Release Notes playbymail.games →

Overview

The platform now spans adventure, mecha, Connect6, Mahjong, and team arena combat — with open worlds, living abbeys, board games by post, and sharper stealth feedback along the way. See below for the latest features and bug fixes.

🎯 What's Next

Mecha

• Story lines, chapters, and missions — Chain mech campaigns into authored story arcs with chapters and mission objectives that advance as your lance progresses through a sector war.
• Salvage and repair — Recover usable parts from wrecked mechs after a battle and patch up damage between turns, so a hard-won victory leaves your lance stronger for the next sector.

Arena

• Fighter skill overhaul — A deeper skill system for arena fighters, with reworked abilities and clearer tactical choices so every class has a distinct role in the fight.
• Revamped demo fighters — A freshly designed cast of demo fighters to jump into arena battles with, showing off the new classes and skills from your very first match.

🗓️ 11 July 2026

Theme: Mahjong gains a cast of named opponents, speaks your language, and welcomes players by invitation

🎯 Major Features

[Mahjong] Named Computer Opponents

• Your computer opponents are now a recurring cast of named characters, each with a distinct, learnable playing style, a hand-drawn portrait seated at their place around the board, and the occasional line of table-talk — so your rivals start to feel familiar from one game to the next.
• You can say a line yourself too, and your words now appear as a speech bubble at your own seat.

[Mahjong] Turn Sheets in Your Language

• The mahjong board, How-to-Play panel, between-turn recap, end-of-hand scoreboard, and table-talk now appear in your account's language — including tile names, wind and seat labels, and the running commentary.

🎨 Improvements

[Mahjong] Play by Invitation

• You can invite specific players to a mahjong game, and computer opponents fill any seats that stay open. The invite panel tidies itself away once every seat is taken.

[Arena / Connect6 / Mahjong] Player Rules Pages

• Arena, Connect6, and Mahjong each have a player-facing rules page now, so you can read how a game type plays before you join.

[Connect6 / Mahjong] Ambient Board-Game Music

• Board-game turn sheets can now play a relaxed background track while you take your turn.

[Platform] Sharper Link Previews

• Shared links now show proper page titles and a refreshed PlayByMail preview card and theme colour.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Mahjong] You now have to choose a tile to discard before submitting your turn — a clear message appears if you haven't (declaring a win or a kong still works as before).
• [Mahjong] Fixed table-talk display, a claimed tile lingering in front of the player who discarded it, and portrait placement around the board.
• [Mahjong] Fixed a stray white band and scrollbar beneath the join-game sheet.

🗓️ 7 July 2026

Theme: Mecha turns come to life with animated replays — now with sound and on-map narration — and arena combat reads clearer at a glance

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Tactical Turn Replays

• Your mech turn sheets now play the turn back as an animated replay — movement, combat, mines, deployment, and destruction all unfold in the order they happened, so you can watch how the turn went instead of piecing it together from the numbers.
• Your mechs now sound the part — footfalls as they move, distinct machine-gun, rocket, and energy weapon fire, and a heavier boom when a mech is destroyed. Replay sound is on by default and follows the sound controls above the sheet.
• As the replay plays, a caption in the centre of the map narrates each moment — who fired on whom, and every hit, miss, and destroyed mech — so the story of the turn unfolds along with the action.
• Print, static, and reduced-motion versions are all preserved, so the replay works whether you read on screen or on paper.

🎨 Improvements

[Arena] Pick Actions and Targets from a Gallery

• The orders sheet now lets you browse actions and targets as a gallery of cards instead of dropdowns — flick through the options, tap a card to lock it in, and see a clear "✓ Selected" badge on your choice.
• Each action card shows its effects, and each target card shows the fighter's class, stats, health, and any active statuses, so you can weigh your options at a glance.

[Arena] Turn Recap Reads Like a Battle Ledger

• The turn recap now lays out each round as a clean ledger — every fighter's action, its target, and the result, for both your team and the enemy, in the order they actually acted. It's far easier to follow who did what, and it prints cleanly.

🗓️ 5 July 2026

Theme: Arena combat sheets get a comic-book makeover, with player-named fighters and single-sheet match orders

🎯 Major Features

[Arena] Comic-Book Turn Sheets & Live Battle Map

• Orders, recap, and join-game turn sheets now share a bold comic-book presentation — inked panels, banner headers, and halftone accents.
• A live "your team vs enemy team" battle map on the orders sheet shows every round's attack, support, and defend actions as connected bubbles between the two rosters, so you can follow the flow of a match at a glance.
• The Predator and Trickster fighter classes have been renamed to Fighter and Rogue.

[Arena] Player-Named Fighters & Redesigned Draft

• When drafting your team on the Join Game sheet, you can now give each fighter your own display name, with a fun suggested name — and a regenerate button — if you'd rather not think one up yourself.
• The class-by-class drafting layout makes it clearer what each fighter brings to your roster before you commit your team.

[Arena] Orders for a Whole Match, One Sheet

• Each fighter now gets a single orders sheet covering every round of the upcoming match, so you choose your action and target for round 1, 2, and 3 all at once instead of waiting for each round in turn.

🎨 Improvements

[Arena / Studio] Design Test Support

• Arena games can now be tried out with Design Test, with a starter team automatically drafted for test players so you can preview a match without manually drafting fighters first.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Arena] Fixed a redundant "pick your team" turn sheet appearing after joining — the team you draft when you join now carries straight into the match.
• [Arena] Fixed the turn recap sheet's turn number continuing to climb after a match had already finished, and ensured you always receive a final recap when a match ends.
• [Studio] Fixed translating arena game content (fighters, classes, actions, and more) failing with an error.

🗓️ 1 July 2026

Theme: Board games and team arena combat join the platform

🎯 Major Features

[Connect6] Connect6 by Post

• Two-player strategy on a shared board — after the opening move, place two stones each turn and be first to connect six in a row.
• Move and recap turn sheets keep you oriented between turns; game masters can watch the live board from the management dashboard.

[Mahjong] Mahjong by Post

• Classic four-player Chinese Mahjong by post — draw tiles, discard, and claim when a winning hand is ready.
• Turn sheets guide each player's draw-or-discard choice; game masters can follow the live table from the management dashboard.

[Arena] Team Arena Combat

• Draft a team of three champions on a Join Game sheet, then issue one action per fighter each phase as rounds advance.
• Orders and Turn Recap sheets show rosters, fighter portraits, and a blow-by-blow combat log.
• Play against a designed opponent team or another player in head-to-head mode.
• Try the demo _Forest Brawl_ from the catalog — wolves, bears, turtles, foxes, and raccoons ready to brawl.

[Arena / Studio] Arena Game Designer Tools

• Build fighters, classes, actions, status effects, opponent teams, and phase pacing from dedicated Studio pages.
• Upload fighter variant portraits and configure turn sheet backgrounds for join, orders, and recap sheets.

🎨 Improvements

[Arena] Orders Turn Sheet Layout

• Fighter panels and action dropdowns stay aligned as you choose actions and targets — no more layout jumping on first selection.

[Connect6] Move Sheet Submission

• The player app's Submit All button is now the single way to send your move — the redundant in-sheet submit control is gone.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Connect6 / Mahjong] Matches now finish cleanly when a winner is decided — games no longer stall after the final move.
• [Connect6 / Mahjong / Arena] The first player's turn is assigned correctly when a game instance starts.
• [Arena] AI opponent portraits now appear on orders and recap sheets instead of placeholder icons.

🗓️ 24 June 2026

Theme: A complete combat and skills overhaul — stronger characters, richer creatures, and a unified effect engine

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Core Stats — Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence

• Every character and creature now has three core attributes: Strength (STR),

Dexterity (DEX), and Intelligence (INT).

• Characters allocate stat points when levelling up, shaping how they develop

over a campaign.

• Creatures have distinct stat profiles — a Ghoul hits hard with high STR while

a Crypt Spider is fast with high DEX.

[Adventure] Unified Effect Engine

• Items, location objects, set bonuses, creature attacks, and skills now share

one effect model instead of three separate systems.

• The same engine handles combat effects (deal damage, heal, poison over time,

stun, hold, stat modifier, lifesteal, reflect, party buffs) and narrative effects (give item, teleport, change object state, summon creature, advance clock).

[Adventure] Creature Combat Overhaul

• Creature attacks are now named and authored individually (e.g. "Gnaw",

"Claw Strike") with their own damage type, attack mode, and linked effects.

• Creatures have per-damage-type mitigation — a Bone Revenant resists

slashing, not crushing.

• Creatures can carry skills and receive status effects, making encounters feel

more like fighting a character than hitting a stat block.

[Adventure] Expanded Skill Library (38 skills)

• Weapon mastery: Sword, Knife, Bow, Spear, Axe, Club (each Tier I)
• Armour mastery: Light, Medium, Heavy (each Tier I)
• Mobility: Climb I/II, Swim I/II
• Combat and defense: Dodge I/II, Shield I/II, Backstab I/II, Stun I/II,

Hold I/II

• Stealth: Hide I/II, Detect Hidden I/II
• Magic: Heal I/II, Ward I/II, Dispel I, Flame Touch I, Frost Bolt I,

Acid Splash I, Lightning Arc I, Venom Dart I

• Utility: Lore I

[Adventure] Skill Tiers and Stat Prerequisites

• Skills now have a tier (I = cheap to learn, higher tiers cost more skill

points) and a primary stat.

• Learning powerful skills requires meeting minimum stat thresholds — high INT

to cast Frost Bolt, high STR to master heavy weapons.

[Adventure] Item Strength Requirements

• Weapons and armour now carry a required Strength — equipping gear you are

not strong enough for is no longer possible.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Unified Character Card

• STR, DEX, INT stats, Level, XP, Skill Points, Inventory Count, and Trained

Skills now appear identically on the Actions sheet, Turn Recap, and Movement sheet — no more hunting across sheets for your character's profile.

[Adventure] Hidden Status Chip

• When your character is hidden, a "Hidden" chip appears on the character card

so you always know your stealth state.

• Interacting with an object now breaks stealth and the turn narrative

explicitly tells you so.

