What's new in Inktide

The changes you would notice while playing, newest first, each dated the day it was made. Work that happens out of sight, such as servers, dashboards and the reviews a portal asks for, is not listed here; everything that changes what you see, tap or can do in a match is.

When a rule on the Rules page changes, that change is listed here too, on the day it happens, and so does a change to the Privacy policy — both are promises, and a promise that moves quietly has moved for nothing.

16 September 2026

• The privacy page answers the advertising questions. It now says in plain words what an advertising cookie is for, who is allowed to set one, and the two addresses that turn personalised advertising off across the whole internet rather than in this game alone.

15 September 2026

• More to read before you play. A Controls page lists every gesture, click and key the game understands, a new dev blog explains how private rooms work and why the map has no countries, and this page now lists the changes you can actually notice.
• Late friends get the next round. A friend who opens your room's link while a match is under way now waits in the room, can watch if the room allows it, and is seated when the next round starts, instead of being sent off to a public match.
• Invitations survive a match. If a friend's room link reaches you in the middle of a public match, the invitation is kept, and your next press of Play takes you to their room.
• Rooms reopen after every match. A private room used to stay locked once its match was over. It now opens again for another round under the same code, while a lock the host set by hand stays where the host put it.
• A whole class can join one room. Lots of people joining the same room from one school or office connection no longer hit the limit meant for scripts that guess codes. Only a wrong code counts against it now.
• Play again without scrolling. The Play again button is back on the first screen of the results, so starting your next match never means scrolling past everything else first.
• Fewer reminders to save. The offer to save your progress to an account appears after your first match and then only at moments worth keeping, such as a first win or a first finished quest. One tap closes it.
• A strategy guide and an about page. The strategy guide explains the numbers behind taking land, building and crossing water, and the about page says who makes the game and how to reach a person.

14 September 2026

• No long wait when you are alone. When you are the only person in a lobby, its countdown lasts a few seconds instead of half a minute and the map vote is shorter too. As soon as a second person arrives, the full countdown comes back.
• More map, fewer panels. On phones and small windows the panels around the map are more compact, the player list folds away while you choose your start, and the camera frames the map in the space the panels leave free.

10 September 2026

• A home of its own. Inktide moved to its own address, inktide.io.

5 September 2026

• See where your ship is going. A transport at sea shows a mark on the shore it is heading for, so you no longer have to remember where you sent it.
• Stay and watch the finish. Knocked out before the end? A button on the results lets you keep watching the board until somebody wins, with Play again and Leave still one tap away.
• One rising sea, and a way out of it. In matches where the sea rises, the water now closes in on one point of the map instead of eating at every coastline, and a player whose land is going under can escape by ship to another shore, losing soldiers while at sea.
• A clear edge to the flood. The line where the flood has stopped is drawn plainly, so you can see at a glance how far the water has come.

4 September 2026

• Drag a building onto the map. Pick a card up from the build strip and drag it where you want it. The spot turns red where nothing can be built, and the building appears the moment you let go.
• Captured buildings are yours. Take land with a finished building on it and the building now works for you instead of being destroyed. One still under construction is lost.
• Start on any island. Any island, however small, can be chosen as the place you start.
• Tap your own land to steer. Tapping land you already hold no longer answers with an error. It steers the growth of your border toward the point you tapped.
• Videos no longer buy a head start. Watching an optional video used to give a bigger starting army. Its reward now sits outside the match, such as double experience, so nobody starts a match ahead of anybody else.
• Warships. A player with a finished Port can buy a warship and tap the patch of sea it should guard.

3 September 2026

• Install it like an app. Returning players are offered a way to put the game on their home screen, starting with their second visit. A first visit is never asked.
• The Daily Tide. One map a day, with the same coastline and the same bots for everybody who plays it, so the results can be compared.
• Watch a match live. Anybody holding a room's watch link can follow its match as it happens, without taking a seat.

2 September 2026

• Reclaim land from the sea. Spend soldiers to turn a tile of water beside your coast into new land.

30 August 2026

• Private rooms. Open a room of your own, send its link, and play with whoever follows it.
• Coins, building times and trade. Buildings are paid for in coins rather than soldiers and take a few seconds to finish, and ports belonging to different players trade with each other for income.
• Choose where you start. While the lobby fills you see the map of the coming match, and a tap on it picks your starting ground.

29 August 2026

• One tap to attack. An order takes a single tap instead of two, and the whole game speaks English.
• The first match. The first playable version of Inktide went online.