BOOM Bound - The Rebound Update

BOOM Bound is back — rebuilt, expanded, and now live.

This is the largest BOOM Bound update since the original release.

The goal was not to replace what made BOOM Bound memorable. This update preserves the fast click-to-move gameplay, instant failures, pattern memorization, and classic custom-map energy while rebuilding and expanding the systems around it for a much more complete Steam release.

The original Levels 1–100 remain intact, introduced new maps, the RGB Mini Game, 64 Steam achievements, a redesigned Store experience, stronger multiplayer support, persistent map unlocks, and a large collection of technical, balance, and quality-of-life improvements.

NEW MAPS AND PROGRESSION

• Level 101 is now located directly after Level 100 under Play → Vertical Maps.
• Added Horizontal Level 1, a long landscape challenge featuring lane changes, traveling explosions, synchronized pillars, timing gates, and multi-stage hazard patterns.
• Added Community Level 126, a long vertical challenge with narrow routes, sequential explosion patterns, and forced timing decisions.
• Added Community Level 127, a horizontal community-style challenge with constrained routes, multiple pattern sections, and no open-space bypass.

Map unlock prices:

• Level 101 — 8 Coins
• Horizontal Level 1 — 13 Coins
• Community Level 126 — 13 Coins
• Community Level 127 — 13 Coins

These maps use normal gameplay Coins. A direct Steam purchase is not required to unlock them, and more than enough Coins can be earned through regular official-level gameplay.

Existing players with legitimate saved completion or best-time data for these maps retain access automatically.

NEW RGB MINI GAME

• Added the first playable RGB Mini Game challenge.
• Survive a deterministic 5×5 sequence of warnings, explosions, and rapidly changing safe spaces.
• Supports your selected character skin.
• Supports Orb and Angel Wings protection.
• Includes native directional running animations.
• Uses all six native BOOM Bound explosion frames instead of a static hazard effect.
• Includes normal death, Retry, Home, result, screenshot, sharing, and achievement flows.

64 STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS

BOOM Bound now includes 64 fully configured Steam achievements covering the content available in this release.

Achievement categories include:

• Official campaign progression
• Coins and completion milestones
• Deaths, retries, and persistence
• No-death and perfect-clear challenges
• Speed and timing challenges
• Orb and Angel Wings usage
• Endless Mini Game milestones
• Multiplayer and 1v5 accomplishments
• RGB Mini Game challenges

Returning players may receive multiple achievements shortly after launching the update when trusted existing save progress is synchronized with Steam.

Achievement synchronization is persistent, duplicate-safe, and does not require Store purchases.

STORE OVERHAUL

The Store has received a complete usability and presentation pass while preserving the original BOOM Bound visual style.

• Centered the Store catalog within its main panel.
• Added a thin black frame that visually separates the Store from the menu background.
• Added a reusable hover tooltip.
• Added a persistent Item Details and preview panel.
• Added clearer hover, focus, selected, Locked, and Owned states.
• Added keyboard and controller-style Store navigation.
• Added clearer purchase confirmation text.
• Added exact shortage messages such as “Need 3 more Coins.”
• Added a subtle balance animation after successful Coin transactions.
• The Store now opens on a neutral Item Details screen instead of automatically selecting Level 101.
• Improved layout behavior across windowed, maximized, and fullscreen presentations.

Product descriptions now clearly explain what each item does:

• Orb: Blocks 1 explosion hit.
• Angel Wings: Blocks 2 explosion hits.
• Level 101: Unlocks Level 101.
• Horizontal Level 1: Unlocks Horizontal Level 1.
• Community Level 126: Unlocks Community Level 126.
• Community Level 127: Unlocks Community Level 127.

All existing Steam products, Coin packs, level packs, skins, prices, purchase protections, and ownership restoration systems remain intact.

