Questions about developing "App Updates"

kaanuki

Hi All.

Im in the process of developing my first game app. I am trying to find out the basics of developing App Updates. Are there any tutorials explaining what they include, and how to implement them? When submitting them, are you submitting only the changed parts of the game, or are you submitting the entire game with changes made.

Any Gamesalad specific resource would be great.

Thanks.

Chakku

@kaanuki

I believe you just replace the current one with the updated file

Hope this helps
Chakku

tatiang

I don't know of any guides or tutorials. What you include is up to you. It's a replacement file so it can be a minor bug fix, a new level, a new background image, an unlocked world, a different font, ... anything you want. The submission process is simpler but it still takes several days to a week (or more) for Apple to review updates.

kaanuki

Right, but I was asking if it was similar to a 'patch file' with just small pieces of the software, or if the entire game file, with all of the fixes within it. When I fix regular software, the patches are submitted as just a small chunk of the main software (the fix alone would not function) However, according to what Chakku stated, I will be re-submitting the entire file. Is that correct?

CaptFinn

You take your old project that you submitted...... make the changes inside that project... resubmit it just like you did last time.... except you tell GS and Apple that it is a update and not a new submission. Think of it as editing any document and saving it.

Just like any file you open. If you didnt make any changes it doesnt ask you if you want to save the changes. But if you do make changes it does ask if you want to save changes. When you click yes I was to save changes. Thats the same as updating the file.

tatiang

@Jeffnichols I find that an odd description since GameSalad forces a Save dialog whether or not you make any changes (at least on a Mac). But I see what you're getting at.

@kaanuki You submit an entirely new binary. In theory, you could submit whatever you want, but as Jeffnichols suggested, you're generally just updating an existing GameSalad project file to make a few changes and then resubmitting it with the fixed included.

You submit an ENTIRE working project file, NOT just the changes you want to implement. For example, let's say my file is 15 MB in size. For the update, maybe I add 2 MB of images. I then resubmit the newly saved file that is 17 MB in size.

The bottom line is that what you submit to Apple is up to you, but they are expecting a working binary just as you submitted originally. Any "updates" are what you choose them to be.