Goodsol Solitaire Blog

Details about Pretty Good Solitaire Mini v1.1's Development

My programmer for Pretty Good Solitaire Mini has done a long blog post about all the trials and issues involved in the v1.1 update:https://t.co/RL5op7t9zk#gamedev #indiedev
short version: Apple sucks for indie developers

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) January 13, 2022

Microsoft SmartScreen: File Not Commonly Downloaded

Yesterday, we released a new version of Pretty Good Solitaire.

Immediately after making the new version live, I tested the download as I always do.  I used Edge on Windows 10, as that is the most common browser/OS configuration these days (as well as Chrome/Windows 10).

The download went normally.  Edge did its security scan.  Then it says that the file "is not commonly downloaded and could harm your computer".  When you click on run, it comes up with another window.

The headline in the window says "Windows protected your PC", then "Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk." There is a small 'More info' link and the default "Don't run" button in the bottom right corner.

The only way to install after this is to click on the 'More Info' link, which pops up a "Run Anyway" button.

All this is very scary and very few people are probably going to install after seeing this.  What is going on here?

Microsoft, in their incredible stupidity, is simply blocking the file because it hasn't been downloaded enough.  Note that the security scan didn't find any viruses or malware, it is just that the file hasn't been downloaded enough to suit Microsoft.  It is a way that Microsoft is using to try to block malware.  Except it does nothing to block malware (I doubt not a single malware has ever been really stopped by this), all it does is make life difficult for small developers.

I had never seen this before, so I did some searching.  I found this What is this 'FILE is not commonly downloaded' which explains it a little bit.  Apparently SmartScreen builds a reputation for each file.  Until the file has been downloaded some number of times, this message comes up.  In my case, it ended up taking over a day and hundreds of downloads before the message went away.

But I wondered, why had I not seen this before?  I update my files all the time.

Then there is this: Renewed Code Signing Certificate Not Trusted by SmartScreen Filter.  So the system doesn't build the reputations by file, but rather by the digital certificate that signs the files.  Each file signed by the same certificate builds the reputation for that certificate.

But here is the thing: certificates expire.  Often in as little as a year.  So every time you renew a certificate, you have to build a new reputation for it.  As explained in the comments in that link, this is insanely stupid.  The reputation should carry over to the renewed cert, but as also made clear in those replies, Microsoft doesn't give a damn about small developers and has no interest in changing their stupid system, even though it probably hasn't stopped a single malware, while damaging legitimate small developers.

So this explains why this happened to me yesterday.  I had just renewed my certificate because the previous one expired, so I had to build reputation again from zero.  And apparently it takes a lot of downloads (and possibly time) to do it, although Microsoft doesn't say what their criteria are, so everything is just a guess.

Fortunately, my new certificate is for 3 years, so I won't have to worry about this again until 2020.  And when that happens, I have a new item on my new certificate checklist: sign an insignificant file or two with the new cert and give it downloads until the stupid message goes away, before ever using the new cert for an important file.

Anyway, happy downloading now that things are back to normal.

 

 

Our Descent into App Store Hell - Best Regards from Apple

On September 15th Apple released iOS 9, the new version of the iPad/iPhone operating system.  Later that day, we started to get reports that our iPad games were crashing on iOS 9. 

This was odd and it was working fine on my iPads.  It is common for apps to break when Apple releases a new iOS version.  This should not happen, but Apple simply doesn't care about backwards compatibility - it is simply not a priority for them.  If anything gets broken, they just expect the developer to fix it.  This adds a huge burden to app developers on the iOS platform, but that's a topic for another blog post.

In the past we've been pretty lucky, we've never had a major issue with our apps and new OS versions before.  Anyway, it quickly became clear that this time was different.

After collecting some crash reports from users who had the problem (Apple's own crash reporting system turned out to be useless), a pattern emerged:  all the of the crashes were happening on 4th generation iPad models.  We managed to get access to an iPad of this model and was able to duplicate the crash.  