[Adventure / Studio] Unified Effect Authoring

• Game designers configure all item, object, set-bonus, creature-attack, and

skill effects in one place with a single consistent vocabulary.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] "Hide" no longer appears in the weapon/item action dropdown — it

is only accessible from its dedicated Hide action.

• [Adventure] Mace and Hammer weapon types unified under Club to match the

consolidated weapon mastery skill.

🗓️ 15 June 2026

Theme: A deeper abbey demo, faster sheets, and stronger healing

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Living Abbey Demo Expansion

• _The Door Beneath the Staircase_ extends further into the abbey, with new areas to explore and refreshed turn-sheet art throughout.
• The explored map is easier to read, and more creatures now wander the ruins between turns.

[Adventure] Heal I Ally and Self Targeting

• Heal I can now restore health to yourself or to another injured adventurer in the same room.
• Choose your target from a dropdown on the Actions sheet — your own name appears first as "(self)".

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Explored Map Atmosphere

• The explored map tab now uses the same atmospheric background as your other turn sheets at that location.

[Adventure / Studio] Per-Player Object Progress

• Location object effects can now be marked as per-player, so each adventurer tracks their own progress through multi-step puzzles.
• Studio hints now distinguish repeatable puzzles from per-player progress more clearly.

[Adventure] Cleaner Location Object Text

• Internal state names no longer appear in location descriptions on the location-choice sheet.

[Platform] Faster Turn Sheet Loading

• Browsing your turn sheets in the player app is noticeably snappier, especially in long-running games.

[Platform] Sharper Browser Tab Icon

• Refreshed favicon for clearer recognition in browser tabs.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Heal I no longer restores health above a character's maximum, including bonuses from equipped gear.
• [Adventure] Searching a fully depleted object no longer offers a Search action that does nothing.

🗓️ 10 June 2026

Theme: Talk, whisper, and coordinate with your party

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Character Speech

• When more than one adventurer is alive in a game, each character now receives a Speech turn sheet.
• Compose up to three utterances per turn from curated phrase templates — say to everyone at your location, whisper privately to one co-located ally, or shout to nearby rooms.
• What others hear appears on the next turn's Chronicle and Actions sheets, so coordination carries forward even when you are not standing together.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Speech Phrase Library

• Fixed greetings and acknowledgments (Hello, Goodbye, Yes, No, Thanks, Sorry).
• Party lines for asking or offering help and for deciding whether to work together or split up.
• Movement, object, and warning sections include matching questions (Should I go to…?, Should I attack…?) alongside their statement phrases.
• Combat coordination lines tell others which creature to attack or avoid — separate from your own attack action on the Actions sheet.

[Adventure] Turn Sheet Typography

• Adventure turn sheets share a cleaner, more readable layout.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Speech turns with missing choices (such as a movement phrase without picking an exit) are now blocked before submission instead of stalling turn processing.

🗓️ 9 June 2026

Theme: Sharper clocks, objectives, and stealth feedback

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure / Studio] Creature-Kill Objectives

• Game designers can now build objectives around defeating specific creatures, so boss fights, monster hunts, and guarded-room challenges can advance the story automatically when the target falls.

[Adventure / Studio] Location-Scoped Clock Events

• Clock threshold events can now be aimed at players in the affected location, or nearby, so rising danger feels local instead of always broadcasting to the whole game.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Character Status Chips

• Chronicle and Actions cards now show clear chips for hidden status, buffs, and debuffs, making it easier to see what is affecting your character at a glance.

[Adventure / Studio] Stationary Wandering Creatures

• Wandering creature spawn points can now be set to never move, giving designers a simple way to place creatures that appear through the wandering system but stay where they belong.

[Platform] Clearer Open-Games Emails

• Weekly open-games emails now label whether each game is a solo campaign, open world, or both, helping players pick the kind of experience they want before they click through.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Hidden character movement is now only shown to characters who can actually see the hidden adventurer.
• [Adventure] Aggressive creatures that are already facing visible characters no longer wander away before the fight.
• [Adventure] Creatures moved by pursuit, returning home, or wandering no longer take an extra creature turn immediately after relocating.

🗓️ 6 June 2026

Theme: Open World & the Living Abbey

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Open World Mode

• Adventure games can now run as persistent open worlds that many players explore at the same time, instead of only fixed-size campaigns. Players drop into an ongoing world rather than waiting for a lobby to fill.
• Each location has its own capacity, so a busy world spreads adventurers across its rooms instead of crowding everyone into one.
• Open-world demo games go live immediately, so you can jump in and start exploring straight away.

[Adventure] The Living Abbey

• Clocks can now tick on their own and cycle — winding tension up and then resetting — so the world keeps changing turn after turn, even between player actions.
• Objectives can repeat, refreshing after a set number of turns for goals that come around again and again.
• Designers can gate clocks, wandering creatures, and location effects to specific game modes, so a campaign and an open world built from the same design can each feel distinct.
• Wandering creatures, shifting object states, and per-character discoveries make the abbey feel alive and reactive.

[Adventure] Creature Equipment & Battlefield Loot

• Creatures can now be armed and armoured from a new Equipment tab in the Studio, and their gear shapes how dangerous they are in a fight.
• When a creature falls, the equipment it was carrying drops as loot you can pick up — defeating a halberd-wielding guard might just arm you for what comes next.
• Three new items join the library armoury: the Notched Halberd, Pitted Ringmail, and Bark Armour.

[Adventure] See Who Else Is Here

• The Chronicle and Actions sheets now show the other characters sharing your location, including their health and how much they are carrying.
• A new "also here" narrative weaves co-located adventurers into your turn — essential for finding allies (or rivals) in a shared world.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure / Studio] Map Designer

• The whole of an occupied map cell is now draggable, dropping a location onto another swaps their places, and the drag handle is larger and easier to grab.
• Your chosen map size now sticks correctly when you reload the designer.
• The demo abbey map has been reorganised onto a larger grid so its passages read clearly.

[Studio] Instance Mode Controls

• New filter bars and columns across the clocks, objectives, wandering creatures, and location effects tables let you focus on a single game mode at a glance.
• Games can be marked as supporting solo campaigns, open worlds, or both, with the choice surfaced throughout the Studio and design testing.

[Studio] Clocks Designer Polish

• Clocks are now simpler count-up timers with clearer threshold guidance and a tidier layout.

[Adventure] Scalable Design Testing

• The design test panel now handles large player counts gracefully with a submitted-count summary and a quick jump to any player's turn sheet, and lets you choose which mode to test.

[Platform] Fuller Translations

• Hundreds of Studio labels and the entire creature and item library are now translated across German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Swedish.

[Adventure] Demo Refresh

• The demo abbey has been reshaped into a three-act story with new artwork, soundscapes, and a redesigned puzzle, and now offers a solo campaign and a shared open-world game to try.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Summoning a creature mid-turn no longer crashes turn processing.
• [Adventure] A failed item pickup (because someone grabbed it first) now plays out gracefully instead of failing your whole turn.
• [Adventure] Items you are already carrying no longer appear as available to pick up again.
• [Studio] Design-only clocks no longer show up to players during a live game.
• [Studio] The map designer no longer resets your chosen grid size when you reload the page.

🗓️ 25 May 2026

Theme: Stealth, Search & Creature Intelligence

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Stealth & Backstab

• Characters who learn the Hide skill can now slip into the shadows when no creatures or other adventurers are present, becoming invisible to hostile creatures entirely.
• Hidden characters with the Backstab skill and a dagger equipped can launch devastating surprise attacks for double damage — but stealth is always broken after striking, hit or miss.
• Creatures ignore hidden characters during their initiative phase, giving rogues a way to avoid combat or set up an ambush.

[Adventure] Search Action

• A new Search action appears on the Exploration turn sheet, letting characters carefully examine their surroundings for hidden passages, concealed objects, or lurking figures.
• Search is mutually exclusive with moving, looking, and interacting with objects — it consumes the turn but may reveal secrets that would otherwise stay hidden.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Hidden Objects & Passages

• Game designers can now assign a hidden level to objects and passages (visible, hidden, or well-hidden), creating layered exploration puzzles that reward characters who search thoroughly.

[Adventure] Exploration Turn Sheet Rename

• The Location turn sheet has been renamed to "Exploration" to better reflect its expanded role — movement, observation, object interaction, and now searching.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Aggressive creatures now stay and fight when visible player characters are at their location, instead of returning home before their attack phase — a Ghoul will no longer politely walk away from you and then wander right back.

🗓️ 24 May 2026

Theme: Look Into Adjacent Locations & Turn Sheet Card Design

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Look Into Adjacent Locations

• Characters can now peek into an adjacent location before committing to move there, spending the turn observing rather than travelling.
• The Location turn sheet shows a "Look into" option alongside "Move to" for every link that supports it — choosing one automatically clears the other.
• The next turn sheet delivers an observation report: the location's description, the names and dispositions of any creatures or characters present, and the names of any visible objects — just enough to plan your next move without giving everything away.
• Game designers control lookability per link in the Studio. A passage can be inherently lookable regardless of its traversal state. Traversal requirements that physically block the way (a locked door, a rat-infested archway) also prevent looking by default — but designers can configure this individually for each requirement.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Turn Sheet Card Layout

• The Location turn sheet has been redesigned around a card-per-destination layout. Each exit now shows its name and description once, with compact Move to and Look into action buttons sitting side by side beneath — no more repeated descriptions for each option.
• Objects at your current location use the same card design: name and description appear once at the top, with all available interaction buttons arranged in a row below.

[Platform] Mobile Chronicle Drawer Handle

• The side-panel drawer handle on mobile is now a proper attached tab that sits flush against the panel's left edge and travels with it as you drag — no more overlap with the scroll area.

🗓️ 22 May 2026

Theme: Library portraits, Studio badges & turn sheet polish

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Smarter Turn Sheet Dropdowns

• On Creature Encounter turn sheets, weapon, item, and target dropdowns now automatically select the only available option when there is nothing else to choose from — no extra click required.

