How to avoid numerous facepalms (W8, WP8)

Hey folks! I have some friendly suggestions for anyone thinking about developing for Windows 8 or the Windows 8 Phone. I have spent probably a week going back and forth with the submission process, and at great cost, with several reinventions of the wheel, am slowly getting apps on to the markets. I'd like to offer to you the opportunity to learn from my frustration.

• ICONS. This seems like such a small thing, but you need icons for both stores. Windows 8 is fairly self explanatory, but for windows phones, use iconic tiles. Update your tiles in the WMAppManifest.
• USE THE CERTIFICATION KIT. Both Windows 8 and the Windows Phone SDKs for Visual Studio come with Ceritification Kits. These are very useful but time consuming tools that will make sure your apps are technically compliant. Pain in the rear, but can save you frustration down the line.
• HAVE WINDOWS 8 PRO. Though you don't need windows 8 pro to develop the apps, you DO need it to test your apps and deploy them. If you don't have windows 8 at all, you're looking at $200. If you have windows 8 basic, it's about $100 upgrade.
• Licenses are a thing! Keep in mind you will be spending $50 for a windows 8 license, and $100 for a windows phone license!
• Incorporate Back button functionality in your phone apps. Though construct 2 doesn't do this natively, there's a couple of great plugins that not only do this, but will give you support for in app purchases, trial mode, and more. Plugins are AWESOME!
• Don't check more than "America" in regions you're releasing to. Okay, that's not technically true, but be aware that in certain countries, Windows Market will require you get certified by the local ratings board to release to that market. For example, Australia and Brazil require it of their games.

I hope you find my advice helpful, and that it saves you some frustrations!

I select all locations and go through and uncheck: Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, and South Africa. Those are the ones that get you denied for not having a ratings certificate. However that's for free games, if you want to collect money, you will need tax papers for each country. Ain't nobody got time for that.

I select all locations and go through and uncheck: Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, and South Africa. Those are the ones that get you denied for not having a ratings certificate.

Slightly OT, but as a South African games journalist trying to raise the status of indie development in our humble local industry, it makes me really sad to see that.

I'd imagine that developing here, even with the intention of selling to our own market, would be more of a hassle than just selling to the US or Europe.

I'll get in touch with someone at MS over here and see if maybe this process can at least be simplified. I doubt it'd be possible to remove the requirement.

I imagine you'd want to instead talk to whatever ratings board governs South Africa.

Nah, their rules are fixed in place on a legislative level: you can't sell software in this country that isn't rated. The trick is making that rating process as simple as possible.