Anyone here familiar with the new Amazon Underground?
Seems like a new platform with a new pricing model (paid-per-minute by Amazon, free for customers). I’m curious if there is anything that would keep a corona game from working on this new platform?
From what we’ve seen, there’s no technical reason for Corona apps to not work on Amazon Underground.
Is the current corona sdk supports amazon underground , or is there a special build ?
I’ve uploaded several of my Corona apps to Amazon Underground in the past couple of weeks, so can answer this question to the best of my knowledge.
All the games I uploaded were exactly the same as the ones that I had previously uploaded to Google Play, Apple App Store, and Amazon itself. Bear in mind though, that they are relatively simple Corona apps that don’t used any advanced device functions, in-app purchases, or analytics.
Obviously, if your app currently contains ads or in-app purchases, these must be removed, as the Amazon Underground version must be totally free and not restricted in any way. You can’t offer a lesser version than the consumer would get if they went to, say, Google Play and got it.
You must rebuild your APK file, even if it’s already free from in-app purchases etc., as Amazon insist that the Underground APK is named differently from the APK that’s already on Google/Amazon. They suggest just putting something like .underground at the end of your original APK name.
The final thing you must do is edit your launcher icons. Amazon provide a series of Photoshop files for each icon size, which allow you to easily add their “Actually Free” sash across the corner of your icons. NOTE: They don’t provide a sash for the smallest 36x36 ldpi icon, but this icon must still be included in order for your APK to build properly.
The rest of the launchers icons (for iOS etc.) can be left out of your build if you want to keep things simple, and you can also clear the iOS data out of your build.settings file if you wish to clean things up a bit, as this build will never be used for iOS.
The approval process for Underground takes about as long as the normal Amazon store, with a new app now being approved and live within about a day or two.
When it comes to reporting for Amazon Underground, I’m still a bit confused, as the “sales” numbers given on the “Dashboard” tab seem much higher than the numbers given on the “Reporting” tab.
I hope this helps.
Jason Webb
UPDATE: The reporting issue seems to have been fixed by Amazon now.
I just got one of my games up on the Underground the other day… Everything Jason said, my numbers in the reporting section don’t match up too.
The numbers that Underground reports ( minutes played ) seems very ‘dubious’. They are not even remotely close to my Flurry reports… and not just the session time that Flurry reports, I have events set up for level loads and I see levels loaded on days that underground is reporting 0 minutes played. :huh:
From what we’ve seen, there’s no technical reason for Corona apps to not work on Amazon Underground.
Is the current corona sdk supports amazon underground , or is there a special build ?
I’ve uploaded several of my Corona apps to Amazon Underground in the past couple of weeks, so can answer this question to the best of my knowledge.
All the games I uploaded were exactly the same as the ones that I had previously uploaded to Google Play, Apple App Store, and Amazon itself. Bear in mind though, that they are relatively simple Corona apps that don’t used any advanced device functions, in-app purchases, or analytics.
Obviously, if your app currently contains ads or in-app purchases, these must be removed, as the Amazon Underground version must be totally free and not restricted in any way. You can’t offer a lesser version than the consumer would get if they went to, say, Google Play and got it.
You must rebuild your APK file, even if it’s already free from in-app purchases etc., as Amazon insist that the Underground APK is named differently from the APK that’s already on Google/Amazon. They suggest just putting something like .underground at the end of your original APK name.
The final thing you must do is edit your launcher icons. Amazon provide a series of Photoshop files for each icon size, which allow you to easily add their “Actually Free” sash across the corner of your icons. NOTE: They don’t provide a sash for the smallest 36x36 ldpi icon, but this icon must still be included in order for your APK to build properly.
The rest of the launchers icons (for iOS etc.) can be left out of your build if you want to keep things simple, and you can also clear the iOS data out of your build.settings file if you wish to clean things up a bit, as this build will never be used for iOS.
The approval process for Underground takes about as long as the normal Amazon store, with a new app now being approved and live within about a day or two.
When it comes to reporting for Amazon Underground, I’m still a bit confused, as the “sales” numbers given on the “Dashboard” tab seem much higher than the numbers given on the “Reporting” tab.
I hope this helps.
Jason Webb
UPDATE: The reporting issue seems to have been fixed by Amazon now.
I just got one of my games up on the Underground the other day… Everything Jason said, my numbers in the reporting section don’t match up too.
