Wow, it’s been a while since the last post here. Summer, vacations and work on the new Friendy app take the time… But now we are back!
So how is the new app going? (We wrote what the app is about a number of times so I do not repeat it here). It is fully functional and we have submitted it to Apple back in May. And guess what? We got a stop! The reason – Friendy seems to have an objectionable content to them. In other words they tell us that Friendy looks naked. Judge yourself – the picture of the doll that was used in the game is below:
For us it is a pity that Apple took such decision. We do not see what should cause the doll to be viewed as “objectionable”. Yes, its skin colour is similar to the human’s. But that’s it. Neither we have an “objectionable” context, nor have we any delicate parts of the body showing up. And the most important thing is that by putting any clothes on the character we would loose the gender-neutrality. It is important for us that the game could be used both by girls and boys equally. Adding a clothing will inevitably make the doll look more boyish or girlish.
Honestly, we did our best to improve the situation and find a compromise with Apple. Besides the arguments above we have also suggested an updated image of the doll, without the navel. We thought that perhaps it was the navel that caused the visual similarity to the naked body and the doll looks much less naked without it:
But we have got a slap again… The final verdict we got was to put at least some clothing on the character. And that’s what we are doing now. Our result is this:
We sincerely hope that this time it will not be seen as “objectionable” and we will be able to finally give it out to you – hopefully by September. But you never know – there might be other underwater stones in the review process. So we keep fingers crossed – and hope you do too!
A kind reminder to follow us here or on Facebook in order not to miss the new app! Cheers!