Ape Apps

So the Ape Apps Launcher has again been updated, this time to v1.6.5. This release fixes some bugs and also adds some new features.

Firstly, the previous release of Ape Apps Launcher has a bug related to auto-updating on Windows. If you are using Windows and you download the update, only to have the app restart to the same version you were on before, then you are impacted by the bug. To fix it, you can either re-download the app from the Ape Market, or you can navigate to the following directory on your PC:

C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME HERE\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps

and delete the folder named updatetmp. After that, the in-app auto-update will work again as intended, and this issue will no longer be present in future releases of the Launcher. Linux and macOS are not impacted by this bug.

This release also fixes a couple of bugs related to desktop launcher icons on Linux systems.

The launcher has been upgraded to a new base-release of the Electron framework, which I hope will help with come of the CPU issues @Ansom mentioned in a prior thread.

Finally, in-launcher Live Stream viewing has been added. There is a new video camera icon at the top of the launcher, and clicking on it will show all users who are currently live-streaming their gameplay.


As of now, game clients require a patch before they will show up in the Currently Streaming list, so no games will appear until the next cross-platform updates of the 4 games that currently support the Live Streaming feature (My Colony, Antiquitas, Gone Rogue, and Hell and Back). But the viewing functionality is now there in the launcher, and more exciting live-streaming related features will be coming across the entire Ape Apps ecosystem in the coming weeks.

Also over the coming weeks, and this will be important information for some people, I am going to discontinue packaging stand-alone desktop applications for distribution through the Ape Market, and instead be directing users to use either the Ape Apps Launcher or the Progressive Web Apps available on Ape Web Apps. At this point, both the Launcher and the PWA's are becoming mature to the point where either now allows you to install and launch an app as a stand-alone window straight from the OS without having to open the Launcher or navigate to Ape Web Apps first. Standalone desktop apps are also available for most apps on the Windows Store, and some are on Steam, for those who do not like the Launcher or the PWA's.

The reason for the change is because I am running out of storage space on my server to continue packaging and hosting stand alone desktop downloads for everything, and it also takes a lot of time and bandwidth to maintain. With the Launcher and the PWA's, I am still able to serve an extremely wide range of users with a lot less time and effort. In addition, the Launcher and PWA apps allow me to make across the board updates to every application in my library and push them out immediately to users, rather than having to go back and make a ton of updates to individual packaged applications.

There might be concern for those who wish to archive certain versions of games for posterity or so that they can install them in the future without an internet connection (or so they can still install the games after I get hit by a bus or something). I am working on a solution for those scenarios, where the Ape Apps Launcher will give you the option to extract an archive of any of my apps. You will then be able to double-click on that archive and the Launcher will open and run that game independently of the latest version on the market. For example, you could archive the current version of My Colony (1.12.0 I believe) to a file called something like my-colony-1-2-0.aal (theoretical extension), and you would then be able to double click on that file at any point in the future to launch that version of My Colony, even if the current version on the launcher is 1.50.0. Even if my server is long gone and dead, as long as you still have the archive file and the Ape Apps Launcher download, you would be able to run the application without issue.

So anyway, I reccomend that users of various stand-alone Ape Apps desktop apps to migrate over to either the Ape Apps Launcher or the Ape Web App edition (all of which can be installed to your system as a PWA). Doing so will ensure that you continue to receive fast automatic updates. Keep in mind that this change applies to apps downloaded through the Ape Market. Windows Store and Steam apps will continue to be updated as usual.

The Ape Apps Launcher has just been updated to v3.11.0 and gains a handful of important fixes for specific apps, PWA shortcut support, and support for the new web+apelauncher:// uri scheme.


The main change for this update is support for the new web+apelauncher:// uri scheme, which works in a similar manner to the Steam browser protocol (if you have the Steam app installed on your computer). Right now the protocol handler only works on the PWA version of the Launcher (and may require you to uninstall/reinstall the pwa before it activates), but it will soon come to the native Desktop clients as well. I am also considering releasing an Android client for the launcher, and it would also support the protocol launch.

The purpose of the launch protocol is to be able to launch or activate the Ape Apps Launcher with specific startup instructions, to open the launcher from other apps/websites, pass launch data or instructions into the launcher, etc. It will likely be expanded in the future as use-cases arise, but here are the currently supported launch endpoints:
So those are the protocol options as of now. As you might be able to tell (particularly evidenced by the web+apelauncher://friends endpoint), one of the purposes of this is for developer programmatic control of the launcher. Since the launcher is a PWA at it's core, it needs to be able to accept incoming data the "web way," and since protocol handling is widely supported on all platforms, the same protocol can be implemented for desktop and mobile platforms as well.

If you are developing any sort of application and would like to see a way to pass data/instructions/commands into the Ape Apps Launcher, please feel free to let me know and I can expand the protocol launching to fit many scenarios.

One cool thing that uri protocol launching could allow, which I have not yet implemented, would be the ability to launch Steam games from the Ape Apps Launcher. For example, if you have Steam installed, you can launch My Colony by clicking on a steam URL like this steam://launch/964130. So the Launcher could be made so that, if there is a Steam version of an Ape App available, it can launch that instead of it's own version, if the user wanted it to do so (for Steam stats perhaps). The user could also be given the ability to add any game from their Steam library to the Ape Apps Launcher, if they wanted to do such a thing.

There are actually a lot of different applications that can be launched using different URI protocols, so if you know of any that you think could be integrated into the Ape Apps Launcher for a useful reason, feel free to let me know!

https://launcher.ape-apps.com

#apeappslauncher

This is the new support forum section dedicated to the Ape Apps Launcher, a new desktop application for managing and launching all Ape Apps desktop applications.

The Ape Apps Launcher is available for free on the Ape Market for Windows (7/8/10 32 or 64 bit), macOS, and Linux. You can find the download page here:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

What is the Ape Apps Launcher?

The Ape Apps Launcher serves several purposes. First, it makes it easier to download and install all Ape Apps desktop applications. Everything is contained and can be launched from a single application, and there is only one main program to download from the Ape Market website. After the initial download, everything is automatically managed and updated from the Launcher, so basically once you download the Ape Apps Launcher, it should be the last manual download from the Ape Market that you need to make.

The Ape Apps Launcher also keeps all Ape Apps desktop programs up to date on the latest "core" code base. More popular stand-alone desktop applications like My Colony and Antiquitas are usually manually updated fairly often, but this is often not the case for the less popular programs. Using the Ape Apps Launcher shares the core code base between all apps, keeping everything automatically up to date.

Since resources are shared between apps, individual game download sizes are greatly reduced. As an example, My Colony downloaded from the Ape Market by itself clocks in at about 180mb. Through the Ape Launcher, the download is only 10mb. That is a massive reduction, and makes updating faster for the user and less bandwidth intensive for the Ape Apps server.

Finally, from my perspective, the Ape Apps Launcher is infinitely easier to maintain and support. Packaging and distributing desktop applications for all of my apps and games is a time intensive process. Because of this, I often don't keep the Desktop versions of my games up to date with the Web and Mobile versions, especially on titles with lower usage. The Ape Apps Launcher solves this by automatically packaging and installing each app based on the latest stable Web code (not in-development code). Your desktop apps will always be up to date, even if an individual package has not been distributed on the Ape Market.

The Ape Apps Launcher is still new, and more features will be added along the way. Please use this new forum section for questions and feedback, and to give suggestions on how the launcher can be expanded and improved. Ideally, I would like the launcher to replace all of the stand-alone Desktop applications, as they really do take quite a bit of time to prepare, package, and distribute. Time which can be better served working on the actual games themselves! But that will all depend on user feedback and adoption. I'm not going to force people to use something they do not like, so give it a try and let me know how I can make it better and what direction the development should take!

Ape Apps Launcher v1.6.3 is now available for all platforms and includes continued improvements to the platform. This thread takes a look at some of the new features added to a launcher, and a glimpse at what's to come.

Firstly, the context menu for your installed apps has been revamped. Now when you right-click on one of your installed apps, you have new options available, including a shortcut to all of your apps saved data. On Windows, you can add a launcher shortcut to the desktop or start menu, and on Linux you can now create application launchers for your individual apps which should work in Gnome, KDE, XFCE, and probably others.


New settings have also been added to the Windows and Linux clients to better tie the launcher in with your operating system. You might remember a few months ago that changes were made to the Launcher and other Ape Apps desktop applications that removed the self-installer package which automatically created desktop and start menu links for the launcher. Now if you go into settings, you can manually recreate those links.


Windows users also have the option to automatically start the Ape Apps Launcher in minimized-to-tray mode when booting their PC.

Deleting an app from the launcher now gives you an additional option to clean up all app saved data from your PC.

Other changes are going to be coming to the Launcher in the months ahead, leading up to the important release of My Colony 2. When you are logged in to your Ape Apps Account, instead of being taken to the all-available apps listing screen, there will be a new personalized home screen giving you information about your entire Ape Apps account and let you see what games your friends are currently playing, with one-click join game access on supported games (such as the upcoming My Colony 2, and current multiplayer games like Epic Advanture, Colony Wars, and Death 3d).

Another feature that will be making it's way to the Launcher is the ability to view live streams. Several Ape Apps games include streaming capabilities, such as My Colony, Antiquitas, Gone Rogue, and Hell and Back, but it is difficult to know who is streaming and when. A new streaming section will be added to the Launcher showing all players who are currently live-streaming their gameplay (unless they opt out of public listing). Players will also have the option to customize their streaming channel and even add a PayPal or Bitcoin address so that people can "tip" their stream (Ape Apps will not be a "middle man" or take a cut from any tips, it will be direct from user to user).

The Launcher is also getting a new TV mode with gamepad support. Many Ape Apps games already support gamepad, but the launcher itself does not. This mode is intended for users who have PC's hooked up to their TV, so that they can easily play games like My Colony (and MC2) on the big screen. Along with the new Launcher support for Linux on ARM, this can also be used with Raspberry Pi devices. I am also looking at adding a way to link local video folders to the launcher so that you can easily view and play your personal movie collection while in TV mode. This is a feature that I personally want, which is the main reason for it's development... 🙂

Anyway, those are the plans for now. Users for the Ape Apps Launcher have probably noticed an increase in update frequency over the last few weeks, and this is probably going to continue as the Launcher continues to improve and serve as the best way to enjoy Ape Apps software on your desktop. You can find download links for Windows, Mac, and Linux below:

https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

#apeappslauncher

I have just released a new feature update to the Ape Apps Launcher which should now be available for download. This release brings in a few new features which will be further fleshed out in the months ahead. Let's take a look.