MULTIPLAYER IMPROVEMENTS

• Improved Quick Play, public lobby, private lobby, and invitation-code flows.
• Improved host, join, loading, spawning, movement synchronization, and disconnect handling.
• Revalidated multiplayer behavior across all 100 original official levels.
• Revalidated both two-player and full six-player sessions.
• Improved connection-status presentation.
• Preserved the original Multiplayer menu and recognizable BOOM Bound interface.
• Kept private Steam identifiers and internal connection details out of player-facing UI.

ENDLESS AND 1v5 MINI GAMES

• Preserved and stabilized Endless Mini Game progression, timer, death, result, Retry, and Home flows.
• Preserved Orb and Angel Wings behavior where supported.
• Improved 1v5 start, hazard, death, result, sharing, and Back behavior.
• Fixed stale result and sharing UI carrying between modes.
• Improved cleanup when returning to the Main Menu.

RESULTS, SCREENSHOTS, AND SHARING

• Improved completion and failure result flows.
• Added a compact action bar that no longer covers the native result window.
• Save Screenshot now creates a clean result image.
• Copy Text creates a shareable result summary.
• Open Folder provides quick access to saved results where supported.
• Improved replay snapshot capture and cleanup.
• Fixed result UI persisting after Home, Back, or mode changes.

BALANCE AND GAMEPLAY ADJUSTMENTS

• Reduced Level 8 gravity suction strength by 10% for a fairer escape window.
• Preserved the original player movement physics and collision feel.
• Preserved the original layouts and gameplay of Levels 1–100.
• Improved warning, active, and recovery timing on new maps so patterns remain difficult but realistically beatable.
• Blocked unintended upper, lower, and open-space shortcuts on new long-form maps.
• Added load-boundary entitlement checks so locked maps cannot be opened through alternate menu paths.

SAVE, COIN, AND PURCHASE RELIABILITY

• Map unlocks are persistent and remain available after relaunching the game or Steam.
• Each map entitlement is independent and cannot accidentally unlock another map.
• Added duplicate-input and duplicate-charge protection.
• Coin balances cannot become negative.
• Existing legitimate map progress is migrated without charging the player again.
• Coin pickups use persistent one-time keys to prevent duplicate farming.
• Paid Retry remains a local Coin action and does not start a Steam transaction.
• Production Store traffic now uses the verified secure BOOM Bound HTTPS backend.
• Production builds reject unsafe or arbitrary backend URL overrides.

UI AND TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Reorganized the Main Menu around the seven currently playable destinations.
• Improved logo clearance and button spacing.
• Removed unfinished Levels 102–125 placeholders from the public interface.
• Improved portrait-to-landscape transitions and restoration when returning Home.
• Improved camera cleanup across horizontal, vertical, RGB, Endless, and multiplayer content.
• Fixed duplicate Canvas, EventSystem, manager, result-panel, and share-panel edge cases.
• Improved analytics consistency without exposing private player information.
• Removed release-only debug and QA artifacts from the production build.
• Hardened production packaging against source files, test saves, credentials, development helpers, and accidental internal paths.
• Completed a long-duration stability soak with no crash, hang, softlock, or uncontrolled memory growth.

FOR RETURNING PLAYERS

Your existing legitimate progression, Coins, best times, skins, power-ups, Store ownership, and map access are designed to carry forward.

Some Steam achievements may unlock after launch based on trusted progress already stored in your save.

This update intentionally preserves BOOM Bound’s original feel while creating a safer foundation for additional official levels, RGB challenges, community content, multiplayer modes, creator tools, and future updates.

WHAT’S NEXT — THE LONG-TERM BOOM BOUND ROADMAP

v0.60 is a major foundation update, but it is not the end of BOOM Bound’s development.

A significant amount of content and technology is still planned. The roadmap below represents the current direction of the project. Features may be divided across multiple updates, reordered, revised, delayed, or removed if they do not meet the required standards for gameplay quality, reliability, security, moderation, or Steam compatibility.

There are currently no promised release dates. New systems will be released when they are genuinely playable, stable, and ready—not simply because they compile.

MORE OFFICIAL LEVELS: LEVELS 102–125

The next major official content expansion is planned to complete the numbered BOOM Bound progression through Level 125.

