App update: 14/10/13

Yesterday for iOS players an app update for Restaurant Story was released, the first since April:

Restaurant Story app update
on iTunes store

For reference purposes, this update is version 1.6.9 of the regular edition of Restaurant Story.

As the image above shows, this update contains 'Performance improvements'. Now this description isn't very accurate, as the only change to the game that I have observed isn't really performance related. What I have noticed is a change to the interface of the Invite Friends tab of the Social section off the Main Menu.

New look Invite Friends tab in Social section

As before you can invite other players to be your neighbours by typing their Storm8 ID in the box and tapping 'Invite'. Meanwhile a new 'Account Settings' area shows your own Storm8 ID and offers further options when you tap on the button - more on that in a moment.

The feature allowing you to invite friends to play the game by text and email is now included in this tab. The Invite section off the Main Menu still offers this feature, but its duplication in the Social section leads me to suspect that the Invite section may be removed in the near future altogether.

And finally the list of invites to become neighbours you have sent out are listed as before. Unfortunately the option to cancel any of these invites still isn't included - I've got invites I sent out in 2012 which are still outstanding and would have liked to have cleaned up.

So what more of the 'Account Settings'?

Account Settings page in Social section

Here you can change your password for accessing the TeamLava Forums by tapping 'Change Email / Password'. I assume that if you don't have such a password, this button will give the chance to create one too. Likewise I assume that if you haven't created a Storm8 ID for your account then the option to do so is included as well. Please note that this password is now also utilised for the addition below...

The 'Log in to Another Account' button is the highlight of this app update. For so long players two of the problems that players have suffered with are the difficulty of transferring your game to a new device and the impossibility of using the same account over multiple devices.

Well now both of these issues have been resolved! Because this button does exactly what it says - it allows you to log in to another restaurant on the same device by inputting your Storm8 ID and password.

So if you've recently bought a new device and have had problems transferring your game, now you can just log in to your restaurant using this feature. And if you want to check into a second diner you own but don't have your secondary device its based on to hand, now you can!

And to tidy up, the 'Connect to Game Center' button allows a link-up to Apple's Game Center, which is unchanged. In my opinion this feature remains vastly underdeveloped.

So there we have it. An app update which resolves one of the long-term problems players have encountered in Restaurant Story. Good work TeamLava!