[Adventure / Studio] Library Badges in Studio Views

• Items, creatures, and other entities sourced from the platform library now show a [Library] badge in placement views, wandering creature tables, item effect lists, and passage requirement views, making it easy to see at a glance which content comes from the shared library.

[Studio] Creature Portraits in Library Panel

• The library creatures panel in the Studio now shows each creature's portrait inside the detail view.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Creature and item portraits now appear correctly on turn sheets when the entity comes from the platform library — they were previously shown as blank.
• [Platform] Updated a frontend dependency to address a security vulnerability — no action needed from users.

🗓️ 20 May 2026

Theme: Adventure Game Progression — Skills, XP & Character Growth

> ⚠️ Early access: The progression system has just landed. A few rough edges may appear over the coming days — we'll iron them out quickly.

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Character Progression: XP, Levels & Skill Points

• Characters now earn experience points (XP) from encounters and exploration.
• Accumulate enough XP and your character advances to the next level, earning Skill Points to spend on new abilities.
• Your current Level, XP, and available Skill Points are always visible at the top of your Chronicle.

[Adventure] Skills & Skill Training

• A brand new skills system lets characters learn abilities — from martial techniques to spiritual powers.
• Between turns, spend Skill Points using the new Skill Training sheet to permanently learn skills. Some skills have prerequisites that must be met first.
• Your full list of learned skills is shown on your Chronicle so you always know your character's capabilities.

[Adventure / Studio] Skills Library for Game Designers

• Game designers can now build a library of skills in the Studio, defining each skill's name, description, category (Physical, Spiritual, etc.), and any prerequisites.
• Designers choose which skills are available in each game, letting different games offer completely different skill sets.

[Adventure / Studio] Expanded Game Design Tools

• The Studio now includes dedicated management pages for item placements, item effects, creature placements, wandering creature tables, and location passage requirements.
• Location passages can now require characters to possess a specific skill before they can be traversed, enabling skill-gated areas that reward character development.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Chronicle Overhaul

• The Chronicle now plays the ambient music of your character's current location instead of a generic game theme, deepening immersion in each area.
• A unified character card at the top of the Chronicle shows your name, health, and inventory alongside your Level, XP, Skill Points, and all learned skills — everything about your character in one place.
• Progression milestones (levelling up, learning new skills) are highlighted directly inside your character card so you can spot important moments at a glance.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Fixed the skill training sheet failing when skills were selected — the form now correctly submits your chosen skills for training.
• [Adventure] Fixed the Skill Training sheet tab label appearing in all-lowercase — it now displays correctly as "Skill Training".

🗓️ 19 May 2026

Theme: Activatable Equipment, Subscription Tiers & Turn Reminders

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Stealth Jammer, Repair Drone & Shield Generator

• Three new activatable equipment types are now available for mech loadouts:
• Stealth Jammer — when activated, blocks incoming attacks from mechs in other sectors entirely. Attackers in the same sector are unaffected. The jammer generates heat each turn and burns out after a set number of turns, consuming itself.
• Repair Drone — restores a configurable amount of armour per turn while active. Expires after a set number of turns and is consumed. Repair Drones are available at depot for 3 Supply Points.
• Shield Generator — absorbs incoming damage before it reaches armour or structure. Deactivates when either its HP pool is exhausted (overloaded) or its duration expires — whichever comes first. Generates heat each turn while active.
• All three are activated by selecting "Use" in a round action slot, the same way you would deploy a mine or beacon.
• Once activated, equipment cannot be manually deactivated — it runs until it expires or is destroyed.
• Active equipment status badges (STEALTH, SHIELD, REPAIR) are shown on orders, report, and recap sheets alongside the mech's stats.

[Platform] Subscription Tier Limits

• Account subscription pages now show how many games and active instances your tier allows, and how many you're currently using.
• Creating a new game or joining as a new player checks these limits and shows a clear message if you've reached your quota.

[Platform] Turn Sheet Reminder Emails

• Players who haven't submitted their turn sheets with less than 25% of the turn window remaining now receive an urgency reminder email with a direct link to their outstanding sheets.
• Reminders are sent once per turn per player and automatically become inactive when the turn advances.

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha / Studio] Effect Duration Field in Equipment Designer

• The equipment editor in the Studio now shows an Effect Duration field for equipment kinds that have a time-limited effect (Sensor Beacon, Stealth Jammer, Repair Drone, Shield Generator).
• Per-kind hints explain exactly what the field controls for each type.

[Mecha] Auto-Target Nearest Enemy

• Attack dropdowns now default to Nearest Enemy when you select the Attack action. The engine finds the closest enemy by actual sector distance and picks the most-damaged mech as a tiebreaker.
• You can still override and pick a specific target. If your chosen target is destroyed or moves out of range before your action resolves, the fallback label now reads clearly "When target destroyed or out of range."

[Platform] Terms of Service Update for Game Designers

• The Terms of Service now include game designer obligations covering content guidelines, intellectual property, player data handling, and moderation cooperation.

[Platform] Game Update Broadcast Includes Release Notes Link

• The game update broadcast email sent to players now includes a link to the latest platform release notes.

[Platform] Calendar-Day Deadline Labels

• Turn deadlines now show "Today" or "Tomorrow" based on calendar days in your local timezone rather than a rolling 24-hour window.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Platform] Fixed the game catalog page redirecting logged-out visitors away from /games instead of showing the catalog.
• [Adventure / Mecha / Studio] Fixed location and sector map grid coordinates being cleared when saving an entity in the Studio without explicitly setting coordinates.
• [Platform] Fixed turn sheet links showing a confusing "Link Expired" error when the turn sheet had already been submitted — players now see a clear "Turn Sheet Already Submitted" message with the option to request a link for their latest turn sheet.

🗓️ 18 May 2026

Theme: Player-Named Mechs & Opponent Identity

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Player-Named Mechs on the Join Game Sheet

• The Join Game sheet now shows one callsign field per mech in your starter squad, labelled with its chassis type.
• Whatever name you write becomes your mech's permanent callsign on all subsequent turn sheets — orders, management, and the tactical map.
• If you leave a field blank, a default callsign is assigned automatically so the game can always start.

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha / Studio] Opponent Squad Instance Limits

• Game designers can now set a maximum number of instances for each opponent squad template, controlling how many times that squad can appear on the battlefield simultaneously.
• For single-instance opponent squads (max = 1), designers assign specific callsigns to each mech, giving named narrative opponents like "Garrison-1" or "Command-2".
• For multi-instance squads (max > 1), callsigns are generated automatically as _Squad Name–Alpha_, _Squad Name–Bravo_, and so on, keeping large enemy forces identifiable without manual naming.

[Mecha / Studio] Callsign Column Hidden for Starter Squads

• The mech table in the Studio Squads view no longer shows the Callsign column for starter squads, since those callsigns are chosen by players on their Join Game sheet rather than set by the designer.

🗓️ 17 May 2026

Theme: Entity Images, Turn Sheet Portraits & Catalog Icons

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure / Mecha / Studio] Entity Image Uploads

• Game designers can now upload images for every major game entity directly in the Studio:
• Adventure items support item icons, shown in the inventory management turn sheet alongside the item name.
• Mecha chassis support portrait images — displayed prominently beside the mech's stats on every turn sheet.
• Mecha weapons and equipment support icons that appear inline next to their names across all turn sheet tables.
• Images are uploaded through the Studio's item, chassis, weapon, and equipment edit panels, and appear on all newly generated turn sheets.
• Maximum image size for entity images is 128 KB; background and map images remain up to 1 MB.

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha] Chassis Portrait Layout on Turn Sheets

• The chassis portrait now sits to the right of the armour, structure, heat, and speed stat bars — with the chassis name spanning above both — giving a more compact, card-like layout.

[Mecha] Weapon and Equipment Icons in the Depot Catalog

• The weapon and equipment catalog sidebar on management sheets now shows a small icon beside each item name, matching the icons already shown in the per-mech loadout tables.

🗓️ 17 May 2026

Theme: Round-by-Round Combat, Design Testing & Platform Fixes

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Action-Sequence Combat

• Mecha turns now play out across multiple initiative-based rounds rather than resolving all orders simultaneously.
• Each round, your squad issues movement and action orders separately — mechs that moved earlier in the round may find new attack targets based on their updated position.
• Heat accumulates across rounds: a mech that fires repeatedly without cooling can overheat and shut down mid-turn.
• Equipment deployed in earlier rounds (mines, sensors, beacons) is consumed and unavailable in subsequent rounds of the same turn.
• The turn recap groups all events under clear Round N headers so you can follow the sequence of events round by round.
• Chassis now carry a size class (Light, Medium, Heavy, or Assault) that affects their performance and role on the battlefield.

[Studio] Design Test Panel

• A new Design Test panel appears in the right column of the Game Designers for every game you are editing.
• Choose how many test players (1–20) and click Start Design Test to launch a private test instance instantly — no real players needed.
• Each test player has their own Turn Sheet link that opens in the player app, so you can fill in orders exactly as a real player would.
• Turns process automatically as soon as all test players have submitted their sheets.
• Use Advance Turn to fast-forward a turn immediately, forfeiting any unsubmitted orders — ideal for checking computer-controlled events without filling in every sheet.
• The panel shows live processing status (a pulsing "Processing next turn…" indicator while the backend runs), per-player sheet states, and refreshes every 2 seconds.
• Test instances are completely separate from real game instances and never appear in the public game catalogue.

🎨 Improvements

[Platform] Navigation Renamed: Game Designers & Game Masters

• The Game Designer Studio is now called Game Designers throughout the platform.
• Game Management is now called Game Masters.
• All navigation labels, page headings, invitation emails, and subscription names have been updated to match.

