Happy Friday! It is TIME to give props to the BEST COMMUNITY EVER!

This week GR-18 becomes a jumping & frolicking Indiana Jones and a master back seat driver.
As always remember to click the level names to bookmark them for play later on - LET'S GO




In VO2's mystery filled level Hot Canyon Mystery, GR-18 puts on Indiana Jones' Hat to find all the hidden paths and treasures!




GR-18 becomes a back seat driver in TalkGibberish's level Big Delivery For Package. Direct and guide every move of the package in this continuation of the series!




In Flyblock Frolic, a level by SleepDoof, GR-18's mastery of package delivery is at its best as GR-18 casually frolics his way through spikes and blades!




In Tim Conceivable's level Wow. GR-18 Can Bounce!, GR-18 enjoys the fun of a package trampoline, bouncing and jumping through spikes and jems! Also, check out the dope TimConceivable created in levelhead using the new boomboxes.

• Ulym's Infiltrate Blopfush Tower is all about keeping your head up and reaching the top!
  
• SchuhBaum's Short Blaster Adventure is all about taking that leap of faith!
  
• WaddlesTNT's Frost Mountain 1 is all about digging in deep and finding the way to glory!

Hey, Levelheads! Welcome to patch 0.61: Boombox Revolution! This patch, we put a lot of time into cross-platform bug fixes and features to inch ourselves closer to the full launch, and we put a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals into the game's UI. Plus, we have some fun new Boombox surprises. Let's jump in!


This patch we set out to do a repass on most of the game's UIs in some form or another. Many of the UIs were unfinished, or they weren't cohesive with the other UIs in the game. Some UIs took a bit more work than others. The Settings page, for example, has been completely rebuilt!



You will also notice small changes all over the place, from the confirmation windows that pop up, to the downloads page, and everything in between. After this patch, we're feeling a lot better with how the game's UIs have shaped up!


We added Icons to the game several months back, and we gave players the ability to use these icons both as personal avatars and on their levels. However, we felt that the original implementation of the Icons system wasn't quite where it needed to be. There weren't enough icons, and the system wasn't integrated with the rest of the game effectively. So this patch, we blew the icons system out of the water. For starters, we added over 100 new icons!



We also made many of the new icons unlockable, either through achievements or through the game's Training campaign. Yep, that's right -- Training unlocks are BACK! But they're all cosmetic, so... it's cooler this time. More on that later!

To drive home the power of the Icons, and to make your levels more easily distinguishable from one another, we updated the Workshop cards to prominently feature the icon for your level.



And we added a small version of the icon to the Editor's bottom bar!



Overall, this suite of updates has taken the icons system from a sidenote, to a much more robust and center-stage feature.


One thing the campaign (now called Training) has been missing all this time is replayability for speedrunners. Over the past couple weeks, we went through all the campaign levels and established On-Time Delivery Targets. These are benchmark times that, if you beat them, you get awarded with the On-Time Delivery completion for that level. If you want to know whether you still have to earn the On-Time Delivery for a level, just look for the little green clock!



After going back through and trying to beat all the On-Time Delivery benchmarks, I can safely say that this is a nice breath of fresh air for the Training aspect of the game. Some of the levels have pretty tight times, while others require you to find some kind of shortcut. All in all, we think our players will have a lot of fun with it!


When we first created the Bureau of Shipping Training program, players unlocked items that they could then use in the editor. Those items were stored in odd-looking objects that we called "Requisition Centers." However, the game had no public lore about what these things were, and our players had a hard time talking about them, since nobody knew what they were called.

In this patch, these problems came front-and-center when we added the Icons into the Training as unlockables. Because suddenly, the Training map was once again covered with these weird, confusing unlockers! So for this patch, we blew up those old Requisition Centers and replaced them with something that has a bit more character: VEND-R bots!



For starters, these little guys have their name written right on their face, so it should be a lot easier to know what the heck they're called. As we approach 1.0, we'll have some lore tidbits in the game that will explain more about what these things are and why they're out there. But... one problem at a time!


Every now and then we have to take a step back and reimagine how an item works. In this patch, we decided to take a second swing at Boomboxes. Boomboxes are the little stereo-looking items that you can have play custom notes. We posted a little preview of some of the changes that would be coming to Boomboxes last week, and now those changes -- and more -- have arrived!



