Google does not want you to tell your players about your donation page

written on Saturday, April 10, 2021

I recently updated Pixel Wheels banner image on Google Play. That triggered a review of the game: shortly after the update I received a message telling me Pixel Wheels was "not compliant with Google Play Policies". What nefarious activity does the game engage in? Sneak on users? Mine bitcoins?

Nope.

Something much more terrible, as evidenced by this screenshot they sent me:

The Horror

Yes. I confess it. I added a link to my donation page within the game, depriving Google of some precious money it totally cannot survive without! How dare I?!? I am such a bad person.

Since there is no point arguing with them, I am going to have to build a Google Play flavor of the game, where this link is replaced with a link to the game page. Hopefully the Great Algorithm will accept that. We'll see.

Meanwhile you can still get the game from F-Droid or itch.io, since they do not have a problem with a link to a donation page.