Kindle Fire and Google Play Questions.....

luke2125luke2125 Member, PRO Posts: 225
in Working with GS (Mac)
Hi,

Have some questions regarding submit process for both:

1) Should I use the Pre-Test from Amazon Kindle, to make sure everything runs ok, even though, I've tested via GSViewer and AdHoc on my Kindle Fire HD7. Has anybody done this. Also, once I feel submit for review, I would need to submit the unsigned.apk to Amazon Kindle, correct? And they will do the rest, sign in process......?

2) I've read that if the .apk works find on the Kindle Fire, it should be okay to submit to Google Play? Any info regarding this. I'm considering in purchasing a Nesus 7 Tablet ( 7" - 16 Gig ) either Asus or Google for testing purposes for Google Play Android. Has anybody submitted to Google Play with a good working version of Kindle Fire .apk, results? Or should I just purchase the Nesus 7 and just be on the safe side....

3) A lot of questions regarding dimensions for developing for Android, should I stick with 1024 x 600, since that's the low end of dimensions for old platforms, or maybe something in the medium?

Would appreciate any feedback and suggestions......Thanks and God Bless....

Sincerely,

Sunday

Comments

  • JDuaneJJDuaneJ San Francisco Member Posts: 300
    I'm sorry to say it's pretty typical not to receive any communication on the Forums if you ask for advice on general publishing questions. Most of the answers are in a vast array of tutorials online somewhere...if you can sit through the whining that some of them do in the beginning about other users of GS. I'm sure you've solved your problems by now; or at least in some fashion.

    But if your interested still, I can answer your questions best I can:

    1. You should always submit the unsigned binary to amazon. I've done the signed version and it seemed to work, but I didn't have GameCircle or a security profile associated with the app then, so I doubt it would have passed if I did and it was signed. So my guess is; signed and no GameCircle/Security Profile, your good...unsigned for GameCircle and Security Profile.

    2. Always test on as many devices as seem to be reasonably necessary. It's fair not to test on devices similar in Hardware/software and screen size, but you never know. I've seen some weird bugs on iOS 5 devices that I could not replicate on my iOS 5 devices at home. Rule of thumb I go by is; if it runs clean on in house devices with a broad range of specs, ship it and then just wait for bugs. If it's not broken, don't fix it.

    I'm not sure if you could submit the Kindle generated apk to Google Play or not. It's actually a question i'm trying to figure out by just going through with it and waiting for a rejection or approval to answer it. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump.

    3. It's always best to design UI to scale to fit a broad range of devices with some simple Rules. Otherwise I would design for the larger size then go down from there. Much easier to go down than up IMO. But I think shooting for somewhere in the mid range would be good. However, if you design for 1024x600, you wouldn't qualify for Amazon developer select program...they require you to target KindleFire HDX I think.


    Hope this advice can serve someone well. Been learning a lot myself over the past week. If anyone has any trouble with Amazon and the developer portal shoot me a PM and I will help with anything.

    Illustration Portfolio:: |
    Our Christmas Wishes for iPad:: |
    Astropak for iPhone,
    Android
    and Kindle Fire

  • DoguzDoguz Member Posts: 500
    I use the signed apk for amazon with game circle. Only because I didn't know any better. And it all seems to work. Not sure what I'm supposed to do with the unsigned version.
  • JDuaneJJDuaneJ San Francisco Member Posts: 300
    Ok to confirm, you can't submit the Kindle generated apk to the Google Play store. I installed it and it failed for me with a message that it could only be installed on a Kindle Fire device.

    Illustration Portfolio:: |
    Our Christmas Wishes for iPad:: |
    Astropak for iPhone,
    Android
    and Kindle Fire

  • jigglybeanjigglybean Member Posts: 1,584
    I use the signed apk for amazon with game circle. Only because I didn't know any better. And it all seems to work. Not sure what I'm supposed to do with the unsigned version.
    You send Amazon an unassigned apk. They have made life easier now with an MD5 that you need to get game circle up and running.

    If you follow the instructions below, its all straight forward
    http://cookbook.gamesalad.com/tutorials/4/parts/62

    If you just search google, you will find most of the answers. Thats how I tend to work. Members normally wont respond to stuff thats already out there if some one can't be bothered to find it themselves.

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  • JDuaneJJDuaneJ San Francisco Member Posts: 300
    An update for you man, and just sharing the things I've learned the past couple days.

    You can submit the same exact apk to Google Play as you do Amazon(just not the Kindle generated version)...but if you have GameCircle with a login, leaderboads or Post feature, it will fail. I submitted this version and the apk works just fine, but the login for GameCircle throws an error and crashes the app.

