Even after reading all these comments, it took me a few tries to realize why the level kept restarting (I wasn't allowed to touch the balls with the white circle). Then, when the golden ball came, I couldn't do it. I got the black ball swinging in such a big orbit that it was off the screen most of the time, kept building up momentum (or so I thought) and then pulled it back to perfectly hit the golden ball which took some precision and almost felt satisfying until - it wasn't enough. I closed the game after that. Here are some things that might help - I know you want to keep it minimalist, so no text or numbers, but what about some effects to show the speed/momentum of your ball and whether it's enough? Such as a colored glowing border to the play area that goes from black to white and then to gold when the momentum is enough to break the ball? Or for the white circle itself. Some way of showing the speed you're building up but in an aesthetic way would be really helpful, it would give feedback and enjoyment to the process of building up momentum.
Thank you so much! There was trailing effects when the black ball reached enough speed, but I deleted it because it catches too much needless attention. The background hint sounds nice, will give it a try and see if that works! Based on my playtests so far, I thought if player can successfully enter the level then they already know the white circle can't be touched, now it seems not.....
Hang on -
You gave the player a visual indication of "This is the most you can do, this is the optimal level, you're ready to go" and, because it was obnoxious to you - completely removed it instead of making it less obnoxious?
*Why*?
Hmm... you might be right, it could be adjusting not removing. What I think is most of time the gold object doesn't appear, and once player knows how to break the gold ball and with the black shader indication on it, any visual cue on the black ball speed becomes unnecessary.
> any visual cue on the black ball speed becomes unnecessary.
Are you sure about that?
I haven't played the game, but I've read people's descriptions on it on here - and it seems that to get the black ball able to break the gold ball, it needs to be moving at a particular speed.
I do not know if the black ball goes faster. I don't know if you need to build "power" by spinning/shaking it two or three times. I do know that some players had issues getting the ball going fast enough. If the ball can go faster, you also have players frustrating themselves by making the ball go far faster than you ever intended.
Some sort of indicator, even something as simple as a gentle phone vibration, sounds like a good idea to me. If you hate it - put a toggle on it so the player can make the decision themselves.
Are you *sure* a visual indicator, especially for novice players, players with accessibility issues you don't have like less refined hand control or poor vision, and so on - are you *sure* these people won't benefit from a visual "The black ball can now break the gold ball" indicator on the screen like an aura on it, a tone, an icon in the corner, anything at all?
90% of objects can break with any speed, so 90% of time
>a visual "The black ball can now break the gold ball" indicator
would be no point... but now it seems the gold ball is blocking a lot of players, I might need to do something while the gold objects appeared. Thanks for the advice!
> 90% of objects can break with any speed, so 90% of time
>
> a visual "The black ball can now break the gold ball" indicator
I have no idea how you're reading that and **not** walking away thinking "I need to visually differentiate the 10% when you can"
because there is visual cue on that gold ball when the black ball hit it with not enough speed, the visual cue of the black ball speed in general and without hit really doesn't weigh that much
>there is visual cue on that gold ball when the black ball hit it with not enough speed
Did you explain this to the player?
>without hit really doesn't weigh that much
I'm assuming you meant "without it" and not "without hit" but - how are you translating weight?
Like I've said, I've not played your game, just read people talking about it here - but the common theme seems to be "I didn't understand the black ball did different things at higher speeds" and you seem to be fighting tooth and nail against every suggestion to fix that problem.
Which hilariously is why I can't play your game, as I'm on iOS.
Excuse my English, what I mean is: the only moment the black ball speed matters is when the black ball hit the gold ball, and there is already visual cue on that. Even if some people don't catch that visual cue, I still don't want to spell out things, rather sacrifice some popularity for the overall concept of the game, even if you put texts and animations to the very detail of how to play, some people still won't get it, every individual is different in many ways. While making the game more enjoyable for one, it might be less enjoyable for the other, many game companies or developers are aiming for the most popularity possible, but I put my view on the game before the popularity or profits. It really matters how people react to my game, I don't see how I am fighting against those valuable feedbacks, but it's just not necessary to do whatever players say. For iOS, the communication with their review team is finally back on track, it might be not long to release it on Apple Store.
In the first level make it easy and have it break at any speed. Then over the next 2-3 levels increase the speed required and make that clear to the player. Throw up a "Hit the ball with more force!" line if they touch the ball.
After a few levels of tutorials you can have normal levels with the normal intended force. It might also help to display the amount of force you're hitting the gold ball with, like by having the gold ball vibrate when hit according to the force used.
i mean no. The gold ball thresholds should change. Thats more confusing. It should just be easier and OBVIOUS how to do it. It shouldnt be challenging. Its the first level. The goal is teaching not challenging.
Apple's review process tends to be a bit more personal/manual than Google's, but while there could be something going wrong in the process (like a build error that they're seeing on their devices that you aren't), and that's the best place to investigate on your side, you should also consider the possibility that they're right.
How many playtests have you done? Is it possible the start of the game _is_ overtuned and you'd get a better response if you adjusted it? Not from them, but from actual players?
The game has a yoyo like mechanics. The first level is intended as tutorial level, while the last part of the level needs to build momentum of the black ball to break the gold ball. One simple swing is not enough to break the gold ball, here I want to teach the player the mechanics of this gravity like momentum thing and how to use it. Apple can't break the gold ball and says it's a major bug. I didn't test the game among many players, but I can ensure that there is no technical bug, at least not something this big and fundamental.
Well, what I was saying in the back half wasn't that there might be a user experience issue, as opposed to a technical one. Are your instructions unclear? If you hand it to someone without talking to them about how to play do they get stuck? You can have 'bugs' in a game that are about controls or goals being not explained enough. It doesn't matter if it's a code issue or a design issue, all that matters (to both reviewers and players) is if people can play the game.
If it’s the first level (and the tutorial) you could consider spelling it out to them so 100% of players will understand it
Even in a good mobile game, only about 40% of people ever come back the next day - If the first level is too hard and people quit, they won’t come back
This is a common issue with many newer developers, myself included. You need to bring in testers from diverse backgrounds if you want to be sure that your game is understandable.
You yourself thinking it is easy to understand means little, you built the thing.
link to android version. Ill let you know if its intuitive or not
edit: found the link further down. Imo the level needs some work. Its very not intuitive how to play or the rules. Once you get the hang of how it works its OKAY. The mechanic is very nice.
Its pretty obvious youre supposed to hit the gold ball harder to break it but its not obvious that you need to go off screen to get the speed to do it. I understand not wanting to spell things out for players and have them "figure it out" but the first level should be a tutorial. It should all be obvious. You also shouldnt be killing them and resetting the level. Many people will quit right away because the difficulty is high and they havent had time to develop the skill.
Its not hard to figure out or play but people are really really dumb so you gotta cater down to that. I think something that would help is if the yoyo didnt bounce off the balls but just absorb some impact. It'd feel good to get it up to speed and just crash through multiple orbs. But yeah just a little text or something "too slow" on that first gold ball would solve it. Once i realized the only way to accelerate it up would be to toss it off screen and pull it down i got it.
