Cool stuff coming!

[jaredmorgs]

With how google play services work, I may wait until everything is ready to release the save / load feature (by "everything" I mean other google play services like leaderboards and achievements).

Here's how the saves will work: After the update goes live, you will go to the google play menu in the app, click the "save" button and you will save everything pertaining to the pinball arcade. You can then switch to another device (that has the same google play account) go to the same menu, and load the save. When loaded, your new device will be identical to the saved data on your old device. NOTE: all progress on the new device will be wiped when performing this load.

So lets say you had 10 tables on your old device. You've gotten all the high scores and goals for those 10 tables. Now lets say you have a new device that has the same 10 tables, but you only have all the goals and high scores for one of the tables. If you save on the old device and load to the new, that 1 tables high scores and goals will be wiped, and replaced with the data from the old device.

Hope that makes sense.

I'll tell you how Cloud Save works on Sky Force 2014.

If I play a game on my tablet, and unlock an achievement, it gets synchronized to Google Cloud.

If I get an achievement on my phone, it updates the achievements on the tablet next time I start that instance up. This is automatic.

For this to work I need to be signed into GPG on both devices. If you sign into Google Play, you get cloud save enabled automatically.

The way it's being implemented here sounds unique. It doesn't sound like standard Google Play Games Cloud Save functionality to me. It sounds like you're using the framework to push/pull settings much like you would file data from DropBox.

The point I'm trying to make here is that GPG Cloud Save should not require manual intervention.

https://developers.google.com/games/services/common/concepts/savedgames also deprecates the "old" Cloud Save functionality. Just checking you are working on implementing this, and not the deprecated service.

For the record, Sky Force has just implemented the Quests feature in their game. I can't wait to test it out. See my post to the Beta Testers forum about this Scott.

 

[Scumble373]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to give an update of where I'm at with the Google Play services integration. As of now, Saving / loading, achievements, and dedicated android leaderboards are all in and working! Now comes the fun part: Testing.

I have informed our beta testers that after testing Earthshaker, I will be allowing them to test out the 3 new features to try and find any bugs. As long as nothing catastrophic happens, I hope to be out with these new features very soon. I'm blown away with how well these features work, especially the Saving / loading.

Can't wait for you to all be able to try it!

I'll give more updates as I have them.

 

[crazywolf]

Nice to hear
Will there be official beta versions in the future? Missed them since 2 month, before there were betas every month to test tables and featues before final release.

 

[debuggiest]

Nice to hear
Will there be official beta versions in the future? Missed them since 2 month, before there were betas every month to test tables and featues before final release.

They stopped posting them on the forums, you have to be a part of some google plus circle junk.

 

[jaredmorgs]

They stopped posting them on the forums, you have to be a part of some google plus circle junk.

There's a reason for that Google Plus circle junk...

 

[crazywolf]

Thank you for the info.
Is it possible to join that circle? Im on Google Plus but can't find anything about that on the pinball arcade fans g+ page.

 

[Scumble373]

Thank you for the info.
Is it possible to join that circle? Im on Google Plus but can't find anything about that on the pinball arcade fans g+ page.

Absolutely. Anyone who wants to help with the beta is welcome to by messaging me their @gmail email address. The Google+ group is private, so I will invite you manually.

 

[Scumble373]

They stopped posting them on the forums, you have to be a part of some google plus circle junk.

As Jared said, there's many reasons for switching to Google+. After doing a few beta tests through the Google+ community, I can't imaging going back to doing it on here. These forums are absolutely amazing, just not for beta testing.

 

[Baron Rubik]

As Jared said, there's many reasons for switching to Google+. After doing a few beta tests through the Google+ community, I can't imaging going back to doing it on here. These forums are absolutely amazing, just not for beta testing.

I don't see how G+betas are better than posting an apk here.
There are no obvious benefits, posts are quickly lost in the heap same as before, information isn't sorted any differently than it was here, you just have less testers now, which can't be a good thing.
You should have always had a bug tracker, which can be organised by priority, and is persistent across table releases, not reset and ignored with each new release.

Betas are only any good, if problems reported are acted upon and fixed, no matter what format you use.

I left the G+ beta last week personally.
After nearly 3 yrs of following this, I'm tired of reporting things that don't get acted upon. Inconsistencies, and general lack of quality, that should have been fixed years previously. I personally think this is now too riddled to ever be fixed, hence why walking away.

I don't blame the devs or programmer's that post here. They have always always appear to exceed their expected roles, both past and present. I personally think the top level management is responsible, constantly pushing new product, never fixing old or keeping promises made.

Well, I'm tired of paying for this personally.
I don't play it anymore now. Haven't for quite a while,and I guess many others feel the same as they have vanished or stopped posting.
But Jays made his money now, so I guess it's all ok.
Sad thing is, is that due to licencing, this will possibly never be done properly now.

 

[Scumble373]

I don't see how G+betas are better than posting an apk here.
There are no obvious benefits, posts are quickly lost in the heap same as before, information isn't sorted any differently than it was here, you just have less testers now, which can't be a good thing.
You should have always had a bug tracker, which can be organised by priority, and is persistent across table releases, not reset and ignored with each new release.

Betas are only any good, if problems reported are acted upon and fixed, no matter what format you use.

I left the G+ beta last week personally.
After nearly 3 yrs of following this, I'm tired of reporting things that don't get acted upon. Inconsistencies, and general lack of quality, that should have been fixed years previously. I personally think this is now too riddled to ever be fixed, hence why walking away.