This includes:

• Building the remaining official Levels 102–125.
• Reconstructing the intended layouts and explosion patterns from the existing design videos and source material.
• Adding new vertical and horizontal challenges.
• Continuing the established difficulty progression instead of adding random disconnected levels.
• Preserving BOOM Bound’s original click-to-move feel, art, music, sound effects, Orb, and Angel Wings.
• Creating correct thumbnails, completion records, best times, analytics, and achievement hooks.
• Verifying that each level is difficult because of its pattern—not because of unclear visuals, unfair timing, or broken collision.
• Completing real goal-oriented playtests with the intention of actually beating every level.
• Running the full Levels 1–125 sequence as one complete progression before release.

The remaining official and curated levels are planned to be completed before the public Level Editor is released.

That order is intentional: BOOM Bound first needs a complete library of proven levels and mechanics that the editor can accurately reproduce.

MORE RGB MINI GAME LEVELS

RGB Level 1 is the beginning of a larger planned mode.

Future RGB work currently includes:

• RGB Levels 2–10.
• New 5×5 warning, explosion, movement, wave, rotation, and safe-space patterns.
• A coherent RGB difficulty curve.
• Full selected-skin, Orb, and Angel Wings support.
• Reduced-flashing and readability options.
• Best times, no-death clears, results, screenshots, analytics, and achievement progression.
• Full RGB mode progression after all ten challenges are complete.
• Multiplayer-compatible deterministic RGB patterns in a later networking phase.

MORE CURATED COMMUNITY LEVELS

Community Levels 126 and 127 are the first released examples of a much larger planned curated collection.

Future work includes:

• Auditing all remaining Community-level videos, notes, old builds, serialized level data, and archived source material.
• Resolving duplicate or conflicting level numbers before implementation.
• Reconstructing the remaining approved portrait and landscape Community maps.
• Preserving the source-inspired route, explosion formations, timing, and intended movement.
• Adding correct orientation, thumbnails, difficulty, metadata, completion records, and map access.
• Preventing unintended open-space, upper-lane, lower-lane, and invisible-path shortcuts.
• Testing each map through normal gameplay instead of declaring it complete after a scene loads.
• Creating a complete Community Levels browser once the final curated inventory is established.

The precise final number of Community levels will be confirmed after the remaining source-material audit. Levels 126 and 127 are already live and will remain part of that collection.

ENDLESS MINI GAME EXPANSION

The existing Endless Mini Game is planned to grow into a deeper continuous challenge.

Planned work includes:

• A longer sequential gauntlet built from compatible BOOM Bound level segments.
• Short observation or recovery platforms between major sections.
• A total run timer.
• A subtle progress indicator.
• Original BOOM Bound artwork, music, and sound effects for each segment.
• Orb and Angel Wings support.
• Coin-based restart at the section where the player died.
• Fair and clearly explained restart-cost scaling.
• Safe insufficient-Coin behavior with no accidental Steam transaction.
• Long-run stability and memory testing.
• Additional Endless achievements and milestones when the related content is ready.

1v5 MULTIPLAYER EXPANSION

The current 1v5 mode is planned to receive a larger online multiplayer structure.

The intended long-term form is:

• One explosion dodger against up to five hazard-triggering players.
• Public matchmaking.
• Private rooms and room codes.
• Random or balanced role assignment.
• Ready states and synchronized countdowns.
• Authoritative explosion and death handling.
• Clear solo-player and five-player-team win conditions.
• Rematches without rebuilding the room.
• Disconnect and host-loss handling.
• Version-mismatch protection.
• Additional 1v5 achievements and statistics.
• Repeated two-player through six-player internet testing.

FIRST TO 7 WINS!

A separate mode titled First to 7 WINS! remains planned for a future update.

The current concept includes:

• A large open map containing seven unique portals or objectives.
• Players must touch all seven while surviving the explosion patterns.
• Each portal counts only once.
• The HUD tracks progress from 0/7 through 7/7.
• Touching the seventh portal immediately completes the challenge.
• An explosion death ends that player’s run and resets that run’s progress.
• Solo play.
• Multiplayer support for up to six players in a later networking phase.
• Public matchmaking and private rooms.
• Disconnect-safe match behavior.
• Normal results, replay, screenshot, analytics, and achievement integration.

