Will the game ever appear on iOS?
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Hey, I recently changed my phone to iPhone, and I read a lot of posts on this page about the fact that TPT is not in the App Store, I also saw your response to one comment in which you explained that to have an app in the App Store, you have to pay a subscription, but he recently is good news, because within the European Union, devices with iOS 17.4 and above can install apps outside the App Store. I know it's not that easy, after all, you have to rewrite the program in such a way that from the .apk file, you make an .ipa file. Will the iOS version ever appear? This is my favorite Sandbox game and I've spent many, many hours having a great time on it, I'm glad you've created a masterpiece like this! Regards!
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Even in spite of the EU's Digital Markets Act, the process of publishing a game like this on iOS is still onerous, requiring Apple Developer subscriptions and passing an approval process. Apple's "compliance" with the DMA hasn't granted developers any more freedom. Even if there were any TPT developers willing to port to iOS, there are non-technical issues preventing releasing the game as-is on the App Store or elsewhere.
Edited once by Simon. Last: 17th Apr 2024 -
I will add to this - some non-technical issues being we have certain requirements both marketing and administrative that need to be met before releasing onto new platforms. Since we're a lightly organized team of volunteers, it's mostly stuff we do on our free time. The effort of creating marketing materials (screenshots, art, trailers, descriptions, putting together release processioning methods, etc. takes lots of time.
Example - Steam. We've been on the idea for the past few years and really close to the finishing point. The main issue being game trailer. We've asked others and put the idea out there to garner some interest in anyone who wants to make a trailer, but not bites. There's strict requirements for said trailer and for us to make such a trailer is taking a great deal of time and effort.
I have no doubts that this would be of similar problems for an iOS release. At least with Steam we paid a one-time 100$ fee and not a yearly fee. -
@aripander (View Post)
If it's the one I'm thinking, it's practically a decade out of date. I don't think it runs on modern iPhones anymore. -
cant you use the regular photos as marketing like how you did with steam and the website downloads?
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@help_what_im_doing (View Post)
We already launched on Steam. The big issue as we said, was the game trailer. That's done, so if we ever release anywhere else we can just reuse the trailer.
I don't think the assets needed to launch on iOS will be very much, but I'm sure they will have even more requirements we'd have to meet. We don't know what those requirements are because we aren't even considering launching on iOS.
