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Devblogs/Archive/27
DevBlog #27: iOS support completed, shops & stats and announcements
Posted: November 30, 2023
Hey there, Walkers! Closed beta release is creeping closer every step. This time we have some really good news!
Note: Login of Firefox works again on Portal.
Closed Beta To-Dos
In typical fashion for these devblogs close to the release date of closed beta, let’s once again kick off with the to-dos:
iOS support, testing and TestFlight pipeline
This was actually something that took more of my time than originally anticipated. We started building the support for WalkScape on iOS last week. The game had some expected hardware releated issues, especially when it comes to pedoemter data, but we managed to fix all of these in a few days. Now I’m happy to tell that the game is working on iOS just as well as it does on Android, meaning that we should be able to release the game on both platforms during the same release day.
And to show off the iOS support, we have a video here as well!
Steps bank
This one was one of the minor features, and was also added to the game during the last two weeks. We are also now renaming this to saved steps to better correct a general misunderstanding about the steps bank. Just to remind, saved steps work as follows:
If you work on limited activities (such as crafting where you can run out of materials, or traveling where you arrive at a location) you may have more steps than was possible to spend on the chosen activity. These steps that were “wasted” become saved steps.
If you have saved steps, every step you take counts as two while one saved step gets subtracted. So basically, you get your wasted steps back while doing whatever you meant to do next.
Here's the UI of this:
NPC Shops completed
As stated as the plan before this development blog in the previous development blog post, we finished up NPC shops.
Making the shop UI was quite a lot of work. Mostly because I tend to be quite perfectionist with UI, and the UI/UX when making the shops for a tiny screen is tricky. We also wanted to keep the awesome NPC shop art made by maxchill visible while you’re shopping.
The first big design choice here was if we want to have separate buy/sell actions, or have it work more like a trading system. With trading system I mean that you can buy and sell items on a single transaction, and the money gained/paid is basically the difference between the items you buy and sell. This type of system is quite popular in classic RPGs, but might feel slightly more complex initially.
I decided to go for a trading system instead of separate buy/sell menus. And I think the end result is great: I tried to make it feel like a typical online shop UI so it feels intuitive even for people not familiar with games, and managed to package it in a way where you can still see the shop.
Basically, you swipe left/right to switch between buying and selling. You have a preview as well, basically similar to a shopping cart in online stores where you can see a final breakdown of your trade. And pressing the trade button completes the transaction.
The shops have limited stocks, and the stocks are personal for each player. Stocks are currently refreshed for everyone at 12:00 UTC+0 on every shop. But my intension in the future is to have some shops where the stocks might refresh only once a week or so.
Here is another video of me doing some shopping!
Smaller features and improvements
More NPC shops
Maxchill managed to crunch a lot of new NPC shop art pieces for the game. We still have more to go, but in my opinion, these look awesome! I hope you guys also enjoy them:
Traveling UI details page
One minor thing that was missing from traveling UI was the details page, where you can quickly check activities, services and buildings available in explored locations. This makes it easier for you to plan what to do next and where to go in the game. Ultimately, WalkPedia feature will make planning in game a lot easier in the future, but it’s coming only after the CBT is released.
More content
We added a lot of new content as well during the last two weeks, but I was more focused on iOS & Android store stuff and the final missing features. I’m now trying to balance finishing the final missing features while adding new content more slowly at the same time. During the final weeks before release when all of the features are already implemented, my plan is to then crunch the rest of the planned content while being able to fully utilize all of the implemented features to make the most of it.
Dynamic backgrounds
Another thing that was added were dynamic backgrounds. This is automatically turned on in the character creation, and means that your PFP's background image will change based on its current location. This makes it really easy to see where a character is in the game when looking at other player's profiles.
Alpha testing intensifying
We’ve also expanded the alpha testing a little bit, and started the process of polishing and fixing bugs. The dedicated alpha testing team consisting WS team and our closest friends has worked hard to break the game best to their capabilities, and we’ve found a bunch of errors that have been fixed. We will keep this intense testing up all the way until CBT is released, trying to make sure that as little bugs or exploits make it there. But it’s still a beta, and don’t expect a fully working game during the initial release - some bugs will still probably make it there, and we can’t polish everything I would like before the release.
The feedback from alpha testing has been pretty much what we were expecting: with the item stats and bunch of the content missing, it’s still not feeling like a “full experience”. But other than the missing important features and encountered bugs, most alpha testers have been quite pleased with the game, UI and the general feel and promise of the game.
Announcements
Some of the keen eyed folks following the dev blog might have already noticed that we are getting very close to the release date announcement. We promised to announce the release date about two weeks earlier than when the game goes live, but we want to make a little adjustment to this.
So, the release date will be announced in the next development blog post. But the next development blog will not be in the typical every two weeks fashion, but on 21. of December, so one week later than usually. Time between the announcement and the actual release date might be a little bit more than the originally planned two weeks, as we want to make sure we have enough time to write some posts about it to the media, test it as throughoutly as we can, and so on. You can expect the release date to be in January.
The reason for this small adjustment was pretty spot on speculated by Necria from our community:
We want to enjoy the holidays for a bit before releasing the closed beta. I’ve spent a lot of time in the past couple of months crunching to get everything done pretty much alone. I and our team needs to spend the holidays with our families without having to stress about how the release is going. We will spend some of this extra time giving the game some more polishing and final testing as well.
So it’s small disappointment, but at least on 21. you will know the release date. We’ve also baked a small feature that wasn’t supposed to launch with the initial beta that we will reveal on 21. as our small Christmas present to you!
Although we needed one more slight adjustment to the release schedule of the first version, I hope you understand that we don’t want to have the game released during holidays. The extra time we gain here will also be put into polishing mostly, which ensures that the first version should be a lot less buggy and feel like much better experience.
Until next time
We are working hard to release the game before the end of the year. Hopefully, you can see the massive progress we have made in the past two weeks. In a few more weeks, we hope to reach a point where we can release it on app stores.
Stay safe, and keep walking! See you again in two weeks ❤️
