That’s what the whole Bluestacks discussion was about, but apparently that is just as bad, if not worse than the website, because apparently there is no way to view the code, let alone edit with Bluestacks. The one and only thing it would deliver is the possibility for offline play, unless the android versions require you to constantly be connected too, of course. I have no idea.
I have no idea to be honest… I play on my phone, and if I want to look at the code I do it on my phone as well, but never tried to see if you can access the code from an apk on the computer. But I don’t think it would be impossible 
Just rename apk to zip and then extract.
Edit both the txt and json files in the scene folders.
(Tho only json is necessary doing txt too is cleaner.)
rezip the archive after you edit (dont use rar, only zip)
and transfer back to your phone and install (this could prob all be done on phone, but i find using pc to help makes it easier)
if it didnt work, you probably have to resign it using an apk signing program.
@idonotlikeusernames mentioned several reasons why one might prefer Steam/etc. to playing on the website.
However, there is an additional reason I try to purchase CoGs/HGs on Steam when possible; if Choice of Games ended up shutting down (not that I want to see that happen!) then I expect to lose access to the games on the website.
However, if I have them in my Steam library, then I can redownload them in the future without worry. Yes, I know there is the chance of Steam going down as well, but lot less likely.
11 Likes
In other words much more hassle then doing anything on PC.
i don’t much mind it, but yeah most likely ^^
Plus while I try to keep up to date with personal computing developments as best I can I’m a mobile noob. What even is that .apk signing program you talked about? In any case if you can extract the code from the mobile version it might be better to just recompile it to a version that can be played in a normal web-browser. Likely license violation that this is notwithstanding, because Bluestacks apparently has other severe drawbacks such as making the screen tiny and the controls unintuitive too.
Once again that leaves me with the hope that CoG will find a better solution for making more Hosted Games available on PC over the course of 2019.
1 Like
https://source.android.com/security/apksigning
im not really a mobile pro, i mostly found out about such things cause i was like you and wanted a way to edit non steam accessible releases, so i went to google.
Anyway, i don’t wanna upset the mods for off topic.
Hope i helped
2 Likes
In addition to the reasons stated by @idonotlikeusernames and @Lys have stated, I prefer to make my CoG and HG purchases on Steam for several additional reasons:
1: Having seen the way Apple changes their app policies from day to day and experienced their capricious decision making on norms and standards applied to apps, I have doubts as to the ability to have future releases provided to me as both intended by the developer/publisher and the continual availability of my purchases to be available to me if any should run afoul of any future changes to those norms and standards set by Apple.
2: By purchasing the titles on Steam, I help show the Steam gatekeepers and you, the CoG company, that these titles are viable money makers in the long run for the PC platform - something it seems is needed to be reinforced from time to time.
3: It opens these titles to be introduced to hundreds of gamers I know that have shown their loyalty over the years to publishers they take a liking to. Convincing them to actually try the games is another story but without being on Steam or Ich.io, there is no chance at all.
4: Steam is not perfect but it represents a company that had believed, supported and promoted PC gaming during a time that many were declaring the PC market “dead” and “yesterday” … without Steam, PC gaming itself might be a lot less vibrant than it is today.
5: Valve is located in my home region of the USA - by supporting them I support local jobs and support the local economy.
6: Reviews and the games reviewers play are less important to the success of a game than on the “casual” or “mobile” marketplaces … I still find it very disturbing how serious authors/developers take their received reviews here.
I understand that things like the revenue split are not as favorable to you as a publisher as other marketplace platforms but in aggregate, the presence of CS games on Steam is a huge win-win for everyone involved.
The only other marketplace-storefront I feel CoG should be taking advantage of (that you are not ) is Ich.io; that is a subject for another thread but I feel strongly enough to make that statement.
16 Likes
I already mentioned this one. One reason I can think of for CoG not to be there is that it is, much more so than Steam, the place where I get my Indy, gay, visual novels from. And now the Winter Wolves games too. Particularly if CoG is going to breach the $10+ price range that would bring it into more direct, head to head, competition with the visual novels on Itch.io.
I still think that should not necessarily be a deterrent however.
I wish it would add a few more local jobs and provide better customer support.
