Bonez565: Created page with "{{Devblog Archive | number = 31 | title = QoL improved, next more content and wave two | date = February 22, 2024 | source = https://www.reddit.com/r/WalkScape/comments/1ax2uu0/devblog_31_qol_improved_next_more_content_and/ }} Hello and welcome to another development blog! This is the first of these "smaller" development blogs - I'll be covering some lessons learned from the last update and what we're working on next! '''Note:''' Some Android users might encounter a p..."

2026-06-15T05:25:04Z

Created page with "{{Devblog Archive | number = 31 | title = QoL improved, next more content and wave two | date = February 22, 2024 | source = https://www.reddit.com/r/WalkScape/comments/1ax2uu0/devblog_31_qol_improved_next_more_content_and/ }} Hello and welcome to another development blog! This is the first of these "smaller" development blogs - I'll be covering some lessons learned from the last update and what we're working on next! '''Note:''' Some Android users might encounter a p..."

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{{Devblog Archive
| number = 31
| title = QoL improved, next more content and wave two
| date = February 22, 2024
| source = https://www.reddit.com/r/WalkScape/comments/1ax2uu0/devblog_31_qol_improved_next_more_content_and/
}}

Hello and welcome to another development blog! This is the first of these "smaller" development blogs - I'll be covering some lessons learned from the last update and what we're working on next!

'''Note:'''

Some Android users might encounter a problem where characters don't show up when opening the game. This can be fixed by going to the app settings and pressing “Clear Data” and “Clear Cache”.

=== The big QoL update ===

Firstly, we deployed the initial update to the game. Besides the bug that required the server to be in maintenance mode until I managed to deploy a hotfix, the Quality of Life (QoL) improvements seem to be well received. Here's a quick recap of my goals for that update:

*Make the game easier and quicker to navigate. Sometimes, you may need to switch activities while walking, so it's crucial that you can do it ASAP. Now, your character gets automatically loaded, and the main UI of the game was reworked from scratch to make navigation even faster.
*More information is now visible. Most importantly, the tracker at the top of the UI and being able to see where your modifiers originate from.
*More features have been added to help reduce the need to check the game too often. Now, you can set your character to stop activity when they become overencumbered, and the steps bank has been significantly increased.
*UI oversights have been fixed. For example, adding back buttons to the world map and buildings.
*Requested QoL improvements have been implemented. These include a left-handed mode, the ability to equip items when inspecting them, and the ability to see the bank from any location, among others.

[[File:DevBlog_031_Image_01.png|thumb|center|The improved UI looks better, and makes things a lot easier to navigate]]

There were a lot of improvements! Based on the feedback afterwards, it seems we managed to fix the most urgently needed things. I'll make some Quality of Life improvements here and there, and probably another bigger Quality of Life update later on to address things that make playing the game nicer and easier.

=== Lessons about update ===

Another thing I want to address here is that this was the first time I deployed an update to the game, which came with some mistakes. There was a bug that we didn’t catch on the development server, which needed a hotfix. These kinds of mistakes will hopefully become more rare as I gain more experience in deploying updates to the game, and as I improve our infrastructure for better deployment of updates. Some notes here:

*We need a way to display changelogs and important notes (like when the server is down) on the Portal. We’re working on this ASAP, so we can also keep people who are not on the Discord server easily up-to-date with what’s going on.
*I added a system that backs up all of the character files before an update goes live, meaning we can roll back the player characters to the state they were in before the update if something goes wrong. Automatic backups are now also done every single day.

There are a lot of things in terms of infrastructure and being able to notify our community about things that are not yet done - I haven’t been able to work on the backend infrastructure as much, because my focus is mostly on the game itself. But we need to improve the way we can keep the community up to date on the game and Portal!

=== What we’re working on now ===

With events from the past two weeks behind us, let's address the real question: what's next!?

We're now in the final stretch of working on the next update for wave two. We have several things planned for this update!

'''New content'''

Maxchill has been designing and developing our first content update. This update will introduce approximately 20 new in-game activities, a new location, a new shop, numerous new items, and additional collectible items. Our aim is to introduce unique activities to add more variety to the game world and to invigorate some locations that are currently quite empty.

[[File:DevBlog_031_Image_02.png|thumb|center|Some of the new activities!]]

'''Improved Performance'''

The last update fixed some heavy calculations and unnecessary rendering. However, some devices began to experience worse rendering performance due to Flutter changing things, especially in the main view of the game. I have now worked to massively improve the game's performance. In our current version on the development server, this has essentially eliminated all lag in the main view of the game.

[[File:DevBlog_031_Image_03.png|thumb|center|Performance improvements necessitated simplifying some elements, but introduced a buttery smooth experience.]]

'''In-depth logging'''

I have added a new feature to the game that logs a lot of in-game things. Starting from the next update, we'll have easy access to things like how many steps have been walked in different activities, where the players have been traveling a lot, what items are being crafted and which rarities, what loot drops players have gained, how many chests are opened, and more.

This might sound unexciting, but having this kind of data is crucial for us to have a clearer picture of how to balance things better. Also, we can show some cool and fun statistics on Portal and in dev blogs!

'''Achievements'''

Work on achievements has started, and has progressed a lot. With the historical data of characters now logged, even if we can’t have that many achievements available initially, your actions in the game will be counted towards achievements coming in later on.

I’m still hopeful that I can finish the system before wave two, but there’s still quite a lot of work to do.

'''Bug fixes'''

Lastly, I’ve also worked to fix some in-game bugs as usual, and the next update will patch some things that have been found.

=== Wave two and until next time ===

That’s all for today! We’re working on finishing everything we had planned for wave two, and wave two can hopefully be deployed this week. At the latest, I would say it’s safe to expect it within a week. With all of the new additions and improvements to the game, I’m hoping it will be even more well-received than the first wave! And thanks for the patience, it’s been a lot longer than I originally expected it would take to work on it - it’s really difficult for me to accurately estimate how long these kinds of updates take. But I’m really thankful for the patience, and I would say the improvements and additions have been worth the wait.

Stay hydrated, and keep walking! ❤️

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