End of the road: Multiplayer finishes March 2020

[brisdaz]

https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/09/1 ... old-games/

I guess it's the end of the road for multiplayer osmos as Google is turning it off in March 2020 - see above article. Also it may already be off since there are reports it doesn't work with Android 10.

[eddybox]

Hi Brisdaz,

Thanks for the heads-up. Sad to see Google abandoning so many services! I'm a little surprised about this one, as I would think it's an important service to support multiplayer games "natively" on Android. Surely Google can afford the bandwidth and server time!

In fact, online multiplayer is already broken in the Android version of Osmos sadly. This happened when Google nuked Google+, as their original matchmaking system piggybacked on Google+. Since we're no longer able to update the Android version (due to Apportable disappearing), we were unable to migrate to Google's new API/service, killing online multiplayer for Osmos. Given this news it sounds like that would have just been delaying the inevitable demise in any case.

FYI you can still play against other players over wifi via the "in the room" option. Harder to arrange though. =/

On a historical note, Osmos was a Google Play Games "launch title", amongst the first to use their new matchmaking system, leaderboards, etc. (It was Google's answer to Apple's Game Center services. Apple is still offering it – I wonder why Google decided to drop theirs.) Anyways, it was a good chunk of work at the time. Sad to see it go, but what can you do.

In other news, Google actually just yanked Osmos HD from Google Play a couple days ago, which is the only place the Android version actually sold anymore. Years of not keeping up with API and security updates finally broke the camel's back, and they pulled it. The sad part is everything except online multiplayer still works well. Still, it leaves me with a few decisions to make...

1) The Osmos demo is still on Google Play. People can download it, but the "buy full version" links now take players to a broken URL. Wondering if I should take down the demo now.
2) I'm considering adding the standalone version (created for Humble Bundle) as a download option for people who have bought Osmos from our website, so it's available somewhere. (No one buys it on Amazon or Humble.) As I mentioned, online multiplayer is broken so it's not a fully working product (the "play online" button fails), but it still otherwise works well on most devices. That said, I doubt folks looking for the Android version will be willing to pay $10 for the Android + Win + Mac + Linux versions. (And it's not worth making a separate "store" for it.) I could also put the demo as a free download on our website, but it does point to the Google Play version. =/

I'll update our website and FAQ once I've decided on that stuff. In the meantime, thoughts and feedback welcome.

Cheers,
Eddy

[Bebop]

Hi Eddy,

I wanted to say thank you for your email for caring for your players for making the game available for us to enjoy and hopefully for future generations Also I am very happy that you have included achievements in the game for weirdos like me who can't play a game knowing that it is incomplete. Moreover it's great that there is multiplayer over wifi I just wish there were bots so I could play alone but that might not be what you were going for when creating the game. I can confirm both versions work on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 under Android 5.0.1 but neither of them work on Samsung Galaxy S10+ under Android 9. I hope your other games physical and digital will be successful.

Best regards,

Salem

[eddybox]

Thanks for your kind words, Salem.

Admittedly the existing builds are getting old, but afaik they still work for most people, including under Android 9. Does this demo version work for you? http://www.hemispheregames.com/latest_o ... droid_demo

Also, as you may have noticed, I did indeed add the Android version into the bundle we sell on our website, including some notes on our FAQ.
https://www.hemispheregames.com/faq-android/#meta_buy
Hopefully that helps keeps the game available to those who want it.

As for "bots", that's pretty much what the Sentient single-player levels are. Not the same as playing against a human - and their little brains don't account for gravitation nor antimatter so they only appear in "simple" levels - but they can still be pretty fun & challenging.

Cheers,
Eddy