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Is there anyway to avoid being published as Gallery App?

pekayatt
Expert Protege
Hi there,

The most recent game from the Company I work for (VRMonkey) is about to be launched, we have finished all the preparations and sent the build to be approved on the Store. The review process was amazingly fast! It took less than a week to get a very good response, but them I received an email saying that my app will be put on Gallery Apps.

Our game is pretty much done, we will release new levels as updates, but it is not an EARLY ACCESS or anything like that, I do now want my game to be view as such, and several games from the Gallery Apps section look like that.

Is there anyway I can avoid that? Should I delete my app and send it to be reviewed again? 

I know that they are not serious when they say: "The Content Review Team continues to monitor user metrics for our Gallery Apps, and any titles that show outstanding user adoption, game play time, etc. are reviewed regularly for conversion into the main section of the Oculus Store.", since there are apps on the TOP SELLING list that still branded as Gallery App... and this concerns me a lot.
81 REPLIES 81

southpac
Protege
jumbli said:
p.s. when sorting by user rating, why on earth do Oculus show games first that have been rated 5 stars by only 1 person. It's clearly not a legit rating until say 5 or more people have rated.



I second that. I also noticed that there are some games with 1 rating at the top of the list if you sort by user rating which is obviously wrong.

VR_Shackler
Expert Protege
Has anyone with an app in the gallery been offered the option to enter the Black Friday Sales or are we all not worthy?
Why aren't all apps given the opportunity to enter holiday sales? Where is the harm?
Going forward I will direct my own promotional efforts towards the stores that are willing to help sell my app, not bury it.

palii90
Protege

I
think they are trying to pay more attention to the
applications of larger companies because if they
don't make enough money with their products they leave this platform and it is a problem
for the Oculus. If we small indie devs leave it doesn't matter. With the recent
store changes the Gallery Apps positions are worst than ever so maybe this is the
reason if it's not the whole thing made no sense for me.

VR_Shackler
Expert Protege
You could be right or they may have clairvoyant gamesmasters that know exactly how a game will perform.
I guess we'll never know as no one cares to respond.

Fulby
Heroic Explorer

jumbli said:

When I posted a mixed reality video on the Oculus Rift Facebook group three Oculus employees liked the video including Brendan Iribe, but the content review team thought it best to bury it in the Gallery.


@jumbli did you try contacting Brendan Iribe directly to see if he would intervene? When my app got stuck in review limbo for months I tweeted to John Carmack and he got it sorted.

jumbli
Heroic Explorer
@jumbli did you try contacting Brendan Iribe directly to see if he would intervene? When my app got stuck in review limbo for months I tweeted to John Carmack and he got it sorted.

No, I guess I'm not bold enough. One of the other Oculus employees who said it looked awesome sent me a private message about the video and I mentioned to them it was going in the Gallery and I wasn't expecting any sales, but that probably just made them assume it wasn't any good too.

I was intending to do some tutorial videos on how to make mixed reality videos on the Oculus because the game is a great fit for them. Not many titles support or encourage mixed reality so I thought that would excite Oculus and be interesting for their customers. Obviously that's all been scrapped now due to low sales not providing any budget to reinvest.

Developer of Dimensional, The Relentless, Breath Tech, Jigsaw 360 View my dev blog at JumbliVR.com

VR_Shackler
Expert Protege
@jumbli Dimensional was one of my first purchases for VR, really enjoyed it!
I was considering Oculus specific features for my app, thanks for saving me the time & effort.

jumbli
Heroic Explorer
@jumbli Dimensional was one of my first purchases for VR, really enjoyed it!
I was considering Oculus specific features for my app, thanks for saving me the time & effort.
Personally going forwards I have to assume my work will always go in the Gallery and I'll invest my time accordingly, but please don't let my experiences change your plans. You may produce something better than I am capable of and get in the main store.
Why aren't all apps given the opportunity to enter holiday sales?

Check your dashboard. I just happened to stumble across a new "Promotions" menu item under settings. Gallery titles aren't included in the promotion in Oculus Home, but at least it gives you an opportunity to discount your game and then create your own promotions.

Glad you enjoyed Dimensional 🙂

Developer of Dimensional, The Relentless, Breath Tech, Jigsaw 360 View my dev blog at JumbliVR.com

VR_Shackler
Expert Protege

jumbli said: Check your dashboard. I just happened to stumble across a new "Promotions" menu item under settings.


Aha! Thank you!

Lightowl
Explorer
I agree with most of these comments.  It certainly does not look like indie dev's are being supported here.  I've been wondering who is on the panel of reviewers.  My target audience is different than most and I would prefer that they determine whether my application is good or not.  It is too bad that the lack of ethics has diminished the value of genuine reviews.  Genuine reviews are the ideal.  I also think that a person should be able to search on categories, like those on Amazon.  I'm not building games but clearly that is the focus of most developers.  My stuff really gets buried under unrelated applications.  While I can understand Oculus' perspective in terms of quality control I think that there is a better way to achieve that goal.  I hope Oculus sees the light and comes up with a better set up.


Do any of you live in Seattle?  I have a plan and it would be best if there were a group of us to implement it.  Please message me or email me at IntuitiveActionSoftware@gmail.com.  GoIndieDevs!