Developing Perspective

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective. Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing

00:00:05 ◼   ► news of note in Apple iOS and things like that. I'm your host, David Smith. I'm an independent

00:00:09 ◼   ► iOS developer. I'm based in Herner, Virginia. And Developing Perspective is a show where

00:00:13 ◼   ► I talk about topics of note, topics of interest to iOS developers, people who like iOS, people

00:00:19 ◼   ► who develop applications, things like that. Today I'm going to be talking about a kind

00:00:24 ◼   ► of a funny situation that's currently in the App Store. And this specifically is related

00:00:28 ◼   ► to an application called TempleJump.

00:00:31 ◼   ► And so TempleJump is what you could probably charitably

00:00:36 ◼   ► call a bit of a scam.

00:00:38 ◼   ► It's for a little bit of a back story.

00:00:41 ◼   ► There's an app called TempleRun, which is incredibly

00:00:43 ◼   ► popular in the App Store.

00:00:46 ◼   ► It's currently the number two grossing app.

00:00:47 ◼   ► It was the number one grossing app for a long time.

00:00:51 ◼   ► It's typically in the first one or two in the free apps

00:00:54 ◼   ► category in the US.

00:00:56 ◼   ► It was written by actually some people I know, some local

00:00:58 ◼   ► developers in DC, Keith and Natalia, and you know it's a great app. I mean I've

00:01:06 ◼   ► wasted many a, well wasted is, I've enjoyed many an hour wasting away my

00:01:10 ◼   ► time, you know, running away from demon monkeys as I escape a temple and you

00:01:16 ◼   ► know it's a great game. And what someone has done basically is they created an

00:01:19 ◼   ► app that is seeking to benefit from that success by creating an app that doesn't

00:01:28 ◼   ► doesn't really do much of anything, but in the same style in terms of the graphics, and

00:01:36 ◼   ► with a similar name, you know, "Temple Run," "Temple Jump," "Temple space verb."

00:01:42 ◼   ► And it's kind of an interesting thing, because there's a bit of a brouhaha in the community

00:01:46 ◼   ► about that, which I think is sort of fair enough and makes sense that it doesn't feel

00:01:53 ◼   ► right.

00:01:54 ◼   ► this app which is written by a developer called Anton Sineshkov. I brutalized that

00:02:02 ◼   ► last name but let's call him Anton. You know he is a developer in the App Store

00:02:07 ◼   ► who has created a couple of apps like this. There's a couple you know he has

00:02:10 ◼   ► Angry Ninja Birds, he has Tiny Birds! Catch the Birds, Bird Cart,

00:02:15 ◼   ► Numbers with Friends, Angry Grandpa, Zombie Jump, you know it kind of goes on

00:02:20 ◼   ► and on that it seems like the way he, you know, he has 68 apps in the App Store that

00:02:27 ◼   ► kind of seemed to be on this line where he's kind of taking what someone else has done

00:02:32 ◼   ► and sort of jumping on it.

00:02:36 ◼   ► It's like he has plants versus zombie rather than zombies.

00:02:40 ◼   ► And he has a whole variety of these apps that are just, you know, they feel scammy.

00:02:46 ◼   ► They feel like they're being disingenuous to the user, that they're capitalizing on

00:02:50 ◼   ► on someone's expectations that they're related

00:02:52 ◼   ► to something else, but in reality they're not.

00:02:56 ◼   ► And as an app developer, as someone who makes my living

00:03:00 ◼   ► here in the app store, this doesn't make me feel good.

00:03:06 ◼   ► This doesn't, it feels like it cheapens or diminishes

00:03:10 ◼   ► users' expectations of what they can expect

00:03:12 ◼   ► from the app store, which is bad for my business,

00:03:18 ◼   ► is bad for all of our businesses if people start having this expectation that, "Oh, apps

00:03:26 ◼   ► in the App Store are not so good."

00:03:29 ◼   ► But it's kind of difficult and complicated though, because when I look at this though,

00:03:35 ◼   ► I don't think that you can ... Some people say, "Oh, Apple needs to pull this out from

00:03:41 ◼   ► the App Store."

00:03:42 ◼   ► And as much as I don't like it, as much as ... I know the people who made the app that

00:03:47 ◼   ► that they're kind of ripping off and sort of profiteering

00:03:50 ◼   ► from, you know, they made a great app

00:03:52 ◼   ► and then someone else is profiting from, you know,

00:03:56 ◼   ► a bad version of that.

00:03:58 ◼   ► I struggle with if there's a way to,

00:04:02 ◼   ► on an institutional basis, sort of take that good taste

00:04:05 ◼   ► and you look at something like this and you're like,

00:04:06 ◼   ► that's just not in good taste.