All of this took a few days and then within a couple of days we'd figured out the problem - a line of code that should be fine was crashing the 4th generation iPads and the 4th generation iPads only.  What made these iPads different, we didn't know.  But it didn't matter, because it was a simple thing to just change the line of code and stop the crashes.

So all we had to do was change the one line of code, rebuild the apps, resubmit, and wait a week for Apple to approve them (because it takes Apple a week on average to review submitted apps).  A pain in the butt to be sure, but pretty routine.

So all 5 of our apps got the fix, got submitted, and we wait.

Then the first app got reviewed and rejected.  The rejection was bizarre - it said the app wouldn't load on either an iPad running iOS 9 or an iPhone.  The app is iPad only, so why would they even be testing it on an iPhone?  And the app loaded and ran fine on every iPad we tested it on (which by this point had grown to quite a few as we had added more iPads to our testing).  As the week went on, the other 4 apps got rejected for the same reason.  

We asked Apple why they were testing an iPad only app on iPhones, but we got no reply to that question.  Our first thought is that something had gone wrong in XCode (the development platform for iOS apps).  So first we tried rebuilding in a different version of XCode.  No luck.  In all, we built on 3 different versions of XCode and made 10 submission attempts, all getting the same result (with just enough difference in the results to make everything confusing - sometimes the app reviewer would say it froze on startup, sometimes the splash screen would show), but always with the bizarre statement that it was tested on iPhones as well as iPads.  After the first rejections I found out there is a way to get apps reviewed faster, I applied for that and it got approved, so after the first week wait, the next submissions got reviewed within a day or so.

We tried everything we could think of, nothing worked.  We tried making a Tech Support Incident with Apple to try to get someone not the app reviewer to look at the problem, but we had no luck there.  At this point, we were getting into all kinds of details about the testing process, about looking at build UUIDs to make sure they matched what Apple was testing, possibilities of XCode issues with plist files, all sorts of stuff that got us exactly nowhere.

Throughout it all, it just seemed like this iPhone thing was the key to it all, unless it was just boilerplate text that a lazy reviewer put in (most of the app rejection text was simply boilerplate text, so it was hard to tell if they were really trying to test on iPhones or if it was just part of their form letter).

Finally, after more than a month (by now it was October 24th), after the latest rejection, we asked again, why are you saying you are testing an iPad only app on iPhones?   Why is a one line of code fix causing so much trouble?   Perhaps I worded it differently this time, or maybe it went to a different person at Apple who actually knew something. 

Anyway, this time, suddenly, the reply was that they looked at it again and there is no problem, it is being put into review again, best regards from Apple.  And it went into review and was immediately approved.

So after more than a month of late nights, endless testing and submissions, we have no idea why the approval was delayed for more than a month.  We were just caught in some sort of Apple review trap, and somehow got free.  The build that got approved was essentially the same as the first one submitted over a month earlier.

Best regards from Apple.

The full as-it-happened saga is detailed here.

 

 

Play Aces and Kings Online!

Our new online game today is the original game that I invented called Aces and Kings. Play Aces and Kings Solitaire.

10 Questions about Indie Game Development

10 Questions about Indie Game Development http://t.co/tA0ZjobFS1 I am also going to answer these in tweets every 10 min #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

 

The article linked to in the tweet above caused me to answer the questions in a series of tweets:

 

1) What are your responsibilities as an indie game developer? Everything. If I don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

2) Are men and women treated equally in ur indie development workplace? Irrelevant question. The computer doesn’t care #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

3) How long have you been an indie game developer? Answer: 20 years. #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

4) What education do you need to be an indie game developer? Answer: none. You just need to know math & how to code. #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

5) What education do I have as an indie game developer? Ans: Master’s degree in Mathematics. Yes, I am overeducated. #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

6) Will there be indie game developer jobs in the future? Nope, we will all be replaced by coding bots. #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

7) What do you like most about being an indie game developer? Not having a real job - interacting with customers #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

8) What do you like least about being an indie game developer? Ans: Honestly, there is nothing not to like. #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

9a) What is the average salary of an indie game developer? Ans: Zero. There is no salary, only revenue from sales. #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

9b) If you want a salary, don’t become an indie game developer. #indiedev #gamedev

— Thomas Warfield (@goodsolitaire) April 12, 2015

3 Rules for Lasting as an Indie Game Developer for 20 Years

It seems there are as many (or more) people wanting to become indie game developers now as there were 10 years ago.  However, they all now seem to be different people.  Almost all the people who were indie game developers 10 years ago seem to be gone.

