Happy belated new years! The first update of 2026 is quite a hefty one, from a general increase of polish and expressiveness, to a handful of nice new blocks to add to the roster and of course, finally getting something SHAPE_SHIFTER has been missing for a while... sound effects!
Full Changelog:
New Additions
Added sounds!! A bunch of new sound effects have been added. From UI sounds and jumping to the ambient hum of lasers and gates, the Geomatrix should feel much more alive now (new music has also been added but for now they need to be added to levels by level creators. AKA you!)
Added a section to the settings menu that has different audio sliders
Added Sound Emitter! This block emits a sound when receiving a specific signal. Can be set up to play music or sound effects and has adjustable pitch/volume. Sounds ID's can be previewed in the new sound legend that pops up when inspecting the sound emitter.
Added One-Way Teleporter! This block uses linking to other one-way teleporters instead of coordinates to specify the destination (also renamed the original teleporter to "silent teleporter", as this new, more intuitive one should be the default for new players)
Added Lantern block! This is the first light emitting block I've added. Previously having any more than 2 lights at once was a death sentence for your computer but after switching to the new renderer I think this should actually work quite well
Added X, L, T and // Lab-themed blocks to allow for more creative builds.
Added non-particle generating Shadow blocks, that DON'T destroy your computer. This way, you can sprinkle in the particle blocks every so often to achieve a similar effect for much better performance (Although, with the new renderer performance should be a worry of the past)
Added a "cinematic mode" that hides a large portion of the in-game UI.
Made the shapes more juicy! When jumping and moving around you may notice some more dynamic movement and particle effects.
Added Developer's Choice Awards! This is mostly a feature for on the back-end for now. It allows moderators to feature their favorite levels with a little rosette on the level's in-game workshop page
Changes
Officially switched to Forward+ rendering mode! This should make full utilization of your GPU for MUCH better performance in *complex* levels, such as levels with lots of shadow particle blocks or lights. (This also means *simple* levels might actually perform a bit worse than before, but I think it's worth it)
You can now also press shift to drag the editor view around in addition middle-click (For mice that cannot middle-click)
Uploading speedrun times to the leaderboard in multiplayer is now only possible if the level has the "Multiplayer" tag. Honestly this should have been in there from the start. Speedrun times can be lowered dramatically with the help of a friend, skewing the leaderboard and making the game less fair
Leaderboards can now be viewed from in the "My Levels" section of the level selector if you have a published level. There is also a button in the in-game pause menu that shows you the leaderboard
Renamed the "Subscribed" tab to the "Downloaded" tab so it's more intuitive for players who are not familiar with steam workshop
Resetting in multiplayer now acts like a checkpoint. This is so the level doesn't fully reload each time, causing players to de-sync
Added an outline to all buttons when focused for better controller support
Darkened pause menu and end screen background to increase readability.
Removed the non-working "copy" option in the editor multiselect. its existence implies I might be able to add that feature later... (I don't think I can/will, sorry)
Another small UI overhaul. Mainly in the level selector. Personally I feel like this new version is less straining on the eyes. (subtle shadows have also been added to some UI elements)
Set the color of the ability cooldown bar to change to red when you're ready to remove your square clone
Bugfixes
Fixed not being able to press "next level" after beating the square tutorial
Fixed the current level resetting if your character fell out of the world after the end screen was visible
Fixed the level sorting in "My Levels" and "Downloaded", everything should now be in order of most recently edited and most recently downloaded respectively
Fixed controllers losing focus when uploading speedrun times and viewing level tags
Fixed controllers not being able to select the "lab" filter in the level editor
Fixed the do multiplayer collision setting only affecting the host
Fixed the square clone still being tangible even when multiplayer collision was disabled
Sending messages should work now again
Fixed square clones not disappearing when another player would reset in multiplayer
Added "jump" to the controller legend when first playing. Yeah, that was never there apparently...
Fixed the square clone getting stuck on the edges of blocks. Turns out not all blocks had perfect colliders, they should be much more consistent now
Hid the controller legend by default so you don't see it for a split second when restarting
Enemies can now properly phase through colored blocks if the color matches the enemy's color.
You can now scroll in leaderboards with the right controller stick.
Replaced search and sorting buttons with the "open in steam workshop" button because I couldn't figure out why they weren't working
Fixed bug where the leaderboard button would appear twice on the explore workshop page
Added an in-game notification when trying to join another player's steam game. Since you cannot do this, the notification should let you know now
To follow along with development more closely, get sneak-peeks into future content and even suggest your own ideas feel free to join the discord server!