Sand Saga Insider: September 2024

Patrik Harag, 2024-10-01

Welcome back to Sand Saga's monthly update! Player activity in September saw strong growth and, in many ways, reached record levels. After the summer slump, we bounced back and even surpassed previous highs. This month, the minutes played counter on SandSaga.com also exceeded 5 million minutes — equivalent to 10 years of gameplay. September was also rich in new features.

September Additions

Workshop and Related Improvements
The workshop has been updated with necessary options for sorting and filtering items. Sand Saga offers flexible settings for dimensions and scale to make the best use of screen space and device performance, as well as to accommodate personal preferences for how large elements appear – whether players prefer a more pixelated or smooth world. This flexibility means that all sizes of snapshots, created with different settings, converge on the workshop, causing some challenges when it comes to compatibility across devices. These challenges revealed several issues, most of which I've since resolved. Part of the solution involved redesigning the canvas resizing dialog, which now includes options for cropping or padding from any side, as well as the ability to undo changes.

Particle Subsystem
A significant change in the engine core was the implementation of the particle subsystem. In this initial version, it only supports simpler types of particles. For example, interactions between particles or collisions with other elements are not yet supported. However, these simpler particles are excellent for simulating sparks or other glowing fragments produced by explosions. By setting these fragments to a high temperature and programming their interaction with the fire they pass through, I was able to achieve wilder and more spectacular explosions. Currently, particles are emitted by Meteor explosions and burning Thermite. They are also utilized by the newly introduced Firework.

Sand Saga = Progressive Web App
For a better user experience, Sand Saga can now be installed, and it works on both desktops and smartphones. The installation is handled directly by the browser, as the website is compliant with Progressive Web App (PWA) standards. Once installed, you'll get a desktop icon, and the app will appear in your Start menu, Control Panel, and other system locations. Additionally, you can open .sgjs files by simply double-clicking them. However, it still requires an internet connection to function properly. See the Manual for more information.

Android App

Originally, I considered creating a classic Android app in Java/Kotlin that would utilize a WebView to load Sand Saga. I developed a functional prototype but encountered numerous complications that would take me a long time to resolve satisfactorily. Additionally, I’m not an Android developer and have no development experience with this platform.

Ultimately, I revisited the idea of a PWA application (see above), which involved ensuring that sandsaga.com is PWA compliant and generating the app using the PWABuilder. The generated application can then be uploaded to Google Play. While this strategy didn’t allow me to realize all my initial ideas, it offered many other advantages. A website that meets PWA standards can be installed directly from the browser without needing Google Play or other stores. The browser simply fetches the settings, icons, and other elements, automatically creating the app – even on desktops! Additionally, this approach saves me a lot of work, which I can redirect towards improving the game.

While PWA alone is nice, it’s still beneficial to have the app on Google Play, as people are accustomed to that. The process of publication an app is tedious. Right at the start, I had to pay a $25 registration fee, and at that point, I had no idea what challenges lay ahead. There’s a lot of bureaucracy and technical requirements that you learn about gradually, along with a complicated web interface, delays, and waiting for reviews. But now I’m finally at least in closed testing, and I face the hated challenge among indie developers of gathering 20 testers.

Further Development

Hopefully the Android app will be approved soon. Additionally, I plan to add something interesting to the game, but I'm not yet sure which direction I will take. I will utilize and enhance either the particle subsystem, the entity subsystem, or both.

Conclusion

That's all for today. Stay tuned for more updates!