Game Update

See also: Future Updates

The Blockheads, like most other games, gets occasional updates, adding new features and fixing bugs and glitches.

The update process for major updates starts with the developer of The Blockheads, David Frampton creating an update, followed by testing by the Majic Jungle beta team on iOS. After thorough testing, the release candidate build is sent to Noodlecake and Apple. Noodlecake then ports the update to Android, and does their own testing. Once both builds are approved by Apple, Google, and Amazon, the update goes live for all devices.

Minor updates do not have to be released simultaneously, such as version 1.5.2, where the Android version was released 30 days after the Apple release.

The longest wait between updates was between 1.6 and 1.6.1 on iOS, with a wait of 377 days. The shortest wait between updates was between 1.4.0.1 and 1.4.0.2 on Android, at a length of one day. It has been 3280 days since the last update was released for iOS. It has been 3244 days since the last update was released for Android.

Updates

iOS

Android

Update Date Days until next Update Major 1.0 2013-01-10 9 28 1.0.1 2013-01-19 19 1.1 2013-02-07 4 32 1.1.1 2013-02-11 28 1.2 2013-03-11 16 106 1.2.1 2013-03-27 90 1.3 2013-06-25 10 107 1.3.1 2013-07-05 13 97 1.3.2 2013-07-18 84 1.4 2013-10-10 174 1.5 2014-04-02 55 231 1.5.1 2014-05-27 60 176 1.5.2 2014-07-26 116 1.6 2014-11-19 377 -- 1.6.1 2015-12-01 --

Update Date Days until next Update Major 1.4 2013-10-10 6 174 1.4.0.1 2013-10-16 1 168 1.4.0.2 2013-10-17 6 167 1.4.0.3 2013-10-23 3 161 1.4.0.4 2013-10-26 158 1.5 2014-04-02 83 231 1.5.1 2014-06-24 90 148 1.5.2 2014-08-25 8 86 1.5.2.1 2014-09-02 3 78 1.5.2.2 2014-09-05 7 75 1.5.2.3 2014-09-12 18 68 1.5.2.4 2014-09-30 50 1.6 2014-11-19 7 -- 1.6.0.1 2014-11-26 23 -- 1.6.0.2 2014-12-19 237 -- 1.6.0.3 2015-08-13 144 -- 1.6.1 2016-01-04 2 -- 1.6.1.1 2016-01-06 --

Update (Android only) - Wednesday January 6, 2016

Fixes/Tweaks

• Fixes custom worlds, welcome message editing, and more.

Update - Tuesday December 1, 2015

• CUSTOM RULES UPDATE! You wanted creative mode? Well this is better! You now have the power to configure the way your world works, from super easy infinite health and everything free at trade portals, to instant-death in a red desert wasteland.
• To keep things fair, if you choose to enable custom rules then you can't craft or use portal chests, there are no time crystal blocks to mine, and trades at trade portals do not influence the global economy. However, in your custom rules single player world, or as a server owner/admin you get a large number of customizations, both in how your world is generated, and in the game rules that apply to everyone in your world.
• You can make everything at trade portals free, or disable them entirely. You can stop clothing from decaying, you can make the world protected, like it is covered by one giant ownership sign. You can speed up time, change the color of the sun, make blockheads always happy, or sad, hungrier or full, healthy or weak. You can even configure what new blockheads will spawn with, and make them die when a player exits the world, amongst many other options.
• You can either create a new custom rules world, or migrate your existing worlds. So get started on your custom rules world today!

Fixes/Tweaks

• Bug fixes

Android exclusive

• Fixes for single player freezing issues and to get non-loading worlds working again!
• Many more small fixes and changes!

