← Back to the game
Updates
What has changed in Protocol: Daybreak, newest first. If you have not played in a while, start from the top — everything below you have already seen.
Not everything is known by dawn
- fixed The home page opens straight away. It used to show nothing but the «what is this game» text, with the logo and buttons appearing a couple of seconds later: the page was waiting for four Firebase files to load, for the bot protection to come up and for sign-in to finish. The home page needs none of that — it is now drawn first, and sign-in catches up afterwards.
- fixed If the connection to the server does not come up, the game now says so. The page used to stay on «initializing…» forever with not a single button — usually because an ad blocker had cut out part of the scripts. The buttons are now there, and an explanation appears above them: online modes are unavailable, but practice against bots, the rules and the codex all work without a server.
- fixed Arriving without an account no longer runs into a sign-up wall. The gathering screen opened on the «Find a game» tab, which guests are not shown — so they saw an invitation to register and a single button. Yet a guest can create a room right away. The tab that opens first is now the one where the person can actually do something: the room list for registered players, and room creation for guests.
- new The home page now shows a sample personal file — a real card the game builds afresh on every visit: three lines open, six hidden. People used to read three paragraphs of text without ever seeing what they were being invited into. Both buttons also have captions now: the first gathers a group, the second plays right now, alone and without an account.
- fixed The post-game feedback form got shorter. It asked for a rating, a «would you play again» answer and three written questions — it looked like a survey, and almost nobody filled it in. A rating alone was always enough to send, it just was not obvious. Now only the scale and the button are visible, with the written questions tucked under an «add a few words» line.
- fixed Characters have stopped being absurd. An evening used to turn up a sixty-eight-year-old sailor who is into mountaineering, a carpenter with a hand tremor who plays guitar, or a stand-up comic whose age was «as old as the catastrophe» — that is, an infant. The compatibility rules only ever fixed the pairs somebody had complained about; health against hobby and age against hobby are now closed completely. Measured over 6,400 characters: it used to be 0.8 absurd people per eight-player game, and it is now zero.
- fixed You can now vote by tapping a player's card. The only way used to be the dropdown at the bottom of the screen: scroll past every dossier, find the name, press the button — all of it against the clock, and especially fun on a phone. Tap the person you think is surplus, confirm, done. The dropdown is still there as a fallback.
- fixed A bought dossier frame no longer competes with the turn highlight. The frame is always on — that is what people buy it for — but it looked like «this player is up now», and working out whose turn it actually was got hard: «Contagion» is green and so is the turn highlight. While somebody is taking their turn, their frame now dims, and the card of whoever is up says «turn» in plain words. Colour has stopped being the only signal, which also helps anyone who tells colours apart less easily.
- fixed Your own traits at the bottom of the screen are fully visible now. Values were cut off with an ellipsis, so «Tumour, early stage» became «Tumour, ear…» and the rest only appeared on hover — meaning on a phone you could not read your own cards at all. The line now wraps, the type is larger, and there is nothing to hover over.
- fixed Opening a card and explaining it are now two separate actions. Pressing a trait used to reveal it and pass the turn in one go: there was nowhere to say «I'm opening my health» and then explain why asthma is not a death sentence. The card now opens straight away and the turn stays yours until you press «End turn». The time to speak is simply what is left on the timer, and everyone can see it.
- balance There are now exactly as many reveal rounds as it takes for everyone to still have three hidden lines when the doors close. It is worked out at the start of the game, from the number of players and from the cards that were actually dealt: if «Mass surveillance», which opens one line for everybody at once, is in play, there will be fewer rounds; if nothing like it turned up, there will be more.
- balance Which cards go on the table and which stay with you is still entirely your call. There are no bans on revealing and none have been added: a round obliges you exactly as before — there are simply now as many rounds as it takes for something to still be hidden when the doors close.
- balance «Delay» and «Long night» no longer add reveals — they move a round from the future into the present. The vote is postponed and the argument carries on, but the total number of cards laid down in a game does not change. Two of those cards used to be enough to crack everything open in one evening.
- balance There are fewer reveals in a game. Someone who made it to the door used to open seven traits out of nine, so people walked in with a fully open dossier and the thrill of «I got in and you don't know what with» never happened. Three lines now stay unknown on average, and a fully open dossier does not occur at all.
- balance Abilities no longer strip anyone bare: somebody else's «Recon» cannot take your last remaining card. Your own turn still can — that is your word and your choice.
- new When creating a room the host now chooses who can turn up at the door at all: people only — or robots, mutants, clones and hybrids as well. People only is the default. Eight of the twelve species were non-human, and next to real asthma and real hunger they looked like they came from a different game.
- fixed Characters people laughed at for the wrong reasons are gone: the cyborg with a small child in their care, the cleaner of the very shelter the group is seeing for the first time, the saboteur of ventilation nobody has switched on yet. Eight secrets have been rewritten — they no longer assume you already lived here. The shelter might well turn out to be a lighthouse or a barge.
