0.5.5 - Current Release

• Logging in or starting a guest session from the Main screen now keeps you on Main instead of jumping straight to Lobbies.
• The Stats tile now works for guests too, tapping it opens the login prompt instead of doing nothing.
• Tidied up the Main screen layout so the logo and welcome text sit centered above the dock instead of leaving a growing gap as the dock grows.
• Leaving a lobby now feels instant, no more waiting on the server before you're back at Lobbies.
• Fixed a bug where logging in and out quickly could leave a stray extra connection open, sometimes causing chat messages to show up twice.
• Guests and bots no longer show up on the leaderboard under a throwaway name.

0.5.4

• Your own chat messages now show up as "You" instead of your username.
• Chat messages no longer have a pixel border around each line, it made a busy log look cluttered.
• Fixed a bug where sending chat right after logging in (without reloading the page) could still post under your old guest name.

0.5.3

• Cleaned up how we measure match data behind the scenes, so we can better understand how long games actually take and whether they get finished, saved, or abandoned. No effect on how you play.
• Ads were never actually running, the code for them was just sitting there unused, costing bandwidth for nothing. We removed it. Ads will come back once UNI is polished enough that we feel good asking for your attention, not before.
• The "UNO!" calling button is gone. The rule is only fun at a physical table, where everyone is watching to catch you slipping up — clicking a button on a screen just adds an extra step with none of that payoff. It was also a copyright headache not worth carrying for a mechanic nobody would miss.

0.5.2

• Chat is live! Global chat, party chat and DMs with friends now actually talk to the server, no more test messages. Join the room and you'll see recent chat history right away, and you can scroll up to load older messages.
• Friends are real too! Add a friend by username, accept or reject incoming requests, and message them directly.
• Party chat now only works while you're actually in a lobby, you'll see a message telling you to join one first, and its history loads properly now too, just like Global and DMs.
• Chat messages now have the same pixel-bordered look as the rest of the UI.
• The lobby got a full makeover. Each seat is now dealt out as an actual playing card in your color, the host's crown sits right on their avatar, and empty seats pulse gently while waiting for a player. It's mobile-friendly too, with seats arranged in a neat grid on smaller screens.
• Kicking or promoting a player is now a right-click (or a tap, on phones and tablets) on their seat.
• Lobby settings now open in their own popup instead of a side panel.
• Logging in or registering now opens as a popup instead of taking you to a whole new screen.
• Added a Discord icon to the social links on the main screen.

0.5.1

• Nothing changed for you, but we made it easier and faster for the website to be found online!

0.5.0

• There's a new chat panel! Open it from any screen to chat in Global, with your party, or with a friend directly. It's early, friends and messages are for testing right now.
• Chat now automatically masks offensive language across many languages, and you can no longer register a username using one either.
• Settings Screen! you can now customize your preferences about music volume. More settings are to come!
• Thanks to birdrun, we now have background music! More is coming... :)
• Notifications can now be swiped away instead of waiting for them to fade out.
• You can now play as a guest! You can browse, join and play without creating an account. Stats and saved matches still need an account, though.
• Switched the UNI's icons to a crisp pixel-art icon set for a more consistent look.
• Removed the small connection indicator next to players in the lobby (a clearer disconnect indicator is coming).
• Clearer error message when an invite code doesn't match any lobby.
• Renamed the main-menu "Entra in Stanza" button to "Browse Lobbies".
• New Landing UI! If you played before this version, and tried mobile, you know the joy of seeing "UNI" fill up your screen without any button in sight. We made this new UI to better match our update plans, and to have a responsive interface that genuinely looks and feels good to play in.
• New Lobby Browse UI! This new gem of an interface is much more in line with the creative direction of UNI! You can also filter for specific rules, and many other conditions, as responsive as the landing UI!
• The lobby list's sort menu is now fully keyboard-friendly: arrow keys, Home/End, Enter and Escape all work as you'd expect, and screen readers get proper labels.
• Rule names and descriptions in the lobby list's advanced search now come straight from the game server, so new rules will show up there automatically as they're added.
• Lots of behind-the-scenes reliability work: clearer error messages when creating a lobby or changing settings fails, no more silent failures when your connection drops at the wrong moment, and better protection against bad data from the server.
• Connection problems now show a clear message ("Could not connect to the server") instead of the cryptic "[object Event]", and the coloured stripe on notifications now sits flush with the edge like a proper pixel-art border.
• The little player icons next to the lobby sort menu no longer flash random colours, they're a fixed colour that matches light/dark mode.

0.4.8

• UNI! has a new home: playuni.app! The old unii.duckdns.org address still works and will send you to the new one automatically, so old links and bookmarks won't break.
• Behind the scenes: updates now reach the live game only as part of official releases, so work-in-progress changes can't sneak onto playuni.app before they're ready.

