Unity Game Developer Contest 2016

No, I don't use any anti-virus software. Also the game builds and plays just fine. It's the WACK giving mixed results every time.

The lack of official help for such technical problems is very disappointing especially when there is a contest with a deadline. If you guys are doing these contests to encourage people to work on games for a specific platform, you should help them out with such strange technical problems. Otherwise people will just target other platforms with more streamlined build processes. I had to crunch for the whole month of January to get my already WIP game into a shape that's playable for this contest. I may come off as ranting here but these are my sincere thoughts. And I don't think I'll ever target any Windows store platforms ever, not when I have to wrestle with such incomprehensible problems and have to prepare a thousand icons with a couple pixels of scale difference between them.

No porting guides, no official answers to any of the questions regarding the contest rules or any technical help that is actually helpful. I feel like there wasn't enough planning that went into preparing of this contest. One wishes that there was a dedicated team in Microsoft and Unity that processed the submissions to this contest and helped the developers with their problems regarding putting their game onto the Windows store.

Because what is the goal of this contest after all? If it is to show the developers that Windows store platforms are actually easy to target and are worth it to put your game on, in my case it has failed terribly.

 

When it comes to the icons, you actually don't have to fill them in... I only targeted the 200 scale for mine. Means I only had to do four. (WIN! )

Still, I found my submission process, apart from uploading the packages themselves (I have a horrible internet connection here... ) quite smooth. Quite unfortunate that WACK's acting up. Didn't you say it will run properly if you install it, then select it that way?

Also, unless I missed them, what are your system specs?

 

As for me... I'm having issues trying to upload a windows 8.1 version of my game; (windows 10 version's up already however) essentially, both have different version numbers, (0.9.3.0 for win8.1, and 0.9.4.0 for windows 10) yet it claims they're the same name? It also mentions "increment package version numbers to continue" when I have obviously done this. is this a bug in the dashboard? I am seriously over uploading packages... (On my horribly slow connection, the 40+MB files can take up to an hour to upload!)

EDIT: It's done it again...

CLEARLY, you can see that the version numbers are different, yet it thinks my windows 10 package has the SAME version number as windows 8.1?!

 

Um... Wut?

 

Unfortunately my submission to fix some issues since January is still not in store, got into a bug in the store that keeps my submission into certification status [2 weeks by now u_u]. They don't know when this issue will be solved, in case it goes after Feb 10th will I be penalized? Or just be evaluated with my submission so far? :/

 

nvm about my problem guys, I solved it by fully rebuilding my solution files...

 

Ouch. :-/ At least Microsoft seem to be on top of things. In any case, they'll use your previous submission if that one's in the store. Thing is though, that could degrade your game a little...

 

It's unfortunate that they don't approve anything on the weekends but at least we know some people work normal hours in the industry

 

If you mean certs... looky here:

That update was submitted today, and it's already in the store. (Well, it obviously has the 16-hour delay after certs, but you get the idea)

 

Hmm weird, whenever I submit during the week it gets approved the same day but if I do it on a Friday it takes a couple of days to do... Oh well

 

Haa my certification is going to take a few days now. This last update is cutting it close. SO FREAKING CLOSE. Microsoft team, see it through on time. I BELIEVE IN ALL OF YOU, God speed.

 

anyone else not showing up in there game category for new and rising?

i set and passed cert for public visibility on Jan 30.
know this is childish but every day that passes i feel more and more strongly about publishing on other platforms

 

Last I checked mine,no. Maybe it'll gain visibility after the contest?

 

Hope it goes through certification for you,good luck!

 

Well, after seeing some of you work guys I stand no hope to be in the top 3 positions hahaha. Hope I can get one of the pro licenses . In any case it's been a really teaching experience

 

what category is yours? personally i think there's an issue on there side that seems to have been there for a while

me too. Really Glad Microsoft and Unity holds these contests

 

Cool looking game Well done.

 

Agreed, I saw this one earlier!

 

Platformer,mines actually up there now. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/new-and-rising/games/pc?cat1=platformer

Somebody from the team will probably look into it for you. Just give it some time,will probs show up eventually

 

I'm glad I was actually able to enter a contest! (The last couple of times I tried to, school bogged me down... NOT ANYMORE! ) And chances are, I'll end up with a pro license... Who knows?
At the very least, if I do get a prize and it's a pro license, looks like I'll be dropping unity 4.x on my mini 9 again. (I stopped using it when unity 5's feature set got bigger for free users)

 

Mine hasn't shown in the categories yet either... I think, I'll go check now.

EDIT: Ha ha, my update hasn't come through yet... (I can still see my older changelog)
Also, mine hasn't shown up yet either... maybe submitting so many updates in such a short time's broken something? (I've had to submit 4 bugfixes/feature updates so far, with one adding windows 8.1 support)

EDIT2: Good thing a generic "sci-fi racing" search works... 3 games pop up with mine being the first result.

 

Absolutely precious...

Someone hasn't done logo art yet.

 

Mind if I see yours? In either case, teaching experiences are probably the best ones. As for me, this contest was possibly the only way I was getting anything out there for the first time. (I experiment a little too much sometimes...)

