Toejam and Earl is finally back! We're goin' indie, and old skool like GAME ONE, with a fun retro-comics style, and plenty of funk!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
The ToeJam & Earl Funkothon THIS SUNDAY!!! (MAY 26TH)
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, May 23, 2019 at 11:04:10 PM
The ToeJam & Earl Funkothon THIS SUNDAY!!!
Ring ring! Hello? Who is this? Oh…
It’s ToeJam & Earl’s Super Funky Telethon! Happening THIS weekend!
The time has come folks! ToeJam & Earl came back to earth to help make Back in the Groove the best it could be, but in typical TJ&E fashion, we all have to help them get home. But before we do, ToeJam & Earl -- with the help of some funky Earthlings friends -- are throwing the weirdest live party this side of the galaxy. There will be stunts, special guests, giveaways, gaffs, goofs, a live phone bank, and way way more! Make sure to tune iiiiiin and send your Funkotronian friends home in style.
We have so many things planned for this show, we can’t even fit it all into one day! We have digital game sales, merch sales, NEW merch announcements.. The list just keeps going. Check out some of what you can expect to see this weekend
-Exclusive Switch Physical Edition: May 26 10AM-6PM (PST) at Limited Run!
We’re re-openning preorders for the LRG standard edition physical switch copies for ONE DAY only! If you missed your chance, you only got one more try at it to get this exclusive variant. A separate version with an alternate cover will be available at Best Buy at a later date. We also have a very special promo item going up every hour during our telethon, you’ll have to tune in to see exactly what it is!
-20% off shirts and pins and a FREE STICKER at The Yetee!
We’ll have a Jammin’ sale over at The Yetee for our retro ToeJam & Earl Tee! And what’s this? A free sticker with every order? Alriiiiight! We’ll be announcing some new Yetee merch during the show too so keep an eye out.
-20% Discount on Shirts at SevenSquared with code “TOEJAM20%” during the event, courtesy of your alien homeys! We’ll be doing some shirts with these fine folks real soon.
ToeJam & Earl’s homies over at G FUEL will be doing a 48-hour long pre-show for the telethon, ending with a good ol’ Back in the Groove playthrough! They’ll also be giving away all sorts of G FUEL product during the Telethon, see what you can wiiiiiin.
ALL THAT AND MORE AT THE STREAM so don’t be a dufus and sleep on this wild show! Make sure you check it out, watch it, think on it, dream about it, and see all the funky stuff we’ve put together for you!
1.4.0 Update NOW LIVE ON STEAM! (Coming Soon to Consoles)
almost 5 years ago
– Sun, May 19, 2019 at 01:26:39 AM
Hey all! Just wanted to give a quick update that 1.4.0 is currently live on Steam. We will begin submitting these patches to consoles for verification very soon as we hope to the get 3-4p changes live on consoles around the time of our telethon. Here is a not-so-quick run down of all the fixes and changes you can expect to see in 1.4.0:
Build: tje_1_4_0
==============================
New Tomato & Slingshot throwing
Frame rate and streaming changes
Fix double elevators on consoles
4 player on consoles
Fix real bad bug introduced in 1.3.0 where only 1 playable player will unlock (not in 1.2.3, not on 1.3.0 on XB1)
Fix "P1" icon floating in level 0
Backer islands now have (up to) 6 different presents that spawn (Hitops, Spring Shoes, Timed Teleport, Mean/Nice Rocket Skates, Icarus Wings) instead of just Icarus Wings
Broken present damage up to 7, was 4 (7 is about 75% of what it was during beta, which was 9)
Swimming without an innertube reduces movement speed by 30%
Amped Icarus Wings last 35 seconds, down from 45
Amped Icarus Wings increase speed by 30%, down from 50%
Peabo special ability for Icarus Wings increases time by 50%, down from 100%
Amped Show Wiseman present now teleports to a Wiseman on the level, rather than staying in inventory
Amped Show Elevator present now teleports to the elevator on the level, rather than staying in inventory
Show Elevator and Show Wiseman temporarily bring up the big map when they do the reveal
Change "Jump to Ship Piece" to "Show Ship Piece". Shows ship piece on minimap, amped effect jumps player to ship piece location
Amped Effect for uncover map rewards Double XP for all tiles revealed
Amped Promotion gives 1 Promotion and 5000 XP, instead of two promotions
Amped Extra Life gives 1 Life and +1 boost to Health Bar size, instead of 2 extra lives
Increase minimap tile radius for presents that reveal icons
Reimport text assets
Old Skool ToeJam starts with Decoy, instead of Amp Present
Football player does 9 damage, down from 13.
