Devlog: Team Mode, Team Chat, and a Board-First Lobby

Today was a big one. RentNation now has teams with their own private chat, a new Even Build rule, and a lobby that lives on the board you’re about to play on. Settings, the player list and the landing page all got a makeover too.

Team Mode

Before the match starts, pick one of eight crests: Royals, Wardens, Blades, Inferno, Storm, Tide, Jewels, or Reapers. Anyone with the same crest is your teammate.

No rent between teammates, and shared color sets: if you and your partner own a full set between you, it counts as complete for both.
Build on each other’s land. Either teammate can put houses on the other’s properties.
Inheritance. If your teammate goes bankrupt, you can inherit what they leave behind.
Last team standing wins. The match ends when only one crest is left.

Player list with a crest next to each name: Ava and Maya share the Royals crest, Kenji and Sofia share the Storm crest. — Crests sit next to names in the player list, so it's always clear who's with whom.

The crest picker is deliberately minimal: just the icons, with a green ring around your pick. Hover a crest to see who’s already on that team. The board itself stays clean.

Team Chat

With Team Mode on, the chat gets a small All | Team toggle.

Team messages go only to your teammates. The server enforces it, so opponents never receive them at all. Plot freely.
An unread badge tells you when something new lands in the channel you’re not looking at.

Chat panel on the Team channel showing a private conversation between teammates, with an unread badge on the All tab. — Team channel open, with an unread badge on All for the table-wide chat.

New setting: Even Build

On by default, following the classic rule: houses must be built evenly across a color set. No third house on one street while its neighbour still has one.
Turn it off before the match to stack houses on your favourite property.
The setting locks once the game starts, so nobody can change the rules mid-match.

A lobby that lives on the board

There’s no separate lobby screen anymore. You wait for friends on the actual board.

When you join, a color picker covers the blurred board. Pick a token color and the board comes into focus.
Start Game sits right where the dice will be, and the lobby settings take the spot where your Properties card normally goes.
Players stay in the player panel, just like during the game.

Token color picker with twelve colored tokens floating over a blurred game board. — First thing you see after joining: pick your token color over the blurred board.

Lobby on the full game board: Start Game button in the center, Room Info and chat on the left, player list with team crests and the settings panel on the right. — Once you've picked a color the board sharpens, Start Game sits in the middle, and settings live on the right.

It feels much more like sitting down at the table while everyone else arrives.

Redesigned settings

A flat, compact list with readable, medium-weight text, and a plain-language explanation under every setting.
Custom dark dropdowns for Players (2–8) and Starting cash that match the rest of the game, and now open cleanly without getting clipped.
Bigger toggle switches with a quick slide, plus new filled, game-style icons across the sidebar cards.

Two views of the lobby settings: the full list with Team mode on and the crest picker showing, and the Players dropdown open with options 2 through 8. — Left: every setting with its explanation, Team mode on and the crest picker open. Right: the Players dropdown.

Room Info and mid-game settings

Room Info is now one flat panel with the room code, the invite link, and Sound (hover to adjust volume, click to mute).
A new Settings entry opens a compact, animated overlay. The host can edit before the game starts; during the match everyone can check the rules in play, read-only.

Room Info panel with room code, invite link and Settings entry above the compact New Trade button, next to the read-only mid-game settings overlay. — Mid-match: Room Info and the slimmer New Trade button, next to the read-only settings overlay.

A cleaner player list

Humans get a small round X to kick; bots get a bot-cross icon.
No more “KICK” text, and no extra bot badge cluttering the lobby.

A brand-new landing page

A self-playing demo board, with tokens moving around and dice rolling, under the headline “Buy the world. Bankrupt your friends.”
Everything is on the first screen: Play now, Private room, Have a code, and Change name.

Smaller polish

The New Trade button is now more compact.

That’s today’s devlog. Grab a few friends, pick your crests, and see which team is left standing. Start a game and let us know what you think.