Update (Android only) - Thursday August 13, 2015

Fixes/Tweaks

• Bug fixes, improvements to web views

Update (Android only) - Friday December 19, 2014

Fixes/Tweaks

• Bug fixes

Update (Android only) - Wednesday November 26, 2014

Fixes/Tweaks

• Bug fixes and stability improvements

Update - Wednesday November 19, 2014

• JETPACKS! You’re going to need a lot of oil, titanium and electricity to make one, but then YOU CAN FLY!
• New floating islands in the sky! These will appear in new worlds, and in unexplored areas of existing worlds.
• New hanging vines, and colorful tulips
• Mining/digging speed with bare hands and primitive tools is now faster
• It’s now twice as fast to craft all items!
• New shaders and lighting for an improved look
• Adds platinum coins (worth 100 gold each), as well as platinum ore, ingots and blocks.
• Adds titanium ore, ingots, blocks, armor, swords and pickaxes.
• Adds carbon fiber blocks and armor
• Adds glass and black glass stairs and columns
• Adds a new electric press which is faster than a normal press, but also allows you to crush stone into gravel and gravel into sand
• Adds the new electric sluice, which sifts through gravel to find ores
• Adds ownership signs, which protect a 31x31 area so that only the assigned player and admins may modify it.
• All columns and stairs are now crafted at the builder’s bench, which replaces the stonemason’s bench
• Plants and trees grown in compost no longer die of old age
• Compost is now created at a compost bin, and can be made out of most organic items
• Ores are now clumped together into larger deposits
• Back walls are now only created if there is another solid block or back wall within 10 blocks below
• Back walls can now be removed by using the correct tool for the block type
• Text now appears black on light painted signs or shops
• Workbenches and portals can only be upgraded by admins or the owner of that workbench.

Update (Android only) - Tuesday September 30, 2014

Fixes/Tweaks

• More bug fixes and performance improvements

Update (Android only) - Friday September 12, 2014

Fixes/Tweaks

• More bug fixes and performance improvements

Update (Android only) - Friday September 5, 2014

Fixes/Tweaks

• More bug fixes

Update (Android only) - Tuesday September 2, 2014

Fixes/Tweaks

• Bug fixes

Update - Saturday July 26, 2014

• Adds the ability to create server based cloud hosted multiplayer worlds from within the game using time crystals
• Adds the ability to join cloud worlds easily via the random world or search function.
• Adds ability to connect to the ‘Owner Portal’ - A website where cloud world owners can manage their worlds
• Adds current player count to cloud worlds on the main worlds screen
• Fixes issue where the time crystal counter sometimes didn’t get updated
• Fixes crashes, improves lag issues/performance, and fixes rare item loss and world corruption bugs

Android exclusive

• Fixes issue with mini-map view not updating correctly while exploring
• Lots of minor improvements and fixes for a bunch of rare and minor issues
• Intel support

Update - Tuesday May 27, 2014

Features

• New cloud based server hosting
• New improved interface for joining multiplayer worlds, including iCloud sync for recently joined servers
• Trade portals now display trend indicators and 24 hour graphs
• Adds ability to mute players in multiplayer chat, which also hides that player’s paintings and avatar
• Adds buttons for mods and admins to kick and ban easily in multiplayer
• New support for disabling PVP (Player vs. player) on multiplayer servers
• New support for password protecting servers
• New support for a custom welcome message when joining a server
• When you don’t have enough time crystals to complete an action, it now tells you how many more you need
• Admins and mods are now displayed in a different color on buttons and text
• Admins can now see a combination of all revealed areas of the map for all players
• Banned players paintings are now removed
• New buttons to get free crystals while crafting

