That was followed by another email which went like this:
“Dear Developer,
We have discovered one or more issues with your recent binary submission for “Simon Snail Racing”. Before your app can be reviewed, the following issues must be corrected:
Invalid Code Signing Entitlements – The signature for your app bundle contains entitlement values that are not supported.” Blah Blah Blah.

And then were like UGHHHH. But the developer knew just what to do, he fixed a little of this and a little of that and resubmitted and we got another bummer letter from Apple.

After that we got an email saying the following:
“Dear Developer,
The status for the following app has changed to Waiting For Review.
App Name: Simon Snail Racing”
App Version Number: 1.0

And there it still stands in “Waiting for Review” status and here we “patiently” wait for it to move to “Approved Status” so it can finally be released onto the App Store. The anticipation is much worse than that feeling you get when waiting for the ketchup to come out of the bottle but not quite as bad as waiting for one of your kids to be born. So overall the anxiety level is between ketchup coming out and babies being born. Hmmm, after writing that last sentence I now think I could have chosen better analogy examples but whatever they work.

A big thank you to all the beta testers that took their time to test, re-test and re-re-test the game over and over and over after every change we made to the game play and while we added and deleted functionality. It’s greatly appreciated, I know I spent my fair share of time saying blue, red, yellow, blue, blue, green to myself and I know that playing the same levels over and over and over again may have gotten a little tedious with each release but it’s a necessary part of game development. Again I sincerely appreciate your time and feedback. Thank you. You helped make the game better.

The next update will be. We’re on the app store so stay tuned.

The last few levels are Bonus Levels and there are a few surprises in there as you can tell by the spike in the graph. They will definitely challenge your level of concentration, your dexterity and ability to remain calm if you start getting behind in the race.

I see being able to finish testing game play by Monday and Tuesday and Submit to Apple by mid-week. Nearly 4 months from conception to finish.

This new release will have a major change to the Level Completion Screen. You will be getting a lot more information about “how” you did in the game. We are now displaying your time, best time, points earned, boosts used, score, high score, coins earned, diamonds earned, and tattoos you’ve won.

If you take a look at the attached files you will see versions for 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th/5th place.
1st, 2nd or 3rd place you can move on to the next level, 4th and 5th you need to replay and try again.

Up until now we have been testing functionality. Example: “when I click here____does it do that and make the right sound”. You may have noticed that the game is really easy, some of you have probably already won the game or at least all 25 levels. (I’m keeping the bonus levels a secret even from the beta testers cause I got some fun things I’ll be doing to make it very ery very challenging.) This is by design. It’s tough to test functionality on all 25 levels if you can’t make it past the first tier because the game exceeds your capabilities. Also you have unlimited boosts, who can’t win every level with unlimited boosts?!

So this release we will start collecting information that will help up nail down the game play. We aim to make it challenging, but not too challenging. We want people 8 to 80 to be able to play this game and still be able to complete some of the levels with some boosts, most of the levels with a bunch of boosts on 2nd or 3rd try and all the levels with lots of boosts. As you can tell BOOSTS will be very important to keep in your inventory. The objective is to find the balance between winning enough coins and diamonds to be able to buy enough boosts to win the race AND still be able to “save up” to buy the tattoos you want.

SO HERE’S what I need you to do with this release. EVERY TIME you complete a race either take a picture of the level completion screen (see attached for an example) or fill out the chart below and post it on the Facebook page (http://facebook.com/simonsnail or email it to me….I need this information on as many levels as possible. TRY NOT to use boosts. Use them only to win a race. If you have to use them that’s OK just try NOT to use them.

Fill out and click here to POST ON FACEBOOK or reply back and email to me EVERY TIME you play a level. OR take a screen shot by pressing off and square button and email me the photo.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Level 10
Time
Best
Points
Boosts
Score
High Score
Balls
Reward
Used
Level 11 Level 12 Level 13 Level 14 Level 15 Level 16 level 17 Level 18 Level 19 Level 20
Time
Best
Points
Boosts
Score
High Score
Balls
Reward
Used
Level 21 Level 22 Level 23 Level 24 Level 25
Time
Best
Points
Boosts
Score
High Score
Balls
Reward
Used

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF BETA TESTING. In fact for me it’s the most important part. If the game isn’t “fun and challenging” then people won’t play it over and over and over again. I’ve gotten some great feed back from beta testers that has helped with the functionality but the testers that help with this section the most will be getting some very big thank you prizes! So play, play, play and track your results.

CONTEST: Post a screen shot of the level completion screen for each of the 25 levels on the Facebook Fan Page. NO BOOSTS ALLOWED.
The first person to do this wins a $20 gift card.

