Well Demolo is currently being reviewed by Oculus, so that’s certainly forward progress. I’m hoping to release on Oct 31 but don’t know if that’s feasible. Shortly after last month’s update I submitted Demolo to their store for review, and it’s still not ready to release, so that’s very frustrating. Admittedly the hold up was not entirely on their end (more on that in a bit) but quite a bit of this time has been their normal review time, which is just crazy to me.
UPDATE 
Email I just got from Oculus: review is completed and we should be ready for release on 10/31/2018.
At least here’s a pre-release video review, so that you can see the game in action running on Oculus Go:
I thought Apple’s review time for iOS apps was bad, but this is another league of annoying. I get that Oculus is trying to preserve a high standard of quality in their store, but come on. The email confirmation when I submitted warned that the review time could take several weeks, which initially I’d hoped was just overestimating to keep my expectations low. No such luck!
Now when I said it was not entirely on their end, that’s because I made two mistakes that have contributed to the holdup. First off, in my mad dash to generate all the requirements for submission (various screenshots, videos, etc.) I forgot to check the performance requirements. Turns out Demolo was experiencing a significant framerate dip from one visual effect, and they require apps maintain a solid 60 fps at all times other than loading screens. This particular issue was detected almost immediately (under 24 hours) and that misled me into thinking the entire review process would be fast. However that performance check must be an automated test, because the rest of review takes weeks.
The other mistake I made was related to fixing that performance issue. That problem was caused by just one visual effect (specifically, outlines around the blocks) but in my attempts to fix the issue I went overboard and turned off a bunch of graphical effects, including turning off shadows. As soon as I got the framerate solid I submitted the fix, but I really should have waited just a bit because immediately after re-submitting I kept fiddling and realized I could turn the shadows back on and not harm performance.
A few days ago they finally told me Demolo had passed review and was ready to release. However the version cleared for release had shadows turned off, so I decided to submit the update so that Demolo can be released with the best graphics possible. Well now I’m worried that was a strategic blunder. While I assumed that, since the app was already cleared for release, the small update would be approved quickly, now I’m worried that I triggered an entirely new multi-week review process that will have to complete before release.
doh