- new Children finally matter. Reproductive status was just a line in the dossier, and players were right to ask what it was for. The community's future is now part of the ending: a pregnancy among the survivors, experience of raising children, or the complete absence of it change how the shelter ends — and it is spelled out as its own line on the dawn screen instead of dissolving into the total.
- balance Orientation no longer costs a turn: it is visible on the card from the start. It affected nothing, and revealing it used up a whole round — one that now goes where there is actually something to argue about.
Every catastrophe has a sky of its own
- new Every catastrophe now has a backdrop of its own, and there are sixteen of them instead of nine. Lightning strikes through the acid rain, the toxic cloud bubbles along the floor, the sandstorm comes in gusts, lava breathes out of the cracks, and the magnetic collapse raises curtains of aurora over the shelter. A third of the catastrophes used to borrow somebody else's backdrop: the flooded world came with snow, and zero gravity with the same interference as the machine uprising.
- new Backdrops that did not exist at all have been added: a flooded world with bubbles rising to the surface; zero gravity, where everything drifts up and turns slowly; a hum that sends rings across the screen; machines with a sweeping scanner beam and blinking lights; and something alive outside — shadows moving as a flock, with something noticeably larger passing in the distance now and then.
- fixed The catastrophe backdrop is visible again. The previous version dimmed it so the particles would stop getting in the way of reading dossiers — and it all but disappeared. It is brighter now, but still stays behind the text.
- fixed Embers and sparks no longer fall like ash — they rise, the way they should.
Everyone has a goal of their own
- new A secret goal has joined the game — a rare card, not another line in the dossier. It goes to one person out of the whole group (two from seven players up), and they play for it as well as for a seat: get inside together with a particular person, keep a particular person outside the door, take a specific duty and hold it until dawn. No card ever reveals a goal — it is shown on the dawn screen together with whether it worked out.
- new Everyone can see how many goals are in play — and nobody knows whose they are. That number is the whole point: an odd vote now has something behind it and somebody to watch.
- new There are dark goals too: making sure a particular person does not live to see the dawn, or that the shelter does not hold at all. They come with a night button nobody else has — once per game. The move is anonymous: the chronicle gets a line with no name, and who did it stays a question until the very end.
- balance A dark goal only turns up with six players or more, and never more than one. In a smaller group a single saboteur ruins the evening for everyone else — that is not intrigue any more.
- new An achieved goal earns experience, and the profile now counts them and has two badges for it. A goal can be achieved even in a game you lose — it is a separate thread, not a second way to win.
- new The game now has a codex — a separate page with every value of the nine traits, the catastrophes, the shelters, the night incidents, the finds, the abilities, the duties, life outside and the list of personal goals. There is a link to it in the footer of every page.
- new Thirty funnier lines have joined the professions and secrets: a children's party clown, a wedding toastmaster, a tiger trainer, a lighthouse keeper, a fireworks vendor. Arguing that a clown is more use in a shelter than a lawyer is a pleasure of its own, and usually the liveliest argument of the evening.
- fixed The turn timer is finally visible. It used to be a three-pixel thread and small grey seconds off to the side of the name — people complained about it outright, and turns were being auto-played for players who were sitting right there looking at the screen. It is now a row of its own across the whole header: large framed digits and a thick bar. The last thirty seconds turn amber, the last ten turn red and pulse.
- fixed Your own turn and somebody else's now look different on the timer: your countdown is labelled «Your turn» and the frame around the digits is highlighted. They used to look identical, although they mean exactly opposite things.
- fixed The catastrophe effects no longer get in the way of reading. There are half as many particles inside a game, they fall slower and stay behind the text, and the sweeping line is left on the home page only.
- fixed Fewer impossible characters: another dozen and a half compatibility rules — a tattoo artist is not afraid of needles, a tiger trainer does not fear animals, a taster has not lost their sense of taste. Items found at night now pass the same check: somebody afraid of weapons will no longer be handed a crate of ammunition.
Экран больше не моргает
- fixed The screen no longer flickers when somebody reveals a trait. Every action by anyone used to make the whole page fade in again — and there are hundreds of those in a game. Panels now appear only when the screen itself changes: the vote begins, a night starts, a new round opens.
- fixed The page keeps your scroll position. Somebody else's move used to drag you back to the top in the middle of reading their dossier.
Ночь не зависает, ход не теряется
- new The home screen now has a «Try it solo — against bots» button. The whole game runs: the reveals, the vote, the duties and the three nights, only the other seats are played by the game. Handy both for seeing what you are being invited to and for a host to learn the rules before five people sit down.
- balance Practice games award no experience, rating or achievements: a game against people who never argue should not be the fastest way to level up.
