Release notes

16 May 2024

Config

Changes

• Added new fields allowOfflineUse and supportsLowEndDevices.

Removals

• Removed monetization_settings field and all monetization related fields:

  • isChildDirected
  • hasRewardedAds
  • hasInterstitialAds

  NOTE: The child directed status is instead collected in the terms and conditions of the Developer Console and applies to all the uploaded versions.

14 May 2024

Config

Changes

• Documentation:
  • Added default values for optional fields.
  • Grouped fields into "Descriptive & marketing information" and "Game configuration & capabilities".

3 May 2024

Config

Changes

• Relaxed requirements for image sizes in marketingAssets:
  • horizontalBanners:
    • 1920x1080px is still required.
    • 480x270px and 240x135px are now optional.
    • Other sizes are no longer supported.
  • verticalBanners:
    • 1080x1920px is still required.
    • 270x480px and 135x240px are now optional.
    • Other sizes are no longer supported.
  • gameIcons:
    • 512x512px is still required.
    • 256x256px and 128x128px are now optional.
    • Other sizes are no longer supported.
  • If the optional sizes aren't provided GameSnacks will generate them from the larger sizes.

29 April 2024

Config

Changes

• Documentation: reformatted to match the SDK documentation format introduced on 5 February 2024. Expanded some descriptions and added more examples.

24 April 2024

Config

Changes

• Removed "Casual" from the list of accepted values for genres.

26 March 2024

Config

Changes

• Reduced maximum length of name to 25 characters to better match the amount of space in UIs.

5 February 2024

Requirements

Changes

• "Design guidelines" has been renamed to "Requirements". It has been rewritten and expanded to be both clearer and more comprehensive.

Config

Changes

• Added requirement that name is at most 50 characters.
• Added requirement that description is at most 150 characters.

SDK

New features

• Added new lifecycle event to Game interface: firstFrameReady.
• Added new pause controls to Game interface: onPause and onResume.

Changes

• Added requirements to methods and APIs as part of the updated version of Requirements.
• Documentation: reformatted documentation to be clearer and easier to navigate; updated descriptions and examples throughout.

15 January 2024

All

Changes

• Documentation:
  • Improved navigation to make it easier to get to any content in fewer clicks.
  • Simplified and standardised URL structure, with redirects from old URLs.
  • Minor content and formatting improvements.

2 August 2023

SDK

New features

• Added new methods to the Storage API: removeItem and clear.

26 July 2023

SDK

Changes

• Documentation: expanded Ad API with more description and examples.

14 July 2023

Config

Changes

• Documentation: added an example game.json file.

29 June 2023

Config

Fixes

• Documentation: fix the types of some fields:
  • genres: "enum" -> "List of string"
  • orientation: "enum" -> "string"
  • developer.logo, publisher.logo, marketingAssets.gameIcons: "Image" -> "List of Image"
• Documentation: remove gameIcons which was mistakenly left after adding marketingAssets.gameIcons.

23 June 2023

Config

Changes

• aboutUrl and privacyPolicyUrl are no longer required.

Removals

• Removed shortName.

11 May 2023

SDK

New features

• Added storage API.

9 May 2023

Requirements

Changes

• Added "File structure" requirements.

Changes

• Updated "Visual asset requirements".

Config

Changes

• Added field requirements.

28 April 2023

GameSnacks Hosting and Developer console early access.

This early access release is for developers working directly with GameSnacks on work-for-hire GameSnacks Originals, and directly licensed games.

Going forward the Developer console is the preferred way to share new games and updates to existing games with GameSnacks. You can now upload your games to GameSnacks directly–without having to send source code archives to your partner managers. In this first version feedback around testing and approvals will continue to be provided directly to you by email. We will integrate these flows into the Developer console UI in a future release.

Note: only upload a new game once you have signed its corresponding distribution agreement. We won't be able to approve or serve new licensed games until all relevant agreements have been finalised.

Console

New features

• GameSnacks Developer console: a new easy-to-use tool where you can upload new games and updates to existing games directly to GameSnacks' servers. This release includes a previewing capability for games once they've been uploaded. Developers can now publish a new release of a game directly from the UI. If it passes all of GameSnacks' internal testing and content checks it will go live on the GameSnacks distribution network. See About the GameSnacks Developer console for more information.

Known issues

• The Developer console early access release doesn't yet incorporate approvals feedback directly into the UI. Use the console to upload, test and publish your games. GameSnacks partner managers will continue to be in touch with you by email to provide feedback and update you on the approval status of your games.

• Avoid uploading multiple releases of the same game in quick succession–we have limited approvals and testing bandwidth. Also if you have multiple releases in flight at once it can be difficult to understand which version is live until all releases have been processed.

Hosting

New features

• GameSnacks Hosting: we've launched a new production hosting capability that leverages Google's high performance global CDN. It supports versioned upload, structured testing and approvals flows, and flexible monetization on both web and within apps.

Config

New features

• All games now require a game.json config file.

  This file provides a structured manifest of the contents of the game and its resources. This additional metadata allows the game to be surfaced and discovered in the GameSnacks catalog and helps it to be more effectively crawled and discovered on search engines. Refer to the GameSnacks Developer SDK for more information.

SDK

We're releasing the next version of the Developer SDK which all games on GameSnacks must integrate so that they can be distributed and monetized.

New features

• A new Storage interface for persisting game and save data.

Changes

• The API has been updated and restructured into multiple interfaces.

• Asset requirements have changed: there are new minimum sizes for icons and banners and screenshots are now required. These are listed in the game.json documentation.

Removals

• localStorage is no longer supported. Games should be updated to use the new Storage interface instead.

• Access to external URLs is no longer allowed and will be blocked in a future release.