We are excited to announce that we're supporting WDC: Whale and Dolphin Conservation for World Ocean Day! ๐ฌ
The WDC World Ocean Day Sale starts today and runs until 15th June, 10am PDT 2024, and you can save a fin-tastic:
25% off in Chessarama
50% off in Daylife in Japan, Chess Knights: Shinobi, Colorgrid, & Knight Swap
We will also donate 5% and 50% of our net profits to WDC to support their conservation work.*
Photo: Mignon
Who is WDC?
WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation is the leading global charity dedicated to the protection and conservation of whales and dolphins.
Their expert-led teams in the UK, Europe, the Americas, and Australasia work across the whole spectrum of threats, from climate breakdown to accidental entanglements in fishing gear. They bring together, and work hand-in-hand with, businesses, philanthropists, scientists, NGOs, governments and grassroots communities to find solutions to the problems faced by whales and dolphins.
Their aim is to reverse the global decline in whale and dolphin populations by creating safe seas for these majestic creatures.
Entanglement in fishing gear, or โbycatchโ as itโs known, is the biggest threat whales and dolphins face. Many hundreds of thousands die in nets or get tangled up in fishing gear every year. As air-breathing mammals like us, when they get trapped in a net, panic can take over and they can sustain terrible injuries before either escaping, or suffocating. It is a massive problem and so WDC are working on some innovative solutions.
What WDC has been doing so far
WDC have been working across the globe to protect whales, dolphins and porpoises from dying in fishing gear:
Theyโre collaborating with creel fishers in Scotland to trial new types of fishing gear to reduce entanglements of humpback and minke whales.
Theyโre working with colleagues and partner organisations in the Central Baltic Sea to develop a recovery plan for a critically endangered group of Baltic harbour porpoises.
On the west coast of the United States, critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are facing extinction. Entanglement is a massive threat to their survival, and WDC have been working with fishers to trial alternative gear types.
In Hong Kong WDC have been supporting local community efforts and working with fishers to save the remaining 200 Indo-Pacific finless porpoises from extinction due to bycatch.
These projects are saving lives, and they are powered by inspiring people working together for the ocean.
Photo: Shutterstock
How your support will help this year
By purchasing games from this yearโs World Ocean Day sale, you will help WDC continue these vital conservation projects across the globe, as well as enable WDCโs team to embark on new efforts to bring further protections for whales and dolphins, like the Sri Lankan gillnet fisheries project:
Sri Lanka is home to many species of whales, dolphins and porpoises as well as a myriad of other sensitive marine species like sea turtles that are vulnerable to entanglement in gillnets โ these are nets that hang in the water like a wall. With funding, WDC hopes to collaborate with Sri Lankan artisanal tuna fisheries that use gillnets to trial new gear types and reduce the impact their fishing has on marine life, while still enabling them to earn their living.
Whales and dolphins are awe-inspiring. They are intelligent beings, vital for the health of the ocean and planet. Together we can still help them recover and flourish and they can help us reconnect with the wild, and repair the damage we have caused.
Thank you for joining us and for supporting WDC! ๐
*5% and 50% of our net revenue from this sale will support WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Whale and Dolphin Conservation is a UK registered charity (no. 1014705).
Chessarama is taking part in the Eastern Game Fest
We're thrilled to share that Chessarama is now taking part in Eastern Game Fest! Hope you can appreciate the wonderful Eastern culture while enjoying Chessarama!
๐ฅ Chessarama is taking part in the #TurnBasedThursdayFest
We're thrilled to share that Chessarama will take part in #TurnBasedThursdayFest ๐ฅ Let's celebrate and share the love and enthusiasm for turn-based games!
Keep an eye on Steam from April 4-8th: During this period you can check out this amazing showcase of turn-based games!
Today we're updating Chessarama to the 1.1.4 version. Take a look on what's new ๐
We have cleared out how Battles Challenges persist! Progress made on them is saved only at the end of the Battles match, so the following actions will lose progress: - Restarting a Battles match; - Going to the Main Menu in the middle of a Battles match; - Force closing the game in the middle of a Battles match.
It's no longer necessary to accept data collection to play Chessarama! ๐
Clicking to open the Codex on tips will now open it contextually as intended;
Fixed a bug where pieces information were not fully displayed in Codex;
Fixed a text error on the Rook section in Street Soccer Codex;
Fixed a bug where Collections items were sometimes blocked after opening the game;
Fixed a bug where Chess set achievements were being incorrectly given.