- new There is noticeably more content: 48 night incidents instead of 30, 20 finds instead of 10, 36 catastrophes and 30 shelters. Two games in a row now look far less alike.
- fixed The night no longer hangs. If two people decided at the same moment, the game could end up waiting for a turn that did not exist — everyone stuck on «waiting for the others», with the game going nowhere.
- fixed Someone else's choice no longer vanishes when you press your own button in the same second. A later tap could erase a choice that had just been made, and the person erased saw «chosen» on their screen while the game was not waiting for them.
- fixed When the connection drops you can now see it: a bar appears at the top and the buttons stop responding until it is back. Before, taps simply went nowhere, and it looked like the game had broken.
- new When it is your turn the tab says so: «Your turn» appears in its title, a dot on the icon, and if you have switched away and sound is on, the game gives a short beep. A turn lasts up to three minutes, and losing it to another tab is a shame.
- balance Room codes are now five characters instead of four. That is thirty-three million combinations instead of one million — brute-forcing your way into someone else's game is no longer practical. Links to older rooms keep working.
- new The game can now be added to a phone's home screen and opened like an app, without the address bar over the screen.
- new After a game, once a week, you are asked how it went: a score from 1 to 10 and three questions — what you enjoyed, what got in the way, and what is missing. Answering is optional and any question can be skipped. Answer once and we will not ask for a week; skip it and the panel will be there after your next game.
- new Your answer carries the version number, the size of the group, whether you were inside or outside, and your nickname — so we can follow up on Discord. Nothing else is collected, and the panel says so outright.
- new The home screen now has a line reading «Found a bug? Got an idea? Tell the author» — it leads to the project's Discord. There is no separate feedback form on the site, and the feedback matters: almost everything fixed over the past month came from people who simply sat down and played.
- new The site footer now says that this is an open beta. The game works end to end, from gathering a group to the finale, but it is still being worked on — and that is how it is worth taking.
A tie means a draw
- new The third task of the night is now named after what the night actually is. Someone to meet — «Fight back»; a fire or a burst pipe — «Emergency»; a trip outside — «Watch». It used to be «Attack» whatever happened, so you could charge at smouldering wiring and the game would tell you that you drove the strangers off.
- new If you have been thrown out, you can now always see which stance you chose and that you keep it until the end of the game. You pick a task every night, but you pick it inside that stance — and now the screen says so outright instead of leaving you to work it out.
- new Choosing the stance itself now takes two taps, with a confirmation: there is no going back on it, and it was far too easy to tap the wrong button.
- balance With four players the shelter is no longer doomed in advance. There are five duties and only two seats inside, and the duties nobody could take dragged the ending down whatever you did: «The colony is doomed» came up almost every time. What counts now is how you handled what you could — and any group, from four to ten, can reach any ending.
- balance A tied council vote is now settled by drawing lots. Before, «even» quietly meant refusal, and «give them nothing» won every tie — most noticeably with four players, where ties are the common case. Refusal is now an option like any other.
- balance The same rule applies outside: if the outcasts split evenly, the night's plan is drawn by lot instead of coming to nothing.
- balance The council no longer asks the same question three nights running. A freed seat comes first, then the finds, and only then supplies in return for help — supplies are put to the vote once per game.
- fixed If you stepped away and the game played the night for you, that no longer counts as your help to the shelter: no council is called for it, and it earns no seat.
Three nights that matter
- new The story details that surface during the selection are no longer just text. A council is now called between the nights for every find: two options for what to do with it, and both cost something — supplies, security or morale in the shelter.
- new What was decided about a find is visible to everyone at once, along with how each person voted. If most people refuse to decide, the find returns to the council the following night.
- new If someone outside worked for the shelter and pulled it off, a council is called after the night: the survivors decide how to pay for it. Three options — let them inside (if a seat is free), hand out supplies from the stores, or give them nothing.
- balance Help from outside no longer goes unanswered. The council used to be called only when somebody died: the outcasts helped, the shelter held, nobody died — and the help paid for nothing. Now the conversation starts from the help itself.
- new Supplies handed over cost the shelter a level in its stores, and out there they markedly raise the odds of finding a second refuge and living to daybreak in it. Only one person can ever be let back in, and only once per game.
- balance Sitting out a night outside in silence will not get you back in: the game picks the most harmless task for an absent player, and that counts as nothing.
- new The three nights now run in turn order: the survivors first, one after another, then the outcasts. You can always see whose turn it is, and whoever goes last decides already knowing what everyone else did.
- fixed An outcast who closes their tab no longer stalls the night forever. The game now moves for whoever is absent, exactly as it has long done for the survivors.
- new Every night now has a common job: «tonight we need two people out scavenging». It is never the thing the incident itself calls for, which means somebody has to take on what is not best for them personally. Everyone can see who has stepped up, so the arrangement has to be talked through out loud.
