Major Update: World 2, Tower Pickup, & Meta Grid Overhaul

Finally recovered from GDC and had an incredible time showing off The Snake Is the Tower to players and fellow devs. The feedback received at the event was invaluable, from how controls felt to how the meta progression rewarded (or didn't reward) players. This update is a direct result of those conversations. Changes included reworking tower interaction controls, fixed a bunch of meta grid upgrades that weren't actually doing anything, added an entire new world, and smoothed out the moment-to-moment gameplay feel. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and played, this one's for you!

New Features

Rectangle Grid Support

• Levels now support rectangular (non-square) play areas

• Camera zoom uses grid height for better framing on wide maps

• Grid shape persists correctly between waves

World 2

• Added complete World 2 wave sequence with 15+ waves

• New lane layouts designed for World 2

• World 2 accessible from level select

Press & Hold Tower Pickup

• Hold the drop button (SPACE / Right-click / A) to enter pickup mode

• Move over a placed tower while holding to pick it back up into your snake

• Updated control instructions on the countdown screen to reflect new pickup controls

• Controls text is now contextual: shows keyboard, mouse, or controller bindings based on current input method

Head Start Upgrade

• Starting orbs now actually spawn when the upgrade is purchased

• Multiple starting orbs spawn in a ring around the player, spaced to stay within grid bounds

• Each orb triggers its own independent draft, picking a node from one draft doesn't clear the other

Tower Sliding

• Snake now smoothly slides around placed towers instead of stopping

• Multi-tower collision resolved simultaneously to prevent getting stuck between two towers

• Snake segments visually squeeze when passing through tight gaps between towers, then smoothly recover

Bug Fixes

Meta Grid Upgrades Fixed

• Extended Reach: Bonus now applied to both segment and tower attack ranges

• FixedPulse DamageFixed key mismatch

• Agile: Bonus now increases snake turn rate

• Attraction: Now scales orb collision shape for larger pickup radius

• Deep Freeze: Now adds to slow percentage on Chill segments and towers

• Deep Freeze synergy: Now applies 90% slow for 2 seconds on first chill contact

Other Fixes

• Fixed rocket not spawning after first playthrough

• Fixed orbs spawning outside the play area on small grids

• Fixed pulse crash

• Fixed between-wave timer

• Fixed audio issues

• Increased max empty starting body slots

Balance Changes

Combat

• Rocket cluster mechanics reworked

• Bullet and rocket damage adjustments

• Enemy HP adjustments

• Enemy cluster spread tuning

• Range system converted to cell-based units

Waves

• World 1 waves rebalanced across multiple passes

• World 2 waves tuned with new lane configurations

• Wave system updated, next wave starts once the current wave has fully spawned (no longer waits for all enemies to die)

• Enemy movement speed adjustments

Meta Grid

• New layout

• Max segment size updated