Bug Fixes

• Fixes bug where blockheads could end up repeatedly dying from overheating
• Fixes issue where paintings could appear higher resolution than they should
• Fixes issue where players could pick up elevator shafts or motors that did not belong to them.
• Fixes crashing bugs
• Fixes issue where the sides and top of the front layer of glass blocks could often be rendered opaque
• Fixes issue where steam trains could be removed by anyone
• Fixes issue where station names didn’t show up when a steam locomotive is tapped
• Painted objects now show up the correct color when removed and in your inventory or dropped and floating
• Now all owned floating objects won’t despawn, e.g. paintings that drop as a result of the back wall being removed will no longer despawn.
• Reduces memory usage and improves performance, particularly reducing lag in multiplayer.
• Fixes bugs where items could get lost when disconnecting from a server
• Fixes bug that could cause electricity, steam generators and elevators to stop working.
• Fixes stairs achievement
• Fixes item dupe bugs
• Fixes bug where freezing water then mining the ice would make any objects (e.g. safes) that were frozen within disappear
• Fixes bug where sharks could multiply too quickly
• Fixes bug where some players couldn’t remove blocks containing windows

Update - Wednesday April 2, 2014

Changes

• New trade portals allow buying and selling items on a global marketplace with all other Blockheads players
• A new tutorial to help out new players starting a single player world
• Adds recent server list for connecting to online servers
• New multiplayer worlds can now be up to 16x larger!
• New scorpions can be found in the desert, and are particularly active at night
• Blockheads can now die, but can regenerate at the portal
• Craft paintings using any picture you like from your camera roll
• New stairs and columns for decoration and to make moving between floors easier
• New fast and convenient electric elevators
• New golden bow & poison arrows
• You can now paint ladders, beds, chests, shelves, display cabinets, safes, signs and shops
• Many bug fixes and tweaks

Update (Android only) - Saturday October 26, 2013

Fixes/Tweaks

• Fixed issue with some players world crashing after moving full chests.

Update (Android only) - Wednesday October 23, 2013

Fixes/Tweaks

• Fixed Keyboard issue for some devices
• Fixed issue causing some players games to hang
• More updates and bug fixes to come!

Update (Android only) - Thursday October 17, 2013

Fixes/Tweaks

• Several bug fixes and improvements to keep your Blockheads rocking! We have disabled portrait mode to prevent a random crash that was occurring for some players when rotating the screen.

Update (Android only) - Wednesday October 16, 2013

Fixes/Tweaks

• Several bug fixes and improvements to keep your Blockheads rocking!

Update - Thursday October 10, 2013

General

• Adds amazing new steel RAIL & TRAINS!
• Adds electricity, with copper wiring, steam and solar powered generators, flywheels to store energy and more!
• New bow & arrows for ranged attacks
• New tin and iron armor, which will help protect you against the new cave trolls... and...
• Each other! It is now possible for blockheads to harm other players' blockheads in multiplayer.
• Build rail ramps and jumps and launch your blockheads off cliffs on their speedy rail handcars!
• New HD textures let you see your worlds like you've never seen them before.
• New portal chests allow you to transport items instantly within and even between worlds
• Transport items on steam powered cargo trains over long distances between train stations.
• Take all of your blockheads for a ride together with other players in a train of passenger cars.
• New electric furnaces, kilns and metalwork benches which unlock new items to craft, use less fuel, and are 50% faster
• Adds an electric stove to cook more advanced meals which keep your blockheads full for longer.
• Adds silicon, black sand, black glass and magnets, and display cabinets which are like shelves, but other players can't get in and steal your stuff.
• Craft pig iron to get more iron ingots from ore.
• Find new Ice torches and ice armor with a cooling effect to protect against heat.
• You can now warp in up to 5 blockheads!