We've expanded the pitch range of boomboxes so you can recreate your favorite songs more easily. We then gave them note durations, repeat beats, beats-per-minute, and start delays. But perhaps most importantly, we've added percussion! Yep, that's right -- you can now deliver SICK BEATS to the players of your levels!

Oh, and just for kicks, boomboxes now vibrate when they're playing a note, so you can more easily tell where the sound is coming from.

We think Boomboxes still have room for improvement, but this patch has elevated Boomboxes so far above where they were before, we expect that we'll be seeing these cool gadgets getting a lot more use going forward.


Aside from all the above, we managed to pack a ton of little quality-of-life updates into this patch. For example, we added a menu to the Editor, so you don't have to start playing the game to change your settings -- and so you don't accidentally exit the level by pressing "B" on your controller.

We also made it possible to manage your bookmarks from inside the game, so you can mark a level that you want to play later, without needing to favorite it or doing some other weird workaround.



Plus, that means you can now un-bookmark levels from inside the game, too! So once you've played a level, you can get it out of your Bookmarks list if you're the kind of person who likes to keep things tidy.

We even added some new settings, like a checkbox that lets you tell the game to not spawn the default level template. Many experienced level builders prefer to start with a blank canvas, which means the first thing they have to do when building a new level is to delete the default template. Well, not anymore!


There's a lot more in this patch than what I've listed above, so if you want to really get your hands in there, just read the patch notes!

Our next patch is slated for January 22. We're still working toward our set of 1.0 features, so some of our time will be going into console and mobile features and fixes, but we also aim to have Multi-Select added to the editor for the next patch. We'll also be working on some updated moderation tools, and some improved social features such as the ability to "Dislike" a level -- we'll have more on that later!

We'll be out of the office from December 25 through January 1 (one week) for holiday break, and then we'll be back in action! So you can Expect the first Dev Blog of the next patch to drop January 8.



See the full patchnotes.

Another week done and another round of magical creativeness! This week GR-18 becomes a nurturing parent, nightmare slayer, dungeon explorer and of course A JUGGLER.

As always remember to click the level names to bookmark them for play later on - LET'S GO



Espurrator's engaging level Super Ocula Cave Adventure 2 brings out the nurturing side of GR-18. GR-18, baby proofs the cave to guide the Ocula through this cave adventure.



Speedrunner Flan has turned into a master creator this week. Brace yourself for the Dream Valley level. The clouds and whizblades can turn into a nightmare for the faint-hearted.



In SchuhBaum's level Ice Castle explore the scary dungeons of the long lost castle. The only companion is your SPIDY SUIT to help you climb through the cobwebs and enemies left behind in time!




Be ready to have all HECK break loose, as you steal the package from the boogey trapped cave in The Fire Stronghold level made by Cyra998.



Practice your juggling skills in Yuca's level Fly Through Whizblade Tree! This is a good starting level for a juggling act of 2 power-ups.

• Tim Conceivable's Way Of The Blaster is a fun puzzle of the blasters!
  
• Alexrd's Tomb Of Descend Hero! is a mix of different flavors and adventure in one level.
  
• MirrorTarget's Unbelievable Mine Trap Stunt makes you dance on the walking escalators to trap and kill the enemies.

WHOA. That was quite the break! Although it has been 3 weeks since the last Dev Blog, we've only had a couple full days of development, on account of 3/5 of our studio being gone most of that WHOOOLE time! Still, we are on track to deploy the next patch on Wednesday, December 18, and we've managed to squeeze in some nice updates in just the couple of days we've had since the last dev blog. So let's take a look!


Generally, our player community has been... mixed... on Boomboxes. Although they're cool conceptually and people like the idea of them, their implementation has made it more difficult than necessary to make cool music. So in this patch, we're working on some nice updates to Boomboxes that will make them much easier to use.



You can now set a Boombox's "Beats Per Minute", as well as how many beats its note lasts, and you can make it repeat on a beat count, too! This should make it far easier to turn your favorite songs into Boombox songs, since you no longer have to try to convert beats into seconds on your own.

We have some other potential updates in the works for Boomboxes, but we'll keep those a surprise!


I had mentioned in the last Developer blog that we've been doing some work on the game's interfaces to make them more cohesive and stylish. Just yesterday, we finalized some updates to the Settings page. Let's take a look!



We've even broken everything down into categories, so you can say goodbye to scrolling for 10,000 years of pain just to find the setting you want! Oh, and we have added a handful of new settings that have been requested for quite some time, like being able to have the Editor not spawn the default level template.