Humans specify push force. Football players push 1.6x as much (or 30% more than they used to)
Sushi heals players by 3, up 50% from 2
Shark is more aggressive when wearing hat of fish, instead of player being immune to sharks
Increase the range of Hat of Friend Protection to 1.5, was .5
Reduce damage of broken presents by 50% when wearing Hat of Breaking. Add sparkle for the effect too
Fix Lamont Disguise + Earthling Disguise fighting
Fix Peabo remix not making trees dance for clients
Prevent clients from dropping toddler presents
Present Menu shows players presents dropping, and shows correct present list after clients Amp, Duplicate or Change presents
Update Present screen inventory count number when dropping presents
Fix Lamont Head present not getting a skin assigned to it
Prevent Lamont Head from giving XP
Greatly improve frame rate/garbage from opening present menu with large amount of presents
(10x reduction in garbage generated, ~3x improvement to frame rate)
Fix unlocking flying presents introduced in 1.2.3 :(
Unlock flying present achievements if already obtained (rare cases)
3-4p splitscreen defaults to fixed. Can be toggled in settings menu
Togetherness Go/Call fix for placing players underground
Fix bug in Randomize Presents where a presents mysteryPresentType could be assigned to Mystery Present
Add rumbles to opening presents and getting shared presents
Fix joining online game bug where when successfully joining a players game, it would return players to online game menu, instead of waiting for player picker
Fix North Pole not animating
Fix streaming bugs with Local join from beta v7
Fix streaming issues from previous beta versions (v6 and older) - level drawing and infinite elevators
Players no longer fall asleep when falling
Fix button prompts on main menu
Aggro changes - present menu and free chat pause human chase
Aggro changes - jumping into water and pressing meters/buttons don't break aggro, allow being attacked
Dance Meters allow aggro to break (prevents bad things happening when getting hit while dancing)
Fix settings GUI so buttons don't overlap
Settings GUI dynamically adjusts size based on number of option
Projectiles that target players freeze midair when players go into present menu (prevents exploiting damage, and prevents dying in present menu)
Fog disabled to help increase frame rate
Fix Santa dialog calling players "0" instead of player name
Lamont Head not affected by Power Hats
Fix double "over here" speech bubbles
Fix troll speech bubbles hanging around
Fix landmass thing on funkotron
Fix cupid behavior when standing directly under
Better cupid pushing when colliding in air
[Steam only] If player had achievement unlocked locally, but not on steam, then steam gets achievement
[Steam only] If player had achievement unlocked on steam, but no locally, then local gets achievement
Fix players teleporting to secret level from door
Fix Dance Game vs. Teleporting bug
Did you get all that?! Good! Now get out there and help our funky boys return to Funkotron safe and sound. Also don’t forget to tune into our Telethon on May 26th!
LAST CALL for any of our fans that want to create a short video wishing the boys a safe trip back home feel free to submit that to us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/toejamandearl
Here are some other cool places you can check us out:
Also, it’d be super helpful to report any bugs or leave suggestions for features on our Canny: https://tjande.canny.io/. You can vote on the bugs or features to push them higher in the priority for us to focus on.
See y'all soon on May 26th!
Yo! Update your address by May 19th! FINAL WARNING!
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, May 13, 2019 at 10:35:29 PM
Sup y’all, did’ja miss us?
Don’t worry we’d never leave you hanging without dropping a line about the physical editions we promised y’all! Just checking in with our favorite Earthlings real quick to let y’all know we have moved into production this month on physical editions for the PS4, Switch and the Kickstarter exclusive PC big box, and they’ll be shipping out in the next 2-3 weeks.