Fixes/Tweaks

• Newly placed beds, signs, chests, shelves, trains and workbenches are now owned by whoever placed them, and cannot be picked up or directly removed by other players. They also no longer despawn.
• New server command to reset the owner of a username
• Banning users now also black lists their device, so they cannot reconnect with a different username and IP
• Water freezing and melting no longer causes an increase in water volume
• Added new moderator category to servers that can only list, ban/unban, kick, and whitelist/unwhitelist other players.
• Admins and hosts can now pick up and use all items regardless of who the owner is. Placing any picked up item re-assigns ownership to the host/admin. Dropping any item removes all ownership.
• It is now possible to hang workbenches and chests on back walls and stack them above each other
• Removed ability to purchase ore/coal/oil/ingots from portals, it was a bit too much like cheating.
• Fixes a bug where all blockheads could occasionally instantly lose all health (the heart attack bug)
• Fixes issues with pathfinding, including falls when digging ceilings or removing ladders, and queued actions getting canceled when they shouldn't be.
• Fixes issue allowing people to log in as someone else on iOS 7, or when they were marked (AWAY)
• Kicked/Banned players' blockheads are now removed from the world instantly.
• Now only one username can be active on a given server from a given device at one time.
• Fixes issues where items could get lost or duplicated when exiting the game.
• Numerous changes to tech tree and where things are crafted, with some new upgrades.
• Added buttons to use the current item/eat/wear/take photo etc. next to the inventory as well as above the blockhead.
• Many performance optimizations
• Fixed long standing bug where chili and corn plants couldn't have just the fruit harvested by harvesting top square.

Update - Thursday July 18, 2013

Fixes/Tweaks

• Fixes issues found in previous versions, focusing particularly on crashes, multiplayer disconnects, and lag.

Update - Friday July 5, 2013

Fixes/Tweaks

• Fixes an issue with editing of signs.
• Fixes an issue where workbenches and items disappear.
• Fixes an issue of crashes in multiplayer.

Update - Tuesday June 25, 2013

Multiplayer

• Connect to persistent server-hosted worlds for many more players at once
• In-game text chat with other players
• Now continues when you exit in multiplayer too. The server will continue to run through any queued actions for your blockheads until you return.
• Connect and play with up to 5 other players locally without needing Game Center
• Host or join auto-matched Game Center games, and find new friends to play with
• Smelt copper and gold coins to trade with other players.
• New shop blocks allow you to trade items with other players, even while you're away.
• Added safes, giving the ability to store items that no other players can access.
• Added iron doors and trapdoors that only your blockheads can use.

General

• Dig for treasure! New golden treasure chests containing valuable items.
• Pinch to zoom out to a map view that shows all the way from lava to space, and allows you to easily see everything and zoom into specific areas.
• Signs! Label your rooms and chests, or leave messages for other players.
• Use time crystals to teleport from anywhere in the world to any portal instantly!
• New advanced beds allow your blockheads to sleep much faster and stay awake longer.
• Craft shelves to display items and easily see where everything is stored.
• New metal blocks allow you to build strong walls that look awesome and are hard to destroy.
• The expected change to your inventory is now tracked across actions. So for example if you queue up crafting 3 tin ingots, you can now immediately queue up crafting a tin bucket.
• Find limes in limestone!
• Seven new achievements.

Fixes/Tweaks

• Fixes an issue where your world could become corrupted if you accept a Game Center invite while a world is loading.
• Fixes many issues causing lag and crashes in multiplayer.
• The 'fog of war' darkness is now per-player in multiplayer.
• Partially mined stone no longer resets to its un-mined state (though placed blocks still do).
• Many other more minor fixes and changes.

Update - Tuesday March 27, 2013

Bug Fixes

• Adds particles and an icon to make it clearer when the tin foil hat is queuing AI events.
• Tin foil hat wearers will no longer mine placed blocks.
• Fixes an issue that could cause worlds to fail to load.
• Fixes problems with invisible plants, and trees that don't fall down when chopped
• Fixes more crash bugs, particularly in multiplayer
• Fixes issue that could make button presses fail to work sometimes
• Fixes graphical issue with doors and trapdoors in transparent blocks
• Fixes problems with very large numbers of sharks or fish spawning
• Other minor fixes

Update - Monday March 11, 2013

Features

• No need to leave your device running for long crafting times anymore. Instruct a blockhead to craft 10 ingots, exit the app, come back after enough time has elapsed and it'll be done! When you exit, time will continue for each blockhead until all queued actions and crafting are completed, or they get too exhausted. Watch out though, while blockheads are busy they will get tired and hungry as usual, and they can even suffer damage.
• You can now warp in up to FOUR BLOCKHEADS! Blockheads also now cost less food and time crystals.
• Find fish in the sea.
• Craft a fishing rod to catch them.
• But watch out for SHARKS!
• Upgrade your press with bronze to create tin foil, then roast fish on the campfire to create the most fulfilling meal yet.
• Craft, wear, and unleash the power of the incredible TIN FOIL HAT!
• While swimming, eat kelp to get a boost of air.

