Golden Rush — 4 players, 9 stands, one highrise

Spent a month digging a new mode — Golden Rush. It is Highrise Heist for four: 9 stands in a cross, each player owns two (near “order=1”, far “order=2”), and a shared golden one in the center. The key rule: you cannot close the far stand while the near one is open. Close both — you join the queue for the center, the first eligible player takes +15 points.

Two ways to play. Hot-seat on /goldenrush — one phone, four people taking turns. Online on /goldenrush-online — matchmaking waits for 4 players, you pick the mode yourself: 2v2 (teams sit across the diagonal, with a team chat) or 4-FFA (everyone for themselves). Every move is validated by the server — no way to cheat.

Every online match pays out bricks: +2 just for participating, +10 for winning (in 2v2 both teammates get it), +3 for capturing the center. Resign mid-game and you get nothing. You see the breakdown right after the match.

On /goldenrush-top — leaderboards by wins, games played and center captures. Same page shows your personal stats, your recent matches and a public feed of who just played whom. Leaderboard is empty — be first in history.

The physical board game is moving in parallel — my partner Alexander is polishing the cardboard version for publishers. The digital build is a testbed for the rules: whatever feels awkward online will feel awkward at the table too.

We also closed a large security audit (60 items) along the way. Rewrote season resets to UTC, wrapped all brick awards in transactions, moved chat to filter v2, added an admin-audit log, fixed ECDSA verification for AdMob SSV, made timers tick server-side even when the opponent goes offline. Invisible work, but fair ratings and correct balances depend on it.

What is next — we wait for the first real playtest. Based on it we will tune the numbers (scoring, caps, rewards) and decide whether to train an AI for 4-FFA (expensive compute, needs validated demand). An MMR rating for GR will come once we have at least 100 matches played to calibrate against.