Help us improve accessibility of our game Idle Crafting Kingdom

By Michelle, 17 March, 2017

Forum
iOS and iPadOS Gaming

Hi everyone,

I'm one of the developers of the game Crafting Kingdom.
We just released the game today and we would love to know what you think, especially in terms of the game's accessibility.

The game focuses a lot on crafting resources, producing goods and then selling them.
You start out small, chopping logs in your lumberyard. Eventually you will work your way up unlock new products, buy new buildings and production facilities which allow you to produce more valuable goods.
You can also build out your own estate, if you have the necessary construction materials.

The game is incremental, which means one of the gameplay mechanics is that you need to restart your progress every now and then to get ahead. You complete quests and earn bonuses like faster production and higher sale prices for your next restart.

The game is free. There are optional ads, but no in-app purchases. The ads are voluntary rewarded videos, which will give you a powerful boost for watching (for example double log production for 10 minutes).

You can find the game here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crafting-kingdom/id1190611967?ls=1&mt=8

We tried to make this game as accessible as possible, but know that there are probably plenty of things that could be better. We would really appreciate some feedback on what could be improved. Any feedback is welcome.

Please note: The game uses Unity and the Unity Accessibility Plugin (UAP), so not all VoiceOver gestures are supported.

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Comments

By Sabrina on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

Have the expansion quests disappeared?
Earlier I would have quests that would give, for example, ten percent cheaper farm expansion. Are they all gone and if they are, why?
If they are not and I am missing things, I apologize.

By KE7ZUM on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

For the boosts I obught the add on so you don't need to watch the films anymore. Saved me a lot of grief in the long run. Lol!

For the loading screen I also have that issue on my droid device. I tested it by accident. I launched airplane mode and got stuck at loading. I lost the screen cap but if I can fidn it again I'll post it here or somewhere.

By KE7ZUM on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

The boost thing is in the castle, at least it was last I checked which was last year.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

I know that you are able to get the boosts without having to watch the videos. It is located in the castle when you are activating the boost, but unfortunately you have to pay five dollars for it. I don't own a credit card, and since I live in Jamaica where iPhones are not very popular, it's really difficult to get an iTunes card. I've tried asking numerous of my friends for one, but, no luck. Sucks! It's like, five dollars. I didn't think that was very expensive or so much to ask, but, yeah, I guess that's just really unfortunate for me, so I'm stuck watching the videos even though it would really save me the trouble. Anyways, I don't think that The expansion quests are not there anymore, I guess it all depends on what you get. I hardly ever receive quests To get more time for boosts or more gold in the treasure quest. I'm not sure if it's random or what, But, yeah.

By Anthony on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

Hi you would lose your gold and all your feelings that you have build up and clean your request that you have done and you will keep your estate expansion and your princess first and you will start over like you would if you starting the game out

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

In the blacksmith property, would it be possible to put weapons before armor? I mean, the weapons cost less and you need less goods to produce it. Just a thought and something that I have noticed.

I'm noticing that when you use the Real Estate Mogul Boost it doesn't reduce the cost of new expansions. I have supported the game with the Once-Off Remove Ads/Unlock Boosts on Android.

I really like that there is only a convenience Remove Ads/Extra Boosts Purchase and no other purchases.

By Trea on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

The only quest I get is buy 10,000 automations. I don't like playing with only that quest. Before there were at least two quests, the last one was 5,000,000 clothes. When I started playing, there were 7 quests or so, but in the last months the number decreased to only one at last.,

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

So, it seems that I've collected all the gifts that the Princess has to offer. My gift is now at 100% as it relates to getting higher sale prices. what happens now? Or is it that I just stop collecting gifts altogether, or do I still get some money each day when I visit the princess? Will there be other gives available?

By Clare Page on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

In answer to the poster on this thread who asked what to do when the princess's gifts bring sale prices up to 100% higher, giving up collecting the gifts is not a good idea. If you wait ages between collecting gifts, the percentage will drop again: at one point I only failed to collect the gift on one day and the percentage went down to 98%. So visit the princess every day if you can, and, although the percentage may drop if you can't, it'll stay up at 100% if you do.

By charles on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

In reply to by Unregistered User (not verified)

Wouldn't that make the game too easy? I think that we should keep track of what we need rather than having the game giving all sorts of hints and reminders.

By Michelle on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

Hi everybody,
I've added a few more bug fixes this months and a new beta is coming out in a few days.
The bug where the using multiple Quick Study boosts at the same time would make the unlock price of a product become incredibly high is fixed. Thank you to all of you who reported this bug in emails and on Facebook.

