Sopana v1.8.0

Sopāna v1.8.0 — 3D fixed: smooth + full board

The real-3D mode was laggy and cut off the board on phones. Both fixed.

Performance — ~220 draw calls → 14

• All 100 tiles now render as a single instanced mesh; all 100 numbers as one baked atlas; snake/ladder markers as one instanced mesh.
• Dropped a dynamic light; mobile renders at a lower pixel ratio without MSAA.

Full board always visible

• New aspect-aware camera fit shows the entire board on portrait phones (the perspective FOV used to crop it).
• On phones the default view is a fuller top-down-ish angle so the board fills the screen.

Mobile controls

• Two-finger pinch-to-zoom (one finger still orbits).

Verified with Playwright across all 4 themes and portrait/landscape/desktop (14 draw calls, full board, gameplay works, no errors). 19/19 unit tests pass.

APK: Sopana-v1.8.0.apk (attached once CI completes).

Sopana v1.7.0

Sopāna v1.7.0 — New app logo

A brand-new logo replaces the default Capacitor icon: a golden serpent forming an "S" with ladder rungs — Sopāna means "the ladder of ascent" — glowing on near-black, matching the app's amber-gold palette. Generated with GPT-image-2.

What changed

• App launcher icon + splash are now the serpent-S mark (Android adaptive icon: foreground + near-black background).
• Favicon, Apple touch icon, and PWA install icon across all pages, plus a web app manifest.
• The lobby now leads with the emblem above the wordmark; the board header shows the mark.

Under the hood

• tooling/gen_logo.py generated 5 concepts with GPT-image-2; tooling/make_brand_assets.py derives every size deterministically from the chosen master.
• CI (apk.yml) runs @capacitor/assets generate so the APK always carries the logo.

APK: Sopana-v1.7.0.apk (attached once CI completes).

Sopana v1.6.0

Sopāna v1.6.0 — Mobile-friendliness pass

Tested on-device from a UX-designer perspective across phone viewports.

Highlights

• Board is the hero on phones — compact ellipsised header, hidden subtitle, larger board (min(96vw, 62vh)).
• All touch targets ≥44px (Apple HIG) — controls, selects, theme pills, nav links, HUD buttons.
• Safe-area aware — viewport-fit=cover + notch/inset padding; fixed nav respects the status bar.
• Better touch ergonomics — touch-action: manipulation, no tap-highlight flash, no text auto-zoom, controlled overscroll.
• Cinematic & 3D — HUD gradient scrims for legibility; title/status moved clear of the nav; redundant 3D title hidden.

New QA harness tooling/qa_mobile.mjs audits touch targets, overflow, board size and thumb reach across 5 phone viewports. 19/19 unit tests pass.

APK: Sopana-v1.6.0.apk (attached once CI completes).

Sopana v1.5.0

Sopāna v1.5.0 — Real character sprites in Cinematic + per-theme music

Every character now looks like itself (Cinematic)

• Generated a backlit sprite for each character (pilgrim, sage, devotee, wanderer; founder,
  engineer, designer, investor; lion, monkey, turtle, crow, deer; runner, reader, sprout, star).
• In the Cinematic view each player is rendered as their chosen character — no longer one plain
  tinted world image — each on the dark backlit stage with a soft player-colour glow.

Theme-appropriate music (no more constant buzz)

• Founder's Climb, Panchatantra Trail and Habit Heroes now play their own generated looping music
  (bright synth / warm folk / playful chiptune) instead of the constant drone.
• Snake & Ladders — Original keeps its temple drone, as intended.
• Mute still controls everything.

Generators added (tooling/gen_char_sprites.py, gen_theme_music.py). 19/19 tests pass.

Sopana v1.4.0

Sopāna v1.4.0 — Game-design pass (multiplayer positions, themed 3D characters, richer music)

See where everyone is (multiplayer)

• 3D: each player is now a distinct character standee — the chosen glyph on a player-
  coloured base — standing on their own square; the current player is ringed. No more single
  shared pawn.
• Cinematic: every player appears on the staircase (waiting players dimmed); the active
  player walks and the camera follows them.