Screen shots posted to Facebook only will be considered so everyone knows there’s proof . And believe me I’m GOOD at this game, in fact very good so you better B-B-B-Bring it… I will post my scores on the Facebook page as well
http://facebook.com/simonsnail and on the blog http://simonsnail.com/category/blog

The ButtonClick.wav file sounds like it’s being stretched out. It’s a short pop not a shwert sound.

When you get to a level select screen and select a level and then the game launches. between the Level intro screen and the countdown there is a popping I think it’s the boost being triggered or the first three balls loading. (can we delay that until the countdown is finished. if it belongs there at all.)

The pop1.wav thru pop5.wav sounds should be when the player pushed the colored buttons not when the balls get released.
So at the start of a game when the balls are released it should play like
pop2.wav, Squish, pop3, squish, pop2, squish pop5, squish
not a pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, squish, squish, squish, squish

then the last issue I “heard” was the wrong.wav sounds really quiet and distorted. it’s more of a low bass drum beat not a tap on the desk.
And I forgot about the tier up notification that they can now play with the new character….I need to work that in there somehow…

Hopefully we’ll start getting feedback tomorrow from the testers and by the weekend we’ll be ready to start playing with the game play.

So status is Nov 2nd we will have a beta version ready for testing.
Nov 7th release to the app store.
Release to customers on App store usually takes place within 2 weeks.

Once We’re firmly in place I may go back and post some of the more dramatic posts as they are quite funny to read when you are not all caught up in the moment.

More Pix are coming I promise….It looks sweeeettt.

I fully expect to be ready for beta release within 7-10 days.

Here are some screen shots of the Help Screens

So an interesting problem cropped up. OK maybe not that interesting but worth a mention in a blog post none-the-less. How do you name 480 images that are really triplicates? I could use the original file name which were typically like 827462hdh17hDD388400.png or Dragon_with_Flame_Tongue_White_Background.jpg as that is file name they came with. Not very user friendly for our programmers to work with. I could highlight them all and rename them in Window 1.png, 2.png, 3.png etc which seems obvious but then we need to designate sizes and also categories. There are 5 categories. We are giving the tattoos away during (1) level ups, (2)tier ups, (3)some are free when you start the game and other costs (4)coins which you can earn by winning races or pruchase with real $ and of course the “really cool ones” as determined by my 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter will cost (5) diamonds which can be both earned and purchased with real $. Now we have 3 different sizes and 5 categories which all had to be working into the naming convention.

A long Skype chat session followed. Discussion was had. Decisions were made. Brains were numbed (mine mostly).
As “The Decider” I set forth a decree.
I assigned a letter to each category and a number to each size.
So I came up with d being the category indicator for Diamonds and the first number being the “size indicator” of the image followed by the (image #).
Small d (1).png, d (2).png, d (3).png
Medium d1 (1).png, d1 (2).png, d1 (3).png
Large d2 (1).png, d2 (2).png, d2 (3).png

The parentheses are a typical file naming convention used within Microsoft Windows operating systems. But of course the developers and designers use Apple Macs so the naming convention is not () but – dashes. So they no likey this idea.

Basically they wanted…
Small d-1.png, d-2.png, d-3.png
Medium d1-1.png, d1-2.png, d1-3.png
Large d2-1.png, d2-2.png, d2-3.png

Ultimately, it comes down to…whatever works and if that works for them that’s fine with me.
But this falls under the category who knew before I started that I would be having an hour long skype with a developer about naming conventions for file names.

I’m hoping the next issue isn’t file size and use of compression algorithms or something.

Description: An action packed racing game with some of your favorite garden friends. Win a race and you get coins that you can use to upgrade your snail racer. Level up to earn diamonds and you can race as any of the available characters to see who the fastest snail in the garden is. Lose a race and well let’s just say you’ll live to race another day and keep it at that. Game Center integration allows you to track all your best racing times and other fun stats.

• Win races to earn points and coins and level up to earn diamonds.
• Use coins and diamonds to customize your snail racer.
• Over 150 cool Shell tattoo designs to choose from.
• Falling behind in the race? Use a boost to catch up and win the race.
• Need more coins and diamonds? Buy them in the Shell Station.
• Incredible graphics with a realistic 3D environment.
• Unique game play makes it much more than the normal “tap, tap, tap” game.
• 25 challenging levels and 5 bonus levels.
• 5 cute and cuddly garden snail characters;
o Simon: The fastest snail in the garden. He’s fast and has a flair for dramatic finishes.
o Chase: The new kid trying to earn a place on the race team.
o Boomer: The epitome of “old school” snail racing. Watch out for him, he’s got a few tricks up his shell.
o Rex: Always looking for an opportunity to beat Simon so that one day he can win the race and win back the heart of Simone.
o Simone: A sassy little snail that can hold her own on the race track. She has a thing for Simon but has a history with Rex.

Catch Simon if you can.