So I released my Christmas Crazy Eights game, and it's doing fairly well, I guess. Except out of 4 reviews, I have 2 one star reviews from people who obviously didn't read the description. There's no way I can find to respond to those comments either.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/christmas-crazy-eights/id477264229

The latest one star review isn't showing up yet on the website, but shows up in the app store. It says almost the exact same as the other one star review. They complain that the "game never starts". At first, I thought maybe they meant there was a technical problem, but I've tested the game on an iPod Touch 2g, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPad 1, and it works great. Then I saw in the latest review to "go get Phase 10 instead" (which is a standalone game).

I don't think they're understanding that Christmas Crazy Eights is not a standalone game, even though I've had this at the very top of the description since Day 1:

*** Please note that this is a virtual add-on for the *real life* classic card matching game of Crazy Eights and requires a standard deck of 52 playing cards. ***

I even have a screenshot that shows how to setup the game. I wish I could attach this video to show what it's like to actually play the game, but I can't figure out how to add it now:
http://youtu.be/8FLduY9YPLg

What really rankles me about this is that they're giving it a bad review when they didn't even understand what this app is all about. I was afraid that would happen because it is definitely a bit different, but I thought I did a decent job of explaining it. I don't know what else I can do.

Any suggestions? Maybe drink more to ease the pain? :-)

Thanks,
Dave Haynes
http://www.downcastsystems.com

Step 1) Try to ignore people stupid enough to buy something without knowing what it is.

Step 2) Drink.

Step 3) ????

Step 4) Profit!

Peach ;)

PS - App failing to run may have been a JB device. I had an issue with that in the past, the guy emailed me about it, although it has only happened the once.

PS - App failing to run may have been a JB device.

Any specific reason why JB devices would fail to run corona apps?

I see what the issue is, and I'm interested how this works out for you, as I have an idea for something similar, mixing physical stuff with an app, in my case the players will need to actually go to a website and print out some cards. I'm in 2 minds whether to go ahead with it as it might be a bit too radical an idea.

I would just put a big bold screen at startup saying something along the lines of "To play this game first go and get a real deck of cards, click here to continue when you've got one!"

I really hope this works out for you, it's really is an intersteing idea.

@Producerism - I don't know specifically why, the fact he was running some horribly, horribly out of date iOS probably didn't help. It was a one off for me anyway, no other reports of apps not starting.

Peach :)

It really seems like a completely new genre. I had to put it *somewhere*, so I put in the Card Games category, but it's not really a card game. It's an add-on to a card game. I didn't want to put "Add-On" in the title of the app because I was afraid folks wouldn't download it thinking it was an add-on to some other "Christmas Crazy Eights" app that they don't have.

It's a tricky situation.

@cbartlett, you mean a screen like this? ;-)
http://screencast.com/t/EGAXvTzSY

That's in the "How to Play" section already, but now I'm thinking I probably should have forced the "How to Play" to show up on first run of the app. I guess I just assumed people would understand what it was before they downloaded it!

I think there's a lot of room for these kinds of apps. I've not seen any other apps that work as a virtual game piece like this, but maybe that's because people don't understand them and they get bad reviews? I would like to create add-ons for board games too. Candyland with Zombies, perhaps? ;-)

Dave

There are times that I wish the iTunes App store had some type of return policy that was reasonable for both customers and developers.

Something like, you have a 2 hour window after you purchase an app to ask for a refund.

Dave that's just how the cookie crumbles. Your game will never appeal to everyone, and people WILL rate your game poorly. I used to worry about my ratings a ton when I first started out, to compensate, I would download my games on friends phones and rate them 5 stars. Eventually, I stopped doing that and noticed that I was receiving more 5 stars than I was 1 stars :) Basically right now, my game is at a 3.5 star rating which is actually quite good! Just be glad that some people do appreciate your game :) and maybe you should consider making your game free for a weekend to increase downloads and ratings :)

Regards,
Jordan Schuetz
Ninja Pig Studios

You do! I've asked for a refund and got it.

You can get refunds as WauloK said - they just really bury the option ;)

Peach

If you get a refund on an app, can you continue to use the app?

That's a good question; I believe you could, although that would amount to piracy.

(I'm not certain of the above, just thinking logistically about how Apple would prevent a person playing an app they had refunded if it were already on their phone and the refund is done via your computer.)

Peach :)

This is one area where the Android Market really shines. You can download any app, and get a refund within 15 minutes - upon which it uninstalls the app.

That's great for eliminating any 1-star reviews because an app "won't open" or similar issues. And since it automatically uninstalls the app, they don't get to keep the app AND get a refund. It also makes it so they can't rate your app either.

Very simple process. iOS is a lot more cumbersome.