Candy Coating leads to App Store acceptance

The iTunes App Store has been full of twists and turns, but now things are a little bit sweeter for at least one application developer. Catamount Software's remake of the cult classic game DopeWars, called Prohibition 2: The Dope Wars, was rejected by Apple for inclusion into the App Store until the developer gave the application a major face-lift. According to a post on the company's Web site:

"Apple's rejection of DopeWars was frustrating because we thought we had a big hit on our hands. We decided to rename it, gave the police and player pixie dust instead of guns. changed 'Cocaine' to 'Sugar Sticks', 'Weed' to 'Brownies', 'Crystal Meth' to 'Rock Candy'... It was like adding another level of realism to DopeWars by using street names for drugs, but at the same time highlighting the problems of prohibition no matter what (when) the government tries to prohibit whether it is alcohol (past), drugs (present), or candy (future)."

Macia stated, "We still hope that Apple reconsiders their ban on Prohibition 2: The Dope Wars so we can bring many people's favorite game to the iPhone, but in the meantime all of us chocolate addicts can enjoy Candy Wars."

The result of the rejection and the quick action by the developer resulted in Prohibition 3: Candy Wars, priced at $0.99 (iTunes Link) a sugar candy coated version of the cult classic that was accepted by App Store reviewers.

Developers would be well served to pay attention to these circumstances; this developer took a negative and completely turned it around by doing the logical thing in a pinch: conforming to the App Store rules. Of course, relaxation of the rules is the ultimate goal, but, for now, shrewdness pays off.