What’s new in DotDuel

Alpha 0.4.17.0

Added

• A full guide, strategy tips and FAQ on the website, linked from the Rules screen.

Alpha 0.4.16.0

Changed

• New players choose their own public name. Lithuanian letters are allowed.

Fixed

• Your game continues after reloading or reopening the app.
• End of Square and Rectangle games: a hint shows when only line claims are left, and tapping an empty spot tells you so.
• “Sign in to play” buttons now open sign-in.
• Theme picker no longer opens twice.

Alpha 0.4.15.0

Polish before testing

Added

• You can unblock players again in Friends → All.

Changed

• Buttons, pop-ups and screen titles have the same carved-wood look as the menu.
• More of the game is translated, including default player names.
• The app downloads far less; the artwork is about 8× smaller.
• Achievement pop-ups are paused for now; achievements still unlock.

Fixed

• The results screen scrolls on small phones, so Share is always reachable.
• Resigning asks first, and so does leaving a two-player game midway.
• In ranked games where the bot moves first, older app versions no longer abort the match.

Alpha 0.4.14.0

A fresh look for the menu

Changed

• The home menu has a new carved-wood look: one sign with your greeting, wooden buttons, and everything fits on one screen.
• Language and theme pickers moved to the bottom bar.
• On phones, the score is now one bar above the board, with both full names, ratings and a big score in the middle.

Fixed

• In ranked games against bots, who moves first is now a coin flip, so you no longer always start.

Alpha 0.4.13.0

Daily results calendar

Added

• The daily-puzzle leaderboard is now a calendar. See each day’s winner at a glance, and tap any day to see everyone who played it, from top to bottom.

Alpha 0.4.12.4

Fixed a multiplayer move sometimes vanishing after you placed it

Fixed

• In online matches, placing a dot could occasionally disappear right after you placed it, forcing you to place it again — caused by a network hiccup silently discarding the move. It now retries automatically, and if it still fails you'll see a clear message instead of the dot just vanishing.

Alpha 0.4.12.3

Player cards actually line up now

Fixed

• On phones, the two player cards could end up looking nothing alike — one card’s avatar and score in different spots than the other’s. Avatar, name, and score now sit in the exact same place on both cards, always.

Alpha 0.4.12.2

More of the app speaks your language

Added

• Every past patch note in this changelog (all the way back) is now available in Lithuanian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Czech, not just English.

Fixed

• The AI opponent’s name, the shared victory-card image/text, and a couple of connection-status screens were stuck in English regardless of your language setting — now translated.

Alpha 0.4.12.1

Fix

Fixed

• Fixed the board jumping/shrinking on phones when a score crossed from 2 to 3 digits.

Alpha 0.4.12.0

Polish pass

Fixed

• Moved the language picker to the top-left so it no longer overlaps the logo (theme button stays top-right).
• The two player cards on phones now mirror each other properly instead of looking lopsided.
• Hot-seat colour swatches and the “swap colours” setting now match your chosen theme instead of always showing cream/green.
• The back button/gesture now steps back through menus and screens one at a time instead of leaving the app — ranked games and daily puzzle attempts still ask for confirmation first.

Alpha 0.4.11.0

How to play

Added

• New “How to play” guide with little animated examples on a real board — watch a corner score 1, a line complete, several lines wait to be claimed, and how lines run in every direction on the Triangle (3 ways) and Square (4 ways). Open it from the footer, next to Rules; tap a board to pause, swipe or use the arrows to browse.

Changed

• The colour theme is now chosen from Settings (it moved out of the footer to make room for “How to play”).

Alpha 0.4.10.1

Fixes

Fixed

• Achievement-unlock pop-ups and the language menu are now solid and easy to read (they used to be see-through, so text behind showed through). The achievement pop-up is also bigger.
• Signing in on a new device no longer pops up every achievement you had already earned.
• The “Cornered” achievement (score a 1-point corner line) now unlocks — it wasn’t being tracked before.

Alpha 0.4.10.0

Fully translated

Changed

• The whole app is now translated, not just the menus. Your Profile, Friends and invites, the multiplayer lobby and match screens, the Game Over screen, Rankings and the daily-puzzle leaderboard, sharing, and all 97 Achievements (names and descriptions) now appear in English, Lithuanian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Czech.

