Roku Developer Program

[Romans_I_XVI]

So, my game Tiles just got published last night. Which I guess is a good thing...

However, I explicitly requested in the submission form to be told when the game would go live so I could switch from my testing database to the official database on my server. This was not done and there was about an hour where people were connected to the wrong database while playing (so none of their stuff was saved). There was absolutly no communication whatsoever, just 3 successive emails saying; Testing Has Started, Channel Approved!, and Channel Published. All three within one minute timespan (that was some fast testing).

Also, it's now the next morning and my game still doesn't show up in the games section on the Roku. Literally the only place to find it is in the new section about 9 slots down because 8 other channels were pushed down the pipeline at the same time.

Lastly, I played until an ad showed and all I got was a message saying "Roku Test Ad" with a cat in the background. What is this? They obviously know that the channel is ad supported (considering you have to tick the little box when you submit it), and yet nobody has bothered to flip the little switch that says "Show real ads that make money instead of kitten ads that do nothing".

So this is my experience with the initial launch of my game on the Roku. Months of work, preparation, and testing on my end. Just to have this as the release experience. The release is supposed to be exciting and fun... 😞

[Komag]

Thanks for sharing - I'm sorry it didn't go smoothly, and hopefully they'll improve if they want to attract future development!

[Romans_I_XVI]

Yeah same here. Luckily it's listed in the games section now, so that was resolved within the first day. Which is good because now that means I can start telling people playing Retaliate to go play Tiles (with the in game banners), where as before they wouldn't be able to find it.

Now I'm just waiting for the ads to be fixed... which seems to be in motion but we'll see how long it takes.

[Romans_I_XVI]

Ads are fixed now. So that's good.

It's crazy how fast you go down in the new section these days. The game has been out for less than a day and it's in position 24... I guess that's just the way it is now with the new "Roku Direct Publisher Tool". The store will be flooded more than ever. Maybe sometime they will have categorical new sections instead of one giant new section.

Either way, thank you Roku for fixing the 2nd two issues in a reasonable timeframe.

[Komag]

Yes, there should DEFINITELY be a "new games" section, and since games are relatively rare, it would stay at or near the top for a good while, nice!

[EnTerr]

"Komag" wrote:
Yes, there should DEFINITELY be a "new games" section, and since games are relatively rare, it would stay at or near the top for a good while, nice!

Actually, no! Because of crapola like this:

• Tic Tac Toe Free


• Tic Tac Toe Free Halloween


• Tic Tac Toe Free Patriotic


• Tic Tac Toe Free Political


• Tic Tac Toe Free Surfing


• Tic Tac Toe Free Thanksgiving


• Match Four Free


• Match Four Free Christmas


• Match Four Free Halloween


• Match Four Free Patriotic


• Match Four Free Political


• Match Four Free Surfing


• Match Four Free Thanksgiving


• Memory Match Free


• Memory Match Free Halloween

Each "custom" version is made by only changing an image and app name and is an excercise in spam and "SEO". Coming soon to a Channel Store near you, "Memory Match Free Monday", "Memory Match Free Tuesday", "Memory Match Free Wednesday", "Memory Match Free Thursday", "Memory Match Free Friday", "Memory Match Free Saturday", "Memory Match Free Sunday"... as well as separate "version" for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas... :oops:

Oh, you think these will tank fast because people that try them will vote them down and delete them? Silly rabbit... that's not how Roku's ratings work! :twisted: