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🎮 New: Controller & Steam Deck Support (Experimental) Full gamepad support via a decoupled virtual-cursor layer — works with generic pads, the Steam Deck’s built-in controls, and the Steam Controller. It’s experimental and improving, but fully playable.

Controls

Left stick — move cursor / aim on the board D-pad — hop between on-screen buttons (menu navigation) A — place / select · B — cancel X — start wave · Y — game speed LB / RB — switch cap · L2 / R2 — sell / upgrade ☰ (Start) — pause menu (and the exit: ☰ → Menu → Quit Game) On-screen button hints appear when you pick up a controller and quietly retire each one once you’ve used it. Keyboard + mouse is untouched — the controller layer is completely inert with no pad connected.

Playing on Steam Deck (uses the normal Linux build, no special package):

Download CapsLock.x86_64. Copy it to the Deck’s internal storage (running off a USB/SD card can trip a “couldn’t load project data” error). Mark it executable (chmod +x, or Properties → Permissions). Steam → Add a Non-Steam Game → pick the file. Leave compatibility off — it’s a native Linux binary, so don’t force Proton. Known rough edges: Steam Input may remap buttons if you assign a custom template (start with the default/“Gamepad with Trackpad”); some dense UI screens are comfier with the stick than the D-pad. Feedback welcome.

✨ New Features Field Guide — a menu-accessible catalogue of every cap and enemy. Entries unlock as you discover them (click a known entry to open its full dossier). Shows your completion count. Mycophage Drill — a maze-mode special that chews through obstacles. Place it on a log/crystal/boulder; it resolves after a few waves (scaled by obstacle size) with a 25% chance to drop a Mycelium mote. Unlocked with Mycelium; persists through prestige. End-of-Level Collection & Shop — clearing a (non-final) level now freezes the board so you can sweep up remaining chitin and visit the shop before cashing out; the Start Wave button becomes Finish Level ▸. Banking happens on finish, so everything you sweep/spend counts. Super abilities are now earned — supers unlock on the Upgrades screen for a flat 50 essence. Locked supers are teased (greyed + lock badge) in the hotbar until purchased. ⚖️ Balance & QoL Petrify now uses a dedicated freeze timer, so it no longer gets diluted or pinned by overlapping slow effects. Tower panel redesigned into a clean two-column stat layout (name left / value right). Upgrade button shows a live, greyed-out cost and lights up only when affordable. Plan while paused — you can now select, upgrade, and sell towers while the game is paused. Dialogue tutorial beats stop repeating after 3 views (persisted). Prestige nudge — a toast fires the first time prestige becomes available.

🐛 Bug Fixes Base HP bar now redraws correctly on levels without path nodes. Fixed credit attribution (SarahzHere → kapisare).

📋 Known Issues / TODO Mycophage Drill art is missing (assets/towers/demolition.png) — currently shows a ⛏ glyph fallback. Auto-collect essence upgrade (#56) exists but stays gated until the Level-3 economy ships — decision pending on whether to ungate it early. Tower groups / manual-aim mode (#53) — deferred to beta. Pause-timescale behavior (#54) — under review. Issues closed by this build: #45, #46, #47, #48, #49, #52, #55, #57, #58, #59, #60, #61 (plus the gamepad work). Left open: #53, #54, #56.

First post-launch update is here, and it’s a chunky one. Since Caps Lock went live we’ve been reading your runs, your leaks, and your “wait why can’t I pause” rage, and we fixed the lot. Here’s what’s new.

🎚️ Choose Your Struggle — Difficulty Modes The colony now asks one question before your first run on a new save: how much do you want to suffer?

Casual — enemies hit the board with 30% less health. A gentle stroll through the spores. No judgment. (Okay, a little.) Normal — the intended experience. Balanced, fair, still mean. Challenging — +15% enemy health. For colonists who’ve already buried a few bases. Hardcore — +30% enemy health and a 1-HP base. One leak and it’s over. We salute you. We also think you’re unwell. One catch: your choice is locked to that save forever. Pick it, live with it, no take-backs. Start a fresh save if you want a different flavor of pain. Existing saves will get the prompt next time you play — choose Normal and nothing changes.

🤢 Screen Shake Toggle Camera kick on boss drops and big hits looks great right up until it doesn’t. There’s now a Screen Shake: ON/OFF switch in Settings → Graphics. Motion-sensitive players, this one’s for you. Turn it off, keep your lunch.

⌨️ ESC Actually Works Again Somewhere along the way, pressing ESC mid-game became a coin flip — it’d silently do nothing if you had a tower selected. That was dumb. Now ESC always opens the full pause menu, instantly, every time. SPACE still does its plan-while-paused thing, so nothing you rely on changed.

🎬 Demo Polish For folks playing the free demo:

The demo now gets its own finale cutscene before the credits instead of just… stopping. Fixed the demo credits — the text and portrait parade were frozen solid (turns out pausing time also pauses the credits roll, who knew). They roll properly now. That’s the batch. More biomes, more bugs to make, more of your bases to collectively mourn. Thanks for playing — go leak a base for science. 🍄

— CacoPhonic Game Studios

Welcome, mycologist. You found the board.

Caps Lock is live, and this is the place to talk about it. Whether you're running the free demo or the full campaign, drop in and let us know:

• 🐛 Found a bug? Tell us what happened, what biome/wave you were on, and your OS (Windows/Linux/macOS). The weirder the better — some of our best features started as bugs.
• 💡 Balance feels off? Too easy on wave 8, too brutal on wave 3? We want to hear it. ("It's too hard" and "it's too easy" from the same person is a valid and cherished playtest result.)
• 🏆 Brag a little. Highest Endless depth, favorite tower combo, the exact moment the Colossus moonwalked your maze — post it.
• ❓ Stuck? Ask away. No question is too small; the mushrooms don't judge (much).

We're just getting started — more biomes, towers, bosses, and horrible little guys are on the roadmap, and what you post here genuinely shapes what comes next.

Now go. Seal the rift. Make the mushrooms proud.

🍄 Play: https://cacophonicgamestudios.itch.io/caps-lock