[Adventure / Mecha / Studio] Seamless Soundscape Loops

• Soundscape audio now crossfades at the loop boundary, eliminating any audible click or gap when a track restarts.
• Loops that scored below the seamlessness threshold are automatically reprocessed with a smooth overlap-add crossfade.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Mecha] Fixed mines only triggering for the first mech to arrive in a sector — every mech (including AI opponents) entering a mined sector at the same step now takes damage
• [Mecha / Adventure] Fixed theme music not starting when clicking interactive areas of the turn sheet (such as the tactical map) — audio now starts on any click anywhere on the sheet
• [Platform] Fixed game subscription details being visible to other users — your subscriptions are now correctly private to your account
• [Management] Fixed demo game instances showing "hosted by PlayByMail Demo Manager" instead of "hosted by PlayByMail"

🗓️ 14 May 2026

Theme: Mines, Deployables, Waypoint Movement & Game Theme Music

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure / Mecha / Studio] Game Theme Music

• Game designers can now set a theme music track for their game from the new Theme Music page in the Game Designers — choose from a library of looping ambient tracks spanning dungeon, industrial, combat, wasteland, and other moods.
• The music fades in gently when a player opens their first turn sheet and plays throughout the entire session.
• Navigating to a turn sheet with the same soundscape keeps the audio playing without interruption; navigating to one with a different soundscape triggers a smooth crossfade (under 4 seconds) so there is never a jarring cut.
• Audio now begins on the very first sheet that has sound, not the second.

[Mecha] Mines, Deployable Sensors & Waypoint Movement

• Mechs can now deploy mines, mine detectors, and sensor beacons as a free action each turn — no movement or attack penalty.
• Mines detonate when any mech (friend or foe) enters or remains in the sector, dealing damage to all present. A same-turn grace period means a mech that deploys a mine won't trigger it that same turn.
• Mechs carrying a mine detector automatically reveal any active mines in adjacent sectors on their recap sheet at the end of each turn.
• Sensor beacons grant your squad a +1 to-hit bonus against targets in the beaconed sector for a configurable number of turns, then expire.
• Movement orders now use a route selector — you pick from pre-computed paths up to your mech's speed, and the mech steps through each sector one at a time. Mines trigger along the route, not just at the destination.
• A Your Deployables section on the turn recap sheet lists every mine, detector, and beacon your squad currently has in the field and how long each lasts.

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha / Studio] Deployable Equipment in the Studio

• Designers can now create equipment items with the new Mine, Mine Detector, and Sensor Beacon effect kinds in the Studio, complete with per-kind value ranges, heat cost hints, and field descriptions in all six languages.

[Studio] Mech Loadout Editor Redesign

• The Edit Mech form now shows weapons and equipment in standard tables (Name / Mount columns with full borders), stacked vertically rather than side by side.
• Remove buttons are now icon-only trash buttons matching the rest of the studio, and the add-item row uses the same styled dropdown as every other form field.

[Studio] Studio Pages Can Now Be Bookmarked

• Navigating directly to any studio URL (e.g. from a bookmark or a shared link) now correctly restores the game context — no more "Select a game" blank screen after a hard reload.

[Studio] Redesigned Sidebar Menu Order

• The Game Designers sidebar now follows a logical dependency order: World (sectors/locations/map) → Units (chassis/weapons/equipment/squads) → Rules (objectives/clocks) → Content (soundscapes/translations).
• This matches the natural build order for new games on both the mecha and adventure game types.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Mecha / Studio] Fixed weapons and equipment not showing in the Edit Mech form — the loadout was stored correctly but was not being returned by the API

🗓️ 13 May 2026

Theme: Mecha Supply Polish — Smarter Swaps, Accurate Budgets

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha / Studio] Pilot Skill and Supply Cost on Weapons and Equipment

• Designers can now set a minimum pilot skill requirement and supply point cost for each weapon and equipment item in the Studio.
• On the Mech Management sheet, swap dropdowns automatically hide items the pilot isn't skilled enough to use or that can't be afforded with the remaining supply points — players only ever see options they can actually select.
• Submitting a PDF management sheet with an unaffordable or out-of-skill swap no longer silently fails — the mech's narrative on the next turn explains exactly which swap was skipped and why.

[Mecha] Supply Point Budget Stays in Sync Across All Mech Sheets

• Managing two or three mechs in the same session? The supply point counter now stays accurate across all open management sheets simultaneously.
• Committing supply points on one mech's sheet immediately reduces what's available on the others, so you can't accidentally overspend across your whole squad.

[Mecha] All Repair Orders Count Against the SP Budget

• The armour repair, ammo refill, and structure repair checkboxes on the Management sheet now correctly reduce the live SP count when ticked — your total planned spend is always visible before you submit.
• Structure repair now shows its exact SP cost based on how heavily damaged the mech is, rather than a vague range.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Mecha] Fixed armour repair cost not being deducted from the remaining SP display when the checkbox was ticked

🗓️ 13 May 2026

Theme: Item Sets, Wandering Monsters & Combat Depth

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Item Sets & Set Bonuses

• Designers can now create named item sets in the Studio and define bonus tiers that activate when a character collects matching pieces — for example, equipping two out of four set items might grant a bonus, and completing the full set unlocks an even more powerful tier.
• When a character picks up a piece of a set for the first time, their turn sheet announces the discovery and shows which bonus tier is now active.
• Active set bonuses appear in a dedicated section on the character's turn sheet so players always know what they are benefiting from.
• A demo set — the Crypt Warden set — is included in The Door Beneath the Staircase, with two-piece and four-piece bonus tiers for testers to discover.

[Adventure] Wandering Monster Tables

• Designers can now configure wandering monster tables for their adventure games: a named table lists which creature types can appear at a given spawn point, and creatures from that list roam the game world on their own schedule.
• Each creature type in the table can be given a movement description — the narrated line players see when a creature enters or leaves their location.
• Wandering monster tables and spawn points are managed from the new Wandering Monster Tables page in the Game Designers.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Expanded Combat Effects

• Combat now resolves critical hits and block rolls based on equipped item properties — landing a critical hit deals bonus damage; a successful block reduces incoming damage.
• Lifesteal and damage reflection effects are applied during combat when a character's equipped items carry those properties.
• Party aura buffs — damage and defense bonuses from items carried by allies — are factored in during combat resolution.
• Damage-over-time and heal-over-time effects tick at the start of each turn and expire when their duration runs out.

[Adventure / Studio] Creature Portrait Preview

• Uploading a creature portrait in the Studio now shows an instant thumbnail preview — you can confirm the image before the upload completes, and the saved portrait remains visible after saving.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Characters who died from flee damage now receive a death narrative and correctly respawn — previously the death went silent and the character remained stuck.
• [Adventure] Location link pathway names no longer repeat the destination name twice (e.g. a link called "The Cemetery Gate" leading to a location also called "The Cemetery Gate" now displays correctly).
• [Studio] Location link requirement lists now show human-readable link names for all entries, not raw IDs, when a game has many location links.
• [Studio] Translating item set names and descriptions no longer returns an error.

🗓️ 11 May 2026

Theme: Cooperative Play — Give Items to Allies

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Item Trading — Hand Items Directly to Allies

• Players in the same location can now give inventory items directly to each other.
• Each item on your inventory sheet shows a new Give option alongside Drop (and Wear/Backpack where applicable). Selecting Give reveals a recipient dropdown listing every ally at your location.
• You can give multiple items to different allies in a single turn — each is handled independently.
• Items you are currently wearing are automatically unequipped before transfer, so you don't need a separate Backpack action first.
• If an ally's inventory is already full, the give fails and you receive a warning — the item stays with you.
• Trading is blocked when aggressive creatures are at your location, the same restriction that prevents picking up ground items during combat.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Creature pursuit now moves one location at a time. Creatures holding a grudge were previously appearing instantly at the target's location; they now chase correctly, closing the distance by one hop per turn as the rules intended.

🗓️ 11 May 2026

Theme: Faster Sign-In — Login with Google

🎯 Major Features

[Platform] Sign in with Google

• You can now sign in with your Google account — one tap and you're in, no verification code needed.
• The Google button appears on the login page alongside the existing email sign-in option.
• Only your email address is used to identify your account; we don't access your Google profile, contacts, or any other data.
• If you've already signed in with email before, signing in with Google using the same email address connects to your existing account automatically.

🎨 Improvements

[Platform] Privacy Policy Updated

• The privacy policy now discloses Google Sign-In as an optional authentication method and clarifies that only your email is received from Google.

🗓️ 10 May 2026

Theme: Sound & Atmosphere — Location Soundscapes

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure / Mecha] Location Soundscapes — Ambient Audio for Every Location and Sector

• Adventure game locations and mecha sectors can now carry a full ambient soundscape that plays while a player fills in their turn sheet.
• Designers can layer up to two simultaneous ambient loops per location — a primary texture and an optional accent layer — with independent volume, playback speed, and loop start/end controls.
• On top of the loops, up to five intermittent one-shot sounds play at random intervals — forest wildlife, dungeon rattles, distant explosions, hydraulic hisses — each with configurable volume range and timing.
• Per-sound audio effects: each loop and each one-shot has its own reverb and echo settings, so a dripping cave sounds spatially different from the rats skittering in its corners.
• One-shots play with random stereo panning each time they fire, placing sounds across the left-right field to give a sense of space.
• Any sound can be muted individually in real time while previewing, without stopping the engine — useful for tuning levels without restarting.
• A curated library of 21 ambient loops and 40+ one-shot effects is included: caves, forests, dungeons, taverns, storms, volcanic landscapes, space stations, mecha hangars, combat zones, and more.
• The soundscape bar appears above the turn sheet with Play / Stop and a master volume slider whenever a soundscape is configured for the current location. Switching to a sheet with a different soundscape cross-fades automatically.

[Studio] Soundscape Game Designers

• A new Location Soundscapes page in the adventure game designer studio lets you configure, preview, and save soundscapes for every location.
• A matching Sector Soundscapes page covers mecha game sectors.
• The built-in sound library browser lets you filter by category, search by name, and audition sounds before assigning them.
• A live Preview button fires up the full audio engine against the current configuration — no save required.

🗓️ 9 May 2026

Theme: Adventure Game Multiplayer Depth — Party-Scaled Placements & Item Respawn

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Placement Count Mode — Scale Item and Creature Spawns to Your Party

• Designers can now choose how many items and creatures spawn based on the actual number of players in a run, rather than a fixed number.
• Three modes are available: Fixed (exact count, as before), Equal Player (one per player), and Half Player (one per two players, minimum one).
• Set this per placement in the Game Designers. A party of four adventurers now finds enough loot and faces enough creatures for a full group — no more one sword for everyone.