The numbers that Underground reports ( minutes played ) seems very ‘dubious’. They are not even remotely close to my Flurry reports… and not just the session time that Flurry reports, I have events set up for level loads and I see levels loaded on days that underground is reporting 0 minutes played. :huh:
I am having trouble with the icons for Amazon Underground. The “Actually Free” text is blurry on my icon, yet I have the correct resolutions for all of the required icons. I suspect (but have no way to prove) that the Amazon devices are unable to find the correct xxhdpi or xhdpi icons. I peeked inside my apk and here is what I see:
res/ drawable drawable-hdpi-v11 drawable-hdpi-v4 - contains 72x72 icon.png drawable-hdpi-v9 drawable-ldpi-v11 drawable-ldpi-v4 - contains 36x36 icon.png drawable-ldpi-v9 drawable-mdpi-v11 drawable-mdpi-v4 - contains 48x48 icon.png drawable-mdpi-v9 drawable-xhdpi-v11 drawable-xhdpi-v4 - contains 96x96 icon.png drawable-xhdpi-v9 drawable-xxhdpi-v11 drawable-xxhdpi-v4 - contains 144x144 icon.png drawable-xxxhdpi-v11 drawable-xxxhdpi-v4 - contains 192x192 icon.png layout raw
On Amazon’s Launcher Icon Guidelines page, it says:
For commonality with Android, as of Fire OS 5, Amazon uses icons from your APK. (This is a change from earlier versions of Fire OS, where the launcher used the launcher icon that you uploaded to the developer portal when submitting your app.)
…
…
…
To help ensure that the launcher selects the correct icon, only include icons in the resource folders listed in the table on this page.
Problem: Your drawable-* folder was removed in build-time APK optimization.
Solution : Some tools build an APK for a specific density and remove other drawables. For example, the tools might remove the drawable-xxhdpi folder, even though Amazon uses the xxhdpi icon file on xhdpi devices. To help avoid this issue, use a mipmap-* pattern for folder names instead of drawable-*:
- mipmap-hdpi: 72px
- mipmap-xhdpi: 96px
- mipmap-xxhdpi: 144px
Since I am not using Enteprise, I don’t believe there is a way for me to create these mipmap directories under the res/ folder.
Has anyone tried to make Underground icons since Fire OS 5 was released? Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?
Best regards,
Tony
I`m strugling - should I add amazon gamecircle or not?
They told me that I have to give out for free gold in my game - but that will ruin gameplay and makes no sence. Game is playable without that.
But if I`ll aboe to sort this things - and get released on underground - will that bring any money?
So far all my apps on amazon doing 100$/year, while on other stores numbers are much bigger.
Can you let me know - if your $$$ on underground higher or lower then on amazon old store?
- App does not meet expectations for performance issues Your app is demonstrating lower performance quality when compared to the non-Underground version. Please update your app to maintain the value of the experience for our customers. For more information on the guidelines, please refer to Understanding Amazon Underground Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install and launch the app. Actual result: The Non underground app has leaderboards/achievement options to sign in, which is missing in the Underground app. Expected result: The Underground app should have Leaderboards/Achievements present (Amazon Gamecircle should be integrated)
- Key IAP(s) removed from the app Your app is missing key IAP items that affect the customer experience. All IAP items in the non-Underground version of your app (or equivalent items) must remain in the Amazon Underground version of your app so that the customer has the option to select them for free or receive them as automatic entitlement. For more information on Amazon Underground apps guidelines, please visit our developer portal IAP Item(s) Removed: 1. Install and launch the app. 2. Tap on “Play” Actual result: The Underground app does not have IAP’s to purchase coins for free and all the items are locked upfront. Expected result: The Underground app should have IAP’s to purchase coins for free or the levels and items should be unlocked upfront when compared to Non underground app.
