Major JoustMania Windows 2026 Update is Live!

Nearly seven years of JoustMania development have arrived in one enormous Windows update: modern controller support, easier pairing and reconnects, a repaired web interface, years of gameplay fixes, and a completely rebuilt runtime for current Windows PCs.

The previous JoustMania Windows executable was built on September 14, 2019. Nearly seven years and 140 changes later, all of that work is finally coming to the Steam version in one major update!

PlayStation Move and Windows improvements:

• Current PSMoveAPI controller support and a modern Python binding

• Windows device monitoring so controllers can be detected after the game has

already started

• Automatic USB pairing while JoustMania is running

• Improved Bluetooth connection, disconnect, and reconnect behavior without

needing to restart the game

• Fixes for controllers failing to join immediately after pairing

• Better handling of controllers that are plugged in, unplugged, or already

active

• A bundled Windows controller-reset utility for clearing stuck Bluetooth

registrations before re-pairing

Interface and administration improvements:

• The web administration interface works again, including the templates that were missing from the previous Steam package

• Game modes can be selected through the web interface

• Expanded settings and administration controls

• Force-start options for starting with all players or only the ready players

• Configurable random-team sizes and improved multi-team handling

• Better controller-menu navigation, including returning from admin controls

• Settings loading and saving fixes, with dependable defaults on first launch

Gameplay and audio fixes accumulated since the last Steam build:

• Fixes for controllers joining after a game has started

• Tournament final-round corrections

• Zombie mode fixes, including bullet and player-state issues

• Speed Bomb timing/control fixes and reduced audio buffering

• Fixes for three-team games, force-start behavior, remaining-player counts,

game shutdown, and returning to the menu

• Improved music transitions and playback speeds

• Voice and sound-effect volume adjustments

• Fixes for audio stopping when there are not enough players

Under the hood:

• Major game, controller, and process-management refactors

• Reduced CPU thrashing in game, audio, controller, and web processes

• Modern versions of Pygame, PyAudio, Flask, NumPy, SciPy, and the rest of the

Windows runtime

• Cleaner startup output, logging, first-run behavior, and error reporting

• More reliable launching directly through Steam on current Windows systems

This update grew out of years of development and community troubleshooting.

Thank you to everyone who kept playing, contributed code, tested unusual controller and Bluetooth setups, or posted useful Windows reports in the Discussions forum.

Thank you for sticking with JoustMania, and have fun jostling!