The Launcher

The timeline

Newer versions appear at the bottom, scroll up to see older versions.

Branches get their own lanes; edges show where a version came from. Wheel or drag to scroll, ctrl+wheel to zoom the row spacing, up/down keys step through versions, double-click plays an installed one.

Top bar: pick the repo, tick the branches to show, switch α/β/γ views, search. The dot at the top right is the network: it fetches the repo on start (and on click) and shows N new when versions arrived since your last visit.

Playing a version

Select a node → Play. The launcher asks which save to use:

• Use an existing save — including the PRIME save (your main progression). Picking prime on an older version warns you, and a backup is taken first regardless.
• Copy a save into a new slot — experiment on a copy.
• Mint a brand-new save.

The chosen slot is zipped into backups\ and then linked into the game's save folder, so the game writes straight into saves\<slot>. When the game closes, the prime save is linked back. The first time the launcher meets a real save folder, it offers to adopt it as the prime slot (moved in after a backup).

Tick remember this version + save as a favourite and the pair shows up in the left panel. Favourited versions are never touched by Delete all non-favourited installs.

Build any version — no GameMaker install needed

Machines that never build can Import zip… a prebuilt release. To build versions yourself, run Set up build tools once: the launcher fetches everything into its own gm\ folder (~700 MB one-time) — the build tools, the game's runtime from GameMaker's public LTS feed, the prefab packages, and your licence file. No GameMaker IDE, and nothing lands anywhere else on the machine.

The one account step: sign in (or make a free account — non-commercial use is free) at gamemaker.io/account/access-keys, create an access key, and paste it into the setup dialog. The key fetches your licence and is not stored.

Versions pin their GameMaker runtime, so building an old version fetches the runtime it was written for, automatically.

Kong Studio — make content with Claude

The left panel's Kong Studio section turns the launcher into a modding workbench: Open Studio names your own branch and opens King Kong 🐒 in a checkout of it inside this folder, you say what you want in plain words, and Build & play puts it in front of you. Share branch… hands your commits to Duck.

What Kong Studio does →

Accounts (top bar) is the one-stop connection panel: GameMaker (build licence), GitHub (sign-in — sharing, submissions, shared version metadata), Claude (Kong Studio), and optionally Grok for the sprite assist.

Updates & disk

On start the launcher checks for a newer launcher and offers a one-click update that swaps itself after the window closes. The left panel shows what the launcher folder uses (installs, saves, backups, cache, repos) and how much deleting the non-favourited installs would reclaim. Nothing is deleted without asking; deleting an install never touches saves and any version can be rebuilt later.

Command line

BloonsLauncher.exe --list [alpha|beta|gamma]   print the timeline as text
BloonsLauncher.exe --install <rev>             build + install one version headlessly
BloonsLauncher.exe --fetch                     fetch the active repo and exit
BloonsLauncher.exe --root DIR                  use DIR as the portable root
BloonsLauncher.exe --play <rev> [--slot NAME]  launch an installed version with a save slot
BloonsLauncher.exe --self-update               apply a newer launcher if one is published
BloonsLauncher.exe --setup-toolchain [--access-key KEY]   install the build tools into gm\