Up until now, our Levelhead launch plans have been to simultaneously launch on Steam (PC/Mac), Nintendo Switch, and Xbox (with Game Pass). And then, at some later date, we would launch on Mobile.

On Monday this week, we sat down to go over those plans, and whether we thought they made sense and gave the game the biggest chance of making an impact. After some deliberation, we had to ask the question: Why not launch on Mobile simultaneously with everything else? We think Levelhead has the capacity to make a huge splash on Mobile, because there simply won't be any other game like it out there. There are some design and business hurdles we'll have to jump over to achieve this, but as it turns out, we are much closer to clearing those than we had originally thought.

So it's now official: We will be simultaneously shipping on six platforms: Steam (PC/Mac), Nintendo Switch, Xbox (with Game Pass), Windows Store (with Game Pass), iOS, and Android. This is pretty atypical; most games will launch on one platform first, then, many months later, they will launch on another, and then another, etc... So you might be asking: "Launching on six platforms at once? Who does that?" We do. We do that. And we think that by having the game available literally everywhere all at once, we will give it the biggest chance of accumulating an absolutely massive following right out of the gate.



We also plan for all platforms to have full cross-platform features. Any level made on any platform should be playable on any other platform, and you will be able to bring your user data across all your devices.

We'll have more information about the mobile version of Levelhead in the near future!

And last, you're probably wondering: When is the launch date? WELL.. We don't know yet. We have about 30 ducks we have to get into a row before we can say for sure, and you know what they say about ducks. They're wily.


Last but not least... Levelhead is in IndieDB's Top 100 Indie Games of 2019! That puts us in the voting pool for the top 10, so if you haven't already, come express your love for Levelhead by giving us some votes!




The next patch is planned for December 18, one week from today! So get ready to... uh.. You know. Reboot your Steam client or whatever! And that's all we have for you this week. I have to get back to programming!


Want to stay tuned with updates in CLOSE TO REAL TIME? Check out our patch notes page to see changes to the game, even before they have hit Steam!

And if you want to get the changes a little earlier than the rest of the folks on Steam, hop into our Discord, where we've got information on getting into the Beta branch.

It's Friday, and that means its time to ROUND UP ALL THE GOODIES! This week we've got some downright delectable levels for your enjoyment, from danceable beats to sustainable treats!

As always, remember to click the level names to bookmark them for later on. HERE WE GO!



Msmiley's level Hardlight Music Double Time transforms Levelhead into a rhythm platformer! With fat beats and great platforming backing it up, the only question is whether or not you'll be able to dance along.



I'm a sucker for a good contraption, and Natari's level The Automatic Scrubb Machine shows how you can deliver Scrubb shells on demand! Use the shells to solve puzzling scenarios of increasing difficulty, or just investigate the shell-producing machine and steal it for your own levels!



Destragon's level Scrubb Tree House Dive is a well-paced, lovely little romp through the woods. Provided your ideal woodland stroll involves climbing spikeblocks and throwing Scrubb shells every which way, that is.



Espurrator is taking up sustainability in Levelhead by creating a level that's 100% certified GREEEEEEN. Using only green components, Green Land has you completing challenges with the Tiptow power. After playing this level you'll be able to tell all three of your friends that you've been to Green Land!



Espurrator earns a double mention this week for the adorable Help! Ocula Cave Adventure! You've got limited tries to get one of these Oculas home - try not to burn them all up!

* Msmiley's Super Space Walk is a quick one that makes clever use of hardlights
* Syustel's GR-18 Go Small Test is an incredibly interesting use of rifts and terrain to make the player feel as though they've been shrunk
* Freact's Vacrat Crash And Dash makes great use of headbutts and timer switches, though it's not for the faint of heart.

This week the Butterscotch team is ON VACATION! That means we're all kicking our feet back, eating too much, and generally taking a break from the relentless pace of dev from last 7 MONTHS of Early Access. It's also THANKSGIVING here in the states, which is the time of year when we all take a moment to reflect on what we're thankful for, and then go into a food coma.

So before I pass out again from consuming 400lbs of mashed potatoes, in this brief lucid moment, let me say...




For this week's community spotlight, I'd like to celebrate the last 31 spotlights, and shine a light back on the players that have made our journey an incredible one. Enjoy taking a trip down memory lane with all of these, and rediscover some favorites from Levelhead's early days.

