Game News

Status Update

Status Update

Hello WallaBee Players,

It’s time for an update on what’s going on in the world of WallaBee Development. During the past few weeks, we have been making adjustments to the app, including bug fixes, a new tutorial system for players just starting, and a few surprises. While some of these changes have yet to go into effect, as they require an app update, there have been other changes on the backend that don’t require an app update. This is what we want to discuss with y’all today.

New Item Releases

There have been some issues with the app during the last few item releases. These have been spurred on by a few different areas of the app, but it’s mostly been the Activity page.

Q: Why is the Activity Page causing such an issue?

A: In short, we were passing too much information at once to the Activity Page. When a new item comes out, players want to see where the current number is, so that they can try and time their purchase to get a certain number card for themselves or their friends. So, when many players are requesting the same large bulk of information at the same time, the database locks up.

Q: What happens when the database locks up?

A:  Everything that WallaBee has in it comes from, and is saved to, a database. When the database becomes too stressed with gathering and saving information at the same time, it can lock up. When this happens, sometimes certain requests timeout and do not perform. Some examples of this is the lack of activity on an item when purchased from the store, the ability to purchase an item multiple times in one appearance, and the ability for two players to purchase the same item from the market at the same time.

Q: Okay, so what are you doing to fix it?

A: Right now, we are working on optimizing our API endpoints, which should speed up various areas of the app. We did some changes yesterday before the new item was released that made a certain high-traffic endpoint more efficient, but it didn’t resolve all the issues. In fact, it created new ones. We are continuously working on overcoming this obstacle for you, the WallaBee Community. We will not stop until this is resolved and functioning as it should.

Q: What can we do to help?

A: In order to properly test the current issues, there needs to be a lot of activity happening in the app at once… i.e. a new item release. Unfortunately, this is the only way we can really test whether or not our changes are fixing anything. Based on recent feedback and our desire to keep the integrity of the game, we will not be releasing a new set item until the current issues are resolved. Instead, we will be using our good old friend: Test Item.

Test Item

For those who have not encountered the Test Item before, it is a special item that does not appear in your pouch. It was created strictly to help us simulate a drop (with your participation).

You may see the release of a Test Item or two at various times during MHQ hours (9am-5pm CDT) over the next few days. Some releases may be teased ahead of time to get more activity, while others will be a complete surprise. The Test Item will appear in WallaStore for only a few minutes at a time. We will take record of any performance issues/breakthroughs and those who participated, and then reset the items to zero. We would appreciate your cooperation during this time and will reward those who participate with purchasing a test item.

From the entire WallaBee Team, we would like to extend an apology for those who have experienced issues with the app, specifically during the adrenaline-pumping moments of a new item release. We want to thank those who have remained patient and optimistic during the past few weeks, as we know that is has been irritating and frustrating. We have been just as frustrated as you, if not more so – we just want it to work well.

Shave and a Haircut

Two Bits!

Hello WallaBee Players!

We have a new set to share with you: Two Bits. Inspired by the silly knock that we all do when visiting a friend’s house, this set will take a look at what a ‘typical’ salon in WallaVille looks like. In fact, it’s the only salon in WallaVille. Be prepared for a new ‘do… or two.

Speaking of something new, this set is a great opportunity to release a new subcategory to the Services Places Category: Salon / Barber. Places with this new subcategory will begin popping up on the map over this next week, replacing most current hair salons. Players will soon be able to add new Salon / Barber locations from within the app. For those who are interested in the backend statistics, this new category has an accessible radius of 600m, with a max item count of 60, which follows in line with most of the Services category.

In other news, we hope that you enjoyed The Hunt. The idea for that set came to us from one of our players and BeeKeepers, Lightek. Last September, our BeeKeepers had an internal competition with adding new places. Their names were added to a raffle the more places they added, and there were many prizes to be had. Lightek was one of three winners of the ‘set co-producer’ reward, which means you can look forward to two other BeeKeeper-inspired sets later this year.

As always, have fun and #ForageOn.
Questions, Comments, Concerns? Email support@wallabeegame.com

The Hunt

The Hunt

In February, WallaBee celebrated its 5th birthday. There were events in London and Orlando to celebrate this benchmark, each with their own theme. Those in London were sent on a devious hunt…

This is their story.

Android Is Here

Android Is Here

At one point in time, the idea of WallaBee heading to the Google Play Store was a distant thought. So distant, in fact, one might even say that staff ensured it wouldn’t. Ever. However, a new sun has risen on the horizon. A new day is here. The day of worldwide support.

