Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Consumable
Consumable in-app purchases are designed to support items or services that are consumed. In a
game, this might include additional lives, points for buying in-game items, or other things that can be
used up. Consumable purchases are designed to be repeated.
Consumable purchases cannot be downloaded again, so by their nature they will not be available
across a user's devices unless you implement your own service to share this information across
accounts.
Free Subscriptions
Free subscriptions are a way to offer freely available content in the Newstand application. This
particular type of in-app purchase really has nothing to do with games or apps.
Auto-Renewing Subscriptions
Auto-renewing subscriptions are a way for users to purchase a feature or gain access to content for
a set amount of time. You can think of this as a magazine subscription that automatically charges
your credit card every year.
Nonrenewing Subscriptions
Nonrenewing subscriptions are subscriptions that will not automatically charge the user to renew
the subscription. This type of in-app purchase exists because Apple is picky about which features
or content are suitable as auto-renewing subscriptions. The nonrenewing subscription is sort of a
compromise, allowing subscriptions in an app that Apple would not otherwise feel is suitable for an
auto-renewing subscription.
Now let's look at what is required to ready an application for in-app purchases.
Preparing for In-app Purchases
Much like Game Center, an application must be enabled in iTunes Connect to include in-app
purchases. The requirements are exactly the same: you have to use an App ID that does not have a
wildcard. In Chapter 9, we covered the process of creating an App ID in your provisioning center that
works with Game Center. You can follow the directions to create a second App ID, or simply add
in-app purchases to that same game.
Enabling and Creating In-App Purchases
Once you have an app in iTunes Connect, enabling in-app purchases is done by pressing the
Manage In-App Purchases button, as shown in Figure
10-2
.