The mode will first be built and proven as a complete solo challenge before its online version is added.

MULTIPLAYER HARDENING

Beyond individual modes, BOOM Bound’s multiplayer foundation will continue to be improved.

Planned engineering work includes:

• More deterministic room creation and joining.
• Stronger public and private lobby flows.
• Steam invitation and overlay integration where appropriate.
• Synchronized starts, hazards, deaths, finishes, and restarts.
• Reconnect handling.
• Host-disconnect handling.
• Controlled room closure when host migration is unsafe.
• AFK and timeout handling.
• Version compatibility checks.
• Rate limiting and abuse protection.
• Clear player-facing error messages.
• Latency testing across every supported map orientation.
• Multiplayer support for eligible custom levels after the editor and sharing systems are stable.

THE IN-GAME LEVEL EDITOR — CREATE LEVELS

One of the largest planned additions is a Level Editor integrated directly into the main game under Create Levels.

The editor is planned to be available to all players and built around the actual systems used by BOOM Bound.

The intended feature set includes:

• Create, open, save, duplicate, rename, and delete local levels.
• Portrait and landscape orientations.
• Grid-based tile and object placement.
• Only approved BOOM Bound assets and mechanics.
• Player spawn and finish placement.
• Explosion placement and pattern creation.
• Warning, active, and recovery timing controls.
• Easy adjustment of speed and millisecond-level timing.
• Orb and Angel Wings placement.
• Background, music, and sound-effect selection.
• Copy and paste for repeated patterns.
• Multi-select, grouping, alignment, and distribution tools.
• Reusable pattern templates.
• Undo and redo.
• Zoom and pan.
• Keyboard shortcuts.
• Autosave and crash recovery.
• A visual hazard timeline.
• Live player-path and collision visualization.
• Immediate in-editor playtesting.
• A preview that closely matches the final Steam gameplay result.
• Soft validation that warns creators without needlessly preventing drafts from being saved.
• Final publishing checks for unreachable goals, invalid references, missing spawns, unsafe starting hazards, and incompatible data.

A major goal is to reduce the old back-and-forth between the level-building application and the game. Creators should be able to build, test, and confidently understand the final result from one connected workflow.

The editor will also be designed so offline and multiplayer versions of a level feel as consistent as possible.

CONVERTING THE OFFICIAL GAME INTO EDITOR-COMPATIBLE DATA

Before the editor can be considered complete, it must prove that it can accurately represent the real game.

Planned validation includes round-tripping:

• Levels 1–125.
• Level 8 and its gravity behavior.
• Level 101.
• Horizontal Level 1.
• All released curated Community levels.
• RGB Levels 1–10 where the schema is compatible.
• Eligible Endless segments.
• Orb and Angel Wings behavior.
• Portrait and landscape cameras.
• Explosion animation and collision timing.
• Music, sound effects, results, saves, and analytics.

The editor will not be considered successful if loading and resaving an official level changes its gameplay.

LEVEL CODES AND LOCAL SHARING

Before full Steam Workshop integration, BOOM Bound is planned to receive a narrower and safer sharing system.

Potential first-stage sharing features include:

• Exporting a level file or challenge code.
• Importing a level file or challenge code.
• Schema-version checks.
• Content hashes.
• Compatibility warnings.
• Safe validation before play.
• Author and description controls.
• Local favorites.
• Featured challenges.
• Search and difficulty tags.
• No arbitrary scripts or executable content.

This smaller sharing layer will allow the level format, security model, moderation rules, and compatibility system to be proven before Workshop publication is opened broadly.

STEAM WORKSHOP

Steam Workshop support remains part of the long-term creator roadmap.