[Adventure] Item Respawn — Replenishing Locations

• Item placements can now be configured to restock after being picked up. Set a minimum and maximum number of turns before the replacement appears, and optionally cap how many times a placement can refill per run.
• The Tallow Candle in the demo adventure now restocks 2 turns after pickup — later adventurers won't be left in the dark.
• Leave the max count blank for unlimited restocking; perfect for consumables and key items that every player needs.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Healing Draught Now Shared in the Demo

• The Apothecary Cabinet in the demo adventure now places the Healing Draught on the floor so any nearby character can pick it up. Previously only the first character to search the cabinet received it directly.

[Platform] Updated Beta Branding in Emails

• Outgoing emails — turn sheets, welcome messages, notifications — now display the current beta logo.

🗓️ 8 May 2026

Theme: Mecha Tactical Clarity — Movement Trails, Damage Accuracy & Smarter AI

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Movement Trails on the Tactical Map

• The tactical map now shows colored dashed lines for every mech that moved last turn — a hollow ring marks where the mech departed from, and a colored arrowhead points toward its destination.
• Each squad's trails use their squad color so you can instantly read who went where at a glance.

[Mecha] Final Turn Packet on Game End

• When a mecha game ends — whether the mission is completed or cancelled — you now always receive a final turn packet containing the mission outcome sheet, tactical overview, and full recap. Previously the game could end silently with no closing sheets.

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha] Heat Management Now Meaningful

• Mechs that fire heavily will run hotter across a battle. Heat dissipates more slowly than before, so managing your fire rate and using heat-sink equipment now genuinely matters.

[Mecha] Smarter Computer Opponents

• AI-controlled mechs now engage at their weapon's effective range rather than always charging to point-blank distance. Long-range platforms hold position and fire from a distance; close-quarters mechs still close in. AI opponents will also prioritise targets they can actually shoot at.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Mecha] Mechs carrying an armor-upgrade module now correctly display their damage status (Pristine / Damaged / Crippled) based on their actual maximum armor. Previously they always appeared Pristine even when heavily damaged.
• [Mecha] The mission outcome sheet is now correctly generated when a game is cancelled, rather than the game ending with no explanation.
• [Mecha] The management sheet's armor bar no longer overflows for mechs with armor-upgrade equipment.

🗓️ 7 May 2026

Theme: Mecha Game Polish — Management & Turn Recap

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Per-Turn Mecha Recap Sheet

• Every mecha turn packet now opens with a Turn Recap sheet showing the status of every mech in your squad — armour, structure, heat, ammo — alongside a full chronicle of what happened this turn.
• Objectives and clocks are shown in the same sheet so you always have the big picture before filling your orders.
• On the final turn, the recap includes the Mission Outcome banner (Mission Accomplished / Mission Cancelled) and the game's mission briefing, replacing the separate after-action report.

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha] Sector Context on Management Sheet

• The mech management sheet now shows your mech's current sector name and description in the header, exactly as the orders sheet does — so you know where your mech is stationed without flipping between sheets.

[Mecha] Weapon Details on Management Sheet

• Equipped weapons now display their damage, heat cost, and ammo capacity directly in the loadout table, giving you the stats you need to decide whether to swap weapons.

[Mecha] Clearer Service Costs

• Repair and refit costs (supply points and refit status) are now shown prominently in each service section heading, with amber highlighting on services that trigger a refit cycle. The separate "Depot Services" summary table has been removed as the information is now inline.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Mecha] Repair, refit, and weapon-swap orders submitted on the mech management sheet are now correctly recorded and applied. Previously, management orders appeared to have no effect.

🗓️ 7 May 2026

Theme: Combat with Teeth — Creatures Fight Back

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Creature Grudge, Pursuit & Initiative

• Creatures now remember who attacked them. After being hit, a creature holds a grudge against its attacker for three turns — retaliating immediately and staying alert even after the encounter ends.
• Grudge-holding creatures will pursue their target into adjacent locations, chasing up to a configurable number of hops from their home territory. Aggressive creatures will also attack anyone they encounter on the way.
• When a grudge expires and no targets are nearby, creatures return home — one step per turn — and may attack characters they pass on the way back.
• Creatures act on their own initiative at the end of each turn, spending an action budget to strike at characters sharing their location even if no encounter sheet was submitted.
• Game designers can now set a Pursuit Range for each creature type in the Studio, controlling how far a creature will roam from home when it has a target.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Combat Feel

• Weapon damage is now randomised across its full range each hit, so combat feels dynamic rather than perfectly predictable.

[Adventure] Healing Feedback

• When you use a healing item, the narrative now tells you exactly how much health was restored — no more guessing how effective the potion was.

[Adventure] Depleted Items

• Once a consumable has been used up, it is clearly marked "Empty" in your inventory and cannot be activated again by mistake. The item remains in your pack so it can be refilled or returned in a future update.

[Adventure] Turn History Continuity

• On turns where nothing of note occurred (for example, a missed turn when no creatures were nearby), you now receive a brief "quiet turn" chronicle entry confirming the turn processed, rather than a gap in your history.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Consumable items such as the Healing Draught now start with their correct number of uses, so they can actually be used when submitted on a turn sheet.
• [Adventure] A character who dies mid-turn can no longer process further location choices or object interactions in the same turn.
• [Adventure] The passage deeper into the wine cellar now correctly requires the Cellar Rat to be defeated and a light source in your inventory before it can be used.
• [Adventure] The "creature remembers you" grudge reminder no longer repeats every combat turn — it appears once per encounter so the narrative stays readable.

🗓️ 6 May 2026

Theme: Always-On Demos & Turn Sheet Clarity

🎨 Improvements

[Management] Always-Available Demo Games

• Demo game instances are now automatically maintained so there's always a joinable demo ready for each game type. New players can jump straight in without waiting for a game to be set up.

[Adventure] Clearer Item Actions

• Location items on the inventory sheet now say "Pick Up" instead of "Backpack", making the action obvious at a glance.

[Adventure] Updated Combat Instructions

• The creature encounter instructions now list all three available actions — Do Nothing, Attack, or Use Item.

[Management] Join Game Header

• Join game sheets now display the game's description in the header, so new players see what the game is about before filling in their details.

[Adventure] Explored Map First

• The Explored Map tab now appears first in the adventure turn sheet tabs, giving you the map overview before diving into action sheets.

🗓️ 5 May 2026

Theme: Cleaner Layouts & Co-op Targeting

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Balanced Turn Sheet Layout

• The character and creature presence list on the Chronicle sheet is now the same width as the Objectives and Clocks panels below it, so the sheet no longer looks stretched across the full page on desktop.
• The Creature Encounter sheet replaces the old side-by-side character/creatures column split with a compact character status bar at the top and a two-column creature card grid below — matching the proportions of the Objectives and Clocks panels. No more one wide column dominating the sheet.

[Adventure] Target Other Players in Combat

• Other player characters present at the same location now appear as valid targets on the Creature Encounter sheet. This enables cooperative actions — for example, using a healing item on an ally standing next to you.

🗓️ 4 May 2026

Theme: Chronicle Sheet & Cleaner Combat Choices

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Chronicle Sheet

• A new "Chronicle" sheet now appears at the start of your adventure game turn packet, giving you a complete chronological summary of everything that happened — movement, combat, inventory changes, and world events — all in one place.
• The sheet is read-only; no action is required. It is purely informational so you never miss a turn event buried in another sheet.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure] Redesigned Inventory Sheet

• Armour, clothing, and jewellery are now described as "Wear" and "Remove" rather than "Equip" and "Unequip", which better reflects how these items work in the game world.
• Weapons have been removed from the inventory sheet entirely. Choosing which weapon to fight with is now done directly on the creature encounter sheet, turn by turn.

[Adventure] Redesigned Creature Encounter Sheet

• Each action on the creature encounter sheet now has its own weapon and item picker. You can switch weapons between actions and choose usable items without any pre-equipping step.
• "Unarmed" is always listed as an option so you are never left without a valid combat choice.
• Combat forfeiture (the penalty for acting on both the inventory and encounter sheets) has been removed. Inventory and combat are now fully independent.

[Adventure] Chronicle Layout

• The Chronicle sheet now shows a compact character stat strip (name, HP, and inventory usage) followed by a full-width chronological event log covering everything that happened at your location, including events involving other characters and creatures present.
• Individual action sheets now display focused narrative headings ("Combat this Turn", "Inventory Changes this Turn", "Exploration this Turn") so you always know whether you are reading the full story or a filtered view.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Fixed the "summon creature" clock effect failing when triggered — creatures now appear correctly at the designated location when a clock threshold is crossed.

🗓️ 3 May 2026

Theme: Drag-and-Drop Reordering & Smarter Studio Forms

🎯 Major Features

[Studio] Drag-and-Drop Reordering

• Objectives and clocks in the designer studio can now be reordered by dragging rows instead of manually editing sort order numbers. The new drag handles work on both desktop and mobile.
• New items are automatically placed at the end of the list. If an objective is dragged above one of its prerequisites, a warning indicator appears so designers can spot ordering issues at a glance.

🎨 Improvements

[Studio] Smarter Condition & Reward Editing

• Condition and reward type dropdowns now show human-readable labels instead of raw code names, making it much easier to pick the right type.
• Adventure conditions that check object states now have a proper dropdown picker instead of requiring raw JSON input.
• Game instance status and turn number conditions have dedicated inputs — no more guessing the correct JSON format.

[Management] Validation Before Launch

• Game managers can no longer create instances for games that have validation errors, preventing broken runs before they start.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Fixed turn event rewards not displaying their player-facing message on turn sheets
• [Adventure] Fixed the objective list in the designer studio sorting by creation date instead of the designer's intended display order
• [Adventure] Fixed turn sheet objective summaries not reliably following the designer's intended display order

🗓️ 2 May 2026

Theme: Mecha Objective Conditions, Faster Loading & Homepage Refresh

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Mecha Objective Conditions

• Mecha wargame objectives now evaluate real game state automatically. Four new condition types check whether a sector has been cleared of enemies, all opposing mechs have been destroyed, all player mechs are still standing, or any player mech has been lost.
• Demo game objectives have been updated with meaningful conditions so win/loss outcomes are determined by what actually happens in battle, not just by the clock running out.