Tweaks

• Clothing now degrades much, much, slower, and at different rates depending on what the blockhead is doing, and on the clothing item.
• Queue multiple craft actions one after the other at a single workbench.
• Also queue sleeping events at a bed even when not tired. Blockheads still must be tired when they get there to actually sleep though.
• New animation when harmed.
• Basalt is now shinier, and has a new unique look when painted.
• All new blockheads can now be warped in immediately without another blockhead needing to be at the portal to warp them in.
• Blockheads can collapse from exhaustion or starvation, and refuse to craft if too exhausted or starving.
• Blockheads don't starve until a while after hunger bar reaches zero, and starving doesn't damage health as much initially.
• When using a gold pick axe or spade on ore/coal/oil/clay etc. there is now a small chance of getting 10 of that ore on any strike.
• Removing a reinforced platform now also removes the back wall where appropriate.
• Placed reinforced platforms now also preserve the back wall, so it's now possible to create interesting back wall designs with different blocks.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed many lag issues, and made the game run a lot faster and smoother, particularly with many donkeys, and with melting/freezing/flowing water and falling snow.
• These changes also greatly improve battery usage.
• Basalt now gives correct bonuses when mined with gem pickaxes.
• The 'pausing and running in mid air every few seconds' bug is fixed.
• Fixes many crash bugs.
• Fixes disappearing action boxes when chasing animals.
• Fixed bug where you could breathe underwater by mining blocks.
• Fixed bug where the crickets would always make noise regardless of sound volume.
• Fixed bug that could cause world corruption in multiplayer games.
• Fixed bug where queued interactions or pick up actions could get canceled if off screen.
• Many other minor fixes

Update - Monday February 11, 2013

Additions

• Added missing Achievements not released in previous update.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed problems with creating New Worlds.
• Fixed major source of crashes.
• Fixed issues with Kelp.
• Fixed Clay/Bucket exploit.

Update - Thursday February 07, 2013

Additions

• Find kelp in the oceans.
• New achievements to aim for.
• Craft compost to grow plants and trees faster and bigger.
• Craft steel lanterns, they're waterproof!
• Craft extravagant gem chandeliers.
• Find basalt, a new shiny block to build with.
• Use dirt and water to craft clay at a press.

Tweaks

• Wooden platforms are now 'reinforced platforms' and require iron. This is to make them a more advanced building material for later in the game.
• Dropped chests and pole bonus clothing items are no longer removed from the world.
• The more valuable gems are a bit less likely to show up while meditating.
• Clothing now degrades slowly over time.
• There are now tips in the early stages of the game.
• Options added to change sound volume, and restore double-time purchase.

Bug fixes

• Now uses a much safer method to save worlds, so losing a world to a crash is now very unlikely.
• Can no longer breathe underwater by swimming through solid blocks.
• Fixed issue with crystals when restoring from backups.
• Fixed issue with artificial light traveling too far under water.
• Fixed some crash issues.
• Dropbears now die if burned.

Update - Saturday January 19, 2013

• Fixes the majority of crash bugs.
• Fixes bug that could cause workbenches to become unusable.
• Fixes issues with submitting achievements to Game Center while offline. Any achievements you completed while offline that were not submitted will now be submitted when you launch the game.
• Fixes the majority of causes of world load problems.
• There is also a chance that if your world wouldn't load anymore, it may now load in this version.
• Dropped items now float in water, to make it so you can't accidentally drop them to the bottom of an ocean. Also it's kind of cooler that way.