As part of porting this game to phones, I re-wrote most of the code in Haxe and switched from OpenFL to Unity as the core engine. That's worked ok so far on phones and now it's time to transition the desktop builds to this new version. This is intended to be a mostly invisible update on desktop - no content changes and no loss of progress. Still, the fact that so much has changed behind the scenes has made me cautious.

Beta Testing

Version 1.4.5 covers Windows/Mac/Linux and is now available on the preview branch. If you're feeling brave, please give this version a try and let me know if you notice anything different or run into any problems (in the comments here, on Twitter @dukope, or through the support form). I'll move this build to the main branch after building a little confidence.

What's New

Content-wise, all platforms and versions are as similar as possible. Some notable changes from the currently-available 1.2.76 to 1.4.5 on desktops:

• Runs under Unity 2020, hopefully improving compatibility.
• Tweaks and bug fixes here and there.
• Added command-line switches for disabling vsync, stretching to fill the screen, and more.
• No more "boot.xml" for overriding the save directory (use "savedir" command-line switch instead)
• Added an official localization for Korean (by BADA Games)
• Added an official localization for Turkish (by Bared L)
• Added an official localization for Czech (by Tomas2886 et al)

Updates from Beta 1.4.4 to Beta 1.4.5

• Reworked fullscreen/windowed logic to fix blurriness
• Fixed savedata folder calculation on Windows
• Fixed disappearing ambient audio when pausing/unpausing
• Fixed intermittent flickering system mouse cursor
• Fixed "-1" endless score display
• Extended confiscation drawer hit rect into border for easier clicking

(Thank you memenorio and Ha!)

What May Break

Some things that may not work right:

• Achievements & leaderboards. This has been tested a bit but the underlying social API has completely changed so anything could happen here. Anything.
• Game progress. OpenFL and Unity use fundamentally different methods to determine where to store savedata on the HD. I've copied the logic from 1.2.76 but tracing that logic through OpenFL to Lime to SDL is not exactly straightforward. If there's a problem here, the game will be looking in the wrong spot for your save files.
• Input & rendering. Unity is handling all rendering and input now instead of the OpenFL/Lime/SDL stack. Another place where anything could happen. Who knows!
• Custom localization packs. Loc packs used to be in one place, now they're in another. If you have a custom loc pack installed, it'll need to be put in the new location under [GAME_FOLDER]/PapersPlease_Data/StreamingAssets/loc

WARNING

This 1.4.5 preview build has not been tested extensively. I recommend backing up your savedata before switching to the preview branch.

[ 2022-11-27 02:36:27 CET ] [ Original post ]