- balance Whoever takes on the common job is no longer working against the night: there is no penalty for «the wrong task» for them. Get enough people together and the stores gain whatever they went out for.
- new The outcasts no longer wait for a turn: they decide at any point in the night, in parallel with those inside. A queue gave them nothing — an outcast's choice is secret either way — while the waiting was very real.
- new The outcasts now have a plan for the night: throw everything into finding their own refuge, or work on the shelter. They vote on it, and the votes are visible to everyone — those inside included. That gives the two sides something to bargain over: «work on the shelter and we will hand you supplies».
- balance Special powers are much rarer now: at most one per game and at most one per person. An eight-player game used to see two of them, and the outcome was decided by the draw rather than the argument.
- balance «Reserve» no longer pulls a second special power — what comes out of the reserve is an ordinary ability.
- new You can now report a player straight from the room — the button sits under the chat — or from their profile. The complaint reaches the administrators with the reason and the room code. Before this, the only place to say anything was Discord.
- new Your own file and your own abilities stay visible during other people's turns. While the others are showing their cards you can work out your answer calmly, instead of deciding in a rush once your turn has already come.
- new The event log no longer stops at the last few lines: scroll it down and read the whole game back from the start — the dice roll at the very beginning included.
- fixed If you stepped away and your turn came round, it is no longer wasted: the game remembers which trait to reveal and reveals it the moment you are back.
- fixed The outcasts' ending no longer credits them with things they never did. It used to write about the ones who «helped the bunker» even when nobody had.
- fixed On a phone it took four or five screens of scrolling to reach the buttons you play with: other people's files sat between the header and your turn. Your turn now comes first, with the roster and the reference below it.
- fixed While a game is running the room header collapses to a single line. The link and the nickname change are only needed while people are gathering, and on a phone they took up a whole screen.
- fixed The English version has stopped slipping into Russian in places: the room badge, the turn limit, the vote counter, ability names on buttons and the shelter name in the briefing.
- new The update log has moved off the front page onto one of its own. What is left on the front page is a single line with the current version, and that line is the way in. For a first-time visitor a wall of technical entries said nothing while taking up more room than everything else.
The nights are readable now
- new Every night now has its own summary right under the event: what happened, who decided what and how it ended — top to bottom, in order. It used to drown in the general chronicle on the right and half of it went unread.
- fixed Abilities that act on moves other people have already made now say so plainly: if your turn comes first, there is nothing for them to act on yet.
- fixed «Interception» now warns that a stolen ability can only be played from your next turn on — one ability per turn.
- new Abilities that cancel or redirect other people's votes can now be used without waiting for your turn, as long as the votes have not been counted. Whoever moved first could not use them at all before: there was nothing to cancel yet. The cost is unchanged: one ability per round of voting.
No more flickering
- fixed The screen no longer blinks on every chat message and every microphone switched on. It used to reset panel animations, and on a phone it looked like the page reloading.
- new On your turn you now see your whole file at the bottom — what is already out and what is left — with your abilities right under it. No more scrolling up to your own card mid-turn.
Nicknames, friends and language
- fixed Avatars you bought are now visible to everyone — in the friends list, in chat and in invitations. Other people used to see a red diamond instead.
- fixed If the nickname you picked is already taken, the game tells you right away — while you sign up, not afterwards.
- fixed Your friends see your avatar and nickname as they are now. They used to be stuck with whatever you had on the day you became friends.
- fixed The site no longer guesses your language from the browser: it opens in Russian, and the English version is one button away in the header.
Small things you can see
- fixed The link to Discord now carries the actual Discord mark instead of a grey diamond — on the front page, at the bottom of every page and under the quiz result.
- fixed The rules, the about page and the quiz finally have an icon in the browser tab. Before, only the front page had one and the rest looked like blank tabs.
- fixed The picture that shows up when you post a link to the game has been redrawn, and the English version of the site now has its own — both used to show the Russian one.
Who would you be in the bunker
- new A quiz has appeared — «Who would you be in the bunker»: ten questions and you walk away with a survivor’s file, put together from the same traits a real game deals out. The result can be shared as a link or as a picture.
- new The host got a die: a roll from one to six goes into the shared log where nobody can argue with it. Useful where the rules say nothing: who speaks first, who goes outside, who gets what was found.
- new Every seat now has a number. Without one, «it came up four» meant nothing.
- fixed Age in the file no longer reads like broken Russian: the number and the word for «years» finally agree.
The game can be found now
- new The rules and the story of the game now live on pages of their own. You can open them without entering the game and send the link to whoever you are inviting — they will know what they are being invited to before their first click.
- new A link to the game posted in a messenger or a social network now unfolds into a card with a title, a description and a picture instead of staying a bare address.
