Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 148 Removal Controversy
"No, what do you mean Apple removed Star Tap from its platform tonight? What impact will this have on us? Isn't this a good thing?"

Seeing the same expression on Zhang Guangtai's face as he had just seen, Dong Qiang was speechless.

"Great news? My dear Mr. Zhang! Open Weibo now and take a look!"

"Apple has really put us in a terrible situation!!"

Seeing Dong Qiang's expression, Zhang Guangtai also became serious.

He quickly figured out the whole story.

It all started this afternoon when Apple users discovered that the Star Tap links they shared were no longer working, and Star Tap's name was no longer on the download charts.

A few minutes later, Star Tap also disappeared from the Apple App Store.

A few minutes later, the Xingchen Tap Apple client could be opened, but the game could not be launched.

This caused an uproar among Apple users.

After more than three days of development, Star Tap is now just about to reach its peak, having already topped the download charts in China, Japan, and South Korea, out of dozens of countries worldwide.

Major countries such as the United States and Europe have also entered the top ten or top twenty.
It's safe to say it's a sure-fire hit.

Everyone was having a blast, and it was the peak of the growth phase. Suddenly, it was cut off. Who could stand this sudden "sudden stop"?
Soon enough, a large number of bewildered Apple users began asking on the internet what had happened.

Since Xingchen was taken down from the app store on TapTap, their first reaction was naturally to rush to Xingchen Games' social media platforms: their official Weibo, Twitter, Bilibili account, and the comment section under Nico Nico Douga's new videos.

Within just over ten minutes, it was overwhelmed by a tidal wave of condemnation.

If you look at Weibo, you'll see that the users who made these comments all have a uniform "iPhone" suffix next to their IDs.

Immediately 11 minutes after Apple removed Star Tap from its platform.

Starry Night Games issued a statement, in which Chu Chen recorded a relatively formal video explaining the current situation. He stated that they are actively negotiating with Apple regarding the sudden removal from app stores and asked everyone to wait patiently.

Subsequently, the official Starry Night Games account posted a new update.

There were no harsh words, no inflammatory slogans, just two screenshots, each containing two parts of content.

One part was Apple's "removal notice," and the other part was Starry Night Games' reapplication.

There's not much to say about the content. Just like when TapTap was taken down in 2017, Apple believes that StarTap's game distribution function is "challenging" the ecosystem of the official app store.

However, since the Apple Developer Agreement did not contain relevant content at the time, Startap would not have been approved. Therefore, before updating the agreement, Apple could only use some fabricated charges to stop the skyrocketing Startap.

Xingchen's reapplication, seemingly an "explanation," was actually a rebuttal to Pingguo's unfounded accusations.

Zhang Guangtai read the announcement with great interest, but still didn't think much of it. After reading it, he even felt a sense of pleasure.

Starry Sky Games is still too young and doesn't know the rules. Now it's being taught a lesson by the real giants in the industry, isn't it?

Daring to run wild on Apple's turf
"Isn't this a good thing? With Xingchen removed from TapTap, other manufacturers will have to wait and see."

"Old Zhang, I didn't tell you to look at the announcement, look at the trending topics!"

Zhang Guangtai then clicked on Weibo's trending topics, and the moment he did, his fleeting sense of pleasure vanished.

[#AppleRemovesStarrySkyTap#] — [Breaking News]

[#How to pass level 6 of the doll game#] — [Hot] [#Apple get out of China#] — [Hot]

[#Xiaomi officially announces support for Xingchen Tap, advocating for domestic software#] — [New]

Just by glancing at the top ten trending topics, Zhang Guangtai's eyelids began to twitch uncontrollably. There were four related topics, one of which had even gone viral.

He clicked on the hashtag [#StarrySkyTapRemoved#], and the flood of information that hit him was even more terrifying.

"It's not showing up in the store at all! Apple, what are you doing?!"

"I read Apple's announcement. To put it simply, it's like saying, 'I think you might break the law in the future, so I'm executing you now.' What kind of bullshit logic is that!"

"Hegemony! This is utter hegemony!"

Actually, the removal of Starry Sky from the Apple App Store on TapTap was something that Starry Sky Games had "expected".

In May 2017, TapTap was removed from the Apple App Store because its interface and functions were too similar to those of the Apple App Store, just after it had just started to gain a large user base.

When it was re-released in August 2017, the download and ranking features were no longer available.

Therefore, when Xingchen Tap was launched, Chu Chen guessed that it was very likely to be taken down.

Even though Xingchen Tap Apple Edition has made many compromises, such as still using the Apple interface for payment (meaning you still have to pay Apple tax when buying apps within Xingchen Tap), and minimizing paid elements in the early stages, including redirecting recommended games to the Apple App Store for download.

However, it is clear that Apple does not allow "app distribution software" within app stores.

As Starry Sky Tap became wildly popular, Apple immediately reacted and promptly delivered a fatal blow.
As for this strike, Xingchen could only watch, since Xingchen was no match for Pingguo at all.

However, no one inside the star felt frustrated. It was like an ordinary person boxing against Tyson; as long as they weren't killed, they had won.

Moreover, Apple's move brought a surge of incredibly high traffic to Xingchen Tap's Android users.

Therefore, Chu Chen "attached great importance" to this sudden incident, "responded actively," "occasionally played the victim," and "cashed in traffic," but beneath these proactive actions...

Chu Chen's focus was already on the next wave of promotion for Star Tap. After all, with the traffic secured, Star Tap needed to prove its ability to attract new users, just like it had done with WeChat Mini Programs in its previous life.

That's the key point.
However, Chu Chen, who hadn't taken this matter to heart, soon witnessed what "business warfare" truly meant, and what the "business war between mobile phone manufacturers in 2016" was all about.

Almost simultaneously with the removal of Xingchen Tap from Apple's search engine, some tech bloggers and digital KOLs with "keen senses" began to analyze the situation.

"From Xingchen Tap's Rejection to Apple's App Store Hegemony!"

The Closed Empire: Is the Apple Tax Stifling Innovation?

Similar articles began to appear in the media, and then...

About two hours later, Xiaomi posted an official Weibo post.

"Play something fun, it's not that complicated. #StarTap#" The accompanying image is of their own flagship phone, with the start screen of "Jump Jump" on the screen.

As a member of the domestic non-hardware alliance, Xiaomi and Xingchen Games can be considered to be cooperating normally. Although Xingchen Tap was not available on the Xiaomi App Store before, it was also stuck in the review process.

But after the Apple incident, almost instantly, the review process was no longer restricted.
They even gave it a free recommendation on the app store's homepage.

And all of this happened in just two hours!

　I was supposed to add an extra chapter today to improve the flow of the plot, but after revising it again and again, I'm still not satisfied. The more I revise, the more my head aches. Before I knew it, it was already 1 a.m.
　　I really can't hold on any longer, so I have to stop here for now.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)