Hello everyone!
I am planning to release a game in a few months that may or may not be of “bad taste”.
As the target OS are iOS and Android, the app should be distributed in the App Store / Google Play Store.
This, of course, means, it has to be approved.
With the release getting closer I am starting to think about what I would do if the game got rejected.
So far, I haven’t really made up my mind.
What would you do?
Would you change the content of your game to meet the stores’ requirements?
Would you rewrite controls and try to publish on a different platform?
Would you send in the game several times and hope it will get approved at some point?
Would you actually consider not releasing it at all?
It would get rejected from Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft based on content. On Google it would last a short time before being pulled when someone complained, especially if the self-rating for content you are required to give for your app wasn’t truthful.
I would make whichever modifications would improve my chance of getting it approved and then try again.
Of course, if it gets rejected because of a core part of the game where changing it would essentially ruin the game, that would be a tough situation. That isn’t really something I worry about with my game.
That’s exactly what I might run into. It basically lives 85% from the topic, which may be “taboo”.
Well, of course I would be truthful. In fact, I wouldn’t even want children to play that game, yet I don’t know how I could get Apple’s age rating higher. Because it doesn’t fit their categories. There is no rating for how much of a “taboo” subject is included. And I wouldn’t rate it higher for violence or sex either, because that’s simply not included.
Yes, there may be a few more downloads, but if you can’t distribute it for a longer time, it’s probably going to be pretty tough.
Sure. I just don’t really know an alternative to iOS / Android that I could build for. The game relies on the touch screen very much. If I don’t get approved, maybe I should take a look at Windows Phone or that so-called “Tizen” after all.
Smuggle truck? Wasn’t that a game about smuggling American animals to Canada because they have free health care?
I don’t know how offensive, or controversial your “taboo” content might be, but you could always just try. I don’t know if a rejection ends up with a strike or a ban on your developer account, but otherwise you could re-upload the game with different visuals, made up names or go towards a parody?
Without knowing the details of your game it’s kind of hard to give advice since the game might just be obviously sexual or violent. If you have a game about Syrian refugees for example and you have to sink their boats or manage a refugee camp I can see how that would be rejected, but make it a parody with aliens/animals and you might get a pass.
I would have to answer all of those with a clear “No”, except for the “Killing children” part, for which I don’t know a clear answer. I certainly do not encourage that behaviour like that “Baby Shaker” app did.
It may be borderline, however. Even though I am trying to achieve the exact opposite behaviour with users being repulsed.
Well, I sure will submit it and hope they are okay with the game.
Well, the thing is: It already is a parody to some extent. I just fear nobody will get it or those who get it may be ashamed of their own moral standards and blame the game for confronting them.
I should probably be very thoughtful about the name, too. Maybe I would try to just use the same binary I end up with and try to pass the review with different names.
In my app users abuse children (at least to some extent) to keep the game going. I feel this will offend everyone. (who doesn’t understand the repulsive irony)
I strongly suggest reading Apple’s guidelines, which is something you should do anyway if you want to use their services. Last time I read them the intro made it quite abundantly clear that they’re strongly opposed to anything might be seen as harmful to children.
I will take a closer look again, thanks for pointing that out!
It wouldn’t be like spamming the market but rather try to get Apple to be okay with one of my titles.
If they reject my app, it won’t be available, so I would submit it for review again, but use a different name so they think of the game differently.
Again, I’d encourage reading those guidelines. If you waste their time by doing what you just said without also attempting to properly address their concerns then they’re going to respond accordingly.
In their guidelines and agreement they state that you can’t keep re uploading the same game under a different name. When they reject your game you can contact them to ask why the game was rejected and how you can solve that, but just brute forcing your way on the market is not going to work.
If you waste their time by doing what you just said without also attempting to properly address their concerns then they’re going to respond accordingly.
Thanks for the info!