- new The English version now has an address of its own. Sharing it used to be impossible: whoever opened the link saw the Russian text anyway.
- fixed The game can now be found through search. Search engines used to see an empty page where the site was, and could not show it for a query like “bunker online” even knowing it existed.
Somewhere to write to
- new The project now has a Discord — linked from the home screen and from the footer of every screen. That is where people look for a group for the evening, report an offensive nickname in the game search, and say when something is broken. There is no separate feedback form on the site, so this is the way to reach us.
Ads, and where they will never be
- new The site now shows ads. There are none inside a game and there never will be: only on the home screen, the group-gathering screen, the rating and after a game has ended — one block per screen. Nothing pops up, nothing covers the buttons, nothing twitches in the middle of a vote.
- new Before the first ad appears the game asks your permission. Until you answer, nothing ad-related loads at all, and you can change your mind either way under “Your data”.
Season rating
- new There is now a shared table of players. Season points are simply the experience you earn from games, counted from the start of the season: there is nothing extra to grind, just play. Anyone can look at the table; players with a confirmed email appear in it.
- new A season will end one day and the table will start over. Your level, achievements and everything you bought stay with you — only the season points reset, and past seasons are not erased.
- balance Places in the table carry no rewards: no points, no frames. That is deliberate — otherwise people start playing for a line in a list instead of for the game.
Only those who gave a name
- new Without an account you can now only play in a room someone sent you a link to. Open rooms, text chat and voice all require signing up. That way a stranger can no longer turn up at your table out of nowhere and ruin the evening with a couple of messages.
- new Confirming your email is no longer a formality. You can play and earn experience right away, while purchases, friend requests, nickname changes and opening your room to strangers unlock once you follow the link in the email.
- fixed If you have been playing without confirming your email, nothing is lost. Your experience, level and everything you bought stay exactly as they were, and the locked sections open the moment you follow the link in the email.
Find a game comes first
- new The “Find a game” tab now comes first when gathering a group, followed by “Create a game” and “I have a code”. If you arrive alone you immediately see rooms you can sit down in, instead of six empty fields for friends’ names.
- fixed Uploading your own picture is switched off for now — that part is being reworked. Pictures already set stay where they are, and can still be removed from the same place they appeared.
The English version finished its sentence
- fixed Three dozen labels stayed in Russian with the English language selected: the status line in the header, errors when creating a room or picking a seat, the sign-in and sign-up buttons, the confirmation prompts on exit. All of it is translated now.
Comms tidied up, chat cleaned up
- new Chat and voice now fold into a corner icon and start collapsed. The expanded panel covered player cards and buttons on phones and small monitors, and it is not needed every minute. The icon itself shows the unread count and whether your microphone is on.
- new Swearing in chat is replaced with asterisks. It is the same check as for nicknames, and it recognises letters swapped for Latin ones, digits or dots. The message itself still gets through — only the word is cut out.
- fixed A public room nobody joined within an hour is deleted along with its entry in the search. Until now such rooms lingered for a day and clogged the list with blanks.
Find a game: rooms open to strangers
- new A room can now be opened to everyone when you create it. Such a room appears under the “Find a game” tab, showing the host's nickname, the code and how many seats are free, and you can take a seat without arranging anything in advance. Until now the only way in was a direct link — someone arriving alone could do nothing.
- new The host can open or close the room while the group is still gathering: friends showed up — take it off the list; two seats short — open it. Once every seat is taken, the room leaves the search on its own.
- fixed Only an account can open a room to strangers: the list shows a nickname, and a guest's one is random and never went through the profanity filter.
The disaster runs at the same speed for everyone
- fixed Particles fell faster the higher your monitor’s refresh rate: on a 144 Hz gaming monitor the ash came down two and a half times faster than on an ordinary one. Around one table it looked as if people had different versions of the game. The same catastrophe now looks the same for everyone.
Friendship now needs consent
- new Adding a friend now goes through a request. Before, a player could end up on someone's friend list without ever hearing about it; now the request has to be accepted or rejected, and until then you appear on nobody's list. Requests live in the “Friends” tab, and their number is shown next to the menu item.
- fixed A purchased file frame looked washed out — and only to the person who bought it. Everyone else at the table saw the proper colour, so there was no way to tell by looking at your own screen.
Sections open in a second tab
- fixed Your profile, friends, the rules and the other sections now open with a middle click or Ctrl+click — in a neighbouring tab, without leaving the game. It used to work in no browser at all, even though the screens already had their own addresses.
- new Every profile tab now has its own address too: appearance, achievements, statistics. You can share a link to them, and the active tab is finally highlighted.
- fixed The “Home” button in the profile and the admin screen changed the screen but not the address, so reloading took you straight back. Now it returns you home.
Every screen has its own address
- new Profile, friends, rules and the other screens each open at their own address. You can open your profile in another tab, send someone a link, go back with the browser button — and reloading no longer throws you out to the home page.
