Glødkeeper · Roadmap
The Glødkeeper roadmap
What is built, what is being built, and what we would like to build, grouped by season rather than date. Anything under No date yet is genuinely a maybe.
Updated 20 October 2026
Key facts
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Stage
Closed alpha
Registration is open. Places are approved by hand.
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Plays on
Any browser
Phone, tablet or computer. Add it to your home screen; no app store.
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Price
Free
Nothing is sold for money during the alpha. Random items never will be.
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Alpha progress
Reset at the end
Collections and ratings start again when the alpha ends.
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Opponents
Real players
Their actual teams today, playing as set. Live head-to-head is next.
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Ages
7 and up
No free text between players, ever.
The five themes
Everything on this page belongs to one of these, and the chips on each card say which.
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Card collection
Hundreds of illustrated Glødkin, six rarities, sixteen traits each, and one collection for every game.
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Mini-games
A growing box of quick games, all played with the same collection. Simple boards, real decisions.
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Built for your phone
A web app made for real phones on real signal. Close it mid-game and pick up where you left off.
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Play real people
Other players' real teams today, live head-to-head next, and auto-play when the signal drops.
At a glance
| When | What arrives | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Closed alpha Autumn 2026 | A collection from day one · Trinkets · A box of mini-games · Glodball and Lobbers · Stories you play · Territory and delves · Made for a phone on a train · Ratings, leagues and friends · Registration and hand-picked places | Registration open now |
| Through the alpha Winter 2026–27 | Live head-to-head · Auto-play in every versus game · Keep playing solo games offline · More stories · Quest journeys · Delves with house rules · Glødkin from every decade | Planned |
| Closed beta Spring 2027 | A fresh start · Boss Showdown events · Optional purchases (UK) · Speaking your language | Planned, undated |
| The creator tools 2027 | Story Studio for everyone · Game Creator | Planned, undated |
| No date yet Later | Tournaments · App store versions · Creator revenue sharing | Maybe |
- Built Exists and is being played in testing.
- Being built Work has started.
- Planned Decided, not started.
- Maybe A direction we like.
Autumn 2026 · Registration open now
Closed alpha
Everything here is built and being played. The alpha is about finding what breaks.
- 🃏 Card collection Built
A collection from day one
Join and your starter squad is already built and ready to play. Every Glødkin is illustrated and has its own sixteen traits, so no two cards play the same.
- 🃏 Card collection Built
Trinkets
Curios your Glødkin carry, each in six rarities, with an album that shows every kind and where it can be found. A Glødkin can only carry a trinket as rare as itself.
- 🎲 Mini-games Built
A box of mini-games
Card battles, puzzles, solitaire and more, against other players or on your own. One collection plays them all, and the tour shows what is in the box today.
- 🎲 Mini-games Being built
Glodball and Lobbers
The two newest: manage a football side by picking plays from a whiteboard, and lay siege to a hill while your sturdiest Glødkin guard the Architect. Built, still being tuned.
- 📱 Built for your phone Built
Made for a phone on a train
The game tells you when your signal is slow instead of ignoring your taps, picks a game back up after you close the app, and goes easy on your battery.
- ⚔️ Play real people Built
Ratings, leagues and friends
Seasonal ratings for each game, league tables, and friendly games and mini-leagues with people you know that never touch your rating.
- 🍀 The studio Built
Registration and hand-picked places
Register, tell us how you found the game, and we approve places ourselves, so the alpha stays small enough that every report gets read.
Winter 2026–27 · Planned
Through the alpha
Playing people live, keeping your game alive on a bad signal, and more world to explore.
- ⚔️ Play real people Planned
Live head-to-head
Both players at once, turn by turn, starting with the card games. Ghost play stays, because it means there is always a real opponent ready, whatever the time.
- ⚔️ Play real people Being built
Auto-play in every versus game
In Glødstone the game already plays your turn if your signal drops, so a tunnel never costs you a match. That is spreading to every head-to-head game.
- 📱 Built for your phone Planned
Keep playing solo games offline
Solo games that don't need an opponent carry on without a signal and settle up when you are back, starting with Smashlings.
- 🎲 Mini-games Being built
Delves with house rules
Guards who each test a named trait are built. More delves are being designed, each with a twist of its own, so no two play alike.
- 🃏 Card collection Being built
Glødkin from every decade
New generations of cards drawn from the decades of the twentieth century.
Spring 2027 · Planned, undated
Closed beta
A fresh start for everyone and more places. The point where progress is meant to last.