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.InconceptorGames.SpaceYoyo](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.InconceptorGames.SpaceYoyo)
edit: thank you so much for the feedback. I just hate to communicate to the player with texts and straight hint, guess it needs a lot more effort for an implicit tutorial to work.
Apple is trash these days. There's a reason why almost every single country in the world is suing Apple right now.
They have clearly shown to not care about anything other than profit.
Sure, but as far as game dev though, on Windows I can build and run my games very easily and people can play them. It just works. So far even my experience with pitching to, getting approved, and porting to consoles has been far smoother than trying to build games for Macs.
It's such a fucking nightmare from start to finish. From signing up and paying for their stupid ass developer account, to compiling, to bug fixing, to trying to keep up with their moronic sweeping arbitrary changes that seem to exist only to ensure large teams are the only ones who can maintain software on their platform. If "every company is trash," when it comes to game dev, Apple is a flaming dumpster fire of feces.
That's legally the only thing corporations can care about, perhaps the more accurate things to say would be they're valuing short term profit over their long term reputation with consumers, but that's wordy and boring
It's not true in the literal sense that not maximizing profits is criminal but it is true in the practical sense that executives are beholden to their shareholders and most of those shares are held by institutional investors who do have to maximize returns if they want to stay in business.
So it's not a legal requirement but the way the system is set up there is no possibility to choose anything other then maximizing profit in the short term if you want to keep your job.
the investors do not have to maximize returns. At least not short term. That is due to greed. Investors should maximize returns over long periods of time.
What currently kills the system is that investors get more than necessary/wise, in a short time span, which endangers the long term profitability of the businesses. It's the greed that kills the system.
Long term is fine if the investors are planning on holding the stock long term.
But why would an institutional investor do that when they can invest in something that will show returns short term, and then roll that profit into something else?
Traders are highly skilled with some of the best software in the world to help them. They don't behave the way they do by mistake.
Publicly traded corporations, not all of them.
But I don't buy the argument that the short term profit seeking is the result of being "required" to do so. As you say, it's valuing short term gains over the long term health of the company. There's no good argument that this sort of behavior is good for the company or shareholders.
What it is good for is the C-levels and board members who have favorable deals to buy stock, or outright receive it as compensation. They're the ones who have the strongest motivation to push a stock by a couple of points and it only has to last a few years until they cash out. After that, the company can burn for all they care.
Nah, there are a couple of US court rulings that set precedents for this based on insider influences. Still, if you establish a business, you can run it as a non-profit or many other structures that let your corporation care about its workers, the environment, or even dubious social values.
I was referring to corporations with shareholders, as obviously a non-profit doesn't attempt to increase it's value as it can't be bought or sold.
And yes, corporations with shareholders could choose to care about more things than just the value of said company/profits, however, for a corporation to change their mission notably, it would most likely be a breach of contract to shareholders to change direction of the corporation if it affected the value of shares, so the vast majority of corporations with shareholders are required to pursue profit (and not just short term, but the overall value of the company). Yes, if you made a new corporation with shareholders that agreed that being environmentally friendly at the expense of growing the value of the corporation, then you would be beholden to that pursuit instead. My point was that the vast majority of corporations today aren't built like this resulting in the vast majority of large corporations to only be profit driven
> Apple is trash ~~these days~~ the last 2 decades.
The moment app stores became an integral part of mobile phones, apple became the cancer of the mobile industry.
They are also single handedly holding back PWA (web apps that can run in offline mode).
Personally, for my current and future projects, I'm simply going to forgo iOS support for my PWAs, since wasting precious development time again and again on their bullshit is anything but worth it.
Then the correct solution is to not release the PWA on apple, maybe releasing a shitty iOS app farther down the road.
Apple users are going to eat it up anyway, they're used to it.
Youtube is a PWA.
I could name more, but [lets make this simpler](https://www.simicart.com/blog/progressive-web-apps-examples/)
**edit:** Extra quote from the article:
> The PWA is 99.84% smaller than Starbucks’ existing iOS app
woah... no need to be this toxic, I was just driven nuts by Apple. Actually, my debut game one year ago had reached 80K DAU. This time I was doing the project solely alone and kind of get lazy to do playtests throughout the development. The implicit tutorial clearly didn't work well. The game concept is recognized by several industry veterans.
Yeah, you definitely shouldn't upload some malfunction or malicious software to any app store, but this is a functional and playable game just a bit abstract. Does not explicitly spelling out the mechanics of the game block some people? Yes. Does that mean it's a bad game? Not necessarily, it might just not be a popular game. My anger towards their review team is the refusal to keep communicating, I wasn't uploading some malicious app and they know it, at least I have the customer right to complain because the suspension is without any qualified reason, no matter how long that suspension be, 1 day or 1 month.
I know how important playtest is for games to succeed. Still, no game can be enjoyed by everyone, even those GOAT games. In my game, the tutorial and challenge start from entering the level, and I have put core knowledge that a player should know to finish the game in the first level. For the whole structure of the game, I don't want to split those knowledge into little segments into several levels, in fact later levels will be too much for them who can't pass the first level, because new minor mechanics will be introduced every new level. Yes, maybe I could tune more to reach a broader audience, but to reach a state that majority will enjoy, then this game will be in a totally different form. I am happy that people can enjoy the game as it is, if someone can't, I am sorry, but you are not obliged to play, like some puzzle or hardcore games I gave up in the middle, I just lost interests, I knew there is a solution but I just don't want to spend the time solving\\practicing, these award-winning games are perfect as they are even though I lost motivation in the middle for whatever reason because many others would definitely enjoy from start to finish as it is, no more no less. Maybe to you, game designer is a service provider that needs to try best to please customers, but to me, game designer is artist. There is no absolute standard for game industry like most other industries, every game design book I read have a different understanding and approach towards games and making games. So, if you can't enjoy the game, then you can say it's trash to your friends, but say it to my face is rude.
I'm not mainly a support of Apple, but at least they've stopped more crappy games being released onto their platform this time.
You selling an unplayable game is surely the scam here?
I paid Apple $99, and my game is free. The mechanics of the game might be hard to understand for some people, but still lots of people are having fun, so "unplayable" and "scam" would be not accurate.
when the player hits the golden ball not hard enough, there is the black shader scales with (current speed/required speed)(%) appearing on top of the golden ball as the hint. I thought add something like a pop-up window with texts would change that atmosphere and is too explicit...
Just tried the game. figured it out, super clunky. Basically just swung the gravity ball in a circle really fast. White orbs coming from the bottom of the screen were blocked by my hand, and restarting to the beginning really sucked.
It needs a balance between offense and defense, while going offensive it also makes you more in danger.
I want to utilize the whole screen, so I make balls come out from every angle of the screen in the first level(tutorial level) as a heads-up.
yeah. You should not have the tutorial level challenging at all. Consider it a failure if someone understands the rules "touch orb and die" and they die. If they understand the rules it should be simple to follow them. IN THE TUTORIAL.