Thank you all - and happy Thanksgiving!

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Another Friday, another batch of ludicrous levels and a STAINED GLASS WINDOW?! WHAT?!

As always, remember to click the level names to bookmark them for later on. HERE WE GO!




ZLDFN101 somehow managed to find our prototype for Crashlands, buried deep inside Levelhead. Their level Crash Land 0.5 is an incredible display of metaphorical design - you'll need to find items and bring them back home to 'craft' more items and gain access to other parts of the level. It's great fun, and the creative leaps required to make it deserve all the applause our 10 hands can muster!




Spekio is at it again with the wonderful story of two unusual friends in a terrible place. Keep your Blopfush buddy alive in The Buddy System, and uncover the secrets to forging incredible friendship. (Spoiler: The secret is making sure your friend doesn't get shot by fireballs)




V02's level The Suspicious Heist gives you the hair raising feeling that you're walking into a trap. There's nothing quite like going deeper and deeper into an inactive-hazard covered area, knowing all the while that at SOME point, all of it is going to come roaring to life. There's a great balance of dread with rising action here, and good opportunity for replay!




Groversoup has crafted what feels like an entire special game mode in the level Flyblock Factory. You'll need to cleverly sneak and jump to make your way through the Flyblock Factory, carried all the way by your best bud, the Blopfush.




Willhyukister's level Power-Up Puzzle combines keys, chests, and ALL the power-ups into a deliciously fun level. Be careful how you use those keys!




In Tim Conceivable's level Dodge Flame, Find Treasure you'll find two of my favorite things - great level design and FIREFALLS! You're going to need some balm for the burns this level will give you. Make that ALL the balm.


This week we've got some FAN ART that's more than worthy of a highlight.

Scaleplexis is coming in like an angel with a legit stained glass window featuring the Package from Levelhead. It's so beautiful that we're tempted to build a shrine to On-Time Delivery!



Msmiley's been getting some animation time in with this wonderfully stretchy GR-18:



That's it for this week! Be sure to hop into the discord to chat with the creators of this week's levels, and show-off what you're making for the next round of the spotlight.

Hey, Levelheads! It's been two weeks since the last patch, so you know what that means! DEVELOPER BLOG! We've gotten a lot done, but we still have a long way to go before the patch. Things are going to be a bit quiet for the next couple weeks, though, as most of our dev team will be on holiday! Why? Because OUR WHOLE BODIES HURT AND WE JUST NEED A MINUTE. Or in this case, about 20 thousand minutes.

But in the meantime, let's take a face-first dive into what we've done so far!


First up is ICONS! Quite a while ago we added a batch of icons to the game. Players could use these icons to represent their levels, and they could also use them as avatars. At the time, we described these as the "starter" batch of icons, and we talked about how eventually, we would add more icons and the ability to unlock those new icons. Well, EVENTUALLY is coming right up!

Over the past couple weeks, we've added over a hundred new icons to the game.



BUT WAIT! Why are so many of them grayed out? That's because we've also added UNLOCKABLE icons. Many of the new icons are unlocked either through the campaign or through achievements. With this patch, you can show off how much you have achieved with your exclusive, beautiful icons!

But we also wanted to make the icons system more visible. After all, what's the point of having all these icons if you can't... you know... see them? So we added them to the Editor:



And to the workshop, too!



We wanted the icons to feel like something special -- a badge of honor that you can use to both express yourself, and market your levels. Our hope is that this next patch nails that!


As you may have heard, Levelhead is coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch (the date for which we are still pinning down). That means a huge wave of players will come pouring into the Levelhead division all at once, and we want to make sure they have the best experience we can offer. Unfortunately, most of our efforts throughout Early Access have gone into the web features and the workshop, and we haven't been able to give the campaign (now called Training) the time and attention it deserved. That would be a problem for all these new players, because the Bureau's Training Program is where all new employees start!

So as of the past couple weeks, we've been putting a lot of energy into making sure the campaign is a fantastic experience.

First, we've added new "On-Time Delivery" goals to all of the campaign levels, so you can earn some extra achievements by showing off your speed running skills. After Sam set all the speed targets, the first thing I did was dive into the levels to replay them and try to beat the times. And I have to say, speed running the campaign changes everything about the experience. It's intense!



As I mentioned earlier, we've also added icon unlocks to the campaign, so you can show off once you've beaten some of the harder challenges on offer.

