Trigger Fist - by Lake Effect - Universal App

[liquidthunder]

John (at Lake Effect):

Just wanted to throw my hat in here. My experience with GameCenter matchmaking in pretty much every title is absolutely 💩💩💩💩ing terrible – Apple really needs to get their GameCenter API shit together, because outside of leaderboards and achievements, it’s garbage. At this point it should be trivial for developers to drop in sophisticated matchmaking for several players, voice chat, and more with just a few lines of code, but Apple is really dragging their feet on this.

As such, I’d love to see you guys go with your own solution in the meantime. You guys have built an incredible game, don’t let Apple’s shitty API’s drain your playerbase’s patience because it’s really not your guy’s fault and all the jerks in this thread threatening to abandon the game are missing out if they do.

I really fell in love with your game, you guys are brilliant. I firmly believe this game can be iOS’ first Counter-Strike style hit, but it’s going to take a flawless implementation of matchmaking and a LOT more marketing(!!!!!!!) before that can happen. But the point is, the game is here. The fundamentals are phenomenal. You’ve just gotta get it from the 90% it’s at now, to 110% by the time the holiday season is in full swing. If you can do it, you’ll have an awfully big hit on your hands!

Please send me a PM, I have an extensive iOS QA background, a handful of test devices, and enough local friends to organize good testing sessions. I would love to help you guys out in any way I can.

[aoisora]

Originally Posted by Rip73

Did you do a re install?
If your progress and stats are synching with gamecenter, it's safe to delete the app and reinstall it.

Just did the reinstall. Now the game cant be opened at all. Tried also on my itouch 4, could play the tutorial, and then cant open the game at all..

[Rip73]

Originally Posted by aoisora

Just did the reinstall. Now the game cant be opened at all. Tried also on my itouch 4, could play the tutorial, and then cant open the game at all..

Follow the steps in my first post on page 84.
It WILL work.
The crash after tutorial and no sound has only happened on updated apps. It does not happen on a full clean install from iTunes.
It sounds like the update crash problem you're talking about there. It has to be deleted and reinstalled.
Be sure to follow the steps in order to save sync. And be sure you're sync is up on gamecenter. Do NOT remove gamecenter from both devices.
For even clearer instructions, page 68 onwards has loads of posts and info on updating and synching. I recommend reading them. I can't really re post them every time without cramming up the thread with previously posted info.

[Maniacfive]

Despite only ever playing on my iPad. And making sure my stats were synced to Gamecentre, upon reinstalling... Mostly nothing syncs back. Have tried every piece of advice from earlier in the thread, and nothing. Gamecentre still has all the achievements I've earned, and some of the leader boards, (just couldnt get it to record anything other than gunner XP) but nothing else.

4 and a half hours of my life playing this game. wasted. Forget about extra content. Fixing these progress wiping bugs should've been a priority no? I like this game and the devs seem like good people, but I'm not going to give any more time to a game with bugs like this.

Look at the screenshots. What about that syncing makes any sense whatsoever? Its synced gunner and streak but not total?

[decoy_octopu5]

So if I have yet to download this game will it work? I'm running an iPhone 4s. Seems like a lot of people saying the game is just crashing upon launching? What happened??

[Rip73]

Originally Posted by decoy_octopu5

So if I have yet to download this game will it work? I'm running an iPhone 4s. Seems like a lot of people saying the game is just crashing upon launching? What happened??

The crash issue is related to updating the game.
It's irrelevant if you're progress is synched to gamecenter as upon reinstall, it resyncs unlocks and xp to device.
It doesn't happen to clean iTunes installs.

[Rip73]

Originally Posted by Maniacfive

Despite only ever playing on my iPad. And making sure my stats were synced to Gamecentre, upon reinstalling... Mostly nothing syncs back. Have tried every piece of advice from earlier in the thread, and nothing. Gamecentre still has all the achievements I've earned, and some of the leader boards, (just couldnt get it to record anything other than gunner XP) but nothing else.

4 and a half hours of my life playing this game. wasted. Forget about extra content. Fixing these progress wiping bugs should've been a priority no? I like this game and the devs seem like good people, but I'm not going to give any more time to a game with bugs like this.

Look at the screenshots. What about that syncing makes any sense whatsoever? Its synced gunner and streak but not total?

If your other xp levels were on the individual leaderboards in gamecenter, it would sync when opened from gamecenter. It is not an instantaneous sync. All data takes both a decent data connection and a bit of time to sync.
There are numerous individual leaderboards.
Global kills
Global xp
Rifleman xp
Gunner xp
Scout xp
Rank.
These are the important ones. This has been made very clear many times.
Being ranked on these on gamecenter, that is what will sync.
If they are there and they haven't synched, delete, reinstall and open from within the gamecenter app itself, not from the games app icon is the solution to synching.

If your xp data, as I listed above, is not on gamecenter, that is what the first update was put out to fix and it did exactly that.
And as you say, not all of your data was on gamecenter so you were using version 1.0.
It has been made very clear, many times, what data needs to be there and how to sync.

Plus saying the developer is only working on content and not working on fixing bugs couldn't be more incorrect. The bugs are more related to gamecenter than to the game itself. If the game had no sync or iCloud, as many games do not have, you'd have nothing to complain about because there are no bugs directly related to the game itself. Even the update crash is a gamecenter related communication problem.
There has been two updates since launch so criticising a developer for not working on a fix is unjustified and incorrect. If all they did was fix bugs and not add content, I suppose that'd be another reason to complain.