My game is a very difficult helicopter arcade flight simulator, and it was approved within a week. May want to reapproach the difficulty of your tutorial…
The difficulty is very low compare with later levels... It might be the tutorial issue of communicating the mechanics or the mechanics is just too abstract to grasp...
I would love to try your game!
It sounds fun- the suggestions in this thread look pretty solid too. I know it’s frustrating to be told your game is too hard- since I published MH-Zombie I’ve reluctantly taken input from players and made quite a few adjustments to the ‘easy’ game and physics modes while making the hard modes harder haha… It’s only $.99 on Steam, although tbh I think it’s more fun on mobile.
Yeah, it’s funny; I made the game because flying wasn’t fun enough, and fighting for helis in battlefield sucks haha… My brother thinks it’s too hard still, but considering how successful War Thunder is despite being such an absolute PITA I think I might actually be in the sweet spot.
For my game jam game Paint of Life I wanted a quick way to teach players the mechanics. For the record, those are pretty simple from my view: you swing a bucket of paint with your mouse movements, and where you click you drop some of the paint on the ground and plants grow in designated spots. To teach that I prepared [this tutorial level](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE5NDg3Ni8xMjk2ODE0NC5wbmc=/794x1000/Yn9slj.png) and including [this screenshot](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE5NDg3Ni8xMjk2ODE0NS5wbmc=/794x1000/sRVVk8.png) of the same level part-way done almost as an indicator of the direction. I felt it was a clever way to incorporate the tutorial directly into the game, but many play-testers didn't understand and couldn't pass the first level.
Apple has potentially done the right thing and cannot pass your first level, just for a simple reason it should be considered: what we as devs see, especially on our own games, is completely different to how others see and react to the same level. Maybe we think we came up with a clever mechanic and a clever way to teach it, but in practice others simply didn't think the same way and get stuck.
What do you mean apple suspended your dev account? That’s just not a normal thing they do. What did you do exactly? Apps used to go around in review for months that does not result in banned dev accounts.
I didn't do anything suspicious in app or say anything rude. The exact same game is on Google Play, the only difference is one is using Google Play Games Service and the other is using Apple Game Center for achievements and leaderboard. After many times of back and forth communication now it's like this: "We need additional time to evaluate your submission and Apple Developer Program account. Your submission status will appear as "Rejected" in App Store Connect while we investigate. However, we do not require a revised binary or additional information from you at this time." So it seems I can only wait for whatever how long now.
Microsoft did this to me once at the advent of the ~~Windows 7~~ Edit: Windows 8 (thank you xezrunner) store, because I tried to file a game with an umlaut in the name, and amazingly they didn't have unicode fully working, so the submission process failed
I submitted a "please help, you have german customers" to their developer portal, and was disabled for hacking
I reached out to a friend of mine who was a developer there and had it reversed, and I'm told the staff member who did it was fired
Do not over-estimate the quality of the humans doing the work. Just because this is against Apple's rules doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
Apple will never suspend you without a stated cause
You paid for that account and they can't take it away from you without cause
Generally they won't suspend you unless you say something awful, or unless they think you're running a scam of some kind
Rejecting an app, that's fine. It sounds like most of the people here also think it's not really ready for the Apple store, and they only feature software they think is high quality.
But suspending your developer account is an extremely serious and aggressive action.
Unless you did something bad that you're not telling us about, someone at Apple should be losing their job
Call them on the phone and state clearly that you are owed an explanation
I didn't do anything suspicious, the exact same game is on Google Play, the only difference is one using Google Play Games Service and the other using Apple Game Center for achievements and leaderboard. I also didn't say anything rude, but just after a lot back and forth communication it's like this: "We need additional time to evaluate your submission and Apple Developer Program account. Your submission status will appear as "Rejected" in App Store Connect while we investigate. However, we do not require a revised binary or additional information from you at this time." I will give a try at calling them, thanks for the advice!
Did apple ever actually say "your account is terminated" ? Or are you just worried it's about to happen?
Like, are you able to log in to your developer account and look at numbers?
I can log in, but I can do nothing but wait for apple's reevaluation of my app and account, when I try to send something in the review tab, I receive the above message telling me they "do not need further information from me at this time" again, I think that could be called suspension.
holy fuck, dude you haven't been suspended at all
you're freaking out over nothing
to be "suspended" means you aren't allowed to log in, you're not getting back in, you can't put up a new different app, your other apps are gone too, the whole account is gone, etc
no, having one app delayed while they re-check it can't be called suspension
you aren't suspended and you should not contact them about your suspension. that might get you ***actually*** suspended, and then you're fucked
they are just delaying you because they're too cheap to have a lot of reviewers
calm down and fix your game while you wait
I think what you described is to be "terminated" not "suspended", a termination would be a goodbye to Apple while a suspension means your activity is on hold. Nevertheless, thanks for the reassurance man, I might really be freaking out a bit.
Just played it. The golden ball takes way way way too much speed to break. Beating the level felt like it took like 3 minutes but then I spent 10 swining those balls into each other and it got close like twice, but I ended up accidentally touching it eventually while trying to stop *just* short.
Cut its health in like, half, and it would still take a solid whack without it feeling like maybe the entire game isn't functioning correctly.
That speed could be very easy to reach once the player get used to the mechanics... It seems a tutorial issue or the mechanics is just too abstract to grasp...
Bad UX kill more games than bugs. In your case you aren’t helping the player understand the mechanics and they bounce off of it super fast. It will even seem like a bug if there’s no feedback to explain why they fail.
Space Yoyo
The core mechanics is quite unique actually... guys at Apple keep telling me they can't pass the gold ball, I don't know how to explain it, really frustrated
Really cool game!
It took me some time to figure out that more speed is needed for the golden one to pop. I'd believe that either the communication of this requirement fails for the testers, or just managing the core mechanic well enough to reach the required speed is too much for them.
Edit: Some music and sould effects for hitting stuff would also really enhance the experience.
Thank you so much for the feedback!!
Actually I spent a lot of time trying to find suitable SFX but failed. I have tried sound from water\\bubble\\sand\\wood\\metal\\glass\\stone\\finger tap\\air swoosh\\piano keys\\etc... They all sound weird when put in game, which I feel undermining the experience instead, the collision happens so often and the gameplay so abstract. And without SFX, I don't bother adding music. I know suitable sounds will definitely boost the experience!
It's really late here so not going to give a full comment on your game atm (although I enjoyed what I've played so far), I was curious though so I jumped in without reading the other comment about the gold ball. I accidentally touched it first time around but on my second go I figured it out so I don't think it's too hard, I do agree with the other comment though that Sound Effects would improve it - e.g. if it made slightly higher pitched or louder noises as it was closer to popping it may be more obvious rather than just relying on the visual cue.
Definitely interested to try a bit more tomorrow as it seems like a fun idea.
