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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

SergioGardella
Explorer
rrzho9o881x6.pngHi, anyone got an app out of the Gallery App section? Our game is currently under the Top Selling category. Please Oculus, come back with something, because on one side it is not stated on your documentation and on the other you have not provided any solution/feedback on this.

SergioGardella
Explorer
Ok, let's try with the magic word: PLEASE

pekayatt
Expert Protege
Hey @SergioGardella , how are you doing?

Sorry the late reply, we have been busing at VRMonkey finishing some games and updates.

It was state some posts ago that one of the guys that one of them got the "promotion" from Gallery to full store, and it was a "Maria" that has done that.

Recently I put the game Apocalypse Rider in promotion, and we got 20k downloads in just a week, our ratings are around 4.5 (last time I checked) and we still as gallery app. We are working on an update that maybe will improve the game enough for Oculus to fully launch it as "real" game. But still, things are not doing so well as we expected.

BTW, do not try to use positions in Top Selling as a point for leaving the Gallery App, as in fact there are several games for a long time in the Top Selling and they have not been promoted (as Overtake).

Only hint that I could give you would be, try your best to do the most original and polished game, use most of the last hardware available from Oculus and pray.

Most of time it looks like you should not invest in a game that has been flagged as Gallery app. Just forget about it and go for the next. But I do know that it is not an easy thing to do.

SergioGardella
Explorer
Hi @pekayatt
Thanks for your reply. So, what makes me go crazy is the lack of interest of providing any clue from Oculus side and that this is never mentioned in the documentation.
We have been updating our game a lot. With voice overs from singers and actors and spend a lot of time, effort and specially money to suddenly stay in this category for as long as no one can tell you. It is degradating and unprofessional.

Well, now we are already in promotion, but just sitting and waiting for someone to list it in the CORRECT category is just not the way to go, for me.

Thanks anyway for your answer. I will keep on posting our progression, in case it gets somewhere.

pekayatt
Expert Protege
Hey guys, some hints!

I got some feedback from the Content Review from the Daydream team and they gave me nice insight about what could made Apocalypse Rider a Gallery app (they give a review before featuring the App on DayDream).

In our game we had a, at least we tought, great idea: lets leave the player to understand the game by himself, no tutorials, no popups, nothing, just lets throw the player on the game and see if he can figure it out (without any punishment) that just tilt the head makes the bike to make a curve. We even got a very nice feedback from that from an article that was praising this (https://skarredghost.com/2017/12/12/apocalypse-rider-review-simple-entertaining-racing-game/), but it looks like Daydream content review and probably Oculus, do not like things "out of box".

I say this because I was trying one of the last Oculus Studio experiences "Fail Factory", and I needed to push continue 20 times in popups dialogs and tutorials entries to start playing the "casual" game. In fact I believe I spend more time readings intro texts than actually playing the "free to try" game.

So, heads up guys, you should do a very basic (like for mobile/facebook farmville's like games) tutorial so you game can be called "worth" ;).

firagabird
Adventurer

pekayatt said:

heads up guys, you should do a very basic (like for mobile/facebook farmville's like games) tutorial so you game can be called "worth" ;).


Great point! As far as basic tutorials go, the single-panel per level text in @Norman3D's Daedalus was apparently enough for the content review board to elevate the game to non-Gallery status. I mention it because it should be very simple to integrate into existing games that, like Apocalypse Rider, wasn't designed with tutorials in mind. Although there are definitely more seamless ways to do tutorials (Portal is 90% tutorial and no one noticed!), the goal is to get existing games to pass the review store's (often vague) guidelines with the minimum effort required.

Of course, now that we know tutorials are vital to escape the Gallery Section, all future apps & games should consider tutorials from the start. Here's the classic Extra Credits video on how to make a great tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCPcn-Q5nKE

S7 Exynos Nougat. 2017 Gear VR. Public test channel.

pekayatt
Expert Protege
@firagabird

Yeah! Thansk for the awesome hints! Love Extra Credits, he has great analysis.

I am a fan of "no intrusive tutorials", like in Portal, but it looks to me that the content review wants a more clear tutorial. I can be wrong, but I am not sure if people who review the game rly understand a lot about games, since they must review apps and other contents.

pekayatt
Expert Protege
UPDATE GUYS!


We’re always working to help developers find distribution and connect more people with new apps they’ll love. Later today, we’ll be implementing an updated storefront, with one section removed: Gallery.

All apps that previously appeared in the Gallery will be automatically moved to the category that was selected during submission to the Oculus Store. As an affected developer, you don’t need to take any action. If you feel that the category is not a the right fit for your app, feel free to contact us at submissions@oculus.com and we can change it for you. It’s worth noting your app can now take advantage of all the Oculus Store has to offer, including sales and promotions.

The Gallery was introduced over a year ago as a way to bring more apps to market, even if they didn’t meet all of Oculus’ publishing criteria. Over time, with more content launched and people spending more time in apps, it’s become clear that Gallery designation is no longer necessary. We think it’s important to offer people a comprehensive picture of everything available to try.

We’ve provided additional information the blog, a draft of which you can find below. Alongside the change, we’ll be introducing refreshed docs and additional information on submission best practices. Be sure to visit https://developer.oculus.com/blog/ for more.

- The Oculus Team


It looks like all the prayers have been answered! Congratz on Oculus team for the change :open_mouth:

jumbli
Heroic Explorer
Great news.

Also very pleased about this bit, "we’ll be introducing refreshed docs and additional information on submission best practices.". Maybe these will help us identify where we were going wrong 🙂

Together with the Oculus Start program, which includes 1-1 advice, Oculus are really helping to support new talent and smaller developers. I feel much more optimistic about my upcoming projects. Thank you, Oculus 🙂
Developer of Dimensional, The Relentless, Breath Tech, Jigsaw 360 View my dev blog at JumbliVR.com

pekayatt
Expert Protege
You got any news from the Oculus Start program?

I do believe this can help us, some hints on how to get your app featured would be amazing as well!