Two Spies 2.3 is now live on the App Store! This release opens up various Season Pass features to be free for all users, and sets the game up for Season 4 and automatically advancing seasons every 3 months thereafter. Here are the release notes, and an update on this last stage in the game’s evolution.

Release Notes

• Features that were previously included in Season Passes, which includes Quick Match rankings and season stats, are now free for all players!
• Set up Quick Match seasons to automatically roll over every 3 months, no app updates required
• Added a fun reward pin for any player who purchased one of our previous Season Passes
• Fixed an issue where a subtle sound effect difference could unintentionally reveal info about whether agents are waiting or moving

Keeping things rolling

In 2019, we launched Two Spies as a little side project with cosmetic-only monetization. It exceeded our wildest dreams, with 800,000 folks trying the game, and rating it more than 4.7 stars on average.

Inspired by our fans, we’ve since made 24 updates to the game, making various additions that we hoped would make it sustainable to keep working on: online matchmaking, ranks, player stats, various new pins, a Season Pass system, and a ton of little improvements to help players learn and enjoy the game. All together these helped grow the game, but never resulted in the kind of revenue that could keep a live service game going indefinitely.

Given that, we need to switch our focus to what’s next. But we love Two Spies, and a lot of you do too, so we want to keep the game running while we can. This 2.3 update should help do that, by making the previous Season Pass features free for all players, and setting the servers up to auto-advance the Quick Match season every 3 months. With luck, this will keep the game live and playable for quite some time.

If you’re interested in what’s next from Royal Pixel Service, you can subscribe to our very infrequently used mailing list. It’ll probably be a while before we have anything to announce, but we love making fun stuff – and we’re not done yet!

More than anything, we want to thank you all so much for your love and support. Our players helped turn a fun little side project into something bigger. You’re all 00 agents in our hearts.

Season 3 is now live on the App Store! We have a new roster of spooky pins, 2 new maps, new emotes for Season’s Pass holders to taunt opponents with, and some small UI improvements. Good luck, agents!

Release Notes:

• Added a new roster of pins to our Shop, from zombies to some unsettling villains.
• Added New Maps: The Turkish Connection, and The Swiss Grinder. Retired two old-school maps from the Random shuffle: Central and Choked.
• Added new pro taunts: “Vienna is nice this time of year” and “An unorthodox choice”.
• Added a note on actions’ cards about whether they’ll blow or maintain your cover.
• Fixed issue where your win count was not updating properly; if you still encounter this issue, contact us using the Report Issue button in the Settings screen.
• Fixed a horde of bugs to make your experience on Two Spies more pleasant.

Today marks the launch of Two Spies Season 2! This update brings with it two new maps to try, two new in-game emotes for for agents who get the Season 2 Pass, and twice as many pins to earn: two for free players, and two more for Season Pass holders. There are also a number of new pins to collect, ranging from the unassuming to villainous.

As usual, we’ve also made some fixes and improvements, which we believe will further improve stability for folks who were seeing occasional connection issues and sometimes getting stuck in “between round” screens in previous versions of the game.

A peek into the future

In Season 1, we did a larger “feature update” which made some big changes to how online play and rankings worked, and introduced our new Season Pass system. We got a lot of positive feedback, and we really appreciate the support our Season 1 Pass holders have been giving the game. Overall, feedback has been really positive!

We were a bit surprised, though, to see that the actual number of players playing – and the percentage of players who try the game and stick with it – didn’t really go up with these updates. Players say it’s more fun now, and the reviews are really positive, but the same number of people are playing. 🤔

A lot of the feedback and suggestions we get for the game – add 2v2, build out new continents, add new abilities, etc – would be fun for players who are hooked. But additions like these wouldn’t help hook new players.

Players who don’t get to their first Quick Match victory don’t typically send us any feedback, but they make up most people who try the game. If we want to turn Two Spies into a sustainable game that has a wide array of opponents playing online and a business model that can fund big projects like an Android port, we need to improve that new-player experience to the point that more people “click” and stay with the game.

Some folks have argued that Two Spies is just destined to be a little side project folks play with friends here and there. Which might be true. But the feedback we get from players is so positive that it still seems like it could be more.