🎨 Improvements

[Platform] Faster Page Loads

• The app loads significantly faster: non-English locale translations now load on demand, static assets are served gzip-compressed, fonts have been trimmed to Latin subsets with one fewer font family, key fonts are preloaded, large images have been converted to WebP, and less-used pages load lazily.

[Platform] Refreshed Homepage & Entry Pages

• The homepage now highlights demo games with a dedicated illustrated callout and separates game genres into "Available now" and "Coming soon" sections. Studio and Management entry pages have been updated to better describe what each area offers.

[Management] Demo Badge on Management Screens

• Management views now show a clear "Demo" badge on demo game instances, making it easy to distinguish demo games from real ones at a glance.

[Platform] Mobile Navigation

• Reduced excess whitespace on the mobile home screen and moved the FAQ link to the bottom of the mobile menu to match logical priority.

[Studio] Streamlined Studio Forms

• Removed the unused "Operator" field from objective conditions and "Chassis Class" from mecha chassis, keeping designer forms focused on fields that matter.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Studio] Fixed the objective condition form sending incorrect data format for turn-number conditions
• [Studio] Fixed the prerequisite objective field using the wrong name in the objectives editor
• [Mecha] Fixed mecha demo chassis not having equipment slot counts defined, which could prevent weapon placement

🗓️ 1 May 2026

Theme: Game History, Mobile Polish & Operational Alerts

🎯 Major Features

[Management] Game Instance History View

• Game managers can now view a complete turn-by-turn event history for any running or completed game instance, accessible from the Instances list or the Instance detail page.
• Events are shown in a flat table with columns for turn, player (account and character or squad name), category, and event message.
• Filter the history by turn range and by individual players to focus on a specific part of the game.

🎨 Improvements

[Platform] Mobile Layout

• The main navigation header now shows icon-only Feedback and Help buttons on small screens, freeing up space for the page title.
• Resource tables across the app now scroll horizontally on mobile with the first column pinned so you always know which row you are reading.
• The Studio sidebar now scrolls correctly on short landscape viewports.

[Platform] Game Catalog Player Count

• Game listings now show "X of Y players enrolled" so you can see at a glance how full a game is, rather than how many spots remain.

🗓️ 30 April 2026

Theme: Explored Map, Map Designer, Studio Polish & Mecha Supply Economy

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Mecha Supply Point Economy

• Supply points now feel meaningful. Squads earn 1 SP per turn (down from 2), and every depot service has an explicit cost, so you'll need to prioritise what to repair and when.
• Armor repair (1 SP) and ammo refill (1 SP) are now player-ordered services on the Mech Management sheet rather than free automatic actions — light work that doesn't interrupt a refit.
• Structure repair now costs at least 2 SP (scaled by damage severity) instead of 1, and triggers a refit as before.
• Weapon swaps now cost 2 SP each (up from 1), reflecting the time and resources needed.
• Equipment swaps are a brand-new depot service — install a different piece of equipment in any slot for 3 SP. The full equipment catalog is shown on the Management sheet so you can plan ahead.
• The Management turn sheet now shows your current armor damage and ammo shortage at a glance, making it easy to decide which services to order each turn.

[Adventure] Explored Map Turn Sheet

• Adventure game players now receive an Explored Map tab on their turn sheet every turn, showing all the locations they have visited so far with a fog-of-war effect — unvisited locations stay hidden.
• Each visited location is shown as a thumbnail image on a grid, connected by the paths between them, so you can see your journey at a glance and plan your next move.
• The map appears from the very first turn, starting with your starting location, and grows as you explore.

[Adventure / Mecha / Studio] Map Grid Designer

• Game designers can now lay out adventure game locations and mecha game sectors on a visual grid in the Studio. Drag a location or sector to any cell to pin it; the platform auto-places newly added ones if you haven't positioned them yet.
• Use the + and − controls to grow or shrink the grid — anything from a tight 5×5 map to a sprawling open world. The grid grows automatically when it fills up.
• Upload a custom map background image for the whole game, and individual thumbnail images for each location or sector, to give your map its own look and feel.

🎨 Improvements

[Studio] Studio Help Text

• Every form field in the Studio designer now shows a hint explaining what it does and what values are valid. You no longer have to guess what "Map Grid Column" means or which image dimensions to use.

[Platform] Singleplayer / Multiplayer Labels on Game Cards

• The game catalog now shows a clear Singleplayer or Multiplayer label on each game card so you can see at a glance whether a game is designed for solo play or a group before you join.

[Mecha] Tougher Mecha AI Opponents

• Computer opponent squads now use targeting computers on their key units, making them more accurate in combat.
• Cover modifiers across sectors have been rebalanced so taking cover matters but doesn't make units invulnerable.
• The Ash Valley Marauders now use smarter tactics — they advance under cover and retreat when outgunned.

[Management] Custom Artwork for Demo Games

• "The Door Beneath the Staircase" now has a dedicated map background and a unique thumbnail image for all thirteen locations.
• "Operation Scorched Ridge" has a dedicated map background and individual thumbnails for all nine sectors, with sectors laid out geographically so the map reads like real terrain.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Adventure] Fixed the Explored Map tab not appearing on the turn sheet viewer even when the map had been generated — it was being filtered out as a completed sheet rather than shown as a read-only one.

🗓️ 28 April 2026

Theme: Game Clocks, Multiplayer Objectives & Win/Loss Conditions

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure / Mecha] Game Clocks (Threat Clocks)

• Game designers can now add threat clocks to any game type. Clocks advance automatically over time, or in response to player actions, creating rising tension throughout a scenario.
• When a clock reaches a threshold, consequences fire automatically for the entire game — narrative warning messages, creature spawns, damage, objective failures, or even game-ending events.
• All players in a game instance see clock events, so the pressure is shared across the whole group regardless of where each player is in the world.
• Clocks can be configured to advance every turn automatically, to hold steady until player actions trigger them, or a combination of both.
• A new Clocks section in the Studio designer lets you create and manage clocks, define thresholds with multiple effects, and translate all text into the game's supported languages.

[Adventure / Mecha] Multiplayer Objectives

• Objectives now support three completion modes to suit different multiplayer designs:
• _Instance_ objectives (e.g. "bless the altar") complete once for the entire game — the first player to meet the conditions advances the story for everyone.
• _Per-player_ objectives (e.g. "defeat the cellar rat") let each player complete them independently on their own timeline.
• _Contributory_ objectives require multiple players to participate before the group succeeds.
• Objective reward targeting lets designers choose whether rewards go to all players, just the triggering player, or all players at the relevant location.

[Adventure / Mecha] Win and Loss Conditions

• Both adventure games and mecha wargames now support genuine win/loss conditions through the objective and clock systems.
• Terminal success and failure objectives combined with clock threshold effects create natural endpoints — the game can end in victory, defeat, or both.

🎨 Improvements

[Adventure / Mecha] Event Broadcast to All Players

• Objective completions and clock threshold events now reach every player in a game instance, not just the player whose action triggered them. Events representing shared pressure — like a clock ticking forward — appear on all turn sheets automatically.

[Adventure / Mecha] Advance Clock Objective Reward

• Objective completions can now advance a threat clock as a consequence. Succeeding at a risky action can draw the abbey's attention, or destabilise the reactor, creating cascading tension across the game.

[Adventure] Adventure Demo Update ("The Door Beneath the Staircase")

• Two threat clocks added: _The Abbey Wakes_ (time pressure — the evil grows stronger each turn) and _Shadow Monk's Attention_ (curiosity pressure — advanced by disturbing relics). The game can now be lost if players take too long.
• All six existing objectives updated with multiplayer completion modes and reward targeting.

[Mecha] Mecha Demo Update ("Operation Scorched Ridge")

• Two threat clocks added: _Enemy Reinforcements_ (time pressure — full defeat if the clock runs out) and _Reactor Meltdown_ (escalation — fighting near the Refinery damages mechs).
• Three objectives added: _Secure the Citadel_ (primary), _Neutralise the Garrison_ (secondary), and _Survive the Operation_ (terminal success).
• Operation Scorched Ridge now has genuine win and loss conditions for the first time.

🗓️ 27 April 2026

Theme: Adventure Objectives, Source Language & Per-Record Translations

🎯 Major Features

[Adventure] Adventure Game Objectives

• Game designers can now create objectives for adventure games — primary quests, side quests, optional challenges, or hidden goals — each with conditions that the platform evaluates automatically at the end of every turn.
• Conditions check the state of the game world: whether a character has reached a location, holds an item, has defeated a creature, or whether an object is in a certain state. Objectives can also trigger based on the turn number or the status of other objectives.
• When an objective is completed or failed, rewards fire automatically — giving items, opening blocked paths, changing object states, summoning creatures, healing or damaging characters, unlocking the next objective in a chain, or ending the game in victory or defeat.
• Objectives can be chained with prerequisites to create multi-stage quest lines and branching storylines. Hidden objectives stay invisible to players until their unlock conditions are met.
• Players see their current objectives and status on the adventure turn sheet, keeping quest progress visible alongside movement and inventory choices.
• A dedicated Objectives page in the Studio lets designers build and manage everything: objectives, conditions, rewards, and prerequisite links.

[Studio] Source Language on Every Game

• Studio now lets you pick a source language for each game when you create or edit it (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, or Swedish). The name, description, and other authored fields are treated as that language for both players and the translation system.
• All existing games stay set to English so nothing changes for them automatically. Open each game's edit form and switch the source language if you actually authored it in another language — the platform won't auto-detect this for you.
• Changing the source language on a game that already has translations flags those translations as stale so the next translation pass refreshes them.

