Update on the status of RPG Ambience in 2018

[rpg.am...@gmail.com]

Unfortunately, due to new rules introduced by Google concerning apps that integrate with Google Drive, RPG Ambience no longer works properly for new users at all. Instead, they are met with an error message from Google saying that the app in question has not been verified.

Getting an app verified involves manually sending a verification request to Google and, among other things, putting a privacy policy in place. Since I'm not qualified to write such a policy and believe that Google might make additional modifications to their policy following GDPR and other possible legal changes in the future - and also because I have already decided for other reasons that I'm no longer able to work on RPG Ambience as I have before - I will not be able to fix this. This unfortunately means that RPG Ambience will effectively no longer work at all for new users.

In practice, although it pains me to admit it, this should reasonably be considered the end of RPG Ambience. The application still works for users who have already used it (before the verification requirement was put in place) but I can make no guarantees about how long that will continue to be true. As an existing user, if the function that RPG Ambience performs is important to you, I strongly recommend that you start looking for substitutes already, as I have no influence over whatever future changes Google might make.

Hosting your own version of RPG Ambience might be possible, provided that you either go through the steps needed to verify your version of the app or make changes to the source code causing it to no longer require verification. This is something that I might be able to give pointers on to anybody willing to attempt it, but I am unfortunately not able to spend any significant amount of time or effort on this.

This set of circumstances is unfortunate, especially since the timing of these changes from Google coincided almost exactly with my decision to stop actively developing RPG Ambience. I understand that both new and existing users will be disappointed by this, but for the reasons given in my previous announcement I am no longer in a position to give up the time and effort to fix this.

I will soon update the application itself to inform all users about these unfortunate changes. As in my previous announcement, I will conclude by simply saying: thank you!