Migration woes and data loss
Last week, we went through the process of upgrading our dev machines from Mountain Lion to Mavericks. Unfortunately, there was some issues during the transition and we suffered some major setbacks to our operations. Despite having backups for data, some important files were either not being duplicated properly or were corrupted in data transfer. Because of these oversights, we’ve got a critical issue for one of our themes which will result in its requiring a new listing.
What is a keystore?
When a developer is going to release a product onto Google Play, the physical file (apk) is signed with a key. This is similar to the signature you use to sign checks and other official documents. This key is what certifies that the product has come from the official source/developer. For example, we have App A, which is signed by Key A. If you attempt to update App A, by signing it with Key B, your Android device would tell you that the products have mismatching signatures. This is a security feature and one that is certainly needed. This is where our issue lies.
Once you’ve uploaded a product onto Google Play with a specific signature, you can only update the app with that same keystore. Due to unforeseen circumstances out of our control, one of our keystores was corrupted during our transition last week. The affected product is Tersus. The only way for us to move forward supporting this product, via Google Play, is to re-list it with a new package name. This will require individuals to purchase a new license for this product, as it is affectively a new package (despite it only being a name change). Unfortunately, there is no way for us to transfer a license from the old product to the new or we would certainly go down that route. Because of this, we are are giving that style a re-design.
Photoshop and actions
For our design process, Photoshop is our main software. Over time, we’ve built a library of actions which enable us to produce graphical assets faster and smarter. If we had to do all of the work by hand, for each icon, there would be far less updates as the time needed for icon creation would be exponentially longer. Not just for icons, but for most areas of our theme making process, we’ve created actions or other assets to assist us. Unfortunately, due to a major oversight, all of our tools were lost.
Luckily, our icon themselves were not a part of the data loss. Because of this, we’ve been working to reverse engineer the styles in order to be able to re-create them. We’ve made huge progress and are happy to announce that we’re almost back to 100% operations for new icons. Of our signature styles, Lustre and Versicolor are going to be slightly modified from their original design.
What’s next?
We’re still working to bring all of our systems back online. Due to these recent events, our next icon update has been pushed back by at least another week. When we do update, we’ll be releasing a revised version of Tersus (dubbed 2.0), which we will be replacing that set moving forward. We were hoping to bring some new designs to market, but it looks like plans will be pushed back to 2014. Thanks for your continued support!