[Studio] Translate One Row at a Time

• A new Translations… action is now available on every translatable Studio table — locations, links, items, creatures, characters, location objects, location object states and effects, item effects, mecha sectors, chassis, weapons, equipment, squads, squad mechs, and computer opponents — opening a per-row translations dialog without leaving the table.
• Whole-game bulk actions stay where they are; the per-row dialog focuses on just the row you opened it from.

🎨 Improvements

[Studio] AI Translation Moving to Professional

• AI-assisted translation is on its way to becoming a feature of the upcoming Professional designer plan. Until that plan is live, the translations editor shows a Coming Soon notice for designers on the Basic plan, listing the languages each game would be translated into. Existing Pro-tier accounts (including the platform's internal test accounts) continue to see the full editor unchanged.

[Studio] Translate Published Games

• Designers can now edit and refine translations on a published game without needing to unpublish it first.

[Studio] Copy Source Text

• A copy-to-clipboard button on each source field in the translations editor makes it easy to start a manual translation from the original text.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Studio] Fixed the source language selector not saving the chosen language when creating or editing a game
• [Studio] Fixed the translations hub showing a "select a game" hint when navigating directly via URL instead of through the Studio game list

🗓️ 26 April 2026

Theme: Privacy Controls, Legal Documents & Account Refresh

🎯 Major Features

[Platform] Legal Documents in Six Languages

• Privacy policy, terms of service, cookies policy, imprint, and sub-processor list are now published in all six supported languages and accessible from the footer of every page.
• When we update a legal document that requires your acceptance, you'll be asked to review and accept the changes on your next sign-in — no surprises, no fine print buried in an email.

[Platform] Leave a Game

• Turn sheet notification emails now include a "Leave this game" link — click it to leave the game and free up your seat without needing to sign in.
• If you miss three consecutive turns, your seat is freed automatically so the game can continue without stale players.

🎨 Improvements

[Platform] Redesigned Account Pages

• Profile, Contacts, Subscriptions, Notifications, and Privacy now share a consistent layout with collapsible tables that work well on mobile.
• Game subscriptions are grouped by Player, Manager, and Designer with role-specific columns, making it easier to see everything at a glance.

[Platform] Marketing Emails

• Marketing emails are now opt-in. Existing subscribers stay subscribed; you can change this any time on Account → Privacy. New accounts pick their preference on the welcome screen, and a confirmation email with a one-click unsubscribe link goes out whenever you turn marketing on.

[Platform] Self-Hosted Fonts

• Fonts are now served directly from the platform, removing third-party requests to Google.

🗓️ 24 April 2026

Theme: Six Languages, Player Feedback & Sharper Combat

🎯 Major Features

[Platform] German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Swedish

• The platform now offers full content locales alongside English — turn sheet wording, instructions, notification emails, and much of the in-game narrative flow through the translation system so players see them in the language they choose
• A language switcher in the web app makes changing locale easy; your profile can store timezone and content language so the experience stays consistent across sessions

[Platform] Release Notes & Platform Updates in Your Language

• The public release notes page follows your chosen language (including when you open it from the app) and falls back to English if a section is not translated yet
• Weekly Platform Updates emails use each recipient's content locale for the release note body when a translation is available
• Optional weekly digest emails summarise platform news and games open for subscription; you can turn them on or off from your account notification settings
• One-click unsubscribe is available from every digest, consistent with standard practice for bulk email

[Studio] Designer Workflow for Translated Games

• In Studio you can see which game texts still need translation in each language and run a single bulk translation pass to fill the gaps when you are ready

[Platform] Player Feedback Anywhere

• A new Feedback panel is available from the sidebar across the player, manager, and Studio views — share ideas, report issues, or ask for help without leaving what you're doing
• Optional player feedback turn sheets slot into adventure and mecha games at a configurable cadence so players have a quiet, in-sheet place to tell you what's working and what isn't
• Feedback is routed straight to the support team so nothing gets lost

🎨 Improvements

[Platform] Language Picker & Site Polish

• Locale labels include a small flag emoji for quicker scanning; the footer language control has clearer colours on hover and focus
• The coming-soon banner now says “Later in 2026” to match the current roadmap timing
• Refreshed header logo on the site

[Mecha] Depot-Only Armor Repairs in Mecha Games

• Mechs now auto-repair armor only when they end the turn at a depot sector, matching how ammo is already refilled; damage taken in the field carries into the next turn so combat stays genuinely attritional

[Mecha] Punchier Demo Mecha Weapons

• Weapon damage in the demo mecha game has been buffed by roughly 40–60% (Light Pulse 3→5, Pulse 5→7, Heavy Pulse 8→11, Plasma 10→14, Rocket Pack 8→11, Missile Battery 10→14, Rotary Cannon 5→7, Chaingun 2→4) so focused fire makes visible progress against unrepaired armor

[Platform] Lighter, Faster Turn Sheet Lists

• Turn sheet lists load significantly faster for long-running games, eliminating the occasional loading failures on games with many turns of history

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Platform] Fixed an issue where a retried broadcast job could deliver the same weekly update email more than once to the same recipient

🗓️ 21 April 2026

Theme: Every Mech Gets a Sheet, Sector Art & Plain-English Equipment

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Mech Report Sheet

• Every mech now receives at least one turn sheet per turn — a new read-only Mech Report sheet covers mechs that can't act (destroyed, shutdown, or refitting) so players always have a narrative record of what happened
• Combat narrative is now routed intelligently: squad-wide events (like enemy movement across the map) appear on every mech's sheet, while per-mech events (damage taken, weapons fired, repairs completed) appear only on the mech they affect
• A "Squad" or "This Mech" label makes it clear whose story each entry is telling

[Mecha / Studio] Per-Sector Backgrounds for Mecha Orders

• Game designers can now upload a distinct background image for each sector, mirroring the per-location backgrounds already available for adventure games
• Mech Orders sheets automatically use the sector's background where the mech is stationed, falling back to the game-level mecha background if none is set
• Preview and upload controls live alongside the sector editor in the Studio

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha] Plain-English Equipment on Turn Sheets

• Equipment rows now show a readable label ("Heat Sink" instead of heat_sink) with the bonus rendered in the unit that matters — "+3 dissipation", "+15% hit", "+50 armour", "+2 hops", "+10% cover", "+100 rounds" — so players can read the effect at a glance
• The HEAT column shows a short cue describing when the cost fires — "always-on", "on attack", "on extra hop", or "on ammo fire"
• The Studio equipment form now labels the bonus as "Effect Value" (was "Magnitude") with a per-kind hint explaining what the number means for the effect you chose

[Mecha] Richer Mecha Demo Scenario

• The built-in demo mecha game now exercises the full feature set: realistic elevation and cover on every sector, a new Coolant Reservoir water sector with an alternate route to the Refinery, ammo-bearing weapons, equipment fitted to every mech covering all six effect types, and two distinct computer opponents (Iron Wolves and Ash Valley Marauders) with different aggression and tactical IQ settings
• Nine unique hand-generated sector backgrounds and a dedicated Mech Report background ship with the demo

🗓️ 20 April 2026

Theme: Mecha Equipment, Per-Mech Sheets & Tactical Awareness

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Mecha Equipment

• A brand-new equipment system for mecha games with six equipment types: heat sinks, targeting computers, armour upgrades, jump jets, ECM suites, and ammo bins
• Game designers can create equipment from a dedicated Studio page and fit it to each squad mech alongside weapons, with a live slot preview showing how everything fits into the chassis
• Equipment meaningfully changes combat — heat sinks dissipate heat between turns, targeting computers boost hit chance, ECM degrades enemy targeting, jump jets improve movement, armour upgrades add protection, and ammo bins expand a mech's shared ammo pool
• Chassis now have small, medium, and large slots with sensible defaults per weight class, so loadouts stay balanced and impossible refits are caught before they break a turn

[Mecha] Per-Mech Turn Sheets

• Mecha orders and management are now one sheet per mech instead of a single squad-wide sheet, making each sheet focused and easy to fill in
• Every sheet shares a squad header ribbon (squad name, supply points, roster status) and a compact roster of all your mechs so you never lose sight of the bigger picture
• Destroyed, shutdown, and refitting mechs no longer receive order sheets — only mechs that can actually act

[Mecha] Tactical Awareness on Mecha Sheets

• Move-To dropdowns now show terrain summary, sector description, distance in hops, and a DEPOT badge for sectors where you can repair and refit
• Enemy mechs display chassis, weight class, and a plain-English damage descriptor ("lightly damaged", "crippled", etc.) so you can pick targets at a glance
• Attack target dropdowns show per-target hop distance and flag OUT OF RANGE targets, so you know exactly which enemies each weapon can engage
• Defender squads now see incoming fire, misses, out-of-range attempts, out-of-ammo attempts, and attacker shutdown or destruction — plus enemy movement between sectors — so combat reads from both sides

🎨 Improvements

[Mecha] Mobile-Friendly Mecha Sheets

• Weapon, equipment, and catalog tables now reflow into cards on mobile screens, eliminating horizontal scrolling on phones
• Mechs that aren't at a depot collapse to a compact summary on the management sheet, keeping the full editor for mechs that can actually receive repair and refit orders

[Mecha] Lance Renamed to Squad

• "Lance" is now "Squad" everywhere in the mecha wargame type — on turn sheets, in the Studio, and in documentation — for consistent, plain-English terminology

🗓️ 7 April 2026

Theme: Mecha Wargames & Mobile Turn Sheets

🎯 Major Features

[Mecha] Mecha Wargame — New Game Type

• A brand-new game type is now available alongside adventure games: mecha wargames
• Game designers can create mecha wargame games from the Studio, with dedicated pages for managing sectors, squads, weapons, and mech configurations
• Players command a squad of mechs with full combat stats — armour, structure, heat, and weapon systems
• A squad management turn sheet lets players spend supply points to repair damaged mechs and swap weapon loadouts between battles

[Mecha] Computer Opponents for Mecha Wargames

• Mecha games can now include computer-controlled squads that make tactical combat decisions
• Solo play and mixed human/AI battles are now possible
• Game designers configure computer opponent squads from the Studio