The first thing you will notice is that the positioning and lineup of the icons at the top-right of the window have changed a bit. The current layout looks like this:

From left to right, the first button brings you back to the normal "all apps" view that the launcher normally starts out in. The next button brings you to the settings screen. The third button opens up the new integrated Ape Chat window, the fourth button brings you to the new revamped inbox. To the right of that you will see the achievements you have unlocked on your Ape Apps account. To the right of that, you will see your default Token (from the My Tokens app, if you have set one), and finally your signed-in username.

As alluded to before, the Ape Chat service is now built right in to the launcher, and opens in it's own window. Opening chat this way will let you connect to all the channels you have participated in, including your commonwealth channels for My Colony. If the chat window is open but minimized, you will receive system notifications when you get new private messages or when a new message is posted in one of your connected chat channels. This is a handy way to know when somebody in your My Colony commonwealth is asking for something in chat, without even having the game loaded. A lot more features are going to be coming to Ape Chat in the coming months, so stay tuned for more on that!

The next new feature is the revamped mail icon. Before, I just showed you a little popup with all of the Conversations that you were a part of on the Ape Apps website (this website). Now it no longer shows Conversations, but the newer Inbox messages. It also shows private messages you have got in games that use the messaging feature, such as My Colony. The messages are also opened right from within the app now. Right now you can only read the messages, but I plan on adding full mailbox controls, including replies, deleting, composing, and implementing the "Sent Messages" folder.

The next new feature pertains only to Windows and Linux users. Now when you click on the window X button to close the launcher, it will minimize to the system tray instead of quitting completely.

You can still quit the launcher completely by simply right-clicking on the tray icon and selecting Exit. This is for people who keep the app open at all times for the auto-updating features, but don't like to have the launcher icon open in there taskbar the whole time.

On top of these changes, this update rolls up a whole host of bugs that had been identified since the last release and adds a new option to the Settings screen to turn off chat notifications.

Over the next several months, more improvements will be coming to the launcher. The inbox and mail management will be fully implemented. Clicking on the achievements will bring up a list of all of the games you have played, their high scores, and other information. I might have a way to close the chat window to the system tray as well. Also, right now when you click on your username you just get a sign out option. This will be changing to open up a new account management page similar to the options you get at accounts.ape-apps.com, so you can manager your entire Ape Apps account right from within the launcher instead of having to go to a separate website.

Finally, there is another change coming not just to the launcher, but to my apps on all platforms. With the coming full release of Colony Wars and other multiplayer games I am currently working on such as Epic Adventure and Death 3D (as well as Multiplayer Regions in My Colony), I think it is time to get Friends Lists added to the Ape Apps Account system so that you can easily see when other people are playing the games that you have. This will be coming to Ape Apps across the board, but will be fully baked into the launcher as well.

So anyway, that is it for today's Ape Apps Launcher update. I really hadn't made a ton of changes to it lately beyond simple bug fixes, so I thought I would post an update today on what is new, and what is coming down the pipe. Enjoy, and if you don't have the launcher yet, get it from the Ape Market here:

https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

A couple of weeks ago, I announced that I was considering discontinuing the Ape Apps Launcher and most of my native desktop applications in favor of directing users towards the Progressive Web App (PWA) edition of my apps and games.

The Ape Apps Launcher was first released in early 2018 using Electron, and was initially created because there were a lot of capabilities required by my apps that I was just not able to deliver through the web browser. In the last 3 1/2 years though, a lot has changed. Both Microsoft and Google have gone all-in on PWA's, and between the two of them, they make PWA's installable, offline capable, with almost the entire native all feature set on nearly every platform. Because of this, it no longer makes sense to put in all of the hours and effort required to maintain the Ape Apps Launcher and the native Desktop host platform, when their entire purpose is now integrated natively into every major platform.

That said, the Launcher does offer a few things not found on my website, and also provides a nice place to access everything Ape Apps from one single desktop application. I do recognize how handy it can be for some people, so going forward I plan to "sort of" keep the launcher going, but with a bit of a twist.

The Ape Apps Launcher itself is going to become a Progressive Web App, which you will be able to install on any device, even mobile. I will still maintain the native download edition of the application, but it will basically be a wrapper for the PWA. This will allow me to continue providing the capabilities of the launcher, but without having to maintain the separate Web App Core codebase for Electron. It also means I will be able to make updates to the Launcher itself without having to upload new binaries whenever I want to publish a change.

Similar to the new PWA launcher, I will also be releasing another PWA called Ape Web Apps TV Mode, which is sort of like the launcher except built with a 10 foot interface and can be controlled entirely using a gamepad. This is designed for computers connected to a TV (like home theater PC's) and gives a console-like interface and access to all of your Ape Apps games and applications. You will even be able to use the Ape Web Apps TV Mode launcher on gaming devices like the Xbox One/Series S/X, which will be getting the new Chromium based Edge soon, along with full PWA capabilities, or on Android TV devices. Below is an early-build screenshot of the TV Mode launcher.


You can think of the TV mode launcher as basically an Ape Apps gaming console that runs as an app within existing devices/consoles, and should give you access to the entire Ape Apps library on any television (you can also just use it on a PC or Phone if you have a bluetooth gamepad connected and prefer the interface).

So that it was is in store for the Launcher. There will not be any more work going in to the current Electron build of the application, as I move all important code directly to my server. If you are currently using the Ape Apps Launcher, it will automatically be upgraded to the new PWA-hosted edition once it is ready, so there is nothing you need to do. And I will make a separate post/announcement when the TV launcher is complete and ready for use.

#apeappslauncher

So a couple of days ago the state of the Ape Apps website was briefly being discussed, and I mentioned the idea of merging the forum section of the website into Ape Chat and just having all discussions take place in there. I have since given it a little thought, and I believe I have come up with the solution that I am ultimately going to implement, and that is what I want to discuss here.

Some time (probably) this year, I am going to be retiring the forums here on ape-apps.com, the official Discord server and even Ape Chat, and I will be sort of merging all three of them into a new/resurrected Discussions app.

Since most people here have joined during the My Colony "era" of Ape Apps, many may not remember the "Discussions" era, but it was my original app business success story, basically the thing that let me quit my "real" job and go full time with app development. I am going to give a quick history here of the Discussions app, and then talk about why that is the direction I am going to be going in and what it's going to look like.

Back in 2010, one of my very first apps was called Super Bored, which was an extremely basic communications app where people could post text and eventually pictures onto a single threaded chat board. The app started to gain a following, so I decided to copy/past the code and release another simple forum app called World of Warcraft Discussion. That one became even more popular, so I followed it up with Star Craft Discussion, Halo Discussion, Call of Duty Discussion, Body Building Discussion, and several others. The next thing I knew, all of these "Discussion" apps were getting a pretty active following, but it was sort of a pain to maintain all of them, so since they were all running on the same server anyway, I decided to merge them all into one giant forum app that was simply called Discussions.

Discussions was pretty active, up until Google removed it from the Play store (back then it was still called the Android Market) due to copyright complaints from Activision over the Call of Duty section and CoD images being visible in some of the screenshots. I tried to appeal, but not only was I rejected, they actually followed up by nuking my entire developer account because of the other video game themed Discussion apps I had (Halo, WoW, etc).

Anyway, the community lived on for a while, but with out the apps being on the market place anymore, it slowly faded away. There is still a remnant of it on a Discord channel, and part of it slit off into the RP Forums forum community. But eventually my interests moved on to making games and business applications and I never really put a serious effort into bringing back Discussions. There is still a remnant of Discussions that you can see as the first category here in the forums section of the website.

So fast forward to now, where I have Ape Chat, which is now embedded into both of the My Colony games. I have found it to be extremely handy to be able to communicate with the game players without having to actually have the game running, and my plan was to start implementing Ape Chat into most of my applications. But then we run into the situation where Ape Apps now has the chat, the forums, and also now the Discord channel for discussions. To my thinking, why do we need to have three different places, when everything could just be together in the same app?

So this is my plan for the new Discussions app, a merging of the Ape Chat, Forums, and Discord server into one unified place. Now I am not going to be using the old Discussions code or anything, and really beyond the name of the app, it's not going to have much to do with the old Discussions. But in my opinion, the name "Ape Chat" does not make sense for an app that allows more than chat. And plus I already own several domains related to Discussions that have been sitting collecting dust in my account for years now.

So what will the new Discussions be like?

I have a lot of plans, but here is what I am thinking right now. When I originally created Ape Chat, I designed it to be like an IRC server, and a lot of its limitations come from that initial design decision. It works pretty well for just plain chat, but when you want to start adding advanced stuff, it shows its limitations.

First of all, as compared to Ape Chat, the front end and the server are going to be completely disconnected, and in fact, the new Discussions client will allow people to spin up their own servers on their own hardware and run their own private Discussions community with their own rules and setup. Of course, the app will come pre-loaded with the official Ape Apps server.

Within each server there can be any number of channels. I don't know if channel is a good word for it or not, we can come up with something else, but they will also be able to be grouped by topic. So for example, there can now be a My Colony group, with several channels related to My Colony.

There will be multiple types of channels as well. The regular chat channel, which is how Ape Chat is now. There will be threaded channels for a more forum-like setup. There will be voice channels and video chat channels.

There will also be a private messaging system that will be replacing both the "Mail" and "Conversations" features here on ape-apps.com. Private messaging will be one-on-one between two users, or users will be able to create their own private channels like they can now in Ape Chat and do whatever they want. For one-on-one private messaging channels, I plan to support both voice and video, as well as direct P2P file transfers.

What will happen to the forums here?

They will be archived for a while and eventually taken down. The code behind the forums is a mess that has been layered upon more mess over the years, and I will be glad to be done with it. Plus I am tired of fighting constant spam. Users will be encouraged to migrate to the new Discussions platform.

The rest of the site is going to be redone from scratch, and will be more of a static information and marketing site for my stuff, but I will still maintain "What's New" type posts and updates, as well as an RSS feed that people can subscribe to. Actually, the new Discussions app will probably read that RSS feed as well.

What will happen to the Discord server?

It will ultimately be shut down once the new service is ready. I don't really think it will be needed anymore, and plus I really don't like Discord. You may look at the features from the new Discussions and ask "why not just use Discord instead?" The reason is that I cannot embed Discord into my apps, and not only will I be able to do that with Discussions, I will be able to do it in a completely custom way that lets the service have app specific features.

What will happen to Ape Chat?

Discussions is basically the next version of Ape Chat with a re-branding. It will simply redirect to the new domain, and all of the in-game implementations of Ape Chat will be migrated over to Discussions.

Conclusion

This is probably going to happen some time this summer. If you have suggestions on what the new service can look like, you can feel free to leave them here. I think it's going to be a lot better than the current Ape Chat, and it will be nice to only have to go to one place for communications!