Per-theme 3D characters

• The 3D pawn now shows your chosen character (pilgrim, founder, fable animal, hero…), distinct
  per theme and per player.

Richer per-theme music

• Each theme gained a short melodic motif and a win fanfare in its own musical style.

UX / accessibility fixes

• Cinematic controls now wrap on phones so the mute button and turn indicator are always reachable.
• The light Habit Heroes theme no longer washes out the Cinematic or 3D view (dark-clamped
  backdrops); characters stay visible.
• The Cinematic intro now shows each theme's own tagline.
• Lobby is keyboard- and screen-reader-friendly (focus ring + pressed states), and player
  characters default to distinct picks.

Verified on the Android emulator and headless Chromium. 19/19 tests pass.

Sopana v1.3.0

Sopāna v1.3.0 — Personalise & play together

Local multiplayer (pass-and-play, 1–4 players)

• New lobby (opens on launch): choose a theme, a mode, the number of players and a
  character for each. Then take turns on one screen — perfect for web, phone or TV.
• Board shows every player as a colour-coded token with a live turn roster, positions
  and a winner trophy. Cinematic and 3D hand off turn-by-turn with a player badge.

Personalisation

• Pick your character per theme — pilgrims & sages, founders & engineers, the fable
  animals, or habit heroes. Your colour follows you across every mode.

Per-theme sound design

• Each theme has its own score and SFX: temple raga (Original), bright synth (Founder's
  Climb), warm folk pentatonic (Panchatantra), playful chiptune (Habit Heroes).

A different intro film for every theme

• New Sora-2 opening cinematics for Founder's Climb, Panchatantra Trail and Habit Heroes,
  alongside the original Moksha intro.

Themed environments

• The 3D board and lighting, and the Cinematic backdrop, now take on each theme's palette.

Switch theme mid-game from any mode. 19/19 tests pass.

Sopana v1.2.0

Sopāna v1.2.0 — Themed snakes, cinematic-first, 3D declutter

Realistic, themed snakes

• New shared SVG snake renderer: tapering scaled body, head, eyes, flicking tongue and a slithering glint.
• Each theme gets its own snake: realistic (Original), neon (Founder''s Climb), folk (Panchatantra Trail), cartoon (Habit Heroes). The same design carries into 3D.

Cinematic-first + in-game theme switcher

• The game now opens directly in the immersive Cinematic mode.
• A theme switcher lets you change worlds mid-play in every mode (Board, Cinematic, 3D).
• New mode nav (Cinematic | Board | 3D) that remembers your chosen theme as you switch.
• Cinematic is fully theme-aware (per-world art, audio and palette).

3D declutter

• The 3D board is no longer crowded with every snake and ladder at once.
• Tiles show subtle green (ladder) / red (snake) ring markers; the snake or ladder animates in only when you land on it — with the realistic themed snake design.

19/19 automated tests pass.

Sopana v1.1.0

Sopana v1.1.0 — four themes + 3D

Themes (Board mode): Snake & Ladders — Original, Founder's Climb, Panchatantra Trail, Habit Heroes.
Modes: Board (2D), Cinematic (2.5D shadow-puppet + Sora-2 intro), 3D (real 3D board with shifting camera angles).

Play on the web: https://naveenneog.github.io/Sopana/
Android APK (Sopana-v1.1.0.apk) built by CI and attached below.

Sopana v1.0.0

Sopana v1.0.0 — Snakes & Ladders (Original)

The original Indian Moksha Patam, reimagined. Three ways to play:

• Board — classic 2D, multi-theme
• Cinematic — 2.5D backlit shadow-puppet ascent + Sora-2 intro
• 3D — real 3D board with shifting camera angles

Play on the web: https://naveenneog.github.io/Sopana/
The Android APK (Sopana-v1.0.0.apk) is built by CI and attached to this release.