Do developers leave with a bad experience of Apple, and the App Store?

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by thumbs07, Jul 29, 2016.

  1. thumbs07

    thumbs07 Well-Known Member

    Jul 20, 2010
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    I wonder as seems to be a number of developers who cease developing for the App Store. One I'm thinking of now is Donut games, and their lack of new games. But there are others- a game I liked Dizzy Knight or something has completely vanished from the store. Was a nice quirky title.
    I can probably think of a few more. Just curious the developers experience. Do they get a good cut of the money Apple makes?
     
  2. JasonLL

    JasonLL Well-Known Member

    Feb 21, 2014
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    Developers get a majority of the sale but it's the lack of visibility for most games on the App Store, except the chosen few, and the mobile consumers attitude towards charging anything more than the absolute minimum upfront that probably have scared away a couple of developers.
     
  3. Meshugenah Games

    Meshugenah Games Well-Known Member

    Aug 4, 2016
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    Completely agree with everything JasonLL says. Most developers probably would.

    I would add though that in the last couple months, Apple has actually made the process better for developers.

    The wait time to get your app approved has dropped to under 48 hours in most cases.

    They're also increasing the rate that they are featuring apps in the App Store, so more apps have a chance to be visible.

    Apple seems to be trying to improve the process.
     
  4. AnawikiGames

    AnawikiGames New Member

    Dec 21, 2011
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    As a developer of about 16 games and 1 app I can share some experience. Getting the game or the app to the App Store is "easy". Getting the game/app to be noticed is very hard. Our latest release, World Uncovered, was released about 2 weeks ago and got about 200 downloads so far. And it's not a bad app, it's best of it's kind... it's just that nobody knows about it so far. We're working on marketing for it, but it takes time and if you're small developer you have very limited resources to market your games/apps.

    See World Uncovered and let me know what you think:
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-uncovered/id1119505618?mt=8

    Great app, but totally unnoticed on release date. And a lot of little developers prefers developing to marketing and they might choose less competitive markets.
     
  5. rasterzone

    rasterzone Active Member

    Aug 2, 2016
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    I'm new to the App Store and it's been a mostly good experience for me. The 2-day approval time is a lot better than the 1+ week horror stories I've read about! I submitted an app twice last week, and it was 2 days both times. The only issue I ran into was getting rejected the first time because my Buy button didn't work for them. So they definitely do test your IAP during the review. But I don't know why it failed. Their response didn't give enough details. It worked for me. I just re-built and re-submitted, and it went through fine. No idea if I made a mistake or Apple.

    -Alan
     
  6. ackmondual

    ackmondual Well-Known Member

    Dec 25, 2009
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    2 days is just awesome. The site below reflects that, as I remember it was just over 7 days.
    http://appreviewtimes.com/


    Some of the things I hear that work against you in the AppStore:
    1) Now that the big whigs have gotten in, previously underestimating the scope of the iOS AppStore (Google, Facebook, EA, etc.), the majority of the revenue is going to them. Around 84% (which unfortunately is also about the distribution of wealth in the US :().

    2) the AppStore is so saturated that strictly by the numbers, it's almost like the lottery. And this is only if you do good job pouring in blood and sweat, with crazy marketing. I recall a quote from Michael Dell around mid last decade saying if he were to start a new business, he wouldn't pick computers. That market's quite tapped out.
     
  7. thumbs07

    thumbs07 Well-Known Member

    Jul 20, 2010
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    @Anawiki games, good app. Ironically enough I've moved to a new area and app like that can be useful for how I explore places.

    So saturation the problem. That's interesting. Ironically I wonder if there's also a lack of ability by the gamer to find all the significant -for instance- platformers they're after. So a developer could have a game, a gamer could have a desire, and the two don't meet :D Sod's law.
     

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