I don't blame the devs or programmer's that post here. They have always always appear to exceed their expected roles, both past and present. I personally think the top level management is responsible, constantly pushing new product, never fixing old or keeping promises made.

Well, I'm tired of paying for this personally.
I don't play it anymore now. Haven't for quite a while,and I guess many others feel the same as they have vanished or stopped posting.
But Jays made his money now, so I guess it's all ok.
Sad thing is, is that due to licencing, this will possibly never be done properly now.

The reasons for switching to Google+ are as follows:

- The .apk is now private. By putting a download link to our apk on here we are essentially letting anyone and everyone download it, even if they have no plans to report bugs.
- Posting content such as pictures and videos are easier
- I'm able to "+1" a post to let the tester know that I've seen the bug (rather than having to reply directly)
- Doing the beta through Google Play allows me to see every crash log and report when the app crashes
- I'm able to roll an apk from Alpha to Beta to production all through google play
- I'm able to test google play services through the google+ community (this would not be possible any other way)
- We're able to do "google hangouts" where everyone can have discussions about the table.
- I'm able to remove people from the group who aren't being helpful or are being disruptive.
- and lastly, i'm able to categorize the bugs into different versions, instead of having them all in one thread, or having to start a new thread.

I completely understand your frustration with bugs not being fixed. I share your frustration in this matter. Some bugs slip through the cracks, but we are a small studio, and being out on so many different platforms has it's drawbacks.

I respect your opinions and thoughts about the way we do our beta now, but I stand by my choice to switch to Google+ and honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Kratos3]

The reasons for switching to Google+ are as follows:

- The .apk is now private. By putting a download link to our apk on here we are essentially letting anyone and everyone download it, even if they have no plans to report bugs.
- Posting content such as pictures and videos are easier
- I'm able to "+1" a post to let the tester know that I've seen the bug (rather than having to reply directly)
- Doing the beta through Google Play allows me to see every crash log and report when the app crashes
- I'm able to roll an apk from Alpha to Beta to production all through google play
- I'm able to test google play services through the google+ community (this would not be possible any other way)
- We're able to do "google hangouts" where everyone can have discussions about the table.
- I'm able to remove people from the group who aren't being helpful or are being disruptive.
- and lastly, i'm able to categorize the bugs into different versions, instead of having them all in one thread, or having to start a new thread.

I completely understand your frustration with bugs not being fixed. I share your frustration in this matter. Some bugs slip through the cracks, but we are a small studio, and being out on so many different platforms has it's drawbacks.

I respect your opinions and thoughts about the way we do our beta now, but I stand by my choice to switch to Google+ and honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

But why Google+?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

But why Google+?

Because while G+ is not a brilliant discussion platform (yet) - it has deep flaws in its user experience, interface, etc, as far as I'm concerned - it's entirely possible that one day Google will introduce the ability to do linking between G+ and the Play Store to allow truly integrated beta testing of Play Store apps. So for instance reporting a bug in a G+ beta testing community won't just show up in the community as a post, it will automatically get logged in a back-end bug database for that app. Add in search functionality and there's the possibility of someone reporting a bug being told "it looks like this bug is already reported - log a new bug or +1 this existing instance?" or something like that.

 

[Scumble373]

 

[Scumble373]

Google+ communities is what Google play works with. If it worked with something else, I would have considered that as well.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Because while G+ is not a brilliant discussion platform (yet) - it has deep flaws in its user experience, interface, etc, as far as I'm concerned - it's entirely possible that one day Google will introduce the ability to do linking between G+ and the Play Store to allow truly integrated beta testing of Play Store apps. So for instance reporting a bug in a G+ beta testing community won't just show up in the community as a post, it will automatically get logged in a back-end bug database for that app. Add in search functionality and there's the possibility of someone reporting a bug being told "it looks like this bug is already reported - log a new bug or +1 this existing instance?" or something like that.

All these imagined features still don't mean (rude word for poo), if the company your reporting them to, don't fix what you report.

Farsight and Android beta testing has always been a case of, 'this is pretty much what we are going to release on the coming Friday (5 days prior), if you suggest quick changes that can be done in two days - great, other than that, it's going out regardless, and probably not getting looked at afterwards.

I'll never forget Victory being released to market with the flippers still off centre and half the inserts being corrupted.
Quality doesn't matter, deadlines do.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Farsight aren't the only company this happens with. Look at the stink being kicked up by PC players of Dragon Age Inquisition over the perceived kack of quality testing, the mess/fallouts/workarounds from the recent patch.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Farsight aren't the only company this happens with. Look at the stink being kicked up by PC players of Dragon Age Inquisition over the perceived kack of quality testing, the mess/fallouts/workarounds from the recent patch.

I'm sure they aren't the only ones man, still doesn't mean it's acceptable though, at least not to me.

Farsights fundamental Beta testing faults are, it's released no matter what on the release day, and once done it struggles to get a fix afterwards.

 

[Terminator]

Native controller support would be nice... I use ps3 pad, and must map my buttons which is a hassle.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Native controller support is already in man.
If your using a ps3 controller you need Sixaxis app from the play store, and make sure native controller mode is ticked in the options. Analogue nudging is cool - thanks to Ryan.
Moga or Niko pads work too with no software needed if on Jellybean or upwards.