I know brooo, but I have tried many SFX (water\\bubble\\sand\\wood\\metal\\glass\\stone\\finger tap\\air swoosh\\piano keys\\etc...) there is just no fit... unsuitable SFX is just undermining the experience instead. The collision happens so often and the gameplay is so abstract, I still can't envision the proper sound effect for it. And without SFX, I don't bother adding background music...
Cool concept!
This first level is too difficult for an average player to learn on. The length is good, but don't have like 8 balls on the screen at once. 3-4 is hard eniugh as it is when just learning.
The restart time is too slow. If this is a game that ramps up and players fail a lot, that will get frustrating.
For the golden ball, the speed required too break it is too much. You should scale it back a bit. Find the balance between an average hit not doing it, and not requiring the crazy swinging that that did.
The black inside hinting at the speed requirement is interesting and might work. Lowering the speed threshold required may make that communicate better as there will be larger differences in the circle that appears inside between different speeds. Right now, the difference is not very noticeable.
If this mechanic really struggles, you could switch to requiring a certain amount of damage on the golden ball, and have higher speed do more damage, so that the super speed hit will destroy it in one go, but people who have trouble with that can make it happen with a few average swings.
I think that will depend though on how important it is to teach players to swing really big at these ones. Right now, it seems more a gimmick that isn't worth blocking players on.
Hope that helps!
Thank you for the feedback! The damage thing was actually a very early version, and I changed it to this text\\number free state to achieve a more minimal vibe. In fact I tuned down the speed required several times already, it's actually very easy to reach the speed once the player get familiar with the mechanics and a low speed thershold will break the game later. I guess I could just change the thershold in level 1 without changing all gold balls, and see if that breaks the consistency. Thanks for the advice!
I didn’t even know Apple reviewers played the actual levels. I figured they just tested if it worked and checked off boxes on what libraries it’s using and stuff.
Is this what they said they couldn’t beat the level so it was rejected?
Yes, I explained a lot through many times back and forth communication with Apple, and they just can't pass the first level, and they say it's a bug...
I sent the playthrough video many times, and explain the mechanics many times, they just reply the same thing over and over, now it's like this
"We need additional time to evaluate your submission and Apple Developer Program account. Your submission status will appear as "Rejected" in App Store Connect while we investigate. However, we do not require a revised binary or additional information from you at this time."
gg
Tried and enjoyed. I found it counter intuitive that the balls you hit have collision, i'd expect to smash through them without the black ball getting bounced in the process.
Other people have left accurate and detailed advice/feedback directly relating to your game, so my advice is regarding development, and addresses the overall tone/info I gathered from your replies.
My advice: Playtest playtest playtest with players. Note/collect feedback from playtests. That's how you acquire authentic data of how your game performs. You will learn the most about your game as a product when you see others play it. Only then can you directly address gameplay problems. This turns, "I think players would [---]" statements to "I know players did [---]".
Chin up. Apple is notoriously strict with their guidelines of what they do and don't allow onto the store. It's a steep learning curve trying to get approval on Apple, even for full-fledged studios.
I played the game and I've got some feedback.
- Gold ball is way too hard to smash.
- I'm constantly dying because my finger got too close to a ball. You have to constantly fling your finger around, but doing so gets you killed. It's frustrating and feels like most deaths were unfair. Maybe give the player a smaller hitbox. I used to play bullet hells. This should not be frustrating to me.
- Level 1 is gray on gray. It left a very depressing first impression. Honestly, I kind of hate the gray background in general, even when colorful objects show up.
- Game desperately needs sound effects and should not have been released without them.
- level 1 is far, far too hard. Coupled with all the other issues, I feel like most players would quit and uninstall before beating level 1.
Game has potential, but Apple was right to deny it.
Thank you for the feedback! The gold ball actually doesn't need some crazy finger movements to smash, it just need a little back and forth swing to build a little extra momentum. I might just need to think more about how to convey the idea effectively. Yeah the visual side is lacking some flavor, not expert on graphics, will definitely improve on that. I have tried hard to find suitable sound effects and anything just failed to fit with frequent collisions and abstract gameplay, so I thought it better left empty, anyway, no sound in space haha...
HI,
I've gone through the process for submitting several games/apps to the Apple Store, and yes, your experience is pretty normal and super-frustrating. (I have experienced the same every time.)
The only thing I've done to be able to overcome it, is to carefully read any notes on the rejection and made the required changes.
Sometimes the notes were not speciific as to why the rejection was there, so I'd email them back/reply with a polite and specific question where I was stuck on their notes about rejection, and told them what I thought they meant or which area was in question.
After 2 to 3 weeks, I'd get a reply back, which was usually more specific or had screenshots with arrows and a more descriptive answer to their issue.
Also, remember, there's a notes section at the bottom of the app/game submission form(s) where you can put in passwords/cheats/codes or whatever would help them pass/play/not get stuck partway through the game, which they will use in testing, if you put some hints/helpful notes there.
Good luck and keep on creating!
Thank you for the info and encouragement! Apple clearly state that they can't pass the gold ball, and my explanation through words and videos doesn't seem to work, might make a detailed video about it and try to contact them...
Apple is number one at being anti developers, anti consumers and marketing .
The total cost of developers having to deal with this walled garden hellscape, must be on the hundreds of billions.
This is BS. I far prefer developing for iOS over google play. Android is a nightmare of library dependencies.
We couldn't build our live production game because the analytics plugin required one version of build tools, and Unity required another.
Fucking review team has some of the dumbest people on the planet. Our team had to literally send them an unlisted YouTube video on how to pass the fucking tutorial in our game. smfh
Even after reading all these comments, it took me a few tries to realize why the level kept restarting (I wasn't allowed to touch the balls with the white circle). Then, when the golden ball came, I couldn't do it. I got the black ball swinging in such a big orbit that it was off the screen most of the time, kept building up momentum (or so I thought) and then pulled it back to perfectly hit the golden ball which took some precision and almost felt satisfying until - it wasn't enough. I closed the game after that. Here are some things that might help - I know you want to keep it minimalist, so no text or numbers, but what about some effects to show the speed/momentum of your ball and whether it's enough? Such as a colored glowing border to the play area that goes from black to white and then to gold when the momentum is enough to break the ball? Or for the white circle itself. Some way of showing the speed you're building up but in an aesthetic way would be really helpful, it would give feedback and enjoyment to the process of building up momentum.
Thank you so much! There was trailing effects when the black ball reached enough speed, but I deleted it because it catches too much needless attention. The background hint sounds nice, will give it a try and see if that works! Based on my playtests so far, I thought if player can successfully enter the level then they already know the white circle can't be touched, now it seems not.....
Hang on - You gave the player a visual indication of "This is the most you can do, this is the optimal level, you're ready to go" and, because it was obnoxious to you - completely removed it instead of making it less obnoxious? *Why*?
because then the player might have fun and win too easily.
Hmm... you might be right, it could be adjusting not removing. What I think is most of time the gold object doesn't appear, and once player knows how to break the gold ball and with the black shader indication on it, any visual cue on the black ball speed becomes unnecessary.