0.4.7

• Added anonymous gameplay analytics so we can see which rules and game modes people actually play, and where things break. We only record gameplay actions (like starting a match and which rules it used), never any personal information, and the data is used only to research and improve the game. If your browser blocks analytics, everything keeps working normally.

0.4.6

• Fixed Google Analytics not loading in correctly.
• Fixed the Card Arsenal not loading when playing inside the itch.io embed.
• Fixed missing card images in the Card Arsenal for colour categories and the Jolly +4 card.

0.4.5

A batch of connectivity and in-game fixes. No new features, just a smoother experience when reconnecting, switching browsers, or playing against bots.

• Fixed a bug where your own name could briefly show as disconnected in the lobby even while you were actively connected.
• Fixed a bug where returning to the site without your lobby code (e.g. from a different browser) would leave you stuck: you are now brought straight back into your lobby or active match automatically.
• Fixed a bug where reconnecting mid-turn (e.g. after a Jolly card was played) could leave you unable to pick a colour until the timer ran out.
• Fixed a bug where reconnecting with a saved session would trigger duplicate fetches and multiple navigation calls in the background.
• Fixed a server startup failure that could occur when upgrading from an older build: the server now applies all database changes in a single step on first launch.
• Fixed a visual glitch where the table background would briefly flash purple when playing a Jolly card: it now keeps the colour from the previous card until a new colour is chosen.
• Fixed a bug where the game interface would go blank when a bot won the match: the result popup now appears correctly over a full game board.
• Fixed a bug where playing a Jolly card and ignoring the colour picker would permanently stall the game: the bot now steps in and picks automatically when the turn timer runs out.

0.4.4

Backend and performance improvements! Nothing visible has changed, but the game should feel snappier and the server is more robust under the hood.

• The server now handles database updates automatically on startup, so future upgrades will apply without any downtime or manual intervention.
• In-game actions are now processed faster internally, reducing the overhead on every card play and draw.
• Various internal systems were cleaned up and standardised to make the codebase easier to maintain going forward.

0.4.3

• Changed our SEO, Landing Page, About, and Rules pages.
• AdSense integration: We've added gentle interstitial and banner ads to help keep the servers running and the game free for everyone. They won't be displayed until AdSense request is accepted, though, and until we have a stable release, so do not worry!
• Cross-origin embedding (e.g. itch.io) now works! You can login and play smoothly from within third-party iframes.

0.4.1

• Fixed an issue where tooltips in the lobby settings panel were being clipped by the panel border instead of floating above the page as intended.

0.4.0

• Match saving is now complete. When you quit a saved match and come back, the game picks up exactly where it left off, every active effect, every card in play, nothing lost.
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when lobby cleanup happened at the exact moment a player was still leaving.
• If your connection drops while the game is waiting for a server response, it now recovers cleanly instead of hanging until a timeout.
• The app now properly cleans up background listeners when you navigate away, preventing them from silently piling up across reconnects.
• The logout button no longer double-submits if clicked quickly.

0.3.0

• Full visual redesign. The entire interface was rebuilt with a consistent design system: sharper pixel aesthetic, unified colours and typography, better proportions, and improved support for smaller screens.

0.2.1

• New standalone pages: About, FAQ, and How to Play, now accessible without launching the game.
• Better search visibility: OpenGraph and Twitter card previews so links look good when shared, a web app manifest so you can install UNI! on your device, and a sitemap.

0.2.0

• Lobby settings, the host can now configure the game before it starts: turn time limit, starting hand size, number of bots, bot play style, which rule variants are active, and whether the match is saved when someone quits.
• Bots can automatically take over for players who disconnect mid-game. Likewise, players joining a lobby can claim a bot's seat.
• Error messages from the server are now shown as readable text in the game UI rather than raw internal codes.
• Fixed: host settings are now validated to stay within the allowed range on both the client and server.
• Fixed: the wild card colour selection screen always appears at the right moment; the +4 Wild now correctly waits for the colour choice before applying the penalty to the next player.
• Fixed: rank colouring for tied players; duplicate pop-up notifications eliminated.

0.1.1

• Cards that you can legally play on your turn are now correctly highlighted, the server sends this information explicitly rather than the client guessing.
• Fixed: bots in instant-play mode now send each action one step at a time so animations play through correctly instead of skipping.
• Fixed: kick and promote now complete reliably in all cases.

0.1.0

Hello, World!

The first release of UNI! A four-player card game with lobbies, user accounts, bots, per-game stats, match saving and resuming, and a hand-crafted pixel-art interface. The game you're playing today grew out of a university project, and this is where it all started.