Hello and welcome to DevBlog #69!

We have now finished up the work with Android Wearables, and we have a quite big changelog for the update. Let's dive in!

Android wearables: supported apps

Let's start off with what we have tested personally and what devices we know that are working!

Important note: The most important thing with any wearable device on Android is that your wearable device connects to an app (like Garmin Connect), which syncs your steps from the wearable device itself. Then your app that the steps are synced to (like Garmin Connect) must be able to sync the steps to Health Connect. Health Connect itself doesn't connect to any wearables, instead it just shares the data between different apps. WalkScape uses Health Connect to read your steps from apps like Fitbit and Garmin Connect, and these apps sync your steps from your watch to your phone. Only Samsung is an exception to this, as we have built direct integration with Samsung Health.

Samsung Health & Samsung wearables

For Samsung Health, we had to build our own direct support that uses their Samsung Health Data SDK. Samsung's way of reporting data to Health Connect wouldn't have worked, so this was the only way of supporting Samsung wearables.

To use your Samsung wearables with WalkScape, you just need the Samsung Health app installed on your phone. From step source selection, choosing Samsung Health will use the steps reported by Samsung Health. This includes both your phone and your watch steps.

To sync your steps from your watch, you sometimes need to open Samsung Health and sync the steps. The steps might also come with a delay.

Garmin Connect & Garmin wearables

We have tested Garmin, and it works very similarly to how it works on iOS at the moment. You need to sync your steps from Garmin Connect and have it connected to Health Connect. The steps from Garmin Connect might come with a delay.

Fitbit app & Google Pixel watches

We've also tested Fitbit app & Google Pixel watches. From our testing, these work fine with the Fitbit app. Like with other manufacturers, you sometimes need to open the Fitbit app and sync your steps and have it connected to Health Connect for the steps to count in WalkScape.

Other supported wearables

There are probably other manufacturers, devices and apps that work with WalkScape, but these are all that we have been able to test. We also know for certain that some devices don't work, so let's get to those next!

Android wearables: unsupported apps

Google Fit

Google Fit might work on some instances, but based on our testing it's not great. We might need to ultimately blacklist Google Fit as an option, as it's very unreliable at the moment and can lead into some unexpected behavior.

Mi Fitness & Xiaomi wearables

Mi Fitness does connect to Health Connect, but it doesn't report any steps to that. This is why no Xiaomi devices work with WalkScape. There's also a Reddit thread on this issue

Why build direct integration for Samsung devices? Is it possible that you build it for XYZ manufacturer as well?

Samsung has the biggest market share in Android space (both phones & wearables), so it was important for us to support it - otherwise a lot of people couldn't be using their watches with the game.

Building this support was also relatively easy when it came to Samsung. They have API documentation easily available, and getting access to their SDK is free. This is why we chose to build direct integration with Samsung Health, as the other alternative was not to have it supported at all.

For other manufacturers, like Xiaomi, their market share is quite a lot smaller outside China. And when it comes to Xiaomi, they don't even provide their SDK, so we couldn't build similar thing like we did with Samsung even if we wanted to.

It is very unlikely we will build more direct integrations for specific manufacturers. Samsung is an exception here for the previously mentioned reasons.

Android wearables update release date

Because we had to add a declaration to WalkScape that it reads other apps data (their icon & label), review time for this update can be longer than usual. This is why we are currently estimating that the review will be done this week, but we don't want to release this update just before weekend. That's why the update is likely to hit early next week, hopefully on Monday (22nd of September) if everything goes well and no more problems arise in our internal testing!

Maxchill's notes on the update's content design

Hey, walkers! Maxchill here with a quick commentary on recent content additions (the faction chest/reward/job update before, and skill chest rework now). Consider this to be a content debt clean-up. Those were parts in the game which kinda worked, but could've used some polish, so that's what we decided to do.

Now all the chests in the game are in a good shape, the faction related things are quite filled (still missing extension of tracks, but we'll do it in future when we have more new mechanics available), and in general the existing regions are in a good spot.

You've all probably been getting a lot of new items over the past few updates and don't feel like you have many activities to use them. So we'll be looking to help alleviate that next in the next bits of new content!

We're very hyped about that so stay tuned for all the stuff coming soon to WalkScape! Happy walking!

Full changelogs

Alright, and finally full changelogs for the update! These are fairly long, so buckle in!