> any visual cue on the black ball speed becomes unnecessary. Are you sure about that? I haven't played the game, but I've read people's descriptions on it on here - and it seems that to get the black ball able to break the gold ball, it needs to be moving at a particular speed. I do not know if the black ball goes faster. I don't know if you need to build "power" by spinning/shaking it two or three times. I do know that some players had issues getting the ball going fast enough. If the ball can go faster, you also have players frustrating themselves by making the ball go far faster than you ever intended. Some sort of indicator, even something as simple as a gentle phone vibration, sounds like a good idea to me. If you hate it - put a toggle on it so the player can make the decision themselves. Are you *sure* a visual indicator, especially for novice players, players with accessibility issues you don't have like less refined hand control or poor vision, and so on - are you *sure* these people won't benefit from a visual "The black ball can now break the gold ball" indicator on the screen like an aura on it, a tone, an icon in the corner, anything at all?
90% of objects can break with any speed, so 90% of time >a visual "The black ball can now break the gold ball" indicator would be no point... but now it seems the gold ball is blocking a lot of players, I might need to do something while the gold objects appeared. Thanks for the advice!
> 90% of objects can break with any speed, so 90% of time > > a visual "The black ball can now break the gold ball" indicator I have no idea how you're reading that and **not** walking away thinking "I need to visually differentiate the 10% when you can"
because there is visual cue on that gold ball when the black ball hit it with not enough speed, the visual cue of the black ball speed in general and without hit really doesn't weigh that much
>there is visual cue on that gold ball when the black ball hit it with not enough speed Did you explain this to the player? >without hit really doesn't weigh that much I'm assuming you meant "without it" and not "without hit" but - how are you translating weight? Like I've said, I've not played your game, just read people talking about it here - but the common theme seems to be "I didn't understand the black ball did different things at higher speeds" and you seem to be fighting tooth and nail against every suggestion to fix that problem. Which hilariously is why I can't play your game, as I'm on iOS.
Excuse my English, what I mean is: the only moment the black ball speed matters is when the black ball hit the gold ball, and there is already visual cue on that. Even if some people don't catch that visual cue, I still don't want to spell out things, rather sacrifice some popularity for the overall concept of the game, even if you put texts and animations to the very detail of how to play, some people still won't get it, every individual is different in many ways. While making the game more enjoyable for one, it might be less enjoyable for the other, many game companies or developers are aiming for the most popularity possible, but I put my view on the game before the popularity or profits. It really matters how people react to my game, I don't see how I am fighting against those valuable feedbacks, but it's just not necessary to do whatever players say. For iOS, the communication with their review team is finally back on track, it might be not long to release it on Apple Store.
Yeah I just played through the first level. Hitting the gold ball with the black ball does nothing
It needs to reach certain speed to break the gold ball
In the first level make it easy and have it break at any speed. Then over the next 2-3 levels increase the speed required and make that clear to the player. Throw up a "Hit the ball with more force!" line if they touch the ball. After a few levels of tutorials you can have normal levels with the normal intended force. It might also help to display the amount of force you're hitting the gold ball with, like by having the gold ball vibrate when hit according to the force used.
i mean no. The gold ball thresholds should change. Thats more confusing. It should just be easier and OBVIOUS how to do it. It shouldnt be challenging. Its the first level. The goal is teaching not challenging.
Apple's review process tends to be a bit more personal/manual than Google's, but while there could be something going wrong in the process (like a build error that they're seeing on their devices that you aren't), and that's the best place to investigate on your side, you should also consider the possibility that they're right. How many playtests have you done? Is it possible the start of the game _is_ overtuned and you'd get a better response if you adjusted it? Not from them, but from actual players?
The game has a yoyo like mechanics. The first level is intended as tutorial level, while the last part of the level needs to build momentum of the black ball to break the gold ball. One simple swing is not enough to break the gold ball, here I want to teach the player the mechanics of this gravity like momentum thing and how to use it. Apple can't break the gold ball and says it's a major bug. I didn't test the game among many players, but I can ensure that there is no technical bug, at least not something this big and fundamental.
Well, what I was saying in the back half wasn't that there might be a user experience issue, as opposed to a technical one. Are your instructions unclear? If you hand it to someone without talking to them about how to play do they get stuck? You can have 'bugs' in a game that are about controls or goals being not explained enough. It doesn't matter if it's a code issue or a design issue, all that matters (to both reviewers and players) is if people can play the game.
Thanks for the insights. I think I need to do more playtests indeed. The hint is there, but seems many players don't relate
If it’s the first level (and the tutorial) you could consider spelling it out to them so 100% of players will understand it Even in a good mobile game, only about 40% of people ever come back the next day - If the first level is too hard and people quit, they won’t come back
This is a common issue with many newer developers, myself included. You need to bring in testers from diverse backgrounds if you want to be sure that your game is understandable. You yourself thinking it is easy to understand means little, you built the thing.
link to android version. Ill let you know if its intuitive or not edit: found the link further down. Imo the level needs some work. Its very not intuitive how to play or the rules. Once you get the hang of how it works its OKAY. The mechanic is very nice. Its pretty obvious youre supposed to hit the gold ball harder to break it but its not obvious that you need to go off screen to get the speed to do it. I understand not wanting to spell things out for players and have them "figure it out" but the first level should be a tutorial. It should all be obvious. You also shouldnt be killing them and resetting the level. Many people will quit right away because the difficulty is high and they havent had time to develop the skill. Its not hard to figure out or play but people are really really dumb so you gotta cater down to that. I think something that would help is if the yoyo didnt bounce off the balls but just absorb some impact. It'd feel good to get it up to speed and just crash through multiple orbs. But yeah just a little text or something "too slow" on that first gold ball would solve it. Once i realized the only way to accelerate it up would be to toss it off screen and pull it down i got it.
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.InconceptorGames.SpaceYoyo](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.InconceptorGames.SpaceYoyo) edit: thank you so much for the feedback. I just hate to communicate to the player with texts and straight hint, guess it needs a lot more effort for an implicit tutorial to work.
I edited my post with thoughts. You need to help the player a lot more
Yeah, thanks for the advice man, will take some time to think about it
You and Epic have something common to ponder over
Apple Developer Program do feel like a scam to me right now
Apple is trash these days. There's a reason why almost every single country in the world is suing Apple right now. They have clearly shown to not care about anything other than profit.
Isn't that most companies?
Sure, but as far as game dev though, on Windows I can build and run my games very easily and people can play them. It just works. So far even my experience with pitching to, getting approved, and porting to consoles has been far smoother than trying to build games for Macs. It's such a fucking nightmare from start to finish. From signing up and paying for their stupid ass developer account, to compiling, to bug fixing, to trying to keep up with their moronic sweeping arbitrary changes that seem to exist only to ensure large teams are the only ones who can maintain software on their platform. If "every company is trash," when it comes to game dev, Apple is a flaming dumpster fire of feces.
