub-Zero Drone charge time 

Decreased Sub-Zero Drone structure aoe 

Decreased Sub-Zero Drone lifespan, so that they now consistently hit 4 times

Decreased Sub-Zero Drone fund generation

Increased Sub-Zero Drone projectile's freeze aoe

Increased Short Circuit Beam charge time

Decreased Short Circuit Beam HP 

Decreased Missile Scrambler effect radius

Increased Missile Control Ship build duration

Increased Missile Control Ship damage

Increased Missile Control Ship default missile damage

Decreased Missile Control Ship effect radius

Increased Sentry Capsule HP

Increased World Rammer structure damage

Increased World Rammer ramming power

Increased World Rammer core damage     

Increased Colonizer colonizing speed at levels 1 & 2

Increased Colonizer colonizing bonus from firing a second one

Decreased Cataclysm volcano projectile damage

Decreased Cataclysm volcano projectile soil damage 

Decreased Cataclysm volcano projectile structure aoe 

Decreased Dreadnought machinegun structure damage 

Decreased Dreadnought machinegun soil damage 

Decreased Fusion Cannon fragment damage 

Decreased Fusion Cannon fragment aoe 

Decreased Fusion Cannon structure aoe 

Decreased Fusion Cannon soil damage 

Decreased Fusion Cannon core damage 

Decreased Solar Laser charge time 

Decreased Rocket Barrage structure damage 

Decreased Rocket Barrage soil damage 

Decreased Photon Missile soil damage 

Decreased Photon Missile structure aoe 

Decreased Photon Missile core damage 

Increased Solar Plant’s Charge Multiplier 

Decreased Celestial Solar Plant Cost 

Increased Celestials Orbit Boost build cost 

Decreased Hurt Amplifier build cost

Decreased Orbital Destabilizer build cost

  Decreased Overcharger build cost 

Decreased Cryogenesis build cost 

Decreased Chaos Engine build cost 

Increased Cataclysm build duration 

Increased Star Drive build duration 

Decreased Moonburst build duration 

Decreased Mist Dispersion build duration 

Decreased Chaos Engine build duration 

Increased Orbit Boost tier cost 

Increased Solaronite Gun tier cost 

Increased Asteroid Diversion tier cost 

Increased Star Drive tier cost 

Decreased Fragmenter tier cost 

Decreased Sentry Capsule tier cost 

Decreased Nuclear Missile tier cost 

The time has come to expand our base and set foot on other platforms. Strap in, we’re heading for PS4, Xbox One and Switch on October 18th!

Worbital on Consoles

For the last few months, things have been quiet with Worbital, and for a reason. From the very beginning, we knew that Worbital would eventually land on consoles and we’ve been open about it. Of course, getting the ports ready took more time than we estimated. Now, all of that is behind us and we’re proud to announce that Worbital is finally coming to PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch next week, October 18th. What does this mean for the existing and the new players?

Most notably, it means more players online. At launch, cross-platform multiplayer will allow Switch and PC players to get worbed together, hopefully making the online lobby more crowded. We’re working to expand the scope of cross-platform multiplayer to other consoles as well, hoping to gather as many players as possible into one big pool.

We’re also hoping that more people will be joining our Discord server for matchmaking and just casual chattery!

Update for the PC Version

You might think: “Wow, that sounds great! But what about the PC version? Anything new for us?”. Yes. Absolutely. Next week, we’ll be rolling out a content update. Expect new weapons as well as fixes. Here’s a little teaser of what’s coming:

Worbital Price Drop

Lastly, starting today, Worbital is shedding some of its price. Now that it’s been well over half a year since the original release, it seems fitting to try a lower price, so here we are. Hopefully, this brings Worbital to the hands of more players! Starting today, Worbital is $12.99/€12.99 on Steam. The same price will apply to the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions.

It’s a great day for a patch, isn’t it? Today’s is just a small addition to the Worbital customization menu. It’s now possible to redeem special customization items through activating codes. Hm… Has anyone seen something resembling a code around here?

