Reintroducing Osmos for Android!
Many have asked ā and so we’re happy to announce that Osmos has returned to Android!
Some may ask: Why did it disappear in the first place? Well, back in 2011 we worked with a company called Apportable to bring the mobile version of Osmos to Android. They were great to work with, and the game worked well, including regular updates, but in 2015, Apportable more or less “disappeared”. Because Apportable used proprietary tech to “cross-compile” our iOS codebase, we were no longer able to generate/update our Android builds without their help. A new build required a completely new port, from scratch, which we didn’t have the bandwidth for. Over the following few years, the existing build started to show its age, and Google pulled it from the Play Store. These days many Android devices have become 64-bit-only, and won’t run that old 32-bit version.
Enter Andrew LeTourneau of Off-Peak Engineer. He reached out in late 2023, interested in resurrecting Osmos on Android. We talked, got along well, and came up with a plan to go for it! And now, about a year (and many technical hurdles) later, we have a fresh port up on Google Play! š„³
One extra detail that old players will appreciate: we’re working on an update to include Cloud Progress, so you will be able to hop from device to device without having to restart the game. Hopefully that’ll be live in a week or so. (Once it is, if you have progress from the old build on an old device, try installing and running this new build on that device to get that progress into the cloud.)
Thanks, and happy Osmoting!
11 Comments
Darryn
December 7, 2024Any idea if the multiplayer will again be supported in the future, preferably and maybe this is a big ask with cross play support?
eddybox
December 8, 2024Good question! We’re excited about the new port, but it’s true, we didn’t include multiplayer. Tbh it’d be a ton of work to re-port multiplayer over, and there’d be the question of what to use for matchmaking tech since Google Play / Google+ killed their service. Also, given the number of people playing Osmos these days (even on iOS, with the game on Apple Arcade), the lobbies may be fairly quiet, making online multiplayer almost useless. Cross-play would help with that, but may be very tricky to get working. (Check this for some potential headaches: https://www.hemispheregames.com/2017/05/08/osmos-updates-and-floating-point-determinism/)
Anyways, if the new version is successful enough that we can justify the time it’d take to re-port multiplayer, we’ll tackle it. But in the meantime we really wanted to get the single-player experience out there again ā the old version got pulled from Google Play quite a few years ago, and in the past year has stopped working on many devices.
Adam Thompson
December 8, 2024Iām sure this would be difficult, but have you ever considered porting the game over to say the Nintendo Switch? I would think it might do really well on that platform. I know I would buy it and it could introduce the game to a wider audience if it was featured on the eshop. Just curious!
eddybox
December 9, 2024We have! Andy has actually mentioned the Switch specifically a few times now, so I think it’s a distinct possibility. It could definitely bring the game to an entirely new audience. (And would be the first console port of Osmos, after all these years!) No promises, but… maybe!
Bryan
December 10, 2024I have been searching for this game for so long and I just saw that the game was made available again! Please in the future add some controller support. I would love to be able to play this on my GoogleTV
Zac Bowling
December 10, 2024Former Apportable engineer here who had the pleasure of helping bring Osmos to Android in the first round. I’m so happy to see it back on Android. I remember battling with Android 3.0 to get the audio from clipping :)
We were so close to a 64bit of our toolkit before we hit a wall, as many startups do, with financing. In a growing world of game engines that support iOS and Android out-of-the-box, like Unity, the need for a cross-compiling toolkit from iOS to Android has become less necessary for gaming. We turned our attention to enterprise and non-game apps, but then Swift jumped on the scene at the worst time to look for more venture capital to support us in tackling the evolving ecosystem.
Many of us got acquired into Google and worked on Android itself, a few went to Apple to work on iOS itself, and others ended up at different studios that were our partners to keep Apportable’s tech going for several years for direct customers. I regret we couldn’t open-source everything more than we did but it was owned by our investors.
eddybox
December 12, 2024Hey Zac, I remember your name from back in the day! Thanks for getting in touch and filling us in on some of what was happening behind the scenes at Apportable!
From my perspective it seemed like Apportable grew really quickly (when we started working with them it was just the founders), and then about five years later… poof! But while it lasted, I got a really good impression of everyone who worked there ā super smart, good folks. And the tech was really impressive. It’s too bad the business model didn’t work out, though it’s interesting to hear about the shifting market forces at play. Also unfortunate that a lot of the cool stuff you all were working on didn’t see wider use, though I did see some open-source contributions and tools make it out, which is nice.
In any case, I’m happy (though not surprised) to hear everyone moved on to good, interesting jobs elsewhere. Hope you’re doing well, and thanks again for writing!
nige0090
December 17, 2024Hi, I bought Osmos as part of the “Humble Bundle for Android”. The download from their site is the old (not working on recent Android) version. Can I get the new version without paying for it again?
Thanks
eddybox
December 17, 2024Short answer: sure. Send me an email at webmaster@hemispheregames.com and I’ll hook you up.
Longer answer: we don’t have a standalone (non-Google Play) version ready for distribution yet, though we’ll hopefully have that soon. In the meantime I can send you a Google Play promo code or add you to our testers list. :)
Black Sheep Squadron
December 18, 2024Hi dears Developers !
Whaou – How surprising, that’s s awesome ! I am pretty grateful and so happy for this coming back after so many years away from us, the keen players of Osmos, one of the best video games ever brought on screen ! Just wanted to know how to get back my old progress still availables on my Google account to this new release ?
Many thanks and kind regards.
Freddy
eddybox
December 19, 2024Thanks for the kind words, and good question! For starters, the previous port of Osmos never supported cloud sync progress. (We wanted to add it, but…) So unless you still have that installed on a device, I’m afraid your progress is lost. But if you do have it, perhaps on an older device, hold onto that! We plan to release an update soon ā hopefully within a week. When that’s out, you’ll be able to install the new version of Osmos on top of your old installation. And when run, it will push your progress to the cloud. So, please standby…