Also fun fact, Discussions has an id of 1 on the Ape Market internal database, it's the first app I ever added to the Ape Market (actually, the whole reason I created the Ape Market was to host Discussions after Google took it down).

I mentioned before that changes were on the way for the Ape Apps Launcher, and today the online beta is available so that you can check out what those changes are.

Ape Apps Launcher v2.0.0 is going to be released for both Desktop (as it is today) and as an installable Progressive Web App. Behind the scenes though, both editions of the Launcher are going to be based on the Progressive Web App code, which means that I will be able to make updates to the Launcher without having to rebuild and upload binaries for the actual Desktop host applications.

To check out the beta and keep up on the progress, head here:

https://www.apewebapps.com/launcher.html

The Launcher is not yet installable as a PWA, but it will be soon. This URL will be the permanent home of the Ape Apps Launcher going forward.

In addition to the standard Launcher, I am developing another launcher called Ape Web Apps TV Mode. This is designed to be used with a gamepad and on devices that are connected to a television, such as an entertainment P, an Android TV/Fire TV device or through a console web browser. Ape Web Apps TV Mode is still a ways off, but it will give you quick and easy to control access to every Ape Apps that offers full gamepad support. It is sort of like the Ape Apps Launcher version of Steam Big Picture mode. You can see the early development work here, just make sure you have a gamepad set up.

https://www.apewebapps.com/tv.html

That is all for today. I am a bit stalled on My Colony 2 updates until I can get the new version of the Launcher finished, because there is some new code coming to the next My Colony 2 release that will break the current version of the Ape Apps Launcher, so I need to get the new one done ASAP. So I hope to get the native desktop edition of the new launcher done next week some time.

Until then, enjoy!

#apeappslauncher

As mentioned before in this thread, double-clicking on the Ape Apps Launcher file in the downloaded package will sometimes result in the following error on certain Linux distributions:


If you are interested in the technical reasons this is happening, you can look here, but this thread will give you instructions on how to easily get the Launcher up and running on Ubuntu or any other distribution.

First, right-click on the 'Ape Apps Launcher' file and select Properties. On the Permissions tab, select 'Allow executing file as program.'


Next, open a terminal window at the location of your Ape Apps launcher file, and launch it the standard way using the following command:

./'Ape Apps Launcher'

Finally, to make things easier in the future, once the launcher is open, click on the Settings icon, and then click on the 'Create Entry' button under the Launcher Shortcut section.


This will add an Ape Apps Launcher icon to your activities screen/programs menu etc (depending on desktop environment used). You can then pin it to your dock of choice if you like or launch it just like any other application on your system. From this point on, the launcher will be ready to go and will auto-update itself when needed, so you never have to worry about the above steps again (until you reinstall your system, of course).

I realize it's a bit of a pain, but I think us Linux users are used to that, and it's really just a one-time thing.

Anyway, I hope this information is helpful, and if you don't have the launcher on your Linux system yet, you can get it from the link below. It is available for both x64 and ARM processors (such as Raspberry Pi devices):

https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

#apeappslauncher

This post is about My Colony downloaded from the Windows Store. It does not impact the desktop Native Client downloaded from the Ape Market.

This spring when Microsoft releases the "Redstone 4" update to Windows 10, My Colony will switch from being a completely packaged 'Universal Windows' app to a 'Hosted Web App,' or Progressive Web App. Most end users should notice very little difference, other than the slide-out menu and popup dialogs looking a bit different than before.

This change reduces the Windows 10 app package from over 200mb to about 1.5mb. It also speeds up development time, as repackaging the app for Windows 10 will no longer have to be done for every release, and end users will receive the latest updates without even having to download an app update.

Most users of the Windows 10 app probably do not even realize that the app had been a Hosted Web App from its first release all the way up to v0.40.0 which was released just a few months ago (in August). For those who do not know, a Hosted Web App is essentially just a web browser window linked to the Web version of My Colony. What makes it different than just using the web browser is that Hosted Web Apps also have access to native Windows API's, such as the ability to save games to the local file-system, making them a bit more capable than just playing the game through a normal browser. The Hosted Web App container also theoretically has less overhead than a full web browser.

The reason I switched away from using the Hosted Web App model last fall was because I wanted the Windows client to be more stable than the Web client during updates. As many players on the Web know, things can get messed up during the few days that an update is taking place. In addition, the Hosted Web App would not always work properly when the user did not have a good internet connection.

So why switch back? The next major release of Windows (Redstone 4) brings support for Service Workers, one of the key components of Progressive Web Apps. Service Workers, among other things, allow a website to cache data in a way that makes them 100% usable whether there is an internet connection or not, just like an app downloaded from the store. Chrome already supports Service Workers which are active on the Web version of My Colony (which is why Web users need to do a 'Hard Reload' any time changes are made during development cycles). Also, I have recently made changes to Ape Web Apps which will allow me to keep the Hosted Windows version of the app back on the current stable version until the in-development update is ready for release.

Finally, a major factor in the decision comes down to the future of the "Universal Windows Platform" (UWP) itself. Truthfully, not too many people download My Colony from the Windows Store. Many organizations have been ditching their Windows Store apps recently, and it is easy to see why. Now that Microsoft has totally abandoned the Windows Phone, the UWP platform really doesn't make much sense any longer, particularly considering how gimped the UWP API is compared to traditional Windows Desktop applications. The difference in capabilities between a UWP app and a Web App are minor, and a game like My Colony really does not benefit much from being packaged as a full UWP app anyway. Given this and just the time and effort it takes to package, compile, and submit a new UWP release of My Colony every week, it just makes more sense to convert this game back to a Hosted Web App like it was before.

I actually think that Progressive Web Apps are going to be the future for a lot of things anyway. I am also looking into turning the iPhone version of My Colony into a Hosted Web App at some point, as the game's usage on iPhone is also fairly low. Android will probably not be switched over though, since it accounts for about 90% of My Colony players and I don't want to nuke the server. The Native Client desktop versions will also not be converted at any time. I feel like those are the versions that will still be around in 20 years when all of the app stores and mobile platforms are history.

Now maybe someday when My Colony is a mature game and I am not making such frequent updates, I will convert it back to a full packaged UWP app. But right now when I am updating the game every week, it just takes a lot of time to be constantly updating the game on every platform.

Another update to the Ape Apps Launcher today. This release fixes several app-related issues, adds support for volume license activation, and makes some significant changes to the toolbar interface (on apps that use a toolbar).

Since the Launcher is starting to gain in users, I plan on adding more features to it going forward. Soon I will be adding the ability to handle your Ape Apps Conversations from right within the launcher, as well as access the Ape Apps Chatroom. Also, you will be able to read and post to the Ape Apps Launcher support forum from right within the app. These API's all need to be made for the upcoming rewrite of the RP Forums app, so I figured I would use the Launcher to test out their implementation 🙂

That's all for this update, enjoy! If you don't have the launcher yet, you can find it here:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

Today I have released a little different type of app than what I normal make - aaZDoom Launcher, the Ape Apps Launcher for ZDoom!


So what is this? Well a couple of months ago my son got into playing old-school Doom, and he has been playing it using GZDoom on his old Macbook Air. Often he will want to play multiplayer with me, but setting up a LAN game for him is sort of a pain since you have to set everything up using the terminal. There are launchers out there that do this automatically, but most of them are for Windows.

I remembered when I was in high school, my friends and I would set up multiplayer games (over dial up modem) using the Doom 95 launcher for Windows 95, and it was very easy to set up and use. So I looked around at launchers available, trying to find something similar and hopefully cross-platform (since he is on a Mac and I am on Windows). I really didn't find anything I like so, being a developer, I decided to just make my own. So today I present to you the aaZDoom Launcher!


The aaZDoom Launcher is modeled pretty much exactly after Doom 95, except it works with ZDoom ports (GZDoom, QZDoom, ZDoom), and it is cross platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux). To get started, all you need to do is specify the location of your ZDoom executable, the location of a folder containing your main game wad files (IWADs), and optionally, a folder containing all of your custom wad files (PWADs). Makes starting a ZDoom session nice and simple.

Since the main purpose of this project was to make playing multiplayer with my son a bit easier, I have baked in a little feature that helps with this. If you are on a local area network (WiFi or Wired LAN) and you start a multiplayer session, other aaZDoom Launcher clients will be able to automatically find your game while it is in the "waiting for players to connect" phase, so you do not have to type in any IP addresses or computer names in order to join a network game. The "server" will also transmit information about the game to the clients, such as which IWAD and PWADs are being used, so you can see before joining if you have the necessary files on your computer.

It occurs to me that it would be trivial to expand the multiplayer game setup to include online players as well, since I already own a bunch of server infrastructure that could be used for signaling, but as long as it's only my kid and I using it, I don't see the need to really implement that functionality. I thought I would make the launcher public though and see if there is any interest in this type of project before deciding if I want to spend any time adding more features to this.

So anyway, if you like playing Doom and use one of the ZDoom ports, feel free to give this a try. It works on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and you can download it for free from the Ape Market at the following URL:

https://market.ape-apps.com/aazdoom-launcher.html

If you find any bugs or have any issues or suggestions, you can let me know here. I really only spent a few hours making this, so I'm sure I overlooked something. It works good for my personal use though, but if other people are interested in using it as well, I can easily add more goodies. Just let me know. Enjoy!

The Windows Store edition of EZ Register is being migrated to a new code base to provide for faster processing, better printing and cleaner font/toolbar rendering. Because of this migration though, I can not do a typical automatic update of the application. The new version is making a fundamental change to the way application data is saved, and doing a straight upgrade would cause data loss for users, which is unacceptable.

To get around the issue, I am renaming the currently available version of EZ Register to EZ Register Old and removing it from sale, so that no new users can download it. The new package will be uploaded using the name EZ Register.

What do you need to do?

The old version of EZ Register will no longer be maintained and will receive no more updates. If you are fine with this, then you don't really have to do anything at all. If you want to download the old edition again, you can find it in your Windows Store download history as EZ Register Old.

Users are encouraged to migrate over to the new edition of the app, which you can download and install using the following link:

https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9PKN4CCN7PH3

Migrating your data to the new app

If you are moving from the old to the new version of EZ Register, you will want to migrate your data over to the new app, and there are a couple of different ways to do this. Remember not to uninstall the old edition of EZ Register until you have moved your data into the new!

Cloud-Sync Migration

If you have an Ape Apps Account, then probably the easiest migration path is to use the cloud-sync feature. When signed into the old version of the app, click on the File menu, open Ledger Settings and make sure that Cloud Sync is enabled:


Then all you need to do is sign in to the new app using your account, and your Ledger should be there. If you have multiple ledgers, you will need to enable cloud-sync for each one individually.