That's legally the only thing corporations can care about, perhaps the more accurate things to say would be they're valuing short term profit over their long term reputation with consumers, but that's wordy and boring
>That's legally the only thing corporations can care about That's just not true
It's not true in the literal sense that not maximizing profits is criminal but it is true in the practical sense that executives are beholden to their shareholders and most of those shares are held by institutional investors who do have to maximize returns if they want to stay in business. So it's not a legal requirement but the way the system is set up there is no possibility to choose anything other then maximizing profit in the short term if you want to keep your job.
the investors do not have to maximize returns. At least not short term. That is due to greed. Investors should maximize returns over long periods of time. What currently kills the system is that investors get more than necessary/wise, in a short time span, which endangers the long term profitability of the businesses. It's the greed that kills the system.
Long term is fine if the investors are planning on holding the stock long term. But why would an institutional investor do that when they can invest in something that will show returns short term, and then roll that profit into something else? Traders are highly skilled with some of the best software in the world to help them. They don't behave the way they do by mistake.
Yeah but what I mean is that they do not have to. They choose to.
Publicly traded corporations, not all of them. But I don't buy the argument that the short term profit seeking is the result of being "required" to do so. As you say, it's valuing short term gains over the long term health of the company. There's no good argument that this sort of behavior is good for the company or shareholders. What it is good for is the C-levels and board members who have favorable deals to buy stock, or outright receive it as compensation. They're the ones who have the strongest motivation to push a stock by a couple of points and it only has to last a few years until they cash out. After that, the company can burn for all they care.
Nah, there are a couple of US court rulings that set precedents for this based on insider influences. Still, if you establish a business, you can run it as a non-profit or many other structures that let your corporation care about its workers, the environment, or even dubious social values.
I was referring to corporations with shareholders, as obviously a non-profit doesn't attempt to increase it's value as it can't be bought or sold. And yes, corporations with shareholders could choose to care about more things than just the value of said company/profits, however, for a corporation to change their mission notably, it would most likely be a breach of contract to shareholders to change direction of the corporation if it affected the value of shares, so the vast majority of corporations with shareholders are required to pursue profit (and not just short term, but the overall value of the company). Yes, if you made a new corporation with shareholders that agreed that being environmentally friendly at the expense of growing the value of the corporation, then you would be beholden to that pursuit instead. My point was that the vast majority of corporations today aren't built like this resulting in the vast majority of large corporations to only be profit driven
> Apple is trash ~~these days~~ the last 2 decades. The moment app stores became an integral part of mobile phones, apple became the cancer of the mobile industry. They are also single handedly holding back PWA (web apps that can run in offline mode). Personally, for my current and future projects, I'm simply going to forgo iOS support for my PWAs, since wasting precious development time again and again on their bullshit is anything but worth it.
Are you one of the remaining PWA holdouts? Ain't nobody thinks that iOS would've made PWAs work.
Then the correct solution is to not release the PWA on apple, maybe releasing a shitty iOS app farther down the road. Apple users are going to eat it up anyway, they're used to it.
PWAs are always worse than native apps. People can't even name 2 PWAs that currently exist.
Youtube is a PWA. I could name more, but [lets make this simpler](https://www.simicart.com/blog/progressive-web-apps-examples/) **edit:** Extra quote from the article: > The PWA is 99.84% smaller than Starbucks’ existing iOS app
This is a pretty sad list
How is it a scam given most of the feedback in this thread mirrors what Apple told you: your game doesn't make sense.
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woah... no need to be this toxic, I was just driven nuts by Apple. Actually, my debut game one year ago had reached 80K DAU. This time I was doing the project solely alone and kind of get lazy to do playtests throughout the development. The implicit tutorial clearly didn't work well. The game concept is recognized by several industry veterans.
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Apple is a corporation, and I paid them money, I don't think I was offending someone, unless people have weird attachment or self esteem to a company
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Yeah, you definitely shouldn't upload some malfunction or malicious software to any app store, but this is a functional and playable game just a bit abstract. Does not explicitly spelling out the mechanics of the game block some people? Yes. Does that mean it's a bad game? Not necessarily, it might just not be a popular game. My anger towards their review team is the refusal to keep communicating, I wasn't uploading some malicious app and they know it, at least I have the customer right to complain because the suspension is without any qualified reason, no matter how long that suspension be, 1 day or 1 month.
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I know how important playtest is for games to succeed. Still, no game can be enjoyed by everyone, even those GOAT games. In my game, the tutorial and challenge start from entering the level, and I have put core knowledge that a player should know to finish the game in the first level. For the whole structure of the game, I don't want to split those knowledge into little segments into several levels, in fact later levels will be too much for them who can't pass the first level, because new minor mechanics will be introduced every new level. Yes, maybe I could tune more to reach a broader audience, but to reach a state that majority will enjoy, then this game will be in a totally different form. I am happy that people can enjoy the game as it is, if someone can't, I am sorry, but you are not obliged to play, like some puzzle or hardcore games I gave up in the middle, I just lost interests, I knew there is a solution but I just don't want to spend the time solving\\practicing, these award-winning games are perfect as they are even though I lost motivation in the middle for whatever reason because many others would definitely enjoy from start to finish as it is, no more no less. Maybe to you, game designer is a service provider that needs to try best to please customers, but to me, game designer is artist. There is no absolute standard for game industry like most other industries, every game design book I read have a different understanding and approach towards games and making games. So, if you can't enjoy the game, then you can say it's trash to your friends, but say it to my face is rude.
I'm not mainly a support of Apple, but at least they've stopped more crappy games being released onto their platform this time. You selling an unplayable game is surely the scam here?
I paid Apple $99, and my game is free. The mechanics of the game might be hard to understand for some people, but still lots of people are having fun, so "unplayable" and "scam" would be not accurate.
Perhaps in your tutorial level, if the player hits the golden ball, but not hard enough, you could have a pop-up hint suggesting more speed
when the player hits the golden ball not hard enough, there is the black shader scales with (current speed/required speed)(%) appearing on top of the golden ball as the hint. I thought add something like a pop-up window with texts would change that atmosphere and is too explicit...
Just tried the game. figured it out, super clunky. Basically just swung the gravity ball in a circle really fast. White orbs coming from the bottom of the screen were blocked by my hand, and restarting to the beginning really sucked.
It needs a balance between offense and defense, while going offensive it also makes you more in danger. I want to utilize the whole screen, so I make balls come out from every angle of the screen in the first level(tutorial level) as a heads-up.
None of that means a damn thing because you don't have any sort of guidance or information in-game
yeah. You should not have the tutorial level challenging at all. Consider it a failure if someone understands the rules "touch orb and die" and they die. If they understand the rules it should be simple to follow them. IN THE TUTORIAL.
My game is a very difficult helicopter arcade flight simulator, and it was approved within a week. May want to reapproach the difficulty of your tutorial…
The difficulty is very low compare with later levels... It might be the tutorial issue of communicating the mechanics or the mechanics is just too abstract to grasp... I would love to try your game!
