Out of curiosity I searched around a bit if others have the same problem. No general outrage (yet) , so I'd think (as a non-programmer) that it's something specific. Found e.g. this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29584909/event-alltouches-allobjects-last and this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29572215/receiving-notifications-from-custom-done-button-on-numeric-keyboard-not-workin If Apple indeed made a major change to how this works, I can perfectly understand Jeff/Spiderweb that he doesn't want to race in the hamsterwheel every other update. Even more so when sales on iOS are dwindling down into nothingness. @talbs: I really hope it's one of those weird quirks that Apple never acknowledges ("Nothing to see here, move along, please...") and that suddenly disappear anyways in the next iOS version. If not, we are out of luck. Apple just goes "tough luck" even for much bigger problems than breaking one single small developer's engine. UPDATE: I just read Jeff's post on the Spidweb Forums again, found a link to a tweet of his: https://twitter.com/spiderwebsoft/status/588809965499850752 If we get really really lucky, there is an easy way to fix those issues. Fingers crossed...
Short answer: See above, I simply don't want to play on computers anymore. Long answer: Guess it would run on my girlfriend's Macbook Pro. I don't own a computer for at least 10 years now, for the few things I need one I always had/have company computers (which aren't exactly geared for gaming, and playing on a 13" computer screen is not really fun). Wouldn't want to play a game of this length on a laptop, though. If it's not a touch device, I prefer having an external mouse and keyboard. And dragging those around is less convenient than just flipping open the iPad's screen cover. And with a small kid around, having a dedicated "gaming corner" is pretty much out of the question these days
I understand the issues of why Spiderweb Software has grown tired of dealing with Apple. But there is an assumedly simple solution to this on Apple's behalf, and one that I cannot grasp as to why it hasn't been offered by Apple prior. Why not just offer iOS users the ability to revert to a prior iOS version??? ... This 'once you upgrade and can never go back' Apple mentality, for iOS users, seems more like a ploy than a possibility. If you can restore your device, erase everything, and start completely over, then you should be able to download a prior version and complete the same task just as easily. This has never made good business sense to me. Especially since Apps drive Apple's device sales with their grand library of offered content. Yet, I have lost access to several of my Apps that are still in my purchase history (over the years) once an upgrade takes place and the Devs stop updating/supporting them.
Because iOS updates contain security patches. It's not advisable to use anything but the most current version of iOS otherwise your risking the possibility of having your system and/or data compromised. http://www.cnet.com/news/ios-8-also-comes-with-bucket-of-security-fixes/
The answer is that Apple sucks at and/or doesn't give a damn about backwards compatibility. I don't care how much people complain about Microsoft. They did a great job of providing backwards compatibility - even going out of their way to ensure it for some really esoteric stuff - over the last two decades. Look at what happened here: Yeah sure, you can change your classes (for handling touch input in this case) as much as you want. But where's the problem with keeping the old code active for - I don't know, say 3-5 years - so you don't break older stuff? And only enforce that anything newly submitted uses your new thingamajig. When I compare that to the bronzeage (think Windows 3.x) programs that still run perfectly fine - or with really minor issues at the most - even on Win8, Apple can't hold up a candle to MS in that regard.
Bought it wenesday. On ios 3 can't acces inventory and upgrade player : all left side of the screen don't work with the touch. Downgrade my ipad to ios 8.2 the game fully work. First impression bigger than ever.
That's not a real answer in any way. Because Apple has been doing this forever, people will simply hold off on installing these security updates because they come with broken features that ARE more important. Oooh, a 1 in a million chance somebody will target me and find a way through some obscure back door and order some pizzas with my Dominos account vs. a 1 in 1 chance I will break dozens of apps I use all the time, oh, what should I choose? Apple refusal to play nice is a big part of why I gave up Macs in the mid 90s. When they ditched nearly every application ever written pre-iOS 9 unless the developers updated specifically for the new OS (and most developers who did update charging for the major upgrades) yet you could still run MSDOS games that came out when I was a freshman in high school on the latest Pentium PC, I jumped ship (with the other half of the equation being the newly returned Jobs killing the Mac Clone program). I still don't see Android as true equal to iOS, so I put up with this sort of stupid *knowingly*, but it definitely does not have to be this way.
No your totally right brah. Apple is totally going to fix this and this game will be back soon. Douche.
Quick question, how many apps did iOS 8.3 broke to the point of the developer giving up? Just sayin’. iOS 8.3 beta has been out for quite a while, it’s funny how this happened on the release day. Just sayin’. If it is really that bad, it’s the developers fault. (I will probably get hate for this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
Sure, if you don't care about security updates then feel free to not upgrade iOS. Heck, while your at it you could also skip updates for Windows since you're feeling so confident.