Backup File Migration

If you do not have an Ape Apps Account or if you are having troubles with the cloud-sync feature, then you can export and import your ledgers manually. From the File menu on the old app, select Backup Ledger and save your *.ezr file somewhere on your system where you can access it.

Then to import your data, on the new app open the File menu and select Restore Backup. Find the *.ezr file you exported in the last step and import it. Do this for each ledger you want to migrate over to the new app.

Premium Upgrade

Because the new app and the old app are separate packages, users who purchased the Premium upgrade will find that it does not automatically transfer from the old app to the new. Don't worry though, I will not make you repurchase the app a second time.

If you have an Ape Apps Account, signing in to the old app should have automatically saved your purchase history to your account, and so there is nothing you need to do. Your premium will be available in the new app. If you have already purchased Premium but do not have an Ape Apps Account, you can simply create one, sign in to the old app, and it should sync your purchase to your account. You may have to close/open the app a couple of times if it does not sync properly.

If you do not have/want an account or if the premium is not syncing, you can e-mail me. Just let me know that you are trying to migrate your EZ Register Premium key and tell me the Microsoft Account you used to purchase the app on the Windows Store and I will get everything taken care of for you. You can also send me a message here on the forums with the same information.

The title says it all, I am considering discontinuing development on the Ape Apps Launcher.

I originally created the launcher in order to fill in the missing capabilities that were not available to my apps on Ape Web Apps when run from within a browser. Since then though, the situation has changed considerably. Every app on Ape Web Apps is now fully and easily installable as a Progressive Web App (PWA) on Windows, Linux, MacOS, and even Android through either Chrome or Edge. Once installed, the apps all have native file system access for saving, and can even automatically launch by double-clicking on their associated file types (such as .vpp files) when the #file-handling-api feature is enabled in about://flags (soon to be enabled as standard). Installed PWA's also work without a live internet connection.

The only real remaining benefit on the Launcher is the system try access to friends notifications, but I do not think that by itself is enough of a reason to continue to develop the thing, and I do have an idea to replace that as well.

The bottom line is that there is a lot of work required to maintain the Ape Apps Launcher, and at the end of the day it only has about 300 active users during a given week. In addition, both Windows and macOS give out security warnings and require users to jump through extra hoops just to run the thing after downloading, since I am not paying for a signing certificate for the thing.

At the end of the day, Web Apps are becoming far more capable, and I think that the Launcher is largely obsolete at this point. My proposal is to discontinue the product, and in its place, offer a small Ape Apps browser extension for both Chrome and Edge that will help fill in the last remaining pieces, such as friends list management/notifications, account management, etc.

So anyway, I wanted to through the idea out there to make sure there wasn't going to be a public outcry over the loss of the Launcher. If everybody really loves it, then I can keep it around. But it does save me a ton of time to not have to keep the Launcher up to date, and I think installed web apps are the way of the future anyway. Basically, it's the same thing that the Launcher does anyway, and as I mentioned earlier, I think I can close the remaining functionality gap with a simple browser extension.

#apeappslauncher

This page is the one-stop guide to everything you need to know about Ape Chat. Ape Chat is a free standalone chat service from Ape Apps. It is available in your web browser, it is embedded into many Ape Apps games (such as My Colony), it is included in the Ape Apps Launcher, and is even embedded into the footer of this website. All of these applications and services are linked to the same Ape Chat server behind the scenes. The service allows for virtually unlimited free public chat rooms, private group chats, and even group voice chat. With this guide, you will learn all of the tricks and capabilities of the service. This guide will be updated as changes and improvements to the service are implemented.

Account Authentication
Ape Chat is tied to your Ape Apps Account, and if you do not have one, you will need to get one in order to log into the service. Your Ape Apps Account is the same account used for this website and for games such as My Colony. If you do not have one, you can sign up for free at https://accounts.ape-apps.com.

Channels
Ape Chat is organized by Channels. A channel is essentially it's own separate chat room. There are a few default channels already created, and you can also easily create your own. Channels fall into three categories - Public, Private, and Voice.

Global Channels
A Global chat channel is a basic channel that anybody can join. Examples include the general Ape Apps Chat, or the My Colony global chat. Anybody can create a global channel, and they are moderated by the developer ( @bastecklein ) and global moderator ( @cry8wolf9 ). With only a few exceptions (allowed by the developer only), Global channels are text only.

Private Channels
A Private channel can only be joined by invitation. Anybody may create a private channel, and when a user creates a new private channel, they are automatically assigned as a moderator for that channel. Private channel moderators may then invite other users to join the channel. Keep in mind that the developer and global moderators also have access to all private channels.

Voice Channels
A Voice channel retains all of the capabilities of a regular text channel, but also supports peer-to-peer voice communications. The voice chat runs in a decentralized mesh network, where each peer connects to each other without having to go through the server. This reduces server load, but it can also restrict the size of the voice chat, particularly on slow clients. For this reason, users are only allowed to enable voice chat on private channels that they are the moderator of.

Creating or Joining a Channel
Both creating and joining a chat channel are done in the same way, using the /join command. For instance, if you wanted to join the cows channel, you would type the following into the chat box:

/join cows

If the channel already exists, you will join the existing channel. Otherwise, the new cows channel will be automatically created. Channel names do not support spaces.

Creating a new private channel is similar. Suppose you wanted to create the new cows channel as private channel. The command would look like this:

/join %cows

The % symbol tells the server to create the channel in private mode. So the actual channel name would still just be cows, as the % sign only tells the server how to create the channel, and it is then discarded. If the channel already exists, nothing special will happen. If it doesn't, the new private channel cows will be created, and you will be the moderator.

If you want to leave a channel and remove it from your channel listing, you can do so with the /leave command.

/leave cows

Sharing a Channel
It is easy to share a link to your channel with others. Suppose, as in the example above, we created the cows channel. You can send anybody a direct link to your chat channel using the following URL scheme:
https://chat.ape-apps.com/?channel=cows

Simply change the word cows to whatever the name of your channel is. Even easier, you can create an automatic launcher for your chatroom here on the Ape Apps forum using the chat BBCode tag. So entering this...

[chat]cows[/chat]

...would create a chat application launcher button like this:

#cows


Private Channel Administration
Continuing the example above with our new theoretical cows private channel. Suppose you are the moderator of cows. Here are some options you can do to administer your new private channel.

Inviting Users
The command to invite a user to your private channel is /invite username to channelname. For example, to invite user nezkeys to the cows channel, you would enter the following:

/invite nezkeys to cows

In the above example, the cows channel will be then be added to nezkey's channel listing. If he is currently online, he will also get a notice that he has been added to the channel.

Channel Name
You can give your channel a display name, which can contain uppercase letters and spaces, using the /setname command. A display name makes it easier to identify a channel in a user's channel listing, and just looks nicer than the plain channel hashtag name. Suppose we wanted to call our cows channel Cow Chat. We would do this:

/setname cows Cow Chat

Technically the channel name is still cows, and to join, users would still need to type /join cows, but in the channel listing, it will now be refereed to as Cow Chat. You can use this function to give users a clearer understanding of what the channel is all about.

Enabling Voicechat
Converting your private channel into a voice-enabled channel can be easily done using the /envoice command. Below, we turn our Cow Chat channel into a fully featured voice-enabled room.

/envoice cows

Client Management
You can print an in-chat listing of commands that are available to you using the /help command.

/help

You can also use /? which does the same thing.

Ape Chat supports both a light and a dark theme mode, and you can use the /theme command to pick between the two.

/theme dark

/theme light

You can also set the default color of your messages using the /color command. The color command accepts hex color code values. For example, red is defined as #ff0000. For example:

/color #ff0000

The above example will make your text red. You can also clear out your color customization and return to the client theme default using /color null. In addition, you can set your message text color on a per-message basis using standard BBCode markup.

User Management
At times you may wish to send a private message to a particular user. You can accomplish this using the @ command. For example, suppose you want to send a private message to nezkeys. You would do so like this:

@nezkeys How are you?

Note that the message will only be delivered if the target user is currently online. If they are not, you are better off sending them a private message through the forum.

Ignoring and Muting
You have the ability to either ignore or mute a user. When you ignore somebody, their messages will be completely hidden from you, including their voice stream. When you mute them, only their voice stream will be disabled, so you will still be able to read their text messages. These actions are taken with the /ignore and /mute commands.

/ignore nezkeys

/mute nezkeys

Similarly, you can undo the above actions with the /unignore and /unmute commands.

/unignore nezkeys

/unmute nezkeys

Lastly, you can completely clear out your ignore and mute lists using the all parameter.

/unignore all

/unmute all

With Apple slated to transition it's computer processors from Intel to ARM, I have decided to add ARM CPU support across the board for the Ape Apps Launcher. When you go to the Ape Apps Launcher download page (https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html), you will now be presented with the following options:


Ironically, the one platform that pushed me to make the change, macOS ARM, is not yet available, which is because ARM based macs are not yet available, but there will be macOS builds coming in the future as well.

These new download options should let the Ape Apps Launcher (and other software/games in the months to come) run on pretty much any desktop device. This includes new Windows on ARM based laptops (like the Surface Pro X), as well as Linux ARM devices, such as the Raspberry Pi. In fact I was sort of getting an idea to add some new capabilities to the launcher that would let it serve as a media center application when connected to TV devices, allowing you to build a cheap media center PC out of a Raspberry Pi that can also play the entire Ape Apps lineup using a gamepad. But that's for another day.

Anyway, that's what's new with the Launcher. As Apple computers, and probably more Windows computers in the future start embracing both ARM and Intel architectures, I will make sure that your favorite Ape Apps games and programs work on whatever type of device you happen to be using!

Ape Chat has just been updated to v2.3.0, and this update brings a ton of improvements, including bug fixes and exciting/long overdue new features. Let's take a look!


To get started, Ape Chat now finally supports push notifications. Prior to this update, you could get a notification if the Ape Chat window was minimized and you got a private message, but what if you didn't have Ape Chat open? Well now when you open the Ape Chat application (https://chat.ape-apps.com/) you will get a pop up notice asking if you want to enable push notifications (if you say no, you can show the popup again by finding it in the main slide-out menu). Once you activate push notifications for your client, you will get a notification whenever another user sends you a private message through Ape Chat.

This feature isn't just for private messages though. Now if you right-click on one of your channels on the left sidebar, you will see a new Subscribe option.


Subscribing to a channel will allow you to get notified when new chat messages are posted to that channel, even if Ape Chat is closed. If you grow tired of being notified, you can unsubscribe in the same manner.

