Using similar images of top apps within metadata as leverage to direct traffic to your app is not appropriate. Please modify your app icons. They don't even say which top app is. Below is my answer: First you owe me an official apologize since you didn't say which top app has the similar icon. Keep it in mind that I waited for quite a few days to get the app reviewed. Yet you saw it for minutes and reject it without a clear feedback! Now I guess you mean the Temple Run. But I didn't mimic it, the icon is from a photograph of a stone wall. You say the wall is there to mimic an app's icon? How ridiculous! They are not similar at all. Maybe because they both have a yellow color? Or because they are both totems? I think both reasons are funny. How do you expect me an non-artist to modify it? Make it smile or give it a big red nose only to let it seems less similar? Or just change the color of it will do? I think I've already keep enough space from the Temple Run icon. You'll find Temple Run: Brave and Zombie Run's icons are more similar, not to say they are even more similar in game play! Can I request you pull down those similar apps? Finally, I think the difference is enough for two app icons. Or is it due to it's a top app, I need to keep more space form it? Is it bias or something? I've write too much. You better give apologize first and then answer the questions one by one. I'll resubmit the app without change the icon (I can't!). Do give quick and non-casual feedbacks.
I instantly assumed they meant Temple Run, but I've seen other apps with the totem/inca theme and some "pirate coin" icons that look pretty similar too. Sounds like they're being unfairly protective of a top-selling game.
I agree--doesn't make sense to reject that. Temple Run is probably the look you wan to avoid (since it's so well known), but really your design is NOT in the style of Temple Run, and Temple Run didn't invent yellow, or carved faces! And many other apps look even more like Temple Run. (But other games that really ARE in the Temple Run series, like Brave, can of course look the same and not be a problem. The same people made both games.) But the reviewers are all people, so bad judgements get made. And there ARE a lot of apps trying to fool people with their icons, so the problem they're thinking of is real, even if it shouldn't apply to your case. They probably see a dozen icons trying to be "Temple Run-like" or "Angry Birds-like" on purpose every day! And I know when I'm app-hunting, those intentional copycat apps/icons drive me crazy, so I don't mind Apple cracking down on them! But you've done nothing wrong here, Apple just made a bad decision. For your own convenience, I would simply: 1. Shift the color a little (more gray-gold or tan than brilliant yellow, or maybe more orange-gold, or maybe make the ring a different color from the rest). Easy changes. 2. Resubmit in hopes of getting a different reviewer and a different decision. 3. Communicate strongly BUT with courtesy, because the person reading your message may not be the person who made the bad decision. You may not have any way you can "yell at" that person, but you CAN make a new ally with whoever deals with you next! Doesn't mean you have to give in easily: I find being firm and friendly works better than being firm and angry. Although... push me far enough one too many times, and I may try the "angry" method I do think it's good that you gave examples like you did (other than Brave). On the other hand, some apps may look like Temple Run so much that they should NOT have been approved, and that approval was itself a bad call (or an older policy/practice). Good luck!
I agree. I thought of the same app instantly after seeing that icon. Think it's good apple want them to change the icon as its very similar to temple run. Even the dev seems to know that
Yeah, I agree with you, the color and the smile are the same, but that's about it. And there was another game which actually did use an icon which was very very similar to temple run, but I forgot what it was, and they let that one through.
Shiny vs. rough style, very different expression (different eyes, different mouth... just both being "unhappy"). Different cultural feel. Different shape (full-frame vs. in a circle). I do think that's the source of the problem, but it was a bad call. Just being an ancient mask or face of some sort isn't enough. And gold? There are only so many metals! Some others--all of which pre-date Temple Run (Aug '11): Aztec Scroll, Jul '09 Aztec Puzzle, Oct '10 Last Temple, Jan '11 Curse of Inca, Mar '10 Treasures of Montezuma 2, Nov '09 Inca Reaction, Feb '11 Zuma's Revenge, Apr '11 Tiki Totems, Nov '09 Tiki Totems 2, Dec '10 Nobody's copying anyone there. It's natural coincidence that faces make good icons, and some games use ancient cultures as themes. Bound to happen, with thousands of apps out there. And here are some that came after (and who knows what ones were rejected): Adventure Run, Apr '12 Spartan Run, Nov '12 Idol Tower, Apr '12 Aztec Runner, July '12 (more the name, but still) The Lost Inca Prophesy, Jan '12 Inca Mask Temple Rush, Mar '12 (They even say "Not Temple Run" in the description, to steal search hits!) (I'm certainly not saying all those later ones are copying Temple Run on purpose--some are, most are just coincidence.) Hmmm... maybe Tiki Totems should complain to Apple! EDIT: Actually, the OP's icon looks just like a yellow version of this icon: Aztec The Curse in the Heart of the City of Gold, Sep '12 (I doubt it's popular with a name like that! But it's by a well known publisher--same ones that did Return to Mysterious Island and others.) I don't think the OP copied it, though: different scale, no badge in the corner. I bet both icons simply came from the same stock art source.
Wow, how did you do that, that is amazing. Tiki totems and temple were the ones I was thinking of. Wowzers.
It looks like the exact same icon that the dude on the last page posted for "Aztec The Curse in the Heart of the City of Gold" that came out Sept 12th last year. The only difference is the color and the little badge... but the art looks the same. It does look a little bit like the Temple Run icon too... but there's no mistaking it is the same as that other one. It's amazing they would catch that, but I'm glad they did. Too many apps use the same or similar icons... mix it up and do something original.
OMG, "Aztec The Cuerse..." just freaks me out. It used the same picture I found, except it didn't even change the color! However I didn't mean to copy it. I browesed hundreds of totem photos to find the one that satisfies me. I won't use it if I know beforehand. (Is the totem famous? That app seems rich in arts, why it still resort to the photo for its icon as I do?) And the problem is not the similarity yet. Apple reject my app twice without telling me which top app they are implying. (They didn't even read my question the first time I appealed.) I can only guess it's Temple Run, but can't be sure. Thus I cannot make any modifications. For the second time, they didn't answer either, but they got my app approved directly. Sorry for the Aztec. But for Temple Run, I think it's OK. The icons are already quite different. If you still saw the icon with the first impression of Temple Run, that's my success. I mean, even if I truely want to mimic it, I did it without cross the line.
You keep on saying you dont know what Apples issue is but then in another post you do suggest its similar to Temple Run ! Just make it quite different and try submitting again. Granted 'some' people seem to think the icons important but for me as long as the games good i dont care if its a black square, its all about how the game plays. But you, me, everyone else knows it looks similar to Temple Run, granted they dont have the monopoly on totem pole icons but i see what youre trying to do. Its like when a game comes out with a name 'similar' to Angry Birds as they want to get people to buy the game thinking its some Angry Birds spin-off.
I don't think it's very similar at all. They must have been referring to that other app in terms of similarity. If the level of similarity between this app's icon and TR's is all it takes to get rejected, then there will come a time soon when no apps will ever be released any more because a new icon without that degree of similarity to any existing would be impossible.
