1.3 UNDERTOW — the sea was always doing this, now you can see it

The sea was always doing this. Now you can see it.

No new cards this time. 1.3 is a clarity patch: the round-over screen finally answers its own question, every card tells you what it does, and two things the game has been doing to you since launch are visible for the first time.

"WHO LIVES" now answers itself

The results screen asked the question and then said nothing. It turns out the answer had been written in all 12 languages the whole time — it was just being printed to a surface that is never on screen during couch play. It's on the plate now: LAST BREATH or THE GROUP FELL, how long you lasted, and who stayed up longest.

…and it tells you what's coming

The round doesn't just end anymore, it hands you the next one: NEXT — ROUND 2 · TINY BUOY — a cramped 1-seat float, one at a time

Every card says what it does

The deck used to be a set of two-word names. FRAGILE BUOY, WATERLOGGED, BAD BLOOD — no explanation anywhere in the game. All ten base cards now carry a one-line rule describing an effect you can actually verify while playing, in all 12 languages.

The undertow is visible

When the tide surges it grabs everyone who's underwater and not holding the buoy, and drags them down. That has always been in the game. Nothing on screen ever said so — you just lost control and assumed the physics broke. Now a vortex spins over anyone the sea has hold of, and it's on exactly the swimmers being pulled, nobody else.

The arena has been shrinking since launch

Every round the boundary you bounce off closes in by half a metre. You could feel it. You could never see it — the only visible edge in the water never moved, so by round 6 it was overstating the real boundary by 45%. There are two rings on the water now: a bright one on the real boundary, and a faint one where it started. The gap between them is the game closing in on you.

Learning it

• The control card no longer prints straight through the RESTART and BACK TO MENU buttons — which is what the very first screen a new player reached used to look like.
• In solo, a bot touching the buoy used to erase that card, often two seconds after the round began. SPACE is the only upward force in this game; you now keep the card until you've actually used it.
• New players get a live prompt for the situation they're in rather than a timer: SPACE — RISE when you're under and drowning, lunge for the buoy when the seat is free, let go when it's full.

Nameplates

• Plates stay with their own swimmer instead of being flung 200+ pixels away and, worse, stacking in the wrong order.
• Each one sits on a chip sized to its own text, so the name is readable against the water instead of against your own body colour.
• In solo the plates say who is who: YOU on yours, BOT on the three AI Chums.

A note on scope: the undertow vortex and the arena rings are drawn on couch and when you host. If you join someone else's game you won't see them yet.

Snugfang is still free, so feedback is still the only currency I take. If something in here still doesn't read clearly while you're playing, tell me — that's exactly what this patch came from.