Our homies over at Limited Run Games will be handling the PC big boxes now! They’ve been super helpful and lending a hand while we get these physicals produced and in the hands of our fans ASAP. They are also handling the PS4 and Switch physical editions which have also moved in production and shipped out by the end of the month.
So if we owe you a physical edition of any kind - don’t worry! They will be arriving very soon.
To ensure we get the Kickstarter PC Boxes shipped out though we need everyone to make sure their addresses are correct on BackerKit by May 19th as we will be locking them in once we’re ready to ship.
So head on over to BackerKit to log in and make sure all your deets are nice and neat ready for us to ship out into the streets! If you’re having any trouble feel free to contact us at [email protected] and we will be happy to take a look for you!
Version 1.4.0 is coming soon!
You want to know more about ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! We get it! We originally wanted to update consoles to version 1.3.0 but we ran into a few issues, and decided to wrap our 1.4 updates in and do one MEGA UPDATE.
This MEGA UPDATE, called “1.4” or as some people call it, “Super Funky Fun Multiplayer Update” includes 3-4 player co-op on all console versions, brand new tomato/slingshot throwing controls, balance tweaks to some presents and hats. Additionally, we have dramatically changed the way levels load/stream, which should make playing on Switch (especially, but all platforms!) much better.
Hopefully this will shake the meta up a bit to reward returning players with a fresh experience.
So if you haven’t peeped the game in a while, when you see the update hit, that’s a great time to get those purty little Earthling eyeballs on what should feel like a fresh ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove experience. We are really excited to get this out starting with PC in the next week and across consoles over the next few weeks to hear what everyone thinks!
After that, we will be working on Version 1.5 which will prepare the game for our upcoming Japanese launch, add ENDLESS MODE (more details at the telethon) and more!!
Super Funky Telethon!
RING RING. What’s that? Is that the ominous ring of a telephone in the distance? Who’s on the other line? Is it the mad dentist calling you in for another visit? Nope. It’s the ToeJam and Earl Super Funky Telethon calling! Making sure you tune in on May 26th on Mixer, Twitch and YouTube as we help send the dynamic duo back to their home planet Funkotron.
If any of our fans want to create a short video wishing the boys a safe trip back home feel free to submit that to us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/toejamandearl
Here are some other cool places you can check us out:
Also, it’d be super helpful to report any bugs or leave suggestions for features on our Canny: https://tjande.canny.io/. You can vote on the bugs or features to push them higher in the priority for us to focus on.
and a Happy (late) Mother’s Day to all the funky Mom’s out there who have been introducing a new generation to our groovin’ aliens. We appreciate y’all spreading the funk!
OK!
That’s it for now, stay tuned for more info on when the physicals actually go out, telethon news, and much more!
Love,
Your boyz & homegirlz
Peabo/Lamont Surprises, Slingshot/Tomato controls, 1.4.0 Content Update AND A LOT MORE!!!!
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, May 01, 2019 at 01:13:32 AM
Greetings
Hello to our favorite Earthlings!
We’ve been working hard over here at ToeJam & Earl HQ to continue supporting Back in the Groove. As you all continue to play and give us feedback, we are continuing to improve the game, fix nasty bugs, fine-tune presents, and balance Earthlings and the overall difficulty of the game. We are here to talk about a few of those exciting changes making their way into version 1.4.0 of the game.
We’ve already released a larger patch for all platforms (v1.2.3), but we have plans to release more very soon! The next patch 1.3.1, out today on PC, will support the Peabo and Lamont Surprises, for all you backers who pledged at a tier or higher that included these in-game items. We’ve begun rolling out BackerKit emails that include redeemable Steam codes for the Peabo Surprise and the Lamont Surprise! Make sure to keep an eye out for those. If you are expecting these codes and do not receive them about a week after we post this update feel free to contact us: [email protected]
Peabo/Lamont Surprise DLC
Now what do these surprises consist of exactly? Well, in case you missed it in our previous update here’s a short run through:
Peabo’s Surprise is the ability to dance on command. You activate this by using the Quick Chat menu and selecting ‘Dance’. When this happens all the trees and bushes around you will dance as well (similar to what happens when you open a Boom Box). When you do this the music track will also change. We can’t wait to see y’all bust some funky moves online.
