How to play together over Wi-Fi / Bluetooth?
Local connections are the preferred multiplayer option for our Dog app, and much more reliable than Game Center. If it does not work for you, please follow below instructions. The most important (#3) is that Wi-Fi must be enabled for Bluetooth to work between devices.
- Make sure all your participating devices are up to date and use a recent iOS or macOS release. The following steps may change from one version to another
- Install our Dog app on all devices, preferably the latest version 2.8. The version number can be found on the bottom right of the Welcome page in the app, the Dog app can be updated in the App Store app
- Make sure Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is switched on on all devices, even if you don’t have a Wi-Fi connection. The status can be found in the Settings app under Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
- Make sure all devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi or are within Bluetooth range
- Make sure the app is permitted to access the local network. This permission can be found in the Settings app under Privacy > Local Network > Dog, the switch must be on. If no entry for Dog can be found in that list, such a question will be asked within the app (step #10)
- Start our Dog app on all devices
- Designate one device as the inviter, preferably the latest model
- Tap on “Play with others nearby” on the inviter device
- Tap on “Join a nearby game” on the other devices, within 30 seconds
- If the question ‘”Dog” would like to find and connect to devices on your local network’ pops up, reply with ‘OK’
- The inviter device shows the “Players” screen in the Dog App.
- The inviting player can now define the game, f.i. by moving players. The invitees see the modifications.
- Tap the “Play” or “Continue” button on the inviter device to start the game
- Players see the game from their perspective. They can perform their moves and card selections, and see the other players’ choices.
- Only the inviting player can start a new game. Undos are disabled.
How to play together over the Internet with Game Center?
Game Center is less reliable than Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but the situation has improved much since iOS 14 resp. macOS 11.
The following instructions work most of the time, the most important step is #11: select Game Center friends:
- Make sure all your participating devices are up to date and use a recent iOS or macOS release. The following steps may change from one version to another
- Install our Dog app on all devices, preferably the latest version 2.8. The version number can be found on the bottom right of the Welcome page in the app, the Dog app can be updated in the App Store app
- Make sure all your devices have stable connections to the Internet, through Wi-Fi or the phone network
- Make sure your devices can receive notifications (Settings App > Notifications > Games)
- Make sure Game Center is enabled and your devices are logged in, with different accounts (Settings > Game Center). You must use different Game Center accounts on participating devices even if you downloaded the app with the same Apple-ID.
- Add all your co-players as “friends” in Game Center (Settings > Game Center > Friends > Add Friends) and wait for their confirmation
- Start our Dog app on all your devices
- Wait until a temporary banner “Signed in as …” shows your Game Center account on each device, and the “Play with others via Internet” gets enabled
- Tap the button “Play with others via Internet” on your device. A page with your account and “Player 2” appears
- Tap on “ADD” below “Player 2”. A page “Add Player” appears
- Select your co-player among “FRIENDS”, “NEARBY PLAYERS”, or “SUGGESTIONS”
- Tap on “Invite and Start”
- The co-player’s device receives the invitation as a notification from Game Center. Your co-player should tap on it
- Your Dog App shows the “Players” page. Your co-player’s Dog app shows the “Players” page, or the “Settings” page if you selected a different variant then they played before.
- At this point further devices can join over Bluetooth/Wi-Fi if they are close to one of the Game Center devices (see above)
- The inviting player can now define the game, f.i. by moving players. The invitees see the modifications.
- The inviting player taps the “Play” or “Continue” button to start the game
- Players see the game from their perspective. They can perform their moves and card selections, and see the other players’ choices.
- Only the inviting player can start a new game. Undos are disabled.
Here are some possible issues and some remedies you can try:
- Retry. Game Center matching can be unreliable. It may help if you restart the app, login again in Game Center, or restart the device.
- Additional players who are close to one of the devices connected via Game Center should join over Bluetooth/Wi-Fi. This is more reliable than invitations through Game Center. Our app establishes communication bridges between the technologies.
- If players are at more than two locations, hold the button “Play with others via Internet” for more than half a second in step 9 instead of tapping it. Select the number of locations in the list that appears.
- Game Center can also invite through iMessage. Tap on “+” on the top right on the “Add Player” page and select your co-player from your contacts. Your co-player receives two messages and should tap on the second one. Sometimes this does work. Invitations over Game Center work more often than those over iMessage
- If you tap “Start Game” without previously inviting players, Game Center tries to match co-players automatically. This works only if enough players are waiting at the same time. Auto-Match among random unknown players works only in apps that are downloaded thousands of times a day. Unfortunately we do not achieve these numbers, even when we reach top ranks among all paid games in Switzerland, which we did several times
- If you coordinate and all tap on “Start Game” at roughly the same time, automatic matching may work astonishingly well at some times, or not at all at other times
You may want to have another communications channel between players for the remedies. Our app should work in parallel with Facetime or other calling options.
The instructions are much more complex than we would like them to be. We are sorry about that. We hope that they help you play Dog together even in a time of crisis.
“We spent a wonderful evening yesterday with the Dog app. There were problems with the connection, and we had to try several times, but in the end it worked and with an accompanying video call it’s almost like normal :-)”