Bytesize Adventures

After submitting Rocket Santa and subsequently removing it due to a show stopping bug, as detailed in this post, it was looking unlikely that the game would be out in time for Christmas.

Good news today though, Rocket Santa 1.1 has been approved by Apple and is available now. This is the patched version of the game and fixes the present dropping bug that rendered the game unplayable. I’ve also fixed some other minor bugs, improved the performance slightly, and increased the rocket pack boost speed.

I submitted the patch on 6th December and it was approved by Apple last night (10th December). That makes for an incredible 4 day approval time. I sent an email to Apple to see if they could speed up approval of the patch (since the bug meant taking the game down). Apple obliged, providing an expedited review of the Rocket Santa patch… very kind of them. Perhaps we’re turning a corner with the App store approval process. Apple certainly seem more willing to make exceptions.

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, News | Tags: App approved, patch, rocket santa 1.1
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Rocket Santa was approved by Apple on Thursday 3rd December at 11pm just 1 week after submission. However, this good news quickly turned sour as we found a major bug rendering the game unplayable. I removed the game from sale as soon as we found the bug so as to prevent people from paying for a broken game.

Oddly, the bug wasn’t present in my development build of the game and if I couldn’t replicate it then it would be very hard to fix. A suggestion from @frederictessier to create an Ad hoc build proved fruitful and allowed me to recreate the bug.

Solving the issue was relatively easy but I decided to rewrite a portion of the code to make it more robust anyway. I also fixed a number of minor bugs in the process to take advantage of the forced patch.

I submitted Rocket Santa 1.1 just moments ago (4.30pm on Sunday 6th December). Hopefully Apple are still taking submissions and will approve this within a week or two (in time for the Christmas period). Rocket Santa will be back on the App store once the patch is approved.

I don’t feel that we’ve lost too much since we plan on adding an interesting twist, as well as new features, to Rocket Santa to extend its life beyond Christmas.

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, News | Tags: patch, rocket santa, rocket santa 1.1
2 Comments »