Sounds from the twitterverse like the big guy is starting to get just as frustrated as we are . . . Apple now says 88% of Apps approved in 14 days. It's gotten worse! Not cool. Not. Cool. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck And once you find out you are not in that 88%, you have don't have a clue how long the other 12% might take. Anger... growing.... JUNK IT! about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck
I'm as eager as the next guy to get GDS. However, the dev should quit whining and be happy that the first Geodefense got approved in just four days and that Apple bothered to "feature" it and mention it in their list of favorite games. I'm sure there are plenty of devs who would love to get their quality wares approved within several weeks. So chin up, Nsxdavid, and keep it real. No one feels sorry for you. GDS looks awesome and will do incredibly well in the app store, considering the work you put in to it, regardless of whether your cash flow is slightly compromised due to the approval delay.
^^ im pretty sure this is NOT about money to him. he simply made it because he loves the game he made and was kind enough to share it wish us. its not just him that hates apple right now, 90% of the iphone/ipod community do
I just don't think that this specific dev has any basis for fueling "hate" or discontent with Apple over their approval process, given the fine treatment his own apps have been given so far. Whether X% of any community hates Apple is irrelevant to his cause as a developer in light of his own positive experience - if one is to believe his love for the iphone declared on the Geodefense website. The only legitimate gripe with them would be a financial one, if there was one. It is very unprofessional for him to publicly vent frustration with Apple over a slight app delay, considering how fairly he's been treated so far. The lone wolf should be giddy, in fact
well, in all fairness. he has every right to say whatever he wants. especially on his own twitter account
Do me a favor GrubJelly and speak for yourself. David has a legitimate gripe, and has a right to express it. Apple has set themselves up as the gatekeeper for all apps for the iPhone, but they have failed to: 1) Staff up sufficiently to handle the number of app submissions. 2) Develop a system for informing developer where they are in the process. Like any app, G:S could be released tomorrow, or it could sit in the Apple queue for the next six months. David has no way of knowing or planning. That is no way for him or Apple to run a business. GrubJelly, imagine, if you will, that in your job as AV guy at your high school you had to get permission from this one teacher before you picked which projector you were going to use. And imagine that so many people were asking her for permission that she was constantly behind, and you were frustrated in your desire to show your movies. Wouldn't you get annoyed that the school didn't assign a second or third teacher to help out with the requests? Now imagine that you wanted to show the movie on Tuesday, and the teacher didn't even give you any update about when she was going to give you permission. You might get even more annoyed. Michael
Its called free speech, we all have it and we can use it to express whatever we want. You may not agree with it (as is your right) but his right is to express his frustration for his hard work not being published.
I'll be happy once this app has been released. I'm not into gov't intervention, but I hope the recent FCC letter to Apple Re: GV rejection wakes Apple up and gets them to refine their app approval process.
Right. I'm exercising my right to free speech by saying that the dev ought to quit whining. That's just my opinion. His first iphone app was approved in 4 days. The app currently under review was submitted fewer than 3 weeks ago, accord to the dev. Even if it ends up being one of the few apps to take a little longer, it still averages out in his favor. No need to jump the gun. Thats all I was saying.
It is interesting how much you have missed the point. Back when he released his first app, most approvals took about 4 days. With his current app about 9 months later, most approvals are taking about 2 weeks. He (and most everyone else) takes this as an obvious sign that the Apple App approval process is breaking down. You, on the other hand, think he should be happy that at one time the approval process used to be pretty good. When Apple took 4 days to approve an app, most people felt it was no big deal that they didn't give you updates. Now that it takes more then 2 weeks, he (and most everyone else) think it would be nice if they kept developers in the loop. You, on the other hand, think he should just shut up and stop complaining. Do you see the disconnect? Michael
You've taken what he's said and blown it out of proportion. All he's expressing is that he is completely in the dark, because Apple says that 88% of apps are approved in 14 days, and he is in the 12% that are not and has no help, no information on when it will be released. Also back when geodefense was released there was a very low chance of a release that would take more than a week - it wasn't exactly a rarity for games to come out in 7 days. Now, due to Apple's unhelpfulness there is no true time period you can expect apps to come out.
Michael- The vast majority of developers would be thankful to have had a game approved in just 4 days, and to have the sequel be approved about as quickly as I'm sure GDS will. Perhaps its the Openfeint components that are delaying the approval ofGDS, or something related to the way the app acquires and handles DLC. I'll bet it gets released within days. He can say whatever he wants, but if the app came out tomorrow and was unstable on certain idevices, everyone would be blaming Apple for an incomplete review process. As a consumer and not a developer, I would appreciate it if Apple took their time approving GDS, as I'm really looking forward to playing it and have had enough experiences with unstable or buggy apps to be slightly apprehensive. Geodefense was stable but had no online leaderboards or DLC related code. All I know is that the dev praises the speedy approval of Geodefense in his blog on the GD website: http://criticalthoughtgames.com/Blog/Entries/2009/2/20_Its_in_the_wild!.html [Quoting Nsxdavid:] Yay! I got the game done last week, and it was approved in about 4 days. I hear that’s a pretty quick turn around. Already getting some great impressions over on the Touch Arcade forums. [End Quote] That sounds to me like one satisfied developer.
Anyone would be happy to have an app released in 4 days now, because generally the approval process takes much longer then that. Back when his first app came out, most apps took aroubd 4 days, so it wasn't as big a deal. And I don't think anyone will be clapping their hands and smileing at a 2.5 week approval time, which is what we are getting to if it comes out in the next day or two. Or, since most apps are taking a very long time, Apple's approval process is not being ramped up to handle more apps. Well, then you know something the developer doesn't know, because Apple hasn't said anything to him. Interesting theory, but according to several people with online components, Apple's approval process doesn't go into the level of testing that you are describing. Several people have posted that their servers only showed minor hits during the approval process. As a consumer, I like choice. I had a palm for years and years, and some apps I downloaded were buggy, and some were great. I learned to avoid the buggy developers. I would rather have my apps come out faster and then deal with some issues. If you would rather wait, I think you should have that choice as well. Apple is insisting that we all wait, but is not doing a very good job of keeping up with demand. I would appreciate it if Apple wants to be the gatekeeper for all, that they don't fall down on the job. If apple hasn't tested the OpenFeint Interface by now, we have a real problem. And since (according to David) there isn't any DLC yet, how do you suppose they are testing that. Perhaps that's the delay. They are holding up the release until he gets some maps online. I am curious. If Apple gets to the point where all apps take 3 months to be approved, will you still be thanking them for their diligent efforts? 6 months? Do you even care how long it takes as long as they assure you its just because they are testing even more? Michael
You're probably right about the Openfeint issue, but the DLC aspect could conceivably involve a look-see, on the level of code, at the types of system calls made by the app in order to verify that they do not violate SDK rules. An analogous example would be one in which an app such as Space Invaders IG is examined in order to ensure that itunes library content is not processed except in accordance with protocol. If Apple gets to the point where all apps start taking several months to be approved, then that would $uck and devs would have a right to complain that Apple's review department has not been adequately "ramped up." One thing that people ought to remember is that a major OS revision occurred recently, and Apple is still most likely swamped with reviews of minor 3.0 stability updates. The fact that Apple picked Geodefense as one of their favorite games should be taken as a positive sign that GDS will not be treated unfairly.
