Back in March, we announced that a “Cloud Sync System” was making its way into the Angry Birds world. (If you don’t remember, click here for our post.) Angry Birds v3.2.0 has just been released and it appears that the system is ready to go! Thus far, the system has popped up on iOS and Android via Google Play, as these are the only platforms for which v3.2.0 is available. As the update lands elsewhere, we will keep our eyes peeled for Rovio Accounts there as well.
Over the past few months, Rovio has been slowly rolling out the Cloud System regionally, starting in the Scandinavian region of Europe (biased much, Rovio?) and then extending through some of eastern Europe. Presumably, Rovio wanted to do some quasi-live bug testing without rolling out the system to millions of people in the larger market regions, such as North America.
Update: Rovio announced on 19 July that Rovio Accounts is now available for the original Angry Birds for iOS and Android worldwide. Their next step is to expand the feature to more titles, and likely more platforms.
Below sort of repeats a lot of what was said in our original post, but it is worthwhile to mention again.
First and foremost, we have to tip our hat to Rovio for creating what we thought would be a utopian system that bordered on impracticality. Rovio Accounts uses a level-by-level sync! What exactly does this mean? It means that each time you upload your scores to your Rovio Account, the system will check your score on each individual level. If the server has a score that’s better than your device, your device will be overwritten on that level. If your device’s score beats the server, the overwrite will go the other way. Basically, this is an ideal system for users who fling on multiple devices.
Of course, no Cloud system is perfect, so proceed with typical caution (I’ll talk more about this below).
We greatly look forward to seeing if/when the system lands on other platforms and how it works between different operating systems. We outlined a few of our preliminary concerns in the previous post and hope to answer some of them soon.
Step 1: Register or sign in to your Rovio Account. If you made an account during the “gamma release” of this system, or in “The Croods”, you should be able to use it here as well. Registration is super straightforward: Give your email, set a password, fill in your birthday, and be done with it. When signing in, if either your email address or password is wrong, the system will tell you.
Oh, one thing I should add. Don’t try to fool Rovio by providing a fake email. You have to confirm your email address within 48-hours of registering.
Step 2: To the Cloud! Once you’re logged in, you will be prompted “Add scores, stars, and feathers from this device to your account?” If this is your first time logging in, we recommend you start with your primary device so you can push that data up into the Cloud. One of our major concerns has been squashed: You will also be asked whether you want to upload your progress to the cloud.
Step 3: Dissendium! Open Angry Birds on another device and log in. Any progress in the Cloud should be pulled onto your device! (Note: You may need to logout and log back in to trigger the download. A small price to pay.)
Disclaimer: The below information is based on very preliminary tests on iOS only. Proceed at your own risk. Always backup via iTunes first! We will try to firm up the details over the next few days with direct input from Rovio’s gurus.
Sync systems, especially new sync systems built in the Cloud, are not perfect. So we highly encourage you, before you proceed, to consult our Ultimate Backup Tutorial. Some platforms are easier than others to backup manually, but it’s worth a few minutes to save your hours of work!
Even after your use the Cloud, you can still backup manually to a degree — at least on iOS, which is all we’ve had the chance to test. After you pull data from the Cloud, you will have two additional “highscores” and “settings” LUA files. These new LUA files contain a hashed string of characters (e.g. ‘highscores_<hash>.lua’ and ‘settings_<hash>.lua’). The “hash” is a long hexadecimal number, most likely unique to your Rovio Account.
Proceed as in our tutorial. You can backup, transfer, and restore as you always have.
To backup: Open DiskAid and backup highscores.lua, settings.lua, highscores_<hash>.lua, and settings_<hash>.lua.
To transfer and/or restore: Logout of your Rovio Account and completely close the game via the Multitasking Bar. Open DiskAid and copy the four above files to your new device. Open Angry Birds on your new device and login. Your new progress should be there, and you can move it up to the Cloud if you want.
Hopefully, you haven’t done anything more since downloading the progress and freaking out. Your old progress may be salvageable if you haven’t opened any levels. Logout of your Rovio Account and completely close the game via the Multitasking Bar. Open DiskAid and delete the two <hash> LUA files. Open Angry Birds and your old progress should be back.
We are still sorting out a few details about this release, and we still have a few questions outstanding. But as the system rolls out for other platforms, we should be able to iron them out.