The Push Notification options will only be available if your device/browser supports the Web Push API, which as of this writing is pretty much everything except for browsers on iOS (which will supposedly be coming soon).

Speaking of mobile devices though, one of the biggest issues with Ape Chat has finally been rectified with the all new mobile interface.

Running Ape Chat on mobile will now give you a bottom toolbar, finally allowing you to access the Chanels and Users listings, which were previously unavailable on mobile. This new interface upgrade now makes Ape Chat fully usable from a mobile device.

In addition, the PWA/Add to Homescreen support for Ape Chat has been greatly improved, on both Desktop and Mobile. Installing Ape Chat as a PWA on Desktop (you should see an install icon in the address bar on supported browsers) gives you a clean user interface, making Ape Chat look and feel like a native app on your device. On mobile, the installed PWA interface (on iOS, you have to do the "Add to Homescreen" feature) now detects devices that have a Notch (like most modern phones do) and updates the layout to work around the notch cutouts.

Other than the new feature additions, a whole host of bugs have been corrected in this release, including a lot of the bugs that would cause the chat server itself to crash and restart (thus filling the chat roll with "Server Disconnected, will try again soon" messages). And speaking of the "Server Disconnected" message, it no longer prints a message to your standard chat roll, but will now just give a small notice at the bottom of your screen, which will go away once the server connects again.

All in all, today's Ape Chat update is probably the most significant one in the last two years. If you use any of the Ape Chat channels, or want to be notified when new chats are posted in the My Colony or Ape Apps forum channel, consider installing the Ape Chat PWA or adding Ape Chat to your Homescreen, and enabling Push Notifications. It's a great way to keep up on what is happening in chat, and also finally makes the private messaging feature in Ape Chat useful!

Ape Chat can be used on all platforms right from the web browser at the link below. The Website/PWA is now far superior to any of the older "stand alone" Ape Chat clients released to the various app stores, and should now be considered the primary/definitive version of the service.

https://chat.ape-apps.com

#apechat

Hello all,
For the past few days opening the Ape Apps Launcher also gives a error message each time. The error does not impact game play at all, as far as I can tell. It shows up alongside the Launcher but the software does not crash.

Here is the contents of the error log that showed up:

v1.3.0    1569682191619    C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\ape_apps_launcher\app-1.3.0\resources\electron.asar\renderer\api\remote.js: 219    Uncaught Error: Object has been destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217354847    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\audio\camera-shutter-click-03.mp3'

v1.3.0    1570217354863    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\default.gbc'

v1.3.0    1570217354875    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\strings.js'

v1.3.0    1570217354892    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\images\button.svg'

v1.3.0    1570217354903    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\images\startselectbutton.svg'

v1.3.0    1570217355078    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355090    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355102    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355115    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355125    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355138    fs.js: 150    Uncaught TypeError: Callback must be a function. Received undefined

v1.3.0    1570217355148    fs.js: 150    Uncaught TypeError: Callback must be a function. Received undefined

Running Windows 7 PC with Ape Apps Launcher downloaded from Ape Market. Version 1.3.0.
Hope this helps somehow.

The Ape Apps Launcher v3.0.0, which represents a total rewrite from scratch of the Launcher, is now available for beta testing (in PWA form) at it's new URL:

https://launcher.ape-apps.com/

The new launcher has all of the features of the original, with the addition of light/dark theme (as well as accent color customization), support for newer Ape Apps that are not hosted at apewebapps.com, support for adding third party web apps to the launcher, support for a new gamepad/tv mode interface, and more.


To get the most out of the launcher, you are going to want to install it to your system as a PWA using one of the Chromium based browsers, such as Chrome or Edge. Native desktop releases will also be coming sometime in January.

The Launcher was rewritten from scratch, so let me know of any issues you find. As of right now, My Colony 2 is unable to play from the Launcher, but this will be fixed on it's next update (which is coming soon).

Until then, check it out, update your bookmarks if you are using the current version of the PWA, and let me know what issues you find!

https://launcher.ape-apps.com/

#apeappslauncher

Prepare for the idle adventure of a lifetime, because Idle Token Quest is now complete and available for download for free on Android, iOS, and Windows 10!

Idle Token Quest is an idle role playing adventure game where you will fight your way through different worlds, going up against powerful enemies, collecting valuable loot, and purchasing awesome weapons and power-ups! You can use the two default characters, or create your own using the free My Tokens app. Tokens you create using your Ape Apps Account are linked to the game, and will adventure while you are away. The more Tokens you create, the more money you make!

Idle Token Quest is the ultimate companion game for My Tokens. Your virtual token avatars will become powerful heroes as they battle through the entire lineup of worlds and enemies from the game Level Up. You are also able to increase their power by equipping them with powerful Weapons, super fast Boots, and magical lucky Amulets!

In addition, all of your game progress is automatically synced to your Ape Apps Account, so you can take your token adventure with you on the go, or keep it open in a window hidden under your e-mail client while you are at work! The boss will never know that you just slayed an evil t-rex, which is way more important than filing another TPS report!

Idle Token Quest is a title that you definately do not want to miss. You can download it right now for free on Android, iOS, and Windows 10. It is also available on the Ape Apps Launcher, and even in your browser at Ape Web Apps. So what are you waiting for? Your poor My Tokens characters are just sitting there waiting for you to let them go outside and play! You don't want to make them cry, do you? Of course not, so download Idle Token Quest today!

https://apps.ape-apps.com/idle-token-quest/

#idletokenquest #levelup #mytokens

The Ape Chat server has just been updated with some new content which you can now take advantage if you are using the Ape Chat web app (https://chat.ape-apps.com/) or the client that is built into the Ape Apps Launcher. Here is an overview of the new features.

Firstly, on the left chat sidebar that has the channel listing, you will now see two new sections for your Private Channels and your Private Conversations.


This helps you keep things grouped together nicely. And speaking of Private Conversations, there are private conversations now! Previously, you could send somebody a direct message using the @username switch, but the message would only be delivered if the user was currently in chat. Now, private conversations are persisted on the server as a personal one-on-one chat room. Private conversation chats can only be accessed by the two users involved, and are also voice-enabled channels for one on one voice chat.

In addition, if you right-click on a username from your private conversations list, you will see a new Private Window option. Clicking on it will open a new mini-chat window for your one-on-one conversation, so you can have multiple one-on-ones going separate from the main chat.


Eventually, if you install Ape Chat as a PWA on your system (which, by the way, you can now do in Chrome and new MS Edge), you will also receive desktop or mobile notifications when you get a new private chat message, even if you don't have Ape Chat open. This will also work by having the Ape Apps Launcher installed.

I have expanded Ape Apps Account friends list capabilities. If you open your Friends List from either the Ape Apps Launcher or clicking on the new 'Friends' icon at the top of the base Ape Web Apps website (https://www.apewebapps.com/), you will get the updated Friends List popup window, which will allow you to accept or reject friend requests, see who is online, view friends' profile, or open the private one-on-one chat window right from the friends list:


I plan on expanding Friend List management further, and also making the friends window accessible from the individual apps and games, but for now the best way to access it is by going to https://www.apewebapps.com/ and clicking on the Friends List icon.

So that's it for this Ape Chat update. I still need to push the changes out to the Ape Chat Android application, but I plan to keep improving the Ape Chat service as time goes on, integrating it further into the Friends service and into the individual apps and games!

There are two new Beta releases coming this weekend that both tie in together: Death 3d and My Tokens. Death 3d is an old school style first person shooter with built-in map editor and online multiplayer. My Tokens is a custom avatar-creation app that lets you make little characters that will appear in different Ape Apps games. Death 3d is the first game to utilize the feature. Here is a video example of My Tokens appearing in Death 3d multiplayer:

The Death 3d beta is on Web and the Ape Apps Launcher, but due to internet browser security restrictions, online and LAN multiplayer are exclusive to the Ape Apps Launcher version. The Ape Apps Launcher is free though, and you can get it here:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

My Tokens is in beta, but you can access it from the web right now from here:
https://www.apewebapps.com/my-tokens/

Be sure to sign in using your Ape Apps account to be able to use your Tokens in other games. You can also use the My Tokens app to create custom avatars for the forum here.

As of this moment, Death 3d with LAN multiplayer is already live on the Ape Apps launcher with v 0.0.1. If you have two or more PC's on a local network, feel free to try our LAN multiplayer. In a few days, v0.0.2 will be arriving on the Ape Apps Launcher with My Tokens support and Online multiplayer. Both Death 3d and My Tokens betas will also be coming to Android in early April.

For players who use more than one of the 'Native Client' versions of my games, I have a new desktop app coming soon (in both 32 and 64 bit) that should both save hard drive space and keep all of my games more organized on your system: the Ape Apps Launcher:

Here is what it does. Right now if you download a Native Client game, it is about 175-200mb in size. Most of the size it due to the fact that each game includes the Chromium engine built in. This is not a big deal if you are only playing one game like My Colony, but suppose you want to have both My Colony and Antiquitas installed. Now you are talking about 400mb of space. This is where the Ape Apps Launcher comes in.

The Ape Apps Launcher runs all of my apps and games in a shared Chromium engine, so you only need to download the overhead of the engine one time. It then allows you to download and install any game from Ape Web Apps, even games that do not have their own Native Client already.

The games are all downloaded to your PC, so after the initial install they will all work without an internet connection (unless internet is a core part of the game). You can also easily delete/uninstall anything you have downloaded. Games will also update automatically, with update sizes significantly smaller than what they are now. For example, downloading a full My Colony update for desktop is currently a 180mb download. When using the launcher though, the update size is reduced just under 11mb.

So the benefits are:

• Only one download (of any significance) for all applications
• Automatic updates for everything
• Substantially reduced update sizes
• Updates arrive faster, you do not have to wait for me to manually package a new Native Client release
• Desktop versions of apps and games that do not normally have their own desktop versions.
• All games are always up to date on the latest engine and wrapper software

The Ape Apps Launcher will be coming soon to Windows, Mac, and Linux in 32 and 64 bit flavors. The initial version simply lets you download, install, and manage all applications. If there is interest in the app I will develop it further, if not I will keep it as is.

Ideally I would just be able to have this instead of having to manually make a different Native Client download for everything and for every update, as it would certainly save me a ton of time (and server bandwidth). Of course that all depends on if people like the concept or not.

Anyway, I expect this to be released this weekend or next week sometime. Shortly after the My Colony v0.58.0 update is finished. I am almost done with the launcher code, but there are still a few minor things to button up on it.

