Updates

What has changed in Koi Drift, most recent first. The web version at koidrift.com and the Android app carry the same game; the app follows a few days behind while it moves through testing.

September 2026 — r201 · the pond runs smooth

• The pond render loop was rebuilt for phones. Hidden animations that ran every frame are gone, the water’s expensive lighting is computed once at reduced density while the pebble floor and the koi stay pixel-sharp, and two full-screen blurs that ran sixty times a second were replaced by static ones.
• The quality governor now notices a phone that drops every other frame and steps down gently — water density first, koi sharpness last.
• The share card for the Daily is drawn in the game’s own colours, with the real logo, the pond floor and your drift as a glowing trail.
• Saving and sharing inside the Android app now go through the phone’s own share sheet and gallery.
• Music files are now the same on the web and in the app; the Replay tile icon is five times smaller; two megabytes of unused art left the download.

September 2026 — r198 · new water, new light

• Four new painted backgrounds at full phone and desktop resolution replace the old, heavily magnified art.
• The koi received a light polish: roundness, a spine highlight, and the water’s own caustic light playing across their backs.
• The koi are a touch larger, and every pond is now the same 7 × 7 shape, so a koi is always the same size on your screen. Difficulty comes from the koi, not the grid.
• The last card in the collection, the Cosmic Emperor Koi at pond 1000, is named in the collection with the ponds still to go; after him the cards end and the drift goes on.
• A collection that had been marked complete by mistake is repaired automatically.

September 2026 — r190 to r193 · the pause mark and the white edge

• The pause koi now wears a small pause mark between its eyes, aligned with the way it faces; when it has turned and is waiting, the mark becomes an arrow.
• The pale rim that made the koi look cut and pasted is gone — the sprites are blended correctly against the water.
• The pond is drawn at the phone’s full pixel density instead of two thirds of it.
• Predators keep a clear gap from the koi in the edge cell; the lane is a whisper at the predator’s mouth rather than a band across the water.

September 2026 — r185 to r189 · the painted pond

• The pond is now drawn in WebGL: live water with caustics, ripples and wakes, and painted koi that swim on a real strip mesh. The old CSS-drawn koi are retired.
• A single design system across every screen: art icons replace every emoji, one family of panels, one family of toasts.
• The tutorial is four ponds taught on the board itself, with no story before the game starts.

Earlier

Koi Drift opened for testing on Google Play in September 2026 after a long build: a thousand ponds, the 101-card collection with Guardians, the Daily with a world ranking, Calm Drift, the Drifter’s Pass, three languages (English, हिन्दी, తెలుగు), music and an installable web app that works offline.