00:04:08 ◼   ► You know, it's like irrespective of how the app is,

00:04:10 ◼   ► if it was a great app, if it did awesome things,

00:04:14 ◼   ► you know, it's like, irrespective of those things,

00:04:16 ◼   ► it just feels in bad taste to take the work of an independent developer who had a wild

00:04:20 ◼   ► success which is awesome.

00:04:22 ◼   ► As an independent developer myself, that's the thing that keeps you motivated is when

00:04:26 ◼   ► you see people do that.

00:04:27 ◼   ► And then to kind of cheapen that by being very successful by kind of ripping them off

00:04:33 ◼   ► and taking it, and a nap that's nowhere near the same level of polish, nowhere near the

00:04:37 ◼   ► same level of quality, and putting it out there.

00:04:40 ◼   ► That just doesn't feel right.

00:04:41 ◼   ► That doesn't feel good.

00:04:44 ◼   ► But I don't know how you would address that.

00:04:47 ◼   ► 'Cause I mean, the thing is, in this app,

00:04:50 ◼   ► he's very careful and seems to be very conscious

00:04:54 ◼   ► that it's not, he's not trying to make people think

00:04:58 ◼   ► it's Temple Run, which would be certainly clearly wrong.

00:05:02 ◼   ► Some of his other apps, I think,

00:05:04 ◼   ► are on the wrong side of that line,

00:05:07 ◼   ► where it's like Plants vs. Zombie

00:05:09 ◼   ► versus Plants vs. Zombies,

00:05:12 ◼   ► That's clearly sort of disingenuous and deceptive.

00:05:15 ◼   ► TempleJump is a different name, you know, and fair enough, it's trying to associate

00:05:20 ◼   ► itself with that.

00:05:21 ◼   ► I mean, I remember back there was the big thing about the Doodle apps and whether DoodleJump

00:05:26 ◼   ► could kind of copyright doodle something, but then everyone sort of started to do that.

00:05:31 ◼   ► And it's like, can the Imangi, you know, can Keith and Natalia claim temple verb as whatever,

00:05:38 ◼   ► you know, sort of that's theirs and they can do what they want with that?

00:05:41 ◼   ► Or is that too much?

00:05:44 ◼   ► Is that pulling it in?

00:05:46 ◼   ► And you look at the app itself, its icon

00:05:49 ◼   ► is very reminiscent of their one.

00:05:52 ◼   ► But it's different.

00:05:53 ◼   ► It looks like it was made by another artist who

00:05:59 ◼   ► was said, hey, here's an app icon that I like.

00:06:02 ◼   ► And I'm staying in the style.

00:06:04 ◼   ► And could you make me something that looks similar to it?

00:06:07 ◼   ► If you think the best of the guy in terms of his motivations,

00:06:10 ◼   ► You could almost imagine it as in the same way that, you know, master painters copy other

00:06:16 ◼   ► master painters to become better at what they do.

00:06:19 ◼   ► You know, it's, I don't think people consider that necessarily disingenuous.

00:06:22 ◼   ► It's like you're trying to, you know, Temple Run is one of the best games in the store.

00:06:28 ◼   ► And so it makes sense that if you're trying to make a game in the store that you would

00:06:32 ◼   ► be trying to do that.

00:06:34 ◼   ► Kind of, you know, sort of being in that style, following along.

00:06:37 ◼   ► I mean, in some ways, the imitation is the sincerest form of flattery kind of a thing.

00:06:43 ◼   ► So that's fair enough.

00:06:45 ◼   ► He doesn't seem to be breaking copyright in that way.

00:06:48 ◼   ► He's more just being deceptive in a sort of disingenuous way.

00:06:52 ◼   ► And so, if you kind of have those, if it had been like Temple Run!

00:06:57 ◼   ► I think that'd be totally reasonable for Keith and Natalia to make a copyright or trademark

00:07:03 ◼   ► Claimed to Apple and Apple's typically in my experience been very good about pulling things and I'm pulling apps down or at least reviewing and investigating

00:07:08 ◼   ► It's you know when they have complaints like that

00:07:10 ◼   ► I'm putting this case. It's like what do you do like the app? I haven't downloaded it because

00:07:15 ◼   ► I'm not last thing I'm gonna do is support someone I think is ripping off

00:07:19 ◼   ► you know a fellow fellow indie especially local indie but

00:07:23 ◼   ► You know from kind of accounts. It's it's it's a game. It works

00:07:27 ◼   ► It has looks like cuz you know somewhat custom artwork in it and things like that

00:07:31 ◼   ► It's just not very good.

00:07:33 ◼   ► But it seems kind of harsh to say like, well, because it's not very good, it shouldn't be allowed in the App Store.

00:07:38 ◼   ► You know, tens of thousands of people have downloaded this app in the last day or two.

00:07:44 ◼   ► And it seems kind of harsh to be like, well, I'm sorry, your app's not good enough to be downloaded by people.

