Anyway, once I do finally sort this out, I'd like to turn this experience into learning materials so others have a better path to move from a LOVE game to a mobile game published on the App Store and Play Store.
- Would you be into this kind of content?
- Do you have any questions about the process right now?
- Would you prefer a different game engine?
Google requires all apps on the Play Store have a privacy policy web page. When I tried submitting the Goofball app to the Play Store, it got rejected due to an "eligibility issue" related to "privacy policy".
The email they sent said:
You must provide a link to your app's privacy policy on your app's store listing page. This link must be maintained at all times while the app is available on Google Play, and it must link to a privacy policy that, among other things, accurately describes your app’s data collection and use. Please provide a link to a valid privacy policy in your app's store listing page in the Play Console. For more details, please refer to the Privacy policy section (#6) of the Families Policy Requirements.
But I did that! I created a simple privacy policy page. I didn't use a template because I wanted to keep it in simple English. The email from google even contained a screenshot of this page, but said nothing about what it's missing, or how it isn't valid. So frustrating.
So on October 16 (nearly a month ago), I contacted Google's support about how to move forward. I got a "I forwarded your question to the appropriate team at Google, and you can expect to hear from them soon". I've been waiting to hear back since then. So I've been blocked. But yesterday I tried complaining through a different form, and I think I finally got some useful feedback! The screenshot attached to this post is from that email. It says:
It is also pertinent that the privacy policy page clearly indicates the names of the apps that the Privacy Policy pertains to.
Oh! Maybe my app got rejected because my privacy policy page didn't have the name "Goofball" on it (even though it's hosted on the goofball.fun domain… whatever). I updated my privacy policy page to hopefully appease Google.
The experience of getting this up and running and downloadable on Android has been so shitty. It's extremely frustrating to have an app rejected without receiving instructions on what to change in order to get it accepted.
Also, I still haven't gotten to a point where friends can run this on their devices to confirm that it works. So annoying that "aCTuALLY yOur priVAcy PolicY isN't COrREct" has blocked me from getting to that point for nearly a month.
Have any of you had similar issues getting on the Play Store? Or Apple's App Store?
Google took 5 days to reject my app because I didn't include a privacy policy on the store's listing page. And it's unclear where I'm supposed to add it. Just like… in the description?
There's this support page https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9815348?hl=en
Which says it should be in the Play Console, then under "Store presence > App content". But there is no "App content" menu item.
Cool stuff. 🙃
According to apple store instructions, as of April 2020 you need to build iOS applications with xcode 11 which requires macOS Mojave…
just discovered high sierra (10.13) is the newest os my macbook (mid 2010) can run. if you want to put an app on the app store, as of april 2020, you need you need mojave (10.14). and if you want mojave, you need at least a mid 2012 macbook pro.
so i guess my options are:
1. buy a used macbook to compile apps with. i guess i could sell my old macbook and/or surface to cover the costs, but i don't like this solution.
2. hackintosh. tempted to do this. out of spite. i've done it before, but then wiped it because i wasn't using it. ope.
if anybody's aware of other decent options, please let me know. ideally i'd go to a library and use a shared machine to do this. but i don't think my library has any macs. and if they do, i'm pretty sure my library is closed right now. there's some virus going around that i heard about on the news.
i really really hate the hoops you have to jump through to get non-web software running on others' phones. i'm only making shit in js from here on out, lol.
if apple cared about sustainability as much as they claim, they wouldn't incentivize and necessitate buying new hardware as much as they do.
you can't use high sierra for app store apps: https://medium.com/@nosuchstudio/you-can-no-longer-develop-ios-apps-for-apple-store-with-xcode-10-high-sierra-as-of-april-2020-6b051c30ea96
mac os compatibility chart: https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility
got it running on android! in the correct orientation!
i was aiming to get this done by today,
and i'm really surprised i did
i wrestled for a long time trying to figure out
how to run a .love file on my phone's copy of love
but i never did figure it out
so i'm settling for inserting the .love into the love-android project
and rebuilding every single time i want to test a build
(thanks to oprel for talking through this with me)
it's a slow feedback loop
but luckily i only really need to run through it
when working out Android-specific issues.
otherwise i can see changes i make immediately by running love src
hoping the changes i made don't break ios
later this week i'm going to have to set up my old macbook pro
to see if i can build for ios
i'm dreading it, lol
today i spent time setting up ubuntu instead of working on goofball directly
i did this because i ran into issues running love from wsl
emacs in wsl is pretty clunky
it feels way better under ubuntu
and it starts up in like half the time
i appreciate wsl, but it feels like my editor is sandboxed in there
i only really need windows for td and live
so i'm avoiding those until i get goofball up and running on android
Baby's first beta build got approved. I'm really excited about this. This is something I've put off for a looong time because I didn't want to deal with the whole "getting it downloadable by other people" thing. I've been a web designer/developer, so I've been spoiled with how easy it is to publish things.
I want people to help me test this! Please let me know if you want in on the beta.
Last night a dude was playtesting this and he was like “why’s the enemy not have an outline?” And I couldn’t think of a good reason why the player and the “”enemy”” shouldn’t be consistent. I thought an enemy would look doofy with an outline, but removing the player’s outline looks clean and cool!
Bought a domain name. So now you know I mean business. http://goofball.fun