And now for the Funkopotamus himself - Lamont’s Surprise! This is a super cool Lamont costume headpiece that all the Funkotronians can wear! While wearing the Lamont head you will also get some special dialogue that unlocks while wearing it. This functions similarly to ‘Earthling Disguise’ where you can still wear your Power Hats under it.
We are aware that some of these may be sought after by those of you who didn’t back to unlock them. We are considering giving these rewards away to contest winners and outstanding/active members of the community. Stay tuned for more info on that!
Currently the Peabo/Lamont DLC only works for the Steam version of the game. We are looking into making the DLC work for consoles at a later update but unsure if we can make this happen. For now this is how you redeem the codes on Steam:
Please make sure ‘ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove!’ is fully closed and do not launch the game until the download is finished.
1. Launch the Steam client software and log into your Steam account.
2. Click the Games Menu.
3. Choose Activate a Product on Steam on the bottom left of the window.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.
Up to Speed with 1.3.0
So with that out of the way let’s talk version 1.4.0. The consoles that do not currently have 1.3.0 will have all the fixes and improvements introduced in those versions which include:
Fixes for Difficulty not being chosen when starting a new game, no more double Elevators spawning on top of each other, speeding up Santa’s dialogue a bit, fixes the Level 0 Mini Map glitch, Ghost’s should be revived when reaching Funkotron and no longer haunting the game from ending, sound going missing on the Secret Level, Spanish (European) language options, volume adjustments for some of the louder sound effects, and a bunch of other small tweaks.
Slingshot/Tomato Present NEW Aim Control
You may have noticed that we have yet to roll out the new Slingshot and Tomato controls. We are sorry this is taking longer than usual but due to the changes we made we had to redo all the animations for each character family, this delayed them a bit but we are very excited to get these into your hands. Currently the new controls for the Tomato Present make the throwing function similar to Game 1 where your character stays rooted in place while firing. The Slingshot Present functions more as a ‘run-and-gun’ similar to what we currently have but with a reduction on movement speed while firing so you don’t bump into the Earthling you’re trying to pop. Both presents now retain the direction you’re facing while firing, no more snapping to face the screen when you let go of the directional input. Also, both presents allow you to hold A to stay rooted while you pick a direction and fire away!
1.4.0 Content Update
So now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: version 1.4.0. Well what exactly is it? OUT WITH IT!! Fine, we will tell you, stop poking us with that stick. Version 1.4.0 is shaping up to be the definitive Back in the Groove experience, especially for console players. With this update we will be introducing 3-4 player local play on all versions of the game. They said it couldn’t be done, but just like getting split screen to work with the original ToeJam & Earl, we were determined to make it happen.
In order to get this to work we unfortunately had to limit the amount of distance between players if they fall a level. The game will now only allow players to fall 3 levels apart from other players in multiplayer. If you jump off that third level you will be transported back to the start of it, meaning players who would rather jump than take a hit still have that option. And if you guys find a present that will help you get to Level 0 you can both jump down together to visit the secret area.
1.4.0 Balance Updates
1.4.0 also comes with a ton of balance changes. We’ve been hearing that a lot of our veteran players find the game too easy if they use all the new mechanics to their intended effect. There are a ton of changes coming and most of these are in mind of making the game a little more difficult without making it too difficult for our casual players.
First up is Present changes. We are changing all Amped ‘Show X’ presents to be ‘Jump To’ presents instead of staying in your inventory. This means that instead of Amped ‘Show Wiseman’ giving you two uses, the Amped version will ‘jump you’ directly to the Wiseman. This applies to ‘Show Elevator’ as well and we have changed ‘Jump To Ship Piece’ to ‘Show Ship Piece’ with the Amped version being the current ‘Jump To Ship Piece’ present. Amped ‘Show Hidden Paths’ will reveal the Hidden Paths and reward you with an XP Boost based on our Present Skill stat. We are making these changes because players would keep the ‘Show X’ presents in their inventory the entire run hoping it would become Amped-This-Level so they could use it throughout their run infinitely. These changes will hopefully make the presents more unique and balance out the unintended behaviors they were providing.