Worbital 1.08.6280 - April 11th, 2019

Features

Code Unlockable Cosmetics

Added a button in Cosmetics-menu that allows you to input a code to unlock special cosmetics.

In other news: we have selected a winner of the Geppo Product idea competition we’d hosted on Discord. It was a tight race with a number of impressive entries—we had to take a special council to make the decision... And so, congratulations to CessnaSkyhawk for GEPPOPLANETARY! You receive two Worbital Steam keys and eternal glory.

(additional image design by TJR)

“Designed for those fans of Geppo who love fighting interplanetary artillery wars the old-fashioned way, this creation is sure to please!”

The Grandmaster would approve, if all attention wasn’t directed at Geppo only. If you would like to take a look at this Interplanetary mod with your own eyes, use this save file in Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition.

Lastly, tomorrow we host our usual Worbital play session. Join us at 2pm UTC, April 12th, to play Worbital with the devs.

If you’d like to take part in future Worbital competitions or arrange online matches with us, join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/kYYcrQu

Update #3, here we go! Let’s get busy. We noted comments about the campaign being too difficult and we took them seriously. It is now even more difficult! Okay, now stay with us! The main campaign has been made significantly easier since the launch. However, for those players who like a special challenge, we are now adding a special, Extreme Campaign mode—go nuts! It contains all the same missions, except more difficult and with new endings and rewards.

For those of you who enjoy playing with a gamepad: this other new feature will rock your world. We added controller vibration! Now every shot, hit or explosion will bring a real, tactile feel. If you see a barrage coming your way—make sure you’re buckled in. Last but not least, we are expanding our intercultural reach. Worbital is now available in German language. Willkommen! 

Worbital 1.07.6157 - March 21st, 2019

Features

Extreme Campaign!

A more difficult version of the campaign, unlocked for each faction after you finish their timeline. Includes new cosmetic rewards and ending images.

New Language: German

Controller Vibration

Fixes

Fixed a bug that may have caused the game to freeze after being paused

Starting an AI only match from the Alliance queue now properly starts a team match with 3 AIs

Fire/Ice moons are now assigned with the correct ratio in Fire & Ice

Ice solar flares caused by the Solaronite Gun now properly have their damage slightly reduced compared to their fire counterparts

AI is now better at defending against asteroids

Removed “Replace” button when highlighting empty planet sectors

Minor bug fixes

Minor text fixes

Adjustments

Added Vacuum Bomb to player loadout in Lucid Mission 03, for added asteroid fun

Changed the priorities of fund consumption in situations where you’re low and multiple structures are under construction. Instead of funds being distributed evenly, the first chosen structure is prioritised, making it less likely to accidentally slow down progress too much.

If you already own Worbital, you can support us by leaving a review on Steam or on Metacritic. This really helps getting some more eyes on Worbital!

Time for the second content update. This week, we introduce a much needed feature to add more convenience to playing—keybindings. Previously, you could navigate the solar system either with the default WASD or the arrow keys. Now it’s possible to rebind any keys in any way you like. This should make Worbital more accessible for different kinds of players, for example, left-handed players. 

We’ve also made some changes to the demo, to help demo-players get into matches. It is now possible to start an match against AIs only in the quickplay Chaos queue. Now, lack of players online shouldn’t stop you from getting a taste of cosmic chaos. No new weapons this week, but we do have something tasty in store for you. Stay tuned! 

Worbital 1.06.5986 - March 4th, 2019

Features

Keybindings for Keyboard & Mouse 

Fixes

Fixed some issues that could cause derailed suns to be out of sync in online play

Merged lasers caused by AI no longer stick around after the weapons stop firing

Improved AIs defensive capabilities

Dreadnought can no longer warp through the sun

Fixed a bug with AIs Solar Laser that was caused when the satellite was destroyed

More fixes to the Match Timer position on various aspect ratios

Adjustments

Added the option to start a match in quickplay with AIs only, if no players have joined after a certain time period (this allows for AI only matches in the Demo as well)

Pressing on the right stick on controller still moves you to overview of the solar system, but no longer zooms in

Worbital now has Steam trading cards. Yippee!

