We've finally reached the point that we've been waiting for. We're going to prepare our game for distribution to customers, set a price, and then publish the application for sale. Unlike the developer portal that we've been using up to this point, to publish our content for consumption we need to use the iTunes Connect portal located at: http://itunesconnect.apple.com.
- Log into the iTunes Connect portal using the credentials you normally use to connect to the developer portal:
- Select the Manage Your Applications link to start the process of adding an application:
- Select the Primary Language for your country and enter the name of your company or the name under which you will be doing business legally:
- Next you need to tell iTunes Connect which type of application you're going to create. If you have the ability to create both iOS apps and OSX apps simply select the iOS icon:
- Now that iTunes Connect knows what type of application we're trying to create enter the App Name, SKU Number, and Bundle ID that represent your application:
- After entering this information its time to set your price. Enter a date for when this product will be available. Set the price to be Free. Press the View Pricing Matrix option to see what other options you have for pricing.
The second option Custom B2B App is for applications that are being offered to business customers for volume purchases (http://www.apple.com/business/vpp/). If you check this box your game will not be available on the regular app store.
- Next enter the metadata for the game. This is the information that will be used to populate the iTunes app store page:
- To ensure that the application is rated and targeting the appropriate audience select the appropriate options for the application. Most importantly make sure any ratings of maturity and violence are properly represented or your application will be rejected. If your application has prolonged graphic, sadistic, sexual, or nude content it is not permissible to sell this content on the app store:
- The final step is to provide iTunes Connect with artwork, which will be used on the iTunes store. Depending on your target platform you will have to provide up to three pieces of artwork.
The Large version of your app icon is the one that will be used in the App Store. It must be at least 72 DPI and a minimum of 512x512 pixels (it cannot be scaled up). It must be flat artwork without rounded corners.
iPhone and iPod touch Screenshots must be either a
.jpeg,.jpg,.tif,.tiff, or.pngfile that is 960x640, 960x600, 640x960, 640x920, 480x320, 480x300, 320x480, or 320x460 pixels, at least 72 DPI, and in the RGB color space.iPad Screenshots must be either a
.jpeg,.jpg,.tif,.tiff, or.pngfile that is 1024x768, 1024x748, 768x1024, or 768x1004 pixels, at least 72 DPI, and in the RGB color space:
- Now that all of the app settings have been configured, the app is ready for distribution. Under the version of the app you will note that the status is Prepare for Upload, which means that Apple is waiting for us to upload our game for review.
Select the application icon so that we can upload the final binary version of our game for review:
We are now ready to publish our application with the price we've set and, if it passes review by Apple, it will be available on the date that we specified as the availability date above.