So we don’t have a specific plan yet, but our next focus in terms of considering features and improvements is how we can help more folks find that rush of their first victory. We have a lot of ideas we’re weighing, but if you have any feedback we’d love to hear them on Reddit.

And for the time being, Season 2 is upon us. Get out in the field and enjoy it. Best of luck, agents!

Attention, all agents!

Did you achieve a high clearance rank at the end of Season 1? If so, you may be eligible for an exclusive reward to commemorate your outstanding work, sent on behalf of the directors at Two Spies HQ.

Eligibility

Tweet or email us a screenshot of your clearance rank and codename by April 27, 2021, 18:00 PDT. Upon receipt, our operations department will cross reference with our secret database and if your matching rank is verified to be the highest of those that submit, we will contact and mail you a physical, limited edition Two Spies trophy.

Disclaimer

1. If you are the chosen agent, we will need to collect your shipping address. Upon successful delivery of the trophy, we will burn our records for your protection.
2. Your codename, for the purposes of this assignment, is your assigned name in Quick Match. Please do not send us your alias, for that is a secret for you and you alone.

Note from HQ

On behalf of the team at Two Spies, we’d like to thank you for your participation in Season 1. It has been an honor to have your support. We look forward to seeing you back on the field for Season 2. Onward, agents!

Two Spies v2.0.3 is now live on the App Store!

2.0.3 Patch notes

• Addressed an issue where some users would get stuck on “Waiting…” between Quick Match rounds.
• Various smaller bug fixes.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v2.0.2 is now live on the App Store!

2.0.2 Patch notes

• Add some logging to help track a few rare errors

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v2.0.1 is now live on the App Store!

2.0.1 Patch notes

• Bug fixes focused around in-app purchases, server errors, and a crash fix when playing against the bot.

We still have a couple of bugs we’re working to quash, so if you see a strange issue in-game – especially around being disconnected or stuck – you can tap Report Issue in Settings and describe what happened to send us some logs to help get the issue resolved.

Thanks for your support so far!

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Season 1 is live on the App Store! Get quick online matches against opponents in your skill range, try the new maps, earn a bonus pin, and get a Season Pass to see stats and player rankings!

Release Notes

• Added Season Pass feature, where players can access ranking and stats features with an In App Purchase.
• Award players with a Clearance Rank based on their Quick Match play, visible to Season Pass holders.
• Added Stats section for Season Pass holders.
• Allow all players to unlock a season pin if they win 20 Quick Match games
• Allow Season Pass holders to unlock a “pro” pin if they win 60 Quick Match games
• Improved Quick Match flow, so players auto-ready when a match is made, players can not back out of Quick Match lobby once they have an opponent ready, and made it easier to re-queue after a match.
• Added New Maps: Bridges, St. Peter’s Cross, All Roads Lead to Berlin, and Viennese. Retired Southern Approach and Distant Treasure from the “shuffle maps” list, and made some other minor map tweaks.
• Added a variety of new spy pins to the shop, from royalty to something otherworldly.
• Added new bot difficulty, Sly, which is moderately less dumb than the previous training bots. Also made Moderate training bot a bit less dumb.
• Made Quick Match turn timer 40% faster.
• Made some improvements to iPad layouts.
• Added “Well played.” emote.
• Fixed issue that could make an opponent with Encryption look as if they could be in deep cover when they could not have been.
• Took a couple of the least desirable potential spy codenames out of rotation.
• Fixed a veritable horde of little UI bugs, including adding a nicer Settings screen (the crowd cheers wildly)

Let us know what you think via email, Twitter, or Reddit, and have fun!

While for us the headline feature of the next Two Spies update is the Season Pass, along with its ranking and stats perks and the hope this will fund bigger updates to come, there are some other improvements coming to the game for all players that we wanted to showcase before we go live before the holidays.

Faster Matches

We’ve made a number of tweaks to the matchmaking mode – now called Quick Match – with the goal of speeding up how fast you can get a match in the queue. Slow opponents have been a common frustration, so the turn timer is now faster in matchmade games. The menus have also been streamlined, so players auto-ready when they get a matched opponent, and you’re returned to the Quick Match screen afterwards so players can easily queue again. With these changes and other improvements and tweaks we’ve made – together with the likely influx of players trying out the new update – we hope players will be able to get fun opponents promptly.