Does every game you have save data and allow you to delete, reinstall and start right back up where it was before you deleted it? Well, from the thousands of apps and games I've downloaded, I can tell you that number is very small.
It's an awfull shame you lost four and a half hours having fun playing an enjoyable game. Having four and a half hours of fun being a waste of time is somewhat confusing though. Unless of course you didn't enjoy the game and if that's the case, I don't know why you played for four and a half hours anyway.

Losing a bit of progress is not the end of the world. Four hours is not a lot of time to invest in a quality game. Plus at this stage, the sync issue is well and truly solved. Pointing out a problem that the developer has fixed and then critiicising them for working on new content as opposed to bug fixing is a bit ridiculous. Especially considering they are working very hard to sort out any possible further gamecenter issues.

Anybody consider that possibly the issue is Apple's fault for not developing Gamecenter? Or maybe making matchmaking more efficent? Or simply using that massive server farm in North Carolinfom for more than iCloud? No, of course not. It's always the developers fault. Apple, of course, never makes a mistake.

Next time, you might want to direct some of your criticism at the manufacturer of your device and the way they implemented and under developed gamecenter. Now you know why most developers run a mile from it and why those that have it end up having to supplement it with tailored server solutions to try and make it work.

[John_atLakeEffect]

Originally Posted by decoy_octopu5

So if I have yet to download this game will it work? I'm running an iPhone 4s. Seems like a lot of people saying the game is just crashing upon launching? What happened??

Trigger Fist lifetime summary:

Beta Test:
- No crashing
- All leaderboards, achievements, and matchmaking worked in Apple's Sandbox/Test Server environment.

Release v1.0
- No crashing, great reception, 5 star reviews etc...
- Only issue: somehow not all the leaderboards went "Live" on Game Center
- Contacted Apple: told the only way to fix it is to submit an update.
- Made insignificant tweaks to weapons etc and resubmitted.

Release v1.01
- Leaderboards did all go live. (<-- this allows data to be saved remotely)
- Random people experiencing crashing upon update but not on fresh installs
- Seems like devices are not updating properly
- Contacted Apple to see if it is possibly on their end
- To attempt to correct a potentially corrupt file on the iTunes Servers, submitted update v1.02
- Some people lost progress
- Received 1 star reviews for crashing and lost position on the App Store (i.e. lost revenue)

Release v1.02
- Game still crashing on update. Fresh installs still work.
- Apple is still looking into it

Future outlook:
- Downloads are slowly recovering
- Many users are being supportive (THANK YOU!)
- New users are not experiencing issues.
- Looking into ways to bring more users to the game.
- Learning from our mistakes.
- Continuously working to make it better.
- Creating more content

[decoy_octopu5]

Originally Posted by John_atLakeEffect

Trigger Fist lifetime summary:

Beta Test:
- No crashing
- All leaderboards, achievements, and matchmaking worked in Apple's Sandbox/Test Server environment.

Release v1.0
- No crashing, great reception, 5 star reviews etc...
- Only issue: somehow not all the leaderboards went "Live" on Game Center
- Contacted Apple: told the only way to fix it is to submit an update.
- Made insignificant tweaks to weapons etc and resubmitted.

Release v1.01
- Leaderboards did all go live. (<-- this allows data to be saved remotely)
- Random people experiencing crashing upon update but not on fresh installs
- Seems like devices are not updating properly
- Contacted Apple to see if it is possibly on their end
- To attempt to correct a potentially corrupt file on the iTunes Servers, submitted update v1.02
- Some people lost progress
- Received 1 star reviews for crashing and lost position on the App Store (i.e. lost revenue)

Release v1.02
- Game still crashing on update. Fresh installs still work on the vast majority of devices
- Apple is still looking into it

Future outlook:
- Downloads are slowly recovering
- Many users are being supportive (THANK YOU!)
- New users are not experiencing issues.
- Looking into ways to bring more users to the game.
- Learning from our mistakes.
- Continuously working to make it better.
- Creating more content

Thanks for the reply John, looking forward to seeing the true potential of this app. : )

[agentblank]

Originally Posted by John_atLakeEffect

Trigger Fist lifetime summary:

Beta Test:
- No crashing
- All leaderboards, achievements, and matchmaking worked in Apple's Sandbox/Test Server environment.

Release v1.0
- No crashing, great reception, 5 star reviews etc...
- Only issue: somehow not all the leaderboards went "Live" on Game Center
- Contacted Apple: told the only way to fix it is to submit an update.
- Made insignificant tweaks to weapons etc and resubmitted.

Release v1.01
- Leaderboards did all go live. (<-- this allows data to be saved remotely)
- Random people experiencing crashing upon update but not on fresh installs
- Seems like devices are not updating properly
- Contacted Apple to see if it is possibly on their end
- To attempt to correct a potentially corrupt file on the iTunes Servers, submitted update v1.02
- Some people lost progress
- Received 1 star reviews for crashing and lost position on the App Store (i.e. lost revenue)

Release v1.02
- Game still crashing on update. Fresh installs still work on the vast majority of devices
- Apple is still looking into it

Future outlook:
- Downloads are slowly recovering
- Many users are being supportive (THANK YOU!)
- New users are not experiencing issues.
- Looking into ways to bring more users to the game.
- Learning from our mistakes.
- Continuously working to make it better.
- Creating more content

Please use your own matchmaking so we can get in a full lobby of people