Google Play has “terminated” me (but I got my account back!)
(Update October 14, 2024) Google has accepted my appeal and restored my account!!! They still haven’t provided any information on why my account was terminated in the first place, but my account is back and I can finally work on the game again. Thank you Google for restoring my account, and thank you everyone for making it happen!!!
For transparency, I will keep this post intact for the time being. However, please note that the contents may not necessarily be relevant.
Hello everyone – this is Tukkun (of course) and this is my first real post on this website! I know you guys are all excited for the release of my upcoming game “Anti-Idle: Reborn” and it is my intention to keep this website updated with contents related to the game – its development, gameplay sneak peeks, and so on. But before that, today I’d like to write this post to explain the current situation.
In short…
- I have submitted the game “Anti-Idle: Reborn” to both Google and Apple for review. Both Google and Apple have reviewed the game and approved it for production.
- Closed Beta of the game has been ongoing for about a month. People have found lots of weird bugs, and I have fixed many of them.
- However, on October 7, 2024, without any prior warnings, Google decided to terminate my account due to “prior violations” and “High Risk Behavior”. I’ve re-read the policies, I’ve checked everything I can think of, and I still can’t figure out why.
- I sent an appeal but it seems like they haven’t looked into it yet (as of October 13, 2024). I have gathered any information I can think of and sent it to the Google Play Team, but I only receive the same (possibly automated) response.
- I have developed games for many years, and “Anti-Idle: Reborn” is more than just my passion. It’s over one year of full time work and dedication, and it is my future source of income. With the Google Play Developer account terminated, I can no longer continue work.
- A quick search showed me that I am not the only one in this situation. Lots of other developers have had their account terminated for vague reasons, possibly by bots and automated algorithms, and received nothing other than automated messages when appealing.
- I would like to emphasize that I understand the need for thorough app reviews and termination of accounts that violate the rules. However, this shouldn’t come at a cost of many good faith developers’ accounts being wrongly terminated.
The full story
While I think most of you are familiar with my works and are just here to check for new information about my game Anti-Idle: Reborn, I understand that some of you might have gotten here from other pages and have no idea who I am. In that case, or in the rare case that a Google employee is somehow reading this, let me introduce myself.
I am Tukkun, an indie game developer making games since 2008. My most significant work is a PC Flash game I made back in 2009 called Anti-Idle: The Game, uploaded to the website Kongregate. As of the writing of this post, the game has been played 16,392,188 times (and this is not counting plays of the offline version). I know I shouldn’t say too much good stuff about my own projects (just like anything, my game had imperfections), but Anti-Idle: The Game is often said to have pioneered the idle game genre. It is one of the first games to popularize many mechanics often seen in modern idle games and is a source of inspiration for the development of many popular idle games, including several games on the Play Store (Android) and App Store (iOS). It is even mentioned in the Wikipedia page for Incremental game:
The early pioneers of idle games also saw some games parodying the genre, such as Anti-Idle (2009, by tukkun) which has elements of both active and idle games. The game was extremely complicated, content-rich, and constantly updated, and it helped popularize the genre.
A screenshot of “Anti-Idle: The Game”
Following the success of Anti-Idle: The Game, I decided to develop the mobile sequel Anti-Idle: Reborn. I started doing serious design works on the game since 2023, and started programming it in Unity since the beginning of 2024, with the target of releasing it to Android and iOS late 2024.
The idea of developing a mobile sequel started as early as around 2020, with Flash no longer being supported by browsers, and lots of people in the community asked for a “mobile version” of the game. However, like many grown up adults, I had a day job and didn’t have enough free time to develop a mobile game. Despite that, I’ve released a few updates for the original Anti-Idle: The Game – 13 years after its initial release, the game still has a nice active community.
That’s why I decided to follow my passion – I went as far as quitting my day job some time ago to fully dedicate myself to game development, and to make Anti-Idle live on. I’ve decided to announce and work on Anti-Idle: Reborn as my first mobile game. Creating a game from scratch feels great – when I managed to get the game design work on paper, when I opened Unity and created a simple loading screen that worked, when I got a prototype running… everything felt like a huge milestone.