EDIT: If you didn't get to see mine, (and wish to do so) it's in my sig, last link on the bottom.

 

i see it! yours is three rows from the top, must be awesome seeing it rise up the ranks .

yea haven't seen this one either

 

Super night riders? That actually showed up in my listings until a few days ago. It's probably the fact that the contest deadline means everyone's trying to publish at the same time, pushing the servers a little. (That, and weekends...)

 

switched to public visibility on jan 30, how about you?

 

Mine? I think they may just be in order of time submitted. It has no rank, zero stars lol.

I'm hoping I get the tutorial through certification in time though. It might help the player understand what they're actually doing (not enough time to put story in ect)It's a WIP so there's not much more I can do

 

I checked my recent update, everything seems to be public.

 

Mine has 3 stars. (The guy who bought it did like the game, he only requested a controls fix, of which I've put through now) Good luck with certs, hopefully they're nice and quick like they were with mine.

 

pretty sure the higher it is to the top the more downloads it has

sorry when i mean public i mean organically browsable without searching

 

Organically? As for browsing without searching... good luck with that.

 

i do need all i can get

 

True. Very true. Also wish Microsoft would hurry up with getting my last submission visible... :-/

 

Thanks man, still in the process of certification so fingers crossed And if it does not, at least the contest gave me an excuse to work super hard on the game for a month or so. Good luck to all you guys too!

 

Thanks guys

I think that all the games appears in the Microsoft Webstore a bit after publishing, but appearing in the Windows Store native app (in the relevant category) require a minimum number of installs.

My game Super Night Riders is visible in the 5th page on the webstore (racing category), but not visible at all in the app (unless using a direct link, or a search). The game is premium only, so it will be hard for it to get enough installs :/

 

pretty sure that all newly published apps go under the new and rising filter for there category, i'll let you know when i get a response from support

 

And this is how Microsoft gives the finger

 

My app was published and visible in the store for two days and now it has disappeared (was there this morning)!

https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9NBLGGH5FRL1

I just submitted the link to Unity this morning. I hope they don't disqualify me because there doesn't appear to be an app on the end of this link.

My dashboard reports that the app is "live in the store"

[UPDATE] Just got off the chat support with Microsoft. They can see that the app passed certification and was published on the 5th with no issues. They think this is likely related to the system issue causing publishing delays.

[UPDATE] App seems to be back online now. Hope that doesn't happen again.

 

@Phong @Sarper Soher i've got the same warning message, hopefully this means there fixing the public visibility issues

 

Since my game is still in the certification phase, that may very well mean I won't make it in time. They should add a 5 days to the deadline IMO.

 

wanted to enter last year but i missed the deadline, almost a month later was cleaning up browser tabs clutter and saw the tab open for the contest page checked it and saw they extended the deadline
so its happened before, just not sure what actually caused the extension

 

Oh man, I was so focused on trying to get my live tiles right, and my screenshots I forgot to update my store logo last time I built too! Mine says "On the Store" but there's also a warning it might take a few days to show up... Woo boy this is gonna be close, I don't dare resubmit again to fix the logo yet!

 

As for me, my update still hasn't gone through... would submitting two updates one after the other at a close time margin do it? or is it the issue everyone else is having? (Why it was updated twice: a package conflict meant I had to disable windows 8.1 support, but then I fixed it, and had to re-submit again)

EDIT: Here we go...

Mine's got the viral message...

On second thought, this could lead to an extended deadline until Microsoft sort things out.

Wait, that was yours? I had no idea! I will have to look at that.

 

hopefully!

 

Nope, mine's not visible yet. I'll have a Unity cube store logo twin =)

 

Huh... mine was never visible in the first place. (Searching for it came up with it straight away however, and if you use the terms "sci-fi racer" in the search bar, mine's first in the 3 search results... )

 

I've sent an e-mail to Microsoft's contest address. If the game doesn't make it to the store before the deadline due to the technical difficulties on their part, they want me to let them know and they will "reassess" then.

 

Finally passed the certification, took about 5-6 hours on the second submission. It will appear here when it hits the store https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9NBLGGH5JQS4

Should I wait until it's live in the store to submit it to the contest?

 

I waited until mine was up, I would recommend doing so. Unless, of course, waiting for MS to hurry up's scraping the bottom of the barrel too much... in that case, submit anyway.

 

So currently there's this message on windows dev center:
We're currently experiencing some issues that are causing publishing delays. It may take several days before new app or IAP submission are visible in the Store. We're working on resolving this, and will remove this alert once the problem has been fixed.
For some developers, the Acquisition report and/or IAP acquisition report (or APIs used to access those reports) may not currently show all data correctly. We're working on resolving this, and will remove this alert once the problem has been fixed. Learn more

I imagine this might have to do with late comers uploading all their stuff at once since the deadline is practically a day away...

Now I've already uploaded my game but am just now uploading updates... So does 'new app or IAP submissions' mean brand new, or does this include updates as well?

Also, my apologies if this has been answered already, I've still looking through to see if there's an answer to this... Do apps not viewable to the public count for this competition?