DevBlog #38: Releasing achievements + abilities before Syrenthia, Android pedometer fix
There are going to be 40+ achievements in the initial batch of achievements added to the game, separated into four different difficulties.
Hello and welcome to yet another WalkScape devblog! We've got some exciting news for you once again, including an intermittent content update that will go live before the much-anticipated Syrenthia update!
Wave 2.5 starting 1st of June, so in just two days!
As a reminder, Wave 2.5 is starting in two days. If you've supported us on Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee, remember to link your Patreon/BMAC to your WalkScape account to gain immediate access when the wave goes live. The wave goes live on the 1st of June at 00:00 UTC+0 and ends on the 15th of June at 12:00 UTC+0.
Android pedometer fix
The new pedometer update goes live today at 16:00 UTC+0. Remember to open the game before that happens, so you will not lose steps!
Even though I promised not to focus on the Android pedometer for the time being and instead focus only on new features, something happened.
At the Google I/O event held on the 14th of May, among their endless announcements about Gemini, they also released a lot of info relevant to WalkScape. As people following the development closely might have noticed, it's been a struggle to develop a pedometer for Android that can work reliably on all devices. We’re probably not the only developer that has struggled, as they released a whole new API to make things much easier. I’d say in our case, it's about 100 times easier 😎
In the announcement, they said they would release these in the upcoming months, but actually released the features relevant to us last week. So naturally, I couldn’t hold myself back from migrating the game to the new API.
Important notes about this:
- The new API is part of the new Android Health API that is set to replace the Google Fit API.
- Android Health focuses on privacy. No Google sign-in is required and all data is stored locally. This has been a key factor for me as to why we couldn't use the Google Fit API, as that would compromise privacy.
- It doesn't require any other app to be installed.
- However, it requires that your phone has Google Play Services. Specifically com.google.android.gms:play-services-fitness. If your device is de-googled, this might mean that the pedometer stops working in the background. If you can install just the required package, it could work.
- Devices that previously had trouble tracking steps in the background should now be supported, as long as their Google Play Services are up-to-date.
- No specific permissions, etc. are needed any longer. You should be able to restore default settings for WalkScape without causing any trouble.
This update should provide a fix to all of the existing problems on Android, as the functionality the new API provides is very similar to what we've had on iOS for months now.
The need for the foreground process that introduced the sticky notification is also gone, which is a relief and should mean that battery usage is a lot smaller.
However, the previous set of notifications will be temporarily unavailable due to WalkScape not doing any background processing. Those will be brought back in a later update when we can overall improve notifications to be more useful!
I can't state how much I wanted Google to fix the mess pedometer development has been on their platform, and they just did that. Sadly it means that all of the hard work making the previous pedometer was pretty much a wasted effort, but it was impossible to know that they would announce this just after I was finished working on it.
Releasing achievements & abilities
Something new is happening in the Southern Jarvonia…
We've now decided that instead of releasing everything we've been working on with Syrenthia, we'll release achievements and actions as an intermittent update before it! We're finishing work on these right now, and you should expect a new content and feature update in a few weeks.
New features and content:
- 40+ achievements divided into four different categories: easy, medium, hard, extreme.
- Barber and wardrobe services, enabling you to customize your character after it's been created.
- 3 new locations.
- Dozens of new items, many of which are related to the achievements.
- A few new activities.
- Abilities. Use powerful instant effects that have either time or step-based cooldowns.
- Achievement reward track. 22 unlocks based on the total amount of achievement points you've collected.
- The first guild introduced to WalkScape. More features for guilds will be released later.
We already hinted that we might be releasing some part of the features & content planned for Syrenthia before that update goes live. As there have been a delay for Syrenthia, we realised it’s time to add some of it to the game in the mean time.
This upcoming update adds a bunch of new content for players to explore, and also achievements and abilities. These features should add a ton of new things for player to do while waiting for the next one.
I’ll be releasing more specific release date for the next update when we can say with certainty when we’re going to be ready with it!
New merch available at the merch store
Sorgo created two new shirt designs before her internship at Not a Cult ended. If you're interested in checking those out, visit the WalkScape Store.
Until next time
That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed the devblog. I'm mostly relieved that Google finally deployed a fix that made it much easier to have a robust and working pedometer for WalkScape. This alone saved us from a ton of headaches.
As always: keep walking, and stay hydrated! See you again in two weeks.
Awesome update, as always!
Amazing!
Can't wait to grind my achievements!
Awesome update! The feeling of getting better support after pulling your hair out improving a feature is a bittersweet one, glad the issues should be less now though!
Omg that's amazing news!! Also, I love the merch... Is the shrimp ikea shirt telling me I can make a shrimp RING???
Looking forward to the new wave!
I love the merch as well!
Just my personal two cents as a suggestion. Are you able to provide tshirt options where the logo/picture is similar to a "pocket-tee", meaning it is not a super large graphic design on the entire front?
I love the logos and designs, but I don't personally wear a lot of t-shirts with graphics covering the entire front.
"Pocket-tee" example: https://kjlabel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Pocket-White.jpg
This might be an american specific request, as I am located in the states. I'll be buying a coffee mug nonetheless!