We are also reducing the time you have ‘Icarus Wings’ for by 10 seconds in regular and Amped versions and a slight move speed decrease only on the Amped. We have been hearing from players that this present makes it too easy to clear multiple levels without touching the ground. The regular version of ‘Icarus Wings’ is now intended to get you out of sticky situations and clear gaps if you get stranded on an island. The Amped version is now intended to be the present you use if you want to clear out a level or two.
Another change regarding ‘Icarus Wings’ is that Backer Islands will no longer always have free Icarus Wings on them, they will have a random mobility present such as Hi-Tops, Spring Shoes, Rocket Skates, Timed Teleport, etc. This change is to make it so players don’t just land on the island to collect the free wings then safely fly through the rest of the game. The present was only there in order to help get you off the island when you visit the Backer. But hopefully these new presents will help you out.
We know the Football Player has been the cause of numerous frustrating deaths. This Earthling will now do a reduced damage but knock you really far to make him more unique and less frustrating to deal with.
These are just a few of the balance changes we have coming up and we have many more we are excited to share with you. We will be closely monitoring these changes and eager to hear any feedback you may have.
PS4 Theme (Americas)
As some of you know, we’ve been trying to get PS4 themes for folks! We have now gotten them for the Americas and they should be popping in your email inbox in the same place you got your game PS4 codes.
Unfortunately, that being said, we were not able to create codes for the European version of the game. The folks at Playstation have been absolutely awesome in helping us get the codes for the Americas, however the system in Europe handles themes completely differently and making codes for them is not possible. If this is a Total Bummer for you please contact us at [email protected] and we will try to make it right. We never wanna leave folks hanging!
Hyperlink Madness!
Wow you made it this far! You deserve to be rewarded with some hyperlinks!
Our Instagram is still going strong with tons of fan submissions at https://www.instagram.com/toejamandearlart/ - be sure to drop a follow or just swing by to peep all the crazy dope artwork all our fans have been creating. Feel free to submit all artwork to us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/toejamandearl where we will ALWAYS retweet your submissions then add them to the Instagram. We also get into some crazy shenanigans there!
As always don’t forget to tune into our streams every Tuesday and Friday at 4PM PST/7PM EST at: https://www.twitch.tv/toejam_earl. Maybe we will do something cool for our 2,000 follower milestone like some cool giveaways and have Nap shave his head live on camera. He is definitely due for a haircut.
Be sure to join our community Discord and chill out with all the fans or leave some feedback: https://discord.gg/GNjXpxS
Also, it’d be super helpful to report any bugs or leave suggestions for features on our Canny: https://tjande.canny.io/. You can vote on the bugs or features to push them higher in the priority for us to focus on.
Oh yeah! We will be at BitSummit in Japan June 1-2 as we gear up to launch Back in the Groove in Japan! Come hang out with us in Kyoto.
Telethon May 26
Don’t forget we are still doing the Telethon on May 26th. It’s looking like Mixer will be home base for this event. We have tons of wacky mini games planned to mess with our celebrity guests as well as giveaways and prizes to win. Be sure to tune in and witness gaming history!
Game Update 1.3.0 & A Super 90s Telethon!
about 5 years ago
– Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 02:19:09 AM
Hey everyone, we’re back (some might say… Back in the Groove!) with a brand new update for y’all!
We’ve been listening to everything you’ve been saying and decided to push forward with a few important changes that will begin to be rolled out at the end of this week called Update V1.3.0.
The first big update in V1.3.0 is that Steam users who backed the game on Kickstarter will be able to unlock Peabo Remix and Lamont Surprise! We are working on adding these to consoles at a later date - these are fun little cosmetic additions we hope our backers enjoy! Check your emails if you bought those tiers or higher, as you’ll be getting a code to unlock the DLC through Steam.
