2017-03-25 22:56:41

Hi, someone reported that ad videos wouldn't play until the middle of the screen was tapped, and somebody else reported a red line on screen. Also I repeatedly read that it's hard to exit the ads again.

I looked into it and found that one of the ad providers shows a pre-video screen which requires players to manually start the video, and then another button to end it. These buttons are red, to my knowledge, by the way. I believe that this might have been the cause of the problems. Not all ads are from the same provider, it is chosen at random, so not everybody would see the same problems.

We have disabled these pre and post video buttons with the ad provider, so within the next few hours, when everything has updated on their servers, these issues should go away. I hope this fixes the issues once and for all.

2017-03-25 23:10:32

@Dark and @SLJ
You make a very good point about translations. We face the same issue (we're just a two people team), and have to plan our resources carefully.

SLJ, I don't want to presume, but was your post an offer to help with a Danish translation?

2017-03-26 08:17:09

Yes, it is an offer to translate the game into english for free. I will gladly do that, but it might take some time. I'm very motivated because:
1: There are not many games blind people can play in danish, and there are a number of people who don't speak english.
2: I assume the normally sighted players read all the text as well? that means more people will enjoy the translation.
wow... I'm surprised to hear that you're only two people on the team. You are working really fast and doing an amazing job...

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2017-03-26 08:18:40

Well I'm afraid the princess might be in trouble, since this morning when debating to get up my Iphone announced that the princess was ready to give meanother gift. Mrs. Dark was not pleased at her husband literally jumping out of bed with her to go and see a princess, I tried to explain that the princess gave me improvements on trade prices, her comment was "that's what they all say!" big_smile.


Well I'm definitely enjoying the game, though purchicing my 50 automations will take time lol. I am trying to complete all the quests before I resttart, but this time we'll see since thus far I only have six automations, then again as I've got more storage space I will probably need more.
One thing which I do find a little odd is that while the real estate mogal does offer prices off expantion slots and purchicing new buildings, you don't get any breaks on extending storage space, though I believe you do on estate expantions, actually clarrifying which real estate mogal affects might be helpful.

I'm afraid I have another bug to report with the video.
the video is now playing, however when the video finishes I don't  get the usual exit screen, I get a screen with no voiceover buttons (indeed vo goes completely silent). I suspect this is something to do with the advertiser, since I did try going back to the home screen then returning to crafting kingdom with the ap switcher, where upon I got a quick burst of music from the video I'd already seen finish.
If it helps it was a video with "ooo la la" and a couple of other commic french phrases in it.

Btw, you might consider an in ap upgrade to let people activate boosts without watching the add videos, since while I like getting the boosts, using them strategically and completing quests, the add videos are rather a pain (especially because they're all for inaccessible things anyway.

I would be quite happy to pay 5 or even 10 usd to get the ability to say activate boosts without having to watch the videos, ---- perhaps with a bit of extended boost time too, say doubled boost time, indeed I'd be very glad to support the game generally in terms of the waork that's going into it, quite aside from wanting to avoid the adds.

Edit: okay trying again i got the same thing with the video, however when I tried turning off vo and turning it back on on the video screen I was able to read one part of the text before vo cut out (it must be a really buggy screen to literally make vo go silent). It's apparently something called cookie jam.
I was able to flick vo off then on and find a "replay button (as if I'd want to watch the dam video again), but I couldn't find a button to get off the screen since flicking left and right or touching the screen did nothing.
I suspect this might be the same video which was causing an issue before since when the video plays there is a red stripe on the screen similar to what I was seeing previously.

if this could be fixed that would definitely help, though as I said for the future you might consider the add free option as a paid upgrade, since I'd be more than happy to support the game's development, and currently I do confess I find the add videos themselves a little urcsome, particularly since none are for accessible games anyway.

Edit the second: Crafting Kingdom now has a page on the site database, check it out here

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-03-26 14:13:39

Ello all!
I'm so sorry if this issue had been raised before, but there are just soooo many posts regarding this very fun-sounding game....
Well, I am still stuck with my very ancient Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, running Android 4.2.2 and when I go into the game, I can't access the main menu; with or without Shine plus, (the screen reader I am using).
The only thing I can hear is the music, "Please suspend Talkback during play" and "Unity adds webview...", (or something like that).
I tried the suggestions of triple tapping with three fingers and switching off Shine Plus, but nothing seems to work when I swipe the screen using different variants of pressure and speed, etc.
Is my brick and its OS too old to play this game?  sad

@Rei_Netta147 on Twitter
lol!!!

2017-03-26 15:54:58

I have to agree with Dark regarding the ads,  I would much prefer to pay to get rid of the ads because at the moment I don't even use the boost part of the game due to the inaccessible nature of them, having to restart the ap after every video is painful to my patience so effectively II lose out. 

