Devblog: Updater 2014-10-13 09:40

Well, before you get to discover the World of Twelve, you must install the game, then, wait for it to download all its content. And we all know how painful and demanding that step can be. That's why we introduced a new updater earlier this year, and even though this updater had a few hiccups, we are pretty satisfied with it and we think that most of you will agree.

So now, we have a nice and quite comfortable updater to use and a great game introduction. But, wait, aren't we forgetting something? Before the updater can download the game, it must be installed and our installers really needed some love. Actually, we can agree that most installers would benefit from extra attention. 
 
First, the default Windows theme and its grey-ish windows felt more like despair than a cheerful game welcome party, so we decided to design a nice, slick and modern new theme. See for yourself: Pretty, isn't it? We also made sure it was contrasted and readable enough for everyone. While we were at it, we applied this beautiful skin to every window of the updater. No more sad grey looking interface. And, as always, these modifications will be available on linux and MacOSX too! And for the finishing touch, we designed a complete set of 40 or so icons for this theme and for the installers and the updater. Once we had a skin for our installers, we tackled how to create the simplest, fastest, least annoying installation process possible. I asked myself how many time one should have to click on a button before the installation is complete. First you need to download the installer and launch it, which already amounts to about 3 clicks. And after that, how many clicks on "next" buttons should be required? 5? 10? 15? It turns out, 1 click is enough. 
 
As you can see on the screen above, we put all the essentials information on a single screen. You can choose an installation path, decide whether or not to put an icon on the desktop, and read the EULA. Click install. Done. You don't need anything more.  I think, the most important thing is the path selection. We try to select the best default path possible, while letting you chose another path easily.

Some of you may have a "Games" folder, with all your games carefully installed in it, and we will detect that automatically. You may also want to create a portable installation of Wakfu or Dofus on an usb key, and the installers will let you do just that. Most importantly, as the security features of Windows are sometimes confusing, we will tell you if the installation will prompt you for admin privileges. It will also try to detect some errors such as full disk early on, to avoid those nasty messages box that are so 1995. Oh, and, by the way, as the installers are actually an updater in disguise, it will tell you exactly how much space is required to install Wakfu or Dofus.
 
After that the installers will automatically fetch the last updater version, copy a bunch of files, and before you know it, the game is being downloaded.

So okay, the installers are nicer, easier to use. But, wait, there is more…
 
One past issue with the updater was that it could get broken while it updated itself. Worse, if a broken updater was deployed, your installation could have been damaged. And at that point, you were screwed, and needed to re-install the game. An unfortunate situation that some of you experienced this past August, but, not anymore! With the new installers we are also including a new repair tool that can be launched automatically or manually. It will fix most updater-related issues by updating the updater to the last version, cleaning its cache and other settings so that the updater feels brand new. Running this tool only takes a couple of minutes. Tne new installers are already available right here:
Linux: 32-bit, 64-bit
Mac
Windows

A complete installation guide will be published on the support site in a couple of weeks.
 
I hope you will enjoy the new skin and the new installers. Please give us your suggestions and feedback so that we can further improve your pre-game experience.  
 
Ourson