← HOME

CHANGELOG

WHAT'S CHANGED AND WHEN

This page tracks significant updates to Gravitydrift. Minor tweaks and routine dependency updates are not listed. For a more narrative account of development, see the Developer Diary.

Development is ongoing. This page is updated alongside releases. Last updated: March 2026.

March 2026 — Week 3–4

Community, Auth & Siege Mode

Change Game renamed to Gravitydrift (gravitydrift.io) — final name, replacing the "Gravity X" interim placeholder.
New User authentication — sign in with Google or GitHub via Supabase OAuth. Persistent identity replaces anonymous fingerprint for level ownership.
New Community Forum page — threaded posts and replies, likes, sort by newest or top-liked, infinite scroll, lazy-loaded reply sections.
New Server-side profanity filter — offensive words silently replaced in all user-submitted text (posts, replies, author names).
New Siege mode added to multiplayer — asymmetric format where one player defends and others attack. Uses the same physics as Race mode.
Change Level Editor and Maps browser: edit/delete restricted to the level's owner. Admin override for moderation.
Fix Force fields now correctly destroy the ship in Siege missile mode (collision check was skipping the forcefield list).
Fix Siege mode aiming indicator now shows real physics trajectory — reuses drawTrajectoryPreview() from renderer instead of a custom approximation.
Fix Level generator no longer places overlapping planets — placement validation now accounts for actual planet radii, not a fixed minimum distance.
Change Generator solvability check removed — levels generate much faster. Playability is validated by the editor's Test Mode instead.
Fix Auth dropdown in Level Editor was covered by the canvas (z-index issue). Auth widget now renders above all canvas elements.
Perf Planet cap of 20 per level added to the editor. Trajectory preview steps now scale with planet count to keep dragging responsive.
New Editor draft auto-saved to sessionStorage on page unload — survives OAuth redirect so work-in-progress is not lost when signing in.

March 2026 — Week 1–2

Infrastructure, Compliance & Polish

New Cookie consent banner added — GDPR and CCPA compliant, with accept/decline options stored per browser.
New Terms of Service page added, covering UGC, age requirements, and liability.
New Content Guidelines page added for Level Editor publishers.
New FAQ page added covering gameplay, editor, multiplayer, and technical questions.
New Changelog page (this page) added.
New Developer Diary page added — full narrative account of the project from January.
Change Privacy policy updated with explicit Google AdSense cookie disclosure and GDPR/CCPA sections.
Fix Physics determinism across devices: same shot now produces identical trajectory on all screen refresh rates (60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz). Fixed by implementing a fixed timestep accumulator with render interpolation.
Fix Grainy planet rendering on high-DPI mobile screens. Canvas now sized at physical pixel resolution using devicePixelRatio, with ctx.setTransform scaling drawing to logical coordinates.
Fix Aspect-ratio cheating: game world now locked to a fixed 1800×900 logical coordinate space, letterboxed into any screen. Resizing the browser window no longer shifts planet positions or changes level difficulty.
Perf Planet image loading: added rel="preload" tags and fetchPriority="high" on all planet sprite images to reduce loading latency on first play on mobile.
New All planets now render with type-specific atmospheric halos (radial gradient glow matching each planet's color and intensity). Black holes have no halo by design.
Change Explosion reworked: debris chunks removed, particle decay tuned for slower, more satisfying animation, shockwave ring restored at smaller radius.
Change Main menu now scrollable on mobile — was previously clipped on small screens.
New Service Worker and PWA manifest — game installable to home screen on Android and iOS, with offline support for generated single-player levels.

February 2026

Multiplayer, Level Editor & Planets

New Multiplayer added — real-time competitive rooms via WebSocket. Up to 8 players, four-letter room codes, live leaderboard by attempt count.
New Level Editor added — full in-browser editor with planet placement, size control, checkpoint and force field tools, undo/redo, test mode, and publish to shared library.
New Level rating system — five-star ratings with Bayesian smoothing. Ratings visible in Saved Maps browser.
New Saved Maps browser — sortable by newest, highest rated, or most played. Playable directly from browser.
New Nine planet types — white, grey, blue, green, yellow, red, red star, neutron star, black hole — each with distinct density, mass, and visual sprite.
New Black hole planet type: fixed small radius, extreme gravitational pull, distinct visual (no atmosphere).
New Neutron star planet type: fixed tiny radius, very high density, large atmospheric glow.
New Force fields added to Level Editor — invisible barriers that destroy the ship on contact.
New Checkpoints added — optional rings players must pass through before the destination counts. Supported in both editor and game.
New Difficulty selector (easy / medium / hard) with different planet type pools and generation constraints per difficulty.
Change Level generator rewritten with deterministic seeded PRNG — levels reproducible from seed. Solvability verified by running 2,000+ test shots per candidate level.
Change Editor layout: sidebar collapses to reveal black void rather than reflowing the canvas area — canvas position fixed at all times.
Fix Generator solvability check now uses identical physics code to the game loop — no more falsely flagging unsolvable levels as solvable.
Perf Levels stored in normalised (0–1) coordinate space — correct display at any screen resolution without per-level adjustments.

January 2026

Initial Development

New Core physics engine: Newtonian inverse-square gravity, Euler integration, multi-planet force accumulation.
New Ship drag-and-launch mechanic: press and hold on ship, drag to aim, release to fire.
New Game state machine: IDLE → DRAGGING → FLYING → WIN / CRASH, with crash pause and auto-reset.
New Trail rendering: ship leaves a fading trail of its last 900 positions (15 seconds at 60Hz).
New Ghost trail: previous attempt's trail persists on reset as a dim reference line.
New Star field background: 160 randomly positioned stars generated once per session.
New Destination ring with pulsing glow animation.
New Launch velocity arrow: real-time preview of direction and speed while dragging.
New Explosion particle system: sparks, fireball, smoke, and shockwave ring on crash.
New Procedural level generator: generates solvable levels with seeded randomisation.
New Touch input support alongside mouse input.
New Canvas 2D renderer with monospace font UI elements drawn directly onto the canvas.
New Node.js HTTP server with static file serving and REST API for level storage.
New Supabase database integration for level and rating persistence.