- 🍀 The studio Planned
A fresh start
Alpha accounts are reset, and from the beta on, progress is meant to last. More places open, still by registration.
- ⚔️ Play real people Planned
Boss Showdown events
Timed events where everyone's squads take on one enormous animated boss together.
- 🍀 The studio Planned
Optional purchases (UK)
One currency, bought only through a parent's gate with bank checks on every purchase and a spending limit parents control. Nothing random is ever for sale; that is a rule, not a setting.
- 📱 Built for your phone Planned
Speaking your language
Translation starts with one page and grows. The game should read as warmly in your language as it does in English.
2027 · Planned, undated
The creator tools
The tools we build the game with, opened up carefully to people who want to add to it.
- 🎲 Mini-games Planned
Game Creator
The ambitious one: a guided studio that helps a designer turn a game idea into a working Glødkeeper mini-game, with the collection, opponents and prizes already wired in.
Later · Maybe
No date yet
Directions we like. Genuinely maybes.
- ⚔️ Play real people Maybe
Tournaments
Scheduled brackets with seasonal trophies, played live where everyone can be there.
- 📱 Built for your phone Maybe
App store versions
The web app installs to your home screen today. Store versions only if they give players something the web can't.
- 🍀 The studio Maybe
Creator revenue sharing
If fan-made stories and games become part of the world, their makers should share in what they bring. Only after the creator tools earn their trust.
The story so far
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 20 October 2026 | Closed alpha registration opens, and this roadmap is rebuilt around the five themes. |
| 17 October 2026 | Glodball and Lobbers join the box, making thirteen mini-games. |
| 11 September 2026 | Glowlings becomes Glødkeeper, and its creatures become Glødkin. |
| 23 August 2026 | Every action from that review closed and verified. |
| 1 August 2026 | An independent, area-by-area review of the whole codebase, tracked in public. |
| 25 July 2026 | Cloverfold gets a name, a website and a devlog. The game is called Glowlings. |
Latest from the devlog
- Registration is open for the closed alpha · 20 October 2026
- Your collection, from day one · 20 October 2026
- Playing people who aren't there (yet) · 20 October 2026
- Built for a phone on a train · 20 October 2026
Questions
If I mostly play against ghosts, why does it need a connection at all?
It's a fair question. Three reasons, then the honest part.
A ghost is a real person. When you play a ghost you are playing another player's actual team or deck, as they set it up, and the result counts on both your records. Their team plays other people while they sleep, and yours does the same for you. It is multiplayer that doesn't need you both awake at the same moment, a bit like chess by post.
Results have to mean something. Your collection is shared by every game, and wins feed ratings, leagues and prizes. If the phone decided who won, a tampered phone could too. The server referees every game, so a win is a win.
The world is shared. Friends, leagues, territory rounds and stories change while you're away, and new stories arrive without an update.
The honest part: a dropped signal shouldn't cost you a game, and some solo games don't need a connection for every move. So games already survive you closing the app, Glødstone plays your turn if your signal goes, auto-play is spreading to every versus game this winter, and solo games that can carry on offline will, starting with Smashlings. Live head-to-head, both of you playing at once, is planned for this winter too.
What does it look like?
Clear, colourful and illustrated: every Glødkin has its own card art, and the games are boards, cards and pieces drawn for a phone screen. It isn't a 3D world or a console game, and we would rather say so now. That is why we call them mini-games.
Who is it for?
It is built to the rules of a game for ages 7 and up: no free text between players and nothing random sold for money. There is plenty in it for grown-ups too. Building a deck, reading a minefield or picking the right play for your football side is not child's play.
How do I join?
Register on the play page. You sign in with Google and tell us how you came across the game. We approve places ourselves and email you when yours is ready.
Will my alpha progress carry over?
No. When the alpha ends every account starts again, so we can fix the game properly rather than work around old mistakes. We will tell everyone well before it happens.
Why a web app and not the App Store?
One version for everyone on any phone, tablet or computer, updated the moment we fix something, with nothing to download. Add it to your home screen and it opens like an app.
Does it cost anything?
Not during the alpha. Later there will be optional purchases of one currency, behind a parent's gate. Random items are never for sale.
What's the ø?
Glød is Danish for the glow of a live ember. A Glødkeeper looks after it, and the creatures are Glødkin. Say it "glurd", or just "glow"; we won't mind.
Are these dates promises?
They are seasons, not dates, on purpose. Anything under "No date yet" is genuinely a maybe. When plans change we say so in the story so far.
Want to play? Register for the closed alpha.