iPhone Game “Snow Writer” Not Approved For…Human Feet?

Snow Writer is a fun little game now available in the App Store. The game, which allows you to write in the snow with pee, has an interesting story behind it that gives us some interesting insight into Apple's application approval process. Before we get to that story, let's briefly see what Snow Writer is all about.

Price: $0.99

App Store Link

The game has three modes of play:

1. Draw with pee in the snow by tilting your iPhone Around
2. Type a word or phrase and see it automatically peed into the snow 
3. Hit the bottles with your pee and avoid the kid's toys 

Check it out for yourself:

So why were they banned the first time around?

All the being said, it seems like a completely innocent game, right? We think so. So there's a little pee animation, which in reality is no different from using a yellow paintbrush in a drawing iPhone app. Apple, on the other hand, gave the developers – SWN Software – quite a hard time. Why?

Here's a screenshot of the original version of Snow Writer that was submitted:

Scroll back up and see if you can spot a difference. Ah, yes, did you spot it? It's the feet. The original version of the game shows two human feet, dressed in boots, standing at the edge of the iPhone. According to Apple, this is too graphic. In SWN Software's blog, they wrote that Apple said this extra "human element" takes it too far.

So what did the developers have to do? Take out the human feet, and replace them with animal feet. There's a bear, dog, etc…you get the idea. In reality this doesn't really change the application at all, but still. In the words of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers from SNL's Weekend Update, "Really?! Really Apple?! No human shoes?! Reaaaallllyyy?!?!" 

Looks like Apple's approval process is extremely picky. They've approved other pee-related games, but not this one. Well, if you were keeping tabs on the App Store approval process rules, add this to the list: no reference to human urination. But monkey urination is not an issue.