Looking at our Canny, which you can find at: https://tjande.canny.io , we saw the most requested change was to improve the way Tomatoes and Slingshot are firing. Well, we did that! We think the new system works much better, but we want your feedback -- Once 1.3.0 rolls out be sure to let us know what you think of the new controls so we can get this absolutely jammin’!
We’re really excited to announce a brand new language option - European Spanish. Yep!
In our recent Switch update you may have noticed a few optimizations in the way the game loads and now handles, we hope you’ve been enjoying these changes but rest assured we’re not done yet. We’re going to continue to work on framerate on Switch until it gets to a really good place… perhaps even good enough for 4 player local in the future??
A big bug we fixed was that console local co-op game maps should no longer be broken with ‘Level 0’ stuck on top and no tiles being revealed.
That’s all for now! Huh.. there’s more? Oh yeah… are you ready… to speed up… a certain character’s… dialogue… on a hidden level? Well without spoiling it for those of you who haven’t found it, we’re going to be decreasing the speech bubbles for this character so the end game won’t go into super overtime.
We got a bunch of smaller things coming in, updates to the credits with some names we missed, fixes to the manual (if you see any more typos let us know, PLEASE!), fixes to the way achievements and the game title are displayed on console, updating the achievement text in German for PS4 and Xbox One, not being able to start a game on Toddler/Easy Farty on the PC version, a nerf to the secret Golden “Funky” Mailbox, disable presents being opened in the Hot Tub which was causing some issues, lowered a few sounds that were too loud, and reduced the rumble on the Switch version.
*phew* Well that should be all for the upcoming patch.
Be sure to let us know what you think about it once it rolls out! After that, we’ll begin working on v1.4!
Physical Editions
We have started ordering the different elements for the IndieBox PC version and have begun finalizing numbers and pieces for Limited Run Games.
The plan is to ship the games starting in May, once v1.4 is finished and complete - this will include a variety of fixes that improve the game vastly over the launch version, as well as a few new surprises ;)
We know people are eager to get their hands on these right away, but we want to make sure we give you the very best product before we ship the game -- we know that digital distribution may not be around forever, and so if you’re going to be going back to the game in 10 or 20 years, we want to make sure we get all the bugs fixed and it's the most solid product it can be.
We’ll be allowing people to update their address one last time on backerkit and we’re excited to get these into your hands soon!
ToeJam & Earl’s Super Funky Telethon
Yo! ToeJam & Earl’s Super Funky Telethon is going to be LIVE and in your house on May 26th on Twitch -- filled with your homies ToeJam & Earl, super cool celebrity guests and much more!! Be sure to tune in for all sorts of prizes and mayhem. Well what about it?
More info to come about this telethon - we have lots of big surprises! Just make sure you mark your calendar for May 26th.. Yo!
During ToeJam & Earl’s Super Funky Telethon, we will be doing a ONE DAY FINAL purchase for our Limited Run Games physical edition for those of you that opened a school book and snoozed through the last preorder.
SO WAKE UP… WAKE UP… WAAAAAAKE UUUUP and make sure you catch it before it’s gone!
Thanks for making the launch a success!
We had a killer first month, shipping over 50,000 copies digitally! Thank you so much for your support and love and helping revive ToeJam & Earl. It means the world to us.
We still need help getting to our 150,000 copy “break-even” mark, so please consider telling a friend about our game! With the upcoming improvements, telethon and your support, we know we can get there!
Housekeeping
We are still working hard to make this game all it can be, you can help by submitting bugs and voting on the most important improvements you wanna see on our Canny at: https://tjande.canny.io/
https://www.instagram.com/toejamandearlart/ - be sure to drop a follow or just swing by to peep all the crazy dope artwork all our fans have been creating. Feel free to submit all artwork to us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/toejamandearl where we will ALWAYS retweet your submissions then add them to the Instagram.
As always don’t forget to tune into our streams every Tuesday and Friday at 4PM PST/7PM EST at: https://www.twitch.tv/toejam_earl where we are super close to hitting 1,500 followers and do tons of giveaways as well as a chance to chat directly with the devs and ask your questions! Maybe we will do something cool for our 2,000 follower milestone.