In addition, the game wasn't supposed to require an internet connection - a bug in the time calculation was causing the game to wait for an internet connection to retrieve the server time. This is fixed as well and I just successfully tested it with airplane mode on.

On top of that, I changed the code so that the product sale announcements are no longer repeated
multiple times.

Also, after reading multiple comments about it here, I changed the behavior of the storage extension window. After extending the storage the window will no longer automatically close. That way, you can buy multiple storage extensions without having to reopen the window every time.

hi, I am so excited to hear of these bug fixes. I can’t wait for the new beta to come out. I really love the game and I want to thank you so much for continuing to work on it for us.
God bless,
Wren Langley

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Monday, June 25, 2018 - 16:25

That's really awesome to hear. I can't wait for this update of the game.
One question though, is there a fix for getting boosts when watching videos? I mean, will we be returned to the game immediately after watching the video? It's kind of confusing tapping all over the screen to get back to the game after watching the video advertisements for the boosts. .

By Paul Martin on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - 16:25

I too can't wait for the update to go live, or to get on the beta release. I mainly say this as a result of the game frequently crashing over the past couple weeks where I had no internet connection barring a few minutes when I travel to town. It got to the point where I at times misheard Voiceover as saying "Crashing Kingdom", as it would go down once every 10 to 15 minutes, and would even occasionally get stuck on the loading screen after activating the play button. That last occurrence would fix itself after a day or so though.
As a side note: Is it intended behavior to have your boost quest progress boosted upon reset? I completed the sell 2,500 boost quest, and found my quest progress for the 5000 one indicated as 2,562 for example after finally resetting the game after completing 3 or 4 other quests.

By Sabrina on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - 16:25

Hi Michelle.
I have discovered a very strange bug with the treasure chest quests. I get one and it is already completed without me doing anything. This is very strange and I don’t get the reward either. Help?

By Paul Martin on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - 16:25

Hello sabrina
After fiddling with the iCloud save and load thing on another device , I can tell you I'm likely seeing the same thing you are. I did all the treasure chest quests a while ago, so I didn't think of it this morning when writing that earlier message, but it really is the same thing. it's as if some variable isn't getting reset when it should be set back to 0, so the boost count stays up there in my earlier example just as your chest opening count.
I definitely get the reward though, as I often open those to find 130,000 or so.

By Ornella on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - 16:25

/on your next restart you will get the reward because if you didn't see that in the previous quest listing that probably means that you were already doing the quests before it showed up and some quests like that could roll over. Hope I made some sense.

By Sabrina on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I love the new beta, however there doesn't seem to be any way to be able to automate a single slot any more.
Also, in the shop, it says accessibility xx something wich I cannot remember and I don't see what it is.
I really like the new update though.

By alex wallis on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

on the new beta the video reward screen is full of unlabeled elements and its not clear how to close the screen after watching a video, also its annoying to keep hearing the message video reward ran out.
another issue is that if you go into a building and don't have enough gold to purchase it there is now no way to get out of that building, there used to be a cancel button which has vanished.
as to the gem shop, the accessibility message shows up basically for every buy option after the first offer for £1.99.
Michelle, I also sent you a message about ultimately winning the game, I have completed all the quests, but I found that when I completed all quests, and made a point of buying all buildings and unlocking all products the game just sat there, I got no congratulations you won screen etc, though this was in the last appstore version I haven't tried again in this beta.

By Sabrina on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I have no problem getting rid of the ads because they all have an unlabeled button in the top right or left corner. I cannot seem to automate the buildings though; I press the automate for 2 gems but it only automates the slot. Is that how it should work? I like the video reward has ran out thing though.

By Michelle on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

Wow, you beat me to it. I was just about to post here about the new update. Instead I found that you already found it and were posting about it!
Thank you for the feedback so far. I already fixed the issue with the non-localized text in the shop and the expired video offer. That last one wasn't supposed to trigger at app start, anyway.

Alex, after the update, the estate now has two extra levels - did you build those out already, too? That should have definitely triggered the message. We're currently working on some additional features though, like a travelling merchant who gives you additional tasks. It'll take a bit until he's finished, but we'll likely add a few extra things over time.

Regarding the princess: Because visiting her was almost useless after you maxed out her sale price bonus, we changed her a little bit. She now gives you an actual present each day. Either gold coins or gems - so it's worth it to stop by her place and say hi.

Sabrina, the automations are supposed to work that way. You buy a slot, these are sometimes called buildilngs, and then you can set a product to produce in it, and then you can automate it.
Slot and building are used interchangeably in the game, but they mean the same thing.

