A Bit of a Rant - Really Apple?
So my game, iFore, has been out for a couple of months and I had an update about a month ago and just did a major update a few days ago. When I did my last update I also put out a lite / free version. This update was for both the $.99 full version and the lite version. Apple approved the full version but rejected the lite version. Here is what they sent -
"Dear Chris,
Thank you for submitting your application to App Store. Unfortunately, your application, iFore! Lite, cannot be added to the App Store because it uses standard iPhone screen images in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion. Changing the behavior of standard iPhone graphics, actions, and images, or simulating failures of those graphics, actions, or images is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which requires applications to abide by the Human Interface Guidelines.
A screenshot of this issue has been attached for your reference. It would be appropriate to remove the images of the broken glass."
WTF?!?!?! The image in question basically looks like the icon for the game but it takes up the full screen when the GS logo finally disappears. Its a menu to pick the difficulty, instructions and about. It goes away when the game starts. I'd like to meet the genius that could possibly get confused that their screen is all of the sudden cracked after the GS logo goes away. What if I just showed a black screen for 4 seconds, would they reject it because it makes people think their phone died?
With one version of the game being approved and the other not approved it doesn't make much sense. Finally, this being an update, it already looks like that now. I didn't update those screens.
I sent a reply back but I'm not holding my breath to get this through. It would be nice to have some sort of a conversation with them and I can propose changes that they'd accept. I'd be willing to put a boarder around it so it doesn't look like the entire screen is cracked but would like to know if they'll even approve that before I go through the trouble.
If they had objected the very first time I might understand but its been approved and 2 updates go out all with no objections. I know its one person with their opinion but how do you work past this without going crazy?
http://itunes.com/apps/225labs
"Dear Chris,
Thank you for submitting your application to App Store. Unfortunately, your application, iFore! Lite, cannot be added to the App Store because it uses standard iPhone screen images in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion. Changing the behavior of standard iPhone graphics, actions, and images, or simulating failures of those graphics, actions, or images is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which requires applications to abide by the Human Interface Guidelines.
A screenshot of this issue has been attached for your reference. It would be appropriate to remove the images of the broken glass."
WTF?!?!?! The image in question basically looks like the icon for the game but it takes up the full screen when the GS logo finally disappears. Its a menu to pick the difficulty, instructions and about. It goes away when the game starts. I'd like to meet the genius that could possibly get confused that their screen is all of the sudden cracked after the GS logo goes away. What if I just showed a black screen for 4 seconds, would they reject it because it makes people think their phone died?
With one version of the game being approved and the other not approved it doesn't make much sense. Finally, this being an update, it already looks like that now. I didn't update those screens.
I sent a reply back but I'm not holding my breath to get this through. It would be nice to have some sort of a conversation with them and I can propose changes that they'd accept. I'd be willing to put a boarder around it so it doesn't look like the entire screen is cracked but would like to know if they'll even approve that before I go through the trouble.
If they had objected the very first time I might understand but its been approved and 2 updates go out all with no objections. I know its one person with their opinion but how do you work past this without going crazy?
http://itunes.com/apps/225labs
Comments
Like going into a target.. every employee gives you a different level of service quality.
Typically a lot of devs just resubmit it.
Often if its a borderline issue someone else may pass it through
I had a full-screen crack in Archangel when I received a direct hit from an alien ship. My God, it looked awesome - Wilhelm Scream and large explosion and all, but they basically used the same reasoning - it will confuse the user to think that their device actually broke.
I actually received a call on my iPhone about this from someone on the App Store Review Team. He claimed that people might actually attempt to bring it back to the store thinking their was a problem with their device. I explained that hitting the Home button or playing another game would show that there is nothing wrong, but they were very adamant about not having any simulated effect of malfunction.
I ended up changing the frequency of the crack to less than 5%, so it passed the review upon a second run - but it's still in there.
Now I am not advocating that nor have I done that but it would be interesting to see what happens.
So they are definately running some tools against the code. You are right however, I highly doubt they have people actually looking at the code thusly why I think the above test would likely work.
Yes people would try to bring it back lol
Have you ever just stood and overheard some of the conversations in the Best Buy return line
OMG people
Look at the apps they reject, yet they let a lame copy of doodle jump, called "Doodle jumper" come into the app store
I'm making a poop app so it looks like poop has splattered under the screen, see if they accept that
thanks for the TA appinfo tip by the way (I meant to thank you earlier)
lol on the fecal/flatulence analysis app, what a great idea!
[/SARCASM]
:O but seriously it sucks they keep rejecting your app for something silly like that.
Just wondering if they're going to reject books for the iPad because of content.