Planned Workshop functionality includes:

• Publishing a level from Create Levels.
• Updating an existing Workshop level.
• Preview images and tags.
• Public, friends-only, or private visibility where supported.
• Subscribing and unsubscribing.
• Automatic downloads.
• Version and compatibility checks.
• Safe validation before a downloaded level can run.
• Offline handling for previously downloaded levels.
• Search, filtering, featured content, and favorites.
• Reporting and takedown tools.
• Handling removed, corrupted, outdated, or malicious items.
• Support for both portrait and landscape custom maps.
• Eligible custom-level multiplayer after networking validation.

Workshop levels are planned to begin as free community sharing.

MODERATION AND PLAYER SAFETY

Public user-generated content cannot be released responsibly without moderation.

Planned systems include:

• Level reporting.
• Report categories.
• Content review queues.
• Temporary hiding while serious reports are reviewed.
• Removal and takedown workflows.
• Appeal handling.
• Blocked terms and impersonation controls.
• Copyright complaint handling.
• Malicious-level detection.
• File-size and decompression limits.
• Path-traversal and arbitrary-file-access protection.
• Invalid-data and denial-of-service protection.
• Rate limits.
• Repeat-offender handling.
• Moderation audit logs.
• Clear creator and player rules.

POSSIBLE CREATOR MARKETPLACE AND REVENUE SHARING

A paid creator marketplace remains a possible later-stage direction, but it will not be rushed.

The safer order is:

• Complete official content.
• Complete the Level Editor.
• Prove local sharing.
• Launch free Workshop sharing.
• Prove moderation, security, and version compatibility.
• Only then evaluate paid creator content.

A future marketplace could potentially allow creators to offer approved maps and participate in revenue sharing.

However, that would require:

• Steam and platform-policy approval.
• Legal and tax review.
• Creator identity verification.
• Payout records.
• Refund and chargeback handling.
• Fraud protection.
• Regional and age restrictions.
• Copyright and licensing controls.
• Moderation.
• Customer support.
• A reliable purchase and entitlement ledger.

No paid creator marketplace or payout promise is being made with v0.60. Free, safe Workshop sharing will come first.

THE REMAINING STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS

BOOM Bound contains a larger internal achievement design than the 64 achievements currently released on Steam.

Additional achievements are planned to become available when their required content is actually playable and legitimately attainable.

Future achievement categories include:

• Levels 102–125.
• Additional RGB challenges.
• Additional Community levels.
• Expanded Endless milestones.
• More multiplayer victories and teamwork challenges.
• Expanded 1v5 achievements.
• First to 7 achievements.
• Additional no-death, speed, and mastery challenges.

Achievements will not be made public while their required content is unavailable, and BOOM Bound will not require a real-money purchase merely to complete its Steam achievement set.

LEADERBOARDS, GHOSTS, AND CHALLENGES

Competitive and replayable systems under consideration include:

• Per-level time leaderboards.
• Friend and global rankings.
• Endless distance and survival rankings.
• Personal-best tracking.
• Ghost recordings.
• Friend ghosts.
• Daily challenges.
• Weekly challenges.
• Version-specific leaderboards.
• Separate assisted and unassisted categories.
• Impossible-score rejection.
• Anti-cheat and replay validation.

These systems will not be released until their integrity and versioning rules are reliable.

STREAM-SAFE AND PRIVACY OPTIONS

BOOM Bound is planned to continue expanding its stream-safe privacy behavior.

Potential additions include:

• Hiding public and private room codes on stream.
• Hiding join and invitation codes.
• Hiding raw Steam names and identifiers where appropriate.
• Hiding purchase and transaction details.
• Hiding backend, catalog, debug, and source-path information.
• Suppressing sensitive visible logs.
• Muting copyrighted music where required.
• Reducing flashing effects.
• Safer display of user-generated names.

The goal is a small, practical privacy layer rather than a separate complicated version of the game.

ACCESSIBILITY AND ASSIST OPTIONS

Planned accessibility work includes:

• Reduced flashing.
• Improved color readability.
• High-contrast hazard options.
• Screen-shake controls.
• Separate music and sound-effect controls.
• Input remapping.
• Controller support improvements.
• Steam Deck navigation and readability.
• Font and UI scaling.
• Practice and assist options.
• Optional timing assistance.
• Clear separation where assists affect competitive leaderboards.

