Latest News

Gooter - August 2026 Progress Update

Anthono220 — August 5th, 2026

Hey all,

Been a while since I've been posting on here, huh? I've been busy. And not. Mostly not. Anyways, a lot of what I've been busy with in the past month alone is getting a lot of stuff done with the next Gooter update. I would like to go over what I've exactly done, as well as some other stuff. I'll be as straightforward as I can.

World Map

First off, the world map. That's pretty much done. In fact, I'm pretty sure I got a lot of it done on a live stream! See if you can find it, I don't feel like linking it here. :P

The teleporter currently still takes you to the next level at the moment, but now you can start with any level you want, and when you quit a level via the pause menu it takes you back to the world map so you can relatively quickly switch to another level. I'm sure there's someone out there who will appreciate this feature.

World 2

That I'd say is preeetty much done. I playtested 2 levels so far. I need to go through the other 2 (yes, there will only be four levels of W2) and potentially tweak those. But yeah I think I got the layouts down. These'll be a decent bit tougher than W1 levels, so prepare yourself! I wonder if it'll be obvious that I got them done in the span of less than a day 🤔

Settings Menu

The settings menu is getting an overhaul in the next update. Rather than being laid out in a set of button objects, the settings will be a list, which'll make it easier to add more settings...

...which I have! Notable additions include the ability to turn particles on and off and the ability to even change how the menu list looks itself!

Here's how the new settings menu looks:

Other menus in the game (i.e. the eventual Play menu) will get this list layout as well.

Music

The only major thing that I haven't done much of (and the reason the update likely won't come out this year) is the music (and some SFX too, while we're at it). I got one track done with decent progress, and I'm not even sure that it'll make it to the update release. Every other track is at 0% progress as I'm typing this, and it'll be a bit before I get to starting on 'em.

I think that's all I can share on what I've already done. Now I'd like to move on to everybody's faaavorite section that I totally didn't just invent:

Questions Nobody Asked (QNA)

Platforms?

Like the previous version, Gooter 0.2 will launch on Windows and Linux via itch.io. However, I'm also excited to announce that the update will bring the game TO THE WEB (via itch and Newgrounds)! I figured out some optimization stuff (essentially the main problem was particles, which are forced off in the HTML5 version to help deal with memory leaks(?). Mac is being considered, but it likely won't be until the (possibly major) update after 0.2.

Bosses?

They were originally considered for this update, and they would certainly help with making the game more appealing, but I have a feeling they will be rather involved (both to implement and to fight) so I'd say they deserve an update for themselves. The aforementioned track that had good progress is a boss theme, which is why I'm uncertain it'll make it this update.

How many worlds will constitute the "full game"?

I've answered this question over the 7 years I've been working on Gooter. The previous times had a much larger scope, which I've dialed back a lot since then. The current plan is 4 main worlds. Final level count subject to change, since I plan on remaking every level from the ground up when World 4 comes out and potentially adding some more along the way.

Steam?

Definitely, at some point.

Mobile and Consoles?

If enough people end up wanting console and mobile versions and if I get enough donations, then yeah I'd love to make those. Mobile may be a tad tricky, but I think I could do consoles just fine. There's even a certain console I'm thinking of that might just be perfect for the game 😉

Always free?

Basically yeah, when possible. Though, there are and will be ways to support the game via optional purchases and eventually some digital goodies.

Why open source and MIT?

I've come to appreciate open source a little more than I did back when I started development in 2019. Also, the game is MIT because 1. GameMaker is proprietary and the game uses MIT-licensed plugins and libraries, so copyleft is unfortunately not all that feasible. 2. I'm from MA, so local pride 💪

Story?

Originally I wanted Gooter to have a full-on story, but that was when it had a bigger scope. You can even see my aspirations for a proper story in Gooter Classic. The current Gooter will be more focused on a super light story and gameplay, coinciding with the reduced scope. Though, since the game is open source, I wonder if there will be ways for you to tell YOUR story with Gooter?

Mod Support?

I'd very much love for Gooter to have easy plug-and-play mod support (kinda like Minecraft's resource packs folder or FNF's polymod), though I think that is something I need help with. Of course, I'd first want to also make a solid foundation that has good reasons for people to care about modding it in the first place, y'know?