作者：Mike Thompson

Android应用无处不在，我们的产品很容易被淹没。提高下载量最可靠的方式之一是在Google Play商店获得梦寐以求的推荐位置，但直到现在，谷歌依然缄口不提Editor’s Choice筛选应用的标准。

在上周的Google I/O大会上，谷歌开发倡导者Dan Galpin和Ian Lewis给予若干指示，旨在协助Android提高自身在Google Play获得推荐的机会。

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首先，开发者应确保应用支持高分辨率，这意味着他们的标准至少要是720p。Lewis和Galpin还表示，开发者不应在Honeycomb Android OS上运行Compatibility Mode模式（游戏邦注：因为放大图片不会看起来不怎么鲜明）。

开发者不应“胡乱摆弄”或移除屏幕上的默认Android按键。这些按键的亮度可能会降低，以致在玩法中变得不显眼，相反开发者应遵循“最低破坏性原则”。实际例子是“返回”按键，在玩法体验中，按下此按键，游戏会暂停。在此，开发者可以让按键呈现选项对话框或是移至之前的屏幕，而在最初UI屏幕点击按键则应致使应用被解除。

同时，开发者还应确保应用提供流畅的用户体验。这部分涉及“尊重生活方式”，这意味着，在Android设备加锁时，Android应用不应被激活，播放音效。相反，当被暂停时，游戏和应用应立即停止播放音效，直到用户恢复应用。同样，应用应具备最低限度的许可权，而且若他们改变wi-fi设置，变更来自用户联系人和日历的读/写信息，或是发送和接收SMS信息等，多半不会得到Google Play的推荐（游戏邦注：因为这让开发者能够在用户不知情的情况下给用户开账单）。

同时应用还需值得信赖，方能获得推荐。Galpin和Lewis表示，确保做到这点的最简单方式是，在尽可能多的设备上测试应用，因为GPU硬件因不同模式而异，不同驱动程序带来不同漏洞。可靠性对内置付费来说也非常重要，因为要推荐一款无法追踪所购商品，递送付费内容的应用将非常困难。

Galpin和Lewis给予制作出杰出作品的开发者的最后一点建议是，将游戏本土化成尽可能多的语言，因为这能够提高曝光度。若工作室没有将应用转化成多种语言的资源，那么应锁定英语和韩语，因为韩国Android用户非常喜欢这个平台上的游戏。

此外，还有3种做法会让应用很快与Google Play推荐失之交臂。首先，通过付费供应商，而非谷歌本身。其次，应用不应下载其他应用，因为用Galpin的话说，“Google Play不是供你推广自身应用商店的场所。”最后，向给出5颗星评价的用户提供奖励在编辑团队看来是最糟糕的错误，采取这一举措的游戏鲜少获得编辑团队的推荐。也就是说，我们经常鼓励开发者采取奖励反馈形式，但他们无法设定带来正面评价的条件。

Galpin和Lewis都承认，他们的谈话绝非准确规则，而是谷歌编辑团队在评价应用时的基本参照标准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Google I/O: 10 rules to follow if you want your app featured on Google Play

By Mike Thompson

Android apps available, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. One of the most reliable ways to drive downloads is landing one of the coveted featured positions in the Google Play store, but until now the company has remained quiet on the guidelines it uses to determine if an app qualifies for an Editor’s Choice designation.

At last week’s Google I/O conference developer advocate Dan Galpin and senior developer advocate Ian Lewis offered some pointers Android developers can follow to increase their chances of getting featured on Google Play.

First and foremost, developers should ensure their app supports high resolution, meaning they need need to be presented in at least 720p.  Lewis and Galpin also say developers shouldn’t run Compatibility Mode on the Honeycomb Android OS, as the enlarged graphics don’t look quite so crisp.

Developers also shouldn’t “mess with” or remove the default Android buttons on a screen. These buttons can have their brightness reduced to the point where they’re practically invisible in the midst of gameplay, and developers should instead follow the “principle of least disruption.” An example of this in action was the Back button, which should pause a title when it’s pressed during gameplay. From here developers can have have the button show options dialog or move to a previous screen, while pressing the button at the initial UI screen should dismiss the app.

Meanwhile, developers should also ensure their title provides a painless user experience. Part of this involves “respecting the lifestyle”, which means an Android title shouldn’t wake up and start playing sound even while the Android device is locked. Instead, games and apps should stop playing sound as soon as they are paused and shouldn’t start playing audio until the user resumes the app. Likewise, apps should have minimal permissions, and aren’t likely to be featured on Google Play if they do things like change wi-fi settings, read/write information from users contacts and calendars or send and receive SMS messages (as this allows developers to bill users without the users’ awareness).

Apps need to be reliable in order to be featured, too. According to Galpin and Lewis, the easiest way to ensure this is to test an app on as many Android devices as possible, since GPU hardware differs between different models and there are often bugs on different drivers. Reliability is also important for in-app payments, too, as it’s tough to recommend a title that’s unable to keep track of purchases and deliver the content that’s being paid for.

Galpin and Lewis’s final piece of advice for developers who have made a great game is to localize the title into as many languages as possible, since it will increase discoverability. If a studio doesn’t have the resources to translate their app into many languages, then they should focus on English and Korean, as Korean Android users particularly enjoy games on the platform.

There are also three quick ways to ensure that an app will not be featured on Google Play. First is to use a payment provider other than Google itself. Second, an app shouldn’t download other apps because, according to Galpin, “Google Play is not a place for you to distribute your own app store.” Finally, bribing customers with in-game rewards for five-star reviews is considered the worst offense by the editorial team and no game that does this will ever be featured by the editorial team. That said, developers are encouraged to ask for and are allowed to incentivize feedback, they just can’t set conditions demanding positive ratings.

Both Galpin and Lewis acknowledged their talk was by no means a definite set of rules, but they explained the criteria they were covering were the basic milestones Google’s editorial team looked for when evaluating apps.（Source：insidemobileapps）