Patch Notes v1.5.8
Patch Notes v1.5.8 PUP should pass through fence holes easily! - regression bug fix.
Patch Notes v1.5.8
PUP should pass through fence holes easily! - regression bug fix.
Ctrl Alt Ego
- Released
- Jul 22, 2022
- Platforms
- Last updated
Updates & announcements
- Developer postOriginal post
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.5.7
Patch Notes v1.5.7 Valve reviewed the game on Steam Deck and (correctly) judged it to have fallen short of fully verified status. There were only a few small issues in their report... so I did this patch to fix them up in the hope I'd be able to get the fully verified badge. But
Original postPatch Notes v1.5.7
Valve reviewed the game on Steam Deck and (correctly) judged it to have fallen short of fully verified status. There were only a few small issues in their report... so I did this patch to fix them up in the hope I'd be able to get the fully verified badge. But then they came back to me with more issues... so rather than get stuck in an endless loop, I decided to accept the PLAYABLE badge. Good enough. But i may as well publish this patch regardless, so that's what this is.
PLAYABLE is best description anyway really, since it's supposed to feel like a 'classic' PC game - I really want players to play with mouse and keyboard.
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.5.6
Patch Notes v1.5.6 Patch: Arbitrary Code Execution vulnerability in the Unity Runtime (CVE-2025-59489) It had been sitting there undiscovered for 10+ years apparently!
Original postPatch Notes v1.5.6
Patch: Arbitrary Code Execution vulnerability in the Unity Runtime (CVE-2025-59489)
It had been sitting there undiscovered for 10+ years apparently!
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.5.5
Patch Notes v1.5.5 Fixed broken portcullis doors in the undeleted chapter Some localization fixes from the Russian translator
Original postPatch Notes v1.5.5
Fixed broken portcullis doors in the undeleted chapter
Some localization fixes from the Russian translator
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.5.4
Patch Notes v1.5.4 The Brightness Display setting now adds more brightness by boosting the gamma Upgraded a few legacy Matey Boy bots in the (un)deleted mission level
Original postPatch Notes v1.5.4
The Brightness Display setting now adds more brightness by boosting the gamma
Upgraded a few legacy Matey Boy bots in the (un)deleted mission level
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.5.3
Patch Notes v1.5.3 Fix (affects 'The Deleted Chapter' only): Locked interactive things aren't locked if you're DAD and DAD has the key Change (affects NewGame+ only): Added a MUM to The Cloud level for reasons that are obvious once you see where she is.
Original postPatch Notes v1.5.3
Fix (affects 'The Deleted Chapter' only): Locked interactive things aren't locked if you're DAD and DAD has the key
Change (affects NewGame+ only): Added a MUM to The Cloud level for reasons that are obvious once you see where she is.
- Developer post
The 'Deleted Chapter - Undeleted' Update
To mark the 3 year launch anniversary of Ctrl Alt Ego, I've undeleted a deleted chapter, available in the latest patch on Steam. The Good: Huge Wild Some interesting set-pieces The Bad: Huge Wild Some frustrating set-pieces The Ugly: Yes The idea during development around 2018/20
Original postTo mark the 3 year launch anniversary of Ctrl Alt Ego, I've undeleted a deleted chapter, available in the latest patch on Steam.
Watch on YouTube The Good:
Huge
Wild
Some interesting set-pieces
The Bad:
Huge
Wild
Some frustrating set-pieces
The Ugly:
Yes
The idea during development around 2018/2019 was that after visiting The Cloud location you would fly down to the planet-formerly-known-as-Earth for a really free/open level to let rip with your full ability set.
In the end I sacked it when The Cloud level seemed to offer all of that already, the pacing didn't fit the story, it was going to be a lot of work to polish and optimize... etc etc.
But anyway it's back now, added as a standalone mission, but it plays a bit like a complete game in and of itself. Enemies are aplenty and tough, you'll feel weak initially... but you're smarter than them.
Art-wise it's basically a blockout - no attempt to polish the terrain or fort etc. Personally I quite like that it's ugly. So there.