    I'm sure there are some reading this saying "DUH, read the tutorials!" But not all tutorials explain things very well, and are very confusing because you guys are developers and not tutorial writing experts! And they don't really include the common questions asked on the forums about this submission stuff with GameCircle and Google Play. Anyway, it looks like if I want Achievements or Leaderboards in my GooglePlay game, I'll have to wait for GS to provide that support. Please!!!!!!!!

    Illustration Portfolio:: |
    Our Christmas Wishes for iPad:: |
    Astropak for iPhone,
    Android
    and Kindle Fire

  • jigglybeanjigglybean Member Posts: 1,584
    Gs doesn't support Google play. You can still direct players to game circle( Amazon, I did hear was supporting all game centres etc) but I haven't tried this yet and will be soon.

    But yes, we need Google play support asap because right now, Google is slapping apple where it hurts.

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  • JDuaneJJDuaneJ San Francisco Member Posts: 300
    Gs doesn't support Google play. You can still direct players to game circle( Amazon, I did hear was supporting all game centres etc) but I haven't tried this yet and will be soon.

    But yes, we need Google play support asap because right now, Google is slapping apple where it hurts.
    Yeah I know GS doesn't support GP, which is why I wished they would. But you can still submit your games to GP with the same apk file as you do Amazon. I've done it and it works just fine. You just can't expect GamceCircle to function so you just have to remove it with the GP apk.

    Illustration Portfolio:: |
    Our Christmas Wishes for iPad:: |
    Astropak for iPhone,
    Android
    and Kindle Fire

  • luke2125luke2125 Member, PRO Posts: 225
    Hi JduaneJ and others,

    Thanks for the help, really appreciated it.......God Bless...

    Sincerely,

    Sunday
  • stueynetstueynet TorontoMember Posts: 166

    @JDuaneJ said:
    Anyway, it looks like if I want Achievements or Leaderboards in my GooglePlay game, I'll have to wait for GS to provide that support. Please!!!!!!!!

    Achievements and leaderboards work perfectly. Here is a recent thread about it

    http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/65412/my-new-understanding-of-android-amazon-gamecircle-and-leaderboards-in-general#latest

    GameCircle can connect with any Android app no matter where it was downloaded from. The only stipulation is that you must have an approved app in the Amazon app store.

    My game is running with working leaderboards and achievements provided by GameCircle on the game downloaded from Google Play.

    My Latest GS Game - Tiny Spirit
    My First GS Game - Dashing Ralph

  • JDuaneJJDuaneJ San Francisco Member Posts: 300

    @stueynet what version of GS was your game created and published with? I've followed that link as well as every tutorial known to man about leaderboards and achievements with GC. Don't get me wrong, they function perfectly fine when logged in as a guest...but as soon as I try to login with my account (or my wifes or friends etc.) we are taken to a weird page that cannot be displayed.

    I've created some discussions about this problem and cannot get valid help from anyone. I've solved my "Invalid API Key" errors just fine after some digging and support from Amazon. The only thing giving me problems is this login error and blank webpage. Amazon Support states that GS is using an old version of GC. So I don't know if thats the problem or not. (GS is not responding to my support ticket) If you would like to try and let me know if you get the same error, my game is called Astropak on Google Play.

    Illustration Portfolio:: |
    Our Christmas Wishes for iPad:: |
    Astropak for iPhone,
    Android
    and Kindle Fire

  • luke2125luke2125 Member, PRO Posts: 225

    Hi,

    So let me get this straight, games from Google Play that are downloaded and have GameCircle in them, and are set-up correctly in Amazon ( Kindle API and Android API ) work? I have just leader-boards set-up.....God Bless....

    Sincerely,

    Sunday

  • JDuaneJJDuaneJ San Francisco Member Posts: 300

    @luke2125 Correct. An app downloaded from Google Play with Amazon GameCircle will function. If you can get over a couple humps. I have reached as far as being able to login as a guest, but I cannot login with my own GameCircle account because of some problem with an invalid website after login. Still trying to get to the bottom of it.

    Illustration Portfolio:: |
    Our Christmas Wishes for iPad:: |
    Astropak for iPhone,
    Android
    and Kindle Fire

  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922

    Since I'm the only one with Android tutorials that must be me whining..lol I should redo those tutorials as they are getting old and that was before I was doing them in a professional way. I need to go back a redo a bunch of them as they are now outdated or not as professional as my new ones.

    Guru Video Channel   | Lost Oasis Games | FRYING BACON STUDIOS  

  • jigglybeanjigglybean Member Posts: 1,584

    I will look at this again today because everything is set up as explained but the API key for GP is still invalid. But I think we need to set up an additional API key on Amazon to allow access for Google play.

    Amazon now assigns all games its own MD5 and SHA, neither of which are unique. Time to dig in and get this sucker working

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