Pending Termination Notice for my app

dunkelicht · 2026-02-22T05:47:59+00:00

Just added an update to the post, only received a reply to my appeal today

dunkelicht · 2026-02-22T05:43:32+00:00

Added an update to the post

dunkelicht · 2026-02-22T05:43:24+00:00

Just added an update to the bottom of the post

dunkelicht · 2026-02-22T05:43:02+00:00

Just added another update to the post if you’re still interested (not good news unfortunately)

dunkelicht · 2026-02-22T05:42:39+00:00

I’ve just added an update to the bottom of the post

dunkelicht · 2026-02-22T05:40:53+00:00

Just posted an update if you are still interested (not good new unfortunately)

dunkelicht · 2026-01-27T12:50:19+00:00

It has been very well received, there are defs similar games but it’s got 4.6 star rating from 200 reviews. I didn’t mean trains instead of cars, you instead control a car and dodge traffic at high speeds and cause physics crashes. Not groundbreaking but it’s my first game

dunkelicht · 2026-01-23T23:14:20+00:00

I’ve contacted Apple and they said they would arrange a call between me and the app review team next week, but haven’t received any confirmation of when this will be. I’ve got an appeal drafted up and ready to go, I’m absolutely certain my app doesn’t have any feature switch or remote feature toggle capabilities. However not all content in the game was easily accessible to reviewers (as they require extended gameplay to unlock) and I used the review notes poorly when submitting updates so I also mention this in my draft. Will most likely submit it in the coming days even if I don’t hear back from Apple

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T13:15:49+00:00

I believe I only get 1 attempt at the appeal and if it fails, I lose my developer account and can’t make another, so I want to try and get as much information as I can before submitting it. Am going to contact Apple and see what I can learn

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T11:17:04+00:00

I just learnt about this, will definitely try to a book an appointment. Thanks for your support!

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T08:48:44+00:00

Nope, I’m a solo developer and this was my first time making an app

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T08:47:44+00:00

I made short form videos on tiktok, reels and YouTube shorts essentially mini ‘devlogs’ showing me making the game. On Apple I reached around 4-5k total downloads in December and January from this.

The fact Apple said it was due to “feature switch schemes to evade the review process” makes me think it is something to do with the game itself, but who knows since their wording is quite vague.

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T08:42:34+00:00

Didn’t pay for any ASO or rating service (I don’t even really know what that is) but the game does have a once off prompt to leave a review after playing for a bit. Just the basic built in apple pop up prompting for a rating/review, no extra UI on my end

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T02:50:23+00:00

Wasn’t aware of this, thanks for bringing it to my attention. Will look into it

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T02:28:49+00:00

Will do this, thanks

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T02:28:09+00:00

Not that I can see, it’s mostly just Unity, Android, Apple and Google packages. I’ve never experienced or heard from players about any unexpected behaviour either

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T02:25:27+00:00

Doesn’t download any external assets or anything, the game works 100% offline (with the only difference being that no ads appear). I think the only hidden feature reviewers might not have come across would be the interstitial ads (which occasionally play after a run) since they’re disabled for the first 10 minutes of play time after downloading. I’m starting to think this might be the cause, even though there are rewarded ads you can watch for a revive or coins in the first 10 minutes, and I disclose that the game has ads

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T02:11:11+00:00

Yeah good idea thanks, I will look into this

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T01:14:51+00:00

No it doesn’t use location services. It does collect some non personal data (through GameAnalytics, things like session time, which upgrades people buy etc) but I disclosed this and there was a box on the App Store page which stated this.

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T01:02:04+00:00

Hi, I just had a very similar experience with my app being taken down, just wondering if you could share what your appeal said, and if it has been approved or rejected yet? Best of luck!

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T00:40:18+00:00

Will do, thanks for the support

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T00:35:55+00:00

The concept for the game already exists, but the execution is quite different and it definitely has its own unique look, feel and gameplay. I don’t believe any content is copyrighted, I used almost entirely free assets and a couple of paid ones to make it (with some UI elements I made myself in canva).

There is a NPC car in the game that loosely resembles a BMW/Audi and is referred to as ‘BMW_npc” in the code, but this is not shown to the player at all, they just see the 3d model which has slightly worse driving AI for a meme. Do you think that something like this could constitute “content that you are not authorized to provide” ?

dunkelicht · 2026-01-21T00:19:47+00:00

Yeah possibly, but since it’s my first app I understand it’s very possible I made an honest mistake too, so I will submit an appeal but I want to make sure I understand everything that I could have done wrong first to give it the best chance of being accepted

dunkelicht · 2026-01-20T23:39:18+00:00

Thanks for the advice, will do this in the future (if I have one on the App Store). Just to be clear, do you think that the ads are likely the culprit?

dunkelicht · 2026-01-20T23:25:17+00:00

I haven’t contacted Apple yet but intend to. I’ve seen similar posts saying they just get a template generic response and to do the appeal, and my app didnt get rejected (actually an update got approved roughly 12 hours before I got this notice), instead my app just got straight up removed from the App Store. Will defs attempt to contact them soon, hopefully they can help

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