🎨 Improvements

[Platform] Mobile-Friendly Turn Sheets

• Turn sheets are now responsive on mobile screens with optimised layouts for all sheet types
• A slide-out drawer provides access to the "What Happened" narrative panel on small screens
• Combat, inventory, and mecha weapon tables reflow for comfortable mobile viewing

[Platform] Turn Sheet Access Reliability

• Clicking a turn sheet email link after a period of inactivity now refreshes your session automatically instead of showing an error
• Turn sheet access tokens last longer, reducing the chance of expired links

[Management] Join Game Turn Sheets

• Join game sheets now show a clean layout without the empty narrative panel — since there's nothing to report yet

🐛 Bug Fixes

• [Platform] Fixed turn sheet email links sometimes failing when the session had expired
• [Mecha] Fixed the squad management tab showing an incorrect label and missing its background image
• [Management] Fixed the game creation form defaulting to adventure instead of letting you choose your game type

🗓️ 23 March 2026

Theme: Item Effects, Studio Pagination & Player Experience

🎯 Major Features

Item Effects for Weapons & Armour

• Items can now have effects that modify combat stats — weapons gain attack bonuses, armour gains defence bonuses
• A dedicated Studio page lets game designers create and manage item effects for each item
• Weapon and armour names now appear in combat action log entries (e.g. "Attack with your Rusty Dagger")

Place Item Effect

• A new location object effect type — when an object is triggered, an item can be spawned at another location in the game
• Item pickup actions can now trigger follow-on effects, opening up richer object chains

Player Subscription Confirmation

• Joining a game that requires approval now shows a clear pending state with a dedicated confirmation screen
• Players receive an email link to confirm their subscription; clicking it completes the join flow

🎨 Improvements

Studio Pagination

• All studio data tables now have Previous / Next pagination controls, making large collections easy to browse

Game Catalog

• Each game card now shows who is hosting the game ("Hosted by [Account Name]")
• Remaining open spots in an instance are displayed so you can see at a glance if there's room

Account Profile

• Your account name is now visible and editable directly from your profile page

Game Instance Creation

• Turn duration and "process when all submitted" settings are now configurable in the create instance form
• The turn duration field pre-fills with the game's configured default

Demo Game Content

• Three new locations added to the demo game: The Sacristy, The Ossuary, and The Infirmary
• Three new creatures: Crypt Spider, Bone Revenant, and Drowned Monk
• Six new items: Rusty Dagger, Monk's Iron Mace, Leather Cuirass, Healing Draught, Brass Thurible, and Tarnished Locket

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed creature portrait images missing from encounter turn sheets
• Fixed the game catalog being too wide on mobile screens
• Fixed attempting to join a game you've already joined now showing a clear error instead of failing silently
• Fixed pending-approval subscriptions now expiring after 24 hours, freeing reserved game slots automatically

🗓️ 20 March 2026

Theme: Interactive Location Objects & Game Instance Controls

🎯 Major Features

Interactive Location Objects

• Locations can now contain interactive objects — chests, levers, altars, wells, gates, and more
• Each object supports a set of actions (inspect, touch, open, break, pull, and many others)
• Interacting with an object can change its state, give you an item, damage or heal your character, reveal hidden objects, or unlock blocked paths
• Objects with multiple states (e.g. locked → unlocked → open) respond differently depending on their current condition
• Available objects and their actions appear on your location choice turn sheet alongside paths — choosing an action means you stay in place and interact rather than move
• Objects can be hidden until triggered by another effect elsewhere in the game

🎨 Improvements

Per-Instance Turn Duration

• Game managers can now set a turn duration (in hours) when creating a game instance, controlling how long players have between turns
• Turn duration can be edited inline while the instance is still in the 'created' state

Delete Cancelled Game Instances

• Game managers can now permanently delete instances that have been cancelled
• A delete button appears in the completed instances table for cancelled instances

Edit Published Games

• Game designers can now edit a published game directly from the Studio without needing to unpublish it first

Location Link Travel Log Preview

• The Studio location links view now shows a live preview of how the travel log entry will read for a link, including traversal description

Creature Encounter Turn Sheet

• The character panel in combat sheets now shows your attack and defence stats, along with the name of your equipped weapon and armour
• Creature health is now correctly capped at its maximum value

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed location link return paths having different names to their forward-direction counterparts
• Fixed creature health displaying above the creature's maximum health value
• Fixed action radio button labels appearing below the button instead of beside it in encounter sheets

🗓️ 18 March 2026

Theme: Player Game Experience & Adventure Game Foundations

🎯 Major Features

Public Game Catalog

• Players can now browse all published games from a dedicated catalog page
• Join a game directly from the catalog with a single click

Player App & Turn Sheet Viewer

• A dedicated player experience for viewing and completing turn sheets
• Access your turn sheets securely via a link in your notification email — no password required
• Navigate between sheets, fill them in, and submit — all from the browser

Join Game Flow

• Players sign in and complete a join game turn sheet to enter a game
• Choose your preferred delivery method (email or post) when joining

Unified Link Requirements

• Game designers can now control which paths players can see and traverse, based on items they carry, items they have equipped, or creatures they have defeated
• Locked paths display an atmospheric description so players know something blocks the way — without revealing exactly what
• Hidden paths are omitted from the turn sheet entirely until conditions are met

Link Requirements Studio UI

• New view in the Game Designers for creating and editing link requirements
• Supports item-based and creature-based conditions for both visibility and traversal

🎨 Improvements

Simplified Turn Sheet UI

• Form data is now cached automatically as you move between sheets
• A single Submit button saves and submits all sheets at once — no manual Save or Mark Ready steps

Delivery Method Selection

• Players choose how they receive future turn sheets (email or post) during the join flow
• Games configured with a single delivery method skip the choice automatically

Turn Sheet Ordering

• Adventure game sheets now appear in a consistent order: location choice first, then inventory management
• Combat sheets will appear in the correct place once the monster encounter feature launches

Equipment & Inventory

• Items at a location are now auto-picked-up before equipping, matching the intent of the turn sheet
• Item actions on the inventory sheet use radio buttons instead of checkboxes, making choices mutually exclusive

Account Contacts

• Contact detail fields (address, phone) are now optional unless you choose postal delivery

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed equipment slot errors when equipping non-weapon items (e.g. armour)
• Fixed turn sheet background images missing from location choice and inventory sheets
• Fixed duplicate turn processing jobs being queued for the same game instance
• Fixed the player turn sheet view being too narrow on some screens
• Fixed join game submission failing due to a missing account ID

🗓️ 28 February 2026

Theme: Accounts, Subscriptions & Permissions

🎯 Major Features

Multiple Users per Account

• You can now have multiple users under a single account, each with their own email and postal contact details
• Each user signs in independently and has their own session

Subscription Tiers

• Choose between Basic and Professional subscriptions for Game Designer, Manager, and Player roles
• Basic Game Designer lets you create up to 10 games; Professional is unlimited
• Your subscription determines what you can access across the platform

Subscription Management

• View your active subscriptions, their tier, and limits from your account page
• See your game subscriptions and cancel Player or Manager subscriptions when needed
• Subscribe to published games directly from the management dashboard

Permissions & Access

• What you can see and do is now tied to your active subscriptions
• Game Designers, Game Managers, and Players each get access to their relevant features automatically

Game Validation

• Before creating a game instance, you can now validate your game to check it's ready — the system reports any issues with severity levels so you know what to fix

Email Notifications

• Turn sheets can now be delivered via email notification
• Secure turn sheet access links with time-limited tokens

Inventory Management Turn Sheets

• New turn sheet type for managing character inventory
• Characters now have inventory capacity that carries across turns

🎨 Improvements

Game Masters Dashboard

• Browse published games available for subscription
• Subscribe as a Manager with one click
• Games you're already subscribed to are filtered out

Game Instance Creation

• Choose delivery methods (email, postal) when creating a game instance
• Clearer form layout with checkboxes and helpful info notices

Sign-In & Navigation

• Smoother redirect after signing in to the studio or admin areas
• Game management now opens directly to the turn sheets page

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where downloading a join game turn sheet could fail
• Fixed turn sheet background images not fully loading before PDF generation
• Fixed game creation validation in some edge cases

🗓️ 30 November 2025

Theme: Turn Sheet Art & Game Subscriptions

🎯 Major Features

Turn Sheet Background Images

• Upload custom background artwork for your join game turn sheets at the game level
• Upload location-specific backgrounds for location choice turn sheets
• If a location doesn't have its own image, it falls back to the game-level background
• Preview your turn sheets as PDFs before sending them out
• Supports WebP, PNG, and JPEG (up to 1MB)

Game Subscription & Join Workflow

• Players can now subscribe to your game and go through an approval process
• Generate and download join game turn sheets for approved subscribers

AI-Powered Turn Sheet Scanning

• Scanned turn sheets are now read using AI vision instead of basic OCR, giving much more accurate results

Starting Locations

• Define which locations players can start in
• Choose starting locations when designing your adventure game

🎨 Improvements

Game Designers

• Upload turn sheet images directly from the game and location edit screens
• Preview turn sheets from the resource table
• Consistent sidebar layout with a game context menu

Game Masters

• Download and upload turn sheets from the management interface
• Cleaner resource table layout for game instances

Layout & Navigation

• Consistent sidebar layouts across pages
• Inline action buttons instead of dropdown menus
• Fixed modal display issues on mobile devices

🗓️ 29 October 2025

Theme: Turn Sheet Scanning & Production Launch

🎯 Major Features

Turn Sheet Scanning

• Scan filled-in turn sheets and have the system read player responses automatically
• Handles handwriting quirks and common scan artifacts
• Supports location choice turn sheets with checkbox detection

Turn Sheet PDF Generation

• Generate polished PDF turn sheets for your players
• Consistent layout with turn sheet codes positioned for easy scanning
• Join game turn sheets ready for distribution

🎨 Improvements

• Removed the hero decoration from the home page for a cleaner look
• Added support email (support@playbymail.games) to the footer

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed various scanning accuracy issues

🗓️ 30 September 2025

Theme: Getting Started

🎯 Major Features

• Turn sheet processing system — the foundation for generating, distributing, and scanning turn sheets
• Character-based gameplay with game instance support