00:07:50 ◼   ► Those people shouldn't be allowed to download it.

00:07:52 ◼   ► Like you start getting the very slippery slope when you start saying, well, this isn't good enough to be in the App Store

00:07:58 ◼   ► because it isn't as polished as one of the best apps in creation.

00:08:03 ◼   ► I think that's the thing that I struggle with.

00:08:08 ◼   ► I don't think this is the case for Anton, but if you think the best of it,

00:08:13 ◼   ► say for example, it's someone learning to make games.

00:08:18 ◼   ► They think the App Store is super cool.

00:08:23 ◼   ► They see a game like Temple Run, they play it, they love it,

00:08:24 ◼   ► and they decide, "Hey, you know, I want to make something kind of like that.

00:08:28 ◼   ► I want to learn how to make games, and I want to build something like that."

00:08:33 ◼   ► And they go off and they work on it and they work on it and they work on it,

00:08:36 ◼   ► and they make it, and they put it in the app store.

00:08:39 ◼   ► They're so proud of it.

00:08:40 ◼   ► Like, should that not be allowed?

00:08:41 ◼   ► Should they not be able to sort of put an app in the store

00:08:43 ◼   ► because it's inspired and similar to something else?

00:08:48 ◼   ► I mean, if you look at Temple Run, and it's like, it's like the stylistically,

00:08:53 ◼   ► It's clearly based on the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

00:09:01 ◼   ► Whichever Indiana Jones begins with him running out of a temple

00:09:05 ◼   ► with a shrine, with a giant ball rolling, a boulder rolling after him.

00:09:10 ◼   ► They replace the boulder with demon monkeys, which is a substantial

00:09:15 ◼   ► difference there.

00:09:16 ◼   ► But it's in the style.

00:09:17 ◼   ► It's the guy with the hat and the look of-- it's Indiana Jones.

00:09:21 ◼   ► and that feels fine.

00:09:24 ◼   ► That's a remix.

00:09:25 ◼   ► That is taking something that's part

00:09:29 ◼   ► of the popular culture and the mindset of people

00:09:32 ◼   ► and saying, hey, we're going to make a game that's

00:09:34 ◼   ► kind of fun like that.

00:09:36 ◼   ► And it's like, they didn't call it--

00:09:38 ◼   ► their main character's name isn't Indiana,

00:09:40 ◼   ► or it isn't Illinois.

00:09:42 ◼   ► It's that they took that and they went far enough away

00:09:47 ◼   ► that it feels like it's in good taste.

00:09:49 ◼   ► And what this guy did is he took something and he didn't go far enough away from it,

00:09:55 ◼   ► is probably the best way to say it.

00:09:57 ◼   ► And so it's not in good taste.

00:09:58 ◼   ► And so it feels dirty and scammy.

00:10:01 ◼   ► And I wish it wasn't in the app store.

00:10:05 ◼   ► But I can't think of a way to make it go away in a way that, if you institutionalized, would

00:10:09 ◼   ► be reasonable.

00:10:13 ◼   ► Wherever you draw the line, people are going to be sitting there constantly trying to find

00:10:17 ◼   ► because as soon as you, there's a tremendous amount of money

00:10:21 ◼   ► to be made just on the razor edge on the other side

00:10:24 ◼   ► of that line.

00:10:26 ◼   ► And I mean, in some ways I'd love for Apple to move

00:10:27 ◼   ► that line really far along.

00:10:30 ◼   ► I mean, you can think of all kinds of crazy things

00:10:32 ◼   ► that they could do.

00:10:33 ◼   ► It's like maybe if they, you know, you cost $1,000

00:10:35 ◼   ► to submit an app to the app store.

00:10:37 ◼   ► Rather than $100 per year, it's like it's $1,000

00:10:39 ◼   ► to make a new app.

00:10:41 ◼   ► Then the number of people who just kind of throw things

00:10:43 ◼   ► up there and hope they work, I mean, this gentleman

00:10:45 ◼   ► has made 68 apps that a lot of them kind of look like

00:10:47 ◼   ► they're kind of have that vibe of it.

00:10:49 ◼   ► It was like, well, let me throw something in,

00:10:51 ◼   ► let me see if this works, see if that works,

00:10:52 ◼   ► see if this works.

00:10:54 ◼   ► You know, it's like if that had a substantial

00:10:55 ◼   ► financial cost, that would likely be, you know,

00:10:59 ◼   ► sort of dramatically reduced.

00:11:01 ◼   ► Or, you know, but at the same time,

00:11:03 ◼   ► that would really hurt smaller indie shops who,

00:11:05 ◼   ► you know, couldn't, maybe not indie shops,

00:11:10 ◼   ► but just individuals, kind of people learning the platform,

00:11:13 ◼   ► learning how to do things, it's kind of fun

00:11:15 ◼   ► to be able to put something in the store.