I've been in this business for nearly 20 years now.  My game Pretty Good Solitaire was first released in 1995.  So this is my advice to people who want not only to be indie game developers, but who also want to last a long time doing it.

 

Rule 1)  Outsource As Much as Possible

If you want to be an indie, you will be small.  You will be one person or a very small team.  Either way, there is only so much you will be able to do.  It will be crucial to outsource as many things as you can.  Outsource, outsource, outsource.  It is better to pay someone else to do things than to use your valuable time doing it.  You can even outsource some of your development.  Outsource your ecommerce.  And for heaven's sake, don't try to do your taxes yourself.

Of course, when first starting out, you may have to do everything because you won't have the money to outsource it.  But as money comes in, you can start sending tasks out to others.

 

Rule 2) But Don't Outsource the Important Stuff

But with that said, don't outsource the most important things - which would be the design of your games, and contact with your customers.  Do not outsource your email support or any other contacts with your customers - always do that yourself.  It's the biggest advantage that a small company has - the one to one dealing with your customers.  Make sure you are doing it, because knowing what your customers are thinking is the most important thing to know.

 

Rule 3) Don't Get Funded

Seriously, don't get funded!  The worst thing that can happen to an indie game company is to have external funding.  You will never survive.  You need to grow from revenues from your games - anything else is disaster.  So many times I've seen indie game companies suddenly get money or get bought out - once that happens, it's over for them.  No way they will last even a few years, let alone 20.

It is quite possible to last 20 years as an indie game company - even though everything changes in that time (20 years ago, we were called shareware game companies).  Of course, you need at least one great game, a game that doesn't go out of style and isn't a fad, but that's another topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

$600,000 in a Month

Here is a Wired story about an iPhone game developer who made $600,000 in a month.

My reactions:

1) Good news!  Now maybe all the people who want to get rich quick will stop making clones to sell on the portals and start developing for the iPhone instead.

2)  He quit his day job before he ever received his first check.  In fact, the article indicates that he still hasn't gotten his first check yet.  Yikes!

3) Perhaps the guy should read what this guy wrote: Why I write software.  This is how things are done over the long term.

Amazon, Lincoln, and More

Some thoughts for the day:

1)  Amazon.com has recently entered the casual games market with a new Games Download store.

This has caused some controversy as the store sells games for $9.99 or less.

That this would happen sometime has been entirely predictable for years - the entire portal model has devolved into simply competition on price - which means prices were bound to just go lower and lower.   Most of the games on portals are completely derivative and have no way to compete on quality or as a brand - so that leaves only price.

The result will be that margins of the portal companies will just go down and down until the weakest have to either sell out to some big company who won't care or go bankrupt. 


2) Today is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, which is a pretty big deal here in Springfield IL.  There are lots of events going on in town today to celebrate and the President will be here tonight to give a speech.  The location is not very far from where we live and the security is out in force.  When I went out earlier I saw security people with dogs roaming around.

3) Our neighbors across the street still have their Christmas tree up.

Breaking News: AdSense for Games

I'd heard rumors of this, but today it is official:

Google creating Casual Game Advertising System

The company said publishers will be able to use the Google system to put advertising in their games, and collect revenue. Advertisers, in turn, will be able to work through the Google system to buy ad space within games.

Indie Developer Bought by PopCap

PopCap Games, famous for their game Bejeweled, has bought indie game developer Retro64.

Seattle PI News Report

Indiegamer thread

Congratulations to Mike Beoh!  He was a small MicroISV type operation, now he is "PopCap Chicago".