So yeah in ap purchase option please to boot the ads!

2017-03-26 16:13:39

I'm afraid I also have another bug to report.

I notice when you have lots of production slots, it's very hard to swipe from one to another. For example, if I swipe down from slot one, I'm currently on slot 6, if I swipe up from 6 I go to slot three etc. This happens both in the system voice and when using voiceover directly, and is a miner pest when you have lots of products going at once.
this started I think happening when I had more than 6 slots, but I can't be sure.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-03-26 21:08:35

Originally we wanted to keep the game free of any in app purchases, because there are so many games out there asking you to spend real money at every turn.
We were honestly surprised that we have since received a lot of feedback, especially from sighted users, that they would like a purchase option to get rid of the ads. It's happened enough to have made us reconsider. Since it would be completely optional it would be OK I guess. So one of the next updates will add the option to buy away all the ads forever.

On another note - a button to refresh all automations will be added as well. It will be added as a reward for a new quest line that will be included in one of the next updates.

2017-03-26 21:14:03

Netta147 wrote:

Ello all!
I'm so sorry if this issue had been raised before, but there are just soooo many posts regarding this very fun-sounding game....
Well, I am still stuck with my very ancient Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, running Android 4.2.2 and when I go into the game, I can't access the main menu; with or without Shine plus, (the screen reader I am using).
The only thing I can hear is the music, "Please suspend Talkback during play" and "Unity adds webview...", (or something like that).
I tried the suggestions of triple tapping with three fingers and switching off Shine Plus, but nothing seems to work when I swipe the screen using different variants of pressure and speed, etc.
Is my brick and its OS too old to play this game?  sad

Hi Netta,
It's hard to tell for sure without actually holding your phone in my hands of course. In general, if you hear the announcement to suspend TalkBack, then the accessibility mode of the game is already turned on. Triple tapping won't change anything, or, at worst, turn it back off.
I know that in a few cases the game wouldn't recognize swipe until you tap in the middle of the screen at least once, to activate the game's view. Could you try that? (I don't know if the people reporting that tapped with one or two fingers, probably best to try both)
Also, to test whether something else is catching the input, could you try swiping with two fingers instead of one? If any other screen reader is active, that is usually necessary.

2017-03-26 23:07:03

@Dark: Awesome description of the game in the database.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2017-03-27 01:56:14

Thank you for a nice distraction smile

I have played the game over the weekend and found some bugs and some suggestions:
1) On the screen where i select which item to produce. If i select the next one to be unlocked and go to the sell cost, it reads aloud the cost for the one currently being produced.
2) In the City, the button "Sell 10" cannot be pushed unles you have more than 100.
3) If i push "Sell all" I don't need to know there is 0 left.
4) One quest asks me to sell 50000 logs, could this be changed to produced? It would fit better in, since i'm producing timber from the logs.
5) Another quest asks me to produce 5000 timber, which is ok, but it gives me a bonus that reduces the timber purchase  with 10 % which is 200 gold. (It's kinda useless, unless I have misunderstood it.
6) With currently 8+8+6 productions to activate, it would be really nice with a button activating all productions in the same building.
7) Could the princes do something more? She's kinda boring, what about a small quest every hour or so?
8) On production screen, when i have changed the item to be produced, the production overview in that building is not updated until i leave it and reenter.

Keep up the good work!

2017-03-27 14:29:00

Glad people like the description, hopefully that will get more players into the game.

@mikrimma, I do know what you mean about many games with in ap purchices, but it depends upon what the purchice is for, what you get for the purchice and whether your then required to continue purchicing to play.
A single one time "remove adds" type purchice though would be fine I think, since it wouldn't create a massive gap in progress between those who did or did not purchice, wouldn't be a subscription to play, and wouldn't restrict the game artificially, plus for many people it would actually be a preferable way of supporting the game than watching add videos.

A refresh production button would be cool, though I do hope the problem with jumping between slots I mentioned as well as the cookie jam video can be fixed.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-03-27 20:14:42

I agree about the production yards needing a produce all button.   

I have 18 production slots and it gets tiresome clicking through them all.

But honestly though the game is almost there, if we could get the latency issue sorted and even get voiceover to work better it would be awesome.

2017-03-28 04:12:34

I have a question though, when the next version comes out, will I be able to watch the video ads for obtaining bonuses? Because I don't have a credit card and I can't pay. Will you remove the video ads options when it becomes in-apps Purchase?
Thanks.

2017-03-28 07:12:35

I will also be very happy when the production slot bug gets fixed, because it's quite annoying.

I haven't had issues with the video ads, but then again I haven't used them that often.