To arrange trades, please, use our Trading sub-forum on Steam.

After a few patches, the time has come for a proper update. Today we bring you our special, sweet Valentine’s update.

You’ve probably got familiar with all the weapons in the Worbital arsenal by now, so we are adding a new one—Sentry Capsule. Once it hits an uninhabited planet, the capsule transforms into a stationed automatic turret gun which fires at the nearby enemies. Sentry Capsule is available to all factions.

We also have several new outfits for the advisor characters. Each a perfect fit for a dreamy Valentine’s date! You can unlock the new items with Dark Matter and experiment to your taste.

See the full update changelog below.

Worbital 1.04.5709 - February 13th, 2019

Features

A New Weapon

Sentry Capsule (All Factions): unpacks into an AI-controlled turret when hitting an uninhabited planet

New Outfits: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Suit, Suit Arms

Layered Dress

Warm Collar, Warm Shoulders, Animal Ears

A little extra Valentine’s Day something...

Fixes

Added extra checks to avoid network disconnects

AI’s aiming of non-gravity based weapon made a bit more sensible

Adjustments

Added “Worbital News” popup for Main Menu. It works as a simplified summary of new content added to the game.

Balance

Short Circuit Beam now affects tier 2 structures less, and tier 3 structures far less.

Chaos Engine can now be shot at a greater velocity.

Chaos Engine now does its actions more often.

Star Drive now drains its charge faster.

Speaking of dreamy dates. It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and guess who likes you! We’re dying to know: will you be our Valentines? If the answer is yes, join us for a date tomorrow—February 14th, at 5pm EEST / 10am ET. Several people from our team will be online playing Worbital, so come to play with us. See you there!

It’s almost a week since Worbital launched and, after some thinking, we decided to do a demo.

We now have a free online demo available on Steam, to help get more new players into the Worbital groove and to get more people into the online queues! The demo includes the tutorial and online quickplay matches with default loadouts only. This means that demo players get to take part in online matches along with all the other players. The big difference is that demo-players get only a very limited selection of weapons. We hope that this prompts more people to go for the full Worbital experience. Hopefully,  this will also bring a surge of new players to the quickplay queues.

If you’ve been considering buying Worbital, but still unsure—this is your perfect opportunity to make up your mind. The demo should give you a good picture of just the kind of fun Worbital offers. It’s free, so why not take it for a spin?

If you’ve already played Worbital, and would like to recommend it to some friends—please, direct them to the demo!

We’ve also released a patch to the full Worbital, containing some fixes. See the full changelog on our Steam forum.

Lastly, if you’ve played Worbital, consider leaving us a review on Steam.

The magical moment is finally here—Worbital is released on Steam. We couldn’t be happier to present the full game to you!

The full Worbital has a range of new features, compared to the beta many of you have played. See the brief list:

New solar systems

A new feature, allowing you to change between the regular solar system and a couple of extra ones, affecting anything from Sun type to asteroid mechanics

A whole arsenal of new weapons (i.e. Solar Laser, Shockwave Bomb, Irradiator, Fusion Cannon, Minefield, Grand Blaster, Orbit Swap and even more!)

Single player campaign mode

Local Play mode

Customizable visuals for characters and planets

Plenty of smaller pleasant additions

You can get the game now for €19.99/$19.99 or for half of that if you tested Worbital beta. All beta-testers: you should have 50% discount coupons delivered to your Steam inventories by now. Short delays are possible, please be patient.

We hope you’ll enjoy the full Worbital! The game itself is ready, but the most difficult thing is still ahead of us: getting more attention to Worbital. To keep the online lobby crowded and the server chats active, we need your help. Here are some things you can do:

- Visit Worbital Steam page (all activity there helps) - Tell your friends (at least, those you think might enjoy Worbital) - Spread the word on social media (Facebook, Reddit, Youtube, etc—any place!) - Follow TJR and/or Worbital on social media, share our stuff (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) - Wishlist Worbital on Steam, if you’re not buying it yet - Leave a review on Steam—this may be the most important step!

