Earlier this year, my husband released his first mobile game (Cubix Challenge). I did nothing to aid in its development beyond being a cheerleader (or nag?) throughout the process, although I DID help with marketing and PR the best I could. The game got absolutely zero press coverage, so that says a lot for my skills, but somehow through my involvement, Apple randomly picked ME to survey about our experience with developing an app for the App Store. The survey was pretty extensive, with questions about the size of our company, number of apps, monetization models used, analytics methods employed, target markets, etc. The questions were mostly multiple choice, but there were two open-ended questions that allowed you to write in a response. It asked for suggestions for improving the App Store. The survey gave me the impression that Apple really DOES care. I am hopeful that they read the responses and give them due consideration. Have any of you received this developer survey from Apple?
I received an invite for the latest survey a few days ago. I recall participating in almost exactly the same survey a few years ago (though the new one has been updated to reflect some of the newer features of the AppStore, like App Previews). I was under the impression that it was sent to all active developers, but makes sense that it might go out only to a random sample, especially if there's a human on the other end that has to wade through them. My main feedback was that give how competitive the AppStore is, it would be nice to have a pay service where developers could submit in-progress games for pre-release feedback from Apple's editorial board. Right now, given how opaque their process is, and how arbitrary the allocation of Apple's precious make-or-break feature slots can seem, this makes App Store development a risky enterprise for people deciding how much money to invest in a give game concept. Heck, if the editors at TA would be willing to offer a pay service like this, I'd be first in line.
Interesting feedback. I don't think Apple would go for it though, even as a paid service. If a developer received positive pre-release reviews from Apple and then didn't ultimately get featured, they might feel cheated. There would undoubtedly be more positively-reviewed games than feature spots available. Even if the game received constructive criticism, and the dev followed Apple's advice to improve it, they might feel they are "owed" a feature for having gone through this paid review process. In the end, devs are simply looking for a feature spot from Apple, so if Apple "likes" the game but aren't going to promise a feature, it isn't really worth it, right? As far as TA reviewing pre-release games for hire? I am going to go out on a limb on this one and guess that they wouldn't be into it either. My suggestion for the survey (my husband's idea) was to separate the App Store games into two main categories: Blockbusters and Indies. Within these two main categories, all of the usual game sub-categories would exist... arcade, racing, puzzle, etc., but the categories would have their own charts and featured lists. This would allow indie games to get more visibility in the Store, without getting lost among Angry Birds and Candy Crush and the other monsters. It would allow users looking for these games to find them more easily, and to support them. Based on the lack of response to this thread, I still don't know how common the Apple survey was, but I DO hope that Apple reads the responses and keeps an open mind to possibilities for improving the App Store.
