Ok, I don’t rant too often, but this one has me annoyed. Local development house PIG Studios decided to do something a little different when it wanted to launch itself. Effectively there are a number of games in the pipeline, but given the noise of flappy bird, they decided to try and launch a quick, annoyingly addictive game – Fello Pean Tubes. Enter Cecil… now Cecil is a sperm, albeit a cartoon one, he looks like an albino tadpole, and the idea is that you have to help Cecil navigate his way through the fallopian tubes to help fertilise the egg. There are three different game modes (baby, crawl and run), each offering a different starting speed. All the game assets were unique, created by the artists at PIG Studios, the intro music was a stock file while the in game experience was written again by one of the guys at the studio. Almost a month ago, Tim submitted the game for Apple’s approval having jumped through all the hoops of becoming a registered Apple developer. After the obligatory week of waiting, the game (known from now on as FT) was rejected. Apple cited a problem with the advertising information in the pList, and it was rated wrong…
So, the boys decided to remove iAd and just sell the game for a meagre $0.99. This time the rating was put to 9+ and a resubmission was made. Now remember at this point, there were no faults with the game, it was all admin related. Another 7 days go by, then the app is moved into “Review” for 3 days!. Finally, REJECTED! the reason was the same, your rating is wrong, this game has suggestive mature content!!!
I may be broad minded, having raised 3 girls and two boys has meant everything in life was discussed. But telling a developer you have to have an R17+ rating on a swimming albino tadpole because it is suggestive??
For now the boys decided to up the rating and just get the game into the AppStore, but I feel it is censorship gone mad. There are more suggestive cartoons on free to air TV than what FT offers, I mean aren’t schools now giving “The Talk” at a younger age now? Seriously Apple!
Anyway, best of luck to the boys over at PIG Studios, I would recommend any iPhone users grab a copy of Fello Pean Tubes (Android version coming soon, so I’m told), and I know they have some exciting things in the pipeline, FT is the first of a 4 part series, and there is some cool Unity development going on too.
Why not grab your copy and help these guys out…