@ednan: I understand the developer that he does not touch code that reliably worked for a long time, if not for a really good reason. One such reason would be a major change to the way your programming language changes how it handles certain important functions, like touch input processing in this case. Things like that e.g. Oracle did with Java a few times already. I found where gives a bit more detail, namely However, it is broken on iOS 8.3, which came out while the game was in Apple certification.: http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/21507-avernum-2-hd-for-ipad-canceled/ I cannot say more than that the situation sounds very familiar to me, and I know that such a change can hit you cold. I don't know how long in advance Apple made iOS 8.3 beta versions available for developers. From my own experience, even 6 months are not enough to even take a look at the specification if anything in several hundred pages of extremely dense technical information could affect my own engine. Another game developer who I very much appreciate is also a one-man team like Spiderweb, only he does it beside his regular occupation; and not fulltime like Jeff Vogel. I cannot find the exact post right now, but if I remember right he estimated he will finish all important changes (as in to keep the game running) around June if all goes well. And he started beginning of November at least, as you can read here: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=237171&page=70 All that work was caused by Apple enhancing their requirements, for example making full 64bit development and release mandatory. And by the huge fallout of followup problems they caused, e.g. with Unity 4/5 . But Spiderweb does this fulltime, that is different, one can argue. Which is not correct. Spiderweb's main occupation is game designer/developer, not engine developer/programmer/tester/documentation writer. Upgrading something like a game engine is a momumental task. I have ranted enough for now As last example I'll give that Unity also takes at least half a year for a major upgrade, albeit on a much larger scale. But the timeframe scales match, and match my own experience as well. (can look up source material to quote facts, if enough people find this interesting).
It's understandable that he could not do it. But it cannot be a surprise since 8.3 has been out for at least a couple of months. My point is people are blindly blaming Apple as if this is a conspiracy against small developers or something. Like this is done with solely the purpose of screwing both developers and customers. This is what is ticking me off here. If this issue was widespread, I would agree that something is wrong, but the way some people are speaking is unreasonable to say the least. That's why I say it's the developer fault. If millions of apps work and a few doesn't, it's hardly the platform's fault. And simply quitting all the work is kind of discouraging as well. I'm glad I didn't purchase anything.
That was the whole point of my post: This can - and will - surprise you, and sometimes really hard. I don't know how much exactly I am allowed to tell in public, workwise. So I better err on the side of caution and only say that I know about similar things, and how much fallout they can cause. Nobody said anything about a conspiracy theory or such. Apple does not promote these changes out of malice, or with a secret plan to destroy small game studios. Read the Brightridge thread where I linked it, go to the Unity forums, or check the thread Talbs linked. Hardly out to get Indies when the two biggest IDKs/engines get to "feel the love" too, I'd say. Not to mention breaking Apple's own features like TouchID. Nasty stuff happens. Especially in an area like software development, where we cannot even agree how many wheels a car needs. Or if it should be wheels at all, and maybe not a boat. You know the story about the Space Shuttle and the width of two roman horse butts? Software is about 2000 years behind on the maturity scale.
This is really disappointing news. I don't really care who is at fault - that's not really an issue for me. I know from only very limited experience on the dev side of things that changes can become a complete pain even if they happened with good reason and I can imagine a point at which you might have to just declare yourself out. The bottom line here is that we lose out. Beyond this, it is a big shame for Spiderweb that the iPad platform just wasn't lucrative. It's effort versus reward. The App Store has been wonderful for us gamers but an early race to the bottom on the platform and the rise (as a result) of freemium models has made some forms of gaming incredibly difficult. It is sad to think that it couldn't sustain a good income for Spiderweb. I was looking forward to playing this. It is unlikely I'll get it on a computer simply down to my own playing habits but I do wish Spiderweb nothing but success from here on.
It's a two way street for sure but I think Apple shares some of the blame. To promote development on iOS Apple needs to provide a stable platform. In the past iOS would have a yearly major release, one minor release and a couple bug fixes. iOS 8 has already had 3 minor releases with a 4th one in the pipeline and hordes of bug fixes. It been a struggle for smal and large studios to keep up with it all. It's driving up amount of development and testing needed and ulitimately cost. Finally wouldn't expect minor releases to break legacy support. That's usually saved for major releases to give developers a chance to prepare for it.
Just for context, the two last episodes of the Blackwell Legacy games series, by also a one man shop (Dave Gilbert, Wadjet Eye Games), are also stuck because of a similar problem. @Nullzone: I hadn't read his tweet from that angle, since his post was really heartbreaking, but it would be great if that was to happen. Realistically, with all the effort put into it so far... It depends on how much it would take to fix it, but fingers crossed. It's too bad that Apple does not allow them to release the game as not compatible with the latest version (understandably so), since a lot of us who are not on iOS 8.3 could enjoy the game.