We are pleased to announce that WallaBee is officially on Android: FREE! You can now download the addictive geolocation-based collecting game from the Google Play Store and play alongside users from all over the world. Make friends with our solid community and collect items from our collection of beautiful digitally hand-drawn items.

So, what are you waiting for? Download WallaBee on Android NOW!

Free Comic Book Day!

Munzeeman!

Here in the United States, we take our nerdom seriously. So serious, in fact, May 6th is celebrated as Free Comic Book Day, where select retailers give out free copies of our favorite superheroes in action.

Beginning today, you can find a Munzeeman Comic in the WallaStore for 1hc. Yes, it’s not completely free, but it’s sure darn close! You can find more information about this green-masked hero on our website.

A Message To The Players

WOWZERS

Good thing the new app is coming with a stable foundation, huh? That last push through the Birthday Baking was a bit undercooked (groan).

As you’re all well aware, we have been working on ‘the new app’ for some time, but it’s really true. Like all good things, it takes time and patience… and more time… and a bit of know-how to get things going the correct way. When it comes to the future of WallaBee, it is bright, shiny, and a lot more stable. We continue to run into issues on the current app, as there are many problems ingrained into its very being. The new app is being written completely from the ground up. You will notice the different when you see it.

We apologize for the inconvenience of multi-item mixing that make the connection problems worse during a drop. We do not want to remove any content from gameplay to compensate the issues, but due to the app’s current limitations, we will be taking a serious step back from mixing for some time. You will still find the occational mix available, but we want you to all be happy (as mush as that’s impossible given the current situation). Thank you all for your patience dealing with errors, lag, timeouts, and the like. We have a great deal of respect for those of you who have stuck it out to this point, and you will all be rewarded..

There will be an update soon about where we’re at with the new app, when you can expect it to be available, and what content will look like. We may begin teasing this information over a period of time, instead of all at once, but you can bet your bottom dollar that we are almost there. I promise.

EDIT: If you had any items move in your pouch which ended in you mixing the wrong items, please send me an email. In extreme cases like this, with tons of errors and lag, we are willing to grant redos.

A Discussion On Fair Play

We would like to take a moment to explain what fair play means to us here at WallaBee, as it can sometimes be seen as a subjective term.

General Fairness

Types of Items

• Set Items
  • All players are given access to all set items.
  • All players are given the same opportunity to get new set items.

• WallaBee Unique Items
  • Defined as an extra item, outside of normal set items, obtainable through gameplay (cross mixes, mega mixes, store purchase, foraging, pulling from Mixerpool).
  • All players are given access to these items, although some are harder to find than others (Mystery Box & Christmas Mixer).

• Player Unique Items
  • Defined as an extra item, outside of normal set items, obtainable through other means. They are not always available for all players.
  • Players are periodically given the opportunity to commission an item, which is maintained solely by that player (or a group of players). This includes complete control of distribution as they see fit, as long as it fits within WallaBee terms and conditions.
  • Some Player Uniques are created by WallaBee Staff for special events, moments, or competitions, such as the WallaBacker, Birthday Cake(s), and Wolwocks House Cup.
  • Players do not have a right to publicly harass unique owners for how a unique is distributed.

• Branded Items
  • Defined as an extra item, outside of normal set items, obtainable through gameplay AND/OR other means.
  • Branded items are created by companies and individuals for the purpose of advertising, fundraising, etc.
  • Select Branded items are obtainable only through donations or the Mixerpool.

Honeycombs

• All players are given access to gaining in-game currency through foraging at locations and selling items to other players.
• Everyone is able to play without spending any real money, although purchasing HC is available for those who find it helpful.

Dropped / Locked Items

• Any item dropped at a location is fair game for another player to pick up. Locks are currently given in game through Mystery Boxes and Christmas Mixers, but we have plans of adding additional ways to earn locks without paying for them.
• There’s a motto that’s developed within the forums: “Lock it or lose it.” We give everyone the ability to save one of each item into their sets, and carry a default of 30 items with them in their pouch (before upgrades). If collecting items outside of those saved to your set is important to you, please lock them so other players cannot take them.
• If you would like to read more about dropped / locked items, please tap here.

One Account Per Player

• This rule is not new, but is being mentioned again as a reminder. Each account should only be playing for themselves.
• WallaBee is a family-friendly game, and has every intention of staying that way, allowing multiple people within a household to play. We understand that some children may require assistance, such as: logging in on the same device as the parent, keeping their location hidden, etc. HOWEVER, if your child, sister, nephew, uncle, dog, dead relative, or any other person within your household are only playing for your benefit, this is where there is an issue.
• Using other accounts to hold/gain items, sell items on the market, and/or transfer HC to a main account is breaking the rules. We can track all transactions, locations, drops, pick ups, swaps, and purchases down to the second. Please play within the rules.
• If you are cheating, and haven’t been banned yet, don’t think that you’re getting away with it. There are many users currently doing this type of behavior that won’t be with us at the end of the week.
• If you have been using multiple accounts for the reasons above, and don’t want to chance your account being permanently banned, please reach out to me through PM or email. Should you decide to come forward, you will be given a warning and may continue playing on your main account.