Merit Pin

Until now, the only way to customize your secret identity pin in Two Spies has been to buy pins with in-app purchase. While this is still the main way – and there are some very cool new pins rotating in this season – free players can now also unlock a “merit pin” by winning Quick Match games. As an added bonus, Season Pass holders can also unlock a dapper “pro pin” by winning enough games. So far this seems to be giving agents a fun-but-lighthearted goal in their quest for espionage domination.

Sly Bot

In the first version of Two Spies, we featured a couple training bots that effectively acted like dummies – stumbling around, letting players experiment and learn the game mechanics in a low stakes situation. While the game is still truly about the cat-and-mouse mind games of playing against real humans, a really common request was for a less-dumb bot opponent. So with version 2.0, we’ve added the Sly difficulty to the bot. While this bot should be eminently beatable by an experienced Two Spies player, it should provide a bit more challenge and give folks a better way to train themselves up before jumping into the Quick Match melee.

More maps, more spies, more fun

Beyond the headline features, we have lots of additions and improvements in this new update. We have new maps – including one that features crossover paths – and stats persistence so players who unlock the Season Pass down the line can see their historical stats starting with Season 1. We have a new more congenial emote to applaud your noble opponents, and a host of little tweaks that we think makes for a better game.

We’re excited for this update to go live in the coming weeks, and hope you are too. We have a Twitch stream preview going live tomorrow (Wednesday the 25th at 1pm PT), and a release date announcement coming this week on Twitter and Reddit. We can’t wait to play the update we’ve been working on!

As we’re gearing up for the largest update to Two Spies ever, we wanted to share some info about why we’re so excited for this release. For all players, Spies Season 1 – game version 2.0 – will have new maps, smarter bots, various tweaks and improvements, and will make online matchmaking a core part of the game with a totally revamped Quick Match online mode.

Players who support the game by buying a Season 1 Pass will also get access to their season stats like wins and games completed, as well as the ability to see players’ skill ranks. Today we’d like to preview how these new features will work.

Ranking spies in Spies

Over the summer, we introduced a matchmaking skill estimate behind the scenes to give Two Spies players better opponents in online matches. By winning games, especially against difficult opponents, players can raise their skill and get better opponents – with the tradeoff that it can take a bit longer for the matchmaker to find a higher-skill opponent, since they’re rarer. If players start getting opponents that they can’t defeat, their estimated skill behind the scenes will adjust down and they’ll get lower-skilled matches.

Starting in Season 1, Two Spies will award a classified “Clearance Rank” for all players. This will give players a better sense of who they’re up against, and give them the challenge of trying to raise their rank as they play and learn. High-ranked players will have the challenge of maintaining their rank as the meta game evolves.

For their first 5 games, players have a clearance rank of “Analyzing”. After 5 games, you’ll get an initial rank, which will then adjust up and down over time depending on the performance of you and your opponents. You can work your way up through Cadet, Agent, Secret, Top Secret, Shadow… and, it is rumoured, one further rank above that.

Season Passes

Two Spies has been a lot of fun for us to work on, and we’d love to keep it up – and maybe even fund a future port to other platforms. To keep investing in improving and maintaining the game, we realized earlier this year than we need a larger income stream than what one-off pin purchases provide. That’s why in Season 1, we’re offering a Season Pass.

For $3.99 USD, players can get access to the ranking feature described here, as well as their their player stats, until the season ends in the Spring. Passholders also get the opportunity to unlock an exclusive “Pro” pin. Our hope is by keeping the game free and not pay-to-win, but adding bonus perks like this for people who are enjoying the game and are willing to support it, we can sustain development into Season 2 and beyond.

We’re currently putting the finishing touches on the Season 1 update, and are hoping to share more about what’s coming as we build up to release in the next few weeks. You can let us know what you think on Reddit or by email. Thank you so much for the support and feedback so far – hope to play against you soon!

Two Spies v1.1.10 is now live on the App Store!