Alpha 0.4.9.0

Languages

Added

• DotDuel now speaks six languages: English, Lithuanian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Czech. Pick yours from the language button in the top-right of the menu.
• The game now starts in your language automatically — from your browser settings on the web, and from your device language on the app.

Alpha 0.4.8.0

Achievements

Added

• Achievements! Earn up to 100 badges for playing — beating the Bots on each shape and level, win streaks, daily-puzzle runs, day streaks and big milestones. Find them under Rankings → Achievements; each badge lights up in your theme’s colours when unlocked, and you get a “🏆 Achievement unlocked” pop the moment you earn one.
• Pin a favourite badge to show beside your name while you play.

Alpha 0.4.7.0

New menu + Bots

Changed

• The main menu is reorganised into three clear sections — Single player, Multiplayer, and Rankings — each opening a tidy list with its own icons.
• The computer opponents are now called “Bots” instead of “AI” throughout.
• Choosing a board shape or a bot level now shows a matching icon — the board shape, and each bot’s own face for its difficulty.

Fixed

• On Android the app now stays in portrait when you tilt your phone.

Alpha 0.4.6.2

Changed

• Reworked the shared result card: a bigger board, the result shown simply as Win / Loss / Draw, and the QR code now a game-coloured code in the middle of the board with a “Scan to play now!” label.

Alpha 0.4.6.0

Added

• Shared result cards now carry a scannable QR code — friends can point their camera (or long-press the picture) to jump straight into the game. Invite links use a private invite code instead of your account id.

Alpha 0.4.5.3

Changed

• Share card redesigned: the board now sits on its real 3D felt table like in the game, the text is centered, and the DotDuel.com address is much easier to read.

Alpha 0.4.5.2

Fixed

• Share card is now rendered at double resolution — no more visible pixels when the picture is opened full-screen in Messenger or WhatsApp.

Alpha 0.4.5.1

Fixed

• Share card: the board now looks like the real game (line thickness matched; dots no longer buried on busy boards) and the score no longer overlaps the "pts" label.

Alpha 0.4.5.0

Faster on phones

Added

• Leaderboard now shows placeholder rows while loading and a retry button if your connection drops.
• Android app: the back button now closes open popups instead of quitting the game.

Changed

• Lighter graphics effects during play — the game runs noticeably smoother on budget phones, with no change to the look.
• Privacy policy updated: backend provider corrected to Supabase, Android app and AdMob disclosures added.

Alpha 0.4.4.0

Share your result

Added

• New "Share result" button on the end-of-game screen — it builds a picture of your finished board with the score and shares it anywhere, along with a link your friends can use to play you.

Alpha 0.4.3.0

Cleaner board, bigger text

Changed

• Removed the in-game tip bubbles that popped up mid-match — they flashed by too fast to read and got in the way. The Rules screen and the "See unclaimed lines" view still teach the scoring.
• Bumped every bit of small text up to a minimum readable size across the whole app for better legibility and accessibility.

Alpha 0.4.2.0

Daily puzzle reborn — one shared board, race the clock

Added

• The daily puzzle is now the same board for everyone, every day: a random shape with a pre-played opening, then 3 minutes on the clock to rack up the highest score. Best of 3 attempts.

Changed

• Daily ranking is now by your score (not the margin vs the AI), and the leaderboard shows each day's winner for the last 30 days.

Alpha 0.4.1.0

Color themes restyle the whole board

Added

• Color themes now restyle the entire board — the playing surface, pieces, win celebration, and buttons all match the scheme you pick, instead of a green board showing under every theme.

Changed

• In online matches, who moves first is now a fair coin flip, and rematches alternate who starts — so over a series you each get the first move about half the time.
• The computer opponent moves quicker, so games against the AI feel more responsive.
• Menus, popovers, and the end-of-game screen open more smoothly with less lag.

Fixed

• Locked shapes and difficulties now show a clear padlock instead of looking greyed-out or broken.
• The email and password sign-in fields are now clearly visible, and pieces read more clearly against the board in every theme.

Alpha 0.4.0.0

Server upgrade + smoother multiplayer

Changed

• Moved multiplayer to a new, faster backend for more reliable matches.
• Game invites stay on screen until your friend answers, and you can accept them right from the results screen.

Fixed

• Multiplayer clocks are now smooth and fair — your clock no longer jumps or keeps running after you move.
• You’re now automatically findable by your username, so friends can add you without extra steps.

