War of Dots news & patch notes

⚔️ The War of Dots World Update is here

This is the largest update since the game released, and it lays the foundation for something the community has wanted for a long time: a real, ongoing war between Red and Blue. Below is a rundown of what's new, but the full walkthrough, with everything shown in action, is in the video:

📺 Watch the full breakdown here →

🗺️ A new world map

The map that's served the game for the past year has been replaced. The new one is larger, more varied, and adds several new biomes, which means far more possible battlegrounds, many of them already in the game. Most importantly, it introduces nations for the first time. For now that's Red and Blue, but the system is built to grow beyond them.

🏳️ Nations & World Mode combat

When you enter World Mode, you first choose your nation. From that point on, every battle you fight contributes to your side. Each victory claims a portion of territory for your nation, not an overwhelming amount, but enough to feel your impact.

🎯 Daily objectives & strategy

Capturing land at random would get stale, so growth is directed by a daily objective. Each nation's government sets a target, and all territory the nation captures that day pushes toward it. For example, if Red sets its objective on a particular island, Red players' wins will focus expansion onto that island for the day. This turns the war into a game of coordinated strategy rather than brute force.

🏛️ Player-run governments

Each nation is led by a government formed and run through our Discord. They decide the daily objectives and steer how the nation grows over time. If you want a direct hand in the war, that's where it happens.

🤯 Procedural map generation

One of the most impressive parts under the hood: the game generates a full, playable 1v1 map from a small low-resolution slice of the world map, in under a minute. That means hundreds of real matches can be built directly from the single shared world. Huge thanks to vrezzar for the enormous help developing this system.

Pick your side

Red or Blue, the war starts now. Watch the full video for everything in motion, then jump in and start fighting for your nation.

📺 Watch the full breakdown here →

I'm excited to roll out the biggest content update yet for War of Dots.

First up, 25 new maps have been added to the game. This is a huge expansion to the map pool, which previously sat at around 60, giving you far more battlegrounds to fight over.

Every match, in both singleplayer and multiplayer, is now fully customizable. You decide who plays which colour and on which map, giving you complete control over how each game is set up.

I'm also introducing a new official minigame: War of Balls. It's a fun little thing to watch while you wait in the queue to get paired into a match.

In addition, numerous bugs have been fixed to improve overall stability and performance.

This update introduces:

• A 2x performance improvement to core algorithms, making this the single biggest boost the game has ever received, with FFA running smoother and lag significantly reduced across the board.

• Bigger map support, as the improved performance now allows larger maps to run at acceptable speeds.

• Map Search, giving every map a unique ID so players can instantly share and download maps from the hub.

The War of Dots Supporter Pack is Now Available!

If you've been enjoying War of Dots and want to help keep it going, the Supporter Pack is now live on Steam.

War of Dots is a free, passion-driven indie project. There's no studio behind it, no business model, just me pouring spare time and personal funds into something I love building. The Supporter Pack is simply a donation with some perks attached.

And those perks are quite fun. You get experimental textures, effects, and historical maps designed by myself.

If you want to support the game, this is the best way to do it. Thank you.

I’m excited to announce the addition of Map Hub, a new space where anyone can share their maps with the community. The sharing process has been streamlined to make it quick and easy, and players can now like or dislike any public map, creating a dynamic rating system.

I’m also introducing a brand-new concept: the Community Scene. While it is currently in its early stages and includes Map Hub and global chat, this feature is set to grow significantly with many expansions planned for the future.

In addition, numerous bugs have been fixed to improve overall stability and performance.

• You can generate completely random maps in the map editor now.

• Unit orders are auto-confirmed by default.

• Helpful icons.

• Bug fixes.

Hey everyone,

I want to be open with you about what’s been going on. I am currently dealing with some internal issues within the development team, and as a result, the game servers haven’t been performing as well as they should. I know this has been frustrating, and I truly appreciate your patience.

The good news is that this situation is temporary. I am actively working to resolve everything, and I expect the server performance and overall stability to be back to normal by next week.

On a more exciting note, I have also been preparing some very cool updates that I can’t wait to share with you. Once things are fully back on track, I’ll be rolling out new content and improvements that you’re really going to enjoy.

Thank you for sticking around and supporting the game. I’ll keep you updated and see you in game soon.