We’re entering the final stages of our long-planned network overhaul: a complete rebuild of Risk’s multiplayer backend. This update is designed to:

• Improve game stability and recovery

• Shut down most forms of cheating

• Lay the groundwork for future multiplayer features

After years of internal development and testing, we’re ready to take the next step: real-world testing. The first closed beta will begin in August/July for a limited group of international players.

This will be a small group - if you signed up for beta access earlier this year, we will be running a much wider playtest later in the year and will be contacting players about that soon.

This beta build is based on v3.16,  so it won’t include recent features like Secret Missions or the new Map Select screen. The goal here is to test the core networking under real player conditions.

It’s taken a while to get here - this overhaul was first roadmapped back in 2019 - and it’s been a bumpy road since then with delays, technical hurdles and global pandemics. That said, hitting our first beta is a major milestone.

Not much, and that’s the point. This is a backend upgrade, so games should feel largely the same. You may notice:

• Fewer disconnects and crashes

• More secure, cheat-resistant matches and less hackers

• More recovered games, with faster recovery times when a player drops

One area we’re still fine-tuning is input responsiveness. Server-side validation can introduce slight delays - especially for fast-fingered PC users - but it’s key to preventing exploits. We’re working to strike the right balance between responsiveness, security and maintaining an even playing field between mobile and PC players.

Risk’s current system relies on the host’s device to manage the game, which creates all kinds of issues. If the host drops, the game can be lost forever. Worse, with the right tools, players can tamper with game state or intercept packets in flight between clients.

The new system runs on authoritative servers, removing that dependency. This means:

• Better security and stability

• Recoverable games

• Protection against most known hacks and packet manipulation

Server-authoratative games also open up possible future features that we couldn’t explore otherwise. After the network overhaul we can explore long requested features like:

• Asynchronous games

• Multiplayer save slots

• Better spectator modes

We underestimated the complexity early on. The original plan was to put the whole team on it and move fast - we soon realised that would mean halting all other Risk development.

So we changed tactics. This year we’ve kept a small, dedicated team focused on the overhaul while others worked on features like Secret Missions, new UI updates, block lists and future content we’ll be announcing in the coming months.

That slowed the overhaul down but it kept the rest of the game moving.

Now, with the core work behind us and real player testing ahead, we’re closer than ever to shipping this major upgrade.

Thanks for your patience. You can still sign up to express interest in our betas here.[docs.google.com]

Team@SMG

In 3.19, we introduced several new tools and features to reduce unfair play and improve the overall quality of your RISK games. 

The highly requested blocklist is now available to all players. 

We’ve heard stories of players using their friends list as a defacto block list. Now all players can block users from both the pregame lobby to the postgame.

Home screen, press friends panel icon at the top right (where arrow points)

Within the Friends panel, tap on any player's avatar to add, remove and manage players between your Friends and Blocked lists. All players currently on your blocked list are displayed within the “Blocked” tab. Your block list may already be populated, these are people you have reported in the past. This means if you report someone, that player will be automatically added to your block list.

Block lists (like Friends lists) will currently block up to 500 players - when you add more after this they will replace your oldest blocked accounts. We’re exploring solutions to increase this number which would likely land in 3.20. 

Additionally, more options have been added to the pregame screen by tapping on a player's avatar. Doing so reveals a mini-menu with options to View Profile (Non-Ranked games only), Report, Block, or Mute the chat of the chosen player. 

You can now block players directly from the post-game screen. On the “Add New RISK Friends” screen, select the red block icon under the player you want to block. Then, confirm by selecting the green tick. You can still send friend requests from this screen too.

Blocked players cannot enter your hosted lobbies and will be flagged regardless of whether they are hidden behind a persona if they join a non-hosted lobby you are also in.

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If you have any more questions on how to use block lists, feel free to reach out to us by submitting a support ticket[smgstudio.freshdesk.com] or reaching out to us on social media:

• Facebook[www.facebook.com]

• Instagram[www.instagram.com]

• X[x.com]

• TikTok[www.tiktok.com]

Over and out,

– SMG: Team RISK