
Bounden on Android delayed, needs help - amputect
http://gameovenstudios.com/bounden-on-android-delayed/
======
userbinator
This is probably going to sound like a stupid question, but have you
calibrated the compasses on those devices? Besides the one that's wildly
fluctuating, all the other ones are displaying pretty regular behaviour for an
electronic compass that hasn't been calibrated. They are very sensitive (the
Earth's magnetic field is quite weak after all) and the extra metal of all the
devices next to each other could also affect their output.

Here's a link explaining this from one manufacturer of electronic compasses
(and the biggest one, so there's a very good chance your smartphone has an AKM
compass - I know mine does):
[http://www.s3sensor.com/en/s3/calibration/](http://www.s3sensor.com/en/s3/calibration/)

~~~
kefs
Device proximity and calibration could absolutely be an issue in that video.

In regard to their solution (having to whitelist devices based on user
feedback), I feel it's going to be a long, uphill battle. It's been tried
before via a device knowledgebase and open-source analyzer app [1], but
unfortunately, Android is just too ubiquitous for this to be feasible long-
term (without direct AOSP support).

My suggestion: the devs should create a free, trial version of the game that
takes advantage of all of the hardware it requires. If it checks out, offer
the sale.

[1] [https://code.google.com/p/android-
analyzer/](https://code.google.com/p/android-analyzer/)

------
smrtinsert
Whitelist away! As an Android supporter the best way to force the environment
you want is to target the environment you want. Once people see certain
devices do not support the features they need they'll choose ones that do, and
that encourages others to add it as well etc etc.

Your Vine does a great job showing the problem and its clear that you have
done your part to try to make it work.

Best of luck!

~~~
fpgeek
An alternative to whitelisting would be a generous refund policy [beyond the
standard window]. I've paid for more than a few apps that said "This might not
work on your phone because of XYZ. If it doesn't we'll give you a refund."

------
jaegerpicker
This is a very good reason why, as much as I want to, I can't support Android.
As a developer it's a complete pain in the ass to support. The webcam/media
codecs are very similar to this and there are many other types of apps like
this. Google really needs to step and figure out a way to fix this issue if it
wants to challenge iOS's position as a favored dev environment.

~~~
X-Cubed
How are these problems any different from developing for PCs?

~~~
jaegerpicker
Because, Microsoft and even linux have hardware abstractions that mostly
conform to a spec. The spec in Android is complete crap and largely ignored by
the hardware vendors. In Windows and linux you get the complete OS from the OS
owner (MS, or ubuntu or red hat etc...) and each driver has to match the spec
exactly or the driver will fail, with Android you are getting custom forks of
the OS. Each one is customized to the hardware and has a different behavior.

In short it's MUCH easier to support different hardware in the PC world
because the OS vendors have standardized the specs and in Android it's very
wild west, each hardware vendor is supplying their own version of Android
which is mostly the same but has subtle but key differences.

------
amputect
In the interest of total disclosure, this is not my project and I am not in
any way involved with Bounden. I just found it interesting and passed it
along.

I hope that's not bad form; if it is, I'm genuinely sorry for the error.

~~~
comex
It's not bad form to post a link to someone else's content. On the contrary,
on Reddit, posting only self-promotional links is considered spammy, though
I'm not sure what people would say about it here.

------
makomk
Even Google can't cope with this on phones that they themselves (or rather
their Motorola subsidiary) have manufactured. Ingress has really annoying
known issues with getting the user's heading from the compass on some devices,
including some Motorola ones.

~~~
chinpokomon
That tends to be Ingress in general... unless one of the updates in the past
few months has changed the landscape, I stopped trying to use the compass
orientated maps in my N5 and N7 a long while ago.

That's a minute gripe though for an otherwise really engaging game.

------
Zigurd
Try to avoid a whitelist. It will drive you nuts maintaining it. Specify app
requirements as tightly as possible, in terms of which hardware capabilities
are required, and blacklist devices known not to work. If you catch all the
popular broken devices, your rate of irritated customers should be very low.

This will, initially, require the same level of testing effort as making a
whitelist, but will be much easier to maintain.

You _may_ want to have the first thing in the product be a validation test
and/or calibration. But you risk confusing your customers.

------
bitwize
The answer is to say "no, fuck you, iOS only, bitches". Apple made DAMN sure
that their platform is of consistently good quality. If Google can't make that
same guarantee, why in the hell should you develop for their platform?

~~~
martiuk
Because you're losing out on 80% of the mobile market.

~~~
bitwize
Most of which are rinky-dink dumbphone replacements that see few, if any, app
purchases.

If you're developing a mobile app, iOS is still where you'll find the majority
of your audience, and it's less of a money sink when it comes to development
and QA.