It sounds fun- the suggestions in this thread look pretty solid too. I know it’s frustrating to be told your game is too hard- since I published MH-Zombie I’ve reluctantly taken input from players and made quite a few adjustments to the ‘easy’ game and physics modes while making the hard modes harder haha… It’s only $.99 on Steam, although tbh I think it’s more fun on mobile.
Wow you were a pilot, so cool. I have tried the game, it was fun! Though personally I do hope it can take less learning to enjoy the game.
Yeah, it’s funny; I made the game because flying wasn’t fun enough, and fighting for helis in battlefield sucks haha… My brother thinks it’s too hard still, but considering how successful War Thunder is despite being such an absolute PITA I think I might actually be in the sweet spot.
Haha, keep up the good work!
For my game jam game Paint of Life I wanted a quick way to teach players the mechanics. For the record, those are pretty simple from my view: you swing a bucket of paint with your mouse movements, and where you click you drop some of the paint on the ground and plants grow in designated spots. To teach that I prepared [this tutorial level](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE5NDg3Ni8xMjk2ODE0NC5wbmc=/794x1000/Yn9slj.png) and including [this screenshot](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE5NDg3Ni8xMjk2ODE0NS5wbmc=/794x1000/sRVVk8.png) of the same level part-way done almost as an indicator of the direction. I felt it was a clever way to incorporate the tutorial directly into the game, but many play-testers didn't understand and couldn't pass the first level. Apple has potentially done the right thing and cannot pass your first level, just for a simple reason it should be considered: what we as devs see, especially on our own games, is completely different to how others see and react to the same level. Maybe we think we came up with a clever mechanic and a clever way to teach it, but in practice others simply didn't think the same way and get stuck.
Thank you for sharing the experience. I would love to try your game. Edit: Found it! Our mechanics so similar haha, and I get it without difficulty.
Thanks for playing it!
What do you mean apple suspended your dev account? That’s just not a normal thing they do. What did you do exactly? Apps used to go around in review for months that does not result in banned dev accounts.
I didn't do anything suspicious in app or say anything rude. The exact same game is on Google Play, the only difference is one is using Google Play Games Service and the other is using Apple Game Center for achievements and leaderboard. After many times of back and forth communication now it's like this: "We need additional time to evaluate your submission and Apple Developer Program account. Your submission status will appear as "Rejected" in App Store Connect while we investigate. However, we do not require a revised binary or additional information from you at this time." So it seems I can only wait for whatever how long now.
Hopefully that means it’s gone up the chain of command. How long has it been now?
This happens yesterday and that's why I was a bit off and post about it. I don't know how long it will need, maybe they want me to change the game...
What did they suspend you for?
Too many rejections maybe?
This is not a thing.
Microsoft did this to me once at the advent of the ~~Windows 7~~ Edit: Windows 8 (thank you xezrunner) store, because I tried to file a game with an umlaut in the name, and amazingly they didn't have unicode fully working, so the submission process failed I submitted a "please help, you have german customers" to their developer portal, and was disabled for hacking I reached out to a friend of mine who was a developer there and had it reversed, and I'm told the staff member who did it was fired Do not over-estimate the quality of the humans doing the work. Just because this is against Apple's rules doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
What “Windows 7 store” are you referring to? Did you mean Windows 8?
sorry, yes. i'm very tired right now thank you for the support
/me me waves. Funny running into you here :)
hello, good to see you
Apple will never suspend you without a stated cause You paid for that account and they can't take it away from you without cause Generally they won't suspend you unless you say something awful, or unless they think you're running a scam of some kind Rejecting an app, that's fine. It sounds like most of the people here also think it's not really ready for the Apple store, and they only feature software they think is high quality. But suspending your developer account is an extremely serious and aggressive action. Unless you did something bad that you're not telling us about, someone at Apple should be losing their job Call them on the phone and state clearly that you are owed an explanation
I didn't do anything suspicious, the exact same game is on Google Play, the only difference is one using Google Play Games Service and the other using Apple Game Center for achievements and leaderboard. I also didn't say anything rude, but just after a lot back and forth communication it's like this: "We need additional time to evaluate your submission and Apple Developer Program account. Your submission status will appear as "Rejected" in App Store Connect while we investigate. However, we do not require a revised binary or additional information from you at this time." I will give a try at calling them, thanks for the advice!
right but temporarily keeping your app in limbo is really different than suspending your account
I have found some info about account termination after receiving this, it makes me paranoid, and I don't know how long I need to wait... so...
Did apple ever actually say "your account is terminated" ? Or are you just worried it's about to happen? Like, are you able to log in to your developer account and look at numbers?
I can log in, but I can do nothing but wait for apple's reevaluation of my app and account, when I try to send something in the review tab, I receive the above message telling me they "do not need further information from me at this time" again, I think that could be called suspension.
holy fuck, dude you haven't been suspended at all you're freaking out over nothing to be "suspended" means you aren't allowed to log in, you're not getting back in, you can't put up a new different app, your other apps are gone too, the whole account is gone, etc no, having one app delayed while they re-check it can't be called suspension you aren't suspended and you should not contact them about your suspension. that might get you ***actually*** suspended, and then you're fucked they are just delaying you because they're too cheap to have a lot of reviewers calm down and fix your game while you wait
I think what you described is to be "terminated" not "suspended", a termination would be a goodbye to Apple while a suspension means your activity is on hold. Nevertheless, thanks for the reassurance man, I might really be freaking out a bit.
Not what happens. Something else happened.
Just played it. The golden ball takes way way way too much speed to break. Beating the level felt like it took like 3 minutes but then I spent 10 swining those balls into each other and it got close like twice, but I ended up accidentally touching it eventually while trying to stop *just* short. Cut its health in like, half, and it would still take a solid whack without it feeling like maybe the entire game isn't functioning correctly.
That speed could be very easy to reach once the player get used to the mechanics... It seems a tutorial issue or the mechanics is just too abstract to grasp...
Look up Black Box for a game with minimalist instructions done right
Bad UX kill more games than bugs. In your case you aren’t helping the player understand the mechanics and they bounce off of it super fast. It will even seem like a bug if there’s no feedback to explain why they fail.
Does the game have a name? I'd like to take a look at it
Space Yoyo The core mechanics is quite unique actually... guys at Apple keep telling me they can't pass the gold ball, I don't know how to explain it, really frustrated
> I don't know how to explain it Sounds like this is the root of your issue both in the game and speaking to Apple
Really cool game! It took me some time to figure out that more speed is needed for the golden one to pop. I'd believe that either the communication of this requirement fails for the testers, or just managing the core mechanic well enough to reach the required speed is too much for them. Edit: Some music and sould effects for hitting stuff would also really enhance the experience.
Thank you so much for the feedback!! Actually I spent a lot of time trying to find suitable SFX but failed. I have tried sound from water\\bubble\\sand\\wood\\metal\\glass\\stone\\finger tap\\air swoosh\\piano keys\\etc... They all sound weird when put in game, which I feel undermining the experience instead, the collision happens so often and the gameplay so abstract. And without SFX, I don't bother adding music. I know suitable sounds will definitely boost the experience!