Warning: Performance is not great. It runs fine on modern hardware, but will gasp on older machines. There's an in-level option to adjust the draw distance which can help - it's like playing as a short-sighted robot.
Edit 27.07.2025 Small patch pushed to correct a few Turkish/Russian localization strings, and fix GOD colliders.
Edit 04.08.2025 Small patch pushed to fix:
PUP Disks not working on initial mission load
PUP getting half-stuck through the terrain
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.18
Patch Notes v1.4.18 bugfix: it was possible to get the VaQ program in a kind of stuck-state while unequipped, so that it was forever processing un-sucked-up things bugfix: on load save, ego fragments were scaling wrongly. Hilariously too big in fact. Think I broke this fairly rec
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.18
- bugfix: it was possible to get the VaQ program in a kind of stuck-state while unequipped, so that it was forever processing un-sucked-up things
- bugfix: on load save, ego fragments were scaling wrongly. Hilariously too big in fact. Think I broke this fairly recently so hopefully only one person noticed.
- DORs: Any ego door that you can ctrl and open, you can now also close. There were some inconsistent DORs out there.
- Keyboard: More keys can now be re-bound (Fn keys, Tab key)
- Selection Wheels: (EgoMode Filter and Bug Program Selector) can now be set to toggle on/off rather than a hold key/button down. Head to the Keybindings screen, on the right-hand-side and look for the to-be-localized-eventually checkbox option "Toggle" just beneath the ToolWheel keybinding.
- Selection wheel UI should feel smoother/better now too
Developer postPatch Notes v1.4.17
Patch Notes v1.4.17 Physics change: Prior to this patch, the physics performance was adapting to the framerate. I've come to understand this is really not a good idea - physics needs to work at a constant/fixed rate for the simulation to give consistent results. So this update sa
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.17
- Physics change: Prior to this patch, the physics performance was adapting to the framerate. I've come to understand this is really not a good idea - physics needs to work at a constant/fixed rate for the simulation to give consistent results. So this update sacks the whole adaptive physics 'feature'.
- Improved physics collider for the cylindrical vent/pipe windowed sections - after a player demonstrated Bug22 could not only be seen through the window glass but the bug could also fall through the window if left unattended!
- Added Unidentified and Pacifist status to the Load Game info, to facilitate finding those saves. They only show up if the achievement for each can still be achieved, so if "Unidentified" doesn't show it means you've been identified a least once in that save and if "Pacifist" doesn't show it means you've broken at least one robot in that save.
- CRS Techlab - done something that hopefully prevents robots breaking apart when it's nothing to do with you
- CRS Science - Pod C door lock status wasn't synchronizing correctly, green status was giving the impression the door ought to be openable when in fact it never is from one side. Also done a visual improvement to reinforce the idea that this lock is broken (on one side of the door).
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.16
Patch Notes v1.4.16 Bug tool selection Wheel UI and Ego Mode Filter Wheel weren't scaling properly at 4K resolution
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.16
- Bug tool selection Wheel UI and Ego Mode Filter Wheel weren't scaling properly at 4K resolution
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.15
Patch Notes v1.4.15 Bug Fix for badbug getting stick inside CRS Engineering lift/elevator. Was happening if you went down to CRS Engineering from CRS Lobby using the stairs. Got broken as part of major update 1.4.0 - a physics thing for this 'special' badbug that I missed at that
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.15
- Bug Fix for badbug getting stick inside CRS Engineering lift/elevator. Was happening if you went down to CRS Engineering from CRS Lobby using the stairs. Got broken as part of major update 1.4.0 - a physics thing for this 'special' badbug that I missed at that time.
Patch Size: 10 MB
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.14
Patch Notes v1.4.14 Fix issue where HOPping from CRS Corporate level back to Bug 0 in CRS Science level was failing under certain specific conditions because Bug 0 was deciding to disappear. Patch Size: 12 MB
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.14
- Fix issue where HOPping from CRS Corporate level back to Bug 0 in CRS Science level was failing under certain specific conditions because Bug 0 was deciding to disappear.