Alpha 0.3.7.0

Auto-updating app + menu scroll fix

Added

• The app now auto-updates — if you’ve added DotDuel to your home screen, it picks up new versions on its own instead of getting stuck on an old cached build.

Fixed

• On phones the menu now scrolls properly so the Rankings card at the bottom is fully visible.

Alpha 0.3.6.1

Mobile board position

Fixed

• The mobile board now actually pulls up near the player cards (the previous attempt didn’t take effect).

Alpha 0.3.6.0

Sign in to play

Added

• First load now opens with a “Sign in to play” screen — sign in for multiplayer + cloud-synced progress, or pick “play anonymous” to jump straight in.

Fixed

• On phones the board now sits up near the player cards instead of leaving a big gap above it.

Alpha 0.3.5.0

Past puzzle winners + tidier rankings

Added

• Puzzle leaderboard now has a “Recent winners” tab — who won each of the last 30 days, with the date next to each name.

Changed

• Global Elo rankings now lead with the rating: rank, Elo, then player name.

Alpha 0.3.4.0

Win celebrations scale with difficulty

Changed

• Your win celebration now grows with the challenge — a small flurry for a Beginner win, building level by level up to the full gold show for defeating Impossible.

Alpha 0.3.3.0

A cleaner, more polished board — beta-ready

Changed

• Redesigned the board frame: the felt now sits in an evenly-spaced, smooth rounded-corner bezel with a subtle recessed 3D look — and it frames every shape correctly, including the triangle’s sharp point (previously the outline looked uneven).

Fixed

• Player cards in a game now sit fully on screen as rounded cards instead of bleeding off the edges.
• Fixed an in-game tip popup whose text could overflow the board.

Alpha 0.3.2.0

A more premium look · win celebrations

Added

• Win celebrations! Finishing a game with a win sets off fireworks and confetti — with an over-the-top gold show for defeating the Impossible AI.

Changed

• Visual polish pass — buttons and the Vs-AI / shape / difficulty cards now have real tactile 3D depth (they lift on hover and press in on click), and primary buttons match each theme’s colour instead of always being green.

Alpha 0.3.1.0

Straight into the game · clearer home-screen how-to

Changed

• Removed the intro tutorial pop-up — the game now opens straight to the menu. The how-to-play is a single clear line right on the home screen, and the full rules are always one tap away via the ? button.

Alpha 0.3.0.0

Ads support the free game · multiplayer no-show protection

Added

• Small ads now appear on the menu and free single-player screens (Vs-AI, Hot-seat, Daily) to keep DotDuel free to run. No ads during ranked multiplayer games. Consent is handled by a Google privacy prompt.
• Multiplayer no-show protection: if a player doesn’t make their first move within 10 seconds, the game aborts with no rating change for either side — so a disconnect or distraction at the start never costs you.

Alpha 0.2.9.0

Visual revamp + readable on every theme

Changed

• Fresh look: new typography, a framed board that matches each shape (triangle, diamond, square), brighter pieces, and clearer scores.
• Player panels scale down gracefully as the screen shrinks — on phones they collapse to a compact card with the avatar beside the name, giving the board more room.
• Settings, Rules, and Privacy are tidied into clean cards that are easier to scan.

Fixed

• Empty dots now read clearly on every theme instead of fading into the board — especially on the light themes.
• Buttons, the Game-Over screen, and popovers are no longer hard to read on the light themes (Monochrome Pro, Vintage Press) — text and backgrounds keep proper contrast everywhere now.

Alpha 0.2.8.0

Full keyboard play

Added

• Full keyboard play: Tab to the board, arrow keys to move between dots, Enter or Space to place or claim a line.

Changed

• Ranked matches now find you a bot opponent in about 15 seconds when no human is available, instead of up to a minute.

Alpha 0.2.7.2

Fix: endgame flicker / black screen

Fixed

• The mid-to-late game flicker (and occasional black screen) on busier boards is gone. Each completed line used to render with an additive blend effect for a brighter highlight; on Square and Rectangle this stacked dozens of GPU compositor layers, eventually overflowing mobile graphics memory. Lines now render with simple high-contrast colours instead — the bright "ribbon" look is preserved, the crash is not.