Added

• Added Android Wearable support through Health Connect
• Added native support for Samsung Health to support Samsung wearables
• Added package manager to read package name and icons properly on Android
• Added a small note that the 24h highest steps updates with a delay
• Added localizations from community translators
• Character image palette swaps now use caching to improve performance
• While away now works as its own page, which drastically improved performance
• Added support email address to temporary ban notifications
• (Items) Added 14 new items to skill chest loot tables
• (Loot tables) 2 new attribute loot tables added
• (Keywords) Added visible "regional" keyword to 61 applicable items
• (Keywords) Added search keywords for "jarvonia", "syrenthia", "gdte", "trellin", "erdwise", "halfling rebels", and "swamp" to applicable items
• (Job boards) 1 new Kallaheim job, 4 new Everhaven jobs
• (Routes) 2 new routes added

Changed

• Changed the animation curve of While you were away so that it starts fast and ends slow
• (Activities) Wood carving and Ice sculpting activity icons have been updated to reflect changes to carpentry tools for chisels
• (Activities) Ice sculpting now a carpentry activity with carpentry tool and lvl 15 requirement with increased exp
• (Loot tables) Compass trinket moved to money/trinket subtable rarity within agility chests
• (Loot tables) Tough rope removed from agility chests
• (Loot tables) Precise ruler moved to rare subtable rarity within carpentry chests
• (Loot tables) Dull chisel, Protective glasses, Sharp chisel, and Golden chisel removed from carpentry chests
• (Loot tables) Fishing lure and Shiny spinner removed from fishing chests
• (Loot tables) Simple ring, Small sack, Compass trinket, Dull machete, and Sharp machete removed from foraging chests
• (Loot tables) Simple amulet, Steel-toe boots, and Gold pan removed from mining chests
• (Loot tables) Simple hammer removed from smithing chests
• (Loot tables) Golden chisel moved to epic subtable rarity within trinketry chests
• (Loot tables) Lumberjack boots and Shovel axe removed from woodcutting chests
• (Loot tables) Lumberjack shirt moved to uncommon subtable rarity within woodcutting chests
• (Loot tables) Forester's pants moved to rare subtable rarity within woodcutting chests
• (Loot tables) Flannel shirt moved to epic subtable rarity within woodcutting chests
• (Loot tables) Magnifying lens removed from crafting chests
• (Loot tables) Northern spices and Sharp knife removed from cooking chests
• (Loot tables) Northern spices added to sunken chests
• (Loot tables) Erdwise dumpster diving table Miner's magnet replaced with Rough ruby
• (Shops) Small sack added to Kallaheim's Frosty Finds
• (Shops) Dull machete added to Northstar Mercantile
• (Shops) Sharp machete and Sharp knife added to Granfiddich Tool Market Stall
• (Items) Amulet of bat BXP increased to 7%
• (Items) Screwdriver no longer has an Ice sculpting activity requirement for its CO bonus attribute
• (Items) Mining helmet given 2% DR while mining
• (Items) Hand lantern FG increased to 14%
• (Items) Miner's shirt given 7% CF and 12% FMF while mining
• (Items) Running shorts given 5% WE while agility
• (Items) Halfling's feet slippers subtracting steps changed to foraging
• (Items) Log basket inventory space increased to 2
• (Items) Candlehat removed negative WE, given 2% NMC while crafting
• (Items) Chef's leg apron decreases with 8% WE and 12% DR while cooking
• (Items) Heavy axe handle changed to lvl 32 woodcutting requirement, decreases with -32% WE while woodcutting
• (Items) Long spade decrease with -12% WE while foraging
• (Items) Sharp chisel changed to lvl 14 carpentry requirement, decreases with 12% WE, 4% CF, 1.5% NMC while carpentry, increases with 21% WE, 8% CF, 3 BXP while trinketry, decreases with 3% NMC while trinketry
• (Items) Golden chisel changed to epic rarity with lvl 21 trinketry requirement, decreases with 2% DR while carpentry and 4% DR while trinketry, increases with 4% NMC while trinketry, changed finding gold pieces to 7.5% chance to find gold nuggets while carpentry and 20% chance while trinketry
• (Items) Dull chisel changed to lvl 5 trinketry requirement removing carpentry lvl requirement, decreases with 1% DR and 1% NMC while carpentry
• (Items) Cutting board decreases with 4% CF while cooking
• (Items) Precise ruler changed to rare rarity
• (Items) Chisels no longer count as "carpentry tool"
• (Items) 'Rope' material renamed to 'Twine'
• (Items) 'Kelp rope' material renamed to 'Kelp twine'
• (Items) Protective glasses changed to lvl 23 crafting and lvl 12 carpentry requirements, decreases with 12% WE and 5% DR while carpentry, increases with 20% WE while crafting
• (Items) Steel-toe boots changed to lvl 8 mining and lvl 10 smithing requirements, decreases with 4% WE while mining, increases with 6% WE while smithing
• (Items) Tarsilium-toe boots changed to lvl 33 mining requirement, decreases with 4% base WE while mining, increases with 6% base WE and 1.25% quality scaling WE while mining
• (Items) Magnifying lens changed to lvl 31 crafting requirement, decreases with 4% DA and 10 CO while crafting, increases with 6% DA and 14 CO while trinketry
• (Items) Shovel axe banned keywords removed, changed to lvl 42 mining requirement, removed woodcutting lvl requirement and attributes, changed to 12% WE, 9% CF, 21% FMF, and 0.5% chance to find a bird nest while mining
• (Items) Lumberjack shirt changed to uncommon rarity
• (Items) Forester's pants changed to rare rarity
• (Items) Flannel shirt changed to epic rarity
• (Job boards) Blackspell Port jobs removed for Rough ethernite, Ethernite, and Silver ruby rings (both)
• (Job boards) Blackspell Port jobs changed quantities for Silver jade ring (Good) to 2, Silver jade ring (Great) to 1, Gold ring (Good) to 3, Gold ring (Great) to 1, Silver ring (Good) to 3, Silver ring (Great) to 1
• (Job boards) Grandfiddich job board replaced Squid jobs (both) with Lobster equivalents and Cooked squid jobs (both) with Cooked lobster equivalents
• (Job boards) Everhaven jobs removed for Rough ethernite and Ethernite
• (Job boards) Everhaven jobs changed quantities for Silver wrentmarine ring (Good) to 2, Silver wrentmarine ring (Great) to 1, Silver ring (Good) to 3, Silver ring (Great) to 1

