30 August 2011

King of Dragon Pass Is In Review

King of Dragon Pass has hit a really big milestone: it’s submitted to the iOS App Store and is now waiting for review by Apple.

To get there, it had to meet our standards for quality (we rejected the first release candidate), and Apple’s technical requirements for metadata, code signing, and API usage.

Now we wait for Apple to approve the build, which is likely to take a week (although I don’t know if the US summer vacation season will impact that). That is, assuming it gets approved — this is not a formality, and in fact I’ve gotten bug reports from the review process.

That gives us some time to prepare marketing material and second guess our thoughts on pricing. Once we get approval, we’ll pick a release date (the US Labor Day holiday could impact this if it doesn’t delay review). We want to be able to let the media — and you! — know beforehand.

Looking a bit further ahead, we will do at least two updates. There’s around 20 bugs which are worth fixing (but weren’t worth delaying for). And then I want to finish supporting VoiceOver, so that King of Dragon Pass will be accessible to blind players.

So with luck, it will be out in the first half of September.

6 comments:

  1. Great news! I'm anticipating this very much. I really like what you've done with re-thinking the UI for iOS. It looks like it will be very playable on iPhone, which I would not have expected from the original art.

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  2. Congratulations! Can't wait to get it.

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  3. The return of a classic. I'm very happy to spread the word!

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  4. Kevin, here are some comments from playtesters:

    • The game is ideally suited to the portable platform… I can pull it up and play a couple seasons when I'm waiting in line or standing on a train platform.
    • A fantastic game, and so far it feels like it is darn near perfectly designed for the platform.
    • It fits the iOS superbly, and the changes are all very nicely done. I always felt like there was plenty of relevant information at my fingertips, and it's quite a bit deeper (in a good way) then the bulk of the Appstore games out there, while still fitting the 'bite size' play session that you need.

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  5. This is excellent news indeed, I have been spreading the good word! looking forward to seeing this in the App Store!

    any thought on releasing the Game on Steam?

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  6. Jraktal, same thought as always. It can't be done, there are technical hurdles we weren't successful at overcoming with a 10-years-obsolete development system.

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