Apple's requirements for Game Center?

Games
#1

As announced in this thread, I had submitted my game to the App Store a week ago:
http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2011/05/09/memory-stacks-submitted-app-store

Tonight I got a message that it was rejected and the reason was because Game Center must work without logging in to OpenFeint. Thing is, that already works, so I don’t know what I have to change. I just sent them a follow up question but given how useful their responses were to questions before I’m not hoping for much.

My best guess is that I need to adjust the interface a bit to make it clearer how to use Game Center without OpenFeint.

The plan I just devised is to add a little alert popup whenever the player goes to OpenFeint, with the message “Use the Game Center application to access those services.” What do you guys think of that? [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 310108[/import]

#2

I’m of the opinion that the two can be used independently via the OF API in Corona, allowing a button to open each separately, but I’m not sure how. I did ask yesterday in this forum, but have no replies yet. Games like Tiny Wings provide both separately and I’m sure I’ve seen a corona game do it.

Matt [import]uid: 8271 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 36895[/import]

#3

You have just saved me one review cycle in Apple. [import]uid: 22837 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 36901[/import]

#4

@horacebury: ah I hadn’t thought about a separate Game Center button. I’ve not seen that in any other Corona games so I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll look it up tonight, but in the meantime do you know if there is a way to launch another app by pressing a button? I know you can launch iTunes with a purchase button using a special URL; does Game Center have something like that? Then you could have a Game Center button on the menu that launches the Game Center app. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 36962[/import]

#5

well hey my app just went Ready for Sale! I thought it was going to be the whole week review all over again, but apparently the tweak I made last night did the trick and it was approved right away. I just changed the availability date on iTunes Connect so the app should start showing up in the store, but I don’t have time to post promotional messages until tonight.

woohoo [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 36998[/import]

#6

@ jhocking: Well, the URL method of opening iTunes on-device is actually sending Safari to the app in the app store, which then redirects by opening iTunes for you. I believe that is really the standard method of doing it. In the adjustment to the Rate Me Dialog I made, I used the regular mailto URL to populate the address, subject and body - the problem being that because it involved a lot of unfriendly characters it needed to be HTTP encoded, but it does work reliably. I would suggest looking up how to launch any app on the device via URL. You could try taking a look at the html behind the pages launched by the Insall emails sent by TestFlightApp.com - those launch the installer and I believe sometimes launch a previously installed TestFlightApp application, but I’m not sure how. Please post whatever you find!.. [import]uid: 8271 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 37114[/import]

#7

@jhocking: what tweak did you make to get around the Apple requirement for supporting Game Center without logging into OpenFeint? [import]uid: 35858 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 38287[/import]

#8

Hi jhocking,
I am really interested in the trick you did so your game was approved.

Could you please share it with us?

Thank you :slight_smile:
Dusan
[import]uid: 5411 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 38923[/import]

#9

I did what I said I would do at the bottom of my first post, I made an alert popup that shows whenever you go to OpenFeint.

You always could use Game Center without logging into OpenFeint (I had already tested that in another game before even integrating OF into my game) but that wasn’t made clear. With that alert the player would know they could use Game Center through the separate app, as opposed to having to use OpenFeint. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 39148[/import]

#10

@jhocking - would love to check out your game. What is it called? [import]uid: 7863 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 39183[/import]

#11

So you don’t actually let the players get to OF or do you just give them a popup letting them know they can use GameCenter to see the information?

[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 39185[/import]

#12

I would be interested to know the solution here too as my game used Game Center however I did not do anything special and my game was not rejected though perhaps Apple have changed their policy since I submitted my game. I don’t want to be rejected next time I submit an update.

@jhocking - I have just realised your game is listed above - doh!! [import]uid: 7863 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 39187[/import]

#13

Nice! Great job jhocking.

I wonder if you made the alert show only the FIRST time they tapped the OpenFeint button, if it would still get approved? My guess is that it would, since the notification would still be there… but you can never know for sure, right?

That way, your users don’t always have to see the same popup over and over again every time they play the game and want to view their OpenFeint stats. [import]uid: 52430 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 39202[/import]

#14

would love to check out your game. What is it called?

What’s listed above is the full version; if you wanted to purchase my game that’s cool, but here’s the Lite version:

http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2011/06/01/memory-stacks-lite-released [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 10108 reply_id: 39303[/import]