1.1.10 Patch notes

• Fixed an issue where users could get a connection error and get unexpectedly kicked out while playing offline mode matches.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.1.9 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

1.1.9 Patch notes

• Fixed a problem where local wireless games could behave strangely between two devices on the same iCloud account
• Fixed a crash on the postgame screen on some iPads.

Thanks to players on Discord for determining the steps for some of these issues!

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.1.7 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

1.1.7 Patch notes

• Made “pwned” mission achievable.
• Improved reliability of “declare victory” and disconnection handling.
• Limited recaps to one time per turn, so players are not left waiting for a recapping opponent.
• Fixed a case where two players both in Deep Cover could result in some missing “could be here” indicators
• Fixed a race condition where taking an action just as your timer ran out could cause your opponent to take that action.
• Two Spies now uses iCloud to sync your Random matchmaking codename and player skill estimate between your devices. You can disable this in Settings.
• Fixed an issue where you could see black lines instead of coloured lines on the map.

Thanks to players on Discord for determining the steps for some of these issues!

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.1.6 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

1.1.6 Patch notes

• Added a disconnection timer to internet matches, so it’s clear that you can declare victory if the other spy fully disconnects.
• Added a timer in the Random match lobby to show you how long you’ve waited.
• Improved reliability and disconnection behaviour across the game. Let us know if you’re still having problems with network connections.
• Changed “Spy 101” to “How to Spy” so it’s more clear where to start.
• Changed “Play Again” to “Play Next” and highlighted the button.
• Fixed issue where you sometimes would see “victory” when you actually lost the round.
• Fixed issue where you would notice your opponent snoozing in and out of a game.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to end up with two bots in a match with each other
• Various smaller bug fixes.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.1.5 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

1.1.5 Patch notes

• Made bonus cities bolder to make them more noticeable.
• Fixed a Deep Cover description in-game that was incorrect, thanks for the reports!
• Fixed an issue where it looked like your opponent was inactive while they were thinking about their next move.
• Improved Pin Selection screen for iPhone SE.
• Fixed a variety of UI bugs.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.1.4 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

1.1.4 Patch notes

• Fixed an issue where a target with encryption would still be indicated as “possibly in deep cover” after being revealed. This was most noticeable when an Encrypted player would Prep and then move in and out of one of your cities.
• Fixed a crash that could happen when a bot wasn’t sure which move to make.
• Added a toy map with only three cities, for testing and clowning around.
• Fixed some other UI bugs.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.1.3 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

1.1.3 Hotfix

• Fixed a crash when opening the pin selector

1.1.2 Patch notes

• Increased how long the matchmaker will wait to find an opponent of similar skill, with improved messages about what it’s doing.
• Fixed the full strike animation sometimes not showing when Strike Reports had been unlocked under Encryption.
• Fixed the “Could be Here” indicators not hiding correctly when a player controls a city (which would normally blow the cover of a player waiting in that city).
• Fixed an issue where a harmless bot could strike when it didn’t “want to”, locking up the game for a time – thanks to the Discord users who reported this!
• Substantially improved reliability of random matchmaking – there should be fewer errors during the matchmaking process in general.
• In-game emotes are now limited to once every 5 seconds ಠ_ಠ
• Fixed some typos, thanks for the reports!

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

When we launched Two Spies in December, our expectations were humble. This is our first game, and we had no idea how much interest people would have in a game like this.

While we liked the idea of offering online matchmaking, we were unsure if a mode like this would even be fun, and if the game would get enough simultaneous players to provide matches quickly. We’d never even run a live game service before, but we did know funding maintenance of a service like this is a substantial expense, and we didn’t know whether the game would be successful enough to make it sustainable.

Well, since launch, over 200,000 people have tried Two Spies! We’ve received a lot of great feedback, but the number one request has been clear: y’all want random matchmaking.

So we did an experiment. We put together a simple random matchmaking service, and it is now live in the game. We’ve been tweaking and improving it – and it had some growing pains when Apple was kind enough to feature the game – but it seems like players are matching reasonably quickly and having fun. ⭐

The next step is to see if we can make it sustainable. So, our next major update will focus on adding a season’s pass. The idea here would be to let players who are enjoying the game support its development and the online service, and in return those players would get to see some rank and stats info to make matchmaking play more fun, as well as potentially some kind of cosmetic bonus. We want to stay true to our vision of not letting anybody pay to win, while still finding a way to fund the servers – and if things go really well, a future Android version.

