Apple is pretty strict about its rules when it comes to the App Store, but it turns out that things get a little more flexible if your project happens to be crowdfunded, like say, a Kickstarter project, for instance. Macworld says that by working with Apple, the developers of Zombies, Run! managed to give away 3,000 copies of their game to early backers, as opposed to the usual limit of 50.
What"s more, since the early backers had already paid for the game by backing the project on Kickstarter, Apple also didn"t get their traditional 30% cut from the games sales. For all that"s said about the arcane rules of the App Store, it"s pretty cool that Apple is giving innovative projects a bit of a break.
How did Six to Start, the developers of Zombies, Run! manage such a feat? They talked it over with Apple before launch. Even though the App Store only lets developers generate 50 free codes for an app, Apple suggested they release two apps, according to a post on their blog. One of those apps was "ZR Advance", a free app with the same content as the regular version of the game, but requiring a special password to activate it. From there, Six to Start just gave the password to Kickstarter backers.
Still, they"re quick to note that this isn"t any kind of new Apple policy. It was a one off solution they arrived at by working directly with Apple, but it"s still pretty neat to see that Apple is willing to be a little bit more flexible than usual when it comes to projects like this. And who knows, with sites like Kickstarter getting more and more popular, we might see an official system for projects like this before too long.
If you"re interested, you can get Zombies, Run! for $7.99 on the App Store.