Regarding the videos: We didn't change anything in regards to the videos at all, and we don't have any say in where the close button is or how accessible it is. From experience I know that the advertisers don't really make these buttons accessible. You can however play the entire game without ads, if you collect the gems from the princess, from treasure chests and from completing quests. You can then use the gems for boosting instead of watching a video.

Note that everyone who previously purchased ad-free boosts won't need gems or ads to boost. You can get the boosts directly just as before.

Thanks for all the feedback! An update with the fixes is already on the way!

By Sabrina on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

That is awesome. It will be very useful when it comes to the more expensive buildings/slots.

By alex wallis on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

Hi Michelle, I didn't know about the extra estate levels I will build those and report back. I wonder, could an option be added to the options menu to hide all the video rewards stuff if we don't want to watch videos and bought the boosts previously, maybe an option could also be added to hide the gem shop if we don't have any intention of using it as it does add clutter to the screen.
the merchant sounds cool am looking forward to him.
one thing that I just noticed that isn't in the change notes is that we can now cancel boosts that's nice.
Michelle we definitely can't get out of a building now if we go into it unless we are able to purchase it.

By Sabrina on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I cannot confirm this right now because I have all properties at the same because I am trying to complete more quests than I should on one go. I don't know why I do that.
I noticed the boost thing too. This rocks. Especially if I accidentally choose the wrong boost because that was really annoying when I did. Also, this will make it possible to reset boosts if doing sonmething and you are not able to go and restart that later.

By alex wallis on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

One thing I don't like with the way automating now works is that in a slot when you flick down you are taken to the automation label but you then have to flick to the right to automate and then choose weather to use gold or gems, I preferred the old way where you were taken directly to the automate for gold option. I think maybe some settings could be added to control the behavior, as its obviously personal preference weather you use gold or gems, so I think that maybe options could be offered to take you either to the gem option or the gold option when you flick down. as its rather pointless just placing you on the automation label.
I did have a strange issue where I watched a video add and it went into a loop playing the same advert over and over again.

By Sabrina on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

Lol that loop thing has to be frustrating.
I have a suggestion to make the gem reward thing a bit more infrequent, a little more sparse, because I already have fifty gems now.

By alex wallis on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I only got the one ad that looped, but I did encounter a totally silent advert. also, just wondering michelle, could you tell us what the different amounts of gems are that we can buy in the shop as obviously we have no idea till a build comes out that fixes the accessibility with the shop.

By Sabrina on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

Hi Michelle!
I have an idea. Could you add in an option to make sounds when boosts expire or when there is a video reward? That way it will not interupt vo all the time when trying to do things.
Just a suggestion.

By Sabrina on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I just installed the fix.

By alex wallis on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I installed the new build, and there is a regression, in that the quantity of an item gets repeated over and over again the more of an item we sell, so say I sell 50 of a product 4 times, the announcement sell 50 sell 50 will be repeated 4 times if I sell the 50 rapidly.this happens both with VoiceOver and sapi. this doesn't happen when I sell all of a given product.

By Ali Colak on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I love this build!
Especially as I had a habbit of accidentally hitting boosts that I didn't wnat, the cancil boost option is wonderful. Not having to reopen the buy storage window constantly is great as well.
Thanks to all the developers.

By Bellsfurmama on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I am in love with the new update! Thank you guys so much for this. It is just fantastic!

By Use Small Words on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

hi I just found the new update today. Thank you so so much for the continuous purchasing i.e. not having to go constantly back to the city to purchase storage that’s a big help. The boost cancelling is also really great.

Unfortunately, I am unsure of this but I seem to have found a bug. Whenever I Press okay on the video reward screen I am immediately informed that the reward has run out yet the ad continues to play. Not only that but after watching the ad I failed to receive the reward stated. Not sure if anyone else is getting this but I thought I’d put it out there.

Keep up the good work.

By Michelle on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

Thanks for the suggestions so far.
A new beta update will come out tomorrow most likely.
It should fix the ever repeating sales announcements in the city again. Also, it fixes a bug where only the rewards for the first 5 completed quests were shown in the restart screen. You'd still get all rewards if you completed more, but the screen wouldn't mention them.

I also modified the automation section in the slot details dialog. The first button that is selected is now always the automate-for-gold button. It was just pure coincidence that it was the gem button before. I also removed the extra label that said nothing but "automate" right above it. This should reduce the swipe count somewhat.

Right now I'm searching for a good sound to symbolize that a boost has run out. If I can find one in time, it will be in the update as well.