Drop Times

WallaBee is a worldwide game, reaching multiple countries, time zones, and cultures. Some new items may be released when you are sleeping. We do not aim for convenient release times, as the word convenient is subjective, and differs person to person (even within the same time zone). Convenience is an impossible goal without giving favoritism, so we will be aiming for a more well-rounded percentage of “Daylight Hour” drops.

ItemBrowser has updated their site to include an Item Drop Analyzer, which shows customizable pie chart graphs ranging from the past week of drops, to the entire history of WallaBee. This is a helpful tool for all players who are concerned about their time zone’s drop times having fewer Daylight Hour drops.

For example, looking at Auckland [+12] from the beginning of WallaBee, we can see that only 34.4% of their drops are during Daylight Hours, where UTC has 65.7%.

The staff is committed to equalizing these statistics to ensure more Daylight Hour drops across the board, and we appreciate your patience as we continue to work on this goal.

Places

As the community shares their hopes and dreams of a brighter future for the app, we take notes. Whether your ideas are used better the game or not, all ideas and heard and considered. With the recent announcement of new subcategories, we want to make sure that your concerns are heard. There was concern about cemeteries not being within couch range of some users. I understand the laziness factor that WallaBee plays to, but it is still a geo-location based game at the core. Getting outdoors for certain activities is actually good for you, believe it or not. If you have a condition that limits mobility, we obviously do not want to leave you out of the fun. Certain accommodations will be made for these players.

The main hurdle that the game faces with locations, is the selfish component. Data shows that many users add spots close to our stashes, so they can maximize the couch-based gameplay. We have seen that many players do not have the motivation to get out, explore their place of living, and add new locations, if it is outside of their homebase circle… at least currently.

We are currently working on implementing a new reward system for adding new places to WallaBee. Need some extra HC or running out of locks? Get out and add new locations!

More information on this topic will be released when the development of this feature is ready to go live. We would appreciate all questions on the topic be saved for the official announcement, as not all the details have been solidified. We wanted to give you a heads up, as there will be a certain level of retroactive compensation to encourage more places being made sooner than later.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to email me directly or email support@wallab.ee

Introducing…

Rob: Yote… Yote… YOTE!!!

Yote: Yes, sir. Mr. Imperial Leader, SIR!

Rob: What are you doing, Yote?

Yote: Foraging, of course, Imperial Leader!

Rob: Good to hear, Yote! We have a surprise for you.

Yote: A surprise?! Am I finally getting the Yote Mixer?!?!?!

Rob: Not quite, but close. We’re putting The Yote in a set, all of its own.

Yote: A whole set?? Tell me more SIR!

Rob: It’s all below in the forum post, Yote. Thank you for all that you do.

Yote: Thank you, Mr. Imperial Leader!! I’m so money!!! YOTE

Ah, Yote and The Imperial Leader… Well, Rob is correct. We have a new set coming out, all based on The Yote!

This is the first official Munzee/WallaBee cross over – with some lovely artwork from Andy! As you all know, The Yote has been a great part of our community, as well as on the Munzee side of things, and his icon is very recognizable. We hope that you enjoy this shoutout to The Yote!

We also want to take this opportunity to help to our friends to the north. If you haven’t heard, Canada is experiencing terrible wildfires right now. For the month of June, proceeds from the new Fire Mystery Munzees, and our online sales for WallaBee, will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross on behalf of the Munzee Resellers to help those affected by these fires.

If you would like to donate as well, please visit www.redcross.ca. The Government of Canada is matching all individual donations, and they could use all the help they can get.

Update:The Government of Canada is no longer matching donations as of June 1st.

Megamixes Are Back!

Happy Tuesday!

As you can see, megamixes are back and they are strong!

I was planning on making a forum post before these last flower items went live, explaining that mega mixes have been tested and are working again. However, before I had even finished adding the new mixes, they all went live. The items were in the 1xy’s before I noticed that they had dropped. The mega mix item, The Very Lovely Special Garden, was figured out before I knew what was going on myself. So, my apologies that a new mega mix went live without a formal post.

Now, all I can say is… prepare for the unexpected. Have a wonderful week!

Gaberbocchus veniet cito