We’ve been so glad to see all the positive reviews and feedback so far, and feel lucky to have a supporting and enthusiastic player base. We hope you enjoy our first foray into matchmaking, and look forward to what’s next!

Two Spies v1.1.1 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

Patch notes

• Two Spies now more smoothly handles when your target disconnects in Random matchmaking games, allowing you to declare victory as you deserve.
• New players are no longer (immediately) prompted to join Global Showdown. This should reduce the number of recruits stumbling into the fray before completing the tutorial.
• Improved matching logic, making Random opponents (somewhat) more likely to be a reasonable skill match.
• Fixed an issue where, due to network conditions, you could mysteriously appear to be matched against yourself in a Random briefing.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.1.0 is now live on the App Store! This update includes Global Showdown, our random matchmaking event. For a limited time, you can now randomly match with other spies around the world.

Patch notes

• In Random matchmaking, you will be assigned a secret codename.
• This is our first attempt at an online service like this, so let us know what you find and report any issues! If you see an opponent behaving inappropriately, you can report them in the post-game lobby screen.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.0.3 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

Patch notes

• Fixed an issue where players weren’t always getting credit for achievements, even in network games.
• Fixed an issue that could result in no sound being played.
• Bug fixes and stability improvements, especially on iPad.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.0.2 is now live on the App Store! This update prioritizes a couple of key fixes:

Patch notes

• By popular request, added a setting to turn off vibration on start of turn.
• Made game stay connected to the Series Setup lobby a bit longer if you switch to another app (e.g. Discord)
• Fixed a couple crashes when the game was in the background, especially on iOS 12.
• Fix the “Ghost” achievement not registering in some cases.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Two Spies v1.0.1 is now live on the App Store! Thank you to all the agents that have left positive reviews and useful feedback, helped get us into the Top 10 Board Games and Strategy Games in the UK App Store, and completed almost 100,000 rounds of espionage!

Patch notes

• Added a colour blindness mode, accessible from Settings.
• Added a postgame tip about the fact intel is only placed in cities with nobody in them.
• Made sure bot opponents would always leave a closing city, even when they REALLY didn’t want to.
• Fixed an issue where Budapest didn’t get the memo about colouring its connections.
• The menu has learned how to count properly (no more “1 WINS”)
• Fixed a rare issue where the Play Again button could be disabled in pass and play games.
• Fixed some layout issues on iPad.
• Fixed a small set of crashing bugs.

Let us know what you think via email or Reddit, and have fun!

Our technicians have informed us that the program, “Two Spies”, is now fully deployed on the App Store. It is nominally free, but agents can support the program by purchasing a personal pin to identify themselves in the field.

The communications department has provided the following key briefing points for officers, and others with short attention spans:

• Turn-based strategy: Face off with a friend.
• Cold War Europe: Control cities, go undercover.
• Quick rounds: Play to 5 wins or sudden death.
• Fun in person: Friend required, martini optional.
• Cosmetic upgrades: No gems or other nonsense.

As described in the briefing dossier, Two Spies is a turn-based spy training program for iPhone and iPad. It allows you to face off against a friend in Cold War Europe. Sneak to gain cover, capture areas of the map, deduce your target’s location – or trick them into revealing it – and strike to win the round.

Two Spies supports play over local wireless, “pass and play”, synchronous internet play against a friend, plus a training bot that can help players learn the ropes.

Rounds are played in real time but only take a few minutes each, making Two Spies a great game to enjoy over a beer – or a martini. Strategy plays a role, but deception and unexpected moves are the real key to victory.

This release was only possible with the hard work and creativity of many agents in various fields. We also want to thank our brave test pilots who served as fearless guinea pigs for many early versions of this training program that may have posed risk to life and limb. This program will forever be in these teams’ debt.

Now, get the game, recruit a friend, send us feedback via email or Reddit, and have fun. That’s an order.

A video communication has arrived from headquarters about an important espionage training program. Please view below.