The time has come for yet another My Colony update, the v0.99.0 patch, aka the Reptilian Content patch! This is a very special release, as it is the very last beta version of My Colony! It's going to be sad to see beta go, but there is a lot in store for you guys with this update. Because of some of the core changes, this update is going to take several days to push out to all platforms, with Web coming today. I actually can't even push it out to the Ape Apps Launcher yet, as the Launcher will require an update itself before this patch should go live, so please stick with me as the v0.99.0 roll-out will be a bit slower than most releases. So what's new in this patch? Let's go over it right now!

This is at it's core a Reptilian update, but there is a ton of other stuff thrown in as well. First off, and the reason for the delayed rollout, is I have taken the game-streaming option out of the core My Colony code, and transferred it to the "Web App Core" wrapper, which is the in-house wrapper I created to be able to port my games to all platforms easily. This changes the behavior by streaming your gameplay straight to your profile on the Ape Apps website, instead of to my-colony.com. I will be updating my-colony.com shortly though that will embed the stream in the same place it used to be, so for the most part it should still look the same.


I made this change for long-term planning, so that I can add streaming capabilities to my other games. The stream viewer on ape-apps.com is improved from what was available on the My Colony website. It now shows how many people are watching and lets you record the stream. It has other capabilities as well that aren't worth mentioning here, but will be implemented in other games in the future. To access your livestream page, go to your profile here on Ape Apps and click on the little video camera button on the left sidebar.

To go along with this change, the in-game streaming interface has been updated, with a new livestream control bar now appearing when you have streaming turned on.


This bar shows you how many people are watching the stream, and lets you turn either microphone or webcam on or off (previously, webcam wasn't even supported). Streaming is currently supported on Chrome, the new version of Edge, on the Desktop version, the Ape Apps Launcher, and on Android. I can't get it working right yet on iOS or Windows Store.

Moving on. Last update was the big Zolarg release, but I had accidentally forgot to make the dazzling hot-pink Etherbug buildable. This is now fixed, and you can now create the Etherbug on your Zolarg maps. Sorry about that!

A lot of people had complained about the massive gold cost on the Zolarg Unholy Pit and Unholy Tower of Stuff. I have reduced theses costs in this update to make them more reasonable. In addition, these two structures have gained storage capabilities for Charcoal, Oil, and Software.

In addition, the Zolarg Customs Processing building can now import and export Diamonds and Software.

I have made a small change to the in-game encyclopedia. Before, under each category (buildings, vehicles, etc) it said Everything you need to know... Now, it shows the number of items that are in each category (number of buildings, vehicles, etc).

I have loosened the building requirements for the Reptilian Brewmasters Den, as it was too difficult to build at the beginning, and is an essential building. I removed Helium-3 and Crystalline from the build requirements. In addition, the building now uses Ant Paste during production, instead of Helium 3.

The Powered Materials Silo has gained Software Storage, and also now acts as a drop-off point for Diamond harvesting.

I don't know if anybody had noticed, but I had inadvertently allowed Ether importing from the Reptilian Medium Range Star Gate. This has been removed. In exchange, this structure can now export Fish and Salt Water.

Speaking of Fish and Salt Water, they have both been added to the Galactic Board of Trade, and will eventually be used in other non-Water World processes. They are the two map-specific resources for the Water World.

While we are on the subject of resources, a brand new one was added to the game this update, Cobalt. Cobalt is a super-rare, because 1) it's only available on the dreaded Lava World, and 2) it only appears after a volcanic eruption.


Why Cobalt? Well, originally Obsidian was going to be the map-exclusive resource for Lava World, but I forgot and ended up adding it to everything, so that wasn't going to work. So now we have Cobalt. It's all good. Anyway, right now only the Reptilians can harvest it, but other civs will be able to after v1.0. It will be coming to the GBT on the next update as well, and will be used for new super-high-end structures on all civs. Being tied to the Lava World, I suspect it will command a pretty good price on the GBT once trading opens up.

Moving on. Since probably v0.1.0 of My Colony way back in 2016, people have been requesting to be able to move buildings once built. I haven't counted, but it's probably the top request in the game, or a close second to Mass Transit. I understand why it's been wanted. Most My Colony players are on Android, and most mobile builder games allow you to move structures. Of course, most mobile builder games are also IAP filled "diamond" (or gems or special coins) festivals that nickel and dime players by making buildings take 5 days to build unless you pay real money. My Colony isn't like that, and I never thought a move building option was realistic enough for the game, but nonetheless people still request it all the time, so for this update, I have now added an option to move buildings, with caveats.


You can now move any structure in the game, unless it is a harvest drop-off location or has it's own move function, like the Lander, Queen/Mound, or the deployed Construction Mech.

I do want to give people the option to configure and organize their base as they see fit, and I understand that as a colony grows from a small settlement to a major city, you might want to rethink the way you placed buildings at the beginning, so that is why I am allowing the move option. The reason I do not allow it on harvest drop-off spots though, should be obvious. I'm not going to let players just, for example, keep moving their Ore Refinery right next to the Ore every time a deposit is dried up. That would be lame.

Next, I have made an interface change to the mobile version of the game. Now when you are building a structure on mobile, you get the same (well, a minified) "new construction" bar that desktop players have.


This makes it easy to see what you are building will cost, and to flip structures before placing them.

So now let's talk about the meat of the update, the new Reptilian content. There are two new vehicles, the Diamond Extractor and the Cobalt Extractor (I think you can figure out what each does), and 19 new buildings, which I will list below and then talk about some of them in detail afterwards.

• Galactic Star Gate
• Radiated Crystal Farm
• Advanced Materials Silo
• Subterranean Slum
• Raw Fish Diner
• Deep Sea Drilling Platform
• Coral Radiator
• Offshore Slum
• Dracarus Mint
• Turbo Microreactor
• Diamond Cobalt Microreactor
• Basic Crystal Furnace
• Suppertime Arena
• Primitive Robotics Lab
• Advanced Chip Transporter
• Automated Software Node
• Antanium Radiator
• Ultra High Frequency Node
• Near-Infinite Materials Silo

My core of thinking with this update was to make the Reptilians more playable, or rather enjoyable to play, and reduce the sheer idling time required to play a Reptilian colony. Starting with Reptilians was so slow before, that a new colony would have to idle for hours just to get anywhere, which isn't really feasible on mobile. So a lot of this content is geared towards early to early-mid game, but there are a few later-stage items as well. Structures like the Basic Crystal Furnace, the Coral Radiator, and the Dracarus Mint should help speed along early-game a bit.

Reptilians also get a couple of new housing units, both slums (of course). The Subterranean Slum is a high-density building for all maps, and the Offshore Slum is a way to gain more space on the traditionally space-limited Water World islands.


I added a couple of new Tourism related structures for Reptilians, in the form of the new Raw Fish Diner and the Audrey II inspired Suppertime Arena, where Reptilians and tourists alike can watch an evil plant eat Insectoids.


There are new much-needed upgrades to Reptilian Storage, Power generation, increased import/export capacity, Microchip production, Software production, and Bandwidth generation. Reptilians also gain the ability to build robots with the new Primitive Robotics Lab, and the ability to build Triantanium with the Antanium Radiator.

All in all, this is a fairly large update that adds some nice QOL improvements to the game, and adds much needed content and improvements to the Reptilian race (a bit for Zolarg too).

Now, to talk a bit about the future. If you missed it, I published a new episode of the My Colony Podcast last night about the coming end of beta for My Colony. v0.99.0 is in fact the 99th feature release of My Colony (which was originally published on May 16, 2016), which will make the next update the 100th feature update of My Colony, in which it will finally be bumped up to v1.0.0.

Now to me it's just a number, but since 100 of anything is generally seen as special, I think something special should happen for the next update to the game. To help kick off the v1.0.0 release, I would like to do another classic episode of the My Colony Podcast with a community group voice chat, the way the old episodes were done a couple of years ago. I would like to host the episode on one of the federation Discord channels, possibly the NOZ channel if they will allow it, and have anybody and everybody from the community be able to participate if they want to. We will just be talking about the growth and changes of the game over the last few years and bumping suggestions and ideas off of each other for the coming updates. You can also ask me anything you want about My Colony or otherwise. I think it will be a fun episode for everybody, and I hope a lot of people participate. I just need to nail down a location, time, date, and re-figure out how to record the thing. So be looking out for more information about that.

As for the update itself, I plan on adding something of an online leader-board to the game, featuring multiple in-game challenges and awards that people can participate in if they choose to. It will be optional, so you can still play as normal without doing the leader-boards, but the purpose is to have something to do in the game after you have a million people in your colony and all buildings unlocked, but it's also going to be set up in a tiered way so that new players can also participate. I still have some things to work out with it, and so you have some time to make suggestions in the forum if you want your ideas implemented!

As for a timeframe, the next release is going to take longer than normal. I go over the reasons in the latest podcast, but basically we have Thanksgiving in the U.S. coming up soon with holiday travels, and I also need to take some time away from My Colony to get work done on my other projects before the holiday season, since December is the biggest month of the year for the app business, and with my schedule I am going to be pressed for time to get much work done later in this month. So I would shoot for early-mid December for the v1.0.0 release, although there might be a couple of platform-specific bug patches between now and then, should the need arise.

Further out, v1.1.0 and v1.2.0 will probably be performance tweak related updates, since I am getting a lot of requests for those, particularly on the Android side of things, so I will have to try to see if I can squeeze more juice out of the engine. So they will still have new content, but not like 10-20+ new items like the last few updates have had. After that, I want to add crime and law enforcement to the game, and even further out, I want to add the ability to have a map with an AI controlled faction, as I want to add a new map type that is inhabited with primitive ewok-type creatures that you have to either coexist with or... something else. So stay tuned for that...

Anyway, that's all for v0.99.0. I hope you guys enjoyed it, let me know if you did (or didn't)! Like I said at the beginning, the roll-out will take several days here, but it's live and final on the Web now. Launcher will probably be next, then Steam, then Android, then Windows, and lastly iOS. I expect to have it published to all stores by Wednesday, so stay tuned!

Today I have added a couple of new features to the Ape Apps Launcher.

First, if you right-click on one of your installed apps now, you will have the option to switch to the Beta channel. Now you can run the Beta edition of Ape Apps software right from the launcher.


Next, I have started to improve the mobile interface for the Launcher, so that you can install the PWA on your Android or iOS device.


To get it, browse to https://www.apewebapps.com/launcher.html on your mobile. On Android, there will be a green Install icon in the top-left corner of the app. On iOS Safari, click on the toolbar button that looks like a rounded square with a up arrow in it, then scroll down and select Add to Home Screen.

I will continue to improve the launcher as time goes on. At this point, the installable Progressive Web App edition (same link as above) is considered to be the primary and will be getting the most development attention, although the downloadable Desktop editions will receive support as well. Given the increased restrictions on un-signed desktop apps, especially on mac, but on Windows too, non-Linux users are encouraged to switch to the PWA edition. Well, everyone is encouraged to switch!

