The Forge Accelerator in Boston was the first focused on Design Automation for Revit. And was awesome having that many developers working with this new API. We learned a lot, especially with mistakes :) so here is a list of points to check if your app is failing:
AppBundle ZIP
The ZIP file containing your application should have just 1 folder with .bundle preffix, e.g. MyAwesomeApp.bundle. This prefix tells the system to load it. As a best practice, add a Contents subfolder for your files.
PackageContents.xml
This file goes inside the .bundle folder. For Revit, make sure the ComponentEntry >> ModuleName property points to the .addin file. For AutoCAD, it should point to the DLL file. Also make sure that SeriesMin and SeriesMax match the engine version selection.
Revit .addin file
Your .addin folder should define the following type: <AddIn Type="DBApplication">, and the <Assembly> should point to your DLL, something like <Assembly>.\MyAwesomeApp.dll</Assembly>. The name of the DLL must match.
HandleDesignAutomationReadyEvent
This is where your code runs, just remember to set e.Succeeded = true, which tells the system that your app ended successfully.
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And try the Learn Forge tutorial for Design Automation.
Developer Advocate at Autodesk since 2008, working with both desktop and web/cloud apps using top technologies, like C#, JavaScript, NodeJS and any other that can solve problems and improve workflows. See my samples on Github and follow me on Twitter for updates.