Alpha 0.2.7.1

Fix: no more flicker on Square/Rectangle

Fixed

• The "See unclaimed lines" highlight now only appears on the Triangle board. On Square and Rectangle it occasionally caused the screen to flicker and go dark when many lines were unclaimed. The toggle is hidden on those shapes until the underlying visual bug is fixed.

Alpha 0.2.7.0

Daily puzzle: 3 tries + leaderboard

Added

• New "Puzzle leaderboard" card on the menu. Today's top margins live, sorted from biggest to smallest. Ties broken by who finished first. Historical leaderboards (by day, month, name search) coming soon.

Changed

• You now get 3 attempts at today's puzzle instead of 1. Your best margin is the one that counts — the streak still bumps after your first finish of the day.

Alpha 0.2.6.0

Today's puzzle

Added

• New "Today's puzzle" card on the menu. One try per day vs the Hard AI on a rotating shape. Score is your margin (you minus AI), and each win adds a day to your Profile streak. Tomorrow's puzzle unlocks at midnight UTC.

Changed

• Sign-in required to play the daily puzzle and build a streak — the streak lives on your account so it works across devices.

Alpha 0.2.5.0

Daily streak plumbing

Added

• New "Daily streak" section in your Profile, ready for the daily puzzle (coming next). Once the puzzle ships, completing it each day builds your streak across all your devices — stored on your account, not your browser, so it survives cache clears and device switches.

Alpha 0.2.4.0

Share + invite from the menu

Added

• You can now share DotDuel right from the main menu. Signed-in players get "Invite a friend" — links carry your referral so they auto-friend you when they sign up. Anyone not signed in sees a "Share DotDuel" link below sign-in for a quick clean share of the game.

Alpha 0.2.3.0

Learning hints + claimable-lines toggle

Added

• Contextual hints that appear once as you learn: first time you score, first time a single move closes two lines (biggest-only rule), first time a line is waiting to be claimed at the start of your turn, and near the end of the game.
• New "Show claimable lines" eye-icon toggle next to the rules button in vs-AI Beginner/Easy/Medium/Hard. Defaults on for Beginner-Medium, off for Hard. Hidden in Impossible, hot-seat, and multiplayer — reading the board is part of the challenge.

Changed

• Internal settings storage was upgraded; you'll be asked to re-enter your name and will see the tutorial popover again on first load. Stats, unlocks, and account data are unaffected.

Alpha 0.2.2.0

Visible scoring

Added

• Scoring is now visible: a floating +N pops from the dot that completes the line in your colour, your score badge pulses when it changes, and the "lines to claim" badge flashes when a new line goes pending.

Alpha 0.2.1.0

Behind-the-scenes telemetry

Changed

• Internal: added anonymous funnel analytics for players who accepted the cookie banner — helps us see where the game frustrates new players so we can smooth them out. No personal data leaves the device.

Alpha 0.2.0.0

Friends & invites

Added

• Friends list. Add a friend by username, see which friends are online and what they're doing (vs AI, hot-seat, ranked match), invite a friend to a specific game (your choice of shape, time control, ranked or casual). Invites you receive while you're in a game stay queued and appear the moment you're back on the menu. A ranked invite counts for Elo only if both sides chose Ranked; otherwise it's a casual match. After a multiplayer match you can add the opponent as a friend with one tap.
• Tell-a-friend: invite people to try DotDuel — they don't need an account yet. Uses your phone's share sheet or your email client; we never see their address. When they sign up, you get a friend request from them automatically.
• Settings → Privacy: choose who can challenge you (Everyone / Friends only / Nobody) and whether your live status is visible to friends.

Alpha 0.1.5.0

Backend cleanup

Changed

• Internal: multiplayer game state migrated entirely to the new transport. The old Realtime Database path is no longer used for game data. No visible difference — if anything, slightly snappier.

Alpha 0.1.4.4

Refresh goes home

Fixed

• Hard-refreshing the page after a finished game now returns to the main menu instead of replaying the same Game Over screen on every reload.

Alpha 0.1.4.3

Ready button + stale tab cleanup

Fixed

• Ready button now responds instantly when you tap it instead of waiting for the network round-trip, and vs AI the game starts the moment you press it (no waiting for the countdown).
• If you took over the multiplayer session on a second device, the first device no longer shows a phantom game over for the game you finished there.

Alpha 0.1.4.2

Session lock recovery

Changed

• Stuck session locks now clear themselves twice as fast (45s instead of 90s) when the holding tab is gone.