Until next time, let me know what launcher issues you have or features you want added, and stay tuned for more!

My Colony v1.10.0 has started going out recently and is hitting various platforms at different times and in different iterations. This is a bit of a different update, as there is nothing new to My Colony itself.

Over the last few weeks, I have been busy doing a total rewrite of Web App Core, the cross-platform app wrapper that hosts most of my apps and games, including My Colony. This rewrite cleans out years of outdated/unused code, is more efficient, and should bring more consistency between all of the various platforms. The problem though, is that this project is massive and is taking me longer than I anticipated.

Since the rewrite is quite massive and touches every single function available to Web App Core, I went ahead and published it on my two biggest cross-platform applications, My Colony and PDF Document Scanner, so I could collect crash reports and see what is and isn't working. I know that this isn't something a "professional" company would necessarily do, but I did (mostly) test everything beforehand 🤐

Anyway, you may see several iterations and releases of the 1.10.x branch on each platform over the coming weeks as I work everything out, so you can report all issues you find in this thread.

While I am talking about Web App Core, I might as well give an overview of what I am changing on that product, since it is a large part of My Colony as well. My Colony is currently running on v3.7.6, and after I have all of the bugs worked out on all platforms, Web App Core will be bumping up to v4.0.0 and getting a ton of cool new features that will help My Colony and other products as well.

If you are not aware, Web App Core is basically an abstraction wrapper I wrote starting in 2013 or so that allows my apps and games to use device-specific native functions while sharing the same code base. It's basically what allows me to release updates to all platforms in a fairly short amount of time. It's not a third party library or anything, so I have total control over it's features and capabilities.

One of the new features coming to Web App Core v4 is the ability to fully customize the theme/look of the wrapper. For example, on all of my current apps, the default left-hand slide-out menu looks the same for every app on a specific platform. So all of my Android apps have the exact same looking slide-out menu, same looking title screen, same looking dialog popups, etc. They are all very generic and the same across the board. A productivity app like PDF Document Scanner uses the exact same looking menus and dialogs as a game like My Colony. With Web App Core v4, My Colony (and other games) will be able to have their own customized UI and look more "game" like.

Web App Core v4 will also bring full local filesystem access to My Colony on the Web. This means that on the My Colony web app, you will be able to choose a local folder on your PC or Android device that you want My Colony to use, and all game data will be saved there, instead of on the cloud or in the browser's internal database. Since saves will no longer be limited to using the database, game compression should be unnecessary, and this change should virtually eliminate file save corruption on the web edition of the game. This will also make backing up your data trivial, as you can just copy/paste your save files any time you want.

Web App Core v4 will also start making way for upcoming web technologies that are not yet available in stable channel browsers, but will be coming in the months ahead. For example, installed Progressive Web Apps (PWA's) will soon be gaining the ability to become the default application for certain file types. For example, if you had the My Colony PWA installed on your device, you will eventually be able to simply double click on a game file on your desktop, and it would automatically launch the game (and your colony). Same thing with apps like Voxel Paint, simply double clicking on a .vpp file would launch the app and the voxel model.

Anyway, there are a lot more capabilities coming soon that have nothing to do with My Colony, so I wont bother polluting these release notes any further. If you've been following my work for any length of time, you may know that I really dislike the various App Stores, their draconian content rules and restrictions, their 30%+ cuts on all transactions, etc. My ultimate goal is to have the web editions of all of my products just as capable (or more) than their native counterparts. I am a big fan of Progressive Web Apps, and as time goes on I believe they are going to become more and more indistinguishable from native applications. I am going to continue to be on the bleeding edge of the PWA side of things!

This application is for advanced users only.

What is it?

The Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge adds extra functionality to apps and games hosted on apewebapps.com and those downloaded from the Windows Store, giving them additional features and capabilities normally only available in the native client versions of the apps and games. These features include things like offline file-system storage access and peer-to-peer connectivity over local area networks (think offline LAN multiplayer). These features are generally unavailable to web and store apps due to web browser security standards.

Who is it for?
The Desktop Bridge was created by @bastecklein to allow for testing native cross-platform features while doing development on the web. It was previously too archaic and technical for distribution. However, with upcoming online and offline multiplayer features for games such as My Colony, Antiquitas, Colony Wars, and Death 3d, it would be impossible for web-only users of these games to use their full feature-sets.

Do you need it?
It is important to keep in mind that using the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge is still somewhat technical, and in most cases it is preferable to just install a native client version of the app or game you are wanting to use. Setup requires installing a security certificate authority to your operating system or browser of choice, a step which some users may be uncomfortable with. But for some circumstances where you either cannot use a native version of the app or you just prefer the web or store version, the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge is available to unlock full desktop-class functionality for software hosted on apewebapps.com.

Installation
The Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge is available for free to download from the Ape Market at this url: https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-web-apps-desktop-bridge.html . It runs on most recent 64bit editions of Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The installer is not digitally signed with any certificates, so you have to allow installation manually if you get a security warning. On Windows, it will look something like this:

On macOS, after extracting the app to your Applications folder, you will have to right-click (or command click) on the app and select 'Open' the first time you run it. There are generally no special instructions required on Linux. When installation is complete, you will be greeted with the standard console screen:

At this point everything is ready to go on the bridge-side of things. On Windows only, if you are using the standard Windows Firewall, you will be asked to allow port access to the Desktop Bridge. You must allow access, or the bridge will not work properly. Once the app window is up and running, closing or minimizing the window will simply minimize it to your system tray. To quit the application completely, you must right-click on the tray icon and select 'Quit.'

Certificate Installation
In order to actually use the Desktop Bridge, you must install a security certificate onto your PC. Why? Ape Web Apps is hosted on a secure (https) domain, and as such can only interact with resources which contain a valid security certificate. A similar restriction applies to Windows Store apps. With the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge, you are essentially hosting a secure server on your own desktop that acts as a middle man between the game and your PC. Most home users don't have to install certificates on their own machines, although it is a lot more common in corporate network environments. The bridge will not work properly without the certificate, so if you are not comfortable with this step, then you might as well not continue.

Certificate installation will be different depending on your operating system and environment, but below are some common installation scenarios. You can probably get enough information here to make it work on any platform.

The first thing you have to do on all platforms though, is download the certificate authority used to validate the Desktop Bridge application:


The next step will depend on your environment.

Windows
To install the certificate on Windows, you will need to open the Control Panel and go to the Internet Options application. In the window that comes up, select the Certificates button in the Content tab.

Next, go to the Trusted Root Certificate Authorities tab and select Import.

On the next screen, you will need to browse to the file you downloaded. You will have to change the file type filter to 'All Files', as the file extension is different (.pem) than the one that is automatically selected. After you selected the downloaded certificate, press the 'Next' button. On the next screen, make sure your options match what is below and hit next.

Certificate installation should now be complete on Windows.

macOS
Installation on a Mac is quite a bit less involved. You generally just have to double click on the certificate file you downloaded. It should open up the Keychain Access application and ask which keychain you want to install the certificate to. You will use the login keychain.

Then in the Keychain Access window, select login on the left side, find the new localhost key, and double click on it. In the window that opens, expand the Trust section and change the setting to 'Always Trust.'

Certificate installation should now be complete on macOS.


Linux
On Linux, installation will differ based on distro. On some distros, you may be able to just double click on the downloaded certificate and import it to your keychain and be done with it. Whether or not the web browser will accept the certificate is another matter. For Chrome on Ubuntu, I had to actually install the certificate into Chrome itself, which was a simple matter. On Chrome, navigate to the chrome://settings/ page. From there, scroll to the very bottom and expand the Advanced section. Scroll down further to the Privacy and Security section and click on Manage certificates. From there, go to the Authorities section and click on Import.

On the popup window, check the following boxes and say OK.

That should be all you need to do on Chrome. The setup for Firefox is very similar.

Filesystem
When the Desktop Bridge is running, applications on Ape Web Apps (not Windows Store apps) will save all files and game data into the Documents folder for your desktop user. Files are also stored internally into the browser just in case, and may also be synced to the Ape Apps Cloud depending on the application.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions
Use this thread for all discussion related to the bridge. If it gets enough activity I can make a dedicated forum section for it, but right now for the benefit of all, keep all discussion in the same place.

Final Note
Remember that the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge minimizes and closes to the system tray. You should consider closing it when it is not in use, both to free up system resources and for security. You should get a system notification whenever a client connects to the bridge, although the notifications may not work properly on all systems.


Update History

• v3.6.0 - 20180129: First public release

when I do "/home/username/Desktop/ape-apps-launcher-linux-x64-1.2.4/Ape Apps Launcher" in terminal the launcher opens

but if I open the folder on my desktop and double click on the Ape Apps Launcher file I get a pop up that says could not display "Ape Apps Launcher" there is no application installed for "shared library" files. Do you want to search for an application to open this file? and when I click the yes button I get the additional Mime types required notification.

Update (20191016): Google Play has accepted my appeal and My Colony is back in the store! Thanks to all who contacted them to help them "see the light." Original post follows.

Without warning, Google has taken the extreme step of removing My Colony from the Google Play store for violating their malicious behavior policy, while offering no explanation or examples as to the reason for their decision. You can see further information related to this removal on this thread. Please feel free to contact Google Play regarding this decision.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7100415?hl=en&ref_topic=3364260

The following e-mail is all of the information they sent me regarding the takedown:

Hi Developers at Brandon Stecklein,

After review, My Colony, com.ape.games.mycolony (Version Code 149), has been suspended and removed from Google Play as a policy strike because it violates the malicious behavior policy.

Apps that cause users to download or install applications from unknown sources outside of Google Play are prohibited.

Next Steps

1. Read through the Malicious Behavior policy for more details and examples of policy violations.
2. If possible, make changes to bring your app into compliance. Remember your app must comply with all policies listed in the Developer Program Policies and additional enforcement could occur if there are further policy issues with your apps.
3. Sign in to your Play Console and submit the policy compliant app using a new package name and a new app name.

Additional suspensions of any nature may result in the termination of your developer account, and investigation and possible termination of related Google accounts. If your account is terminated, payments will cease and Google may recover the proceeds of any past sales and/or the cost of any associated fees (such as chargebacks and transaction fees) from you.

If you’ve reviewed the policy and feel this suspension may have been in error, please reach out to our policy support team. One of my colleagues will get back to you within 2 business days.

Regards,

The Google Play Review Team

To me, this is insane. Anybody who has played My Colony on Android knows that it does not cause users to download or install applications from unknown sources outside of Google Play. The only app it asks users to download is the Helios File Manager app if they want to export a game file, and this links directly to the Google Play store listing, which is not an unknown source.