- new Updates now reach everyone at once. You could previously be stuck on an old version without realising it — and when people in the same room are on different versions, the game breaks.
Change your nickname, recover your password
- new Your nickname can be changed straight from the account menu. The old one is freed at once and friends find you by the new one.
- new A forgotten password can be reset from the sign-in page: a link arrives by email.
- new Nicknames are screened for abuse at registration, on change, and for guests at the table. The check sees through letters swapped for Latin, digits and punctuation, so disguised spellings do not get through either.
Death and exile are no longer the same thing
- fixed Someone killed during the night no longer keeps playing outside. The game confused death with being voted out, so the dead player joined the outcasts: picked a stance, acted each night and could even come back inside.
- fixed The results now list death separately from exile, and the card carries its own stamp.
- fixed An eliminated player’s card no longer turns into a skewed red square: the elimination mark was laid over the purchased file frame, and instead of two things you got one blob.
Cards stopped vanishing for everyone at once
- fixed We found why everyone’s traits came up empty at the start of a game: the game saved the room before it had received your hidden cards, and wiped them — everyone’s own. That no longer happens.
- fixed Reveal buttons stay disabled until the card has loaded. A hasty tap used to reveal an empty slot, and there was no way to get the value back.
Simultaneous moves no longer collide
- fixed When two people acted in the same second, the second overwrote the first. Outcast choices vanished, players had to take turns clicking, and abilities aimed at several players at once only half worked.
- fixed Mass surveillance now finishes the job, revealing the category for everyone rather than just some.
- fixed Outcasts can choose their actions at the same time; the order no longer matters.
- fixed Votes cast in the same second all reach the count.
- fixed A rematch no longer drags the previous game's outcome along with it.
Cards no longer vanish for good
- fixed The root cause of almost every recent breakage: the game saved the match for the whole group at once — including other players’ hidden cards, which are not on your screen and should not be. Emptiness went in their place. Now everyone is responsible only for their own cards, and revealing someone else’s means asking its owner.
- fixed An eliminated player's dossier no longer empties out the moment they are voted out.
- fixed Once the doors close, every dossier opens in full — not just the one belonging to whoever moved last.
- fixed Sabotage and Forgery finally work: the substituted value now reaches the card's owner.
- fixed What you learn through Full File and Informant no longer disappears after the very next move.
Abilities, and the double flicker
- fixed “Double reconnaissance” no longer goes to waste. It tried to reveal someone else’s cards behind their back and simply did nothing: the charge was spent and nothing happened. It now works like ordinary reconnaissance, only on two traits.
- fixed Revealing a trait refreshed the screen twice in a row. Now it refreshes once.
- fixed A seat taken back in an older version now attaches itself to your account when you sign in. Without that a player kept seeing their own traits empty even after the bug was fixed.
You can finally see your own cards
- fixed Players without an account could not see their own traits — the values read “null”. A guest’s seat was not tied to them, and without that the game did not know whose hidden cards to show.
- fixed Sometimes even a registered player’s own cards would not open: the game asked for them a fraction of a second before the seat had been tied to the account, was refused, and never asked again. Now it asks again.
The screen really has stopped flickering
- fixed The screen kept rebuilding itself every ten to fifteen seconds: the previous attempt to stop the flicker closed only one of four routes. The page now refreshes only when something in the game has actually changed, and text you have typed no longer disappears.
Game results no longer go missing
- fixed The final screen now shows for everyone. A failure while awarding experience could cut the results short, and registered players in particular never got to see how the game ended.
- balance Games closed early no longer award experience or statistics, including when nobody in the shelter is left alive. A rematch counts as a normal game.
The first live game and what it turned up
- fixed Unrevealed traits no longer go missing. Some cards could previously vanish mid-game — an empty gap appeared in the summary instead of the value.
- fixed Cards are hidden away the instant a room is created. For the room’s first moments they used to be visible to anyone who happened to look.
- fixed The turn countdown no longer starts until everyone has taken a seat. It used to run from the moment the room was created, so the first turn could burn away before the group had even gathered.
- fixed An automatic turn taken for an absent player no longer reveals their card blindly — it skips the turn instead, leaving the reveal to them when they return.
- fixed The screen stopped flickering every few seconds. The game rebuilt the page every time it noted who was present, which wiped out text you had typed.
Cleanup stopped waking the whole house
- fixed The home page no longer downloads the list of every room just to find the expired ones. Everyone who simply opened the site used to pay for other people’s abandoned rooms with their own data — painfully noticeable on a phone.
- balance A single account may create at most twenty rooms per day. That is plenty for an ordinary evening: a rematch with the same group does not use up a new room.
Hidden cards are actually hidden now
- new Abilities that need someone else’s value now work by asking the card’s owner: nobody else holds that data. From the outside it is still instant.
