Happy new Year 🎉! There’s a number of little goodies in todays update! Check out the new “Christmas” mode in Conquest and continue reading for more news!

Christmas spirit lives on!

The ability to buy presents is no longer active in all levels, but you can revisit it if you select the new “Christmas” mode in conquest!

I feel like the christmas tree is a pretty neat addition as it makes the middle of the map more valuable. A welcome twist to the usual formula where hugging the coast tends to be most advantageous. Might introduce some non-christmasy variant of a gold producing node to the game soon 😉.

Also, if you really miss the ability to use presents everywhere, you can still play the christmas-themed konkr version at https://www.konkr.io/releases/2.25.0.

Introducing the Unstable Vortex

The new special expedition is going to serve as a collection of experimental maps that tweak the game mechanics in various ways.

This is where I plan most of the weekly maps to land for the near future, so stay tuned for some fun and wacky new levels! In the one that landed this week, you can build towns!

As the name suggests, the content of the expedition will change a lot over time. Successful experiments may make it to the core game, while others will be removed over time.

The dangers of feature creep

Why not keep all the experimental levels long term? It’s an unfortunate reality of software development that every new feature, every extra option is a little burden that weights down all future development. With ever new change to the game I need to make sure I’m not breaking any functionality that’s already there, and the more features and options there are, the more effort and testing that takes.

This is the reason I’ve been quite conservative with expanding the game with a bunch of optional mechanics so far. It’s a diligent but boring approach. So this is my new solution - let’s have some fun with mutating the game in 2024 and try a bunch of wild stuff! I’ll just make these experiments temporary, so that they don’t accumulate and slow down future development.

More player made maps!

Enjoy a number of new community maps in the Mapmakers Archipelago, submitted by my favourite konkr addicts on discord. Big thanks to @adamjarm and @lovalmidas for their dedication to creating fun maps that challenge even true konkr veterans!

You guys make me very excited for what will happen when a proper map editor and map sharing is added to the game!