PC and web version is here, but at what cost

Rectball is now available on web browser through the itch.io page, with download links for Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux as well.

The good thing is that the downloadable versions work as I planned. The Windows version is a .zip file containing an executable called Rectball.exe that can be opened and played, even when the computer doesn't have a Java Virtual Machine. Same thing for the macOS version. Heck, even the GNU/Linux version works out of the box, and since it is an AppImage, you just have to double click it and run, if your desktop environment supports it. I'm testing an aarch64 AppImage and Rectball booted on an RK3399 based ARMv8 board, so this is promising.

Now let's go to the bad news.

First of all, the downloadable versions for Windows and macOS will probably warn you when you try to open the game. Since none of the PC versions are signed, Windows SmartScreen will make you confirm that you really want to open the application. Same goes for the macOS version, where it will be required to right click the application file and choose Open on first run, to force macOS to trust the application.

Once the application is launched, the results may be promising for some, but dissapointing for others.

Rectball currently is not properly resizable, which means that it basically expects to be rendered as a vertical window. On some platforms, the application may still present a Maximize or Enter Fullscreen button, but the application will currently look odd, because it is not designed to run in horizontal mode.

Furthermore, Rectball was left frozen on time when I stopped updating it, so at the moment the application believes that every screen is always 9:16, ignoring the fact that nowadays mobile phones have taller screens, and even some foldable phones have screens that look more square than rectangular. On some devices, some screen elements may not render properly if the screen is too tall or too small.

Today's screens have also more pixels, and it has been noticed that the game fonts currently looks blurry sometimes, and this is something that I'd like to fix as well.

Because of this, I decided to update the roadmap for Rectball (which is now public, by the way), and introduce a new milestone. All the previously existing milestones have been delayed, and the goal now is to fix these stability and visual issues, before continuing with finishing the game.

Fixing this is going to take a while, because I need to inspect every screen and plan a new layout for each one where the elements are more responsive. The good thing is that, I know more about the underlying game framework that powers Rectball than a couple of years ago, so I have more possibilities now. This may result in a better result if I do things right.

During this time, I will continue to push updates to the beta channel of Google Play. Again, remember that you can join the beta program of Rectball at any time through the Google Play page for the app on your phone (scroll down to find the instructions), or through this link on your web browser. On PC, you can download the latest betas by going to the GitHub Releases tab, finding the newest Pre-Release version, clicking under "Assets" to expand the section, and then using the link for your PC operating system and architecture.

Links in the itch.io page will be updated once the PC versions are more stable, but I don't plan on updating them every day, so they will slowly update.