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Note: Steam Workshop functionality is currently in beta!

If you're interested in trying it out, please do the following:

1. Join this Steam group:
   https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/groups/trombonechamp
   After joining the group, the Workshop page should be visible:
   https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/app/1059990/workshop/
   
   
2. Opt into the beta branch of the game (v1.26).

Known Issues:

1. Uploading does not work if you're playing the game in Linux using Proton. We're using the SDK correctly and can only guess that this is due to some sort of permissions limitation. We hope to find a fix for this but it won't be easy. Apologies!
   
   
2. If an upload fails for any reason, you may end up with an empty item in Steam Workshop. Please make sure to check the Workshop after uploading an item.

So you've decided to grace the Steam Workshop with an amazing custom track of your own making. Amazing! All of our lives will be richer due to your efforts. Thank you!

Now that Trombone Champ contains an in-game level editor and a Steam Workshop upload tool, you can do almost everything from right inside the game itself!

(You're free to use any third party tools to build custom tracks, but at the moment, you will need to upload them from within Trombone Champ.)

Your first consideration should be choosing a song that you can legally upload to the Workshop.

Before you can upload anything to the Workshop, you must agree to the Steam Subscriber Agreement. Section #6 of this agreement ("User generated content") states that you can only upload content to which "you have sufficient rights," which includes "any kind of intellectual property rights." We strongly encourage you to read this for yourself!

So, generally, every song uploaded to the Workshop must be one of the following:

• Songs in the public domain, like old classical music, where the composition AND recording are in the public domain and/or royalty-free. Please note that even if a song is in the public domain, most recordings of the song will not be public domain / royalty-free.
  
  
• Songs that you created yourself, that you can freely upload.
  
  
• Songs that are explicitly marked as royalty-free and are made available by the artist to modify, upload, use freely without restriction, etc. There are a bunch of artists on the internet that make music for this purpose!
  
  
• Songs that you explicitly got permission to use for this purpose, which can be freely uploaded without restriction. For example: are your friends in an indie ska band, they approved the idea of having their track on the Workshop, they're aware of the subscriber agreement, and their track isn't published by a music label that restricts the use of the recording?...

Please!! Do not get into trouble by uploading content you shouldn't!

Note: If you're already familiar with creating your own tracks, you can skip this section entirely.

Once you've chosen a song, your next step is to turn it into a Trombone Champ track!

Trombone Champ contains an in-game level editor called the "Tootmaker!" This tool has a lot of power and is what we (the developers) use to make tracks nowadays. Even "Rhapsody in Blue," which contains tons of tricky rhythms and is not synced to a beat, was made entirely in the Tootmaker!


(Of course, you're free to use any tools you want to make a track. If you have experience, you may prefer one of the community-made level editors with more advanced functionality.)

Making a track takes a while! We find it fun, but it's never easy. Typically, to make a track in the Tootmaker, these are the steps you'll need to follow:

1. Prepare your audio file. You will probably need to use a third-party audio editing program, like Audacity, to edit the audio file. For example, you may need to add some silence to the beginning, shift the audio so it aligns with the beat, adjust the volume, etc. (note: everything will be much, much easier if you choose a song that's fixed to a tempo, like an electronic track.)
   
   
2. In the Tootmaker, load your prepared audio file into the Jukebox (in the lower-right corner).
   
   
3. Set the tempo to match your track. If your track doesn't perfectly align to a tempo, choose a tempo that's close to the starting tempo.
   
   
4. The long and difficult part: painstakingly build your track by placing notes! (The Tootmaker contains precise copy-paste functionality, so this might help speed things up!)
   
   
5. Load background image (and, if you're feeling ambitious, a background video).
   
   
6. Optional stuff: place visual "background events" (spotlight flashes, etc) that align with the cool parts of the song, place lyrics if the song contains words, etc.

If you've created a custom track for Trombone Champ that works in-game, you're almost ready! But first, before you can upload your track to Steam Workshop, you need to ensure that your files named in a certain way...

To upload a track, you need these required files in a folder:

• song.tmb : the level data for your custom track.
  
  
• song.ogg : the audio for your custom track.
  
  
• bg.png: the background image, ideally as a 1080p png file that has been minimized to reduce filesize. You can also include an mp4 file in addition to a png if you're feeling ambitious!

(Note: If you use the "Package My Track" button in the Tootmaker, it will automatically rename your files to match the names above!)

We also highly recommend including these optional files:

• preview.ogg : a short preview of the song, including the trombone, which lasts around 10 to 15 seconds and fades in and out. If this file exists, it will play in the Track Select screen when hovering over your song. If you do not include this file, the Track Select screen will load your song's full audio file, which can affect performance as users scroll.
  
  
• credits.txt : a credits file with information on the music, imagery, etc.

An example of a custom track folder with all of the required files, ready to upload!

If you want to, you can include more files than the ones listed above! For example, some modders make custom tracks with incredible 3D backgrounds. Everything in the folder will be uploaded, so go nuts! However, please make sure the folder doesn't include any files you don't need, such as multiple work-in-progress versions of the .tmb file.

Once your track is ready for upload, simply click the "Upload a Track to Steam Workshop" button in the Tootmaker! Please note that this button will only be activated if you have an online connection to Steam. If you're offline, the button will appear greyed-out.


Clicking this link should open the Workshop upload tool. There's a lot here, but it should be self-explanatory!


In this window, you basically need to do the following:

1. Point to the folder with your track's files
   
   
2. Attach a thumbnail image. This should be a square jpeg, 520x520, under 1MB.
   
   
3. Adjust the Steam Workshop item title & item description if you want to. These fields will be pre-populated using the metadata from the track, putting some handy information right at the top.

Once you're all set, simply click Submit and wait for the magic to happen! Uploading may take a minute or so, depending on the size of your upload. For example, tracks with an mp4 background will generally take longer than ones with a simple png.

Note: you may want to set the track to "Unlisted" in the upload tool so you can check it for problems in Steam Workshop before making it public.

If you want to change the item's image, name, or description in Steam Workshop, you can do that in Steam Workshop itself.

If you navigate to your item's page, you should see a list of controls on the right-hand side of the screen.


You can also add a YouTube video URL directly within Steam Workshop. We highly recommend including a video of your song being played so users can hear how it sounds!


If you want to change the contents of your item — such as the audio file, the metadata in the .tmb file, the background art, etc — you'll need to use the in-game tool to reupload your folder.

Note: if you've significantly changed your track — moving notes around, changing sections, etc. — you should probably just delete the track and re-upload it as an entirely new version with a new "track tag," because users may have already played the old versions and saved their high scores.

When you open the "Upload a track to Steam Workshop" window, you should see a button that allows you to update existing items. This button only appears if you've uploaded tracks to the Workshop!


Clicking this button gives you a new screen where you can re-upload your item's content folder. Please note that you always need to upload the full folder, even if most items are unchanged.

That's it! We hope you have fun uploading and downloading custom tracks through Steam Workshop!

If you have any problems, please leave a comment below and we'll do our best to help you out!

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