Apple Approval process

gregr209

Is this going to effect GameSalad at all?

'Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has added another layer of protection/rejection to the App Store approval process. According to some (well sourced?) developer Tweets, Apple has added a static analysis tool to look for private API calls inside submitted Apps. According to Gizmodo, they're looking for apps that have been developed with third party SDKs.'

gregr209

Should have added this bit as well. This came from a post on 9 to 5 Mac!

'That might not bode well for Adobe's next version of Flash CS5 which features exporting Flash applications to iPhone. Apple has stated policy that iPhone Apps must be developed with the iPhone development kit, so it is a bit surprising that Adobe would build this process into their Flash software. The fact that Adobe was secretly working with developers to get apps into the App Store that were made with Flash probably was reason enough for the move...if this is, in fact the case.'

nulo

this could be reeaalllyy bad
and to help they already get the gs logo on their face when starting every single gs made game

gregr209

Yeah the article is more FLASH leaning but the mention of any SDK that isn't made by Apple concerned me. With Apple you never know. No matter how much I love them they make some silly decisions now and then :-)

nulo

hahahaha less competition.

butterbean

So is this going to be a problem for us?!

gregr209

Well I sure hope it isn't. If Apple does indeed start looking deep at API's it could. I think we should be thankful that GameSalad and Apple seem to have a good relationship and that a good number of apps have been approved.

I added it to the forum just so we could all be aware of it. I do think it is aimed more at Adobe and Flash and the upcoming ability to turn Flash apps into iPhone apps.

It is funny I was out with a friend that works for Adobe this weekend and he laughed at me for using GameSalad and not Flash. Hmmmmmm who is going to be laughing now :-)

Greg

venon_it

Hello,
I'm buying Tolls gamesalad, we are sure that Apple does not block Game salad?
Thanks

JGary321

Keep in mind that Gamesalad actually exports to an xCode project. It is not interpreted in any way. It is literally converted.

The thing with the API's is that they were being abused to allow access and theft of the user's phonebook. UNITY also had this specific API & so their games were getting rejected. They have since released an update that removes that API.

I can see no problem for GS though.

gregr209

That is right. I heard about Unity this week. It looks like they are looking for private API's that someone can stuff in an app creator. Again, I know the 9 to 5 Mac article was mostly directed at Adobe and Flash.

Good points JGary321!

Greg

CoIin

@tshirtbooth, I wouldn't feel secure just because Apple likes you. Apple also like Unity a lot (note the big info page at http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/unity_unitytechnologies.html and the fact that Apple host a number of Unity based Dashboard Widgets), and there are more than 150 times as many Unity apps in the store as there are GameSalad ones (if it's still at 2?).

Unity uses Mono, and in Mono there are two of these private API calls. I have no idea what they do, but I know that Unity are releasing an update this week that presumably overrides those two calls somehow. Some people have resubmitted their games using the release candidate versions, but I haven't yet heard if those were accepted.

As for Flash, I wouldn't worry about it so much. I do full time Flash programming, and what GameSalad is doing is quite different, and will appeal to a different set of users (except for people like me, I want to use both, AND Unity!).