Patch Size: 12 MB
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.13
Patch Notes v1.4.13 Happy Holidays and all that. What's this... A Christmas day patch!? A few minor issues have come up recently and I feel compelled to fix them before they become forever postponed. Don't drop the currently grabbed thing when pause + resume game Quite funny hist
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.13
Happy Holidays and all that. What's this... A Christmas day patch!? A few minor issues have come up recently and I feel compelled to fix them before they become forever postponed.
- Don't drop the currently grabbed thing when pause + resume game Quite funny history here: About 2 years ago there there was a bug that meant the currently grabbed thing travelled with you to the pause menu. In a parallel universe that could even be an interesting feature. I fixed that bug a bit lazily (I now realise) by just forcing the thing to be dropped when game is paused. But then as a player recently reported... it was possible to blow yourself up when game paused while carrying an explodable thing. So hopefully now this is properly fixed.
- Ensure Ego Fragments can still be collected when they're half stuck in level geometry
- Probably no-one has ever noticed but if you broke a MUM apart, one of her broken bits was actually a duplicate of one of her other bits i.e. it was the wrong kind of broken bit.
Patch Size: 35 MB
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.12
Patch Notes v1.4.12 Controller icons were appearing in the wrong place while in ctrl of a Juice Vending Machine Patch Size: 7 MB
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.12
- Controller icons were appearing in the wrong place while in ctrl of a Juice Vending Machine
Patch Size: 7 MB
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.11
Patch Notes v1.4.11 PUP was supposed to have been rechargeable while inside their cage all this time, pretty sure it was working at one point, Well now it's certainly working. Patch Size: 7 MB
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.11
- PUP was supposed to have been rechargeable while inside their cage all this time, pretty sure it was working at one point, Well now it's certainly working.
Patch Size: 7 MB
Developer postУкраїнська!
v1.4.10: Українська! NEW : Ukrainian localization of the game is now available To change language, navigate to Menu > Settings > Language Other Fixes included in this patch: A Legacy Systems lighting correction that no-one will notice When in ctrl of a faulting host, the fa
Original postv1.4.10: Українська!
NEW: Ukrainian localization of the game is now available
To change language, navigate to Menu > Settings > Language
Other Fixes included in this patch:
- A Legacy Systems lighting correction that no-one will notice
- When in ctrl of a faulting host, the fault effect wasn't showing up, now corrected
- Belated hot-fix: Explosions weren't affecting small cages! Oups. Now corrected.
Patch Size: 34 MB
Developer postPatch Notes v1.4.9
Patch Notes v1.4.9 I hate Fonts For the benefit of you few kindly souls who read my patch notes, I'm going to break with tradition and explain why this patch exists before I go on to explain what purpose it serves. Back in 2015 when work on the game began, it seemed a cool and fu
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.9
I hate Fonts
For the benefit of you few kindly souls who read my patch notes, I'm going to break with tradition and explain why this patch exists before I go on to explain what purpose it serves.Back in 2015 when work on the game began, it seemed a cool and fun idea to create the entire user-interface using pure fixed-width text characters - as if the user-interface were a pre-GUI retro-console display screen overlay.
For example, these characters:
┏━━━━━┓
┃━━━━━┃
┗━━━━━┛in-game are used to draw the EMU:
And the background isn't a black image.... it uses one or more of this character: █
So the UI in Ctrl Alt Ego is essentially a text buffer if you know what one of those is, with weird characters and rich-text markup to tweak colors and sizes.
It's been absolute hell to work with. Don't ever do it.
I have implemented so much weird mathematics to get the UI to lay itself out and resize correctly. It's been 9 years of pain. Localization added a whole new layer of pain on top... because now all my weird mathematics has to account for different fonts.
I'm saying weird mathematics, because I never really understood why i was having to synchronize background characters with the foreground drawing glyphs. They're all using the same font, I thought. The font is monospace fixedwidth, right? Why are there any calculations to do? Just render a background character in one layer, then render the drawing glpyh over the top of it and they should line up just fine, surely?