And aside from the On-Time Delivery system, Sam has been hard at work reimagining certain aspects of the campaign so that it hits the targets we laid out when we first started making Levelhead. Our goal with the campaign was to teach players how to play the game and provide some cool challenges, but we also wanted to introduce some characters, expand the lore of the game, and make it feel like you're progressing through the Bureau of Shipping's Training Program. Oh, and we wanted to tell a lot of dumb jokes. We definitely hit that first target, but we haven't put time into the rest. That's all changing now, but that's a really big update, so it may not be done for this patch. But we're working on it!


Since we're getting ever closer to launch, we took a step back to ensure that we've not left any stones unturned when it comes to making the visual experience of the game smooth and silky.

One of the least smooth and silky parts of the game so far is... the interfaces. More specifically, we've basically ignored many of the game's interfaces since we launched it into Early Access. The Settings page, pause menu, downloads page, and a whole bunch of other interfaces just kind of existed and never really got much love. They did their jobs just fine, but they weren't much to look at. For this patch, we're taking the time to ensure that we cover all of these areas, so the game gets a more consistent look and feel. I'll wait until we're closer to deploying the patch to show any visuals, though, since they're continuing to evolve. I'm pumped to see the response!


The next patch is planned for December 18. As I mentioned above, most of our team will be gone for the next couple weeks, so the next Developer blog will be on December 11, three weeks from now. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank our community for being understanding and treating us like real people, and not giving us any guff about having a vacation. It's been really fantastic having the support of such wonderful people!


Want to stay tuned with updates in CLOSE TO REAL TIME? Check out our patch notes page to see changes to the game, even before they have hit Steam!

And if you want to get the changes a little earlier than the rest of the folks on Steam, hop into our Discord, where we've got information on getting into the Beta branch.

Time for the best part of the week, playing and talking about Levelhead Community Levels! This week GR-18 becomes a lock-picking escape agent who rides a PATH DRAGON!

As always, remember to click the level names to bookmark them for later on. HERE WE GO!




Pane has created an enchanting world full of purpleness in the level GR-18, Ouch!. Determination and perseverance will see you through this one!




Espurrator creates a thrilling escape scenario for GR-18 in the level Cold Cabin Zipper Caper. Be ready to climb through every floor and its traps with only the zipper power-up and your wits!



In Spekio's level Keycard Quickly!, GR-18 continues the lock-picking training. Mastering the colored key matching under time-pressure is the KEYYYY to his package delivery!



BrambleGaming's level Glorious Blizzard Quest brings memories of a cozy home on a snow-day. But corporate duty calls, and GR-18 must brave the blizzard to do the work!



In BookMouse's casual level Flyblock Friend Forest, GR-18 gets to ride a PATHDRAGON while killing enemies to deliver the package to its destination!

• SchuhBaum's Tall Tree has you find Nirvana by exploring a tall tree.
  
• WaddlesTNT's Train GR-18 To Manage will make you work on your management and organization skills.
  
• CJ5boss's Spike Trap Cavern is all about speed and precision. Hurry up but also be precise!
  
• Doesy214's Hardlight Jump Level! is a well-paced jumping level! Practice those high and long jumps to win this one!

Another week done and another round of enthralling imagineering by the community! This week GR-18 becomes a marathoner, astronaut, and an AVERAGE JOE!

As always remember to click the level names to bookmark them for play later on - LET'S GO




Make sure to stretch your thumbs before playing Almost There! by Omikron. You'll need that preparation for this fun-filled marathon (psst - the finish line is a lie).



The Fallen Legend has created a beautiful yet lonely space experience in the level Awakening Awe Space Cavern
Explore the depths of the space and return the package safely. God Speed, TRAVELER!




Msmiley has recreated a usual routine in many households in the level Time Change Ritual. I have only one thing to say about it: Day Light Savings - YOU MAKE NO SENSE!




In Sigmund Froid's thrill-filled level Zipper Mission, be careful which button you press! You might get an unpleasant travel companion!




TalkGibberish has created an aesthetically beautiful level Exercise In Spike Block. It's hard not to stare at the flashy spikes, and also hard to not get impaled on them!

• Johnny0798's Chamber 17 is a fun puzzler! Blast your way through to win this one!
  
• Flux's Unbelievable Spinny Platform has a hypnotic effect on you. Don't be caught staring for too long.
  
• Skyrobot's Kampftor: Schnell Traurig! is a great brawler level to take out the day's frustration.