# Release notes

## 7 April 2025

### Config

#### Changes

- Updated requirements for `marketingAssets.screenshots` that all screenshots should be high resolution assets.

## 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"](https://developers.google.com/gamesnacks/developer/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](https://developers.google.com/gamesnacks/developer/sdk/game): `firstFrameReady`.
- Added new pause controls to [Game interface](https://developers.google.com/gamesnacks/developer/sdk/game): `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](https://developers.google.com/gamesnacks/developer/sdk/ad) 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](https://developers.google.com/gamesnacks/developer/sdk/storage).

## 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]
> **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](https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/13423011?ref_topic=13383550&sjid=14686389359368827281-EU#) 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](https://developers.google.com/gamesnacks/developer/config).

  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](https://developers.google.com/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](https://developers.google.com/gamesnacks/developer/storage) 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.