Hi everyone. I’m looking for some advice regarding repeated rejections under Guideline 4.3(a) - Design - Spam.
I’m a solo developer and have been making car simulator sandbox games since 2020. I already have an older game in the same genre on the App Store, and I’ve spent around 2 years developing its sequel. The new game is also available on Google Play, where it has passed 1M installs in its first month and currently has a 4.9 rating.
The iOS version has now been rejected 5 times over the last 4 months.
Attempt 1: Rejected under 4.3(a) with:
"We noticed the app shares a similar binary, metadata, and/or concept..."
I explained what makes the game different, filed an appeal, added a new feature, and submitted again.
Attempt 2: Same rejection. I requested a phone call with App Review. During the call, I was told that their system had detected a "binary match" with another developer’s game in the same genre. The reviewer explained that similarities could come from game code, assets, shared engine code, ad SDKs, third-party libraries, etc. When I asked what I could change, the main advice was to change the code.
Attempts 3 & 4: I removed unused code and libraries, changed dependencies, reorganized and refactored parts of the project, and also tried obfuscation. The result was still the same 4.3(a) rejection.
After that, I spent around 3 months working on a major update. I updated Unity and dependencies, removed anything unnecessary, added new cars, reworked the physics, reorganized assemblies, changed and renamed large parts of the codebase, and did a substantial code refactor.
Attempt 5: After 9 days in review, I received a different 4.3(a) message:
"This app still exhibits an app with a spam like template that shows similarities in concept and look with apps already on the app store in a saturated category."
This is where I’m confused. The previous feedback focused on binary similarity, while the latest rejection seems to focus on the concept and visual similarity instead.
The game is not based on a template. It has hundreds of scripts written specifically for the project, a custom physics engine, custom UI, and many systems and features developed specifically for this game. There are also only a few comparable vehicle physics sandbox games on iOS.
I have already used the Review Notes to explain what is new in the sequel and how it differs from both my previous game and other games in the genre. I also appealed the first rejection, but the decision was upheld.
At this point, I’m not sure what else I can reasonably change or what exactly is triggering 4.3(a). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
App: Crash Test Simulator 3
Bundle ID: com.FozerGames.CrashTestSimulator3
