Well, I think we've just hit one of the biggest milestones in HAND IN HAND so far.
We've successfully merged four independently developed towns into one cooperative city!
Over the last few days, I've been running some larger multiplayer tests with four people playing together in the same region, each developing their own municipality.
And I'm happy to report that our first two four-player tests have gone remarkably well.
The merger system has been working almost flawlessly, and once the towns are combined, all four mayors can build and manage the new city together.
It's pretty exciting to see the idea I came up with just a couple of weeks ago actually working.
But these tests have also got me thinking about something else.
What if players could cooperate more before their towns merge?
Four Mayors, One Region
Getting the first two-player mergers working was a big step, but I really wanted to see what would happen with a full region of four mayors.
Each player starts with their own town, their own land, and their own development priorities.
Everyone can expand across the region, purchase new land, and develop their municipality independently.
Eventually, as those towns grow, their borders begin touching.
That's where the merger system comes in.
And now we've finally been able to test it with all four players.
One of our test games produced a particularly interesting situation.
All four towns had grown until their borders connected, so one of the mayors proposed merging all four municipalities together.
The vote went out to everyone.
Three mayors voted yes.
One mayor voted no.
And just like that, the merger was rejected.
Which is exactly what I wanted to happen.
The towns remained independent, everyone continued building, and the game carried on.
Later in the same game, another merger was proposed.
This time, all four mayors voted yes.
And all four towns successfully amalgamated into one city.
No major problems, no lost territory, and all four players could now build throughout the newly combined municipality.
Seeing that work was pretty satisfying.
Building the Region Menu
With all these new multiplayer systems taking shape, I needed somewhere for players to manage them.
That's where the new Region Menu comes in.
I've been putting together an interface that gives mayors information about the entire region, not just their own municipality.
The Towns tab lets you see the other towns in the region, their populations, finances, development levels, and who's running them.
It also keeps track of municipalities that have already merged.
When a town joins another city, its original identity doesn't simply disappear. It becomes a district within the larger municipality.
I like that idea because those original towns represent the work their mayors put into developing them.
Even after everyone comes together, you can still see where the different towns started.
But the Region Menu is becoming more than just an information screen.
It's also turning into a place where mayors can actually work with each other.
Helping Your Neighbours
One thing I noticed during our larger multiplayer tests was that players were often at very different stages of development.
One mayor might have a successful town with plenty of money in the bank, while another could be struggling to get their industry running or afford the next piece of infrastructure.
That got me thinking.
Why shouldn't players be able to help each other financially?
So I added a Money & Deals section to the Region Menu.
The first feature is straightforward: you can give money to another town.
If Kevin's municipality is struggling and I've got some extra cash, I can send him a gift to help get things moving.
But I also wanted something a little more interesting.
Loans.
A mayor can now offer another town a loan, choosing how much money to lend, the interest rate, and the repayment period.
If the other player accepts, the game handles the repayments automatically.
Each month, the appropriate payment is deducted from the borrowing town and transferred to the lending town.
I like this because it creates another layer of interaction between mayors.
Maybe you're doing well financially and want to help a neighbouring town expand.
Or maybe you need some money to build a new power plant and would rather borrow from another player than wait for your tax revenue to catch up.
It's a simple idea, but it opens up some interesting possibilities.
Got Some Extra Electricity?
The next idea came from another problem I've been dealing with since the earliest versions of HAND IN HAND.
Power.
It seems like no matter how much electricity I build, eventually my town needs more.
And when you're trying to grow, running out of power or water can bring development to a halt pretty quickly.
During testing, I started thinking about how one town might have plenty of spare electricity while another was struggling to keep the lights on.
So why not let them trade?
I added a new Power section to the Region Menu where towns can sell their excess electricity to other municipalities.
For the initial system, electricity is sold in 5 MW blocks.
Rather than making players negotiate every individual contract price, I built a standard pricing formula based on the size and development level of the selling town.
The game calculates the rate and handles the monthly payments.
The buying town pays for the electricity it receives, and the selling town earns income from its surplus generation.
This means a mayor with a well-developed electricity network can help supply neighbouring towns while earning some additional money.
And the town purchasing electricity can continue growing without necessarily having to construct another power plant right away.
We've been testing this during our second larger multiplayer game, and so far it seems to be working well.
Everyone seems to like having another reason to interact with the other mayors.
It's especially interesting because you don't have to wait until your towns merge to start cooperating.
The Final Goal — Capital City
With four-player merging now working, the larger goal of HAND IN HAND is starting to come into focus.
I've set the initial victory target at 300,000 residents.
The idea is that all four mayors must eventually come together into one municipality and grow that combined city to a population of 300,000.
That's our Capital City.
It's not simply about which mayor can build the biggest town.
It's about developing independently, deciding when to cooperate, and eventually bringing everything together to accomplish something none of the individual towns could achieve on their own.
And now that we've actually managed to merge four municipalities successfully, that goal is starting to feel achievable.
A Region Worth Sharing
I'm really happy with how these last couple of multiplayer tests have gone.
We've had four players developing their own towns, expanding across the region, trading electricity, offering financial help, and eventually voting to merge.
The Region Menu is giving everyone a way to see what's happening across the map and interact with other municipalities.
There are still adjustments to make, of course.
The financial systems will need more balancing, power trading needs more testing, and I'm sure there are multiplayer situations we haven't encountered yet.
But the important thing is that the core idea is working.
The most interesting part for me is that players now have reasons to cooperate throughout the game, not just after merging.
You can help a neighbouring town financially.
You can sell them electricity.
You can expand toward each other.
And when everyone is ready, you can vote to bring your municipalities together.
HAND IN HAND is finally starting to feel like the cooperative city builder I've been trying to make.
And after watching four mayors successfully combine their towns into one city, I'm feeling pretty good about where this is going.