If they are referring to a download link from an ad inside the game, that is equally insane, as the game uses Google's own AdMob ad network, and any third party apps advertised in the ads come directly from them.

I have sent an appeal request to Google Play, but have yet to hear back. Just going from prior experience of dealing with Google and from experiences I have read from other developers, the odds of a successful appeal are somewhat low. I can re-upload the game using a different package name, but it would lose all downloads and ranks, would not carry over existing Premium purchases, existing users can not update without reinstalling, and if Google bans it again for the same reason, they are likely to close my entire account, as each suspension adds a "policy strike" to your account.

As I showed in a chart on this thread, Google Play accounts for over half of the My Colony downloads, so this action would be a significant blow to the My Colony community, so any contact or pressure sent Google Play's way probably wouldn't hurt.

In the event that the game is not able to be reinstated, Android users still have options to play the game. The My Colony web app can now be installed to your homescreen as a Progressive Web App, and given the new filesystem limitations in Android 10 which block saving data directly to the external storage anyway, you really missing much by using the PWA vs the Native App.

To install the Progressive Web App, go to https://www.apewebapps.com/my-colony/ on Chrome, open the "three dots" menu from the top-right corner of the screen, and select "Add to Homescreen." The only primary limitation is that in the PWA version, the back button does not work as it does in the native app.

Anyway, the loss of Google Play is really a significant blow to the game. As I indicated, I have started the appeals process, but any help from the community on this issue, whether getting the word out or contacting Google Play, would be welcomed. I don't really see why they shouldn't reinstate the game, as their reason for taking it down is entirely bogus. Although it's also possible that they just prefer to have IAP-diamond festival games on their app store, since that it what it is filled with currently, and those probably make them way more money.

I will keep you all posted with any information that comes forward on this front!

A couple of months ago, I announced that I would begin phasing out Web App Core, the cross-platform app wrapper I have been developing and using since around 2012. I have been making this change due to the fact that Progressive Web Apps (PWA) have now become the primary development target for Ape Apps, and their capabilities have reached the point to where using a big, heavy and bloated app wrapper like Web App Core is no longer a necessity. In addition, many of the features of PWA's work better when each app is hosted on its own domain or subdomain, as opposed to having every single app hosted on the same address like Ape Web Apps currently does. So this migration away from Web App Core/Ape Web Apps and towards individual domains has been a slow one and has taken up a lot of my time over the last couple of months, but progress is being made, and the next title on the migration list is none other than the long-in development game Colony Wars!


As of today, Colony Wars can now be accessed from it's new URL on the main My Colony Universe website: https://wars.my-colony.com. I think it is now almost up to fully functional from its previous release on Ape Web Apps, minus the Map Editor which I am still converting off of Web App Core. Out of all of the titles I have already moved off of Web App Core, Colony Wars has been the most difficult, as it utilized nearly the entire suite of Web App Core provided functions. I hope to have the conversion fully completed by the end of the week.

This conversion will bring Colony Wars up to v0.8.0. The primary changes in this release will be (obviously) the migration off of Web App Core, but also some new features as well. I have added a new Skirmish option, which will allow you to more quickly launch an offline battle VS the AI players without first going through the online multiplayer lobby. I am also adding an even faster Quick Match option, which will immediately put you into an offline Skirmish match on a random map with AI players already set up. There are also some bugs/UI issues that will be cleaned up that have been on the to-do list for ages now.

Beyond v0.8.0, I am planning to bring Colony Wars back to life off of the back-burner. Spending some time playing old school Command and Conquer with my son as convinced me that Colony Wars needs to be completed. Beyond new units, buildings, and maps which are all needed, I also need to start working on the single player Campaign. I want to have cheesy cut scene videos like in old Command and Conquer games, although I am not going to be hiring actors and doing any filming. I think I am going to render all of the cutscenes using Death 3D, creating characters using My Tokens and scenes with the Death 3D map editor. I have begun scripting out the story, which takes place in the year 2083 and begins with the LIS declaring independence and ambushing the United Earth Space Marines detachment on Terra Nova. Chronologically, the Colony Wars story takes place about a year before the events of Death 3D, and about a decade or so after the events of the Deimos trilogy.

So anyway, that is a look at what is coming down the pike for Colony Wars. If you want to check it out at it's new domain while it is still being worked on, you can access the site using the beta URL parameter to prevent it from activating it's service worker and caching the in-development code: https://wars.my-colony.com/?beta=1

#colonywars

So for the past year or so, I have been using this website, as well as https://discussions.ape-apps.com/ to test out the new forum software that will eventually someday replace phpBB for RP Forums, which is by far the most active website that I own. Today marks another small step in that direction (I am essentially crawling towards it) with the re-release of the classic Discussions Legacy app for Android.

https://market.ape-apps.com/discussions-legacy.html

The purpose of the app is to test out how the new forum software will interface with the "Legacy" wrapper, which powers the current Android RP Forums Legacy app that some of you may be familiar with. Since I am developing both the website and the Legacy wrapper, the integration between the two will be able to be quite a bit tighter than the current RP Forums Legacy app allows.

So anyway, if you want to help move the ball along, feel free to download and test the new Legacy code out from the Ape Market, using the link I posted above. Please leave comments and suggestions either here, or preferably at the Discussions site. I also updated the app on Google Play, as it hadn't been updated since 2013, although it has to go through Google approval first, so I am not sure if it will ever be live on there again.

For those of you who are not aware, this website is not the first time I created an online forum from scratch. Back in 2010 I created Discussions, which turned out to be my first "big" hit app and actually grew into a fairly large forum community. My RP Forums app actually grew out of (and eventually split off from) Discussions. The problem was that the app had sections for several popular video games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, and those sections used icons and backgrounds from the game. The app ended up getting banned from the app stores for using copyrighted material, and the whole thing slowly died from there on out.

I don't expect anyone to use Discussions except for testing the new forums software, but if people want me to bring it back at some point, I can always add a few legit sections to it. It was essentially an anything-goes type of forum community.

I know some people have been waiting for information on Colony Wars, so here is an update. The first preview beta will be released this weekend on the web, the Ape Apps Launcher, and on Android.

This is an early release, and contains multiplayer LAN/Internet, vs AI skirmish, and a map editor for creating maps.

LAN and internet multiplayer requires either the Android or Ape Apps Launcher version. Playing over the internet will require TCP port forwarding on your router of port 2733.

If you don't have the Ape Apps Launcher, you can get it for Windows, macOS, or Linux from here:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

Colony Wars is very much an early work in progress beta. The purpose of this release is to test the core engine mechanics and to receive feedback, and perhaps give me motivation to start putting more time into the project!

I expect the release to be ready on Saturday morning, maybe even Friday night if I am motivated. I will make a post in this forum with more info once the release is live.

I have just released v2.6.0 of Ape Chat, which should now be hitting all platforms (including embedded instances, such as the My Colony in-game chat, and the chat here in the forum).


The main changes in this release are the revamp of the UI for individual chat posts (the "box" around them has been removed, padding altered, font size changes, etc), and the ability to now react to chat messages! To do a reaction, you simply right-click (long press on Android) on a chat message, and you will have the option to add a reaction.


User avatars on chat posts will now always show their profile picture. Before, it was rendering their default My Tokens character if they had one, but to me I thought this looked a bit out of place, so I removed that feature.

There were also some new server and developer related features added that nobody but me will notice, so I will not bother logging them here. And of course, multiple big fixes have been implemented in this update.

The future of Ape Chat

I have a lot of features planned for Ape Chat, which I will be implementing whenever I get around to them, but I am also open to suggestions from the community.

In the long-term I want to move away from the Discord server and have everything Ape Apps related going through Ape Chat. This is more of a security thing, you never know what Discord (or any third-party service) is going to end up doing in the future, so it's nice to be able to have control of the user support system myself. That might be a little ways off, since Ape Chat still needs a few more features before I am ready to make that switch.

I plan to replace the private messaging system here on ape-apps.com with the Ape Chat based private messages, so that all user-to-user messaging for Ape Apps is contained in the same place.

I also plan on replacing the My Colony 2 in-game chat with an Ape Chat channel, just like how MC1 and Antiquitas currently work.

When a user creates a new channel on Ape Chat, they are automatically made the moderator of that channel, but there aren't many customization options right now for channel owners. I plan on adding new ways for channel owners to customize and differentiate their channels, and am open to suggestions on this front as well.

Speaking on channels, I plan on adding in in-app directory of all public channels on the server.

Finally, I plan on adding direct peer-to-peer file transfers inside direct private messaging windows. You will be able to drag a file from your desktop into the private chat window and it will open a direct socket between you and the other user (bypassing the Ape Chat server) for fast file transferring.

Those are my immediate ideas for Ape Chat. Let me know what others you have, and stay tuned for more!

#apechat

https://chat.ape-apps.com

I have just published v1.3.6 of the Ape Apps Launcher which you can download now. This update is required for users of EZ Database and EZ Register, and also includes some goodies for everybody!

Firstly, you can now access your friends list from the main launcher screen. If you click on the new friends icon on the top title bar, you will be presented with the new friends list popup:


In addition, now when you click on a friends username in the friends list window or in the Ape Chat window, you will be taken to the new profile screen where you can see more information about your friend and see their achievements. You can also look at your own profile to see your own achievement details.


If you keep the friends list window open, you will see notices when your friends come online as well.

The update is live right now in the Ape Market, so get it from the auto-updater or download is manually today!

https://market.ape-apps.com/edit_app.php?app=381

Today I am pleased to announce that Death 3d has been updated to v0.0.5. This beta release brings several important bug fixes, campaign progress saving, and memory usage reductions. It also brings mobile UI and improved touch screen controls. As such, Death 3d v0.0.5 has just been published to Google Play, and should be available shortly by clicking on the below link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ape.games.death3d

Death 3d is also available for Windows 10 (find it on the Windows Store) and on the Ape Apps Launcher.

Cross-platform online multiplayer is ready to go for players using Ape Apps Launcher, Android, and Windows 10. On the Ape Apps Launcher or Windows 10, you can create your own online server for others to join. On all platforms, you can also play WiFi local multiplayer cross-platform on all versions. So tell your friends to download the game and get your deathmatch on!

Big changes were made to the resource loading and rendering engine with this release, so there may be some minor graphical glitches. There is also an issue where death animation sprites do not render correctly when using an AI opponent created using My Tokens. These are minor issues though, and should be corrected in the near future.

That's about all for this update. If the controls seem to work fine on Android and people are not having any major issues, Death 3d will be arriving on iOS in the not too distant future, so stay tuned for more!