A screenshot of “Anti-Idle: Reborn” (under development)
The day eventually came when I created enough features to launch the first version of the game and decided that Closed Beta can finally begin. I made a Google Forms so people can voluntarily register for Closed Beta and shared it with the community that still played my original game after over 14 years. To my surprise, they shared it to many other communities, including this post on Reddit r/incremental_games, and in total over 1000 people have applied!
Then, of course, in order to start Closed Beta, I would have to upload my game to the stores: Play Store (Android) and App Store (iOS). Little did I know, this is only the beginning of the story.
Uploading the game to iOS
I’ve always been under the impression that it is really difficult to upload a game to the App Store of iOS. They have always set high quality standards and from what I’ve heard, they seem to review apps really thoroughly.
And I guess I was right. Within a few hours of uploading my game to the App Store for review, it got rejected.
Apple’s initial rejection
Oh, great, I knew it. Of course “Anti-Idle” is a world-renowned intellectual property and it is natural for Apple to think I have no permission to use it (sigh).
I attempted to convince Apple that I am the real Tukkun (because that’s who I am), and I submitted some proof to the Apple review team, including a screenshot of the source code of the original Anti-Idle: The Game and a link from my profile on Kongregate to this website of Anti-Idle: Reborn. I told Apple that I would provide any other information if necessary. A few hours later, they reviewed the game again, pointed out a bug and even sent screenshots as evidence. I fixed it, and they approved the game. All of the subsequent updates also passed through Apple’s review just fine. All good.
iOS version has been approved! Hooray!
Uploading the game to Android
Onto the next fun part – I entered the necessary information and uploaded the game to the Play Store. It seemed to get through review pretty quickly. I was able to get the Closed Beta up and running in no time. I think initial review for my first closed testing version took around half a day. My first impressions with the Google Play Console were pretty good, it’s easy and intuitive to use.
However, for the Play Store, there is a policy that before applying for production (which is required to start open testing and put the game on pre-registration) you need to run closed testing for at least 14 days with at least 20 testers (this seems like a new policy since 2023). All good, that sounds like it will increase the quality of apps uploaded to the store. And I didn’t have problem finding testers at all – as I said, I had over 1000 people applying so I just randomly picked 40 of them for the first phase of testing.
During testing, the testers have found a lot of bugs, ranging from minor ones to game-breaking ones, like microtransactions not working correctly, user data sometimes being rolled back and every action within the game causing serious lag. I fixed the game-breaking ones pretty quickly (as a result though, I didn’t have much time creating new features or writing progress updates). And with the game-breaking bugs gone, I have also fulfilled the requirements of “20 testers in 14 days” so I figured I should apply for production. So I did.
There was a questionnaire about how I found testers, what the testers did, how I incorporated the testers’ feedback, what makes the game stand out, and why I think the game is ready for production. I just answered the questions truthfully. And after Google’s review, on October 4, they approved my request for production! Look, I even received a congratulations email.
My game has been granted Google Play production access!
Great! Now all that’s left is testing some more, improving the game quality and then publishing to production, right? That’s Google’s recommendation as well.
Unfortunately, before I could do that, three days after the above email, on October 7, testers started reporting that in-app purchases suddenly stopped working and the URL to download the game doesn’t work anymore. In a hurry, I checked and was shocked to find out that my account has been terminated.
My account has been terminated… Wait, what?
I did a quick search for the issue and learned that a termination for this reason is most likely related to prior violations, possibly prior violations of associated accounts. Which is weird. My app got two policy warnings from Google Play before, but both times I fixed it promptly, and according to Google’s Enforcement Process, app rejections or violations of this level shouldn’t affect the standing of my account. And my game was even approved for production. Which leads me think of prior violations of associated accounts. But what’s an associated account exactly? I am an indie developer and this is my first and only account. Well, I did add some trusted developers and testers into the internal testing track, but I’ve checked with them and they insist that their accounts are in good standing. Do the 40 testers I added for closed testing count? And why should I be responsible for their prior violations (how do I even know whether they made any violations in the first place)?