3 Likes
Yep; the easy code-reading is why I’ve only bought games directly via the CoG website 
For those who are wondering, you can just add /scenes/startup.txt at the end of the URL, which gets the startup file, and then can replace “startup” with the name of whatever the scene file is that you’re looking for; there’ll be a list of scene files at the beginning of startup.txt.
Scenes after the demo will only be visible if you’ve purchased it and are logged in.
That shouldn’t be how it works either 
at least, as far as I’ve experienced, game sessions are persistent. I’ve occasionally had then wiped after long intervals of time… might be a cache thing? But I still, for example, am at the same place in Tally Ho where my friends and I left off in our let’s play.
1 Like
I only buy on steam, same reasons as above (offline play, save/stat editing occasionally, access in case of website issues).
3 Likes
But you still cannot edit a damned thing. So I’d still be stuck with stat-balance I might not like and would be prevented from doing anything like I did with XoR to make a mod to override @Havenstone author intent on that point without needing to squint the bisexuality away or turn Breden female to get Simon.
Comes down to cookie management, I have it set so that my web-browsing sessions get wiped on log-out and I literally cannot afford to relax that policy due to possible malpractice insurance issues.
This is why I really prefer something like Steam or the old way the Chrome apps were handled that runs on a system separate from ordinary web-browsing and email.
This is true, the only reviews I tend to take seriously are those of my (few) online gaming friends and I could care less about what some kiddo with a huge Youtube following has to say about something. Apparently on “mobile” these so-called “influencers” are hugely important. Or maybe this is more of a gen-Z thing and one more piece of proof I’m turning into an old, ossified fossil.
Oh, and one final reason before @Mary_Duffy but that would be my PC’s monitor, or simply the UI, if I enlarge the text a bit the PC is the only platform where I can experience the joy of gaming with my glasses off, particularly after a stressful day, with an oncoming headache, that, combined with a good cup of tea, can be an incredible blessing. The kind of control I have over such things as font-size, brightness color and background, whether natively through Steam or through third party (Nvidia in my case) software is something that simply cannot be had on any mobile device.
6 Likes
Can you copy the text from scenes into text files and run them locally through the cs files available for download for authors on the site?
2 Likes
Don’t know because I’ve never bought a website version. It seems that it might be possible, if a very big hassle through Bluestacks, though that likely is a serious license violation.
Again, I just hope for a solution that allows me to play the Hosted Games I want on my platform of choice without having to “hack it”.
As I think you know, Valve now charges us to put a game on Steam. Regrettably, there are some Hosted Games which do not quickly earn the cost of that charge on all platforms combined, let alone just on Steam. So we cannot put a game on Steam unless we’re reasonably confident we’ll get our money back. It is very frustrating, but it’s just how it is and we’re not in control of that.
12 Likes
At this rate, I wouldn't classify it as "hacking", more like, uhhh, "building"? ;)
Long term, official solution is still best for both parties.
2 Likes
Sure, still there are also the ones I plainly do not understand, such as Nuclear Powered Toaster on Steam while not putting either the Butler did It or Keepers up there? That’s an internal decision that puzzles me. I’m sure it all chimes with the internal metrics of the company, but the fact that this, as of late, always seems to happen to the Hosted Games I was either looking forward to or am hearing lots of good things about does add to the frustration.
Hope the Butler did it, might yet end up on Steam, particularly since the author has hinted at making cutie Linus available as an ro, should that happen. 
Don’t know if you maybe should be taking advantage of Itch.io as it seems to be the PC storefront of choice for a lot of other Indy developers.
indeed, seems I might have to look into that. Has anyone with a bit more coding experience than me even tried this before?
It’s really too bad the website version is not downloadable, as Winter Wolves used to do with their games, before migrating to the aforementioned Itch for their storefront entirely.
1 Like
I really can’t comment on this. Again, I’m sorry we’ve disappointed you with what we’re able and unable to put on Steam. If Chrome hadn’t shut down we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But for now, it seems like we’re kind of stalemated.
4 Likes
Indeed. Again, I get this is not the position CoG wanted to be in with regard to Hosted Games either. It still sucks as “mobile” gaming is more of a punishment then a joy to me, squinting at a too small screen I need to hold with one hand while clumsily bashing it with the other.