Any help is appreciated!

Worbital game updates with new goodies will start rolling out in the close future, so keep an eye on our announcements.

To find others to play Worbital with, drop by our Discord server (if you’re not already there): https://discord.gg/kYYcrQu

After a long and adventurous run, Worbital beta has now crossed the finish line. What’s next?

First of all, we want to thank all of our wonderful beta testers for helping us build Worbital into the beautiful game it is now. Thank you for playing, for suggesting, for encouraging and criticising—you’ve been the driving force behind our work every day.

Now that the beta is finished, the only thing ahead is full release. Worbital 1.0 will launch on Steam on January 31st. The price for the full version of the game will be 19.99€/19.99$. However, all beta testers will get a 50% discount. The discount coupons should arrive to your Steam accounts around the launch time.

In the full version, you can expect a lot of new stuff:

New solar systems

A new feature, allowing you to change between the regular solar system and a couple of extra ones, affecting anything from Sun type to asteroid mechanics

A whole arsenal of new weapons

Single player campaign mode

Customizable visuals for characters and planets

Plenty of smaller pleasant additions

You’ll love it! We’ll be teasing some of the new stuff on Discord and on our Twitter and Facebook in the upcoming days until launch.

Last but not least: a huge thanks to our mods! Those who’ve been with us through the rough seas of endless key requests and those who kept the order of the server—you’ve been an incredible help. Cor, Jyrgenhaizer, Kirstu, Miko, Sakemanni, SolarSupremacy, Venzenzerz—you guys are the best!

Hey, Worbitalists! You’ve probably had a bombastic weekend of planet destruction, but does it have to stop? After some deliberation we’ve decided that, in fact, it doesn’t.

We announced last Friday that beta will be open 11th-14th of January. Now we have some pleasant news for you: we decided to extend the beta by another couple of days, until Wednesday, January 16th. Enjoy!

During the weekend, we found some network issues with the game—that’s exactly what we were hunting for. Now we have some fixes ready for those issues, and hence we’re putting out a patch. You can find the full changelog below.

Worbital Beta Patch, 0.102.1493_Beta3 - January 14th, 2019

Fixes

Improved queue stability

Fixes to Discord invites

Lobby Invite button now opens steam invite overlay

Welcome to the Worbital Beta 3! It is now officially open for the weekend.

As we explained in our previous post, in this beta we’d like to focus on testing servers and network. This means the more people we can get to play the better, so bring your neighbour and your dog! Aside from some polish and fixes, we don’t have much new things to show off—all the juicy stuff is saved up for the launch.

As usual, please, report all bugs and issues you encounter to the #wrb_bug-reports chat. Because we focus on servers and network stability in this beta, pay special attention to issues related to matchmaking queues.

The beta will be open during January 11th-14th. If you had the older beta version, the new update should be available to you automatically. Just launch the game on Steam and have fun. If you didn’t—go the the #wrb_request-beta-key chat on our Discord server and simply ask for a key. Our mods will get back to you as soon as possible. Please, post only one request.

Hi, everybody! It’s great to see you again in 2019. As promised in our December status update, we come with news: Worbital beta returns this weekend!

Beta’s final round will take place January 11th-14th. We’ll start giving out keys on Friday the 11th, slightly in advance before the beta opens. As before, if you had a key for the previous Worbital betas, you should have access to this one as well—just update and launch the game and Steam. If you haven’t had a chance to try the beta yet, then here’s your chance! All you need to do is ask for a key once in the #wrb_request-beta-key chat on our official Discord server. Our mods will get back to you as soon as possible. The main focus of this beta is testing servers and network, so it won’t include any major new additions. We are saving some awesome new stuff for the release instead.