00:11:17 ◼   ► You know, so then you're like, well,

00:11:18 ◼   ► should there be like two different stores?

00:11:20 ◼   ► Should there be a fancy store and a not so fancy store?

00:11:25 ◼   ► And so that kind of feels weird too.

00:11:29 ◼   ► Like, can you really say, well, it's like,

00:11:33 ◼   ► well, this is where we put all the really good apps,

00:11:36 ◼   ► and all the really good apps are in this store,

00:11:37 ◼   ► and then here's kind of like the sketchy side neighborhood

00:11:42 ◼   ► where all the bad apps hang out,

00:11:44 ◼   ► or an app has to sort of prove itself there,

00:11:46 ◼   ► and we pull over the cream of the crop from that.

00:11:51 ◼   ► But, you know, I just don't see it.

00:11:54 ◼   ► And so it's frustrating, but I think I'd rather

00:11:58 ◼   ► live in a world and work in a world

00:12:00 ◼   ► where Apple is reviewing apps to get rid of.

00:12:04 ◼   ► I think I imagine they're cutting out 90%

00:12:08 ◼   ► of just horrific apps that I'm sure are being submitted,

00:12:11 ◼   ► and then only letting through the good stuff.

00:12:14 ◼   ► And that may feel kind of,

00:12:16 ◼   ► when you see something like this get through,

00:12:17 ◼   ► you're like, "Ah, man, I wish they kind of had pulled that."

00:12:20 ◼   ► But I don't know if you can kind of do that

00:12:24 ◼   ► in a systematic way that doesn't feel unfair,

00:12:27 ◼   ► that doesn't feel, you know, to someone else who

00:12:31 ◼   ► is making an app that is, you know,

00:12:35 ◼   ► has the best intentions.

00:12:37 ◼   ► And sort of to cut them out,

00:12:39 ◼   ► I think I'd rather let the market sort it out,

00:12:41 ◼   ► that apps like this get toasted,

00:12:44 ◼   ► and it currently has 315 one-star reviews

00:12:48 ◼   ► and 28 five-star reviews.

00:12:50 ◼   ► Clearly, it's not a good app.

00:12:52 ◼   ► Maybe that's the way Apple should handle it,

00:12:55 ◼   ► that rather than doing rankings based on charts,

00:12:58 ◼   ► based on sales and volume,

00:13:00 ◼   ► it's like to have some weighting there for quality

00:13:03 ◼   ► and basing that on, say, customer reviews,

00:13:06 ◼   ► which is not the best measure,

00:13:06 ◼   ► but you can throw that in there and say,

00:13:09 ◼   ► even if you've got lots of sales,

00:13:11 ◼   ► you kind of have this, if you're really poorly reviewed,

00:13:15 ◼   ► there's kind of like an anchor around your neck,

00:13:17 ◼   ► but you'd have to have tremendous volume

00:13:19 ◼   ► to kind of offset that.

00:13:21 ◼   ► Maybe that's the way to do it.

00:13:22 ◼   ► I mean, that seems pretty reasonable to me,

00:13:24 ◼   ► and maybe that's kind of where I'll conclude this,

00:13:25 ◼   ► and to kind of say, Apple, please do something like that,

00:13:28 ◼   ► so that low quality apps don't make it high in the charts,

00:13:32 ◼   ► 'cause then it kind of self, it feeds on itself.

00:13:35 ◼   ► And I think there's a number of apps

00:13:36 ◼   ► that come to mind that would meet that criteria.

00:13:41 ◼   ► You have all the very scammy

00:13:43 ◼   ► flashlight or lock screen apps or things like that

00:13:51 ◼   ► that just don't,

00:13:53 ◼   ► aren't very high quality,

00:13:56 ◼   ► but if you could find the way into the top list

00:13:58 ◼   ► and then just live there forever

00:13:59 ◼   ► because once you're in the list,

00:14:02 ◼   ► that's what's easy to stay there.

00:14:03 ◼   ► Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

00:14:05 ◼   ► That's it for today's show.

00:14:07 ◼   ► You can hit me up on Twitter.

00:14:08 ◼   ► I'm @_davidsmith.

00:14:10 ◼   ► And otherwise, my blog at david-smith.org.

00:14:14 ◼   ► I'll probably be talking about this a bit more today.

00:14:16 ◼   ► Hope you enjoyed the show.

00:14:17 ◼   ► If you like it, please tell a friend.

00:14:18 ◼   ► That's the best thing you can do.

00:14:19 ◼   ► Rate it on iTunes if you want.

00:14:21 ◼   ► Or just generally enjoy it.

00:14:22 ◼   ► And I'll talk to you later.

00:14:24 ◼   ► Happy coding.

00:14:24 ◼   ► Bye.