This Week At Hyperoid, we are still waiting.

TL;DR

The PROJECT ERIS demo is still being reviewed by Google, this is why it is not up on the Google Play Store yet. All feedback streams are in place for the release, it’s just a matter of when Google will approve it.

What Is Going On?

When I rolled out a public release for the demo earlier this week, a review process was started. ‘Google must review these releases before it’s published to make sure it meets Google’s design, content, and style guidelines‘. Okay, makes sense. This process usually takes 1 to 2 days to which you’ll receive an email about whether the release needs more work or it has been approved. However, it has gone over this time period. The release is still ‘in review‘ and I haven’t gotten an email regarding what to do next.

Now, to say I am frustrated on this matter is an understatement. I am very upset with Google Play on this matter as the review process should not take this long. I also did everything correctly to release this demo on the Google Play Store, so why is it taking so long to approve?

While surfing through the web and lots of forums for answers, I have read that the review process has taken days for some developers before their releases were approved. For some it took weeks and for an unfortunate few it took months! I have also read that Google advises developers to allow for a ‘buffer period‘ for any scheduled releases. This is to allow sufficient time for the review process to take place. If that is the case, why is this not made obvious to developers in the first place? Why do I have to go through countless forum posts to find this out?

Honestly, at this point, I feel guilty for setting a ‘false’ release date. It is in part my fault. I should have known all of these things before hand. I just wanted to get the demo up there as soon as possible. I’ll try not to be too hasty next time.

Collecting Feedback

On another note, feedback streams have been completely set up. I’ll be detailing how users can give feedback through these different avenues.

The primary way that feedback will be collected is through the forums. Of course, in order to engage with the forums, you will need to have an account. Registering is easy and only takes a few minutes. On the forums, there will be a topic that is stuck to the top of the board. This primary topic will be where users can leave some feedback on the demo. Feel free to create new topics regarding the project and the demo if you like. It is a forum after all.

Another way feedback will be collected is through a feedback form that can be filled out at the bottom the project page. If you don’t like posting to the forums and want to contact me directly, this would be the way to do it. The feedback form will ask you a few main questions and you will have the opportunity to add any additional comments.

Lastly, social media. The Twitter profile will have a pinned tweet. For you Twitter users out there, this pinned tweet will serve as a feedback thread. The feedback given on this thread will be used to supplement the already collected feedback.

Closing Thoughts

It’s literally just a waiting game with Google right now, hopefully the demo release will be approved for the Google Play Store sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, a nice little trailer is in the works and will be uploaded to the YouTube channel when the demo is released to the stores. The iOS version of the demo is also being worked on so that it can be built and released to the iOS App Store too. It’s been a very busy week…

Hyper