Achievement IDs are different when finalizing an app ?

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Hello there !

I’m about to submit my app to the Apple Store. I’m using achievements and leaderboards that have been working perfectly fine during the beta testing.

In the final stage before submitting the app, I’ve activated Game Center which allows me to add the leaderboards and the achievements.

There’s one problem : the achievement IDs are differents from the one I added in the “Functionality / Game Center Tab”. Instead of having “01”, “02”, etc,  it shows me a 8 digit number that seem to generated by Apple.

Do I have to update my game and use their 8 number digit  ID or can I just leave them just like they were ? Why are there different achievement IDs ?

#2

Perhaps it needs to be a minimum of 8 characters long, and so they’ve auto generated new ones for you. It seems unlikely, since I would expect it to not allow you to save when you first entered them if that’s the case.  

Our IDs have never changed, but then they are always of the format: “company_game_achievementname” and much more than 8 characters.

If it were me, I’d do some more testing using both sets of IDs and see what happens. Do both sets of IDs allow you to “complete” achievements or just the old/new IDs?  

On a somewhat related note (in case you’ve never done it before), when you submit your app to Apple make sure you select for all of your achievements, IAP, etc to be submitted too. If you’ve never done it before it would be easy to miss, and those things have to be submitted and reviewed at the same time as a build of the app. If you submit the app without submitting your achievements, you would have to submit an update in order to submit them later.

#3

Hi Alan QuizTix !

I’ve made several tests, with the unpublished version of my game :

  • I’ve added a new testing achievement, with a longer ID (by using a revers domain format, something like com.corona.game.001), and once I add it in the Submission screen, the ID is changed again by a 8 number digit. I guess it’s probably not related to its length .

  • I’ve tried to unlock the achievement by calling its new ID. Guess the “new” ID is not working.

  • I’ve unlocked an other achievement, which has an “old” ID : it seems to work.

I have no idea if I should try to submit it and see if it works with the final build (once it gets approved)…

#4

One option is to do a “soft submission” where you submit it to Apple but mark it for manual release rather than automatic, though to be honest I think submitting it to Testflight should suffice for “live testing” if you haven’t done that already. You still have to submit a beta build to be reviewed, but it goes through in an hour or so for me.  

I’ve just had a look at my iTunes connect page and noticed that if I go into an achievement I still see my own Achievement ID, however I also see an 8 digit ID in the iTunes URL:

https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/da/LCGameCenterDirectAction/editAchievement?adamID=1234567890&achievementID=12345678

So perhaps it is just something weird happening on iTunes that is making that ID appear over your own. I would suggest that if your original IDs work when testing then that should be the “real” ID that Game Center will use.

#5

I’ve got the same kind of url and the achievementID variable is actually the same as the one that shows up in the submission screen. So my guess is that this the “internal achievement ID” used by Apple, while we should keep using our own achievement ID (which would act as some kind of alias maybe ?).

Anyway, I guess I’m gonna submit my game and see how it goes…

Thanks a lot !

#6

Now I haven’t added an achievement recently, but from looking at a couple of my apps, the Achievement ID is a unique string containing alphanumeric symbols, periods and underscores. In one of my older games, I have id’s of like 001 and R04. In one of my newer games I switched to the reverse domain name:  com.omnigeekmedia.gamename.achievementname.

I can’t see where Apple would be forcing a different value than you entered.

Rob

#7

In one of my older games, I have id’s of like 001 and R04.

And in the end, did it worked as intended ?

I can’t see where Apple would be forcing a different value than you entered.

Did you mean “you can’t see” litterally ? If that’s the case, it happens once I go to “Prepare for Submission” and activate Game Center, then add some achievements. Here’s a screenshot :

itunesconnect.png

I’ve only found 4 guys who had the same issue (which is probably a proof that it isn’t Corona SDK related, if anyone was wondering).
 

#8

I’ve never had a problem. I just tried to add a new achievement. It clearly says alphanumeric value. Perhaps I should create a new app since this one has been in the system for a while:

#9

I see, you mean you are seeing the Apple ID there? I thought you meant your ID was being replaced on the screen where you actually create/edit each achievement. If you go into that screen I assume you still see your original ID?  

I think that when we last submitted some achievements a week or 2 ago it did the same thing where it shows Apple’s internal ID number, and everything went through as normal and my achievements work with my IDs as expected.

#10

Yes : in the “Submission Page”, I see the Apple ID. But when I go back to the page where I created the achievement (iTunes Connect / Features / Game Center), I still see the original IDs. Here’s a screenshot of that page :

itunesconnect2.png

I think that when we last submitted some achievements a week or 2 ago it did the same thing where it shows Apple’s internal ID number, and everything went through as normal and my achievements work with my IDs as expected.

What do you mean by normal ? Did the Apple’s internal ID stopped showing up and were replaced by your IDs ? Or did it stay that way but didn’t have any issue once the game was live ?

#11

I mean the submission went through without any rejections, and the achievements worked as expected using my own IDs.  