I am having trouble with the icons for Amazon Underground. The “Actually Free” text is blurry on my icon, yet I have the correct resolutions for all of the required icons. I suspect (but have no way to prove) that the Amazon devices are unable to find the correct xxhdpi or xhdpi icons. I peeked inside my apk and here is what I see:
res/ drawable drawable-hdpi-v11 drawable-hdpi-v4 - contains 72x72 icon.png drawable-hdpi-v9 drawable-ldpi-v11 drawable-ldpi-v4 - contains 36x36 icon.png drawable-ldpi-v9 drawable-mdpi-v11 drawable-mdpi-v4 - contains 48x48 icon.png drawable-mdpi-v9 drawable-xhdpi-v11 drawable-xhdpi-v4 - contains 96x96 icon.png drawable-xhdpi-v9 drawable-xxhdpi-v11 drawable-xxhdpi-v4 - contains 144x144 icon.png drawable-xxxhdpi-v11 drawable-xxxhdpi-v4 - contains 192x192 icon.png layout raw
On Amazon’s Launcher Icon Guidelines page, it says:
For commonality with Android, as of Fire OS 5, Amazon uses icons from your APK. (This is a change from earlier versions of Fire OS, where the launcher used the launcher icon that you uploaded to the developer portal when submitting your app.)
…
…
…
To help ensure that the launcher selects the correct icon, only include icons in the resource folders listed in the table on this page.
Problem: Your drawable-* folder was removed in build-time APK optimization.
Solution : Some tools build an APK for a specific density and remove other drawables. For example, the tools might remove the drawable-xxhdpi folder, even though Amazon uses the xxhdpi icon file on xhdpi devices. To help avoid this issue, use a mipmap-* pattern for folder names instead of drawable-*:
- mipmap-hdpi: 72px
- mipmap-xhdpi: 96px
- mipmap-xxhdpi: 144px
Since I am not using Enteprise, I don’t believe there is a way for me to create these mipmap directories under the res/ folder.
Has anyone tried to make Underground icons since Fire OS 5 was released? Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?
Best regards,
Tony
I`m strugling - should I add amazon gamecircle or not?
They told me that I have to give out for free gold in my game - but that will ruin gameplay and makes no sence. Game is playable without that.
But if I`ll aboe to sort this things - and get released on underground - will that bring any money?
So far all my apps on amazon doing 100$/year, while on other stores numbers are much bigger.
Can you let me know - if your $$$ on underground higher or lower then on amazon old store?
- App does not meet expectations for performance issues Your app is demonstrating lower performance quality when compared to the non-Underground version. Please update your app to maintain the value of the experience for our customers. For more information on the guidelines, please refer to Understanding Amazon Underground Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install and launch the app. Actual result: The Non underground app has leaderboards/achievement options to sign in, which is missing in the Underground app. Expected result: The Underground app should have Leaderboards/Achievements present (Amazon Gamecircle should be integrated)
- Key IAP(s) removed from the app Your app is missing key IAP items that affect the customer experience. All IAP items in the non-Underground version of your app (or equivalent items) must remain in the Amazon Underground version of your app so that the customer has the option to select them for free or receive them as automatic entitlement. For more information on Amazon Underground apps guidelines, please visit our developer portal IAP Item(s) Removed: 1. Install and launch the app. 2. Tap on “Play” Actual result: The Underground app does not have IAP’s to purchase coins for free and all the items are locked upfront. Expected result: The Underground app should have IAP’s to purchase coins for free or the levels and items should be unlocked upfront when compared to Non underground app.
Was the icon issue reported by tonygod ever solved? I think I’m having the same issue. As a result, my app did not pass Amazon’s review process for some Kindle Fire devices due to a blurry icon.
Was a bug report on this ever filed?
I know other people have published to Amazon Underground. They may have gotten a generous reviewer.
Anyway if someone can file a bug report, then we can get someone to look at it.
Rob
I just filed a bug report (5821697).
Generous reviewer sound logical. My app was initially approved for all devices, but update failed due to blurry icons. I did not change the icons between the submissions.
BE AWARE that Amazon Underground has many many pirates selling/giving away illegal versions of game apps, you may even find some of your own games being sold at a lower price by pirates there too.
I caught one pirate selling one of my games there and only found out because someone who purchased from amazon underground messaged my fan page and said the game didn’t work. Reason it didn’t work was because the pirate had uploaded the expansion file without the actual game file. Took a few weeks before amazon finally removed the illegal version of my game, but of course they didn’t even bother banning the pirate as they still have several other pirated games belong to other developers for sale on there.
It’s fairly common for your own games to be found pirated on the many hundreds of pirate sites (aptoide being one of the biggest pirate sites and even dare to call themselves a marketplace!), but if you find someone trying to rip you off by selling your game, that’s a whole different matter and it’s obvious amazon and its amazon underground site don’t care.
Was the icon issue reported by tonygod ever solved? I think I’m having the same issue. As a result, my app did not pass Amazon’s review process for some Kindle Fire devices due to a blurry icon.