- balance If the target is offline, the request waits a minute and a half, then clears and the ability charge is returned: it shouldn't burn because of someone else's connection.
- fixed Other players’ unrevealed traits can no longer be peeked at through the browser’s developer tools. The whole room used to arrive on every device, and secrecy rested on the game simply not drawing those values. Hidden cards are now stored separately and never reach anyone else’s device until they are revealed.
- balance When the doors close, every remaining trait is revealed in full. The selection is over and there is nothing left to hide — and it helps the group to see who is good at what while dividing the duties.
- new A verification email is sent after you register. You can play without it, but without confirming you won't be able to recover your password.
- new A music volume slider in the header, set to 30% by default. It leaves interface sounds alone — otherwise they would vanish entirely at low settings.
Fixes
- fixed The “Forget” button really does leave the game now. The game used to forget the room only halfway, and the first move by anyone else dragged the player back in — to the point where you could not even reach your own profile.
- fixed Going home via the logo no longer throws you back into the game when someone else moves. The room is still remembered: you can return with the button.
- fixed Searching for a player by nickname did not find everyone: nicknames with a dot broke the search and stayed unfindable. Any nickname is found now.
Less data used, order restored to pictures
- fixed Avatars are no longer re-sent on every action during a game. A single match used to eat about 280 MB of data per participant — now it is around 12 MB. On mobile that is the difference between finishing the game and running out of data.
- new An administration panel right inside the game: reviewing uploaded pictures, handling enquiries and crediting points.
- new The game reports its own failures. If something breaks for someone, it shows up immediately rather than waiting for a complaint. The report is anonymous: no nicknames, no chat, nothing about what happened in the game.
Levels, frames and achievements
- new XP for every game: more for reaching daybreak, less for failing. It accumulates slowly — about forty-five games to level ten.
- new A frame around your avatar. Every fifth level unlocks another, ten in all. Avatars are now round.
- new Nineteen achievements: from your first game to your thousandth, from your first win to a seventy-five percent win rate. Each grants XP.
- new Level points buy what no level ever grants: flame and gold frames, striking avatars, a gradient in your name.
- new Your own picture instead of a symbol avatar. Scaled to 128 pixels, cropped to a circle, with location data stripped from the file. Shown to everyone only after review.
- new Other players' profiles open from your friends list: level, appearance, achievements and statistics. Match history and points stay private.
- new The profile is split into tabs — as one long page it had become unreadable.
- balance Your appearance shows in the game: frame, name style and level sit beside your name on the card.
A world that holds together
- new Night events are now matched to the catastrophe. A drowned world will no longer get a sandstorm, and where all life has died out, predators won't come to the fence. The pool doesn't shrink, though: an off-theme event isn't forbidden, it just comes up several times less often.
- new A history of your recent games in your profile: who you were, where you sheltered, which duty you carried and how it ended.
Phones and ending early
- new The interface has been reworked for phones: the header no longer breaks apart on narrow screens, the text is larger, buttons are big enough to hit with a thumb, and player cards stack into one column.
- fixed Page zoom is now allowed — it used to be blocked, so small text could not be enlarged.
- fixed Input fields no longer make Safari jump around the screen when tapped.
- fixed The iPhone notch and home bar are accounted for, as is holding the phone sideways.
- new The host can end the game early: the results are drawn from where things actually stand, and from the final screen the group regroups with Rematch — no need to recreate the room and seat everyone again.
- balance When removing a player would leave fewer than three alive, the host gets a warning: there is no game left to play at that size.
The room host
- new Whoever creates the room becomes the host. If they leave, the rights pass to the first player still present — otherwise one closed browser would be enough to leave the game unfixable again.
- new The host sets the time per turn: from one to five minutes, or no limit at all.
- new The host can remove a player from the game, and outside their own turn — otherwise they couldn't fix the very situation the right exists for.
- fixed No limit no longer means a stalled game: a turn is still played automatically for a player who dropped out. The limit caps a present player's thinking time; a disconnect is a separate matter.
- balance A removed player doesn't become an outcast and doesn't hold a seat: they left, they weren't voted out. The turn order, the votes and the duties stay intact.
No more stalled games
- new A turn timer. If a player runs out of time, a default move is made for them — a random reveal, a random vote, a free duty. One closed browser tab no longer freezes the game forever.
- new An «away» marker next to the name: you can see at a glance who has disconnected and who is merely thinking.
- new Rooms older than a day are deleted automatically along with their chats: conversations between real people should not be kept forever, and an old room is of no use to anyone anyway.
- new A «Your data» page and a delete-account button in your profile: it removes your email, nickname, avatar, statistics and mentions in other people's friend lists.
- new Anonymous match counters — tied to neither account nor device, only numbers.
