How do I announce a world update?

Publishing a new version of your world is quiet on purpose. Nobody is notified, no shelf changes, and journeys already in progress carry on undisturbed. When a change is big enough that you want players to hear about it, you announce it. An announcement is a separate, deliberate act: you write a short note for players, say whether journeys already in progress can move to the new version, and Imagina does the telling.

Announcing an update

1. Open your world in the editor and switch to the published version.
2. Click the blue Announce button (the megaphone) in the version bar, next to Unpublish. While the world cannot be announced yet, the button is greyed out and hovering it (or tapping it on a phone) shows when the next announcement opens.
3. Read over the notes. They arrive prefilled from the version notes you wrote on the versions published since your last announcement.
4. Decide whether existing journeys can switch to this version.
5. Click Announce.

If the button is greyed out, the line beside it says why.

Who hears about it

• Players who saved the world to a folder or hearted it.
• Players who played it in the last 90 days.
• Followers of a universe the world belongs to.

Nobody else is contacted. Players who have never touched your world are not notified.

Where it shows up

• The Recently updated shelf on the home page, for about a month.
• An update card on the world page, carrying your notes.
• The Updates page, where each player sees the announcements that concern them.
• A line on the journey card of any player with a journey in that world.

Writing good notes

Lead with what changed for the player, not with what changed in the editor. "Three new endings and a rewritten second act" tells someone whether to come back. "Reorganised the tracker section" does not.

• Keep it short. A few lines is plenty.
• Name the things a returning player would notice: new characters, new endings, a reworked opening, better pacing.
• Say plainly if saves should restart. Players would much rather be told up front than find out ten turns in.
• Skip the version number. It is already on the card.
• Basic formatting works: **bold**, *italic*, - lists and links. Headings and images are flattened to plain text, so keep it to a note rather than a page.

"Existing journeys can switch to this version"

This checkbox is your judgement call about whether a story started on an older version can safely continue on this one.

Tick it when the changes are additive or cosmetic: extra lore, a new side character, clearer prose instructions, small fixes. Players with a journey in progress then get an Update and resume button on the update card, which moves their journey onto the new version and picks up where they left off.

Leave it off when the changes need a fresh start: renamed or removed characters, reshaped trackers, rewritten core instructions, a different story structure. Players still see the announcement and can start a new journey, they simply are not offered the in-place switch.

Two things to keep in mind:

• The offer is tied to the exact version you announced, so it disappears as soon as you publish something newer.
• Players can always update a journey by hand from the Updater tab, ticked or not. See can I update my journey to the world's latest version?.

How often you can announce

• Once every 14 days per world. Inside the cooldown, the button tells you the date it opens again.
• Not in the first 14 days after a world is first published. A brand new world already sits on the New shelf, so it does not need an announcement on top.
• Not without a change. If nothing has been published or edited since your last announcement, there is nothing to announce and the button says so.

The cooldown counts per world, so a busy month across several worlds is fine.

Version notes do most of the writing

Every version has a Version notes field in the editor's version bar. Jot down what changed while it is fresh. When you announce, the notes from every version published since your last announcement are stitched together as your starting text. Editing them in the announcement box does not change the version notes themselves.

Related reads: how do I create a world? and universes: linked worlds and a shared codex.