The Apple internal ID only showed up on that “prepare for submission” section, and never on the create/edit achievement page.

I suspect that ID is only for Apple’s reference, and while it’s not convenient if you want to double check you are submitting the correct achievements it doesn’t seem to have any effect on the functionality of the achievements in the app itself.

P.S. It takes me long enough to create and submit 36 achievements, I don’t know how you have the patience to do 70 of them (plus potentially the same again on other stores)!

#12

Hmm my screen shot didn’t post. Any way I created a new app and a new achievement. Perhaps since you’ are entering numbers, they are not considered unique and Apple is making them unique for you.

But you can do com.yourdomain.yourgame.yourachievement to make them unique.

Rob

#13

Hmm my screen shot didn’t post. Any way I created a new app and a new achievement. Perhaps since you’ are entering numbers, they are not considered unique and Apple is making them unique for you.

 

But you can do com.yourdomain.yourgame.yourachievement to make them unique.

Unfortunately, I can’t edit their IDs. The only way to use com.mydomain.mygame.myachievement would be to create all the 70 achievements all over again…

Anyway, I’m gonna try to keep using my old IDs and see how it goes. If Alan QuizTix is right, it should be ok. If not, well… too bad for me ! Anyway, I’ll let you know !

PS : Yeah, creating 70 achievements is really annoying, especially on iTunes Connect. It’s way easier and goes way much faster on Google Play Game Services…

#14

Speaking of GPGS, you’ve reminded me that I actually no longer use format “company_game_achievementname” for my IDs. Since GPGS auto-generates its own IDs, I create my achievements there first, and then use those IDs when creating my iTunes achievements.
That way I can use the same ID for both platforms in my Lua code.

#15

Perhaps it needs to be a minimum of 8 characters long, and so they’ve auto generated new ones for you. It seems unlikely, since I would expect it to not allow you to save when you first entered them if that’s the case.  

Our IDs have never changed, but then they are always of the format: “company_game_achievementname” and much more than 8 characters.

If it were me, I’d do some more testing using both sets of IDs and see what happens. Do both sets of IDs allow you to “complete” achievements or just the old/new IDs?  

On a somewhat related note (in case you’ve never done it before), when you submit your app to Apple make sure you select for all of your achievements, IAP, etc to be submitted too. If you’ve never done it before it would be easy to miss, and those things have to be submitted and reviewed at the same time as a build of the app. If you submit the app without submitting your achievements, you would have to submit an update in order to submit them later.

#16

Hi Alan QuizTix !

I’ve made several tests, with the unpublished version of my game :

  • I’ve added a new testing achievement, with a longer ID (by using a revers domain format, something like com.corona.game.001), and once I add it in the Submission screen, the ID is changed again by a 8 number digit. I guess it’s probably not related to its length .

  • I’ve tried to unlock the achievement by calling its new ID. Guess the “new” ID is not working.

  • I’ve unlocked an other achievement, which has an “old” ID : it seems to work.

I have no idea if I should try to submit it and see if it works with the final build (once it gets approved)…

#17

One option is to do a “soft submission” where you submit it to Apple but mark it for manual release rather than automatic, though to be honest I think submitting it to Testflight should suffice for “live testing” if you haven’t done that already. You still have to submit a beta build to be reviewed, but it goes through in an hour or so for me.  

I’ve just had a look at my iTunes connect page and noticed that if I go into an achievement I still see my own Achievement ID, however I also see an 8 digit ID in the iTunes URL:

https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/da/LCGameCenterDirectAction/editAchievement?adamID=1234567890&achievementID=12345678

So perhaps it is just something weird happening on iTunes that is making that ID appear over your own. I would suggest that if your original IDs work when testing then that should be the “real” ID that Game Center will use.

#18

I’ve got the same kind of url and the achievementID variable is actually the same as the one that shows up in the submission screen. So my guess is that this the “internal achievement ID” used by Apple, while we should keep using our own achievement ID (which would act as some kind of alias maybe ?).

Anyway, I guess I’m gonna submit my game and see how it goes…

Thanks a lot !

#19

Now I haven’t added an achievement recently, but from looking at a couple of my apps, the Achievement ID is a unique string containing alphanumeric symbols, periods and underscores. In one of my older games, I have id’s of like 001 and R04. In one of my newer games I switched to the reverse domain name:  com.omnigeekmedia.gamename.achievementname.

I can’t see where Apple would be forcing a different value than you entered.

Rob

#20

In one of my older games, I have id’s of like 001 and R04.

And in the end, did it worked as intended ?

I can’t see where Apple would be forcing a different value than you entered.

Did you mean “you can’t see” litterally ? If that’s the case, it happens once I go to “Prepare for Submission” and activate Game Center, then add some achievements. Here’s a screenshot :

itunesconnect.png

I’ve only found 4 guys who had the same issue (which is probably a proof that it isn’t Corona SDK related, if anyone was wondering).