I even took extra precaution steps: I used my Google Play Console account on only one device that I use for releasing the game, I didn’t use VPN, I didn’t use the same network with other people, and ensured I didn’t accidentally connect to some public Wi-Fi. And yet Google still decided that my account has a “high risk of abuse” and terminated it.
I have heard a lot of stories about other Android developers having their accounts terminated, but I never thought it would happen to me. I re-read their policies once again just to be sure (by now, I think I’ve read through Google’s policies at least five times). Believing that I did nothing wrong, I sent an appeal.
Appealing
The appeal form only allowed me to enter 1000 characters, so this is what I wrote.
After thoroughly checking the Developer Program Policies and Developer Distribution Agreement, as well as the Policy Coverage policy, I don’t believe I have made any violations that could have led to account termination. I have promptly resolved violations in the past, and my app was even approved for production a few days ago. I am also working closely with my testers in Closed Testing to fix bugs, improve app performance, and ensure that my game “Anti-Idle: Reborn” meets all of Google’s standards and meets user expectations prior to production. I am new to the Developer Program, this is my first account and my first app. I don’t know about “associated accounts” but if this includes the testers’ emails I have added, they are users who volunteered to test my game and I’m not associated with any of their violations (if any). I am always thriving to improve app quality and would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me what is wrong with my app or account so that I could resolve it.
In hindsight, that was probably not the most useful information that could have fit into 1000 characters, but that was all I could think of at the time.
I received a system email saying that my appeal would be reviewed by a specialist, subsequently followed by an email with the name of a person at Google (presumably the “specialist”).
Hi developers at Tukkun,
Thanks for contacting the Google Play team.
I’ve received your appeal and I appreciate your patience while I look into it.
I’ll let you know as soon as I have any additional information to share. Please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.
[…]
Regards,
[Name of Google specialist]
I subsequently sent some additional information in relatively lengthy emails, basically everything that I can think of.
- Any information I know about my prior violations (I’ve promptly resolved them anyway)
- How I am “the real Tukkun” and have rights to the things I’m using within the game (basically the same things I’ve sent Apple)
- How I’ve put my heart and soul into the development of Anti-Idle: Reborn and that it is a very anticipated release. I’ve even sent screenshots of the game’s design files
- Anything I know about what’s possibly considered “associated accounts”
- Anything else that I think might be the problem
I just said everything I know with all of my honesty, and said that whatever the problem is I am committed to resolving it. I still have no idea what the exact problem is though. Of course, in my emails, I tried asking for more information too.
However, both times I contacted them, they responded with the exact same email:
Hi developers at Tukkun,
Thanks again for contacting the Google Play team.
I’ve received your appeal and I appreciate your patience while I look into it.
I’ll let you know as soon as I have any additional information to share.
Regards,
[Name of Google specialist]
They didn’t respond instantly, but several hours after I sent the information. And to be fair they did say “thanks again” (they know it’s not the first time I contacted them), but there’s no other useful information in the email. At this point I’m not even sure if that’s an actual human or just an automated email delayed to feel human. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Google started giving AI unique “names” to make them sound like human specialists.
According to Google, it can take up to 7 days for them to make a decision. As of the writing of this post, it is the 4th day. There’s still time and I guess “I appreciate your patience” is still better than a rejection, but I am beginning to get impatient and this is affecting my future plans for the development of Anti-Idle: Reborn. And the Closed Beta testers are just as impatient as I am.
I still believe that I have done nothing wrong, and I hoped it would be easy to show my good faith (just like how Apple immediately re-reviewed my app after I sent the evidence that I am indeed Tukkun), but I’m starting to get more and more worried as each day passes without any new information. And from what I’ve read about these appeals, most of the time they just get rejected for vague reasons.