The challenge is meant to come from reading and mastering the patterns—not from inaccessible presentation.

CONTROLLER, STEAM DECK, DISPLAY, AND PERFORMANCE WORK

Future technical testing will continue across:

• Keyboard and mouse.
• Controllers.
• Steam Deck.
• Windowed and fullscreen modes.
• 16:9 and 16:10 displays.
• Ultrawide displays.
• High-DPI Windows scaling.
• Multiple-monitor setups.
• Lower-end integrated graphics.
• Long Endless sessions.
• Large downloaded-level libraries.
• Suspend and resume.
• Steam Cloud and save migration.
• Memory, frame pacing, loading time, and background-process cleanup.

LOCALIZATION AND AUDIO REVIEW

The long-term production roadmap also includes:

• Externalizing all player-facing text.
• Preparing menus, Store descriptions, achievements, errors, multiplayer text, and editor text for translation.
• Preventing translated text from being clipped.
• Auditing every song, sound effect, voice, and licensed asset.
• Confirming commercial-use and redistribution rights.
• Replacing any asset with uncertain rights.
• Connecting the audio-rights audit to future stream-safe settings.

WEBSITE AND COMMUNITY SYSTEMS

The BOOM Bound website and community tools are also planned to grow alongside the game.

Potential work includes:

• An updated public game website.
• Current trailers, screenshots, and patch notes.
• A creator documentation area.
• Level Editor instructions.
• Level-format and Workshop documentation.
• Featured Community levels.
• Support and troubleshooting.
• Moderation and reporting information.
• Privacy and terms.
• A press kit.
• Production backend monitoring and status information.

BACKEND, SAVE, AND SECURITY WORK

Ongoing engineering work will continue around:

• Steam receipt verification.
• Purchase idempotency.
• Entitlement recovery.
• Rate limiting.
• Replay-attack protection.
• Secret storage.
• Database backups.
• Monitoring and alerts.
• Incident response.
• Dependency updates.
• Save migrations.
• Steam Cloud conflicts.
• Workshop-file validation.
• Creator-account privacy.
• Analytics privacy and data minimization.

HOW FUTURE UPDATES WILL BE RELEASED

Large future updates are planned to follow a controlled release process:

• Protected rollback source and build.
• Separate development copy.
• Source and save backups.
• Automated validation.
• Real goal-oriented playtesting.
• Player.log and crash scanning.
• Security and secret scanning.
• Steam build upload without immediate activation.
• Steamworks configuration reconciliation.
• Explicit final publication approval.
• Immediate Steam-installed testing.
• A known-good rollback BuildID.

For major systems such as the Level Editor and Steam Workshop, a controlled Steam Playtest or beta process may be used before the public/default build is changed.

EXPECTED DEVELOPMENT ORDER

The current expected order is:

• 1. Stabilize and support v0.60.
• 2. Build official Levels 102–125.
• 3. Complete RGB Levels 2–10.
• 4. Audit and build the remaining curated Community levels.
• 5. Expand Endless and harden multiplayer.
• 6. Complete 1v5 and build First to 7 WINS!
• 7. Enable the remaining achievements when their content is attainable.
• 8. Complete the in-game Level Editor.
• 9. Convert and validate the full official level library in the editor.
• 10. Add local level-code sharing and a Community browser.
• 11. Add moderation and reporting.
• 12. Add Steam Workshop support.
• 13. Evaluate a creator marketplace only after free sharing is stable.
• 14. Continue accessibility, controller, Steam Deck, localization, website, analytics, performance, and security work.

This is a large roadmap, and it will take multiple releases. The priority is to preserve BOOM Bound’s identity while steadily making the game deeper, more reliable, more social, and eventually creator-driven.

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!

Thank you for playing BOOM Bound and for giving this strange, explosive little game another life.

Whether you remember the original release, grew up on classic custom maps, or are entering the Bound for the first time:

Welcome back — and good luck.