As usual there were a few snags…

I’m annoyed, you’re annoyed, we’re all annoyed. But, it’s New Years Eve/Day (depending on your location), so most of us should probably be celebrating 2019 rolling in.

But still. Reeeeeeeeeeeeee.

It’s quite annoying when you set a deadline but can’t hit it, because one of the most important things for the project just doesn’t cooperate, and debugging these issues pretty much means I’m just changing some things and hoping it works. So far I’ve come half way it seems.

The Final Problem

The issue right now is that my new code for cloud saving is not working as it should, and testing it takes time because it won’t work well on my local machine. Super-slow and annoying. I postponed testing this for last, partly because it is just… so… boring! But I’m doing it now and I’m not having fun yet (I will when it purrs along like a happy cat - except if that cat is Cate, a very bad cat - as you should know).

The issue at the moment: Those darn cloud saves. Many of you have issues getting it to work on your device or browser, I have issues getting it to work at all right now. I feel like we’re bonding. Anyway, the issue is that they don’t do what I say - they work the first time, no issue with the loading - but when reloading the page by e.g. changing a setting, half the game is broken. Soon I’ll change something, have no idea what I did, and make it work. That’s programming.

Perhaps the ‘spaghetti code system’ was a poor choice after all. Anyway, I expect this problem to be solved today or tomorrow.

When The Final Problem Is Solved

After the cloud saves work as they should, before being able to release the update, the remaining work is easy-peasy except for one thing that just takes time:

Checking as many devices/browsers (that the game ran on before) as I can be bothered to check; I’m not looking forward to the iPhones. I do not own one myself - if this project ever takes off “big time” I’ll definitely get both a Mac and a couple of iPhones from different generations, just to be able to test things properly. It is worth it? I don’t know.

In short, it shouldn’t take too much time, unless Safari is broken again - that’s the only browser that usually changes with one of those iOS updates that come all the time and breaks something. It’s a little funny because Chrome changes all the time and never breaks anything. Web development. Can you tell I’m a bit upset? Ahh never mind.

If there are issues with devices/browsers that should be working, it might delay the release further (for half a day to a day).

…After these two things are completed (Cloud Saves & Devices/Browsers-check), I just need to run basic optimizations on the image and sound sprites and proceed to upload this beast (5 min-ish) and viola!

I wish I could fix the script size (it has grown something like 2-3x since the switch to webpack and there’s no way I wrote that much new code, so there’s should be some neat solutions to reduce the size; I bet a lot of code is being included twice, or some dependencies are. Something I’ll fix after this release because it might take longer than 1-2 days and we’ve all waited long enough).

So, hang in there, don’t expect a release tonight

But - it really is only day(s) away. I never thought the update would be released in 2019 (!) … New year, new memes I guess.

Just don’t take my word for any of this, I have been wrong in the past on multiple occasions. No. Okay. Back to wrestling with code. Godspeed. I applaud your patience (and mine). Double applause.

Happy New Year.