MACH-X home Google Play

Field report 008 · · v1.9.1 · Sinik

The road to Google Play

Seven languages, cloud save, accessibility, a store listing and a scripted upload. Where Mach-X stands in closed testing.

Bombing a train on a rail line through farmland

Mach-X is in closed testing on Google Play. That is where it is right now, and I would rather say so plainly than dress it up.

The store side takes more work than I expected. In the weeks before I wrote the full store listing, picked the Arcade category and thought about keywords. I will not stuff the text with search terms, because Google's rules forbid it and players can tell. The name says what the game is: a roguelite air shooter. Everything else is in the description, with numbers counted from the game.

Google's rules for a new developer account matter too. As I understand them, a personal account needs a closed test with a minimum number of testers who stay opted in for 14 days before you can apply for production. I read the current number on the Play Console dashboard and treat it as the truth. So there is no public release date yet. I will post one when I have it.

Release 1.9.0, on 31 October, was about making the game usable by more people:

  • Seven languages: English, Dutch, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German and Italian
  • Cloud save with Google Play Games. When two saves differ, you pick which one to keep, and the replaced save is kept for 30 days
  • A redesigned Settings screen
  • Colourblind mode, HUD size from 85 to 130 percent, left-handed controls and a larger text cap
  • Numbers in one format everywhere, and long words that break cleanly on small phones

Translation exposed a lot of layout bugs. Dutch and German words are long. I added a check that fails a screen if it shows a raw text key.

Release 1.9.1, on 1 November, fixed a button that said "Sign-in cancelled" when you pressed it. The Play Games button now opens the real Google sign-in. It also added the co-op fixes from the last post.

I now upload builds to the testing track with a script, which dry-runs by default and only commits after I say yes. Fewer clicks, fewer mistakes.

What is next:

  • A trailer, once I have a capture I am happy with
  • More tester feedback, which I read myself at sinikgamedev@gmail.com
  • Balancing, bug fixes and the long list of small things
  • A production release when Google and the game are both ready

If you want to help, join the closed test. If you cannot, the dev diary will keep going.