Uploading your OHRRPGCE game to Android app stores

From OHRRPGCE-Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

After you have ported your OHRRPGCE game to Android, you will probably want to upload the game to various App stores

Things you will need[edit]

  • Your apk file. Talk to James if you need help: Things James Needs To Package Your OHRRPGCE game For Android For You
  • An icon file. You will already have this from making your apk, but be prepared to make several resized versions of it.
  • Screenshots. 3 is the minimum number of screenshots for most app stores, but you should probably have as many as possible.
    • You can take screenshots from an Android device by pressing and holding the Lock button and the Volume-down buttons simultaneously.
    • You can transfer the screenshots to your computer with a cable the same way you transfer photos, or you can e-mail them to yourself, or upload them to http://imgur.com directly from the phone.
    • If you don't have your own Android device to take the screenshots with, you can ask someone to help you on the Forums
  • Many stores want a 1024x500 pixel "Feature" image. This does not need to be a screenshot, but resizing and cropping a screenshot is often the easiest way to make one.
  • Many stores want a 180x120 pixel "Promo" image. This does not need to be a screenshot, but cropping a screenshot is often the easiest way to make one.

Google Play[edit]

https://play.google.com/apps/publish/

Google Play is the biggest and most popular android store.

  • Maximum apk size is 50 megabytes.
  • Needs 512x512 icon file
  • Needs both "Feature" and "Promo" image
  • If you want to sell the game they will charge you a one-time fee to set up your merchant account. Last time I checked that fee was $25.
  • You will have to provide a mailing address. You might want to get a PO box if you want to keep your home address private.
  • The approval process is rather quick, and seems to be automatic.

Amazon App Store[edit]

https://developer.amazon.com/myapps.html

Amazon is the second biggest android app store. It also includes FireTV consoles.

  • There does not appear to be any maximum apk file size.
  • Needs icon files in 114x114 and 512x512
  • When you reach the "device support" section be sure to enable FireTV Console and FireTV Stick. The OHRRPGCE has support for these, but they are not checked by default.
  • For FireTV you will also need to upload a 1280x720 icon and a 1920x1080 background
  • The information you need to provide is exactly the same as what you need to provide to sell anything on Amazon.
  • The approval process seems to usually take a day or two.

Amazon Underground[edit]

Amazon has a special section of their app store called Amazon Underground where you can post "free" versions of a pay-app. Users can download it for free, and you will be payed based on the number of minutes that users actually spend playing your game.

WARNING: my past few attempts to upload Amazon Underground apps have failed, and I haven't figured out why yet. I think their apk checking recently became much stricter than it needs to be, but their error messages don't really give enough information for me to know how to fix it yet

  • You will be payed $0.002 for each minute that a person spends playing your game (a penny for every 5 minutes) The money is payed to you by Amazon, and not by the person who is playing your game. To them it is free.
  • You will need two separate copies of your apk file (James can help you with this)
  • Only games that are being sold for an upfront price are eligible (or with IAP, but the ohrrpgce doesn't support this on Amazon yet)
  • You need to make a version of your icon with the "really free" sash overlay graphic from this page https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/underground/docs/migrating-your-app-to-amazon-underground
  • You have to wait for the pay version of your app to be approved first before you submit the underground version.

OUYA Discover Store[edit]

https://devs.ouya.tv/developers

The OUYA Console is a small niche market, but one that is very well suited to OHRRPGCE games. OUYA was recently bought out by Razer, who will keep running the OUYA store for at least 1 year before closing it in favor of their own store. Razer's upcoming console is supposed to be backwards compatible with OUYA games. James will update this with more details before the year is over.

  • Make sure you gave James a 732x412 icon when he built your apk. It is required for OUYA
  • It is a good idea to add the "Margins" special menu item to your game's menu. It is a slider control like the volume control, and lets players remove or resize the TV-safe margins around the border of your game.
  • If your game has a textbox or screen that describes the controls, you should use the ${B#} button name feature so that it will not use keyboard-centric words like "Arrow Keys" and "Space Bar" and "ESC" but can instead say "D-Pad" "(O)" and "(A)". Ask James for help if this doesn't make sense to you.
  • The OUYA is currently the only store that supports In-App-Purchases. Most games use this to allow the player to play the first part of the game as a demo, and then unlock the full game with a purchase. Please ask James if you need help setting this up. It isn't actually that hard, and can be done in a way that does not break compatibility with other app stores.
  • The approval process takes several days. The reviewer will actually play a large portion of your game, and might come back to you with suggestions or bug-reports.

Gamestick Console[edit]

https://publish.gamestick.tv/dev/login

The Gamestick is also a small niche market, but also well suited to OHRRPGCE games.

  • You will have to resize you screenshots to 350x160
  • You will need thumbnail/promotion images resized or cropped to the following sizes: 350x88 350x160 350x236 350x400
  • If your game has a textbox or screen that describes the controls, you should use the ${B#} button name feature so that it will not use keyboard-centric words like "Arrow Keys" and "Space Bar" and "ESC" but can instead say "D-Pad" "(A)" and "(B)". Ask James for help if this doesn't make sense to you.
  • The review process may take a few weeks. The reviewer will play your entire game, and might ask for help if they get stuck.
  • If you have problems, James can give you the e-mail address of a guy who works for Gamestick, who will be able to help you.

Slide.Me App Store[edit]

http://slideme.org/my-applications

A smaller store, but seems like a decent one, and free apps here get a lot of downloads.

  • Needs a 512x512 icon and a small icon somewhere in the range of 150x150 to 400x400.
  • Needs both "Feature" and "Promo" image
  • All you need to be able to sell apps is a Paypal account. After you have uploaded a game you are selling you have to specify exactly how many "virtual copies" they are allowed to sell.
  • Review process seems to take about a day.

AppsLib store[edit]

http://appslib.com/developers/index.html

An old store, but rather large. Specializes in old obsolete android devices or underpowered devices that couldn't get Google Play certification-- fortunately the OHRRPGCE's very low system requirements make it a good match for old, slow, obsolete Android devices, most of which should be able to play most OHRRPGCE games at full speed.

  • App upload website is pretty simple, and offers fewer things to fill in than most other app stores
  • Ignore the strange screenshot size requirements. It seems to accept whatever screenshots you give it.
  • Review process is split up by devices. Your app will become available almost instantly on many devices, but may take a long unknown amount of time to be approved by the manufacturers of other devices.

Opera Mobile Store[edit]

https://publishers.apps.opera.com/

Seems like a pretty decent sized store. Free games seem to get a lot of downloads.

  • Needs a 512x512 icon
  • When you create an account, you can input your game's info, but cannot mark it "Active" until your account has been approved, which takes several days.
  • After your account is approved, approval of individual games seems to go pretty quickly.

Others[edit]

Here are a few others that I have not tested yet. Feel free to add more here, or to flesh these out to more detailed entries

Retrieved from "https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/index.php?title=Uploading_your_OHRRPGCE_game_to_Android_app_stores&oldid=31881"