Android And You

Hello folks,

First, I want to say that I'm dealing with some health issues. I am just one person working on a large , vastly under funded project. Even if I wasn't dealing with illness it would still be difficult to respond to comments from everyone.  This is worth mentioning because I actually have stalkers, made by "ignoring" people who have attempted to speak to / with me in the past. The reality is, I respond to every comment I'm able, and for those I am not I tend to direct people to a solution if possible.

I want to thank everyone who has sent me well wishes for my health, compliments on the game and constructive criticism (the non-dickhead  actionable types of ConCrit). Today's post is related to the android build of the game.

I've seen the numerous comments:
"Hey, downloaded the android but it doesn't work." "Hey, APK isn't found." or some variation of these.

I'll explain why that occurs, then offer a several solutions to fix it - along with my announcement. 

• Android files above 2 GB are a security risk by default for Android phones. This means they won't run automatically unless they are "signed" by a credible android key as a way of verifying that they aren't harmful.
• Your phone's security settings disallow unsigned apps to run.
• Ren'py (the program I use to build the game) doesn't do this by default (not sure why, since you can generate the key in Ren'py - it seems like the next logical step would be to sign on your behalf).

In summary, there's nothing wrong with the APK file, it's the exact same file as the other versions of the game - just built for android. If you can't run on Android, I recommend running on PC if you're able. If you can't do that then follow these steps:

• 1) Download and use Joi Play to run the game.
• 2) Change the "allow unknown apps" setting in your phone to on. In all likelihood this is something you will always need to manually turn on, as it's disabled by default.

You can find specifics on each of those methods via  Google, so I won't mention them here, but they can be technical and a bit of a headache, which I completely understand.  I've been researching methods to fix this and I have found a few thanks to helpful members of the community. The remedy to this issue is already in the works, so I'll talk about why it hasn't been done until now.

The game is currently in a state of great changes. No doubt, by the time you see HPC again there will be a great many features that didn't exist before, new things that I've changed since the last time  (even in the prologue itself).

Due to those changes, I can't just build the game and then update the files here. Doing so would possibly break saves, cause errors and glitches of all sorts. Since I don't have any credible or trusted play testers, that leaves just me.

As an example of this : decided to simplify item crafting and material handling.

Now, you can  find a material ONCE and from then on, you can craft any item that requires that material, as long as you have spirit crystals and all the ingredients.  Since this is something you didn't need in the prologue, I have to go back and add / balance ways to acquire crystals.

Another is the party system. Companions now have skills attached to them, and when you bring them to battle you gain access to the skills of those added to your party. Naturally, this means the old skill system is obsolete. But, it still exists, so I have to account for any changes I may have made. Luckily I don't need to reverse any changes, I just need to make sure nothing conflicts.

You can see how things become time consuming. I'll release an APK signed version of the game as soon as practical.

It will just take a bit longer than I would have liked, so sorry for the  inconvenience.

- My Big Little Brother