Fixed

• If a previous session got stuck holding the multiplayer lock, you can now tap the Multiplayer button to take over here instead of waiting for it to clear.

Alpha 0.1.4.1

Multiplayer polish

Changed

• Menu buttons aligned to the same size for a cleaner look.

Fixed

• Ready button now actually starts the game as soon as both sides press it (vs AI, that means as soon as you press it).
• First move of a match no longer takes 8-9 seconds before your opponent reacts.
• Signing in on a second device no longer accidentally drops it into your active game on the first.

Alpha 0.1.4.0

Multiplayer now works on more networks

Fixed

• Multiplayer now connects on networks that previously blocked the game server (Whalebone, AdGuard, NextDNS, Brave Shields, and similar DNS-level filters). The game uses a new transport path that travels over standard HTTPS and is not blocked by tracker-blocking lists. If multiplayer used to get stuck on the loading screen for you, try again.

Alpha 0.1.3.6

Clock display fix

Fixed

• Multiplayer clock display no longer flickers on each move.

Alpha 0.1.3.5

Friendly offline message

Added

• If your network blocks the game server (common with mobile ad/tracker blockers like AdGuard, NextDNS, or Whalebone), Multiplayer now shows a clear explanation with troubleshooting tips instead of getting stuck on a loading screen. Single-player vs AI works offline as usual.

Alpha 0.1.3.1

Mobile button fix

Fixed

• Multiplayer and Sign-out buttons sometimes did nothing on privacy-strict mobile browsers (Brave, Firefox Focus). The UI now transitions immediately and cleanup happens in the background.

Alpha 0.1.3.0

Bot Army — never wait alone

Added

• If no human is found within ~15s, you'll be paired with a ranked AI opponent (Pip, Cricket, Ranger, Knight, or Voidstar). They count for Elo and appear on the leaderboard.

Changed

• Searching screen now tells you when a bot might step in.

Fixed

• Rematch button now hides when your opponent was a bot (bots don't accept rematches).

Alpha 0.1.2.5

Signup fix follow-up

Added

• Sign-out button on the pick-name screen so you're never stuck

Fixed

• Picking a username now works even if a previous signup attempt left a half-finished profile

Alpha 0.1.2.4

Signup fix

Fixed

• Signing up with a new account no longer fails with a 'missing permissions' error when picking a username

Alpha 0.1.2.3

Sharable links + security hardening

Added

• Browser tab icon and home-screen icon — the two DotDuel dots show up wherever you bookmark or install the game
• Share previews — pasting the DotDuel link into Discord, Telegram, Slack, or Twitter now renders a card with the wordmark and tagline instead of a blank box

Changed

• Username changes now happen atomically — the old name is released and the new one claimed in the same operation
• Behind-the-scenes security hardening — stricter content-security policy, server-side rate limits on account deletion and username checks, scheduled cleanup of finished games (within ~24h per privacy policy), and hashed UIDs in server logs

Alpha 0.1.2.2

Multiplayer pacing + readability

Added

• Multiplayer board shape unlocks at 50 and 100 ranked games (Square then Rectangle)

Changed

• Bullet (1 min) and Rapid (5 min) temporarily locked — only Blitz (3 min) available while the player base grows
• Rules popover now says multiplayer is live

Fixed

• 'DotDuel champion' and 'Impossible — defeated' titles were invisible on light themes

Alpha 0.1.2.1

Theme polish

Changed

• Each colour theme now has its own text and wordmark colours instead of borrowing the default green

Fixed

• Provisional badge was invisible on the Vintage Press parchment theme

Alpha 0.1.2

UX polish

Added

• Theme picker now reachable from every screen via the footer
• Clock visible on mobile in multiplayer

Changed

• Last-move highlight now shows the opponent's dot, not yours
• Win screen now tells you HOW you won (on time / on points / opponent resigned)

Fixed

• Mobile popovers were impossible to close — close button now reliably reachable
• Footer pill wraps to a second line on narrow phones instead of being cut off
• Theme picker and other popovers are now properly scrollable when content is taller than the screen
• Popovers were unreadable on desktop when the cookie banner was visible — popup sizing now reserves room properly

Alpha 0.1

DotDuel goes live!

Added

• Public alpha launch — multiplayer, ranking, themes, sun-friendly mode