4.3(a) Spam for my own Color Lines game - what made a difference for you?

App Store Distribution & Marketing App Review
AndreiSafronov OP
Created
Replies 1
Boosts 0
Views 25
Participants 2

Hi!

My Color Lines puzzle game was rejected under 4.3(a), and the App Review Board upheld the rejection on appeal. App Review says it cannot give feedback on concepts, so I am asking developers who went through the same thing.

About the app:

  • All code, art and sound are my own. No templates, one developer account, and this is the only Lines game on it.
  • I first released this game for Windows in 2003. The iOS version is my own rewrite of it.
  • It has gameplay other Lines games on the App Store do not have: bombs, rainbow balls, three visual themes, and a weekly leaderboard where any player's game can be watched move by move.

If you had a 4.3(a) rejection for a game in a classic genre (Lines, solitaire, Tetris-like, match-3), what changed the outcome: a new name and metadata, new gameplay, combining several games in one app, or something else?

Thank you.


Replies  1
Boosts 0
Views  25
Participants  2
Pokpong OP

One thing stands out in the wording: Apple's current guideline 4.3(a) is about submitting multiple Bundle IDs for the same app, while games that are hard to distinguish from established titles are covered under 4.3(b): https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/. If this is one app under one Bundle ID, I’d ask App Review to clarify what made them apply (a), and whether they see it as a duplicate of another submission or as an indistinguishable category game. A new name or metadata alone probably won’t address that. If you submit again, make the product differences obvious in the actual gameplay and review notes. I don’t have personal 4.3(a) rejection experience, so this is based on the guideline text.