What do you need to do when you finish your game?

[REDNSX]

What do you need to do when you are finished and want to sell your game on apple app store?

If I have my game running on the iPhone and iPad what do I need to do now?

Any one done this and have a step by step explanation of how to do this?

This is my first app so I have no idea what to do.

[REDNSX]

Also once it's on the app store will I be able to do updates? Or will it be a one time shot and what I upload is what will be forever.

[skydereign]

You need to build a release version, and I believe there is an itunes release app you use to convert and upload it. There aren't any tutorials currently to do this in gE, and due to itunes changing quite frequently my previous attempt failed. But, apple provides plenty of documentation on the steps to release in your developer portal, it's what the rest of us were using. You might find some tips here and there on the forums, but generally your goto place should be the developer portal. And updates are handled by using the release app, and a bit of work in your itunes connect (so yes you can update your games).

[Nykos]

The first thing you need to do is register as an apple developper and give 99$ to them. It may take days to be registered so do it quick.

Then you 'll need to fill some forms, and most importantly, install your certificates. There are lots of How to's on the apple boards or on the developpers boards which will explain that far better than I could so just google it and you 'll find it quick.

Then on IOS provisioning portal, You create an APP ID for your app, and two certificates, a developper certificate, AND a distribution certificate, this one will be used to build the final version of your app. Nothing very hard to do here, just make sure that your distribution certificate is a "appstore" and not an "Ad Hoc". Ad hoc doesn't allow you to publish on appstore, you can build and send it to friends or just beta test but you need an "app store" certificate to send your app to apple. Once all of it is done, you just download your certificates, and make them slip to Itunes AND Xcode.

Now you have to set your Geapp xcode project. IN fact, it's just a matter of renaming your project, and choosing the good certificates in the targets but there are some tips that that would have loved to know the first time i used xcode.... Put your dat. files and your icon in the resource folder. Make sure the name of the project is exactly the same of your first to be run dat file, if not your game won't run on your device. Be sure that your icon has the same name than in info.plist and that his dimensions are 57 x 57. If not it can cause an error. In the target, under packaging, verify that the product name is the same as your project, that you have set a developer certificate for release and debug mode, AND (hyper important) a distribution certificate for distribution mode.
If you can't find you certificates, there may have many reasons, but the most frequents are that you haven'tinstalled your certificates in both xcode and itunes, or that you haven't set your bundle right. Once your bundle is right (com.yourdomain. yourappname), you should have your certificates selectable in build menu.

Then make sure you are in release mode and build your game. If everything goes fine, you should GE icon appear on your iphone and your game start. Congrats man, you just did it. Now you have to do a lot of beta testing. When all is good for you, in xcode,in the build menu, you click on build and archive. Then you should see it in the organizer.

Now go back to ios dev portal, and i itunes connect, manage your applications, you can create your app. You can name it, give it a price, put screenshots and icon. For screenshots, they need to be the same size than your game and your icon must be 512 x 512. Then you click on ready to upload binary and go back to xcode.

In the organizer, you click on your game, and on submit. Now you just select the good certificate( yes i know, again...) and within few minutes, you should receive a mail that you app is waiting for review.

Now, the first time, it could take you some time, but you will quickly learn to indentify possible problems and solve them. The first time i built a game and submitted it to apple, it took me 19 hours, seriously. Now i need 5 minutes. The first time i used app loader to submit, and that's what caused me most of the issues. It's far more easy by the organizer.

I hope this helps you, or at least give you some tips. If you have any questions, just ask it.

[REDNSX]

Thank you! I am using xcode 4 and the new geapp for xcode 4. Right now my xcode file is called geapp.xcodeproj just like the one that you download.
How do I change that to my game name? my game is called "greenpleco".
Right now my main file is called geapp and loads in the iphone as geapp.

I dont know how to change the name. I copied the geapp.xcodeproj and called it greenpleco.xcodeproj but needles to say that did not work.

[Nykos]

I'm not on mac right now but I'll try to answer. In Xcode, at the top , you should have a menu called project or something like that, there you search for "rename project" and click. Rename it as you wish and it's done. But, now for the engine to be able to run your game, you need to rename your main file, or whatever file you want to be runned first when you launch the game. You can even rename it within xcode if you want, changes will be saved.

And don't forget to change (in the targets) the product name, under packaging category or it may not launch.

[REDNSX]

Thank you that worked.

I am sure I will need you guys help again but happy that the renaming went well.

[peedalein]

Once you submit the game, Apple reviews the application. This might take a while. According to some forums it usually takes around 2 weeks (my game went into review 16th December 2011, no update since then).

[Nykos]

usually, a game is reviewed in 7-8 days.

[REDNSX]

So you will get a e mail that your app is up for review?

Also what file do you upload to apple? were is it located and what type is it?

I got all the naming to GreenPleco the way I want but I cant get rid of the Gloss on my icon. I went on line and and found this but I don't

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6003 ... in-xcode-4

Were is all this is in xcode 4 I did search on xcode 4 and nothing comes up.

[REDNSX]

One more question with ICON. In my first try for my real game I got my new icon and name to work "still have the glossy look".

I made a copy of my game and called it GreenPleco2 So i could test out stuff without over writing my real game on the iphone. I changed my ICON but now it is just white on my GreenPleco2 "game". I did the same thing i did before but now its white on the new one. I checked all my names and they all seem to be GreenPleco2. Game runs and everything worked perfectly except that I have a white ICON on the new game. Any idea why that is?

I am sure I might have missed something but as far as I remember I did the exact same thing as before.

[Nykos]

for the glossy look on the Icon, i'm sorry but i can't help you with that. For the white icon, i had this once, drove me crazy trying to solve it, and the only thing that helped was deleting icon, from everywhere, close and restart the project, and put the icon file in resource again.

Ho and one other thing that could help, is copying your icon in your xcode project folder, make sure to replace the previous one.

[REDNSX]

"Ho and one other thing that could help, is copying your icon in your xcode project folder, make sure to replace the previous one."

Were is that folder located? I dont see it in xcode 4

[REDNSX]

Great so I "Clean Build Folder" Command-Option-Shift-K and now even my original one is white. I am actually now going backward in my development.

[REDNSX]

I see my Icon problem is that Xcode 4 thinks my Icon name is icon.png I did a little experiment and called my icon that name and it worked. From this

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1317 ... -apps-icon

I got to that conciliation. So were do you go to change the name? I was reading this but I think the people who put us the solution assume that people who read that are very familiar with xcode 4. Well I am not even close to .001% of knowledge in xcode lol. So you guys know were this is located? I really tried to fin it but I cane.