Cooking in the Kitchen - Android App Bundle and future analytics
adent42
Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,159
Informal poll for analytics services. We're in the processes of upgrading our build system to support Android App Bundles, which means our build system will finally be modern enough to move faster on android features (though it's been a rather painful journey).
Two notes:
1) Kindle & FireTV targets. These are going away in favor of a single Android target. I was looking at the code for these and they only things these special targets do is error out with an alert if you're not using them on the specified target device. This is because, at one point, Amazon sponsored Kindle & FireTV for the old free tier. Since that deal is no longer a thing, taking away these two special builds saves use a lot of work. In order to support the Amazon store you just need the FireTV remote and gamepad support flag for FireTV and uncheck the Quit on Back Button flag for Kindle. You would also probably want to only enable Amazon compatible ad networks, which we'll document on the publishing page eventually.
2) Analytics: This is not coming with the first AAB release, but with the new build system, analytics will be easier to do. Soooo.... what networks do you want to support? The top candidates are:
Adjust SDK ( requested by @Baguvix )
GameAnalytics ( requested by @blob )
Amplitude ( requested by @boolsis )
Flurry / GA / Amazon ( popular systems )
So point 1 is just a heads up. Point 2 is a request for comment. Let me know how'd you rank them!
Comments
Also note that we'd likely do analytics on Android first since with iOS we'll need to do some extra work due to the need to statically compile them into the build (tech stuff, but basically we'd need do some more special target work).
Flurry/GA/Amazon - proven systems, accepted by nearly all publishers.
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Not got any special preference for analytics, but very pleased to hear app bundles are coming! I know you've said for a while they were, but exciting to hear it's actually in progress now!
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support
@uptimistik any preference out of those 3?
GA is used by Voodoo, Ketchapp, BitMango, TastyPill, HOMA Games etc, (they are all 2D game publishers, good fit for GS games) and they offer a ton of free stuff too, they look pretty good to me.
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GameAnalytics for Me!
because it could be a good thing! as @uptimistik said many publishers require it to acquire games or re-release them... so I think it could give GS a nice boost!
✮My Web Site✮ ✮My Full Games On Sale✮ ✮Follow Me✮ ✮My Video Channel✮ ✮Contact Me To Buy My GS Games✮
Haha... i just realized there may be some confusion:
GameAnalytics
GA = Google Analytics
@uptimistik which one did you mean?
Game Analytics! Publishers love ‘em
GameSalad Templates and Custom Development at the Official Marketplace: http://gshelper.com
I asked for Adjust because I know it is required for Lion Studios, but if Game Analytics is the one used by most 2d publishers, then my vote goes for it as well!
Can you add the SDK from Yodo1.com to the list?
Yodo1.com looks like an ad mediator rather than Analytics? We may consider ad mediators too for Android. Probably not so much for iOS.
Tenjin for me. I can even give you the code for Tenjin since it is literally 3 lines.
@adriangomez heh, probably a bit more since we want to be able to hook into all the various events and not just start up attribution! But I'll add it on the list for consideration.
No preference or experience of these but ease of use would be high on my agenda, as a non coder!
Same!
What about other features (native keyboard anyone) ?
Also any update on this:?
The Future, future, future...
Our team is also working on getting Windows APK signing updated and some longer term updates to the engine that will future proof us (targeting the bgfx library instead of OpenGL, which will allow us to use Metal, Vulkan, and Direct X graphics backends). This work is slow going, but once it's done GameSalad's engine will be in a great position for the future.
In addition, modernizing the build system and getting a better cross platform player (hello Windows & Linux) it will allow us to being the transition to the HTML5 creator while keeping our promise to have NATIVE preview with a downloadable version of the HTML5 creator.
I don't expect to see the fruits of this labor in your hands before next year, but once it's ready, I'm hoping you'll be really happy with the results!
As we've said in the past, HTML5 will only become the One True Creator when we can give you native preview and offline mode. The bgfx and attending build system update work will put us one step closer to that. And when that happen and we only have one tool to support, we can really start putting the gas on new features!
I want to work on the new text entry system, a saner wire format for network behaviors, improved table loading times, and a light weight custom code behavior among other things!
We appreciate the community's patience as we do all this behinds the scenes work and hope to have the new RCs in your hands next week!
Thanks
Windows APK signing fixes should be in the pipe next. I think fixing some major edge case issues in HTML5 Creator so that we can take another step towards making it the main creator. After that, we'll plan based on the lay of the land!
We're getting closer to a AAB (Android App Bundle) release. At the current rate we'll likely be late for the August deadline, but should be ready . Build seems to be working, we're just trying to hook it into publishing.
AAB's will be a separate target, so you'd have Android APK and Android AAB. APK builds will be for Amazon and other alternate app stores. AAB will be there for Google Play.
FYI, in order to release as quickly as possible, we'll likely need to ask users to sign their AAB files via command line for submission to the Google Play store. This is because apksigner doesn't work with android AABs only jarsigner. So we'll need to revamp our signer to work with both.
@adent42 Amazing work as always! Super excited for AAB!
@adent42 Does this have anything to do with the recent error I am getting during signing "jarsigner: unable to sign jar: java.net.UnknownHostException: tsa.starfieldtech.com" like this thread? https://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/616930#Comment_616930
I have updated my JDK version but still same error.
To get around this issue, you will need to manually sign for now. We're focused on getting the AAB build out first then we'll look into the signing flow.
Here's the info: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39890580/jdk-1-7-jarsigner-with-https-tsa-no-longer-works
If you're using jarsigner, I'm assuming you're on windows @badcomics ?
You can manually sign and use apksigner for now:
https://help.gamesalad.com/windows-cookbook/publishing/android-publishing/command-line-signing-optional/
Yeah, no. Got Java errors and since I hadn't updated Java in a while, I downloaded and installed the latest.
Now I get "-Djava.ext.dirs=C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\build-tools\25.0.3\lib is not supported. Use -classpath instead.
Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine.
Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit."
Hi @adent42, I haven’t talked/pestered you in a while😜, I hope all is well.
I know you’re busy with AAB but I was wondering if you had any update about GameAnalytics integration? and possibly a very rough timeframe for its completion?
GS + Faster devices from the past 2 years + IronSrc + GameAnalytics = A competitive stack.
(Which could very well produce a breakout success with the right minds behind it. Hence creating an avalanche of new comers to GS…)
It may seem far-fetched now, but not then, because the right tool set allows for the opportunity.
Let me reiterate that GameAnalytics is the defecto standard for all major game publishers and it’s free.
This is all very exciting to me, and I'm sure, to many others!
Cheers.
@blob no update yet. I'm trying to track down Samsung / Android 11 problems (it's more than AAB, since the APK that's been build with API 30 also has problems).
After Android 11 problems, I'll be looking into a signing app (whether I finish it up quickly depends on whether my planned approach works).
After that, I'll look into Game Analytics.