Update Log

worm race now has seasons in addition to the all-time race!!!!

this has been the goal for an extremely long time and i'm really pleased to have finally had the time to do it. i think this should make the whole experience more rewarding, especially if ur fav worm hasn't done well in the past!

the beta race season will run until the end of may, after which it will start a standard 3 month season cycle with summer 2026.

css adjustments

in addition 2 the obvious updates needed for the new features, u may notice some very minor visual changes on existing areas. nothing too jarring i think

future of worm race

the only big thing left to do, other than fix any bugs this update causes, is to make a trophy case for each worm to display a consolidated list of its wins. then i'll be fully shifting gears 2 other projects indefinitely - finishing the fishing minigame maybe?

arrow buttons to navigate between worm detail pages on mobile/narrow screen

worm fan leaderboard pages should also behave more appropriately with long usernames, and scores over 999 are rounded and condensed.

Bugs relating to the timer (recent feedings not appearing or people getting locked out unfairly) should be fixed! If anyone notices further issues, please reach out on Neocities or email us at admin@codecreature.net.

If anyone is wondering, I was accidentally using Greenwich Mean Time for some parts and EST for others, so everyone was perceived as feeding from the future. Oops.

big edits time!!

feed history

since i needed feed tracking 4 the new system anyway, u can now view the latest activity on the racetrack page. if u feed using an account, the account name will be included also (though im planning 2 add an option 2 keep activity private in the future.)

logged in users will have their total contributions saved 2 the leaderboards!

visuals

i rewrote the CSS from scratch because it was a huge mess. the look on desktop is largely the same, though there should be some improvements 4 wider screen dimensions. worm race mobile has been adjusted more heavily, with (hopefully) support 4 landscape mode as well!

nobody asked 4 this. there is something wrong with me

security and code

i have moved most functions 2 the backend (PHP and MariaDB) instead of where it was (frontend Javascript and random SQL3 databases.) this has several advantages, including ease of adding planned features going forward. ive also managed a 50% decrease in total file size 4 the game.

another thing this let me implement is actual security!! worm race was embarrassingly easy to bot spam in the past, and not only is that bad 4 fairness, it also puts a lot of strain on the nonprofit hosting service. on that note...

activity limits

worm race now limits simultaneous users to 2 per IP address (calculated based on item cooldown time.) it shouldn't affect most ppl, but if u play with a household (is anyone actually doing this..?) you can always log in so you won't be lumped in with everyone on ur router. all IP address data is cleared within 24 hours and is only used for this purpose.

what's next?

the new structure puts me closer 2 what has always been the goal - tournament-style races with a set end date. youll still have access 2 the total results over time, but the main races will last 1-3 months with trophies awarded at the end. each worm will have a trophy case showing their successes!

dedicated campaigns 4 a specific worm are only temporary right now, and some worms r so far behind they would struggle 2 catch up. once that update is out, it will be possible 2 get ur worm a trophy even if they have been unpopular in the past, which i think will make the game more rewarding! :3

Directory path names changed for SEO and clarity: /games/wormrace to /games/worm-race, and /shrines/garf to /shrines/garfield. Redirects are set up so the old links should still work, but you can always update to the new URLs for a small boost in loading speed if you have either of those pages linked/bookmarked somewhere!

Internal redirects have been also been added for various other pages for convenience, e.g. /homestuck and /shrines/homestuck link to the same thing :)

the art 4 pretzel has b33n bothering me 4 a while bc it didnt match the line weight on the other worms. adjusted that a bit!!

Added a basic how to play guide for the worm race!

Also made it possible to jump directly to the racetrack without feeding a worm first - having it hidden made sense in the alpha version, but now it doesn't matter.

The dark orange color has also been darkened a bit for better contrast!

Poison is also now much stronger when health is at zero.

The worm race page layout has been tweaked for (hopefully) better function on large devices, a couple broken bits of css have been fixed, and the chatbox has been removed for now since the chat service I was using has stopped working. Fingers crossed nothing's broken now lol.

apples reduced from 30 seconds to 10, heart potions reduced from 5 minutes to 4 minutes, and poison increased from -4 base effect to -5. will this mess up the balance? maybe! enjoy

also a goblin has informed me that if you've just poisoned the winning worm, it will appear without a crown. I may or may not fix this because it is very confusing and also kind of funny

behold, the worms have %N?3n% reborn in glorious new forms