I have gone 9 years not really understanding why. 9 years! Mostly because I was too lazy (or too busy if I'm being more generous to myself) to drill down and try to understand what was going on.
Well a week or two ago, the publisher dev team working on the console ports discovered that the user-interface was rendering very strangely indeed in their console builds. Some characters were aligned very badly, and some characters were.... missing!
And, they informed me, and this is the punchline really, the characters I'm using to draw the user-interface aren't even defined in the font!
So what has been happening all this time - and that includes 2 years of the game being out there - is Unity (the game engine) has been quietly detecting the characters are missing and choosing a fallback font on the target system to use instead. That includes both on my development PCs and on player's PCs - I mean who knows what some players have been seeing all this time if their system isn't a fairly standard Windows platform.
And so that brings me to this patch. Basically I have gone through all the user-interface code to ensure it is using well-defined font characters. Can't have the game relying on chance to render the UI properly! This has meant having to change the look of the UI slightly in some cases (hopefully not very noticeably different though).
List of other Changes in this Patch
- GameController LeftStick can now be used to navigate menus
- Language Selector UX improved
- Yet another font related technical fix - to spread the cost of rendering too many textures all at once on level load
- I've reduced the default GLOOM level for new players, been getting several complaints about game being too dark
Patch Size: 41 MB
Developer postPatch Notes v1.4.8
Patch Notes v1.4.8 SteamDeck players and and Controller users now get to look at proper controller glyphs instead of the retro text-formatted prompts that regular mouse/keyboard players will continue to see. This is part of preparing for console versions (which require official i
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.8
- SteamDeck players and and Controller users now get to look at proper controller glyphs instead of the retro text-formatted prompts that regular mouse/keyboard players will continue to see.
This is part of preparing for console versions (which require official input glyphs). Some might argue it's a shame to lose the punk aesthetic of the over-the-top retro UI text control prompts, especially given the game's name comes from the PC keyboard.... but needs must and no doubt some will prefer the new glyphs anyway.
- bug-fix: Carrying something as bug22 will no longer prevent you from flying. Players have been reporting this on and off for a long time and I've always just put it down to weird physics quirk that I was unable to replicate. Luckily I did finally understand how to replicate it, so now it's fixed.
- Fix not being able to rebind W (forwards) to E
- Increased the size of Task/Meta/Insight notifications (the ones that appear top-left of screen) to make them more prominent
Patch Size: 56 MB
- SteamDeck players and and Controller users now get to look at proper controller glyphs instead of the retro text-formatted prompts that regular mouse/keyboard players will continue to see.
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.7
Patch Notes v1.4.7 Corrected poor materials usage, mostly in the UI - less inefficient now. Can't believe I only just noticed. Made it so the elevator near Rocket Launchsite can be ctrl'd from the lower level while it's at the upper level if you've ctrl'd it previously (after a p
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.7
- Corrected poor materials usage, mostly in the UI - less inefficient now. Can't believe I only just noticed.
- Made it so the elevator near Rocket Launchsite can be ctrl'd from the lower level while it's at the upper level if you've ctrl'd it previously (after a player wondered why they couldn't)
- Fixed a missing collider near Rocket Launchsite
- Fixed a stray unlocalized string that I'd missed all this time
Patch Size: 33 MB
- Developer post
Patch Notes v1.4.6
Patch Notes v1.4.6 Added some measures to bring Bug0 back if he's still needed and accidentally gets lost in CRS (e.g. if he glitches through vent) VaQ wasn't sucking up Ego Fragments properly Download tool wasn't always remaining selected when unctrl-ing Bug22 Key-bindings scree
Original postPatch Notes v1.4.6
- Added some measures to bring Bug0 back if he's still needed and accidentally gets lost in CRS (e.g. if he glitches through vent)
- VaQ wasn't sucking up Ego Fragments properly
- Download tool wasn't always remaining selected when unctrl-ing Bug22
- Key-bindings screen was not working well for new players / clean install
Patch Size: 30 MB