By Sabrina on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

This is not asociated with the beta but now, since I have three easier quests on my hands, I have decided to focus on those three. I go hardcore with them because they all are not dependant on any other thing. They were so comfortably easy to do at the same time.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

Great job on the update, loving it so far!
Yeah, the thing with the video is a bit of a pain, it's hard to come out of the video screen to collect the rewards at times, couldn't you like, program the game to start playing after we have watched the videos? I mean, they are not very long, maybe about one minute, the most, so when the video is finished playing, we could just be returned to the game without having to find the button to close out the ad. Also, would it be possible for you to make an option for us to exchange Gold for gems?

By Ornella on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I love this update and the gems is a good idea. For anyone who is having problem with the close buttons for the videos I think I found a work around for that. If its a silent add its the second unlabeled button and if you hear sound its the very first button to the left. I never had any problems with adds.

Hi Kimbowen,
the videos are there so that players can earn additional gems without having to pay real money. I wouldn't want to take that option away from anybody. But they obviously optional. Instead of paying for the videos to disappear though, you would just not watch them, or buy gems the old fashioned way.
Is that what you mean? Or is the notification that a video is available that's the problem?

By Kelvin Tan on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

hi michelle and all, I have finished the 2 new estate upgrades, and still when I restarted my game, there are no new quests for me. I have finished all 5 million quests even for the jeweler. will new quests be added in the next version of the game? new items and shops maybe? thanks!

By KE7ZUM on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

Also loving the update here. I notice though on my s9 plus (Yes I use it on android) is that I still loose a lot of focus when I'm swiping down to the last slot. I can't get the hold before home thing to work 100 percent of the time but over all I'm loving the update. I do agree video reward available can get a bit annoying especially when I'm trying to do something else, but still, nice job.

Thank you for the new update with the fixes and new features. I for one don't mind the video reward available because it does not stop me from doing what ever I'm doing and if I want to get the reward I stop and get it if not I just ignore it.
This is a wonderful game and there is no other like it.
Thanks again Michelle for all you do.

By Smiling Bookworm on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I've built my castle and will do the 2 new dwellings but I have yet to get any quest for the Jewelers. Is there any?

By Bellsfurmama on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

For those wishing not to use gems, I think gems are part of the new game structure. This has been a major update and that means we will have to get used to changes. It is not hard to find the automation options in slots; they are where they have always been. We just have other options now that we will have to get used to.

If Michelle has to spend her time adding in settings to turn off the new additions what is the point? For the game to sustain itself it has to grow. I say let the devs concentrate on new features and the things they have planned without having to worry about trying to turn off the new features because they seem like they wwon’t be used right now. Personally, gems can actually be a little convenient sometimes. So give them a try! And, remember that we don’t know what they have planned.

Again, thank you Michelle for the awesome update and for what I think is a new product in the jeweler. I don’t remember seeing pots in there before. Hopefully this means more products are to come! :)

By Bellsfurmama on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

I read about the Merchant feature in development and I had an idea. The merchant could provide tasks that when completed, would unlock new products/features in the game. Kind of like the automate all button in the jeweler.

By Clare Page on Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 16:25

In reply to by Bellsfurmama

I recently took a temporary break from Crafting Kingdom after completing all the estate expansions in the previous version, but, since the latest update of the full App Store version came along, I've started playing again, not just to do the last two estate expansions which have just been added, but also to discover the new features. On the whole I'm very pleased with this update; I particularly like the fact that we aren't taken out of the purchase screen every time we purchase more storage, although one tiny disadvantage of this is that, if we want to get our storage up to a certain amount, we have to come out of that screen to see how much storage we actually have. I also find the gems useful, so I have done an in-app purchase to get plenty of those: I don't need gems for boosts, as I have already done the in-app purchase to allow boosts to start directly, but I have used gems for property purchases and adding production slots a few times already. By the way, it seems a bit strange to me that we have a button to adde a slot, but whe we do so it says "purchase building" in the screen that comes up. I think I can see the logic behind that, with each slot being a small production unit, even though it could seem inconsistent to use two words for the same thing. Cancelling boosts has also proved very useful to me, although the one time I have used it is to prolong the boosts I was already using, so that they wouldn't run out just after I had to go away from my iPhone for a while. With so many great changes, I hoped not to have to report bugs, but I have already spotted two: if you can't afford a property, there is no Back button to get out of that screen, and I have to reopen the app to get back to the World map, and in the Gem Shop there are two in-app purchase buttons where the text starts with Accessibility but where the only other easily readable thing is the price of the purchase. These two bugs don't stop me playing Crafting Kingdom, of course, and, even though I used the video rewards only a few times after updating the app, before I did the in-app purchase for gems, the announcement that they are available isn't a long interruption while I'm playing, and I managed to close the few videos I watched by double-tappintg at the top of the screen, usually in the top right-hand corner; Many thanks for this new update, Michelle: this game is as good as ever, and the new features add to the enjoyment of playing it.