iOS versions of your games

[Nipples]

This is probably a long ways off, but just wanted to suggest that you wait until you have a direct URL to your games' pages in the Apple AppStore before officially announcing to all your backers or people on your mailing list that a game is available in the Apple AppStore.

My friend made a game for iOS and it took Apple a long time to approve it and for it to go live, and he didn't have the direct URL to the page where people could actually purchase it until after the game was finally posted. Also, you can't even find his game when you search for the title! The AppStore search feature seems screwy! Hopefully searching by title won't be an issue for your games. It just seems like it would be better to have the link to the game's AppStore page all ready to go and posted on your site and/or in your e-mail announcement so that people could click and go right to it immediately and buy it, just in case it's hard to find by title search.

It would be sad if you made the official announcement about the iOS version and no one could find it, wasting any excitement generated by the announcement message.

[GameDevChris]

Funny you say this, as I was just thinking yesterday how I was going to link to App Store and Google Play store buttons from each game's website page as soon as they become available on each mobile platform. The release of our first iOS game (Al Emmo) is still a while off, but I plan on having all of the ducks in a row (read: "buy" buttons on its webpage) by the time those links are live and the smartphone versions are selling in the App/Play stores.

It does look like Janet Gilbert, who's revising the iOS port of AGS to work properly on iOS8, has almost got it working again. Changes that Apple made in iOS8 stopped AGS games from working stably, so big sections of the port and its libraries had to be recoded from scratch. We already had Al Emmo ported in iOS7 and ready to submit to the App Store at the end of last year. Then they released iOS8 which broke everything and we had to shelve the release. Once the AGS port is back up and running, we'll likely need to report it all over again for iOS8. But at least the smartphone interface and all the other tweaks are in place now, and only the actual port itself needs doing. In any event, it has, and will continue to be, a good guide for what to expect when it comes to releasing the touch-screen versions of Mage's Initiation.

[Nipples]

As a fan of your work and as someone who wants you guys to continue to succeed, what I would love to see is one of your games featured in the Apple App Store "featured games" section for many countries. You would experience a huge spike in downloads/sales. Broken Sword 5, some Telltale games, Broken Age, Monkey Island SE, in addition to many lower budget adventure games, have all been featured in the main page, so it seems that at least someone or some people at Apple appreciate adventure games (including those with a nostalgic flair) and are willing to promote them. Who knows what the secret to getting featured is (besides making a great product), but I read that, if it's ever possible and wouldn't be too much trouble, incorporating some feature from the latest iOS version or incorporating iCloud in some way could help your chances. But I know you're limited in what you can do with the iOS port of AGS. Also, if you happen to release the mobile version first for iOS and don't plan to have the Android version ready for a while, maybe it could help to make a point of saying so. Getting on their main "main" featured page would be the best, but now they also have a featured page for adventure games only. For example, this game got featured: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yZzLN0RBIBg While that game is well done and deserves to be featured, I feel like yours have higher production values and could and should be on that page, too. I don't know if communicating with Apple in advance with questions about policies or whatever could help to get you on their radar, but I believe you have an excellent chance of getting featured. You definitely deserve it.

[GameDevChris]

I don't think Apple have much of a one-on-one discussion policy with developers. The entire submission process feels very mechanical, much like Valve's, where you just fill out a series of forms and webpages to get your game in a line-up for release, and then can pull the trigger and publish it to the masses as you see fit. There's probably only one point where a developer is likely to have any direct contact with Apple and that's if they have any questions or feedback when reviewing the game for release on the App Store.

Regarding which games get featured, that correlates directly to which games are selling the best and which are the highest rated. Naturally, well-known IPs like the ones Telltale license are always going to have the benefit of being instantly recognizable and have a huge advantage that way; as are long-established franchises like Monkey Island and Broken Sword. For lesser known indie titles with original IPs, though, it's going to be a much harder slog to get featured, and is heavily dependent on early ratings being highly positive, and having good sales.

By the way, we've just submitted the iOS port of Al Emmo for Apple's review today! So fingers crossed it'll get through their review process unscathed and be available on the App store very soon.