Game apps submission for Windows Phone 8 low end devices

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While we encourage to build game apps targeting all Windows Phone 8 devices. There are scenarios where game developers end up having two builds.

· First build which has high quality content and targets 1GB or higher RAM based devices

· Second build which is optimized for 512MB RAM (Low memory Windows Phone 8 devices)

This post is to help folks submitting both these builds to Windows Phone store under same app name:

1. Use the same product id. Better to use the product id generated from Windows Phone store

a. To get the product id login to Windows Phone store https://dev.windowsphone.com

b. Click on Dashboard

c. Select the app and then click on details tab

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d. Scroll down to get App Id, copy this App Id clip_image003

e. Replace your product id in WMAppmanifest.xml file under Packaging Tab

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2. To build app targeting only 1GB RAM based device, you will need to opt out low memory device

This can be achieved by forcing memory cap requirements in WMAppManifest.xml

Add the following tag

ID_REQ_MEMORY_300

This completely opts out of availability for lower-memory phones.

The app won’t appear in the Windows Phone Store for lower-memory phones and it can’t be installed on lower-memory phones.

Example

<App>

…

  <Requirements>

      <Requirement Name="ID_REQ_MEMORY_300" />

  </Requirements>

</App>

 

You can refer to How to modify the app manifest file for Windows Phone 8 for further information.

 

3. After step 2 implementation, your XAP file (app) will not be visible to consumers with low memory 512MB RAM based devices; once it’s certified and available on store.

 

4. You can also extend the 512MB RAM based device peek memory usage cap from 150MB to 180MB by adding Functional Capability:

 

<FunctionalCapabilities>

    <FunctionalCapability Name="ID_FUNCCAP_EXTEND_MEM"/>

  </FunctionalCapabilities>

 

Once you have both the builds, add these two XAPs instead of upgrading under the same app name.

Click on “Add New”

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You will see two XAP files post this. Fill in other required details and submit for certification.

Certification team will test both the XAPs and app will be available on store directly or for you to publish it manually, as per your submission selection.

The advantage with this approach is that you can target both low end and 1GB RAM based devices with appropriate quality of graphics content. While the disadvantage is that you will have to maintain two builds. In this case your app customers will get the appropriate quality of graphics content based on their devices.

Additional References:

1. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj681682(v=vs.105).aspx

2. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh855081(v=vs.105).aspx