Rematch, sound and voice that works on strict networks
- new A Rematch button on the final screen: a new game with the same group in the same room, your seats stay yours — no need to press «That's me» again.
- new Sound: the shelter’s background hum and interface feedback. Toggled from the header, and your choice is remembered. The hum never loops or repeats — it is not a recording but a live sound the game builds as it goes.
- new TURN server support for voice chat: behind strict NAT and on mobile networks, where a direct connection is impossible, voice will now get through.
- new Protection against outside requests: the database now accepts them only from the game’s own site. Anyone could previously copy the connection settings and reach the database from elsewhere.
- balance The rules have been rewritten: instead of a solid wall of text there are sections with headings and plain language. Reading them before your first game is now actually feasible.
English language
- new A language switch in the header, next to the profile. Your choice is remembered in the browser; on a first visit the language follows your browser settings.
- new The interface and every character trait are translated: professions, health, skills, phobias, baggage, secrets, biodata, body and orientation, along with the names and descriptions of every ability and duty.
- new Everything else is translated too: thirty catastrophes, twenty-five shelters with descriptions, resource states, quirks, night events, action outcomes, animal encounters, twists and the final verdicts.
- new The game chronicle is translated as well — harder than it sounds, because every line of it is born during play out of a name, an action and whichever trait came up.
- fixed Even the small things that usually get forgotten are translated: section headings, the logo, the situation summary, profile statistics and the room screens.
- balance In English the game is called “Protocol: Daybreak”. The thread running through it — living to see daybreak — is translated consistently: the goal, the verdicts and the final screen all say daybreak rather than dawn.
Outcasts: stances, sabotage and one shared vote
- new A third stance — «Harm the shelter». You can wreck their gear, raid the stores or lead strangers to the gate. A saboteur can never come back inside.
- new The stance is chosen once per game and never changes. After that you pick a specific task within it each night — exactly as the survivors choose between «Act», «Scavenge» and «Fight back».
- new Nine tasks to choose from: leave supplies, watch the approaches, repair from outside, wreck their gear, lead strangers in, raid the stores, scout the block, dig through rubble, fortify a hideout. Each has its own outcomes and its own fit with your traits.
- fixed The outcasts' shared vote really is one per game now: a tie and a revote no longer hand it back.
- fixed Sabotage now enters the chronicle anonymously. Previously the line was signed with a name and the task, and a saboteur gave themselves away after the very first night.
- balance The outcasts' influence on the shelter's ending has its own cap: they shift the balance noticeably without deciding the game on their own.
Special powers, living nights and believable characters
- new Special powers: rare abilities marked in red. Right of veto, hijacking someone's ability, the all-seeing eye, forgery and more — a 10% chance per slot to draw one.
- new A filter for impossible trait combinations: no more pregnant men, diabetic robots or aquaphobic divers — 39 rules check every character before the deal.
- new Thirty catastrophes instead of fifteen and twenty-five shelter types, each with its own resource profile: a fuel depot has power, a hospital has medicine, and each pays for it elsewhere.
- new Over a hundred new traits across every category: professions, health, skills, phobias, baggage, secrets, biodata and body.
- new Thirty night events instead of twelve, and every action now has a concrete outcome: a good run adds a find to your baggage, a bad one leaves an injury.
- new The outcasts got outcomes of their own: helping can bring the shelter a find or unwanted attention from strangers, searching can advance the refuge or end in an injury among the ruins.
- balance The result of the three nights now feeds directly into the shelter's ending — within a sensible cap, so a lucky streak can't decide everything for the group.
Comms, profiles and patch notes
- new Text chat right inside the room — talk without leaving the game.
- new Voice chat: microphone, mute and a speaking indicator.
- new Player profiles: registration, avatar selection, personal statistics of games and wins.
- new A patch notes window on the main page — you're reading it right now.
The Outside Protocol and wild animals
- new The outcasts get a shared vote in the final round — a chance to drag out the person they want.
- new The outcast's choice: help the shelter or look for your own refuge on the surface.
- new A shelter the outcasts find gives them an ending of their own, with their own division of duties — the game finishes differently for them.
- new Wild animal encounters on scavenging runs: taming one is a survival bonus, failing costs you your health.
- new Five new abilities, including «Stash» — a second personal item.
Mechanics fixes
- fixed Voting can no longer loop forever: a second tie in a row is settled by lot.
- fixed The event phase waits for the outcasts to decide — the help button no longer disappears.
- fixed A returning outcast takes the dead player's seat rather than undoing their death.
- new The event log records the time and outcome of every action, with abilities set off in a frame.
A complete interface redesign
- new A new visual system: a concrete palette, brutalist typography and a two-column layout.
- new A start screen with a flickering logo and a signal-distortion effect.
- new Five new shelter types — fifteen in total.
- fixed Typography fixed: fonts without Cyrillic support replaced with complete ones.