I did notice that the cursor jumping around is somewhat mitigated if you lay your phone on a flat surface, then sort of hold it down with your other hand. So say you're swiping around on the screen with one of the fingers on your right hand, you should hold one of the corners of your device down with your left hand, ensuring that it doesn't move at all. If you hold your device in one hand as you normally would, I've found that both the lag and the jumping around is so awful that it's not even worth playing. I don't know how this works, or how it's even logical, but for now I just set my phone down on my desk, or even on my lap, and then things run much smoother. If you swipe too fast around the screen, the issue does return, but since you now don't have to rush as much to find the treasure chests, it's not that much of an issue to swipe slower than you normally would.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2017-03-28 12:04:07

i rather like this game. you guys have done a good job. can we have some scoreboards so we can see how well we do compared to other players?

2017-03-28 19:52:24

Hi Guys,

Just a quick update on my progress.

I have reset now about 5 or 6 times now and I think I am at a stage where I really need the boosts,   50000 timbers for 1 quest as an example.

I was playing the game without the boosts up to now as they are to dam annoying,so I will sadley put the game down until the videos get sorted out or better still I can just buy the game out right.

Hope the next update is soon.

regards

2017-03-28 20:04:22

Ello all!
Thanks @Mikrima for all your suggestions, but unfortunately none of those seemed to work...  I was curious, and still don't understand how it makes sense, but I think Shine Plus is the problem here, because when I switched to Talkback, the game worked perfectly fine!!!
Thanks for the fun!!! *Throws this boring legal textbook aside to do something literally productive* Lol!!!!

@Rei_Netta147 on Twitter
lol!!!

2017-03-28 20:34:48

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give a quick update:
* We fixed the swipe lag issue on iOS and the next update will bring a BIG improvement in that aspect.
* There has been an overwhelming demand for a button that will refresh all automations at once (from sighted and blind players alike). We will be adding a new quest line to the game which will give this button as a reward.
* Boosts and In-App Purchasing: Anyone opting to buy the no-more-videos option will be able to activate the boosts immediately, without having to watch a 30 second video. Nothing else will change. The option to watch a video will of course remain, and the option to buy away the ads is completely optional.

@Chripa - thank you a ton for your bug and idea list.

2017-03-28 23:46:19

Sounds great, I'll be looking forward to trying the update. I'm also glad that the option to watch the video ads still remains. I know some people who would not be able to make the in-app purchase, so seeing the option for them to advance more quickly in the game getting taken away would be quite disappointing. Keep up the good work, I know I've been frustrated with the lag and stuff, but mainly because I don't have the patience for it and thus don't play that often. The concept of the game itself is great though, which is why I intended to stick with it. Besides, this game is still in its early days, there were bound to be some growing pains until it all settled into the excellent game I know it's shaping up to be.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2017-03-29 07:36:52

Hi.
Great news. Is there any news regarding translating the game into more languages?

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2017-03-29 13:16:34

Hi All!
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but are the two different versions of the game, (for the two different OS's) developed separately?  Because the Android version of the game also has the issue of the cursor jumping around a lot, although the suggestion by @Turtlepower17 helps somewhat with this!!!

@Rei_Netta147 on Twitter
lol!!!

2017-03-29 22:50:47

@SLJ - Yes, I would absolutely like to move forward with a translation. I'm sorry I haven't responded sooner, I was sick the last three days and haven't been able to catch up on everything yet. Could you send me an email: [email protected]

@Netta
The game is the same for Android and iOS, with only parts of it being separately developed. The swipe detection is one of those things. On iOS we will now be using native detection, meaning the phone itself will forward swipes etc to the game. On Android we want to go the same route, but have to implement this completely differently.

2017-03-31 14:31:33

hello. micrima. don't you want to say the changes for android version? or it's the same as IOS

The best thing about the worst time of your life is that you get to see true colours of everyone you cared for.

2017-03-31 16:12:22 (edited by mikrima 2017-03-31 22:01:02)

Haha, yes, absolutely, I just wasn't fast enough!
Here is the Android changelist for the latest version. iOS will be almost the same, but the update is still in review.

- Adjusted unlock prices for ladder and fishing rod
- Accessibility no longer turns itself on again after being turned off manually
- Android: Removed unneeded permissions to access info about other running apps
- Accessibility: Production Details Window and Location Purchase can now be navigated faster with up and down swipes
- Accessibility: Sell 10 button is now correctly enabled when the product count is high enough
- Accessibility: Numbers are now formatted to be better readable with voice
- Accessibility: Estate reads out a textual description of how your home currently looks like
- Accessibility: Quest reward description for cheaper expansions corrected
- Accessibility: When changing production to a different product, sale price is now correctly displayed, and slot description adjusted
- Accessibility: Swiping down in the map will instantly bring you to the estate now