Chess Set achievements aren't properly rewarded when completing all Battles challenges;
There's a bug causing some tutorial UI to be a little displaced;
The achievements related to Live Challenges aren't triggering;
The term "Live Challenges" isn't translated in-game to other languages;
Sometimes the Tip buttons are not in the right places after accessing the Codex;
Sometimes the Soccer Chess tutorial doesn't work properly, requiring the game to be restarted;
Sometimes the reward screen is not shown;
Some settings options are not being saved correctly;
The Christmas Set is not unlocking correctly;
At times, the loading icon is incorrectly displayed during the results.
Chessarama is now participating in the Lunar New Year Festival 2024. Hope you like our game!
๐จ Patch Notes & data issue
Howdy, Chessarama fans!
Today we are publishing a new build, with some important updates and fixes. Let's first list all fixes and then discuss the issue we had with data persistence and how it impacted our players.
Live Challenges achievements are now properly triggering;
The term "Live Challenges" is properly translated in-game to other languages;
The "Win without moving your pieces into a Fenced tile" challenge was changed in Knight Supreme to make it more persistent;
Fixed an error in data persistence (more below).
The issue with data persistence
As a few players noted, the last update had the undesired side effect of making previously completed Challenges to become uncompleted. Our team worked hard in the last few days to understand what happened as well as to implement a more robust solution going forward.
Here is a summary of the issue:
We use Playfab as our tool to manage the "live" part of the game, such as the Leaderboards, XPs, Live Challenges, etc. We identified an unexpected bug in how the game communicates with Playfab, which resulted in some lost progress data (more on that below).
What are the consequences?
Every player lost their "challenges" progress (but not the XP associated with it);
No player lost their XP - this data is solid and correct;
No player lost Steam Achievements;
No player lost level progression;
No other consequence was identified.
Here is what you can expect from the current build (v1.1.3) onward:
After a lot of revisions, tests, and dedication from our team, we identified the bug and corrected it. Everything should work as expected now regarding the challenges, XP, and general player progress;
However, as explained above, all players lost their "Challenge" progression (but didn't lose the XP associated with it);
If you decide to re-do those challenges, you will earn more XP - so in some sense, this is a "good" side-effect (and unavoidable consequence) of the issue.
So, this is the current state of the game and the bug has been fixed. We are reviewing our workflow and QA to ensure problems like this will not happen again in the future. Making games is a complex thing, but better processes can always help ๐
We appreciate all the support you have been giving to us! Your patience and feedback have been fundamental for us to keep improving the game.
Please keep reporting bugs or suggesting improvements in the Community Hub or in our Discord server, as we are daily following the forums and using your feedback to improve Chessarama.
Many thanks for your support!
๐จ Patch Notes
It's been a while, but we have some news that you'll love ๐
XP balancing: Now it's easier to unlock all Chessarama content, whereas it's still a challenge to get the last titles!
Recurring Challenges update: They are now called "Live Challenges" and are much more interesting and challenging!
Fixed some text to be more clear and consistent;
Fixed save files being shared in the same device while using different accounts.
Chess Set achievements aren't properly rewarded when completing all Battles challenges;
There's a bug causing some tutorial UI to be a little displaced;
Accessing the Codex through tips isn't opening the expected Codex page;
There's a bug causing some players to not complete the "Win without moving your pieces into a Fenced tile" challenge in Knight Supreme;
The achievements related to Live Challenges aren't triggering;
The term "Live Challenges" aren't translated in-game to other languages;
Sometimes the Tip buttons are not in the right places after accessing the Codex;
Sometimes the Soccer Chess tutorial doesn't work properly, requiring the game to be restarted;
Sometimes the reward screen is not shown;
Some settings options are not being saved correctly;
The Christmas Set is not unlocking correctly;
At times, the loading icon is incorrectly displayed during the results;
Options such as Battles, Chess Match, Collections, and Leaderboards disappeared*;
Campaign progress and/or challenge progress is lost*.
(*For now, looks like closing the game and opening it again brings back the game modes and Live Challenges, but not the Campaign progress. We're already working on this issue and we're hoping to fix it in the next days)