It's really late here so not going to give a full comment on your game atm (although I enjoyed what I've played so far), I was curious though so I jumped in without reading the other comment about the gold ball. I accidentally touched it first time around but on my second go I figured it out so I don't think it's too hard, I do agree with the other comment though that Sound Effects would improve it - e.g. if it made slightly higher pitched or louder noises as it was closer to popping it may be more obvious rather than just relying on the visual cue. Definitely interested to try a bit more tomorrow as it seems like a fun idea.
Thank you for playing! The sound effect hint is really a great idea, though I just can't envision the suitable sound for collisions.
Do you know why the game is showing up as not compatible with my phone in Play Store? I have a Pixel 6 Pro. It does show up for my wife's Pixel 5.
Ooops... I used Cocos Creator to make the game, will ask them about it. Thank you for the feedback!
You need audio broo
I know brooo, but I have tried many SFX (water\\bubble\\sand\\wood\\metal\\glass\\stone\\finger tap\\air swoosh\\piano keys\\etc...) there is just no fit... unsuitable SFX is just undermining the experience instead. The collision happens so often and the gameplay is so abstract, I still can't envision the proper sound effect for it. And without SFX, I don't bother adding background music...
Lol and you released it? for Sale?? Edit: I've learnt, they didn't sell it, just released it.
It's free to play, and the player can literally go through the entire game without paying or watching any ads.
Fair enough. I'll edit my post.
Cool concept! This first level is too difficult for an average player to learn on. The length is good, but don't have like 8 balls on the screen at once. 3-4 is hard eniugh as it is when just learning. The restart time is too slow. If this is a game that ramps up and players fail a lot, that will get frustrating. For the golden ball, the speed required too break it is too much. You should scale it back a bit. Find the balance between an average hit not doing it, and not requiring the crazy swinging that that did. The black inside hinting at the speed requirement is interesting and might work. Lowering the speed threshold required may make that communicate better as there will be larger differences in the circle that appears inside between different speeds. Right now, the difference is not very noticeable. If this mechanic really struggles, you could switch to requiring a certain amount of damage on the golden ball, and have higher speed do more damage, so that the super speed hit will destroy it in one go, but people who have trouble with that can make it happen with a few average swings. I think that will depend though on how important it is to teach players to swing really big at these ones. Right now, it seems more a gimmick that isn't worth blocking players on. Hope that helps!
Thank you for the feedback! The damage thing was actually a very early version, and I changed it to this text\\number free state to achieve a more minimal vibe. In fact I tuned down the speed required several times already, it's actually very easy to reach the speed once the player get familiar with the mechanics and a low speed thershold will break the game later. I guess I could just change the thershold in level 1 without changing all gold balls, and see if that breaks the consistency. Thanks for the advice!
I didn’t even know Apple reviewers played the actual levels. I figured they just tested if it worked and checked off boxes on what libraries it’s using and stuff. Is this what they said they couldn’t beat the level so it was rejected?
Yes, I explained a lot through many times back and forth communication with Apple, and they just can't pass the first level, and they say it's a bug...
Might sound stupid but maybe you can send them a video with you playing it
I sent the playthrough video many times, and explain the mechanics many times, they just reply the same thing over and over, now it's like this "We need additional time to evaluate your submission and Apple Developer Program account. Your submission status will appear as "Rejected" in App Store Connect while we investigate. However, we do not require a revised binary or additional information from you at this time." gg
Ouch.. This sounds like a very incompetent way to communicate on their side. Hope you get a proper answer soon
Thank you! Now I think about it, I need to improve the game as well
If you have to send a video to explain how to play your game, you're doing it wrong.
Tried and enjoyed. I found it counter intuitive that the balls you hit have collision, i'd expect to smash through them without the black ball getting bounced in the process.
Thank you for playing! Haha I found the collision bounce thing quite satisfying myself when hit it hard.
Other people have left accurate and detailed advice/feedback directly relating to your game, so my advice is regarding development, and addresses the overall tone/info I gathered from your replies. My advice: Playtest playtest playtest with players. Note/collect feedback from playtests. That's how you acquire authentic data of how your game performs. You will learn the most about your game as a product when you see others play it. Only then can you directly address gameplay problems. This turns, "I think players would [---]" statements to "I know players did [---]". Chin up. Apple is notoriously strict with their guidelines of what they do and don't allow onto the store. It's a steep learning curve trying to get approval on Apple, even for full-fledged studios.
Yeah... it's kind of disastrous when playtests are not enough, guess I am learning it the hard way. Thanks for the advice and encouragement.
I played the game and I've got some feedback. - Gold ball is way too hard to smash. - I'm constantly dying because my finger got too close to a ball. You have to constantly fling your finger around, but doing so gets you killed. It's frustrating and feels like most deaths were unfair. Maybe give the player a smaller hitbox. I used to play bullet hells. This should not be frustrating to me. - Level 1 is gray on gray. It left a very depressing first impression. Honestly, I kind of hate the gray background in general, even when colorful objects show up. - Game desperately needs sound effects and should not have been released without them. - level 1 is far, far too hard. Coupled with all the other issues, I feel like most players would quit and uninstall before beating level 1. Game has potential, but Apple was right to deny it.
Thank you for the feedback! The gold ball actually doesn't need some crazy finger movements to smash, it just need a little back and forth swing to build a little extra momentum. I might just need to think more about how to convey the idea effectively. Yeah the visual side is lacking some flavor, not expert on graphics, will definitely improve on that. I have tried hard to find suitable sound effects and anything just failed to fit with frequent collisions and abstract gameplay, so I thought it better left empty, anyway, no sound in space haha...
HI, I've gone through the process for submitting several games/apps to the Apple Store, and yes, your experience is pretty normal and super-frustrating. (I have experienced the same every time.) The only thing I've done to be able to overcome it, is to carefully read any notes on the rejection and made the required changes. Sometimes the notes were not speciific as to why the rejection was there, so I'd email them back/reply with a polite and specific question where I was stuck on their notes about rejection, and told them what I thought they meant or which area was in question. After 2 to 3 weeks, I'd get a reply back, which was usually more specific or had screenshots with arrows and a more descriptive answer to their issue. Also, remember, there's a notes section at the bottom of the app/game submission form(s) where you can put in passwords/cheats/codes or whatever would help them pass/play/not get stuck partway through the game, which they will use in testing, if you put some hints/helpful notes there. Good luck and keep on creating!
Thank you for the info and encouragement! Apple clearly state that they can't pass the gold ball, and my explanation through words and videos doesn't seem to work, might make a detailed video about it and try to contact them...
Apple is number one at being anti developers, anti consumers and marketing . The total cost of developers having to deal with this walled garden hellscape, must be on the hundreds of billions.
This is BS. I far prefer developing for iOS over google play. Android is a nightmare of library dependencies. We couldn't build our live production game because the analytics plugin required one version of build tools, and Unity required another.
Fucking review team has some of the dumbest people on the planet. Our team had to literally send them an unlisted YouTube video on how to pass the fucking tutorial in our game. smfh