Apple App Store Review Times

We've been waiting for the latest Abby Crabby update for just about three weeks come Saturday. We received the dreaded "Requiring unexpected additional time for review" email from Apple within the first week.

Since the 3.0 OS update review times have grown from just under a week to three weeks. Apple is getting buried under the weight of their own review process. There are over 50,000 applications in the store now. Imagine the work load on the Apple review team when nearly all of them update all at once with 3.0 bug fixes and feature enhancements. Imagine what happens around Christmas 2009 or when there are over 100,000 applications in the channel.

Are you the recipient of a "requiring unexpected additional time for review" email from Apple too? Unfortunately this is always bad news, but it is rectifiable. It means your application has failed part of the first line of qualifications and wound up in a bucket. Did you know there are full time employees at Apple who's full time job it is to review applications that "fall into these buckets"? I know because I just spoke with one in Cupertino today. Interestingly it may not be something in the update or even the software that's got you but something in your old description! Make sure your description does not mention anything about demos, charity, future features, giveaways or alike.

Tiki Bar

Our upcoming iPhone game is called TikiBar. We're pretty excited about it. It's inspired by Ore No Ryomi. The game engine and tile atlas have really come along. There is simply too much graphics and animation going on in TikiBar to use the engine we used in Abby Crabby and Spell Flyer.


Did you know a game doesn't just go from storyboard to completion? We have to iterate and refine both the art and the game play. It's one of those "it takes 90% of the time to complete the last 10% of the work" kind of things. But it's worth it! People notice what's missing, not what's there. Without refinement, you wind up with something that was rushed out the door, not fun, interesting or dynamic.

The art is part of that refinement process and it has also been coming along for TikiBar. Included here are some development shots of the backgrounds in upcoming TikiBar game for iPhone.