And that’s it. Over 15 years of game development, first app on Android with over 1 year of development, and my career as an Android game developer is at stake for no reason, even before the game is released.
Dear everyone who is looking forward to the release of Anti-Idle: Reborn on Android, thank you for your continued support and your interest in the game. While I can’t make any promises under the current situation, I will keep you updated with any new information.
Dear Google, thank you for providing a trustworthy place for app developers to provide apps to billions of users. Once again, I would like to emphasize that I understand the need for thorough app reviews and termination of accounts that violate the rules. It is what allows users to trust the Google Play Store to download and use apps. However, it also needs trust from developers so they can confidently develop great apps without the fear of everything being erased without prior warning and for no reason.
Please, tell me what I am doing wrong and what I can do to have my account and my game restored. Anti-Idle: Reborn is my hopes and dreams, and a large community is waiting for it to become a reality.
(Update October 12, 2024) I should clarify that my appeal hasn’t been rejected yet – I’m still awaiting the results. If what Google says about appeal results taking up to 7 days is correct, I should receive the results by October 14. However, from what I’ve read, there are many cases where it can take more than 7 days.
Also, I’ve received a lot of questions about what my two prior violations were, so here they are (both of them are app-level violations detected during app review and I’ve fixed them within a day):
- I was using an outdated version of Google Play Billing Library (Google requires using version 6.0.1 or later), so I updated the library.
- I declared in the app’s data safety form that data was encrypted in transit, but I was using http instead of https for the backend server where I store data of game accounts (such as players’ level, items, and progression in the game), so Google required me to either fix the data safety form or fix how I send data. This is a temporary server I set up and I plan to switch to https prior to production, but I figured I should fix my data safety form before anything else, so I fixed the data safety form to declare that data wasn’t encrypted in transit. The change was approved and Google notified me that the violation was resolved.
There might be concern that the data safety thing might be the thing getting me banned, but in that case it doesn’t seem to match with the reason mentioned in the account termination notice. And to be fair Google did say that I could fix the violation by either method. Regardless, I’ve also mentioned this in the email I sent, and I plan to fix it prior to production (to clarify, the current server is only a test server).
(Update October 13, 2024) Since this post is becoming viral in certain communities unrelated to the game, including a few places where I did not expect this to appear, I should clarify that I am NOT blaming Google. Like I said, I am fully aware that it has not been 7 days since I sent the appeal and that they haven’t made their decision yet, I agree that review processes are necessary, and I understand that they need to take their time. I am just frustrated that they decided to suddenly terminate the account and remove the game, without any prior warnings like “fix this or we’ll ban you”, and even now I don’t know the exact reason why I’m banned. This is putting my development plans and the testing of the game on hold.
The main reason I wrote this post is that I want to share the current situation of the game with the people who are waiting for its release, share my feelings about the situation, and perhaps get some advice from people who might know something about similar situations. In hindsight, maybe it was not a good idea to post this before the 7-day period is over.
As for the appeal itself, today is the 6th day and I still haven’t received any other responses from Google.
I should also state that while I believe I did nothing wrong, this is not necessarily the case and there is a possibility that I unknowingly violated some policies (I’d appreciate it if they told me what I did wrong so I could fix it though). Or, like some people said, there is also a possibility that all of this was just a misunderstanding and Google thought I was “impersonating” Tukkun (similar to the case of Apple’s initial review). In any case, I will keep updating this post with any new information.
(Update October 14, 2024) Google has accepted my appeal!!!!!
Appeal accepted!
It is still unclear why the account termination happened in the first place, but at least I can continue working on the game now! Thank you Google for reviewing my appeal and restoring my account! And thank you everyone for the support during my hardest times and for making this happen – you are AWESOME!!!!!1!
Dear Google Play developers who might be facing the same situation that I was in – perhaps there is hope. I can’t say it was a pleasant experience getting banned for vague reasons, but if you feel you have been wrongfully banned, try your best explaining everything in your appeal. Maybe you might be able to get your account back like I did.