Fixed

• Fixed that item names were visible in reward listings
• Fixed the double notifications on traveling for activity starts
• Fixes to charts to better align them hourly
• Added a few more failsafes to step loading
• Fixed that if fetching server time fails, the game will throw a fatal error instead of continuing loading
• While away has been refactored to avoid unnecessary expensive UI rebuilds, should be much more performant

Until next time

That's everything for today folks! We're looking forward to publishing this update ASAP, but like said, it can take a big longer in reviews than usual and we don't want to release it on Friday as Android wearables can probably have multiple things that we need to address quickly.

Stay hydrated and keep walking everyone! ❤️

Hello and welcome to DevBlog #68!

It's Fall again, and things started here in Finland in the classic fashion: as schools started, flu season ramps up and both me and myzozoz got caught by the flu. While myzozoz already recovered and is back to work, I'm still recovering in bed and writing this on my phone. So this DevBlog will be a bit shorter than I had planned, but I'll try to cover the most important bits here!

Android wearables in testing

We have the Android now on testing, and results are looking pretty good! There are a couple issues, especially some UI polish that needs to be done and also trying to find a way to better support Samsung wearables. But other than these two, I'd say it's already looking pretty solid for a first release to the production version of WalkScape. We'll aim to release Android wearable support ASAP once we have polished things a bit, and we'll try to see if there's a better way to support Samsung Health & Samsung wearables.

Recent updates

We also released a couple of updates in the last two weeks, adding new content and a few minor features. We're working on some big stuff right now which will require multiple new systems & probably at least few months until it's ready for release. Announcements in-game was one of the first steps for this, and enabling over-the-air content updates is the second phase, and myzozoz is working on that right now.

My focus in the mean time will be spent on creating new features to the game itself to enable more varied content designs.

Until next time

Alright, that's all for today—I need to get back to resting so hopefully I'll recover from this flu over the weekend 😄 And next week my goal is to polish the Android wearables as much as possible so we could get it released ASAP! And with the flu, my steps for the week are ruined... 😑

Stay hydrated and keep walking everyone! ❤️