Hello! Due to a generous grant from the Kim Hoke lab, I was able to shake off the cobwebs and add auditory senses to Crescent Loom!

There’s a dedicated sound-localization delay-lines demo over on the main site, but the base game has also reaped the benefits and you can now add both ears and a clicking larynx to your creatures.

All platforms have been updated, including Linux at long last.

Other changes:

• New challenge map: a T-maze where one path leads to the finish line and the other leads to a toothy end.
• Removed the “beta software” warning on the main page; we’re way past that at this point tbh.
• Motor neurons have inherent spikiness via virtual axons – we’ve been asked too many times why motor somas don’t have action potentials. They now do, but don’t do anything; it represents their imaginary communication with the creatures’ actual muscles.
• Using the cursor to click around makes a snapping noise creatures can respond to.
• “Tutorial Complete” text is shown on finishing the tutorial, to help with the “wait, am I done now?” feeling it used to leave.
• Reorder body parts in the list.
• Neurites can be set to axon/dendrite, simulated/fast, and stochastic/regular.
• Add “feather” and “none” options to basic neuron to control how much of a hair trigger they’re on.
• Increased damping for sucker body parts; should hopefully be a little less forever-wiggly.
• When using Tab to change synapse types, it now skips the Modulate option; it’s much more specialized so doesn’t need a hotkey.
• Can set sensitivity for plateau neurons.
• Prefers selecting synapses for tiles that have multiple axons running through them.
• Change the reported time in the the mV graph to be less accurate to real time but more accurate to what might be biologically plausible.