Launch day and support

The launch checklist

• Final build testedThe exact build going live has been played start to finish on a few real devices.
• Store pages readyScreenshots, description, price, age rating and privacy details all checked.
• Support readyA support email and an FAQ page are live before the first player arrives.
• A plan for the dayWho watches crash reports, who answers players, who can ship a fix.

Launch day is not the finish line. It's the first day real players meet the game, and the first day the studio has to look after them. A calm launch is planned, not lucky.

Picking a launch date

A small game can vanish if it launches in the same week as a huge release, because players, streamers and news sites are all busy with the giant. Big holidays are risky too: store review can be slower, and the team may be away just when bugs show up.

Many studios pick a quiet week and launch early on a weekday, so everyone is around to watch the dashboards and fix problems.

Release a little at a time

• Staged rolloutOn Google Play, an update can go to a small percentage of players first, like 5%, then 20%, then everyone. A bad rollout can be paused.
• Phased releaseOn the App Store, automatic updates can roll out over seven days instead of all at once.
• RollbackFor Hyper Shards, Cloudflare keeps earlier versions of the site, so we can switch back to the last good one in minutes.

If a new version has a nasty bug, it should hit a few players, not all of them.

Day one: watch everything

• Crash reportsFirebase Crashlytics records every crash, with the device and the line of code where it happened.
• Crash-free playersThe share of players who had no crash. Good games stay well above 99%.
• Reviews and messagesStore reviews and Discord posts show problems crash reports miss, like a confusing button.
• Remote Config switchIf one feature breaks, we can switch it off from Firebase without waiting for a store update.

The hotfix plan

A hotfix is a small, urgent update that fixes one serious bug. The plan is decided before launch: who fixes, who tests, who ships.

The fix gets a new bug-fix version number, like 1.0.2 (the Updates and player feedback lesson in Stage 9 explains the numbering). Kai makes it on a branch from main, so half-finished features stay out.

App stores review hotfixes too. For a serious bug, Apple lets developers request an expedited review, but it is a favour, not a right, so studios save it for real emergencies. Hyper Shards needs no review: a commit plus a new service worker cache name.

Support, FAQ and refunds

• Support emailBoth stores ask for a way to reach the developer. Answer within a day or two, and be kind.
• FAQ pageAnswers to common questions, like how cloud saves work, so players don't have to wait for us.
• RefundsOnly Apple approves App Store refunds, so we politely point players to Apple's refund page. On Google Play, Google refunds some orders itself, and we can refund an order from Play Console, following our own refund policy. For Hyper Shards on our site, refunds are our job.

A refused, rude reply can turn into a 1-star review, or a chargeback: the player's bank takes the money back and charges us a fee.

Celebrate, then learn

Both games are out. Celebrate it: thank the testers, screenshot the first 5-star review, and enjoy the moment as a team.

Then hold a short post-launch review: what went well, what broke, and what to do differently next time. Those notes make the next launch calmer.

Bolt says: Time for the boss quiz. Then Stage 8: helping players find our games, starting with market research (who the games are really for) and then a go-to-market plan that ties it all together.