Inquiry about Background Assets and User Experience in App Store

Question

zhangming1993 OP

Created Jul ’24

Replies 2

Boosts 0

Participants 2

Dear Apple Developer Support,

I have a question regarding the Background Assets feature for a game we are planning to release on the App Store. Specifically, I would like to understand the user experience during the initial installation process.

If our game utilizes the Background Assets feature and we have essential assets specified in the BAExtension, will the end user need to wait for these essential assets to be fully downloaded before they can open the game after installing it from the App Store? Additionally, during this download process, will there be any indication of the essential assets' download status on the App Store or on the home screen icon of the game?

Your guidance on how this process is managed and what the user can expect would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your assistance.

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Answer 1

Graphics and Games Engineer OP

Apple

Jul ’24

Have you read the new documentation on Improving the player experience for games with large downloads? Essential assets appear to the user as part of the app‘s normal installation, but they can fail without causing the app to be uninstalled. There’s more information in that document.

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Answer 2

zhangming1993 OP

Jul ’24

Thank you for your response. I have read the latest documentation on "Improving the player experience for games with large downloads." In this article, it states: “With either solution, the player sees a single progress indicator while the system downloads your game’s app bundle and any additional first-launch content.”

Does this mean that when using Background Assets to download game essential assets, the progress is combined with the current app bundle download progress and displayed as a single indicator? In other words, there won’t be a separate progress notification for essential assets?

Additionally, the article also discusses the on-demand resources (ODR) technology. Can both Background Assets and ODR be used for downloading game essential assets before the first launch of the game? While Background Assets can also activate the BAExtension during system idle times to perform game updates, can on-demand resources be used in a similar way?

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